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You are here: Home / Entertainment News / RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars: Super Girl Groups, Henny

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars: Super Girl Groups, Henny

December 22, 2018 by The Lady Cocotte 11 Comments

By The Lady Cocotte

Stacy Layne Matthews’ triumphant return to the Drag Race stage evokes vaseline-smeared memories of the franchise’s early days. Before she was hailed as drag royalty by her RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars hosts, Stacey was an unpolished queen from Backswamp, North Carolina. Her season 3 arc was dominated by heckling from the Heathers. The real Witches of WeHo (RuPaul’s current wig maestro Delta Work, eventual winner Raja, and All Stars 4 contestant Manila Luzon) called her a Booger. They never let poor Stacy / play in any reindeer games. But Drag Race audiences saw Stacy’s heart shine bright through the fog. Henny became an institution, the underdog who succeeded by being herself. Fast forward 8 years and the cycle continues. Gia Gunn is mean girl island unto herself. She doesn’t need a clique, especially when her target is the never-not-crying Farrah Moan. She’s a tiger stalking a bunny, a vulture eyeing dying roadkill. Farrah, you dying roadkill, girl.

Tonight’s Henny Girl Group challenge is a huge undertaking. Trinity and Monique pick teams to write and record tracks. Monique is living her best delusional life. Her wig toss was iconic. She’s the best singer in her group. She micromanages Team Everybody Say Love with the iron grip of a cross-dressing Mussolini. Monét X Change chases redemption. As a trained opera singer, last week’s warbling was unacceptable. In the recording studio, her flawless rap reminds her team she’s competition. When she tries. The weakest link is Farrah and she knows it. Her voice is better than her dancing, and that’s not saying much. Despite Monique’s frustrations, Farrah keeps her head up and finds support from the rest of the team.

Trinity has stacked Team Don’t Funk It Up with heavy hitters. Valentina leads the way with smartly silly lyrics and a high note that means business. But things fall apart during choreo with Stacy Layne Matthews. Gia, still smarting from “losing” last week’s challenge, takes over the rehearsal with all the grace of a backhoe. This is Gia’s rehearsal, team be damned. Trinity is too busy being the Cool Mom to notice the cluster swirling around her head. It doesn’t bode well when the guest star has to ask who the team leader is.

Drag Race is a tough competition. The contestants are busy from the minute they rise until they get locked back into their sequestered rooms at night. The only opportunity they get to kiki is while they paint. It’s traditionally become a time for introspection, deep truths, and history lessons. So it’s especially triggering to watch Gia use that time to bully Farrah. The whole thing is very Mean Girls (please raise your hand if you have ever felt personally victimised by Gia Gunn). First, she tricks Monique into saying Farrah is the weakest link on their team. Then she tells Farrah, hoping for a breakdown. But Farrah goes off-script. She stays centered and calm. She sees Gia’s attack for the pot stirring it is and calls her out on it. She deflects every Gia volley with grace and precision, cutting her off at the knees with a modicum of fuss. The room buzzes with appreciation. Just like Henny before her, the Booger has toppled a Heather. “God, I can’t stand her” is Farrah’s redemption song.

Watching the Henny performances, I actually miss Todrick Hall and his soul-crushing criticism. Team Don’t Funk It Up stands in a line and gently sways. Their only triumphs are Valentina’s scorching rendition of “I am not the one!” and Latrice Royale’s inadvertent r.i.p. to the late, great Penny Marshall. Team Everybody Say Love actually moves around the stage but only to highlight Farrah’s awkward dance moves and Monique’s all-around sloppiness. Luckily, the Eloguence After Dark runway takes my breath away. Latrice in black sequence. Stunning. Manila and her stoned pits. Stunning. Valentina’s hydrangea garden. Stunning. And when Monét steps out, swathed in red velvet, cinched for the the gods, I forgive every tired bodysuit and fall in love all over again. This may be the best runway in Drag Race herstory.

Top 2: Valentina and Monét X Change
Bottom 2: Farrah Moan and Monique Heart

Desperation to stay increases with each elimination. This is do or die time. Monique is eager to plead her case. Like Jasmine before her, she cloaks herself in self aggrandizement. She’s the G.O.A.T., she’s Alaska offering Detox $10,000 via PayPal. Monique will do anything to stay. Winning Drag Race is her destiny. Gia, unwilling to concede defeat in her unending war, interrupts Farrah’s plea to Monét for continued fuckery. We get it, girl. You’re the villain. Valentina and Monét are left with a tough decision. While this bottom 2 is no surprise, they are no filler queens. 

As we reach the end of the episode, there’s one more redemption arc to explore. Monét X Change is a fierce performer. When she turns it on, she’s lit. But tonight she’s merely a bit player. This is Valentina’s story. It wasn’t so long ago that the lovely Latinx left the show, head hung in shame. Ariana Grande’s Into You is her big chance to prove she can lip-sync, that her shocking elimination was nothing but a fluke. She’s slinky, sexy, feline. She bares her heart as much as her tuck. As the beat picks up, Valentina throws down. She stomps the boards so hard her dress slips off. It’s a testament to her extraordinary beauty that VH1 chooses her blur her exposed boy nipple. Not even Monét’s jump into splits can tear attention away. All hail, Queen Valentina. Your wish is our command.

