‘RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’ Season 2, Episode 8 recap: British humour

As an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, this week’s UK feels very much a piece with All Stars 5’s second-to-last installment. Both feature stand-up comedy challenges very late in the season. Both include an extended bit about one queen choosing the order of performers, in which the strategy of the selection becomes a point of contention. And both feature one queen who sticks out from the rest of the group, by the objective measure of the number of wins in the competition.

Like Blair St. Clair in All Stars 5, Ellie Diamond is the only queen left without a win, and the other dolls are happy to let her know. When Ellie asks them if they expected her to be in the top five when they returned from break, A’Whora acknowledges that she did expect it—but also expects her to be the next one out the door. A’Whora, Bimini Bon Boulash, Lawrence Chaney and Tayce are statistically the strongest competitors left when it comes to wins. Shouldn’t they be in the top four?

The same could’ve been said of Jujubee, Miz Cracker and Shea Couleé, who did of course ultimately become the top three. There was a bit of a storyline set up that Blair could surprise in the challenge, or even after she flopped that the other queens might try to take out a stronger competitor. It ultimately came to nothing, however, as Blair was eliminated in the logical spot for her to go home.

But that does not happen this time around. In a season that has featured a few surprising early outs—most notably Asttina Mandela going home in the third episode after winning the premiere—Drag Race UK Season 2 pulls out another shock boot. Ellie survives the week, and A’Whora goes home instead. Had I read that result without seeing the episode, I imagine I’d have been quite disappointed. But as it turns out, the situation is quite a bit thornier.

At issue is the aforementioned order selection. As winner of the mini-challenge (“The Masc4Masc Singer”), Ellie gets to choose who goes when. She wants to play it strategically, so decides to put the two funniest queens (Bimini and Lawrence) together in the middle, and have the fashion queens (A’Whora and Tayce) at the start and end of the show. Ellie gives herself a plum second spot, coming right off A’Whora.

This upsets A’Whora, who sees it as a direct attack on her. In Mini-Untucked later, A’Whora admits she hasn’t even been able to look at Ellie all day, that’s how distressed she’s been. In reality, A’Whora’s poor performance in this challenge is because of her content, not her placement. She goes way too blue in her set, with a punchline so raunchy that even the normally uncensored WOW Presents Plus has to bleep it out. Ru and Michelle Visage laugh about it, but it’s more of a nervous laugh: How is A’Whora going this dirty?

But I do, on some level, understand A’Whora’s frustrations. Ellie is self-admittedly trying to play the game. Ru even notes the shadiness of her picks, though commends her for her strategy. Knowing that you’re being targeted to fail on a challenge you’re not great at has to get in your head. And A’Whora has been on such an upswing recently! So while I respect Ellie playing the game, I empathize with A’Whora.

I do not, on the other hand, empathize with Lawrence, who throws an out-and-out tantrum over her place in the order. She gets why Ellie targeted A’Whora, but is furious that her Scotland sister even risked putting Lawrence in a spot where she could go home. The problem is… Lawrence did fine. I wouldn’t have put her in the top two—too much meandering in her set, not enough punchlines—but Ru does. And she knows this when they head into mini-Untucked. So despite unloading on Ellie about it earlier, she somehow still has more to say, and rips into Ellie once again.

It’s an ugly scene, to be honest. A compelling one, though. Lawrence goes after Ellie with both barrels, and Ellie struggles to respond. Bimini, in a confessional, diagnoses the issue as one that goes deeper than just this, highlighting a big sister/little sister dynamic (despite the two being very close in age). It’s a good read from Bimini, because if this is just about the order of performances, Lawrence is completely out of pocket. The fact that it all gets shown also makes me question what’s happening with Lawrence’s trajectory. Yes, she was a frontrunner to win before the filming break, but she’s largely struggled since returning (save her group’s win in the RuRuVision challenge).

