RECAP: “Drag Race UK vs. the World” Series 2, Episode 5
Sorry for the late recap, our team was in DC this weekend for Awesome Con 2024. Just catching up on all things "Drag Race"!
Episode 5 brought "UK vs. the World" its first-ever Rusical in the form of "Seven: Confessions of a Drag Queen," a play on the musical Six, in which the ex-wives of Henry VII take turns sharing their side of the story. This time, the queens had to write verses relating to their previous "Drag Race" experiences, which they then had to sing LIVE, and choreograph themselves.
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It was a great concept for a challenge, and honestly, a very tall order for any cast. It could have, and SHOULD have, resulted in some great performances. And yet what we got was largely...fine. I don't think any of the verses were particularly memorable. The live singing was fairly decent. I couldn't help but feel that if the queens had more time to work on their lyrics, and a professional choreographer to set down the steps, and more than anything, more TIME to rehearse -- as many of the U.S. franchise's Rusicals clearly have at this point -- we could have gotten something really special. But as is becoming the story of this season, it was mostly adequate but not spectacular. That's a real bummer, and I don't see it changing at this point.
We also had the Reading Challenge, which did have a few good barbs in it, and which was won by Tia Kofi. I thought Tia had the best JOKES, but I don't necessarily know if I would consider them READS. But still, I was glad to see her doing so well.
Let's go over each queen's performance in the challenge, in alphabetical order this time. I'll also include my thoughts on their runways, the prompt being "When I Glow Up," second attempt at some of their worst looks.
Choriza May: Choriza opened the show, and struggled. She was difficult to understand and there were pretty clear nerves issues. I am empathetic here, because again, this was a very complicated challenge that required a lot of these queens, more than many challenges. Five episodes in, it's pretty clear that something is going on with Choriza this season, and she has alluded to it on social media. The Choriza competing on this season is not the same Choriza we got on "UK3." There's a lack of sparkle and charm, even if the runways have certainly been elevated. It just feels like something has collapsed in Choriza. I don't know if that's something that happened during the competition, or before it, but she has not pushed through in the way that I absolutely believe Choriza is capable of doing. But that is true for many in this cast. I feel for her, I do. I want only success for our silly little sausage. Her runway, another shot at her UK3 Expenny, Henny runway -- which was never a good prompt -- was unfortunately another misfire. As clearly soul crushing as Michelle's dismissal of this look was for Choriza, I agreed with her. It did not look bad, but there were fit issues, and it just wasn't great. That's basically the story of the season.
Gothy Kendoll: Oh, Gothy. I'll say this: Gothy was at least memorable this episode, and it did give her storyline a satisfying resolution. I welcomed the UK's Porkchop back to this season wholeheartedly. I always feel for teh queens who go home first. We have no idea what they can really do. So I hoped that Gothy might come back and really surprise us. She has undoubtedly endeared herself to many on this season -- myself included -- but I don't think she has been successful in any challenge. Even when she is technically proficient, she is stiff, she is in her head. All of that was true in the Rusical, but most noticeably, she utterly failed at the choreography, with comical results. Multiple shots caught Gothy seconds behind the other girls, and in one, literally running across the stage because she was fully in the wrong place. Judge Graham Norton was visibly cackling at the chaos, and I was, too. I don't think anyone was laughing AT Gothy here. I think the vibe was more enjoying the mess of a child's dance recital. Which would be fine, except this is, essentially, an All-Stars version of "Drag Race," and the bar should be set much, MUCH higher. I can only imagine Keta and Jonbers watching that number and thinking, "She made it to Episode 5? SHE did?" Gothy's runway re-do of her Queen Elizabeth II runway was beautiful, but again, very restrained, very literal, almost minimal. Pretty but unremarkable is, again, not where we need to be at this stage.
Hannah Conda: I personally would have put Hannan in the Top 2 this challenge. While she was shoehorned into the comic-relief number, she sold it and had great energy. She was memorable, which is again a rarity for performances this season. Hannah has only had one bad week this season (the Ball), and other than that has been reliably entertaining. I disagreed with Michelle's critiques on Hannah's redux of her "Belts, Buckles and Chains" runway from DU2. I thought she looked good and I appreciated her paying homage to the Dykes on Bikes. This show -- and gay male culture in general -- does not pay nearly enough attention to lesbians and what they have done to support the gay male community, so I was glad to see that here. And I thought Hannah looked great.
La Grand Dame: After two off weeks, LGD returned to life in this competition. I thought she did a good job in the Rusical, and her runway -- a haute couture take on her used condom dress from France S1 -- was eye-popping, audacious, and showed a real point of view. She could have easily placed Top 2 this week, but she was -- fittingly, given the condom runway -- Safe.
Marina Summers: Marina continues to be one of the breakout stars of this season, and she ate this challenge UP. Marina IS a Filipina pop star, and she gave it to us on that stage. She also looked absolutely stunning in her "Ter-No She Bettah Don't!" look from Philippines S1, which was -- it should be said -- not bad to begin with. Because Marina Summers does not wear bad outfits. She is allergic to tragedy. She was Top 2 this week and absolutely deserved it.
Scarlet Envy: Scarlet also did well this week, and could have justifiably been in the Top 2. I thought she was good in the challenge, and had some of the most memorable choreography -- there was a lift! -- and I thought her revision on her S11 "Monster I'd Like to Freak" look was absolutely stunning. That looked RICH but still very much like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Another good week for Scarlet.
Tia Kofi: It was a perfectly good week for Tia. I liked her verse in the challenge, although she continues to look petrified when performing in front of the judges. That is worrisome. I thought her revamped "PreHERstoric" look from UK2 was certainly better than the previous one -- although I did not fully love it. It looked good. It looked polished. The wings were cool. But for whatever reason it just did not delight me, I'm sorry. Had Tia placed Safe it would have been totally deserved. But instead she was Top 2, and I think a lot of viewers are starting to question what's going on here. Tia is doing perfectly well in this competition. Absolutely nothing wrong, no major missteps. She certainly deserved the win for Snatch Game, especially given the almost nonexistent competition in that challenge. But three Top 2 placements in a row, when there were other queens doing just as well, if not better -- eyebrows are raised. I consider myself a Tia stan and I will support her regardless. I'm genuinely not clear how she got a Top 2 spot this episode.
The Top 2 of Tia and Scarlet lipsynched to "Fucking Wizardry" by guest judge Self Esteem, whom I had never heard of, but who did a very good job as both a judge and mentor this week. Marina absolutely slaughtered that lipsynch. The way she moves is incredible. She was electric in that number. I love Tia, but this wasn't close. In the end, between an all-UK Bottom 2 of Choriza May and Gothy Kendoll, Marina made the only humane decision and put Gothy out of her misery.
Multiple times this episode the queens mentioned how much they love and support Gothy, and I felt that was genuine. I think the viewer feels much the same way. She's like your kid sister, and you want her to succeed, even if she's way out of her depths. Which Gothy absolutely was here. In critiques, Michelle flat-out told her she was not ready for this, which is quite blunt but also absolutely accurate. Gothy has had five episodes this time, and has yet to truly succeed at any challenge, while more impressive queens have fallen one by one. It was not only her time to go, it was probably a few weeks too late.
I wish Gothy the absolute best, and I hope she has nice long lines at DragCon with people telling her how much they appreciated her vulnerability and resiliency, because those are areas in which she excels. But we are now at Top 6 this season, and these girls really need to start bringing the heat. I hope they can. I'm genuinely not sure if that's possible. But I am pretty confident Gothy would not have been able to keep up.