Well no Snatch Game this week. I officially give up predicting which episodes come next! Anyway, speaking of predictions, I hope that the readers of this blog noticed that the bottom three in the challenge this week exactly matched my bottom three after last week's episode, and the top three matched positions 2-4 with Max being stuck on an island by himself (more on that later). I hope this convinces skeptical readers that this blog means business!
This week's challenge was an interesting one and I found the whole show and the Untucked episode to be really entertaining. I feel like this season is really starting to hit its stride, and my job is becoming easier, as the stratifications of the drag queens are becoming clearer and clearer.
9.) Kandy Ho (OUT)- Kandy Ho made it easy this week: a lousy performance, the return of the beard contour, and kind of a crappy attitude to boot. She put up a good fight in Lip Synch, but Pearl was right to reassure Jaidynn. There was no way they were keeping Kandy on the show after sleepwalking through these last few weeks.
8.) Jaidynn Diore Fierce- Kennedy must have gone forward in time and read my critique of Jaidynn from last week, because she and I have similar thoughts. Jaidynn seems way too self-conscious to succeed. Her Ru performance was not great, and the judge's (unjustified, in my mind) critique of her outfit appeared to destroy whatever confidence she had. I feel bad for Jaidynn, there's a scared look in her eyes all the time that must stem from her terrible home life. She's dependent on a family that totally rejects who she is.
I must say that I am getting increasingly impatient with families that refuse to even meet their children half-way on these matters. I suppose it is Jaidynn's responsibility to fully come out to her family, but, for God's sake, she is open to them about being a drag performer, and yet these people continue to torture her by suggesting that one day she will marry a woman. There's a lot of baloney that goes around about how "your family is all you have" that people like Jaidynn internalize. Your biological family is not all you have. And I don't know why we should have to indulge these people if they refuse to accept who you are. Does Jaidynn have this obligation to have a fraught conversation with her family that is clearly going to go poorly? I don't think so. I think at some point you have a right to walk away.
7.) Miss Fame- God, what a fucking idiot. And the mother too. Could you imagine being in a relationship with either of these people? The circular conversations and arguments that go nowhere. The many simple concepts you would have to explain. The inane stories from the 12-step program. I suppose the sex would be good, but, then again, I'm not certain someone called "Miss Fame" would be entirely concerned with your pleasure. While I'm putting her a little higher up, I sincerely hope Jaidynn beats out Miss Fame in this competition. I actually like Jaidynn.
6.) Violet Chachki- The most impressive thing about Violet this week was clearly that corset. I actually gasped when I saw his grapefruit sized waist. Violet is still the same externalizing bitch she's been throughout this competition. It would work if she was blowing everyone away, but she isn't.
5.) Pearl- No change this week, although Pearl is heating up rather than fading away. She managed to garner praise despite having to improvise with her death costume. And her performance in the nonsensical "Ru's Point of View" skit was quite good. Some other queens seem fed up with Pearl's attitude, but I think they mistake theatrics for effort. It's clear that Pearl is trying to make it on this show, and that she is succeeding. It's just that she doesn't feel the need to constantly remind to everyone that she is working hard.
4.) Kennedy- Kennedy had an unmentioned but great impression of Ru in her skit, but her runway look was insane. The story that she put in to explain in sounded like a long origin story you'd hear at the beginning of one of those dark Saturday morning cartoons in the 80s. I'm holding her here at the bottom of the non-Max top 3.
3.) Ginger Minj- Ginger did well, but I feel like she's beginning to suffer from the Darienne Lake syndrome. There is a creeping externalizing bitterness that is slipping in to her performance, and I don't like it. Ginger is very funny, but she did not deserve to win that challenge. Her runway look was in the same genre as Katya's but not has clever. She was hammier than Katya in the sketch but she was not as funny. She is in the game but if she starts to believe she is being persecuted she won't reach her potential.
2.) Katya- The shark attack runway look was the best, and I loved her performance in the sketch. Katya and Max have the most intelligent eyes in the competition. They are the only two thus far that don't seem to be caught up in the bullshit drama. They both have different approaches to it, though. Katya, slyly observes, whereas Max seems to be able to sit back and push buttons.
1.) Max- I have to say, I don't like Michelle Visage as an assessor of talent on Drag Race. She has a lot of chemistry with Ru, but she gets hung up on odd things during the season, only to drop them at some arbitrary point. Two seasons ago she thought Jinx Monsoon was sloppy until, all of a sudden, he wasn't and steamrolled the competition. Last year, she harangued Adore Delano over some small issue until she decided not to. Now she is apparently fixated on Max's gray wig. I don't know why. The gray wig is a great signature, and I would hardly describe the rest of Max's work as unoriginal.
Ginger commented that Max appears to think he is on "easy street." That is because he is. He is clearly the class thus far, and, outside of Katya, is several IQ points above the rest of the queens. In Untucked, we saw Max subtly manipulate the room into a few fights, pitting the rest of the queens against Ginger and Kennedy, two of her main rivals for the final show. In every challenge, thus far we've seen him push whatever queen he was paired with to a good performance. He is the perfect combination of deviousness and talent, and is thus, the favorite.
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