There’s something actually remarkable about how often RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 8 is getting in its own way. Enthusiasm about a cast that showed All Stars 6-like potential was quickly quashed by challenge performances that fell below that high standard. The big promised twist of the season, the Fame Games, proved to not be much of a twist at all, and the runways we’ve seen have been received by fans and queens alike as underwhelming. Any momentum the season could’ve built up as a competition also derailed when Jimbo won three of the first five challenges, setting her up as a nigh-invulnerable frontrunner.
And now, after stringing together a few strong episodes that gave the feeling that finally—finally—things might be turning around, All Stars 8 has hit a major roadblock once again. In a decision that I can only describe as “perplexing,” this week’s maxi-challenge winner, Alexis Michelle, chooses to send home LaLa Ri in fifth place. Despite being a queen who had been really hitting her stride, LaLa no doubt deserves her bottom two placement this week. But losing her here feels like the show is prematurely ending one of the only stories that had some true heat to it. With four episodes to go, to boot! Imagine if Kylie Sonique Love or Ra’Jah O’Hara had been eliminated on Snatch Game during All Stars 6. That’s what this feels like.
If there was some great strategy at play as to why Alexis does this, I could get behind it. Manila Luzon being chopped in All Stars 4 was a fundamentally “unfair” decision, but watching Naomi Smalls decide to take out major competition was thrilling television. Alexis may agonize over the choice this week, but she ultimately just goes with what she says her “heart” says, despite LaLa saving Alexis just last week. She spares Kandy Muse, someone she had drama with just an episode ago. (The fact that Alexis has said in an interview she was “scared” of Kandy, which is illuminating in more ways than one… but not in a narratively satisfying way.) And even if there were some great explanation coming—spoiler alert: there isn’t really one—the fact that it would be relegated to Untucked only underlines the way All Stars 8 got in its own way the most: removing deliberations from the episodes.
If you think that problem isn’t as big a deal—after all, you can always just watch Untucked!—look at the pacing of this episode as a reason why the issue is more than just narrative cohesion. This episode is positively filled to the brim with filler, some of it enjoyable (the giggle fits over Kandy’s “titties”), some of it useless (do we need to know at this point that Jimbo is a procrastinator?). But it’s all just fluff, designed to fill an episode that, without deliberations, cannot naturally hit the 60+ minutes required of these episodes. The result is an episode that has its pleasures, yet ultimately feels like it’s emblematic of all of this season’s faults.
Credit: Courtesy Paramount+
LaLa starts this episode feeling great and like she’s on a roll (“top 10 photos taken moments before disaster” material here), and Alexis is in her debt. Alexis goes far as to effusively state, in front of the entire group, how she will never forget what LaLa did for her. Spoiler: she will not forget in approximately 55 minutes, but she will diminish its importance!
Anyway, we’re moving into the next day, and after a minor food fight with bologna (I told you this episode has filler), RuPaul comes in to announce the challenge. This is actually a fun one: the queens are presented with five boxes of materials inspired by the previous five winners of non-all winners All Stars seasons. As for why no Jinkx Monsoon: I don’t think the All Stars 7 finale had aired when this would have filmed, so ostensibly the crown was still up in the air between Jinkx and Monét X Change. Monét still gets represented by one of the boxes, as does her twinner, Trinity the Tuck. Joining them are Trixie Mattel, Shea Couleé, and my personal favourite All Stars winner, Kylie Sonique Love.
LaLa, as the previous maxi-challenge winner (because mini-challenges have gone extinct, RIP mini-challenges), gets to assign the boxes—and she does a really nice job! She gives herself Shea, noting that the kinds of colors and fabrics Shea uses will look good on her skin. She gives Kandy her NYC sister Monét, Alexis her Season 9 sister Trinity, and Jessica Wild her Season 2 sister Kylie. That leaves Jimbo with Trixie—“a character for a character,” as LaLa puts it.
The boxes seem to be a fair spread of materials, mostly fitting into familiar color palettes for each of the queens. If anyone has a more substantial challenge, it’s perhaps Jessica, who gets a lot of sheer, see-through materials in Kylie’s box. (As Jess notes, Kylie is a queen who loves to show off the body!) Jimbo gets a lot of the pinks and other brightly colored materials you would expect of Trixie, and in her desire to take a big swing, she decides to put together a face-kini. It’s easily the most ambitious project someone takes on in this episode, as all the other queens go with dresses.
Credit: Courtesy Paramount+
We could get further into the workroom banter, but honestly, this episode is really about the results on the runway. Kandy comes out in a simple black dress, with a Monét-signature sponge in her hand. The dress has some fit issues, and it’s too standard compared to some of the other looks. LaLa similarly falters with an orange gown with one sleeve that has both conception and execution problems. For the first time in recent history, I agree with a Ross Mathews critique: LaLa’s single sleeve is too simple to justify her just having one. And Michelle Visage is right about the dress’ high neckline, although no one notes the most egregious part of LaLa’s look: an incredibly obvious wigline.
Jessica fares better, with a flowy, sparkling dress that embodies both her spirit and Kylie’s. She seems to really appreciate getting to pay tribute to her Season 2 sister, remembering some memories of their time together, and it comes through in how joyful the garment feels. It’s far from the winning slot, but it’s a solid effort. Jimbo comes a lot closer to the victory, with a daring face-kini look that is arguably the most “designed” garment on the runway. If I have any quibble, it’s with the pearls she uses as eyes and a mouth—they just don’t feel as purposeful or resolved as they could.
