BenDeLaChrist has effectively reset RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season 3. For the first time all season, the crown is up for grabs. Everything up to this point has been dress rehearsal. And the queens know it. Without their moral compass weighing them down, they prepare for war. Whether it’s plotting against a competitor or focusing on their craft, the top 5 are done playing.
With a tip of Ru’s hat to Drag Race’s nationwide audience, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stops by the workroom to get out the vote. Because his name is RuPaul and he’s here to recruit you.
MAXI-CHALLENGE
My Best Squirrelfriend’s Dragsmaids Wedding Trip is a mashup of a Meryl Streep drama and an Amy Schumer comedy. The queens portray Oscar-worthy characters in a raunchy girl comedy. For the drama drama drama, Morgan is allowed to cast the film. Bebe gets the Queen. She thinks Morgan is calling her old. Shangela talks her way into Actavia (an ode to Octavia Spencer roles). Morgan takes Beige Swan, ensuring a Trixie/Kennedy battle for La La (not to be confused with Lala). When Trixie is cast as Sharon Frockavich, she sees Morgan’s machinations. Watch out, Trixie, she’s coming for you.
Ross Matthews directs this week’s oeuvre. Shangela is as good as you’d expect. Bebe lives her day-to-day life as The Queen so it’s shocking to see her botch the role. In an unexpected turn of events, Trixie soars while Kennedy plummets. If anything, Morgan may have simply cost Trixie the win (come on, you know she would have decimated as La La). But it’s a moot point because Morgan sucks all of the air out of the room. #AjaWasRobbed.
As the girls paint, Brian Firkus makes an appearance. Stripping away the queen, he shares his difficulties appearing aloof. I can totally relate. A big part of the reason I love Trixie is the man inside. But Morgan isn’t buying it. As the mayor of WeHo, she’s heard all of the rumors about Trixie. Bebe opens the door for Shangela to share some essential honesty: girl, you bougie. Bebe. Doesn’t. Understand. Why. Shangela. Thinks. She’s. Uptight. Morgan tries to prove how inclusive she is with her policy of pulling any Ru girl in her audience onstage, whether they want to or not. Please. She’s not fooling anyone with that passive-aggressive act.
RUNWAY
Michelle Visage and Ross Matthews are joined by guest judges Garcelle Beauvais and Chris Colfer. The runway theme is Red For Filth. Two queens channel Lady Gaga:
Bebe in couture bondage and Shangela in inflatable spikes. Kennedy is pageant. Morgan McMichaels is Scottish. And Trixie has books on the brain.
My Best Squirrelfriend’s Dragsmaids Wedding Trip is a mess of fart jokes and more fart jokes. Editing wasn’t able to save anyone’s performance. Kennedy and Bebe stink and one of them will be in the bottom with Morgan. Shangela and Trixie should provide a fierce lip-sync.
Top two: Shangela and Trixie Mattel
Bottom three: Bebe Zahara Benet, Kennedy Davenport and Morgan McMichaels
Kennedy and Morgan plunge headlong into survival mode. Bebe stays out of the fray. She doesn’t consider herself up for elimination and she doesn’t want to remind anyone that she is. Chi Chi DeVayne didn’t want to be season 3’s Roxxxy Andrews but Kennedy does. Shangela has found her number 2. Morgan works in the LA drag scene with both Shangela and Trixie and they fear her. Bebe might be going home tonight.
LIP-SYNC FOR YOUR LEGACY
Shangela and Trixie perform Freaky Money by RuPaul featuring Big Freedia. Shangela’s gimmick du jour: A fat suit. The judges think she’s hysterical so I must be a snowflake. Her performance is mesmerizing. Shangela is the definition of a gifted performer. Trixie might as well be dancing in the corner. And she knows it.
Winner: Shangela
Shangela eliminates Morgan. This time, Margaery explodes Cersei.
Next week: It’s already the grand finale! The final 4 write, sing and dance in the most ambitious production number in Drag Race herstory. And one last thing: the bitter Bizzaro queens are back.
With the true winner BenDeLaCreme gone, Shangela deserves the win. No one else even comes close. I really wish Aja would’ve been brought back because she was a definite contender.