Meanwhile, her closest competition, Bimini, is just slaying, and getting a favourable edit to boot. After a momentary dip in performance quality last week, Bimini bounds right back up into the winners’ circle with a funny, frank routine about queer love. She wisely builds her act around a repeated phrase—“Not a joke, just a fact”—that gives her set structure and rhythm. The latter is missing in some other sets (most notably Ellie’s and Lawrence’s), which helps Bimini come across as a real pro. She may not have had much experience with stand-up, but you’d never have guessed watching her this week.

I’ve thought for a couple of weeks that the edits are only making it clearer and clearer that Bimini has this in the bag. Tayce has lip-synced too often and Ellie has not won enough (or, uh, at all) to be real contenders. And at the exact moment when edits matter most, Bimini is getting to share dialogue with Ru on the runway about how great she’s doing, while Lawrence is shown throwing a fit. If Lawrence wins over Bimini at this point, it will go against everything I understand about winners’ edits.

Joining A’Whora in the bottom two is her flatmate Tayce, and I don’t get this one. All of Tayce’s jokes are very funny, and she has some good physical comedy as well. The judges note that she had a pacing issue while performing, but as it was depicted to us, she seemed no more rushed than any of the other queens. More than anything, her being placed in the bottom two feels like a conclusion of her and A’Whora’s friendship-laced-with-sexual-tension storyline from throughout the season.

They lip sync to Dusty Springfield’s “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me”—appropriate, considering the theme of the challenge. Once again, Tayce has to lip sync to a ballad, and once again, I absolutely love it. I have a feeling, based on what happened with “Memory,” that this won’t be too popular with fans. But it was an emotive, beautiful performance from Tayce.

A’Whora sashays away, and I’m genuinely sad to see her go. She’s grown on me so much, to the point where she had become my second-favourite after Bimini. (My beloved Tayce now takes that slot, though I understand she has effectively no shot at the win.) Like Bimini, A’Whora made the most of her time off, and came back a smarter, stronger, more confident queen than she was before. There’s no doubt her routine is the worst this week, but all the same, it feels unfair to see her go.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨Up and Down: I think this is all Bimini at this point. The bigger question is who goes next week ahead of the final three. Ellie is the obvious choice, but Ru and company seem invested in her. It’s an acting challenge next week, which bodes well for Lawrence. Could Tayce find herself as the last boot after a fourth lip sync next week? Or will she surprise us all and leave one of the Scotland girls on the outs?

✨Alan Carr makes for a really good coach. His notes for the dolls are specific in a way they need to be, but too often aren’t in these segments. I wish we could’ve gotten more of this, and less of Performance OrderGate.

✨Bimini says she’s only done stand-up twice. “Once was on a Zoom. Which was bad.”

✨Fully cackled at the audience of fursuits and blow-up dolls.

✨Tayce and Lawrence get a really lovely moment in the workroom as Tayce opens up about her self-confidence issues in dating. I’m really glad we get this: Tayce is the one who has had the least space to be vulnerable and open up this season. So it’s a nice note, and a very natural one considering the subject of the challenge.

✨Dawn French makes for an absolutely stellar guest judge, maybe my favourite of the season. Her expertise in comedy makes her a great critic, who both lifts the queens’ confidence levels and who knows exactly what they need to hone in on in the future.

✨Ru and these wigs in the workroom… What is happening?

✨“You have no idea how tight and clenched my hole was.” Lawrence is talking about her bottom three appearance last week, but it could also describe the experience of watching Mini-Untucked this week. What tension!

✨PUPPETS NEXT WEEK! Everybody loves puppets!

Every Friday at 4 p.m. EST, join Xtra’s Kiki with Kevin live on Facebook, where he’ll be talking  about RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 2. And hold on to your crumpets, because Kevin will be spilling the tea!

The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK will be available to stream Thursday, Mar. 11, at 2 p.m. EST on WOW Presents Plus in the U.S. and OUTtv in Canada, as well as on BBC Three and the BBC’s iPlayer in the United Kingdom. Additionally, episodes are available the same day on Crave in Canada, and Fridays the week following at 8 p.m. EST on Logo in the U.S. For other countries, check World of Wonder’s streaming guide.