Welcome to Canada’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every week, we’ll debrief the week’s new episode of Canada’s Drag Race Season 6 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. Social strategy was the name of the game this week, as some queens hatched a plan to take out a strong competitor—but then backed down at the last second.
11. Star Doll (last week: 5)—ELIMINATED
If Star’s elimination this week feels kinda random, that’s because it was. She was, at max, fourth-worst across the various challenges, and considering her supposed ally had the Golden Beaver, she should’ve been totally safe. And against Velma Jones in the bottom two, she may have been—Star did a great job in the Lip Sync for Your Life, Karamilk just barely edged her out. More than anything, Star was the victim of a botched strategic move. She has done much better in this competition than her placement in it would suggest. I felt so badly that she took the loss so hard, but thank goodness for Brooke Lynn Hytes raising her spirits a bit before she departed. Justice for Star!
10. Karamilk (last week: 9)
Karamilk was blindsided by being put in the bottom, and I personally eagerly await Mya Foxx’s explanation as to why. Credit to her, though, she didn’t let the surprise knock her off her game. Star gave her a hell of a fight in the lip sync, but Karamilk was just a bit better. Based solely on challenge performances between the two, I’d have sent Karamilk home—but I also don’t think either should’ve been in the bottom in the first place over PM or Velma. Karamilk’s Snatch Game was a very pale imitation of Shea Couleé’s own take on Flavor Flav, overly fixated on the clock for jokes with little else to go on. Not a great moment for Karamilk, but I’m glad she’s still here.
9. PM (last week: 6)
If I had my druthers, PM would be our eliminee this week. While I do think Van Goth’s argument that PM, as the only queen who did not get to choose their challenge, was disadvantaged is fair, there were so many better ways out of the design challenge than PM’s bizarre “frontless dress.” When Icesis Couture and Pythia are baffled by your idea, that’s a good sign to change it. Granted, PM is one hell of a dancer, so they probably would’ve been able to beat any of the bottom four in the lip sync. (And assuming Van and Mya had gone forward with their original plan, I think PM would’ve sent Velma home.) But based on a combination of performance this week and in the season so far, I do think this was PM’s time to go. Hopefully they can rebound from the setback!
8. Velma Jones (last week: 2)
It was looking dire for a second there for Velma, who bombed Snatch Game at exactly the wrong time. Had Mya stuck to her guns, I think Velma would’ve been beaten in that lip sync by either Star or PM, and she’d have been sent home far too early. Considering I think she should’ve won the last two challenges, I’d have hated losing her here—but I couldn’t really argue against it. Her Justin Trudeau was dreadful, and should be a warning to future queens about bringing too many preprepared gags in. You should have some material in mind, but you still need to respond to what’s happening in the game. Really disappointing week from Velma, though I’m glad she survived it.
7. Sami Landri (last week: 11)
Sami’s lucky they weren’t calling low placements for each challenge, because she absolutely would’ve been in it for the Snatch Game group. Her Marjorie Taylor Greene was only the most basic idea of the character, with little “impersonation” to it at all. I know, in our modern age of people winning Snatch Game as fake characters (most recently in the UK, “Cher as a chair”), it can seem like impersonation is not the most important skill in this challenge. But if you’re going to do someone with as many recognizable tics in her voice and facial expressions as MTG, you should use them to your advantage! This was kind of a nothing, and I’m still waiting for Sami to step up her game to match her hype coming in.
6. Dulce (last week: 3)
Similarly to Sami, I think Dulce got a bit of a pass from bad critiques thanks to the structure of this episode. Her look wasn’t terrible, and she was clearly proud of herself for being able to pull something together. But she also chose the design challenge, so I give less of a pass for someone scraping through. She was great at the acting challenge last week—she probably could’ve done well at Snatch Game! Not a terrible week for Dulce, but not the momentum-building one I had hoped for after such a strong effort last episode.
