HONEYYYYY. I love Drag Race, lord knows I do, but I could have waited another week before the latest episode "Pop Art Ball." We are at that point in the season where every single elimination is heartbreaking. With Chi Chi eliminated last week, the workroom lost a bit of sparkle, but we have to keep this race going. Reality starts to set in, and at this point, the eliminations are not gonna be fair. Truthfully they never really were, but the bandage has been ripped off and the girls have to recalibrate. Kennedy is not here at all for universal system of elimination and made that clear when she eliminated Milk. Fairness is gone. It’s just not realistic at this point.
The girls return to the workroom ready to start the next challenge. Enter Ru in a suit that is perfectly tailored but with a blonde disheveled Party City wig that had everyone confused. Ru announces that this week will be a Andy Warhol-themed challenge and gets the girls started on the mini challenge right away. The girls have 15 minutes to get into quick drag and pose for a polaroid that will be transformed into pop art. This was a very random mini challenge since we hadn’t had one in weeks, but drag queens in panic always makes for exciting television. The girls get in their gigs and pose quickly for their photos. No one really bombed this mini challenge but Aja definitely aced it, giving us Old Hollywood starlet with just a stole and a touch of makeup. Aja wins the mini challenge, two thousand dollars, and a year's worth of hamburgers from Hamburger Mary’s (the humor of which is not lost on me).
Ru goes on to explain the main challenge: an Andy Warhol ball. The queens must create two runway looks from scratch. The first would be a personalized, branded soup can to walk down the runway in, and literally nothing is more funny than the idea of queens who spend so much on looks, pads, corsets, and everything else having to wear a literal barrel down the runway. The second part of the challenge is to create a disco look inspired by Studio 54. And with their instructions the queens got to work.
Shangela was immediately nervous about this as she is not known for her sewing skills (even though she’s been on this show twice before and had literally years to figure it out before this season began). The girls start brainstorming and getting their ideas together for their personalized soup cans. Aja decides to do a candy soup because she thinks she’s really sweet. I don’t necessarily disagree—but I certainly think that she’s sweet in a Sour Patch Kid kinda way. Bebe decides to take cues from a traditional African spicy peanut soup called Achoo and the jokes kind of wrote themselves.
Trixie is excited about this challenge and after that mess last week, she really needs to pull off something good. In an act of solidarity, she helped Shangela attempt to sew her outfit because she was Mayor of Struggle City with that sewing machine.
Now the drama! As the girls were painting, they got into a bit of cat fight over the elimination process moving forward. Mainly BenDeLa, because as the one who has been doing the best, she’s got the biggest target on her back. Kennedy was over this conversation because it was, like, the 9th time they’ve had it in only five episodes. She kinda snapped and got the girls together. It was very clear she felt confident about her performance in this challenge.
The girls took the runway and each soupwalk came with a personalized voice over commercial of sorts. (This was hilarious all around just because it was so silly.) Trixie’s soup can stood out from the pack. She treated her soup commercial like it was a commercial for a prescription medication and every joke landed. Shangela showed fairly strong with her Halleloo soup, and Aja’s sweet candy soup was a bit salty and fell flat.
For the second part of the challenge the girls gave their best Studio 54 looks. Having scrapped her failed sewing look, Shangela opted for tinsel and three vinyls down the front of her body. This was a very 45 minute drag ensemble but it actually kind of worked! Trixie stunned in a pink jumpsuit and Bebe gave you Diana Ross glamour. Kennedy played it on the safe side with one sleeve bodysuit but it was so '70s-appropriate that she nailed it. BenDeLa managed to do the most and least at the same time (it was weird). Aja dressed for the wrong, decade but her '60s look was super cute.
In kind of a surprise, the judges gagged over Bebe’s everything and it landed her in the top two with Trixie. The judges placed Aja and Shangela in the bottom and, honestly, it was the fairest bottom two of the season. The girls returned to untuck and deliberate over who is going home. Things got a bit emotional as Aja knew it was probably her time to go. Shangela seemed to feel fairly safe because well she saved Trixie last week and she and Bebe get along fairly well. She has also been quite the competitor this season as a whole.
The girls lip sync to Diana Ross’ "The Boss." It was pretty boring, but it looked like Trixie was trying to throw it. Seriously, she seemed to be lip syncing to another song that was playing in her head. Bebe wins the challenge and rightfully sends home Aja.
That’s not all though! GEARLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! Next week someone is coming back! Chad Michaels and Alaska walk on to the runway in their Handmaid’s Tale outfits and bring out three queens dressed the same way. Which three? We don’t know. What it means? We don’t know. Are we gagged? ABSOLUTELY. The episode ends with a Ru-veal of the season 10 queens and next Thursday can't get here fast enough!!
