‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7’ Episode 10 recap: it’s a Kennedy Davenport Center Honor just to be nominated

It’s crunch time for the RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 queens, as the Lip Sync LaLaPaRuZa Smackdown for the Crown Extravaganza Eleganza is nearly upon us! Which queens will have enough Legendary Legend Stars of Legends to make it there? Who will become Queen of All Queens of the World of All Time? So many words, so little time!

Jokes aside about the many increasingly absurd titles this season, we are indeed in the endgame now. There are just two maxi-challenges left for the queens to secure stars, and we’re looking at a potentially huge logjam at three stars. What tie-breaking mechanism, if any, is planned is unclear. But the easiest way for a queen to secure her spot at the end is to get to four stars—which is one away for Jinkx Monsoon and Jaida Essence Hall, and two away for Raja, The Vivienne, Trinity the Tuck, Yvie Oddly and Monét X Change.

It is fully out of range for Shea Couleé, who starts this week’s episode fully aware of just how perilous her position is. With just one Legendary Legend Star to her name, she must (barring a format change) win both of the remaining challenges to even make it into the three-star tie. I would describe Shea’s approach to this as dispirited, but not discouraged. She knows it’s a tough sell, but she’s determined to do everything she can to make it to the finale.

Well, reader, if we fast-forward to the end of this episode, things are looking bleak for Shea. She does not win this week’s Kennedy Davenport Center Honors Hall of Shade roast challenge, and she’s heading into a talent show task next week. She would need a miracle to make the finale at this point, and at least from the preview, no such miracle seems to be coming. This raises some major questions about the viability of this format, which has otherwise emphasized an anyone-could-win factor above all else—questions that ultimately convince me things can’t quite be this simple.

More conspiracy theories later, though; first, let’s get into this challenge. This is an interesting format for a roast, because there’s no guest of honour or anything. And unlike on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 3, there’s no “self-roasting” element to it. No, the other queens are the dolls’ targets, with a light bit of Ru shade on the side. It’s effectively a grand-scale reading challenge, which would seem to be good news for this season’s Reading Is Fundamental victor, Jinkx Monsoon.

Indeed, Jinkx proves that as much as she’s known as a theatre queen, she’s every bit a comedy queen these days. Her jokes are rapid-fire when she’s spouting them, and she takes key pauses to make sure they land. She gets off my favourite Ru joke of the night: “You are such a kinky bitch, you’ve been edging Shangela for, like, 11 years now!” She’s just fully in command, and by the end of the challenge, it’s clear that no one can match her. In the All Glowed Up runway, she also stuns in an all-white look that, when the light turns off, becomes a witch being burned at the stake. It’s striking as hell, and is one of Jinkx’s best runway looks.

The only one who comes even close, in my view, is The Vivienne. The British queen has been matching her fellow theatre queen pound for pound this season, and she’d be my pick to join her in the top two this week. She goes last, and benefits from the queen before her (Jaida Essence Hall) utterly bombing. “It’s so hard going after such a strong roast,” she deadpans at the start, and she keeps her momentum throughout. Her confidence and poise is impressive, and she makes the most of her closing slot. Combined with her gorgeous, multicoloured angelic runway look, and it’s a very good week for Viv.

Unfortunately for her, the judges disagree. They ultimately go with Trinity, who has a major underdog arc in this episode. She flopped her roasts in Season 9 and All Stars 4, and the other queens (plus coaches Ross Mathews and comedian Solomon Georgio) are rooting for her to pull it out. And while she does better than expected, I would still put her in the bottom half of the queens this week. In particular, she tells a joke about the water in Flint, Michigan, that is simultaneously not timely, in poor taste and not particularly well-delivered. (I will give Trinity credit for a great runway look this week, though.)

Joining those three in the top-scoring crew is Monét, who misses out on winning a second week in a row. (And judging by the quality of the lip sync we get, I bet she’d have won another $10,000 as well.) There is some clear momentum—Monét-mum? I’ll workshop it—in the edit, but next week is now do or die for Monét. Luckily, as it’s a talent show, she’s got a clear advantage by singing opera. That’s not only a great, singular skill in this cast, but it’s also very different from her All Stars 4 variety show act. I would place my bets on Monét making it to three stars at the last second.

Still sitting pretty at three stars is Jaida, who does, unfortunately, completely bomb this week. Her performance is akin to her one-woman show in Season 12, although this time she doesn’t have the excuse of a competitor running long by over 10 minutes. She tries to recover, and the judges are generous with her, but she just flubs punchline after punchline. It’s odd to see a queen with such quick wit and obvious star power not be able to perform in this setting, but it’s also a good reminder that queens are rarely Jacquelines of all trades. Everyone has some weakness, whether it’s Bianca Del Rio’s runways, Willow Pill’s Snatch Game, etc. At least Jaida gets to pull out an absolutely gorgeous mermaid gown for the All Glowed Up runway this week.