It’s crazy how fast it feels they’re rushing to end this season and start season 10. Even Ru knows this season ended when BenDeLa left.
That had to be one of the most terribly written challenges in Drag Race history!! Not funny and the farting at the end was cringe worthy!!
You are so right ! I also think they are just going through the motions after Ben left. I don’t like the idea of the winners picking who gets kicked off. It just puts too much pressure on everyone and that should be RuPauls job anyway. I hope Trixie wins. If I hear halleloo one more time I’m going to pull my hair out. Shangla is entertaining,I give her that but please quit with the hallelooing.
That’s what she is known for, so why would she stop? She’s been hallelooing since her first season of drag race and she doesn’t even say it as much as she used to….smh She has done extremely well this season and deserves the win far more than Trixie.
Great recap Lady Coccotte!! You Rock!!
I actually unliked Morgan’s Facebook page because of her constant passive-aggressive posts. Just constantly posting shit that’s obviously aimed at a particular person but never outright stated as such.
I FINALLY got to watch last week’s episode last night. ON Demand is terrible on Comcast. Because that show was an hour and a half I could not fit it in.
I need to go back and read to see why Ben went home. HE WAS WINNING! And my favorite.
I like Shangela but didn’t y’all all hate her in the beginning?
I need Phaedra to go home, but at this point it doesn’t matter. I would have liked Morgan to stay until I realized next week is the finale. That would not have been fair. So Shangela for the win I guess. Although, there is something about Bebe that RuPaul seems to love and that I am not seeing.
Ugh, I can’t stand Shangela. But it’s just a personal bias. She IS killing this competition. I’m still going to be disappointed when she wins, though. #TeamTrixie
Whoever wins will always be overshadowed by the true winner: BenDeLaCreme. It’s her final fuck you to the backbiting. I’m not sure my recap went into enough detail about why she left. Instead of moving to LA after her first stint on Drag Race, Ben returned to Seattle & built an amazing life for herself. She works in Drag & the theatre with a crazy, creative community that adores her. She’s used to working with people, not against them. While I agree with Morgan that DeLa was consumed with “appearing” congenial, deep in her core, she truly is a nice person. She’s been uncomfortable with the eliminations from the get-go. And she was exhausted. I think Morgan’s attack made Ben question if the competition was affecting her moral compass. She chose herself over the crown. She made the right choice for herself but it’s a bummer for us.
I haven’t seen this episode yet so I haven’t commented. My DVR missed it. I think it was busy with a First 48 repeat marathon or something else I didn’t need to watch. And Logo doesn’t even appear to do repeats anymore. It’s a shame that Logo went down the shitter. And I hate Cox On Demand!
On a related note, have y’all watched The Trixie and Katya Show on Viceland? It’s flippin’ hilarious! It gives me a whole new respect for Trixie. Viceland is one of those channels WAY up the dial that I didn’t even know existed. Ru is a producer of the show and it seems to share the same writers as Drag Race. It’s brilliant and silly. And I now have a bunch of old episodes DVR’ed for down time. 🙂
Thank you, Lady C, for the recap.
Yet again, we are cheated on the runway. I get that we are supposed to get sucked into the drama of the lipstick boxes, but I would like to see more than 2 seconds of their runway. Did we even get 2 seconds? I’m not a BeBe fan but still wanted to actually see her face reveal.
Aja deserved the second chance. Considering the huge improvement in Season 9 and this All Stars, one would think she had at least a couple of years growth.
I was enjoying this season so much until Aja was sent home. I didn’t get it. Bebe’s and Kennedy’s outfits we’re so basic. Bebe’s has 1 look: Diana. That’s it. Im so sick of her bougie faces. Kennedy is a great dancers and is great on the runway, buts that’s about it. There was a reason she was a member of the Bitter Old Lady Brigade. Yes, Aja mixed up her time periods, but that dress kicked ass and she looked good. It was bull. Shangela started great and is still going strong. Im #teamshangela. Unfortunately, I never really got Trixie’s drag. The makeup, the comedy. I just don’t get it. I miss DeLa.
While I’m a longtime Morgan fan, I did hope that Aja would have been selected to return. It felt like a better fit with the remaining queens. I’m still not a Bebe fan though and I was hoping that she’d be lipsticked out of there.