RECAP: “RuPaul’s Drag Race UK 6” Episode 6 (Snatch Game)
It was time for the Snatch Game on “Drag Race UK” Series 6! And the “UK6” Snatch Game, like everything else this season, was largely very good. You know it’s a solid Snatch when you have a hard time picking even a Bottom 3 (Bottom 2, not a problem), and both of the Safe queens could have easily ended up in the Top 3 (although one of the Top 3 queens had no business being there).
That said, I disagree completely with the decisions made at the end of this episode. For the first time all season, the wrong queen won the lipsynch, and the wrong queen went home.
Read on for my takes on “Drag Race UK” Season 6, Episode 6. SPOILERS AHEAD!
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The gals were all sad to see Kiki Snatch sent home last episode — I was as well — and Actavia did a truly lousy job cleaning off her mirror message. That’s one way to leave a mark on the competition, Kiki! The general consensus was that, now that it’s down to 8 queens, the competition is getting quite tight. Marmalade was singled out for once again being right at the top but losing the win — that has happened in at least three episodes thus far — while Charra Tea was happy just to get SOME attention from the judges.
The next morning, Ru unveiled the now-standard Reading Challenge. There were a few good licks in here, notably La Voix’s absolutely vicious joke about Actavia’s teeth gaps. And there were the expected flops, including Rileasa Slaves, who I just don’t think has a personality made for reading. Or possibly much of a personality at all. Lovely gal! Gorgeous! Sexy! But I have said it before and I’ll say it again: she does not “pop” on screen. Continue to keep that in mind as we go along this episode.
If there’s a reading challenge, then that also means the main challenge is bound to be Snatch Game. There’s a part of me that wants one franchise to keep edging the girls for Snatch Game, and then either never doing it at all, or doing it right at the end of the season. What a mindfuck that would be!
We got a few pre-challenge storylines. La Voix picked Liza Minnelli, who is not only her icon, but also the ex-wife of her former employer, David Gest, for whom she worked as a personal assistant for several years. That is WILD and I bet La Voix has some scalding tea from that gig. Rileasa was immediately nervous, because she does not do impressions; she picked Rihanna because: duh. Actavia elected to do the Welsh Dragon, but Ru encouraged her to consider Michael Jackson, because Charra has had success referencing MJ in this competition. I can think of one big reason that Actavia should absolutely not play Michael Jackson. OK, two big reasons. And finally, both Charra Tea and Lill picked Queen Victoria, but Charra rightfully swerved in this game of chicken. Charra considered doing her back-up, Mary Poppins, but RuPaul did what he has now done to several Irish contestants: encouraged Charra to just do another Irish person, leaning on the accent. In this case, Charra went with Girls Aloud singer Nadine Coyle, but presenting her as Nadine Coyle auditioning for the role of Mary Poopins.
I’ll go over my thoughts on each Snatch Game performance, listed by best performance to worst. I’ll also comment on the Doctor Who Is She? runway, which I loved in concept but largely disliked in execution. (In fairness to the queens, that was a difficult prompt. Creating an original character that feels authentically Whovian, but still drag, is a real narrow target that I’m not sure any of them squarely hit.)
Kyran Thrax as Elvis Presley: Was this our first Elvis on Snatch Game? It may have been. Kyran was great in this, funny with a dead-on impression, and good at weaving in and working with the other queens. Kyran felt assured and if I’m being honest, the Elvis voice may have turned me on. I thought the Who runway was one of the better concepts, and certainly well executed, even if it would never in a million years realistically be seen on “Doctor Who.” But as a drag runway, successful and memorable.
La Voix as Liza Minnelli: At first I was not enthused about this pick. We’ve seen so many Lizas at this point, and I don’t know how you make the character fresh and exciting. La Voix didn’t reinvent the wheel, she just used the wheel to roll over the competition. La Voix gave some very funny answers — that “cottage pie” joke was so stupid I couldn’t help but laugh — and the leg gag actually landed, which most props on Snatch Game do not. I thought the Who runway was one of the more successful looks of the night, and one of the most successful looks we’ve seen from La Voix. Even though the concept of it was disturbing, I could see something LIKE that — obviously less sexualized — appearing on early seasons of the “Who” reboot. Another strong week for La Voix.
Lill as Queen Victoria: It’s crazy to me that Lill was not Top 3. Her Queen Victoria was very funny, that performance was memorable, and I think she gave us THE runway of the night with her terrifying goo monster in the process of taking the form of a shifty politician. Creepy and effective! Lill nailed this week and the fact that she was merely safe was absurd.
Marmalade as Marie Antoinette: Was this our first Marie Antoinette Snatch Game? Also surprising; she’s an obvious pick and has been referenced on the runway countless times in “Drag Race” history. Marmalade was very funny in her answer, which felt quite topical given the political times we are living in. Is it possible the costume shift to beheaded Marie didn’t resonate with the judges? I don’t know, but I thought Marmalade was very strong overall. The runway seemed to take its inspiration from the Gallifreyan council looks from the 1980s, and in that way it was successful — it was the most fashionable look of the night, to be sure. If anything, it didn’t go gonzo enough to be Whovian. But Marmalade looked great.