5. Hazel (last week: 10)
This was a marked improvement for Hazel, and a sign that she may have a bit more life in this competition left than I previously presumed. While she didn’t come close to beating Van in the design challenge, Hazel put together a competent garment, and more importantly, styled herself perfectly for it. She looked hot! Do I question the taste level a little bit? Perhaps, but Hazel has shown plenty of looks that aren’t this kind of semi-slutty vibe before, so I chalk it up to her showing some range. In a week that was by and large rough for this cast, Hazel stood out for surpassing expectations.
4. Eboni La’Belle (last week: 7)
The amount of Eboni we’re getting in these episodes relative to her performances in the challenges is a major sign to me that she’s about to step up in a big way. I like her and Van’s final two deal, and the fact that both of them are planning on using fake alliances to advance each other from the middle. The problem for Eboni is that Van quickly blew all that up this week by not saving Star with the Golden Beaver. Eboni can still work her alliances … but she can no longer trust Van to boost her in the competition. That means Eboni will likely need to start pulling her weight in challenges, not just delivering the kind of mostly safe work she has so far. Her Keke Palmer wasn’t a problem, but it was in no way a winning performance. Maybe she would’ve fared better in the design challenge?
3. Saltina Shaker (last week: 1)
A quiet week for Saltina, but actually a pretty good one! I liked her idea to do Albert Einstein, and she had some solid jokes. Mya just dominated more of the game. But Saltina absolutely would’ve earned the high placement for Snatch Game if they’d had one. Also: for the first time, Saltina seems much calmer. I’m happy to see that her strong placement in the first two episodes (including the win last week) seems to have upped her confidence. Still, kinda wild to turn around and use that confidence to make the case that her sister Velma should be in the bottom. I’m interested to see what comes of that narratively in the coming weeks.
2. Mya Foxx (last week: 8)
Congratulations to Mya on a big victory! Taking home a win in Snatch Game can really help set you apart from the pack—it gave Melinda Verga a big boost in Season 4, and proved to be a bright spot in Synthia Kiss and Xana’s runs on their seasons. (And, of course, it gave Jimbo the jump-start to what wound up being a quite legendary career on Drag Race.) Granted, I don’t think Mya’s win was the strongest we’ve seen in Snatch Game on CDR; her Theresa Caputo was competent, and she did a good job of snatching (ha) every opportunity she could in the game. But I’d put it more in the class with Xana’s Bettie Page than I would Gisèle Lullaby’s Marie Curie, y’know? Still, a win is a win, and this is Mya’s breakout moment in the competition so far.
If only she had stuck to her guns and gotten out Velma! I had already started writing in my notes “Mya saves Karamilk with the Beaver,” when Mya said she was saving Velma. Reader, I actually gasped! Do you know how little makes me genuinely gasp on Drag Race these days? There was a lot of talk from Mya and others (especially Eboni) about taking Velma out that will likely get back to her, and I’m very interested to see how she responds to that. In the long run, I could see Mya regretting not taking the shot now—Velma’s an all-around strong queen, and Mya needs less competition to stand out from the pack. Time will tell!
1. Van Goth (last week: 4)
First and foremost, congratulations to Van on her second win! There were some quibbles over her premiere victory, but I don’t think anyone could argue with her dominance this week. She performed the best of any queen in either challenge, and produced one of the better Canada’s Drag Race design looks I can recall. Combined with her alliance chatter and strategic planning, this was looking like a very good episode overall for Van.
That is, of course, until she randomly went against her alliance with Hazel and Star to save PM. Here’s the thing: of course the alliance was fake to Van. As it should’ve been! But you have to at least reasonably maintain your alliance in the short term for it to pay off in the long run. If Van had to choose between two different alliances, sure, go ahead and throw Star into the bottom two. But unless we’re not being shown something, she has no such alliance with PM. I almost wonder if Mya’s decision to save Velma didn’t change Van’s plans: it’s worth it to put PM in the bottom if you want to use them and their impressive dancing skills to take out Velma. If not, hell, why not curry favour with PM for the future? And at least Star went home, so Van wouldn’t have both her and Hazel haunting her. But Van better hope Hazel doesn’t wind up with the Beaver in her hands any time soon, because I wouldn’t bet on her former ally to save her.
Why you can trust Xtra
