RuPaul's Drag Race fails to recapture the magic of last season's The Daytona Wind

Traditionally, each episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race begins where the last one ends. The cast mourns the loss of the eliminated queen while simultaneously celebrating the winner. “Metal-gate” eclipses the tradition this week. The queens hastily reminisce about Robin’s departure, but Aura earns no laurels for her challenge win. Instead of celebration, grievances dominate the start of the episode. After a blow-up during Untucked, the first real argument of the season, Mistress, who was not present during Untucked, dredges up the drama surrounding “Metal-gate.” While the spat involves a substantial portion of the cast, including Luxx, Sasha, and Marcia, the lingering resentment centers around Mistress and Malaysia. What felt like an opportunity to clear the air leaves a larger rift between the former friends. As a result, the feud between Mistress and Malaysia is the focus of much of this episode.

The queens remain on edge at the start of a new week. Mistress avoids eye contact with Malaysia as the group gathers in the werkroom. RuPaul relieves the tension when she informs the queens that their next challenge will be a reboot of last season’s acting challenge, The Daytona Wind. Except, this version will be “served sitcom style” instead of season 15's flatulence sound effects that were added in post, unbeknownst to the queens. To be fair, their reactions to last season were actually funnier than The Daytona Wind itself, so removing that element for season 15 does not necessarily bode well for the challenge. Nevertheless, in the first acknowledgment of Aura’s win last week, RuPaul bestows the power to assign roles to Aura.

The werkroom

As the queens look over the parts, it’s clear that most people want the role of Fancy. It could have been a replay of last season’s Saltine-gate, but Aura quickly claims the role for herself. The remaining queens select roles with little overlap. It’s rather drama-free until they realize that Mistress and Malaysia must work together. The drama then deepens as the queens rehearse the sketch, and Aura has trouble connecting to her character. Mistress, sensing an opportunity, offers to switch roles as Luxx and Jax marvel at her manipulation. In an All About Eve moment, Mistress manages to secure the starring role she wanted all along.

The abridged edit leaves little sense of how everyone else acclimates to their roles. Suddenly the queens are in full drag, entering the set to find RuPaul as their director. Despite a love of Disney Channel comedy, Spice does not strike the right tone for RuPaul. Likewise, Jax concentrates more on how her character is described on paper than on bringing her character to life. Finally, Aura’s edit shows her fumbling with her lines. It is clear that some of the contestants flounder, but they are not really getting much help from their director. In contrast to Janicza Bravo’s thoughtful guidance in the All Stars 7 acting challenge, RuPaul gives vague instructions about feeling “it” and unhelpful comments like “you have to make it work.”

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Malaysia and Mistress tickle RuPaul’s funny bone. They take vague directions well and succeed in adlibbing to RuPaul’s delight. In contrast to the established feud between the two, RuPaul believes they should have their own spin-off series. Despite their residual anger, Malaysia and Mistress share an undeniable chemistry. Seeing Mistress’s success leads Aura to second-guess her decision to switch parts. In all honesty, Aura, who proclaimed that she is not funny, probably wouldn’t have done well with either part. The filming day ends with the entrance of an unknown guest star that shocks the queens. They leave the set and wait to see the final product on the main stage.

In past seasons, the queens often discussed how they felt their performances went. It provides important context about their performance in the competition and reveals their state of mind. The short edit doesn’t devote time to this crucial segment. Instead, the single pre-runway werkroom moment is between Malaysia and Mistress, who discuss their pageant experiences and how they are used to a certain amount of reading and shade. Despite being the offended party, Malaysia apologizes to Mistress. They resolve a dispute that felt more like a misunderstanding than anything else. It provides a narrative resolution, but the series would benefit significantly if the producers would allow arguments to play out over more than an episode or two.

The runway

The runway comes early as the queens will watch The Daytona Wind on the main stage with the judges. RuPaul, in a black and blue sequined gown and a questionable nude panel, announces this week’s category as “Puffer, please!” Each queen puts their own spin on the puffer jacket to varying effect.

