Long Walks on the Beach, Big Dicks and Fried Chicken: All Hail Jujubee-She’s Finally a Winner Baby! RuPaul’s Stats Race, All Stars 5, Episode 3

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Welcome back! This blog’s All Stars 5 recaps are quickly becoming just a shrine to Jujubee and why not? She’s endlessly hilarious and entertaining and won this confusing episode.

This week the queens paid homage to the meme that was All Stars 4’s “Club 96” (which, btw, Valentina went home for- how soon failures become aspirational!) by creating their own Rutique hotel suites. It was thoroughly confusing whether the challenge was to create a sleek room or a funny skit, but aside from Jujubee’s wit I’m not sure anyone meet either metric. Either way, Jujubee took it as an opportunity to rewrite herstory’s mistakes and win her first challenge! In much sadder news, we had to say goodbye to the successful, the beautiful, the bottom (as she wrote on her mirror goodbye message) Mariah Paris Balenciaga. We also got a true scare when our frontrunner Shea Coulee was in the bottom.

The chart is wild as ever (typical of All Stars seasons) as Jujubee moves into the lead with 3, followed by Blair St. Claire who has placed high twice and has 2. Shea moves down to the middle of the pack after her bottom 3 placement brings her score back to 0, and India Farrah moves into the bottom with -2 after being the bottom for a second time in a row.

All of this makes it trickier than ever to do predictions. Will Shea be out for Alexis and Mayhem’s blood when she finds out she voted for them? Will the other queens find out about Mayhem’s alliance with India? Will Cracker continue to drive everyone insane (and cause ridiculously racist fans to target Alexis? So terrible)

Before we get to my predictions, I want to share a list I created during the pre-season. I ranked the queens by number of challenge wins, placement on their original seasons (I averaged the placements from All Stars I and their original season for Jujubee and Alexis), number of lip-syncs (since doing well in lip-syncs is generally a strength in All Star seasons) and number of Instagram followers. Then I added the queens’ placement on each list and saw who had the lowest total. The list is below!

At first, I thought the list was totally useless when Derrick went home 4 episodes earlier than the list predicted. However, Ongina only went one week earlier than the list said, and Mariah was kicked off only one week later than predicted. Derrick underperformed and India is over performing, but otherwise, it’s not hard to see this list’s order coming to fruition. We shall see!

As for predictions for the next episode, hot take- for the 4^th blog in a row I’m saying India will go. It has to be her time, right? She’s defied every odd but- a TMZ themed improv challenge? Sounds like her walking papers.

If India finally falls, I think we could be in for a shock the following week. I want Alexis, Juju, and Shea to all be in the final 4, but I fear that Blair St. Claire and Miz Cracker could take up two of the spots. Blair has no chance of winning the season but has done well so far and seems like a queen that production would want to keep around. Cracker has proven herself to be a worthy villain who also has the white privilege to still redeem herself, which seems like a long narrative. All this makes me fear producers might think they don’t need Alexis for the long haul, which would be a mistake. Hopefully I am wrong! I also am hoping this week’s episode served to humanize Shea and make her less of an overt frontrunner, which is good for her chances at winning. Dead’s on favorites in recent seasons (Gigi Goode, Brooke Lynn Heights, Manila Luzon, BendelaCreme) have not wound up taking the crown, so some adversity is actually good for Shea long term (I hope). Here are my predictions!

Finally, for our list I turned to Instagram, on which there was much celebration that Monet Exchange, after her guest appearance as this week’s lip sync assassin, had now tied Trinity the Tuck for most all time lip-syncs on the show with 8. It is indeed true and congrats to Monet! I wanted to see the rest of that list, so you can find it below!

There are 30 queens at the moment who have competed in 4 or more lip-syncs on Drag Race. Jujubee is on the list having competed in 6, as are Alexis and Shea Coulee who have both competed in 4. All of them could move up the list if they win more challenges or make it to the end of this season. There is also a distinct possibility that many of the queens on this list could appear as lip-sync assassins (the three assassins we have seen so far- Monet, (8) Alyssa Edwards (6) and Yvie Oddly (4)- are all on the list).

For the top 12, who have all competed in 6 or more lip-syncs, I included one of my favorite lip-syncs that they competed in. Please enjoy!

All Time Lip-syncs

Monet Exchange-8

Trinity the Tuck-8

3. Bendelacreme-7

3. Shangela-7

5. Alyssa Edwards-6

5. Jujubee-6

5. Katya-6

5. Kameron Michaels-6

5. Latrice Royale-6

5. Manila Luzon-6

5. Raven-6

13. Alaska-5

13. Detox-5

13. Kennedy Davenport-5

13. Peppermint-5

13. Trixie Mattel-5

13. Monique Heart-5

18. Alexis Mateo-4

18. Bebe Zahara Benet-4

18. Brooke Lynn Hytes-4

18. Chad Michaels-4

18. Coco Montrese-4

18. Darienne Lake-4

18. Eureka O’Hara-4

18. Naomi Smalls-4

18. Ra’Jah O’Hara-4

18. Shea Coulee-4

18. Tatianna-4

18. Vanessa Vanjie Mateo-4

18. Yvie Oddley-4

Finally, a fond farewell to Mariah. She brought a unique and impactful performance to the talent show and lots of fun shady commentary. I wish she could have stayed longer (with the popularity of Legendary on HBO it feels particularly well-timed to have a queen who hails from the ball scene on the show) but am thankful we got her for a few weeks.