Charra Tea as Nadine Coyle (?): This being in the top was…so dumb. Props, I guess, to Charra for listening to RuPaul and giving her exactly what she wanted. Giving the person in charge exactly what they asked for is good self preservation. But was this actually a good Snatch Game performance? Did any of it make any sense? No. It was an act of desperation, and it worked out for her, but it was stupid and not in a funny way. Charra was doing a good job playing with Ru, and she volleyed with some of the other queens, but the whole thing felt so forced. Ru has been criticized in the past for pushing queens to do bits that Ru specifically finds funny — I’m thinking last season with Ru telling Tomara Thomas to be Robin Williams because she screams all the time, or Ru telling Jonbers Blonde to be a girl version of St. Patrick because she’s, you know, Irish — and this was just another egregious example of that. I hated seeing it get rewarded with a top spot, especially with better options right there in Lill and Marmalade. It’s true that Charra looked pretty on the runway, but I don’t think this met the brief in any way — which is a recurring theme for Charra and runways. Charra should have been Safe at best, arguably Bottom 3.
Actavia as the Welsh Dragon: First I’ll say that doing imaginary characters has become a crutch for Snatch Game. It is supposed to be an impression challenge, and some queens have used this wrinkle to turn it into an improv challenge. Which it is, to some degree, but these fictional characters whose personalities the queens can invent from scratch feel like a copout. That said, I’ll take a whole panel of Welsh Dragons over one more goddamned YouTube or TikTok influencer on Snatch Game, thank you very much. I thought Actavia did well as the Dragon. I think she got into trouble when she tried to shoehorn in the Michael Jackson stuff — again, in a desperate bid to please RuPaul — but on the whole I enjoyed the performance. The runway was a mess. That wig was truly a sin. Actavia essentially admitted she had never watched “Doctor Who,” and it showed.
Chanel O’Conor as Coco Peru: Coco Peru was a bold pick. She is not just a drag icon of the 90s — Coco Peru is still actively touring the world, and has tons of followers on social media. Yes, Ru knows her personally, but I don’t think that was the biggest issue. The biggest issue is that to cut through as Coco Peru, you have to have either her biting wit, or you have to nail the mannerisms and delivery. Chanel did not have any of that. She tried, but she just wasn’t hitting the mark. I can understand why a British person would hear Coco Peru’s accent and go for broad New Yorker, but it’s a much more nuanced Long Island delivery. This just didn’t connect. I thought the bulk of her Who runway was successful — except those sleeves with the giant lipsticks on the end. Credit for blending Who monster with drag, truly, but the lipsticks were not reading the way I think Chanel wanted them to, and it made the whole outfit look silly. That may have been intentional! But I didn’t care for it.
Rileasa Slaves as Rihanna: One of the worst Snatch Games in recent history, if not in “Drag Race” history period. This went beyond merely being bad, it was a whole-ass bomb. It was less a performance and more like a hostage crisis. Rileasa was nervous about impersonation, and decided to lean on what she knew already worked for her: her weird kid role from the “Love, Actually” challenge a few weeks back. But she REALLY went into that, giving us a bonkers story in which Rihanna either WAS that Sammy kid, or that Sammy kid had possessed Rihanna — I don’t know. I don’t care to know. This was so poorly thought out, so badly delivered, every second they showed of Rileasa in that challenge was difficult to watch. Her wig-based runway was one of the cooler concepts tonight, and well executed by Rileasa. Would I ever likely see anything like that on “Doctor Who”? Probably not. But it was a drag space monster, and that ticked several of my boxes.
La Voix was announced as the winner of the challenge, which I didn’t begrudge, but found myself wishing it was Kyran. So I was thrilled when Kyran was announced as the SECOND winner. That gives Kyran THREE badges in 6 episodes, and La Voix 2 badges. Nobody else has won more than one. These two are our clear frontrunners, and I do think that’s deserved. But I’m not counting out Marm or Lill, both of whom have been performing strongly almost all season long. (It’s a far cry from “UK4,” when Cheddar and Danny had basically no other competition; Lill has one win, and Marmalade easily could finally push through to a win in the coming weeks.)
Actavia was quickly spared, leaving a Bottom 2 of Chanel O’Conor and Rileasa Slaves lipsynching to “Something Kinda Ooh” by Girls Aloud. I fucking LOVE this track and have been waiting for it to be a lipsynch on this show. I don’t think either girl necessarily slayed this lipsynch, but without question Chanel did a better job to me. Even before she revealed her actual hands outside of those goofy lipsticks, she was serving face, she was giving me the vibe of the song. I’m truly not sure what Rileasa was doing. The movement was good — although a lot of that was amplified by her wig-based runway. But Rileasa simply does not grab the camera. She just doesn’t. Was it nerves? Was she just not pushing through and connecting with the song? I don’t know, but aside from one decent trick move, Rileasa seriously underwhelmed me with this lipsynch, while Chanel did better than I expected.
But it didn’t matter, because RuPaul still gave Rileasa the win, and Chanel was eliminated. This was purely based on who the producers want to see go deep in the competition, and not at all based on the actual performances. Rileasa was the absolute worst in the challenge, Rileasa lost the lipsynch, end of question. But Chanel was disposable, I guess — even though she has given us more drama than Rileasa has this season. And so Chanel was eliminated.
Chanel took it well. I think she also thought the decision made about that lispynch was horse shit, based on the look on her face. This is a very competitive cast, and I hope Chanel can be proud of what she gave us. I would love to see her back some time; she makes for good TV and gives great confessionals. And if you haven’t been checking out her “DRUK6” YouTube videos, you should give them a watch. You are an icon, Chanel! You should have lasted longer! You are more than good enough!
What do you think of this season overall? Drop your thoughts in the comments.
