I mean, even in UNHhhh and T&KS, her comedy works so well because she gets the opportunity to contrast it to Katya’s sheer alien weirdness. She’s uproarious, but in a subtle way that can come off just a tiny bit dad-jokey sometimes when she’s on her own.

I expect that it’s as much that she’s not mired in the permanent anxiety and self-doubt that was so evident in season 7, that she’s talked at length about since.

As long as we’re playing hypotheticals, I’d find it within the realm of reasonability that World of Wonder’s instructions may have been to bring multiple impersonations - I mean, we’ve still got Snatch Game coming, right?

I’m with Kevy on this one - the intuitive muscle memory of freestyle, versus the coordination skills necessary for cognitively thinking about the correct steps on the correct beat are just different parts of the brain. They may be related, but distinct skillsets where training for one isn’t synonymous with being…

Shit, was I among those?

Last season, I’d offered a defense of Alaska being that of all of AS2's competitors, she’d simply done more in her time since the show - from singles and EPs to videos, TV, touring, and the like. Most tellingly, all that productivity reflected in the skills and confidence she demonstrated throughout that season.

I’ll certainly grant that Herstory gave the queens more runway to create characters. In many ways, this challenge seems like a softball version of Snatch Game, one that plays even more to the traditionalist pageant and club gig avenues of drag - where capturing a look is even more central to an impersonation than…

I suppose we could pin it on the whole Club Kid aesthetic (beyond Milk) being touted as this expression of raw creativity - but looking back on Michael Alig, James St. James, Slimelight source material from back in the day - it’s clear there’s a certain randomness; almost a lack of rationale or logic, beyond just…

...is totally my point!

Chi Chi’s poverty queen thing was a bit of a crutch back in season 8; it certainly held her back, but there was also just a bit of a handicap one gave her styling, Michelle’s famous read of her basic leotard notwithstanding.

I forget if it was Trixie or Katya saying it (on Hey Kween! probably), but the quote is something along the lines of - the only people that come away from All Stars salty are the ones that go in with expectations.

I remember that critique, and both then and now - found it cutting both ways.

Apparently, for being the height of Brooklyn hipsterdom, Thorgy’s never heard the legends of Night of a Thousand Stevies.

I can’t help but sense next week is gonna be a massive flameout for Milk - she seems to be edging into Phi Phi territory.

The key difference I’m finding is how much more relaxed and confident Trixie is in her boy-confessional talking heads. She’s spoken at length about the permanent deer-in-headlights anxiety of her season 7 experience. So one is hoping that she’s taking the chance to coast, and then look for opportunities to exploit in…

Random ‘pinions:

This seems like a pretty common refrain throughout many critical approaches to Discovery.

I’m not here for country music, and I wouldn’t call myself a Trixya stan, even if I’ll admit to an unhealthy attachment to UNHhhh.

Don’t forget the Handmaid’s Tale bump at the end. Of all the eliminated queens to be extra-salty upon returning, picture Morgan’s stone-cold bitch face waiting for you on the other side of that one-way mirror.