Welcome to Canada’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every week, we’ll debrief the week’s new episode of Canada’s Drag Race Season 5 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. A surprise mini-ball challenge pushed the queens to demonstrate a range of looks—and one queen really delivered in that regard.
9. Sanjina Dabish Queen (last week: 5)—ELIMINATED
I’m very sad to see Sanjina go. She may have been inconsistent on the runway in these four episodes, but she was consistent in her passion and energy. Drag Race casts need queens like her who aren’t afraid to be unabashedly themselves and bring it to their performances. I’m not sure how she would’ve done in some of the show’s signature tasks—I can’t even imagine what her Snatch Game would’ve looked like—but like Melinda Verga last season, I was interested to see what she would do every week. The season will feel a bit quieter without her around.
8. Uma Gahd (last week: 3)
Since I talked about the looks pretty extensively in this week’s recap, I’d rather use this week’s power ranking to talk about the queens’ current trajectories in the competition. Uma’s is an interesting one: she’s getting a bit of an underdog edit, but every time she’s challenged, she comes roaring back. She’s had two minor fights with queens—Xana and Sanjina in the last two episodes—only to immediately beat them both in lip syncs. I’m most interested to see how she handles a comedy challenge, because she’s talking a big game about her style of drag being underrepresented. If she can pull out a surprise win, I’d say start betting big on Uma. For now, I’m still cautious about her prospects.
7. Makayla Couture (last week: 4)
Almost every Drag Race frontrunner must stumble at least once. In fact, they often do so on design or other kinds of look challenges: Raja on the makeover, Jinkx Monsoon and Bob the Drag Queen on the ball and so on. Hell, the very first winner of Canada’s Drag Race, Priyanka, actually faltered twice, including on Snatch Game. So this stumble doesn’t have me too worried about Makayla’s prospects. That said, I do think she needs a win sooner versus later. Assuming the season structure is the same as Season 4, there are actually only four challenges remaining, and The Virgo Queen has two wins. We’ve seen queens win with just one before—Venus just last season, Ra’Jah O’Hara on Canada vs. The World Season 1—but it’s far more common for CDR champs to have two victories under their belt by the time they make it to the end. Now’s the time for Makayla to start winning to get momentum on her side.
6. The Virgo Queen (last week: 1)
Virgo either wins a challenge or is in the lower half of the safe group—no in-between. It’s funny: she’s obviously our frontrunner with two of the four maxi-challenge wins, and she’s a sickening queen, but I’ve yet to see the usual hallmarks of someone who’s going to win this whole thing. We haven’t really learned anything about her, in stark contrast to queens like Makayla, Jaylene Tyme, even Xana. She’s getting screen time, and some very fun confessionals, but not the backstory that typically informs winners’ storylines in modern seasons. It’s still a bit early, and there’s time to fill in the gaps—think of how much we learned about Nymphia Wind in the last couple of episodes—but it’s something I’m keeping my eye on.
5. Perla (last week: 9)
Kind of a quiet week for Perla after avoiding elimination last week. I find her much more interesting than the show seems to, which is a bummer. I thought there might be some kind of Bimini-style bottom-to-top story happening with her when she won the second episode. Conceivably it could still come around, but I can’t help but get the impression that, save her maxi-challenge win (which even the cast now seems to be forgetting), the show prefers to look away when Perla is doing well. Her landing in the bottom two last week despite delivering one of the best lip syncs of the episode and not making the top for a slightly-too-complicated garment this week both have logical explanations, but still. The overall impression is not one of a queen the show is really invested in.
4. Xana (last week: 7)
Conversely, I think the show is very invested in Xana, even though I’m not sure she’s delivering Nearah Nuff-esque finalist upside. It’s funny: in no world do I think Xana should’ve won this week, but Xana actually impressed me the most out of anyone. The construction of her spiky star coat was nothing short of a marvel. Were the show interested in sending Xana home, I could see them actually making a strange example of her, putting her in the bottom for missing the ready-to-wear brief. The fact that they didn’t makes me think they’d like her around as long as possible to stir up some shit. Could she win a challenge along the way like Nearah? Maybe! But I’d have put her best odds on winning a lip sync challenge, and she actually lost her matchup last week. So I’d bet on her sticking around for a couple more weeks to cause trouble, then leaving a bit before the finale.
3. Helena Poison (last week: 2)
As I said in my recap, I’m really liking Helena more and more. She, unlike Virgo, is actually getting backstory moments, and her unique POV in drag is coming through more and more. Even more significantly, the show seems invested in her. She’s now scored in the top three straight weeks, delivering a dynamite Rufus Wainwright lip sync last week and turning out one of the most stylish looks on the runway this week. In fact, I think it’s a real testament to how much the show likes her that, despite her garment not really fitting the ready-to-wear brief, they still gave her a top placement. Could we have a dark horse to win it all on our hands in Helena?
2. Jaylene Tyme (last week: 8)
A close call at the top of the pack this week for Jaylene as she continues a surprisingly strong trajectory this season. I’m inclined to go ahead and pencil her in for the endgame at this point. I would like to see her snatch a win, and I’m a little nervous about another performance challenge coming around (potentially a Rusical but especially any kind of girl groups task). But I have to imagine CDR saw the outpouring of love for Kitten Kaboodle last season and wanted to boost another elder queen this go-around. Can she win the whole—pardon the pun—kit-and-caboodle? It’d take a different kind of final challenge than a verse and lip sync, I’d assume, but don’t count Jaylene out. If the final four is who I’m thinking it will be right now—her, Virgo, Makayla and Helena—she has the best story of the lot. It would be a tremendous moment to see her with a crown.
1. Minhi Wang (last week: 6)
Congrats to Minhi on her first win! Quibbles about the vague and limiting challenge brief aside, she’s the queen who clearly figured out what the judges were going for and nailed it—with some encouragement from Brad Goreski to edit. I remain a Minhi fan, and I’m thrilled to see her get a win so early. At this point, she’d be my bet on our fifth-placer who is eliminated right before the finale. She’s got a lot of skills that really help in this competition, but I still think she’s got some room to grow as a queen. Of anyone here, she’d be my top bet to come back and dominate an All Stars or vs. The World season. But maybe I’m underestimating her for this season! She’s surprised me a couple of times already—I could absolutely see her doing it again.
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