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“You’re a liar and this is why Derrick don’t like you”. Those are the words Alexis “that’s a lie” Mateo uttered as she showed us India’s lipstick. Drag Race full on met Big Brother this week as India finally went out in a fiery blaze of drama. I was all set to call that the most iconic lipstick voting scene in herstory, but then Jujubee showed up and did a full-on imitation of Blair St. Claire’s secret cold runway move that Ru had described earlier. Jujubee continues to just be a true treasure. No idea but if I had to guess, I’d wager that India was telling the truth (Mayhem after all did say “I expected more people to vote for Shea!” after the episode in question) but making it sound much worse than it was in actuality. I think we can tell that Alexis and Mayhem didn’t campaign intensely (and certainly not successfully) because Mariah didn’t vote for Shea. Either way, hoping we get a reunion to sort it all out, even if it’s via zoom.
Before all of that mess, Shea, Alexis and Juju all shone bright in the snatch game, serving former Public Enemy, niche psychic and Cat women realness, respectively. India, Blair and Cracker- not so much. Additionally, a new rule change was revealed. Moving forward, all the queens excluding the winner will be up for elimination. I know what you’re all thinking- wtf, how will this affect my chart? The answer is- not at all. Though I could code everyone as being in the bottom and given them -2 points, instead I used the judges’ critiques to determine who was high and low. It was very easy for this episode and I think it will continue to be so moving forward.
Speaking of the chart, you’ll notice some updates I made that hopefully make it easier to understand. Jujubee continues to steadily lead the pack by picking up one more point for a total of 5. Shea’s win (+2 points) and Cracker’s bad critiques (-1 point) lock them in a tie for 2nd with 2 points. With India finally meeting her demise, she can no longer take up the last place spot and it is inherited by Alexis and Blair who both have season totals of 1 point.
Word on the street seems to be that there are likely only 3 episodes left this season, but we are already down to 5 queens (typically the finale episode happens when there is a final 4). Thus, I think we are bound for a no elimination episode next. Unfortunately, I think Alexis will go after that, and our final 4 is Blair, Cracker, Jujubee and Shea. It’s definitely a two-queen race for the win between Jujubee and Shea, and though I clearly adore Juju, I still think Shea will take the crown in the end.
| Queen | Predicted Placement |
 Alexis Mateo | 5 |
 Blair St. Claire | 4 |
 Miz Cracker | 3 |
 Jujubee | 2 |
 Shea Coulee |  YOU’RE A WINNER BABY! |
Though Alexis and Juju also did very well, Shea deserved the win in my opinion because she had the most robust routine. Jujubee and Alexis are two of the funniest queens we have ever had on the show, and they didn’t need to do much out of the ordinary to be successful. That said, Jujubee’s answer “I would sensually walk to the thermostat and turn the thermostat to a sensible 74 degrees” in response to “How would you keep me warm?” is the line that has stuck with me most since the episode. Guest judge Tommy Dorfman commented that Shea’s performance “will go down as one of the most successful snatch games in herstory”. Thanks for the list prompt!
While I thought Shea’s performance was very good, I place it in the honorable mention section of my list, along with Jujubee’s Eartha Kitt. Below you will find my 10 favorite performances ever in the snatch game.
Favorite Snatch Games:
- Bendelacreme (Season 6)- Maggie Smith
Such a funny concept to play and old woman from a previous time who is fully not familiar with anything happening around her.
Favorite line: “We invented the language!”
2. Alaska (All Stars 2)- Mae West
Alaska took on such a funny sassy voice and was full of random funny quips.
Favorite line: “why don’t you come up and fuck me in the ass some time? Tootsie lou”
3. Jinkx Monsoon (Season 5)- Little Edie
Jinkx is trained in musical theatre and you could tell from this joyful and detailed impression
4. Kennedy Davenport (Season 7)- Little Richard
So many memorable catchphrases. I laugh every time I think about Kennedy saying, “shut up!”
5. Alexis Mateo (Season 3)- Alicia Keys
She didn’t actually win the snatch game on season 3, but this performance from Alexis is one my favorites ever. It was such a wild and random choice to make Alicia Keys a horny lesbian and watching her relentlessly hit on guest judge Amber Rose was so funny.
