RECAP: RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17, Episode 2
We have gotten through the two-part Talent Show for Season 17, and after seeing all 14 presentations (and two runways) my overall reaction is:
Bad? No. Well, a few of them were bad. On average I found them to be adequate. Very few of them made any kind of impact. And I think it brings into question what the queens are thinking when they’re preparing for these challenges that they now know will reliably be part of the season. Are they trying to WIN? Are they trying to leave a lasting impression on the judges and the viewers? Or are they just trying to get by? Becuase it sure feels like the latter to me.
There has been considerable online discourse since Episode 1 about the number of queens doing a lipsynch to an “original” bitch track for the Talent Show. In S17, nine of the 14 queens did exactly that type of talent (I’m counting Jewels Sparkle, who referred to hers as a “burlesque” — it was a lipsynch to a bitch track). The defense has been that, for many queens, lipsynching IS their primary talent. Sure! I get that. I also get that, from a branding perspective, you want to put money and effort into something that you can push on Spotify or iTunes or whatever.
But from a viewer perspective, it is deadly boring watching lipsynch number after lipsynch number. If you watch the international editions — most notably Drag Race Espana, which kills it with the Talent Show every season — you get way, way more variety in acts. I’m not saying that the queens shouldn’t do a lipsynch for the Talent Show, but at least give us a unique presentation. Anetra essentially did a lipsynch to a bitch track, but by incorporating martial arts into she instantly cemented her place as Drag Race royalty. Same with Jax and the jump rope. There are other examples. Lipsynch if you must, but please don’t just give us the same copy + paste performance that, inevitably, ends in a split or dip. Put some thought and imagination into it — as a couple of these girls did. That should be the rule, not the exception. Impressing the viewers and judges should be the goal. Not just getting through.
End lecture.
Below find my thoughts on the Season 17 Episode 2 Talent Show, ranked by favorite to least favorite, also incorporating the Is It Cake? runway that was supposed to focus on asses. (On the whole I did not find this runway successful.) SPOILERS AHEAD!
Lexi Love: Without question the breakout of the season so far, Lexi was the clear winner of this Talent Show group, giving us a bitch track but performing it on rollerskates. And performed well! Michelle Visage noted that it was smart to do something RuPaul is predisposed to love — it is widely known that RuPaul loves to skate — but beyond that, Lexi infused this number with a joyful spirit. She said later that she was incredibly nervous, but I saw none of that. Just pure happiness and excitement to be on that stage. We need MORE of that on this show, and in our lives. Now more than ever, to be honest. I thought Lexi’s TV-inspired runway was very cool, although I’m not sure how focused it was on the ass-ignment. I do want to take a moment and talk about the disturbing ageism that’s being thrown around by this cast. I am sure it is meant playfully. I am sure the queens don’t actually mean any harm. But at 33 years old, Lexi is the oldest queen in this group — that is crazy in itself. But these queens are literally out there calling her “grandma.” Again, I’m sure they think they're being cute, and that it’s not that serious…but ageism is very much a real thing in the gay community. It did not sit well with me, and I’m hoping this is a narrative that gets addressed in depth this season, because I think dismissing anything or anyone that existed pre-2000 is increasingly the norm in gay society, and I find that disturbing. Not to mention, what kind of point are you making by coming for people for having the audacity to age? What do you think is going to happen to you, assuming you are lucky enough to be given that privilege. So stupid.
Kori King: Nobody came close to Lexi’s talent, let’s just say that. But I genuinely liked Kori’s song, which was a reference to queer icon iced coffee. As a former Bostonian, I love how Kori is leaning into the Duns of it all. Relatable! I also liked the energy Kori brought to her performance. But I think we’re going to have some issues with Kori’s looks. It is true that her talent outfit was a basic silver bathing suit with some cheap, tiny ice cubes attached — barely — to the belt. I also didn’t care for her runway, which was a take-off of Monet X-Change’s Werk the World outfit — or possibly the actual outfit itself? — which is such a random reference, and one most viewers of the show will not get. Additionally, it had absolutely nothing to do with the runway prompt. She bent over and showed her covered ass at the end of the runway. That’s it? That’s the point? I have gay questions and I need gay answers. As I type this, I’m actually not sure how I convinced myself to rank Kori second…
Onya Nurve: I guess because none of the other safe queens rocked my world any better. I thought Onya’s original track was also really good — great hook, and she performed it well. Speaking of having issues with looks, with four looks over two episodes, I think we can safely say Onya has the worst style of the season. What in the mutant loofas was that talent number outfit? The peach dress for the runway was better than last week’s disaster, but still underwhelming. I like Onya, and I am rooting for her to succeed, but she really needs to focus on her aesthetic. It’s not passing muster, and that has nothing to do with money. It has to do with taste. Or the lack of it.
Sam Star: Sam brought plenty of polish to her talent, another lipsynch to a folksy country ditty. I gotta say, Sam talked a big game last week vis-a-vis Acacia’s country number, and she came off as mostly hat, little cattle. The song was probably better than Acacia’s, but Acacia performed hers live. Sam meanwhile gave a very pageant performance that culminated in a, “Is she going to jump from there?” moment straight out of Aja’s All Stars 3 talent show. I will remind viewers that Lemon was eliminated first in UK vs. the World for “stealing” that exact move, and the fact that Sam just lifted it again (and got away with it) is…wild. Just wild. I’m not fully vibing with Sam’s style yet. Her looks are expensive and typically meet the brief, but there’s something soulless and plastic about her drag, and that extends to her talking heads, in which she overexaggerates to the point of grating. I’m hoping she calms down and finds her groove in this competition, because I do think she’s got the goods. Right now it’s just all feeling over-produced and forced.
