RECAP: “RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars” Episode 8 (Roast)
An interesting observation that I’ve heard more than one person, including myself, come to after this episode is that, even though the queens on “Global All Stars” are all amazing — and I really mean that, I think they’re all incredible — this doesn’t feel like an “All Stars” season. The level of execution in the challenges is still overall not great, and while we have had some beautiful garments on the runway, very few of them are as memorable as any number of runway looks we’ve come to expect from “All Stars” seasons. If you had to list the definitive moments of this season, I think I would struggle after what I thought were the excellent split-premiere talent shows. Something feels rudderless and low energy.
There are the obvious ones that we’ve discussed ad nauseum: the language barrier is impacting many of the international queens, there’s a perceived bias on the judging panel, and it really does seem like runways got very much screwed up in transit (it happened to another look this episode!). But there is also a level of nerves and anxiety that I normally would not expect from queens who have already done this once. Maybe it’s because the stakes are higher for many of the girls, specifically the ones who were not judged by RuPaul initially. But by Episode 8 I would expect them to have settled into their groove, and…they haven’t. Nerves were very apparently for nearly half the queens in this week’s challenge.
So let’s get into that challenge, the roast. Below find my take on each queen, their performance in the roast, their “blown-away” windy runway, and how I feel like they’re doing on the show overall, now that we are — astonishingly — down to Final 6. 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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Kitty Scott-Claus
As the winner of last week’s Snatch Game, Kitty was given the opportunity to choose the line-up for the roast. She put herself first, because she was confident she could open the show with strength — and she did. I’ve seen several people dismiss Kitty’s roast performance as not being funny, but I thought it was a perfectly solid outing, a respectable traditional roast, and it made me chuckle a few times. But what really made it successful was her confidence. She ran that stage like she had worked the Friars’ Club multiple times; there was not a whiff of uncertainty. I appreciated that. While the jokes were decent to funny, she set a comfortable tone for the roasters and judges. I thought her wind runway was, unfortunately, basic. Beautiful stoning, but it was essentially a bodysuit with some gauzy fabric. Others took the same approach but at least they had a little more creativity. Kitty’s runways have been a huge weakness for her this season. I don’t doubt that she spent the rumored generous runway stipend fully. I just think she was frankly taken for a ride by her designer — these looks are not stacking up against most of the runway looks left, or even from queens who have been eliminated. What’s really screwing Kitty this season is that awful edit she’s getting. She is saying all of those things to the camera, it’s true. But man, the editors seem hellbent on making her look like a condescending snob, and it has turned off SO many viewers. To the point where people no longer even seem able to give her credit when she does well. I think that’s a real shame, because challenge-wise she is objectively one of the strongest queens in this competition.
Vanity Vain
On the other hand, Vanity is getting a pretty great edit, even though she is struggle bussing her way through this competition. Vanity bombed this roast harder than I’ve seen a person bomb in a long, long time. This was even more uncomfortable than Utica’s Season 13 implosion. Vanity recognized that she’s not a comedy writer or a stand-up comedian, but she IS a singer. So, she thought she would deliver her roast as a song. I love that idea in concept. In execution, it was almost punishing. The song was offkey, dissonant, depressing, and not funny. This was an epic flop that left people at my viewing party literally yelling at the screen, begging for it to end. Vanity knew she was in trouble, but the truly fascinating thing was, she was effortlessly funny for the rest of the episode — during critiques, in talking heads, in the “Untucked” lounge, etc. Vanity IS funny! But I think she is doing exactly what Kween Kong has said for weeks now: getting in her head and psyching herself out. On the runway, Vanity came out in, basically, a giant knot of Christmas garland, confessing that her actual look was damaged in transit. The real villain of this season is whatever airline shipped these looks, I swear.
Pythia
This was depressing. Pythia went into the roast already defeated, noting that she bombed her roast in “Canada’s Drag Race” 2. To be honest, I can’t recall how bad that was, but even if it was terrible, she did herself no favors going in with that attitude. I think Pythia had some OK concepts for jokes, but her delivery was way off — nothing was landing. You could see her almost willing her allotted time to end. Such a bummer, because again: Pythia IS funny. She was great in Snatch Game last week, and we’ve seen her be successful in other comedy challenges, including the Pirates acting one. On the runway she gave us a gorgeous Elven fantasy look that moved beautifully with the wind machine. Pythia brings it to you ever runway, and beyond that, she had done REALLY well in the competition up to this point. Yes, her girl-group challenge was a flop, but beyond that she has consistently impressed me, and I think she could have realistically had multiple wins if judging had gone differently.
Alyssa Edwards
And then, Alyssa. Coming into “Global All Stars,” everyone assumed Alyssa was the one to beat. By far the most seasoned queen on that stage, with resources at her disposal that every one of those girls would kill for, it seemed almost predestined that this was Alyssa’s crown to lose. After 8 episodes, I don’t see it. Alyssa has not done poorly in this competition, but she also has not excelled. She’s been complaining about being Safe for the past several episodes, but Safe is exactly where she should be. Including in the roast. If anyone should feel vindicated right now, it is Phi Phi O’Hara, who 8 years ago clocked the Alyssa problem and everyone came for her throat. Alyssa is not doing great work, but she gets away with it, because she’s Alyssa. In the roast, she had more observations than jokes, and those only landed because she gave them the Alyssa Edwards delivery — which is dazzling! She is naturally charismatic, you can’t deny it. But the content is not that strong. I think Alyssa has overproduced herself to a point this season where she’s lost a lot of what made her unique. The iconic Alyssa moments are the messy Alyssa moments, and she seems hellbent on not being messy this time out. I get that, but it all feels detached. On the runway, the concept for her wind look was good — a bold blue fringe costume — but I think the material was too heavy, and we got very little movement. I think technically Alyssa was called High, but in my opinion, she was smack in the middle of the order. Again.