6. Aquaria (Season 10)- Melania Trump
I was shocked that Aquaria was so successful in the snatch game. Her personification of Melania was spot on and she made so many well timed and funny quips.
7. Alaska (Season 5)- Lady Bunny
The voice alone makes me giggle.
8. Adore Delano (Season 6)- Anna Nicole Smith
The voice and facial expressions Adore pulled out made this a joy to watch.
9. Bendelacreme (All Stars 3)- Paul Lind
I wasn’t very familiar with Paul Lind, but Dela’s intelligent and well-timed humor made me enjoy this impression all the same.
10. The Vivienne (Drag Race UK)- Donald Trump
Such a studied and detailed impression.
Honorable Mentions:
- Tatianna (Season 2)- Britney Spears
- Sharon Needles (Season 4)- Michelle Visage
- Bob the Drag Queen (Season 8)- Uzo Aduba/Carol Channing
- Sasha Velour (Season 9)- Marlena Dietrik
- Trinity the Tuck (All Stars 4)- Caitlyn Jenner
- Shea Coulee (All Stars 5)- Flava Flav
- Jujubee (ALL Stars 5)- Eartha Kitt
- Baga Chipz (Drag Race UK)- Margaret Thatcher
Finally, in this monster blog I wanted to take the opportunity to delve into the lip-sync assassin issue that has emerged this season. Miss Vanessa Vanjie Matteo was our latest lip-sync assassin this episode and starting with Morgan McMichael’s’ appearance last week, I continued to hear criticism from friends and online about what constitutes a lip-sync assassin. It’s been clear to me since the beginning that the producers are just picking queens they know fans like and that have interesting relationships with the queens competing (Morgan being best friends with Mayhem, and Vanjie being Alexis’ drag daughter). However, in an effort to figure out who in fact are the actual lip-sync assassins, I decided to track who had competed in the most lip-syncs prior to the start of All Stars 5, and sort them by the most lip-sync wins. I then organized the list further by each queen’s win percentage. Here is the top 25 of that list:
Interestingly, you can see that Jujubee and Alexis appear, which is further testament to how fierce they both are. If there are in fact only 3 episodes left and we assume we won’t have a lip-sync assassin on the finale (that episode is usually the final 4 recording and performing a song), we will have had 7 total lip-sync assassins this season. The top 7 on this list minus Jujubee are Kameron Michaels, Latrice Royale, Shangela, Trinity the Tuck, Naomi Smalls, Jaida Essence Hall and Peppermint. None have been lip-sync assassins on the show as of yet.
If we look at the queens who actually have been assassins so far, Alyssa Edwards, Monet Exchange and Yvie Oddly all are acceptable statistically. Alyssa Edwards is at number 9 on the list, Monet X Change is at number 12 and Yvie Oddly is at number 14. However, the other two lip-sync assassins who have appeared thus far place very low on the list. Vanjie is number 38 and Morgan is number 42. Their inclusion definitely does not make statistical sense.
One caveat to this list is that All Stars seasons really change the dynamic of lip-syncs. Because on most of the All Stars seasons it was winning queens lip-syncing, you had queens lip-sync multiple times without winning, whereas on a regular season you have to win a lip-sync to stay. Another thing that really effects this list is the lip-sync round robin that was added to finales starting in season 9. That gives any queen who makes the finale at least one additional lip-sync, and 2 additional lip-sync wins to every season winner of those seasons.
If we take out those lip-syncs from finales and All Stars seasons, there are 7 queens who really stick out statically as lip-sync assassins. Only 7 queens have ever survived 3 lip-syncs without being eliminated in regular season Drag Race herstory, and 2 of them are Jujubee and Alexis Mateo! The other 5 are Kameron Michaels, Darienne Lake, Coco Montrese, Rajah O’Hara and Heidi N Closet. None of those 5 have appeared as lip-sync assassins on the show yet which definitely is wrong.
The silver lining is due to her popularity and good relationship with the production company, I would think we will get Kameron Michaels before the end of the season. That said, it is certainly unfortunate that many deserving queens of color like Latrice, Shangela, Peppermint and Coco will likely be overlooked.
With all that, we thank India for bringing the drama this season and look forward to next week! Let the music play!
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