RuPaul’s Drag Race Recap S16E9: Investing in a Goth IRA

“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Morphine tearfully admits in a confessional. It’s one of the first sentences the audience hears this episode, and the theatrics of another competitor going home and it weighing heavily on the Queen who sent her home are starting to grow more prominent every week. It’s a real reason to keep watching Drag Race, even with 400 different iterations of the series now on full display across the globe. A quick couch discussion about the current standings and the future of the season leads to the realization, for at least Dawn, that every week is crucial now. When the competition gets dwindled down to a top eight, everyone remaining has performed pretty high. 

The mini-challenge finds the Queens doing quick drag that sees everyone doing spit-takes. “Welcome to the comedy stylings of Nymphia Wind,” Ru muses as the Queen walks up to do hers, making me laugh harder than I did at any point during Nymphia’s snatch game. Dawn’s spit-take looked like someone gut-punched her, her torso looking as if it was reacting to Plane physically taking the competition to the next level. Everyone does fine with the challenge, but Nymphia’s almost-genuine spit-take allowed her to win the mini-challenge. Ru then admits the series has changed to RuPaul’s Project Runway as the Queens get ready for the third design challenge of the season, much to the chagrin of Mhi’ya, who hilariously loses jewelry in a confessional and blames it on frustration. I don’t blame her! While I understand that perhaps the competitors should be ready for a design challenge, but multiple design challenges? You have to come prepared for any possibility on Drag Race, apparently!

When the Queens get to work, Sapphira’s confessional about Q and Nymphia buddying up and portraying them in a comically villainous way about their confidence towards the design challenge made me laugh out loud. Sapphira has a way of being fierce, hilarious, and having an emotional intelligence that makes her someone to watch out for. As much as I like Nymphia, it’s getting tiresome watching her run around and bother the others while they attempt to get ready. It’s starting to get on Morphine’s nerves, too, who admits via confessional that she now ignores Nymphia’s antics. Plasma brings up Plane’s Immunity Potion, not directly asking her for it, but certainly reminding her drag sister that she wouldn’t mind it being used on her. Plasma seems nervous already for the new design challenge, but I would be nervous, too!

Dawn brings up to Plasma her previous mention of wanting to break away from her known schtick while also showcasing versatility, so Plasma decides to not stay on the same path where she dresses up like your favorite grandmother and sings a show tune. It’s an admirable decision, and I’m mostly impressed with how Dawn approached the subject with Plasma. She wasn’t rude, but brought it up with such sincerity that it struck Plasma enough to take it into consideration, even admitting that Dawn was right. Eventually, the stress starts getting to Plasma and Sapphira comes over for emotional support, remaining everyone’s favorite. Sapphira then moves on to helping Mhi’ya construct her look, effectively prancing around the Werkroom supporting her fellow sisters in any way she can. Everyone continues to get ready for the goth runway before we get to the main stage, where Kaia Gerber is the guest judge this week. 

A quick rundown of the runway:

• Plane Jane’s look is fine, but it feels like there was an opportunity to bring a certain wow factor to this outfit but never quite achieves that. The makeup is great!
• Mhi’ya dress looks great on her, thanks to Sapphira, but I actually hate the the front of the dress being leather!
• Dawn brings the elf ears back and looks fantastic, the outfit is beautiful and her makeup is fabulous
• Something about Morphine’s look doesn’t exactly click for me but the makeup is insane, she’s mugged up every time she hits the runway
• Plasma’s look has too much going on and the wig is lifeless
• Sapphira looks incredible, as always, the makeup looks so good and the gown looks incredible
• Nymphia once again brings fashion to the runway in a way that probably makes Raja so proud
• Q excels at the creation of looks in a way that puts her on a different level

Plane waits another week on her Immunity Potion before Ru announces everyone will be critiqued this week. Everyone stays on stage! Kaia Gerber is a fun guest judge, she seems to really love the show and it comes across in all of her critiques. After everyone gets their critiques for the runway, Q is declared the winner while Plasma and Mhi’ya find themselves in the bottom.

It feels weird to watch a Queen flail desperately around the stage as they hope for a lip sync win, and that’s exactly what it’s like watching Plasma this week. The song choice is the Wednesday Dance Tiktok Version of Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary,” and I rolled my eyes even typing that sentence. After Mhi’ya takes her wig off and releases black rose petals, she performs a double back handspring and Q screams from the background my exact thoughts: “Not in a gown, bitch!” Mhi’ya is such a performer that it’s difficult to imagine what to do against someone who starts doing flips in a gown with a mermaid cut at the bottom in a lip sync when you’re up against them fighting for your safety in a competition. Plasma certainly wasn’t terrible, but it wouldn’t have made sense for her to stay this week after this display from Mhi’ya. My piece of advice for Mhi’ya would just be to keep the wig on, even if you’re doing a petal reveal, especially if you have nothing underneath.

Photo: MTV