Loosey starts with a clean and campy homage to Ghostbusters’ Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The look is quintessentially Loosey: Fitted, funny, and referential. Spice calls her look “Spice, Spice Baby,” referencing Vanilla Ice for her winter-inspired look. The mod quilted dress, puffer boots, and fur accents feel like a refreshing departure from her standard mini-skirt and bandeau top. Still, the look remains true to Spice’s doll-like aesthetic. Speaking of mini-skirt, Sasha wows in a graphic yellow and black streetwear-inspired look with an impactful use of puffer material. At the end of the runway, she transforms her jacket into a sort of parachute book bag, which must have been what Salina envisioned for her design challenge look a couple of weeks ago.

Similarly sleek and sexy, Luxx’s look is historic yet futuristic. Her Jackie-O- meets-The Jetsons ensemble is layered with pop culture references, fitting in perfectly with Jean-Paul Gaultier’s costumes from The Fifth Element. Malaysia, like Loosey, keeps her puffer material limited to the traditional jacket. She sets herself apart with the all-encompassing lemon print and exaggerated train of the coat. It’s a fun and polished take on the directive. Aura separates herself by crossing the puffer jacket with a traditional kimono in the dark color palette she often favors. Jax, in a similar color palette to Sasha, comes out dressed in black and yellow. Her honeycomb body suit combined with a striped puffer coat and boots evokes a bumblebee. The drawback of the look is that Jax’s silhouette feels slightly repetitive. She reliably enhances a full-body suit with an element dictated by the runway category.

As if shading Malaysia after their reconciliation, Mistress enters the runway stating that a big girl in a big puffer coat would be a “disaster.” Instead of a coat, Mistress walks the runway in a bright pink and yellow puffer bikini with matching flared chaps and a bucket hat. The branded elastic waistband is the best part of the look and proof of Mistress’s attention to detail. Not saving the best for last, the runway closes with some more disappointing looks. From afar, Anetra looks good. The contrast between her shocking pink and red is eye-catching, but it does not really read as puffer like the other looks. Anetra earns points for her funny voice-over describing the look.

Likewise, Marcia compensates for an average look with characterization. Beyond her freezing performance and body makeup, her crisp white puffer bikini comes off as too simple. Comparing the look to Mistress, Marcia lacks attention to detail. Anetra and Marcia both suffer from a lack of imagination and exaggeration on the runway. In contrast, Salina confuses more than captivated by another convoluted ensemble. It’s not a bad look, but like in past weeks, it seems like what she envisions in her head does not make it to the runway. Playing off the idea of a transparent bookbag, her puffer jacket is see-through and filled with items. As she explains the look, she feels that her train of thought has skipped a track.

The challenge

After each queen gets eight seconds on the runways (Jasmine Kennedie did the math), they watch The Daytona Wind with the judges. The sketch runs eight minutes, which is substantial in season 15's shorter episodes. Half of the joy of season 14 was the way they cut from the sketch to the queens’ reactions—that’s sorely missing here. Without the sound gag, The Daytona Wind blows.

Combining old-fashioned laugh tracks with what RuPaul called a “homage” to the surreal comedy of Tim & Eric feels disjointed and incongruent in a bad way. The sketch may earn a few laughs, but overall the writing is thin at best and lazy at worst. It’s over-reliant on catchphrases and nostalgia for Drag Race’s past seasons. It’s a crutch that’s wearing thin. The writers need to focus more on producing new memorable moments instead. Another issue is that many queens have little to do amid a large cast. By the end of the sketch, it’s difficult to remember what Spice, Luxx, or Sasha did because they spend most of the time as background actors. Despite the quality of the material and editing, the queens perform well. Admittedly, the Danny Trejo surprise cameo as back-from-the-dead Big Daddy earns some unexpected laughs.

The judging

It feels unfair to judge the queens based on the poor material they were provided, but nonetheless, that’s what judges are for. Loosey, Sasha, Luxx, and Salina are safe for doing their best with the lines they were given. The judges critique Spice for being one-note, but this is frustrating when the characters are so one-dimensional from the start. They say she could have been the sketch star, but how? Her character has so little to do. Spice’s valid critique comes from Michelle, who is “bored” of the repetitive runway walk Spice presents. Interestingly, she finally delivers a different look and the judges decide to focus on the walk itself. However, Michelle is not wrong. Spice seems to be a victim of her own stunt casting at this point, which is a shame. She does have a unique charm beneath the canned bits. She might be unable to overcome the judge’s boredom now that Sugar is gone.

