After shocking the world by actually eliminating someone in its Season 15 premiere, RuPaul’s Drag Race did the unthinkable this week by sending yet another queen home. Eliminations, what a concept.
With Irene Dubois’ lipstick message (“I left a poop in one of your stations! But whomst?!”) freshly wiped from the mirror, the remaining 15 queens soldiered on to this week’s maxi challenge, creating an infomercial based on their idea of the hereafter — sorry, make that “the queer-after.”
Time permitting, the queens would also figure out which lucky station received Irene’s goodbye present.
This acting challenge, like all acting challenges, delivered mixed results. All you really need to know is that Sasha Colby‘s neck-snapping gag earned the biggest laughs; Loosey LaDuca made up for her poor showing last week with a solid Dolly Parton impression; and Luxx Noir London has, according to Michelle Visage, “a gayness about you that’s gayer than gay.”
Following a “Metallica” runway (named more so for the material than the band), Sasha was announced as this week’s well-deserved winner, while Amethyst found herself back in the bottom two, this time facing Princess Poppy in a lip sync battle to Diana Ross’ “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
Neither queen tore up the main stage this time, but at least Amethyst’s energy and performance remained relatively consistent throughout. Poppy went the comedic route, which was to be expected, but you could always feel her trying to be funny, often to the point of madness.
In the end, Ru agreed, giving Poppy the chop and sending Amethyst to safety. Again.
Side note: We arrived at this week’s results much faster, than usual thanks to the show’s new shorter format. If you hadn’t noticed — and we wouldn’t blame you, since last week’s premiere was an abnormal two-hour event — each episode now runs 60 minutes with commercials, as opposed to the 90-minute runtime in recent seasons.
Do you prefer the shorter episodes, or is there no such thing as too much Drag Race for you? And do you think the right queen was eliminated? Weigh in via our poll below, then drop a comment with your thoughts on Episode 3.