RuPaul's Drag Race: Season Finale
June 1, 2020 2:53 PM - Season 12, Episode 14 - Subscribe
A socially distant season finale from the living rooms of the top three queens. Surprise guests, killer lewks, homemade props, Miss Congeniality, and a facekini all make appearances.
Thanks for listing all of the recaps!
I loved the highlights you listed too. There was so much fun and creativity with the format, from adding in old crowd reaction footage, to Michelle's husband naked. Jaida's self-crowning was fabulous, and I loved how she didn't hide her apartment in her lip sync. She was so riveting it worked.
I love Crystal in all of her unique glory. She is such an original.
I have been thinking about why Gigi falls flat for me, despite how technically proficient and gorgeous she is. She doesn't seem to have a drag character or a point of view. It's all reference with no substance.
Someone on Reddit suggested that Ru wore a mask because she doesn't know how to do her own drag makeup anymore. Thoughts?
posted by apricot at 6:54 AM on June 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
I loved the highlights you listed too. There was so much fun and creativity with the format, from adding in old crowd reaction footage, to Michelle's husband naked. Jaida's self-crowning was fabulous, and I loved how she didn't hide her apartment in her lip sync. She was so riveting it worked.
I love Crystal in all of her unique glory. She is such an original.
I have been thinking about why Gigi falls flat for me, despite how technically proficient and gorgeous she is. She doesn't seem to have a drag character or a point of view. It's all reference with no substance.
Someone on Reddit suggested that Ru wore a mask because she doesn't know how to do her own drag makeup anymore. Thoughts?
posted by apricot at 6:54 AM on June 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
I forgot about Michelle's roots! I loved that she didn't try to hide them.
posted by apricot at 7:19 AM on June 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by apricot at 7:19 AM on June 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
Someone on Reddit suggested that Ru wore a mask because she doesn't know how to do her own drag makeup anymore.
This struck me as the obvious reason. I can't think of why else unless she has a massive rash or something. She probably can't even do her werkroom boy makeup well enough (for her TV standards) anymore. I'm surprised she didn't get Raven in to do her makeup anyway, lockdown or no.
posted by supercres at 9:15 AM on June 2, 2020
This struck me as the obvious reason. I can't think of why else unless she has a massive rash or something. She probably can't even do her werkroom boy makeup well enough (for her TV standards) anymore. I'm surprised she didn't get Raven in to do her makeup anyway, lockdown or no.
posted by supercres at 9:15 AM on June 2, 2020
The mask was a choice (choices) that didn't work well in my opinion. It makes sense that Ru didn't get up in high drag - he hasn't done his own makeup in over a decade, if not longer, but he couldn't do the boy version?
Happy that Jaida won and that Heidi received Miss Congeniality. I feel bad for this season's Queens - it seems like everything that could go wrong did for them.
posted by Julnyes at 12:50 PM on June 2, 2020
Happy that Jaida won and that Heidi received Miss Congeniality. I feel bad for this season's Queens - it seems like everything that could go wrong did for them.
posted by Julnyes at 12:50 PM on June 2, 2020
Automocar - they were often praising SP as being a great drag queen and a shining example of high drag to the point of it it derailing the recaps; "caping for someone" = defending them to the nth degree even when they're in the wrong.
apricot - "It's all reference with no substance." - I saw someone describe Gigi as doing costumes, not fashion, and I think your line nails it. I do admire Gigi but what are they saying with stuff like the Dorothy dress up (which seemed calculated to suck up to Ru, like the MTV drag reference?) And ~gossip~ has that they were almost disqualified for using a studio for the Take On Me shoot, and reshot it in their garage. As Nicky Doll said Jaida got a week less to prep for her Ciara lip sync I think it makes sense as to why she didn't have elaborate props, just that couch - which she made werq!