Winner Valentina sadly sends Farrah Moan home. She might not have won the crown but she’ll always be the bunny that ate a dragon.

Next week: It’s a Snatch Game dating show! But Gia’s still around so there’s lots of fighting.

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Filed Under: Entertainment News, RuPaul's Drag Race Tagged With: All Stars, Carson Kressley, Drag, Drag Queen, Drag Queens, Drag Race, Farrah Moan, Gia Gunn, Jasmine Masters, Latrice Royale, LGBT, LGBTQIA, Manila Luzon, Michelle Visage, Monét X Change, Monique Heart, Naomi Smalls, Ross Matthews, RPDR, RuPaul, RuPaul's Drag Race, RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, The Lady Cocotte, Todrick Hall, Trinity Taylor, Valentina

About The Lady Cocotte

Comments

  1. sampa2nyc says

    December 22, 2018 at 11:00 pm

    Latrice in black sequence, hey, Roxy Andrews, is that you?

    Reply
    • The Lady Cocotte says

      December 23, 2018 at 1:25 am

      I can’t resist. It’s one of my favorite malapropisms.

      Reply
  2. DonnaLibra says

    December 23, 2018 at 1:10 am

    Thx for the recap….totally agree with the stunning runway looks. Valentina rocked that lip sync…great comeback ?

    Now that Farrah is gone I’m interested to see who Mz Gunn will be going after.

    Reply
  3. tamaratattles says

    December 23, 2018 at 11:50 am

    My DVR ignored the episode entirely. I check my DVR every day and sometimes things are shown on the list but not set to record. Yesterday Drag Race was not on the list at all!

    I will have to catch it on Demand when that updates in May of 2020. 🙁

    I’m sad Farah went home.

    Reply
  4. GLH says

    December 23, 2018 at 11:58 am

    Hey Henny!

    First things first – Gia is awful. There’s shade and then there’s being an out and out cunt. I thought she’d come back a kinder, well rounded queen after deciding to live her life as her authentic self… apparently not. I don’t get all the venom towards Farrah for what basically sounds like her trying to facilitate a reunion between 2 former friends? What an awful person Farrah is ?

    Love that the brought SLM back! She’s a true diva. The songs didn’t do her or the other queens justice imo. I think the writers keep trying to capture the magic of Read U Wrote U and it ain’t happening lol.

    Happy Holidays to you all! xo

    Reply
  5. Psylocke says

    December 23, 2018 at 3:45 pm

    I can’t believe Stacy Layne was featured this episode!!! I don’t have social media but I googled her after recently watching S03 hoping she was still doing drag and/or had a glow up. But I never realized she was the OG Henny until now?

    As much as I like the s10 queens I just can’t with the constant weak self branding. I was hoping it would end after the first episode but then Monet shows up with a sponge crown for rehearsal and the other with a cow eared hat. It’s a constant reminder that – this far into the show – the internet has pretty much forced every Queen to have an “iconic” meme moment to be memorable. Thinking giraffe print was a brown cow is really what you want to base your entire persona around???

    Vanjie is on the Christmas Tour that Queens with 100x more screen time were not apart of for simply saying her name in a meme-esque way (I ain’t mad bout it because it was hilarious seeing Ru lose her shit with Michelle).

    Did Ru have a gleam of jealousy in her eye while watching Valentina or am I just projecting? I almost feel bad for Valentina in a way, if the world were a different place or if she was born a bio woman she would be the Latinx Lady Gaga. She’s absolutely mesmerizing.

    BTW, for the sake of no one having to miss this gloriousness, if you miss an episode on your DVR, they are available for free online from a certain streaming site that doesn’t require torrent downloading.

    Reply
  6. GirlMe says

    December 23, 2018 at 4:23 pm

    Stellar writing! Thanks for this!

    Reply
  7. Mark says

    December 23, 2018 at 10:53 pm

    Ru is desperately researching ways to harness Valentina’s life force as his own to stay young and beautiful as we speak. RUN VALENTINA!

    Reply
  8. The Shadiest Grove says

    December 24, 2018 at 9:48 am

    Great recap Lady C. Gia is so stupid, Manila said it best when she referenced her season and the abuse they endured afterwards for being cunty beyond belief. This won’t end well for Gia. I lived for Valentina’s lip sync performance, it’s definitely on the top 10 list of best lip syncs of all time. Monet was just taking up space after the beat dropped.

    Reply
  9. Helen M says

    December 24, 2018 at 9:51 am

    I think Valentina sent Farrah home so she would not set the precedent of “saving a friend”, which could work against her in the future. Farrah was truly bad at the performance with hr dancing, besides annoyingly immature.A bonus, Valentina has not made an enemy of the other girls by sending home Monique whom many have a much closer relationship. In this game you need to always look ahead to the ramifications.

    I truly hope Farrah comes back in a few years after taking some time to mature and hone her talents. She is lovely but is just not ready for this level of performance yet. And she MUST TAKE DANCE CLASSES!!!

    Reply
  10. tamaratattles says

    December 27, 2018 at 12:20 am

    So I tried to watch it ON DEMAND via Spectrum and they wanted me to sign up for a “new package” I HAVE THE GOLD PACKAGE. I paid for all of this shit already and now they want me to pay for it again? I hardly ever do On Demand unless it is an HBO movie on a Saturday night. I try to DVR everything.

    Reply

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