RuPaul's Drag Race: And the Rest Is Drag

May 19, 2015 3:59 PM - Season 7, Episode 12

After Katya leaves to go Dumpster diving, the final four learn choreography and record footage for the video of RuPaul's single "Born Naked" with the twist that the one who does not make the top three will have her contribution tossed out; there are malfunctions aplenty. Candis Cayne and Mathu Anderson show up to act horrified. The older and younger contestants snipe at one another. There are tugged heartstrings and sob stories as Ru takes the queens individually to "lunch" then (at the judging) holds up pictures of each of them as little boys. There is a four-way lip-sync. Ru sashays a queen.

...after probably picking a name out of a hat. Next week: clip show.

posted by psoas (11 comments total)

I just missed Katya so much. I normally suffer through the video challenge but this one actually gave me a peek into Kennedy's appeal. She's a music video girl and was obviously the best during the green screen session.

Have they always done "best drag" this late in the game? I loved it! The runway looks were very representative of the queens. I loved the wide shot during the lip sync where you could see all of them beside each other! The scale of Pearl's hair worked for me but the weird fitting brassiere ruined the "flat chest with flawless contour" look she's killed all season. Violet was definitely attempting to channel Raja's finale/winning look and I'm not mad about it. Ginger's dress was classic without being boring. While I loved Kennedy's dress, I am a totally confused as to why she would wear something that prevented movement when 1) she knew she'd be lip syncing and 2) she's competing against non-dancers??

But mostly... I missed Katya. I don't care who wins. I just want to see Katya get Miss Congeniality!
posted by Aunt Maude at 4:25 PM on May 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

I assume at this point that Pearl has compromising photos of someone.
posted by duffell at 5:21 PM on May 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Well, it's not Violet, her chachki leaked all over the net already, and she's not sorry.

I don't really care who wins. Pearl, I guess? This season's been a pretty big disappointment for me.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 7:14 PM on May 19, 2015

This episode's Untucked did not feature any backstage footage with Kennedy post-elimination, which was strange. In any case, I, too, thought her dancing and final look should have carried her to the final, but this seems to be a season where up is down and down is up. Case in point: Editing would have us believe that the Bitter Old Lady Brigade's arguments as to why the Pretty Girls shouldn't win docked them, whereas when Alaska did just that in her why-I-should-win, she was praised for it. (Ru's instructions were to say "why should you and not your competitors be crowned America's Next Drag Superstar," which I would argue is, at the very least, ambiguous with regard to going negative on the other queens.)

But my heart really isn't in it anymore after losing Katya. I missed her terribly.
posted by joan cusack the second at 8:23 PM on May 19, 2015 [3 favorites]

For now, just wanna say that the zoom-in on Pearl's unnamed traumatic childhood past made me suuuu per fucking uncomfortable, including Ru's kinda hamfisted encouragement when she brought out the childhood pictures.

Oh, also, Violet is pretty fierce as a lipsyncer but she does that annoying Serena Cha Cha thing where she opens her mouth too wide.
posted by en forme de poire at 11:12 PM on May 19, 2015

I am fully unimpressed by Pearl now- I was never super enthused about Kennedy, but her dancing and best drag this episode should have at least kept her in the final above Pearl. And I can't believe Michelle clocked Violet for "running out of clothes" when Pearl walks out there in a badly fitted hand-me-down from the Blonde Ambition tour, a 1920s dressing gown, and a fright wig. I guess they didn't want two pageant girls in the final, but if that's the case, why eliminate Katya? I know a comedy queen won last year, but at least put her in the final!


PEARL SMASH! is a pretty good read, though
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:03 AM on May 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm new to these threads so I'm not sure if this is the best place to share this. Please let me know if I'm being a jerk! I was very sad there wouldn't be a Rugrets today but I never should have feared. Here's a delightful little short, and a new character, from Mom!
posted by Aunt Maude at 8:05 AM on May 20, 2015 [6 favorites]

When they previewed the "did you run out of clothes?" segment, I was sure it was for Pearl, whose look was just tragic. I think that Pearl has been told that she's the winner, and has acted accordingly. I think she decided to coast until she left the workroom and was told that she was to have a redemption arc, but then decided that just smirking a little less obviously and making vague references to "things that happened" in her past would become a storyline. It makes me somewhat angry, the fact that they're alluding to something horrible without any details, not because I want to hear them, but because, if it's a horror show, don't bring it up in this context, or if you will, give it the attention its due. As it stands, I believe Pearl is 100% making up some terrible thing in the past, because that carries a story, doesn't it? The fake crying at the end with no tears and Ru saying, "Now you're a STAR!" was so off-putting, I disliked Ru for the first time in my life.
posted by xingcat at 11:07 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Wow, I totally read that differently - my read was that Pearl was actually referring to something really serious, like abuse, and so she was only comfortable talking around it in a kind of circular way. I agree that the way Ru handled it came off as either way too flippant (if it was something really serious) or disingenuous (if it wasn't).
posted by en forme de poire at 12:48 PM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Aunt Maude, I love Katya's resilience. She put herself in the dumpster last week, now she's climbing back out. She really is a marvel, unlike this blah season.
posted by argybarg at 10:14 PM on May 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

The problem with this show is that they dip into "traumatic experiences," but only as some limited "these people survived through tough times, and now they're fabulous!" schtick. I don't expect, or hope for, "A Special Episode" of Drag Race, but when the difficult-to-tragic personal stories are used this way, they do feel like a glimpse of something serious for the sake of "grounding" the show, not to really address the background issues. An Ru's presentation of it all doesn't help.

Ditto #TeamKatya, ditto how the hell did Pearl survive that episode. Perhaps the Powers That Be felt that it would be "too cruel" to cut her after she opened up about being the survivor of childhood traumas. Still, I would have put Violet in the bottom two, because I wasn't wowed by her final look, and she still comes off as a pompous, cocky child. Well made up, but still pompous, and lacking a shred of humility.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:52 PM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]