Among our other queens, Raja is very funny (“Viv has done so much ketamine that people are betting on her at the Kentucky Derby”) but perhaps too mean without breaks. Yvie’s set is clunky, although she’s a good sport taking repeated jokes about her reportedly big dick from the other queens. Shea, bless her, just doesn’t give a roast performance that could get her the win. All three are solid on the runway, but if you’ll pardon the pun, they’re just outshined.

So after deliberations, Jinkx and Trinity are declared our winners, with Jinkx reaching the halcyon four Legendary Legend Stars. This means she is all but locked into a finale slot this season, and will get to battle in the Lip Sync for the Crown tournament. Will Trinity? At this point, yes—but how next week goes will be a major determinant. If two of the two-star queens can pull out wins, there’ll be a tie at three stars among four queens for three slots. I’m very intrigued as to how this race will end, but again, I’d be surprised if no big final twist is coming.

The lip sync this week is to Ava Max’s “Kings & Queens,” and Jinkx once again camps it up. She’s higher-energy than I expected, but she’s still not delivering the calibre of performance she’d need to in order to snatch the crown. One must hope she has a Sasha Velour-level gag coming for her finale performances, because otherwise, she’ll need to get very lucky with song selection.

Trinity, meanwhile, once again gets physical with her lip sync partner, miming performing oral sex on Jinkx. I’m not going to rant about contact in lip syncs again, but suffice it to say I’m glad Trinity doesn’t win this one. She relies on the same dance moves in every lip sync, including messing with her partner, and it’s grown very tired. She, too, will need to really pull out a surprise to have a chance in a Lip Sync for the Crown.

Anyway, Jinkx’s win grants her another $10,000 tip—but no chance to block a fellow queen with the Platinum Plunger. Ru declares that the Plunger has been hung up for the rest of the season, and thus all the queens will have a chance to win additional Legendary Legend Stars next week. Note that Ru does say “Stars,” as in multiple, but that could just refer to the two that two queens could win. Still, it’s worth noting, especially as we get no other hints about any other twist. I just can’t imagine this season is going to end with Shea having no chance of recovering. That’s not great for competitive momentum.

We’ll find out next week, though! The main season is about to come to a close, and the season without eliminations is set to finally—finally!—make some choices on who will fight for the crown. It’s been an enjoyable time with this cast of eight, but it’s nearly showtime, folks.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ Raja feels betrayed about there being no plunger secret, walking to the mirror first before joining the dolls in the cold open. “I am a scorned woman. I’ve been humiliated in public,” she says in her confessional. “Shame on them! Shame on all of them!”

✨ Anyone else find it weird that when Kennedy Davenport herself appears during the RuMail message, the queens don’t so much as react? That’s not Ru! Show some surprise!

✨ Ronan Farrow is our guest judge this week, and Monét appropriately cackles at the concept of having to tell Drag Race roast jokes in front of a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist. Ronan’s a good sport, though, and claims he actually lobbied Ru in the grocery store to be a guest judge. Huh!

✨ Performance order this week is chosen by the previously-seen-in-Season-14 method of humping balloons against Pit Crew members. On the one hand, I appreciate Drag Race for leaning back into gay sex jokes after becoming prudish in the early VH1 years; on the other, this is a little tired already, and it’s only the second time we’ve seen it. I do appreciate Jinkx trying to avoid topping, though: “I think it’s obvious which position I play in the outfield.”

✨ Viv fully embraces Raja telling an addiction joke about her. “I wanna laugh so hard I relapse!”

✨ Utterly delighted by the reappearance of “Wintergreen,” aka, the drag alter ego of camera operator Sarge. He was such a highlight of the Season 9 makeover episode, and here he is both hilarious (reading the Kennedy Davenport “After a long night of hooking” monologue!) and beat for the gods. Wintergreen for Season 15!

✨ Listen, I have mixed feelings about the all-positive-critiques situation this season, but it has never been more absurd than listening to Michelle Visage tell Jaida, post-bombing, that she “struggled a bit.” Girl! The editors literally could not work around Jaida’s failure! It’s okay to call a spade a spade!

✨ With the Platinum Plunger hung up for the season, I think we can admit it was ultimately a failed format change. Only a couple of queens were successfully blocked, and the strategy, such as it was, was pretty minimal in deciding who to ice out. If we get another non-elimination format season, I’d encourage the show to leave the plunger exactly where it is.

The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 will stream Friday, July 22, at 3 a.m. EDT on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on OUTtv and Crave in Canada. Check World of Wonder’s streaming guide for other countries’ release plans. You can subscribe to our drag newsletter, Wig!, for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday afternoon.