RECAP: “RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars” Episode 4 (Girl Groups)
The good news: this episode was a significant improvement over Episode 3, with more/most of the queens doing well in the girl-group challenge. The bad news: the pitchforks and torches are out on socials over perceived judging favoritism, and between the on-screen drama in “Untucked” and the general wailing and gnashing of teeth online, the negativity is overwhelming this season.
This season certainly has problems. The language barriers for the non-native English speakers are causing challenges for the queens. There is a disparity between the financial haves and have-nots (true for any season of “Drag Race,” just especially true here). The episodes are stunningly short, leading the action to feel rushed and some queens to fade into the background (although I personally feel like just about every queen has had at least a moment in the sun thus far, and we’re only in Episode 4). And there is no denying that the judges are making choices that don’t always seem supported by the edit we’re seeing.
And yet: I think it is important for the viewers, and even the participating queens themselves (based on recent social-media activity), to remember that this season is something we should be grateful for, period. Given the state of the world, it’s lowkey a miracle that a show about drag queens not only exists, but that it has become a cultural force resulting in dozens of season. It has franchises in countries with societies that are openly hostile to the LGBTQ community. The fact that “Global All Stars” is putting an international spotlight on queens from franchises with a fraction of the viewership of the flagship series, and the fandom is embracing these queens, is incredible.
And it could easily go away. Another season of this show is not promised, not by a longshot. The intensely negative commentary about this season, from the fans it was created to support it, makes it infinitely less likely. By all means, take issue with elements of the show. I’m not saying it’s above criticism. I’m just pointing out that, for the many ways you feel it has failed you, it’s at least giving these 12 queens a shot at international exposure most of them would otherwise never attain. And by taking shots at it right now, you’re all but insuring that no other international queens get that shot. Just keep that in mind.
Now that I’m off my soapbox, let’s get into this girl-group challenge. Note that there will be spoilers below, and I STRONGLY encourage you to watch the episode before reading on. Not yet signed up for Paramount+? Click right here:
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The mini-challenge this time was for each queen to estimate the total population of the country they were representing. Simple, but effective, and provided some hilarious results. Bless her heart, Alyssa Edwards thought the United States had 100 billion people in it. Girl. Take it away, Katya:
But a few of them did: Kween Kong, Miranda LeBrao, and Vanity Vain came the closest to the correct answer without going over, which meant they got to pick their teams for the girl groups, in which the queens had to write verses and create performances to the song, “Everybody Say Love.” (Sidebar, I didn’t think any of the songs or verses were instantly memorable, although I loved that many of the queens brought their native languages into the songs.)
The teams shook out like this:
Kween Kong picked Pythia and Soa de Muse, and performed the Latinx Mix as the group D’Vybe.
Miranda LeBrao picked Alyssa Edwards, Tessa Testicle, and Eva LeQueen and they got the K-Pop Mix as Fresh M.E.A.T.
Vanity Vain picked Kitty Scott-Claus, Gala Varo, and Nehellenia and got the Europop Mix as the Back Door Gals.
We did not see them recording their tracks at all, and got almost no footage of them writing their verses. My assumption is that these episodes are so tight in the hopes that they can be syndicated in other countries or on other networks, but just as U.S. Season 15 was hampered by these short runtimes, so too are we missing a lot of the action of “Global All Stars.” The special sauce of this season is the alchemy of these girls from different seasons interacting, and we’re missing so much of that.
We did get to see the various groups rehearse their choreography, and that’s when some obvious red flags appeared. On Back Door Gals, Kitty-Scott Claus took the lead on choreo, while Vanity Vain struggled significantly with nerves around learning her steps. On D’Vybe, Pythia acknowledged that Kween and Soa are in a different dance league than she is, and worried about learning the routine Kween was putting down, and living up to her teammates’ expectations. On Fresh M.E.A.T., Alyssa was putting those girls through their paces, and Miranda tried mightily to execute the intense choreography, especially considering her body’s physical limitations.
In the work room, Nehellenia shared with Kitty that she has felt her abilities have been doubted by several girls in the competition. We haven’t really seen that — although the mini-challenge in S2 featured some allusions to it — but on social media Nehellenia shared that the first several episodes were very lonely for her. She’s shy and didn’t connect with many of the girls at first, and more than one made negative comments about her challenge performances and/or looks. Nehellenia refused to name names to Kitty when pressed, but the implication was that it was Kween and Soa who were the most critical.
Let’s break down these challenge performances by team, even though the queens were all judged individually.
D’Vybe was up first, and I thought they were the worst of the night overall. Soa was the breakout of the group for me, finally delivering what I know she’s capable of for the first time all season. She was giving face, she was moving brilliantly, and there was great energy in her verse. Kween had terrific power and presence in this group, but I thought her vibe was significantly different from her partners — it didn’t feel cohesive as a group. Pythia was very clearly the weak link here, missing steps and looking stressed about her performance. It was sad to watch.
Fresh M.E.A.T. was next, and man did Alyssa throw everything she could think of at these girls. Ultimately I think it was TOO much. This was elaborate, ambitious choreo that ultimately ended up with them doing a chair-dance portion that seemed wholly unnecessary to me. There were some great moments, but it was less a group than it was Alyssa Edwards and Friends, as she overshadowed the other three handedly. Tessa was my second favorite of the group, Eva struggled a bit, but Miranda had execution issues from the jump, even though she was trying very hard and looked like a pop star in that outfit.