With Ru's mask, I have no idea. He did his own makeup for years, as detailed in his memoir, so you'd think even a rough job of it and he could whack a filter on. Or is it life without botox? I'm not judging, just speculating. The eyeball thing was so wonderfully odd, I was fully into it.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 2:14 PM on June 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
apricot - "It's all reference with no substance." - I saw someone describe Gigi as doing costumes, not fashion, and I think your line nails it. I do admire Gigi but what are they saying with stuff like the Dorothy dress up (which seemed calculated to suck up to Ru, like the MTV drag reference?) And ~gossip~ has that they were almost disqualified for using a studio for the Take On Me shoot, and reshot it in their garage. As Nicky Doll said Jaida got a week less to prep for her Ciara lip sync I think it makes sense as to why she didn't have elaborate props, just that couch - which she made werq!
With Ru's mask, I have no idea. He did his own makeup for years, as detailed in his memoir, so you'd think even a rough job of it and he could whack a filter on. Or is it life without botox? I'm not judging, just speculating. The eyeball thing was so wonderfully odd, I was fully into it.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 2:14 PM on June 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
I laughed so hard I cried during Crystal's video. Big tears of happy weird joy. Oh she's so good.
I was really pleased with the winner and surprised at how over Gigi I was. I like Gigi! But I didn't want them to win.
posted by urbanlenny at 6:31 PM on June 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
I was really pleased with the winner and surprised at how over Gigi I was. I like Gigi! But I didn't want them to win.
posted by urbanlenny at 6:31 PM on June 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
OK I just caught up, and I join wholeheartedly in the Jaida and Heidi love.
Why Gigi falls flat (they do for me too): I think it's because the most exciting queens are the ones who hear critiques and soul-search and grow and change, and I think Gigi didn't do that. So they did some really striking things early on, and then just plateau'd. It seems to be a pageant queen thing: very controlled, very manufactured, afraid to lose control and really risk ugliness.
Whereas Crystal, in the final lipsync, just seemed to have slid back into her overpainted, unfocused early season schtick-- rather than the place she found later in the series, where she was still messy but had found focus.
(I wish Jackie had replaced the disqualified queen in the finale. She lipsynced Crystal into the dust in the penultimate episode, but it seemed Ru/the producers were determined to keep Crystal.)
Anyway, glad Jaida won; and I do hope to see more of Heidi.
posted by Pallas Athena at 4:51 PM on June 10, 2020
Why Gigi falls flat (they do for me too): I think it's because the most exciting queens are the ones who hear critiques and soul-search and grow and change, and I think Gigi didn't do that. So they did some really striking things early on, and then just plateau'd. It seems to be a pageant queen thing: very controlled, very manufactured, afraid to lose control and really risk ugliness.
Whereas Crystal, in the final lipsync, just seemed to have slid back into her overpainted, unfocused early season schtick-- rather than the place she found later in the series, where she was still messy but had found focus.
(I wish Jackie had replaced the disqualified queen in the finale. She lipsynced Crystal into the dust in the penultimate episode, but it seemed Ru/the producers were determined to keep Crystal.)
Anyway, glad Jaida won; and I do hope to see more of Heidi.
posted by Pallas Athena at 4:51 PM on June 10, 2020
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- DOLLY MFKIN' PARTON!
- Ru leaning into the sheer weirdness of that Goth luchador look; and "brought to you by...Filters."
- The tribute to Jacqueline Wilson
- Dahlia in green
- Michelle's husband's ass
- Jaida's orange ensemble, complete with self-crowning (if you can't crown yourself, how the hell is anyone gonna crown you?)
- Gigi's close-up lip synch
- Crystal's pinata chic, and her I'm Like a Bird video
- Use of crowd reaction footage to end the 3-way lip synch
- Heidi. That's it, that's the bullet point.
Could've done without the "what would you say to baby..." nonsense, and there was definite filler, but overall a strong end to a strong season.
(Note: I've not read the T&L recap, because I got sick of their caping for S***** P** but I know I'm bound to read it eventually so added it. I think Bobby Hankinson's Towleroad recaps have been my overall faves, along with Vulture and Matt Roger's 60 second videos on twitter)
posted by Gin and Broadband at 3:03 PM on June 1, 2020 [2 favorites]