Crystal Envy: I’m not entirely sure why Crystal’s talent did not vibe with me. Aesthetically I thought it was a mess — I thought that wig looked awful, I thought the starting garment was distractingly bad, and the final look was a nude-colored bodysuit that did match her actual skin tone. The same sin was replicated on her Is It Cake? runway, which additionally had garish body-paint lines that made her look like a ripped dude in a two-piece bikini — I did like the dog bit, though. Crystal’s performance was solid, and the production value was high. She is talented and very good at what she does, no question. But I did not get much personality from this, and the overall takeaway was, “This is a queen who is completely fixated on looking good,” and yet somehow keeps giving us looks that miss the mark. I’m perplexed.
Lana Ja’Rae: This was actively bad. Starting your talent by making sure people know that you are Luxx Noir London’s drag daughter is bold, because while Luxx certainly has many fans, she also has a WHOLE bunch of viewers who do not care for her even a little bit. She’s polarizing at best. Beyond that, as Michelle Visage pointed out at deliberations, at least Luxx knows how to own a stage. Lana does not. That song was monotone; it could cure insomnia. The performance was basically Lana standing there (with questionable posture) and, occasionally, walking. If we’re being honest, I thought the actual talent Lana displayed here was being tall and skinny, which: yawn. Literally, yawn. She ended with her gigantic legs doing a jump kick into a split, which might have been interesting if we had not already seen almost every single other girl before her end their number in some version of a jump split. The runway was objectively, basically pretty but 1) she could barely walk in it and 2) we have seen that back concept done before, notably by Detox nearly 10 years ago. This is where Luxx would jump in and scold me for not understanding that fashion is about references. And this is where I would roll my eyes and say that at the end of the day, I’m just not impressed.
Hormona Lisa: It is unfortunate that two of the queens who did something BESIDES a lipsynch talent ended up in the Bottom 2. That’s sending the wrong message to future contestants, I think. In Acacia’s case, she had no business being in the Bottom. Hormona absolutely did. It’s bold to do stand-up comedy for a Talent Show. I can think of at least two queens who have done it before her, Jasmine Masters on All Stars 4 and Derrick Barry on All Stars 5. Both of them went home first. Hormona’s set was as bad or worse than theirs. It wasn’t funny. It wasn’t clever. The energy was very low — which seems to be Hormona’s vibe overall. It just landed with a thud. On the runway, Hormona gave us one of two Marie Antoinette-inspired looks — the other was from Joella, who based on her blunt takes and total lack of self-awareness in Untucked has emerged as one of the most delusional queens we have had on this show in quite some time — which was roundly dissed by Michelle Visage as being obvious and reductive. Completely agree. I also think Hormona rejecting the other queens’ attempts to get her gassed up for the lipsynch in Untucked was an awful look. I want to like Hormona. I agreed with everything Onya said about her being an outsider who is just doing her own thing instead of trying to fit in. But Hormona is not doing herself any favors. She’s not gelling with this cast, and it’s honestly uncomfortable to watch.
Rate-A-Queen ended up with Lexi Love rightfully in the Top 2, joined by Crystal Envy. No disrespect to Crystal, but I don’t see that. I guess it’s an indication of what a lackluster bunch these talents were, though, as there’s nobody else I strongly believe should have replaced her in the top. They lipsynched to “Alter Ego” by guest judge Doechii, and they ate that song the fuck UP. Crystal impressed the hell out of me in this lipsynch, but I was totally rooting for Lexi the whole time. And she won. Hopefully the first of many for Lexi Love, who at this point firmly has my heart. Us “old” gals got to stick together.
As mentioned, joining Acacia Forgot in the Bottom 2 was Hormona Lisa. Their performance to “Yes, And?” by Ariana Grande was…not great. I did think that Hormona did better in some elements of the song — Acacia did a lot of walking back and forth across the stage, although she was consistently serving face and she knew those words. I’m not sure Hormona did (and again, she dismissed the other queens’ attempts to help her prepare for this, so…). Acacia likely clutched the win when she produced a make-up brush from her bare, furry ass mid-song, which you know RuPaul loved. And so Acacia was named the winner, and Hormona looked to be the first eliminated queen of the season.
EXCEPT! This season there is a twist: the Badonka Dunk Tank. Basically, every week the queen who loses the lipsynch chooses one of 10 levers to pull. Two of those levers will send Michelle Visage splashing down into a water tank; the other 8 will do nothing, and the queen will sashay away. It’s basically Season 14’s chocolate twist, but wetter. Hormona magically pulled one of the two winning levers, sent Michelle splashing, and saved herself from elimination. Was this almost certainly a Production decision so that there were no eliminations in the first two episodes? Sure. Did it matter? No. I am sure most people will hate this dunk-tank thing, but I find it hilariously stupid. I’m all for a good campy twist.
Next: it’s a design challenge, but most importantly, the Rate-A-Queen results are revealed in full, and some people — notably Arrietty and Lana — have some serious explaining to do.
What did you think of the Season 17 premiere? Drop your thoughts in the comments.