Back Door Gals were pretty close to pop perfection. Kitty was the leader and delivered on her pop-star promise with a cheeky, silly verse and great stage presence; Nehellenia was a very close second for me and I adored her anime-influenced verse; Gala delivered sex on the stage although the verse was a little forgettable; Vanity Vain served up pop goddess although she struggled with nerves.
The runway prompt was Color My World, which was a spin on the multiple-reveal runway with a color element. Many of the queens focused on the colors in their country flags, others went heavily themed. A few were very strong — Pythia’s series of monsters were all knockouts, Nehellenia’s “Finding Nemo” fantasy was charming — but several were very cheap looking. I adore Eva LeQueen but her ode to Disney Villains was Party City nonsense. Kitty gave us a series of ugly dresses, continuing her trend of runway boots this season. I don’t know what Kween Kong was going for, but even she acknowledged to the judges that it was a mess.
The tops and bottoms of the week were Kitty, Kween Kong, and Nehellenia (tops) and Pythia, Vanity, and Miranda (bottoms). This was surprising, and many people online are up in arms about it. First, as much as people have complained about this season being The Alyssa Edwards Meet and Greet, she was very good this episode — I’m stunned she wasn’t in the top. Kween Kong being in the top was surprising to me. I do not begrudge her success in any way. I love Kween and I’m so glad she’s being so well received here, but I thought she was a solid safe, especially when you factor in her runway package. The judges lavished her with praise in a way that didn’t see consistent to what we saw on that stage. Was Vanity really that bad in the challenge? I didn’t see it. Although her runway transformations were messy, she gave us a BUNCH of looks, and had a cohesive theme around various Pride flags. Bottom 2 for her doesn’t make sense to me.
And then there was the win for Kitty Scott-Claus. The judges were effusive in their praise of Kitty, including Michelle who made some ridiculous comments about the fashions (or “fashions”) on the runway. Listen, I thought Kitty was strong in that challenge. And I genuinely like Kitty very much as a queen, and especially as a narrator for the season. If the challenge was the only criteria at judging, I could maybe see it. But the runway was brought up with several other queens, and her runways this season have been almost all misses, including this episode. I shouldn’t be seeing your knickers nor your undergarments showing through, and both were fully on display by the end of her reveals. Meanwhile, Nehellenia was right there, looking gorgeous in her runways. I thought she was robbed of the win.
But Nehellenia brought the drama in “Untucked,” as she shared with the group that she feels disrespected and undervalued by many of the queens — I don’t know if she said “all” of the queens, although that’s certainly what the other girls heard — and boy they were not interested in that. Both Soa de Muse and Vanity Vain got up and left the couches because they were so heated over a queen in the top complaining about a lack of respect, which they felt was wholly imagined on Nehellenia’s part. Is that true? Possibly, but their reaction to that situation felt disproportionate, so I can’t blame Nehellenia for sensing some ill will toward her — clearly SOMETHING is going on. Additionally, I think Nehellenia is one of the queens struggling the most with the language barrier (I would say Gala is the other, the rest of the cast seems pretty much fluent), and I have to imagine that leaves her feeling isolated from the rest of the cast.
All of this to say, I don’t know if Nehellenia really was disrespected by the other queens — although a bunch of them sure thought she was in the bottom, when nothing I perceived from challenge or runway would put her there — or if she was just being defensive. But I thought the other queens’ reactions to the situation were out of line and dismissive. They should all know better at this point.
In the Bottom 3, Pythia was saved for her runway (so runways DO matter!), which meant Vanity and Miranda were in the Bottom 2. I have seen a lot of people furious over this result, but I don’t know who else I would put there instead. Did anyone do obviously worse in the challenge than Miranda? I don’t think so. And her runways were not great. In truth, the only other queen I could see in that Bottom 2 would be Eva, who wasn’t great in the challenge and had a very cheap runway package. And I wouldn’t have wanted to see her there, either.
The two queens lipsynched to “Spice Up Your Life” by the Spice Girls, which is fucking iconic. I do not understand what Miranda was doing for the first 20/30 seconds of that song. She was pulling at her chest, lazily fanning, barely even lipsynching to the song. Eventually she pulled out a clown nose (?) and then got into it, but at that point I think it was too little, too late. Vanity was engaged right from the jump and never let up, giving us our first decent lipsynch since Episode 1. Was Miranda deliberately throwing this as a kind of protest? I’ll let you be the judge:
Ultimately Vanity was announced the winner, and Miranda eliminated. That bums me out for several reasons. I think she tried REALLY hard in this challenge. She had more restrictions than many of the other queens but she did her absolute best to keep up, and that’s admirable. Second, she seemed to be having so much fun in this competition — way more than she had on “Drag Race Brasil” based on the edit — and the judges just did not seem to be vibing with what she was putting out there. I thought she did really well in the Talent Show, and I disagreed with her being in Bottom 3 for the Ball. I will miss her. She was a real sweetheart this time around.
Next: a massive boobs-themed acting challenge, which I cannot imagine being easy for queens for whom English is a second language, or who have bad backs.
What did you think of the girl-group challenge? Are you loving these international queens all crossing over? Drop your thoughts in the comments.
Also, if you haven’t watched most of these international seasons, here’s your next homework. “Drag Race UK” Season 6 has its queen reveal next week. I actually don’t recommend that you catch up on Kitty’s season, Season 3, which is easily the worst in that franchise — Kitty is a clear highlight in a sea of “meh.” But you CAN catch up on the wonderful Season 5, which has 10 episodes and is easily bingeable before next episode. It was a much-needed return to form after two middling seasons “UK” seasons, and a great introduction to British humor.