STRESSED. The most recent episode of All Stars 3 had the gall to just go on like last week didn’t happen. I’m still not over BenDeLa taking thousands of dollars from RuPaul and leaving so casually. Like, she already ordered an Uber and it was already waiting for her outside, ready to go. With BenDeLa out and Morgan McMichaels back in, everything we thought about this season has gone right out the window. With Ben gone, the other queens now all have a shot at winning the crowd.
The girls are de-dragging and discussing BenDeLa’s choice when Bebe says that she will not reveal who she was bringing back or who she was getting rid of. The other queens didn’t like it as it breaks tradition, but Bebe’s decision was not going to be changed. Strategically, this makes sense as it might have caused drama (especially now that we’re down to five girls).
Enter RuPaul with Nancy Pelosi (because why not?). Nancy emphasizes why we need to vote and that is only the tip of the iceberg of the civics lesson that this episode is. Nancy leaves and Ru explains the maxi challenge, which is bascially that they will make a movie called My Best Squirrelfriend's Dragsmaid's Wedding Trip that combines characters of other famous movies. The gag is that Morgan McMichaels gets to assign the characters. She came back because of someone’s guilt and is immediately given a position of power that could change the game for anyone.
Morgan assigns the characters how she wants to. Shangela is Actavia, who is a play on Octavia Spencer. Bebe is The Queen of England, Trixie is Sharon Brockovitch, Kennedy is LaLa (based on Emma Stone in La La Land), and Morgan is Beige Swan. The girls head to record their parts for the movies with judge Ross Matthews. Honestly, everyone struggled during this recording except Shangela and Trixie.
On the main stage, Ru enters and introduces the judges, which includes guests Chris Colfer and Garcelle Beauvais. The runway challenge theme was "Red For Filt"h and the girls pretty much nailed it all the way around. Shangela’s dress was inflatable. Inflatable. Trixie went with literal books on her head. Kennedy showed her pageant roots in an extravagant red gown. Morgan returned with a red slutty Mamie Eisenhower look. Bebe’s red body suit and stoned mask gave us EVERYTHING. She did that!
Then came time to premiere the My Best Squirrelfriend's Dragsmaid's Wedding Trip film. I’m convinced that this was all purely for RuPaul’s entertainment. (That, or after last week’s high drama, it just didn’t seem to matter.) The segment and challenge as a whole was boring, especially considering this is the challenge that is supposed to take them into the final four! Make them work hard! I wanna see them sweat because they’re being challenged, not because they have to perform as characters from movies they might have never seen.
Shangela and Trixie are announced as the top two and they will have to send one of the the other three girls home. The girls return to untuck and deliberate over their decision. It seems pretty clear that everyone is gonna send Morgan home. It just makes sense. It would be an absolute travesty to have Morgan in the final four after only competing in two challenges the whole season. Honestly the only way for her to guarantee that she made it would’ve been if she won the challenge.
This lip sync! The song was "Freaky Money" by RuPaul and bounce legend Big Freedia. Honestly, I’d never heard it before, but now I’m obsessed. Shangela wore a fat suit, and boy did it cause quite a stir on the internet. Some loved it, but there were those who thought it was fat shaming and terrible. I’m not the arbiter of feelings, but drag is a provactive art form. The fact is that Trixie isn’t generally a good lip sync performer. I love her to death, but it’s not her strongest talent, so Shangela probably would’ve won either way. Personally, I wasn’t offended, but that doesn’t make the criticisms of her fat suit invalid. I thought it was one of the more entertaining lip syncs in Drag Race history, and the judges agreed. Shangela won the challenge and sent Morgan packing again.
Next week we crown an All Stars winner and I’m very, very, very, very, very anxious about it!
