Welcome to RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every Tuesday, we’re debriefing the week’s new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. A rather unceremonious elimination means we’re in much the same place as we were last week—although a frontrunner takes her first tumble of the competition.
8. Malaysia Babydoll Foxx (last week: 5)—ELIMINATED
A rather anticlimactic way for Malaysia to go, yeah? She barely factored into the storyline this week, and instead of getting a storyline-closing showdown in the lip sync with Mistress Isabelle Brooks, she instead just fell to this season’s Lip Sync Assassin, Salina EsTitties. I can’t argue with Malaysia’s elimination: she was uniquely bad in a challenge where others gave something. Although the results were pretty mediocre across the board, Malaysia’s inability to so much as ask questions of Frankie Grande made her the clear worst of the week. And then in the lip sync, she was once again low-energy and out of pace with the song. Sad to see her go, but this was not her time.
7. Salina EsTitties (last week: 8)
In terms of episode count, Salina has one of the most successful lip sync track records in Drag Race herstory. We’ve seen queens win more in a single season, like Symone in Season 13 and Silky Nutmeg Ganache in All Stars 6, but there were some major contributing factors to those: Symone had a Lip Sync for the Win in there, plus two Lip Syncs for the Crown and a double shantay, while all of Silky’s came during the Lip Sync Rudemption Smackdown gauntlet. Salina’s record is most comparable to Symone’s Season 13 sister Kandy Muse, who survived four lip syncs in the first 13 episodes of her season. (With the caveat that I’d argue she actually lost her first battle against Symone, but that was the double shantay.)
But Salina’s accomplished the same in just 10 episodes, sending home Amethyst, Spice and now Malaysia, as well as beating Luxx Noir London outright in the LaLaPaRuZa. Do I think Salina is the best lip syncer of this cast? Hardly, while Anetra and Sasha Colby are here. But I do think she’s top-tier at performing when the chips are down. And that’s a good thing for her, because her challenge performance has proven unsatisfactory week after week. She gets in her head, and her natural charisma and comedic timing fail her. I’m still rooting for Salina, but she stands out as the weak link in this final seven.
6. Mistress Isabelle Brooks (last week: 2)
Honestly, Mistress should’ve been in the bottom two based on her challenge performance. She utterly failed to go with Love Connie’s flow, and it revealed a real weakness about Mistress: when she’s not in control, she falls short. I’ve been thinking about why Mistress tends to be the only one who’s shady about Sasha in confessionals (the Dumbledore line a few weeks back, “What a lovely fairytale” this week), and if I were to guess, I’d bet it’s because Sasha is the queen who Mistress can’t influence.
That tracks with this week’s performance, because Mistress couldn’t influence Love Connie. To her credit, she knew she fucked up, and she promptly beat her face within an inch of its life to complement her hilarious Destiny’s Child puppets runway look. She earned safety from the lip sync for the runway, but it’ll be interesting to see if being out of the driver’s seat in another challenge leads to a similarly underwhelming performance.
5. Marcia Marcia Marcia (last week: 6)
Marcia should be thanking her lucky stars there were three queens who performed worse in the challenge, because she was really outmatched against Charo. Her blank expression, which Anetra correctly clocked as her not understanding her guest, made me question why she chose to do the sit-down interview. Sasha even tried to warn Marcia about Charo’s accent, but unlike Sasha, Marcia didn’t find a way to roll with it. And on the runway, Marcia failed to stand out in a pretty-but-safe look that very much matches what she’s been delivering all season. Salina is likely going to go first, but don’t be surprised when Marcia follows her out that door right after.
4. Anetra (last week: 3)
The biggest advent for Anetra this week was that she is firmly and fully a narrator of the season now. The Anetra Confessional Alert is officially dead! She’s getting tons of talking heads (including the first post-cold open, when she pledges to work on her Resting Bitch Face in a way that is utterly endearing), and that’s a great sign for her endgame prospects. I wouldn’t be surprised if episodes were re-edited slightly to give her more exposure. Anetra’s popularity off-show has seemed to catch Drag Race off-guard, as if they didn’t quite know what they had in her. Now, I could easily see her being in the finale at the end, with her and Sasha giving us a reprise final lip sync battle.
In terms of her performance this week, Anetra was perfectly safe in the challenge, and one of the only queens who chose a distinctive Beyoncé look on the runway. Solid week for her, but nothing to write home about. Her presence in the edit is much more significant than anything she did in the competition this episode.
3. Loosey LaDuca (last week: 7)
The Alexis Michelle edit came out in full force for Loosey this week. Part of what is really hampering Loosey is her insistence on “fairness” when it comes to the other queens’ treatment of her. Is it a bit silly that Marcia offered up the same complaint about being safe that Loosey did, and no one jumps on Marcia? Perhaps, but Loosey literally asking Mistress if she’ll “attack” Marcia in the same way only stands to make Loosey look worse. And as always, any queen’s appearance on the show is a collaborative product between herself, the production team, the editors, etc. But Loosey can’t just blame production for this; her delusion is real.
I do think she did well this week, playing up the news anchor character in a way that worked perfectly for her interview with Frankie. But Ru’s critique of her was a smart one: she didn’t listen to the story Frankie was telling about the witch doctor, and thus missed the natural follow-up question. And on the runway, if you’re going to do Beyoncé’s baby bump reveal look, you should probably actually have a baby bump! A decent week for Loosey, but missed opportunities kept her from the win.
2. Luxx Noir London (last week: 4)
Slowly, Luxx is making an argument for herself to win this whole season. Ru seems very impressed by her, especially her fashion sense, and she’s never so much as placed in the bottom three. But it’s notable that she’s only been critiqued three times out of nine possible: in this episode, in the advertising challenge and in the design challenge she won. Know who was also in the top-scoring group all three of those times? Sasha Colby. And Sasha’s been in the top quite a few more times, too. So it’s hard to fully see Luxx’s trajectory moving forward against Sasha, but if I were to say anyone could realistically pull out a win next to her, it’d be Luxx.
This week was a good showcase of Luxx’s quick thinking, as she was the only queen who did well at interviewing Love Connie. Pulling out the Legally Blonde trivia was a particularly smart move. And on the runway, her doing Beyoncé-does-Tina-Turner was savvy not just because she looked great, but also it gave Ru the chance to talk about wearing the original Bob Mackie look himself. Luxx is always thinking about how to best manoeuvre in this competition, and it’s showing in the results.
1. Sasha Colby (last week: 1)
There may be no stopping her, folks. Sasha has three wins before anyone else has two (apologies to Loosey for not counting her mini-challenge wins), and she’s never scored lower than safe in these first 10 episodes. Her wins have rewarded vastly different skills: scripted comedy, fashion design and now improv. And this week, Ru complimented her as “a natural,” the kind of review that recalls his declarations of “star power” and being “born to do drag.” Those worked out well for Symone and Krystal Versace; it’s incredibly easy to imagine Sasha joining their ranks as a winner at season’s end.
Yes, Anetra is a hell of a performer getting more focus in the edit. Yes, Mistress has arguably been the main character when it comes to the narrative of the season. Yes, Luxx has Ru’s interest, and is building her case for the win. But any argument for one of them ultimately becoming America’s Next Drag Superstar just hits the same question: “What about Sasha?” And for that reason, the smart money is still on the former Miss Continental to take it all.
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