In a time before The Hunger Games, in an age before #JLaw, out of the ruins, out from the wreckage, Tina Turner emerged to tell us: we don’t need another hero. As she strutted in her chain-mail bustier and fire hazard wig, strangely sweatless beneath the burning Australian sun, we knew she was right when she said all we really wanted, apart from Mel Gibson in leather pants, was life beyond the Thunderdome. Now that Tina is resting her weaves in Switzerland we have RuPaul to teach us that yes, raggedy man, Tina’s promise is true: there is life beyond the Thunderdome.
After exiling them to Tucson and other such places, Ru brought back not one but all seven of the eliminated queens to fight it out for a place in the final seven. Only one queen, who would be literally tied to the girl who sent her home, would make it through to the next fight. Hunger Games? Schmunger Games. The outcasts were stapled, superglued or corseted to the top remaining girls and then forced to perform as conjoined drag twins. Pearl won, and her staple sister partner Trixie Mattel got to return to the competition from exile. The elimination round was so fierce that in the final battle Ginger Minj cut off her own sister’s breasts so she could dance more freely and snatch victory. Once again power bottom Jaidynn Diore Fierce was forced to lip-synch for her life but this time, tied to Tempest DuJour, she couldn’t bust a move and had to sashay away.
Dom: Er. Wow. Where did that come from? Was it a special 4/20 episode for all the stoners? That is probably one of my most favourite episodes ever. I’m saying this slowly. There was a conjoined drag queen dance battle. #ConjoinedDragQueenDanceBattle is now my favourite hashtag. Ginger, once again, proved she’s the top even when she was on the bottom. I love her.
Megan: Leave it to RuPaul to come up with a twist that saves the tired old cliche of bringing one eliminated contestant back to the race! And leave it to Kennedy Davenport to try to set everyone else up to fail so that she could bring Jasmine Masters back to the competition. But it was fantastic to see Trixie Pearl’d up, and Pearl up her game and act like something other than a stoner onstage.
But leave it to Ginger to get on stage with a pair of scissors to cut herself out of that horrible attached-boob costume, perform Tiffany first without a shirt and then without a wig, and still be hilarious and adorable.
Dom: Yes, that was a big mistake on Kennedy’s part and showed a lack of cunning that will be punished in the Thunderdome. It wasn’t a time to play favourites. She landed Ginger with the Sasha, assuming she was the loser to drag Ginger down. But Sasha proved an amazing dance partner. Pearl was radiant, again, she has really come out of her shell (sorry). And I am really happy that Trixie is back.
Megan: Oh, man, you have to hope Pearl didn’t choose that name and adopt the quiet persona just so someone would make that joke? I feel like Miss Fame and her inability to tell a question about her headache from a blowjob joke set-up.
You have to wonder why Trixie, of all people, was waiting until this episode to explain the origin of her name! Making her drag name the epithet his abusive stepfather used to mock him before the state removed him from his parents’ custody takes some kind of ovaries.
Dom: Ah yes. I wanted to know what you thought of DQB (drag queen backstory) this week. I guess Trixie didn’t get a chance to tell us before. They all do in the end. Also we got more of Tempest’s origin (sounds like a Marvel movie) and her parents attempts at reparative therapy. Part of me loves it and thinks it’s encouraging for “the kids” (not all of whom live in New York and get to blog with their friends on gay stuff for pay). But part of me – a large part – winces. Is your family trauma really a throwaway line? I can’t imagine Ru sharing hers that way. Jeez, it is all very Hunger Games innit?
Megan: I think Tempest is exactly that earnest of a person: did you see how she was comforting Jaidynn during the final judging, and went all in on her idea, even though there was no way they could’ve gotten close in one episode? She would’ve been a contender for Miss Congeniality had she been around longer, and she probably did tell them about being stuck in conversion therapy because she wants kids to know that it can get better.
And Ru always encourages it … and asks the final three about any of their sad backstory stuff in the final lunch. I feel like she’s very aware of the power of representation, and representation in glamour (or at least a few sequins).
Dom: Well Drag Race did get better (and it generally does, kids). That was my fave episode so far. I fast-forwarded through a Nasty Pig ad just to find out what happened. Can’t say better than that.
Best lines
Ginger: I need to take a moment to process my feelings before I go all Yosemite Sam and explode.
Trixie: I think I was Mimi Imfurst, and now I’m Mimi Imsecondchance.
RuPaul: The bitch you threw under the bus might just be the one driving the Greyhound next time your ass needs a ride.
Rue: Jaidyne Dior Fierce your disco inferno did not set the judges’ pussies on fire.
