Summary.

This week the dreaded Makeover challenge has arrived, but due to Covid restrictions, the queens will be making each other over. They are paired up by a psychic medium, and are asked to turn their partner into their drag doppelganger! Utica Queen and Symone came out triumphant from the challenge, but lip syncing for their life we had Olivia Lux and Denali. In the end Oliva shantayed and sadly, Denali sashayed away back to Chicago.

Psychic Pairings w/ Char Margolis!

We begin the episode with Ru introducing the queens to his go-to psychic medium: Char Margolis! I am enough of a Drag Race fan to listen to RuPaul and Michelle Visage’s podcast What’s The Tee? and they had Ms.Margolis on Episode 224. They have quite a long history working together through the years, and it was a pleasant surprise seeing her.

Walk Walk, Strut Strut

This challenge is deceptively complicated, because it is not a straight-forward makeover. It is an impersonation challenge, with a runway element, an acting edge, and a branding aspect. Thus the queens must practice each other’s runway walk and teach each other what their vibe is to pull this off.

Highlights for me had to be Ru’s conversation with Rose about her ‘flourishes’ and her signature runway spins (see: literally just a minute of Rose spinning around on Drag Race meme). As a young queer who wasn’t encouraged to express myself with hand movement, my favourite thing on queens are those hand flourishes. If ever you crave a relaxing study of the best flourishes in Drag Race Herstory, I recommend taking a look at AS1 winner Chad Michaels… just doing the most in the best way.

Digressing, Symone teaching Utica how the [pejorative] to stomp a runway was sweet television. The ways of the Ebony Enchantress are elusive and powerful, so to watch Utica take to them so naturally was refreshing! Especially after serving a healthy dose of high-powered camp in her walks, this was a welcomed variety for fans of Utica.

I know she was in the bottom for this, but I actually believe Denali’s mug looked the best it ever looked. I thought Olivia did a beautiful job and the judges were being rather harsh in their critique. 

Lastly, I thought Kandy Muse did an awesome job impersonating Gottmik, her walk and moans were giving me life, and Gottmik did a remarkable job transforming her. For more artistry from Gottmik, check out her amazing YouTube tutorials, where at the moment she is recreating looks from her run on the show. It’s fierce.

Category Is… Drag Doppelgänger!

This week, on this recap, if you’re not in the top, you’re in the bottom.

Let’s start with Symone, dressing Utica Queen in her B*A*P*S inspired runway. In all honesty, this is not a film I was familiar with until watching the trailer, it stars Halle Barry and a lot of hot fashions, so I should be watching it soon. The outfit Utica wore was by Oscar Utiérre and that sculptural hair creation (featured in the trailer!) was by Malcolm Marquez. Symone did a IG Photoshoot with AS5 crowned winner Shea Coulee, serving big winner energy.

Utica’s Love The Skin You’re In Outfit on Symone was a beautiful artistic piece expressing that even though our skin can be a limiting factor in our lives, we remain beautiful inside. Utica goes in-depth about the message on Symone’s Behind The Scene Footage on her YouTube channel, which I thoroughly recommend of course.

Last up! Gottmik’s look on Kandy Muse. and vice versa, there were both such strong contenders on the runway. Kandy embodied Gottmik especially well on the runway with her walk, LA moans and easy model poses.

Lowlights of the Week

Four our lowlights we have the other half of the runway. Tina Burner as Rose, and Rose as Tina Burner, were hard no’s for me. Yes they embodied each other’s attitude and signature moves quite well, but those outfits were just not up to par with others on the runway. 

My most fervent lowlight has to go Denali’s look on Olivia Lux however. We see episode after episode how beautiful Olivia looks, and Denali’s make-up skills did not transfer seamlessly to Olivia’s canvas unfortunately. Denali and Olivia recently reunited for a Stephen King’s The Shining cosplay that you can see on their IG. It’s a cute recreation, 

Lip Sync… For Your Lifeee!

The lip sync song this week was Shackles (Praise You) by Mary Mary, which Drag Race superfans will know is a repeat song from S1 Shannel v Rebecca Glasscock where we had this amazing self-nomination to be eliminated from Shannel. Landing in the bottom were Olivia Lux and Denali, with Denali having to sashay away and Olivia being given another fighting chance. 

If you feel like being entertained, please support Denali as she ice-skates to a dance mix of Shackles, in a frozen lake, among mountains… in Colorado.

Werkroom Moment of Grace!

Gottmik continues to open up about her transition and explains how difficult it was to be a feminine trans man to begin with, and how that kept her from transitioning. As we get more trans representation in the Drag Race canon, conversations like these open doors to thousands of people everywhere and allow them to assess their own relationship with gender, with femininity and masculinity. Gottmik’s presence remains a very powerful one in the season, and her vulnerability in telling her story is one more thing to root for.

Quote of the Week – 

“First and foremost, I wanna say that I didn’t know Tina Burner owned flames in the colour orange, red and yellow. You would never see Tina walk down the runway looking like a ho like this, looking flawless, number one.

And number two, me and Gottmik had the hardest challenge in this entire group, ‘cause I’m big, she’s little, and yet we still made it work. All these bitches have the same size. So there’s no excuse why they should look as weak, and Olivia and Denali seem like the weakest out of everyone on the stage. 

Just my opinion.”

— Kandy Muse reading Denali to filth for saying she should go home, reading Tina on the way, and showing RuPaul why she should be in as many episodes as possible.

Unseen Lewk of the Week! – 

Our resident unseen look queen Kahmora Hall achieves a Beautiful Silver Doppelgänger moment, and causing double trouble we have Elliott with Two Ts and Joey Jay recreating the makeover challenge with Elliott’s drag; very fierce indeed.