Yes!! There she was at last: the much quoted much mentioned Alyssa Edwards returned to Drag Race this week and breathed some much-needed life in this year’s slightly confusing season.
The episode started with the queens feeling a bit low and irritated with each other. RuPaul seemed intent on changing this rut this week, staging a potato-sack race (with boobs) that put a bit of a smile on the queen’s faces (especially the winners as the best queens got rather a lot of money!!)
The challenge itself, though, brought everyone back to earth: Farm to Runway. The queens got the almost impossible challenge of turning farm food and fabric into actual fashion worthy challenges.
A lot of the queens seem happy with the challenge, ready to show their creative selves.
This week the episode was very much Plastique Tiara’s chance to shine, and she did!! Her emotional talk with RuPaul about her upbringing and sad relationship with her family was heartbreaking, resulting in the first documented workroom hug from Ru. Then we were later introduced to her lighter more carefree side with the arrival of her drag-mother: Alyssa. The change in attitude from Plastique was amazing, and resulted in getting her first big win!! Well done.
It seemed Alyssa had a positive influence on everyone with her catwalk training, fun motivational speeches and choreography. It was the first time all queens seemed at ease and smiling.
The show is stressful and emotional, and having a person step in with a positive attitude who knows what you’ve been through helps a lot. Alyssa is a great teacher and it was clear she cares for her new drag sisters (and daughters) a lot.
Sadly nothing could help poor Ra’Jah. The queen clearly felt undervalued in the show, longing for praise and help, but also pushing away everyone who reached out. Over the weeks it was sad to see a clearly talented artist fall victim to their (in Ru’s words) “Inner saboteur”.
What was also sad was hearing her tell Akeria about knowing she was having a breakdown but no-one was helping her, no one had ever told her she was loved. The jealousy she displayed towards Plastique came from a place of hurt. It was good to see a young queen like Plastique sensing this and comforting the angry Ra’Jah instead of fighting.
She explained this later:
https://twitter.com/plastiquetiara/status/1116715770128498693
https://twitter.com/plastiquetiara/status/1116715771382697984
Hopefully Ra’Jah will find her inner peace so her true talent can shine one day. A lot of queens got the chance to redeem themselves during an All Star season, I hope she can have that too.
Judging from her after show interviews she has already started working on her problems.
But we’ll see at the reunion.
With Ra’Jah gone focus is now shifting to the differences between Yvie Oddly, Silky and Miss Vanjie. This could be getting interesting!! Stay tuned!!