The judges praise Malaysia for embodying her character and ability to pull focus. She is firing on all cylinders when Carson dubs her look one of his favorites. Aura earns admiration for her look, but as one of the three leading characters, the judges find her performance underwhelming. She appears doomed when RuPaul elaborates that she was difficult to direct because she came to the set with a “preconceived” idea for her character. Jax gets the opposite criticism. Michelle says her character had no point of view. It’s particularly tough to watch Jax’s critiques because she earnestly accepts them even when they are unfair and vague. A lack of POV might have something to do with the fact that Jax’s character is extremely minor and speaks about three lines. What can the queens really do with such inconsequential characters?

The judges celebrate Mistress’ ability to adlib, which suggests that everyone knows the script’s failings. They also praise her look as “drag with a capital D,” and for portraying body positivity on the runway. Anetra and Marcia are basically judged as a pair. The judges respond to how connected they felt as performers. They continue by focusing on Marcia’s ability to set up jokes and her commitment to character. Regarding looks, the judges enjoy Anetra’s corporeal coat and encourage Marcia to embellish more.

After the judges’ unseen deliberations, RuPaul announces Malaysia, Anetra, and Marcia as safe. After weeks of being at the top without securing a win, Mistress wins and responds with a succinct “Finally.” However, based on performance alone, Marcia was the only contestant who could hold her own on the set of an actual sitcom. However, Drag Race typically awards the broadest performance over the best performance regarding acting challenges. RuPaul declares Spice safe. She makes a defiant, or stupid, decision to walk back in her signature style which perturbs Michelle and makes RuPaul call out “cue the snipper!” Spice promises it will be the last appearance of the walk, but only time will tell. Jax and Aura make up the bottom two.

The lip sync

Jax and Aura are an interesting pairing. Jax is lip-syncing for her second consecutive time, and Aura has fallen from last week’s winner to this week’s bottom two. They are both self-professed lip-syncers who did dance routines for their talent show. There is a momentary disappointment upon realizing they are both encumbered by bulky puffer coasts. The weight of the material feels like it may hinder their performance. As “Sweetest Pie” by Dua Lipa and Megan Thee Stallion starts, Jax and Aura quickly lose their jackets. Aura is the first to ditch the outerwear and reveals a bare chest with two black heart pasties, but there’s something off about the reveal. Perhaps it’s a second too soon, or it’s just that her look feels incomplete for the performance. Jax follows suit and disrobes into her honeycomb body suit.

In terms of actual performance, Jax continues to impress with her brand of dance combined with gymnastics. She has impressive control over her movement. Her flips and spins are so concise and compact. Aura does some light voguing and duck walking. She moves back and forth at the front of the stage, sometimes blocking Jax. Overall, Aura feels like she is on auto-pilot and could be performing to any song, whereas Jax is performing to this specific song. It’s enough to earn Jax the win, sending Aura home right after her first victory. It’s undoubtedly a clever decision from a production standpoint. It lets the remaining queens know that anything can happen.

Stray observations:

• Yay! Back to 90 minute episodes next month!
• Anetra saying “I want metal” when everyone is trying to get the Fancy role is what I need more of from her.
• I love Aura’s energy of taking a role and calling it by the wrong name.
• It felt like the edit went a little wrong when they were discussing Mistress and Malaysia working together. Before Mistress got the role of Fancy, the two didn’t share too many lines.
• My favorite part of the episode was when and how Aura said “I’m not connecting with my line.”
• I’ve felt this way earlier in the season, but is it possible that Aura may have never seen an episode of Drag Race? She seems to be unaware of a lot of references to the show.
• Mistress lines about loving Big Daddy felt like it is supposed to be a reference to Roxy Hart in Chicago, but they messed it up.
• Salina’s character seemed rather entertaining, it would have been good to see more of her. Her line reading of “it wasn’t me,” was one of the sketches best parts.
• Best runway looks go to Loosey, Luxx, and Sasha.
• Did Salina intend for the menstrual look of the hot Cheetos in her panties?
• In an episode filled with references to past Drag Race moments, how did no one do a Blair St. Claire shimmy and shhh on the runway? RuPaul would have probably given them the win.
• I watched a couple Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! sketches and The Daytona Wind was not a homage to them.
• Did Aura not know the words?
• I wonder if Aura and Jax ever did hook up after what Jax said during the reading challenge.