That leaves us with our winner: Alexis! It’s a shocking victory, when you recall that it was a design challenge that sent the Season 9 queen home back in the day, but an obvious decision when you see the garments. Alexis manages to really channel Trinity’s style of tight, dramatic gowns into her own style, embracing pageantry in a distinctly theatrical way. The headpiece she constructs to tie into the look is remarkable, too. It’s just an absolute home run, and an easy victory for Alexis.
Credit: Courtesy Paramount+
It’s sad we can’t just coast on those good vibes for Alexis, but unfortunately we have a thoroughly middling lip sync and frustrating elimination result to get through. The Lip Sync Assassin this week is Drag Race France host Nicky Doll, and if you’re struggling to remember how she performed in her Season 12 lip syncs, there’s a good reason why. I’ll get more into it in the final thoughts, but this performance demonstrates why she’s such an odd choice. To the tune of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” Nicky just kind of dosey-dos around the stage aimlessly.
Alexis doesn’t do much better, but she’s a bit more engaged with the song, and she pulls out a split. So she earns a cool $10,000, and reveals that, against logic and reason, she’s chosen to send LaLa home. I’m happy for Kandy, but this result just feels like a mistake on both Alexis’ and the show’s part. LaLa hasn’t been doing so well as to be a major threat that Alexis is neutralizing, but she’s been doing enough to keep things interesting. The endgame of this season will be less thrilling without the LaLa Ri Experience. At least she goes out with a laugh and an iconic confessional—in true LaLa spirit.
With just four queens left, and four episodes to go, I have a simple question for the show: what’s happening here? At this point, there must be at least one non-elimination for the season to finish on time, and that would require a top two finale. (Which has literally never happened in Drag Race herstory.) More likely is a returning queen twist and a top three finale—but doesn’t that feel at odds with the Fame Games twist? I just can’t wrap my head around the math.
Got any theories on what’s still to come? Drop them in the comments! In a season without much to invest in, perhaps we can at least amuse ourselves with what-ifs about how this is all going to an end. Except for who’s going to win, of course; we’ve known that for months. To paraphrase Mariah Paris Balenciaga’s infamous mirror message: “Condragulations Jimbo.”
Untucking our final thoughts
✨ The Other Half of the Story, Deliberations Edition: LaLa tells Alexis plainly that the New York queen sending her home would upset her. She goes out in the episode on a happy enough note, but if I were her, I’d be pissed. Meanwhile, Alexis reveals that she slid Kandy a note with a final four alliance offer earlier in the season—once again, the queens handling their business off-camera—but Kandy ignored it. Alexis tries to extract a safety offer from Kandy, but considering how quickly Alexis betrays her bond with LaLa, why would anyone trust her? Finally, the vote is unanimous to send LaLa home among the other queens, but that’s not surprising: Jessica, Jimbo, and Kandy have had an alliance for weeks. Alexis is the only one who would’ve possibly voted Kandy out.
✨ The Other Half of the Story, Fame Games Edition: None this week, since this is a design challenge! So we’ll have two new entrants next week: LaLa and Kahanna Montrese.
✨ The Other Half of the Story, Jessica Wild Edition: “I don’t know why people don’t respect the hot glue gun, because that shit? Take time, you burn your hand—it’s a lot!”
✨ Listen, if this were a great season, I would understand the exaggerated “Previously on All Stars” segments. But do we really need a nearly two-and-a-half minute summary of the events of last week to start this episode?
✨ The best segment of the episode, by a mile, is Raven and Shannel’s visit to the workroom. We’ve seen Raven do this kind of walkthrough before, but Shannel is a welcome addition, offering substantive feedback and getting the queens thinking about strategy. Between this and her LSA appearance earlier in the season, is the show priming us for a future grand return from the OG Vegas queen?
✨ Brandon Boyd of Incubus is our guest judge this week, to which I say: beg pardon? He’s incredibly game and happy to be there, though! And he gets some great banter on the runway. But I admittedly don’t know a single thing about Incubus, and save for a single TikTok, I can’t seem to draw any other connection between him and Drag Race. Still: fun!
✨ Jimbo accidentally walks the wrong way on the runway as the queens head back to Untucked. Ru has to yell out and get her back on track. There’s a lot of comedy around Jimbo not being able to see this week, and it really doesn’t get old.
✨ Angeria Paris VanMicheals may have been a dubious LSA choice based on her track record, but we have truly gone off the rails with Nicky this week. In her season, her two lip syncs were either a season-worst performance from both queens (“Problem” with Dahlia Sin) or a clear loss for her (“Heart to Break” with Heidi N Closet). She proves she is not of the caliber to be an LSA in her performance this week, which is way too low-key. There’s been a growing consensus that this twist needs to be retired after this season, and with this week’s choice of guest, I think I can say the plaintiff has rested its case.
✨ Re: Having Kylie as her inspiration, Jessica says in confessional “At least I have the same breast size.” Then, after a pause: “It’s a joke.”
The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars will stream Friday, June 30, at 3 a.m. EST on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada. Check back every weekend after new episodes for our recaps and power rankings, and subscribe to our drag newsletter Wig! for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday afternoon.
Why you can trust Xtra
