On Friday’s RuPaul’s Drag Race show, the much anticipated makeover challenge finally arrived. Although the five queens who were left were all thrilled about the chance, the atmosphere drastically changed after the results were revealed.
The final five queens, Nymphia Wind, Plane Jane, Q, and Sapphira Cristál, were assigned, in a brilliant move, to transform the chubby bodies of the Pit Crew dancers from RuPaul’s Drag Race Live in Las Vegas into (somewhat) more feminine forms.
RuPaul’s Drag Race Monopoly welcomes the queens in what is arguably the most blatant example of product promotion of the season. Considering the series has a quasi-monopoly over drag queen celebs, it’s an inadvertently humorous branding opportunity.
The queens try to make the embedded commercial funny, but it drags on a bit too long. A board game being played by individuals rarely makes for compelling television, much like watching paint dry.
Recap
Plane Jane won her fourth title of the season, while Morphine and Sapphira finished last. This was because of criticism that their makeovers were too basic and that Sapphira’s didn’t adequately depict a family.
The lip sync, which was performed to “Miss Me More” by guest judge Kelsea Ballerini, Sapphira’s sluggish start gave the impression that Morphine would win.
However, this was true until halfway through, when she suddenly appeared. She took the victory and packing Morphine away.
“Morphine, my queen, you are a hard habit to break,” Ru told Morphine as she sashayed away. As for Morphine’s thoughts on the situation? “I cannot believe I went home in the makeover challenge, bitch!”
That leaves Nymphia, Plane, Q and Sapphira as the Top 4 queens of Season 16. Now for the million-dollar question: Will all four of these queens make it to the finale on April 19? Or will Ru give one of them the chop next week and make it a Top 3?
Drag Race hasn’t sent three queens to the finale since Season 13, but even that was an anomaly. Between Covid and the whole Sherry Pie kerfuffle, it feels like everything about that season was capital-C cursed.
The Review
PROS
- More competitive finale
- Focus was on top contenders
- The episode allowed for better pacing and storytelling.
CONS
- There was less diversity in finalists
- There was a potential fan backlash.
- We saw some missed opportunities for growth for the queens
