RuPaul's Drag Race recap: Reunited and it feels so meh

Reunion episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race can feel like filler. The bridge the rehash the frenzy of competition and build up the impending finale. It can also be a time of reflection and resolution. It is the first time the entire cast comes together after seeing themselves on screen. As a recap of the lengthy season, an attempt at catharsis, and a commercial for the eventual crowning, reunion episodes can feel a little everything, everywhere all at once. Ironically, after all the complaints about shortened early episodes, the reunion felt a little overlong and overstuffed. In part, giving each queen of the franchise’s largest cast a chance to shine is generous, but the decision for the reunion to fill two primetime hours of programming is over-indulgent.

A collection of connected segments, or what Sugar and Spice might call “canned bits,” form the foundation of the episode. From nostalgic highlight clip packages to exploring the twins, eras, gates, and celebrity guests of the season, the reunion strains to cover a lot of material. The episode commences with each queen reestablishing herself with a new look and a re-entrance line. Considering that most queens have already supplied an entrance and exit line, most of these feel forced and unimaginative with the exception of Malaysia, Poppy, and Marcia. The looks fare better with queens like Salina, in a nod to To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, Poppy, paying tribute to Seaon 1 queen Rebecca Glasscock, and Sugar and Spice’s salute to The Lizzie McGuire Movie, reference pop culture, or queens like Mistress, Anetra, Sasha, and Malysia embracing their signature looks. Fashion remains the focus as the queens toot and boot past looks before Salina wins the Golden Boot for the year’s worst look. It’s ironic since Salina accepts the award in one fo the night’s greatest looks. The best fashion moments came with the reverence the queens paid to Irene’s mostly unused collection of looks and the way Mistress responded to a critique by Robin. It was one of few moments in which Mistress appears to be able to dish it out but unable to take it back.

In addition to some friendly, or perhaps unfriendly tooting and booting, the queens return to the library for some reading. Some of the unused reads from the original challenge make a strong argument for reediting the earlier episodes to a standard runtime. RuPaul offers the queens who did not get a chance to read the fresh opportunity. While Loosey almost wins for a second time comparing Mistress kitten heels with her life expectancy, Poppy shows that her dark comedy would have been a welcome addition to the reading challenge. More importantly, the queens take the opportunity to address an exponential problem with RuPaul’s Drag Race, fans behavior on social media. As if attempting to read queens online, the tackle the issue of social media, its backlash, and self-censorship. It cannot be ignored that these backlashes often target queens outside of identifies like cis, white, and slim. It is clear from the correlation between two of the season’s most outspoken and opinionated queens, Mistress and Luxx, who endure some of the most vicious online attacks. Luxx deals with hate via the block button, which RuPaul echoes with a variation on his patented maxim “unless they’re paying your bills, pay them bitches no mind.”

Drama was expected with the growing tensions between Loosey, Luxx, and Mistress. It appears to be a powder keg that never really goes off. Their disputes and disagreements are scattered throughout the episode without real resolution. Perhaps all three will appear on All Stars together with Daya Betty and Jasmine Kennedie soon. RuPaul dives into Bump-gate, in which Loosey finally yeilds to Luxx, and Heaven-gate, which Loosey suggests was complicated by Mistress’ insertion into her face-off with Luxx, but most of the drama again centers on the question of who should go home and why. Luxx and Loosey fail to come to a agreement on the intention and premediationat of Luxx’s extended monolgoue, but there is a sense of consensus on who each feels about the situation. Luxx feels she simply spoke her mind freely and Loosey admits that it hurt her feelings and felt unnecessary. There is an interesting moment in which Loosey and Luxx start talking at the same time. It suggests that perhaps they sometimes rub each other the wrong way because they are very similar: competitive, confident, and talented. The tension between Loosey and Mistress is even less resolved. Unlike Loosey and Luxx, the most interesting moment between Loosey and Mistress happened off screen. Irene brings up a phone call she had with Mistress. Its a convoluted game of telephone, literally, involving a shady comment about filler. RuPaul strangely doesn’t press the moment when it feels like Mistress may be caught in a lie. It is a curious moment, in which Mistress seems oddly fixated on Loosey, from Tic Tac Chit Chats with RuPaul to phone calls with Irene.

Aside from battling queens, the reunion also spotlights the battle between queens and state legislatures. This season proclaims that drag is protest and political. The episode uses the homes to several queens to illustrate a polarized political landscape from the oppression exhibited in Aura’s home of Tennessee to the more accepting Connecticut, home to Amethyst, Jaxx, Loosey, and Robin. While it has been addressed earlier in the season, it was powerful to hear the first-hand concerns of Aura, a Nashville-based queen, and Sasha, a trans queen, who are most impacted by these discriminatory laws. While giving a face to these issues, the episode also imprints that this is a collective issue and an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. It is great to see the show take a more political active stance and reinforce the words of Desmond Tutu that “if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chose the side of the oppressor.” They also spotlight the work of the ACLU’s Drag Defense Fund as an avenue of action.

As a conclusion to the reunion and a prologue for the finale, RuPaul takes a moment to celebrate the Top 4 of Anetra, Luxx, Mistress, and Sasha. Focusing on a single win of each contestant, RuPaul magnifies each’s uniqueness, as well as their charisma, nerve, and talent. The Top 4 remains a fascinating contrast. Anetra and Sasha, relatively quiet during the reunion, remain cool, calm, and collected, while Luxx and Mistress seem to be the center of drama and most of the season’s gates. It’s a divide that may hint at the eventual top two. They are four great queens, but two of them seem like ideal additions for a future All Stars season. What happens next will have to wait for next week’s finale.

Stray observations:

• Best look of the night: Salina’s recreation of Chi Chi Rodriguez’s gown was exquisite and instantly recognizable.
• Funniest of the night: Princess Poppy demonstrates the ability to know when to insert a joke. She wasn’t as vocal as some other queens, but nearly everything Poppy said earned a laugh. From her look and entrance line, to her reads, Poppy left an impression greater than her time on the show.
• Cringiest moment(s) of the night: Mistress possibly getting caught in a lie about what Loosey may or may not have said about Irene. Salina’s reaction to Irene’s read about her accent.
• Best line of the night: Loosey yelling “I was hacked,” about her blame the edit comments.
• Best plug of the night: The reunion plugged the Vegas show as usual and an upcoming tome about the oral history of RuPaul’s Drag Race, but the best plug was for the ACLU’s Drag Defense Fund.
• Winner of the night: Loosey. If the reunion is a challenge, Loosey is the winner. She was literally in the hot seat on stage and she managed to handle herself well. She owned up to some of her own mistakes, expressed her feelings authentically, and managed to toe the line of not blaming the edit while nodding to the fact that she got a kind of bad edit.
• It has been a journey witnessing Asaf Goren’s hair journey this season.
• It was a little awkward when Aura asked if Poppy was still interested followed by her marriage announcement. (or maybe she’s open).
• Someone should document the search spike for Monica Monroe after everyone’s favorite drag queen’s favorite drag queen revealed her favorite drag queen.