Tessa Testicle
This was so interesting. Tessa came out strong in the roast, landing a few decent jokes and getting some laughs. But then she apparently decided that the laughs weren’t enough, and the self doubt crept in, and she completely unspooled. That’s a real shame, but again, comes back to the observation that so many of these queens do not seem as self possessed as you would expect an “All Star” to be. Of all the girls competing in this season, Tessa has the most excuse for that, as she only made it 5 episodes in her original season, and was Bottom 2 for all but one of them. So by that metric, she’s actually doing amazing here. And honestly, overall, I think it’s been a good season for her. She’s had some bright moments, a fun quasi-Eve Harrington thing going with Alyssa, and has served us some great looks. Like the one for this wind runway, which I thought was one of the best looks of the night. She gave us a more elevated version of what Alyssa was going for — yes, Tessa Testicle’s version was more elevated and successful than Alyssa Edwards’ — and dazzled the judges. I’m proud of Tessa for her journey so far, but she is pretty clearly drowning at this point.
Nehellenia
On the other hand, Nehellenia is surging. Whatever beef she had with the queens early in the season seems to have been squashed — everyone was lovely to one another in “Untucked,” and even Kitty was paying Nelly compliments on her look and her performance. And they were deserved, because Nehellenia did so well in this challenge. She did her typical underselling of her abilities — which I don’t think is an act, I genuinely believe she is uncertain of how good she is — but she served up one of the most consistent roasts of the night, and landed some pretty good punchlines. The fact that she did this in a non-native language was even more impressive. On the runway, she gave us a fiery look. Ru complained that her hair needed more structure, but I respectfully disagree. When she walked out I said, “That’s some ‘just-got-fucked’ hair,” and I thought it moved better with the wind machine than many of the other looks. Great night for Nehellenia, who is our Little Engine Who Could in this competition. So proud of her.
Kween Kong
Meanwhile, Kween Kong came into this competition as one of the other heavy hitters, and I think she has lived up to and probably exceeded expectations. This is a much more confident Kong than we saw on “Down Under 2,” and she has delivered just about every single week. I literally cannot think of a challenge that Kween has struggled with thus far. She delivered a great roast. In my opinion, she had better jokes than Kitty and a delivery that was equally as assured. On the runway, she also took a fairly basic approach to the runway, but I thought she worked it beautifully. Another super successful night for Kween, who I think at this point is probably our frontrunner. While she has had some challenging moments from an editing perspective (notably offhand comments about Nehellenia and Gala Varo), she has also had several really lovely moments with multiple queens. If she keeps this up she has the best shot at the crown, I think.
Ultimately the win was a tie between Kitty and Kween; personally, I would have just given it to Kween as a solo win, but I’m not mad about it. Kitty did well, it wasn’t unearned. That gives Kitty and Kong each 3 wins; nobody else has even 2. That’s striking.
The Bottom 3 was Tessa, Pythia, and Vanity, but it was clear to everyone even before critiques that it would be Pythia and Vanity in the Bottom 2. (Pythia hoped her outfit might save her, but I think in this case Tessa’s look probably cancelled that out, and Tessa at least had half of a good roast, while Pythia was poor pretty much throughout.) Pythia and Vanity lipsynched to Celine Dion’s “I Drove All Night” — complete with a wind machine! — which you can watch below.
This was Vanity’s THIRD time in the Bottom 2, and Pythia’s first. The cards were stacked against Vanity, without question. And yet, she absolutely crushed that lipsynch, while Pythia did her best, but never felt fully connected to the song. I just don’t think lipsynching is her strong suit, which Alyssa also noted. And, in something of a shocking twist, perennial bottom-dweller Vanity Vain was declared the winner, and first-time bottom Pythia was eliminated.
I am genuinely sad to see Pythia go. She was doing SO well this competition, serving up excellent drag week after week and really making Canada (and Greece) proud. This was simply a case of being undeniably bad in the challenge, and unquestionably losing the lipsynch. As much as people complain about the riggory this season, I thought all the decisions made this episode were not only justifiable, but the correct ones.
That leaves us with a Final 6 of Kitty, Vanity, Alyssa, Tessa, Nehellenia, and Kween Kong. Definitely not the Top 6 I thought we would get when this started, and to be honest, it doesn’t really feel like a Top 6. Two of those queens have been barely staying afloat this whole competition. Can they somehow manage to claw their way to the finale?!
Next: the six eliminated queens return for a makeover challenge, featuring “Drag Race Germany” panelist Diane Brill as a guest judge! I am genuinely so interested to see RuPaul interact with Diane, I suspect they have a LOT in common.
What do you think of this season overall? 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” launched Season 6 this week, and we had UK judge Graham Norton as a guest judge this episode. You could go ahead and watch that premiere — it’s good! — or you could go all the way back and start from Season 1. I would recommend it. “UK” seasons 1 and 2 are both excellent. Season 3 — where Kitty came from — is by far the worst of the franchise, and 4 isn’t much better. But “UK5” is one of my all-time favorite seasons, starring 10 amazing queens (and one disqualified one who was completely scrubbed from footage). These seasons are fairly short and are well worth catching up on as we enter the final stretch of “Global All Stars.”