Welcome to RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every Tuesday, we’ll debrief the week’s new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 14 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. It’s a week in which the judging is at odds with personal preference, making for a tricky power ranking.
9. Kerri Colby (last week: 8) — ELIMINATED
At the start of the season, it felt like Kerri was set up for a long run in this competition. Alas, for all her great interview bites and good spirits, she never thrived in the challenges, and her runway offerings were far below expectations. This is both a completely understandable and expected result, and yet it’s still a crushing one. I’m trying to imagine next week’s episode with nary a Kerri confessional, and I don’t like it! Can Drag Race bring her back as a narrator-in-residence of sorts? Until such a role is created, however, we’ll miss Kerri on our TV screens.
8. Jasmine Kennedie (last week: 6)
A tough week for Jasmine coming off the high of her so-bad-it’s-great acting performance. We’ve seen tone-deaf queens survive Drag Race singing challenges before, but it’s tough when you can’t figure out a way around the problem. (One queen did that this week, and Jasmine might’ve been wise to take cues from her.) On the runway, Jasmine looked beautiful, but the whole thing felt very dubiously connected to the Heart On category. Gluing a couple of hearts onto a dress doesn’t make this any less of a simple-but-pretty gown. I’m ultimately glad she survived the lip sync, but even that wasn’t Jasmine at her full power. I would have understsood if she had gone home this week.
7. Lady Camden (last week: 1)
You never want to get a Drag Race critique like the one Camden got this week. Though RuPaul rightfully praised all elements of her performance last week, he all but said, “What have you done for me lately?” I found her low placement very questionable: sure, she was overshadowed by Angeria in their performance, but Camden also created the choreography single-handedly to make sure her teammates weren’t overwhelmed. And on the runway, I really liked her look; the “costumey” critique from Michelle Visage felt disingenuous. I worry about Camden getting knocked the second she stepped back even slightly from the top: the judges’ standards for her are high, which means she will have to perform at the top of her power every week. A tough spot to be in with half the season still left to go.
6. Jorgeous (last week: 7)
Hard to shake the feeling that Jorgeous is just sliding on through this competition. She’s always (appropriately enough) gorgeous on the runway, but her looks are very simple. I did like her heart-shaped wings this week, though! In the challenges, she’s struggled with almost everything that has required a performance element: improv, acting, the PSA. She looked poised to add “singing” to that pile, too, as she failed repeatedly to take Michelle’s phrasing note during her recording session. But Michelle’s solution to have Jorgeous talk-sing worked out as well as it could’ve, and Jorgeous avoided a trip to the bottom three. Would I have put her there over Camden? Probably, yes. But I do appreciate that a creative solution to the challenge was rewarded with safety.
5. Willow Pill (last week: 4)
We’ve hit an interesting new phase in Willow’s trajectory, in which she consistently does well in the challenges but isn’t getting close to wins. Her “Save a Queen” PSA segment, “Daytona Wind” acting performance and choreography and lyrics in this girl group task all merited more consideration than they got. (Only her Glamazon Prime effort in recent weeks was under par.) There’s no doubt Ru’s still in love with her—just look at how he declared her a star last week. But while Willow came into the competition strong, the others have now caught up to her. Being reliably very good isn’t enough to win at this point. She needs to knock it out of the park to grab and hold Ru’s attention. And while “His body is splattered on the asphalt!” was genius, she was in very strong company in her group. She worked well as a part of her team; the judges, it seems, want her to stand alone.
4. Bosco (last week: 3)
Another week, another round of me shouting that Bosco was robbed. Who knew I would be such a Boscorina when the season began? Like her whole group, she really turned up the funny in “Bad Boy Baby” Her line deliveries were among my favourites of the week, particularly “Like he dropped a hot bowl of spaghetti!” And on the runway, her take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula was absolutely breathtaking—my favourite look of the episode by a mile. I know she already has a win, but it can’t help but feel like Bosco is consistently getting underpraised by the panel. I do wonder, though, if there wasn’t an unspoken criterion in the judging that kept her out of the top this week.
3. DeJa Skye (last week: 9)
My theory is that, subconsciously or not, Ru picked who he considered the best member of all three groups to represent the tops of the week but did not apply the same criteria to the bottoms. That’s the only way I can square DeJa being high over Bosco, and honestly even Willow. As a flier of the DeJa Skyes, I’m thrilled to see DeJa back in the top-scoring queens. But the judges themselves seemed hard-pressed to justify the decision while giving critiques: they praised her runway for its versatility while all but admitting they didn’t like the look, and the commentary on her singing was mostly their surprise that she could sing. What I will give DeJa credit for is wisely taking over the choreography: Jasmine and Jorgeous are incredible dancers, but by sticking to choreography she could easily do, DeJa prevented any chance of her being outshined. Clever work, if not quite top-worthy in my book.
2. Angeria Paris VanMicheals (last week: 5)
This is a rare instance where I think Angeria was either the best or second-best of the week, but I don’t think the judging should have reflected that. Let me explain: I think the correct format for the judging this week was in groups. As a trio, the Shang-Ru-Las were head-and-shoulders above their competition, with the best song and best choreo. Whether they got a three-way win or just one was singled out, I think they all deserved to be in the top. Unfortunately, that would leave Angie as just safe—or even worse, scoring low alongside her teammates—but such is the bad fortune of Drag Race judging sometimes.
The fact that Ru put Angie in the top anyway is a good sign he’s as invested in her as ever. Had the last two weeks been judged differently, Angie could have gotten low-then-safe placements; instead, she got safe-then-high. Her nearly immaculate track record remains, and the other contestants see her as a clear lock for the endgame. I’m inclined to agree, but I do hope we never get a runway like this week’s from her again. The “I ❤️ U” glued to the front of an unrelated look was a true curveball—and not the good kind!
1. Daya Betty (last week: 2)
She finally did it! After weeks of protesting her just-safe placements, Daya got a pure, unconditional win—and she did so by being part of a very strong group, one which she was the only member of without a win. Do I think she was the best in her group? I do not. But she had some great moments in “Bad Boy Baby,” including her opening line (“Actually I don’t, I forgot my glasses”), and her vocals sounded lovely. Her runway was admittedly not to my taste, and I think that pink wig is insanely unflattering (she also wore it in her promo look). But it was probably the clearest declaration we’ve gotten so far of what Daya’s aesthetic actually is. I understand her win, but firmly disagree with her victory over Bosco.
Of course, there was a whole other element of Daya’s showing this week: her villain edit is in full effect. In just this episode, she defiantly refused to give up on being in the Shang-Ru-las (with no less than four declarations that she’s not switching); said that once DeJa agreed to switch groups that she was “taking the easy way out”; demanded to know why Jasmine called her two-faced in the reading challenge, didn’t apologize when Jasmine explained her issue, and then said in Untucked that anyone who takes issue with her competitiveness actually doesn’t care about the competition. All in just two hours! If Daya is willing to fully own her villainy and step up her quotable confessionals, I think she could be a fun presence this season. But so far, Daya as a character has mostly proven frustrating to watch. Still, I don’t think she’s going anywhere: long after her elimination in the second premiere (which the show finally remembered this week), her upward trajectory is in full swing. I’d be very surprised if she doesn’t make the finals at this rate.
Why you can trust Xtra
