‘Canada’s Drag Race’ Season 6, Episode 7 recap: Fit for a Queen of the North, the sequel

When the Canada’s Drag Race Season 5 queens were tasked with designing a garment for Brooke Lynn Hytes, I spent much of the start of my recap discussing the particular dilemma that CDR faced with the Season 11 runner-up as host. “She was the first RuPaul’s Drag Race alum to host an international spin-off, and while she was the only real choice as the show’s only Canadian representation, she made for an odd fit,” I wrote at the time. “Most notably, she did not win—meaning her crowning other queens would inherently feel awkward. As a judge, she made sense; as a host, she lacked the qualifications to fill Ru’s shoes.”

The show had taken steps toward solidifying Brooke Lynn’s legacy, most notably the Season 4 Rusical (or rather, Broosical) about her life. But the Season 5 design challenge felt like a real step forward: something unique to her, utilizing her skills as a runway presentation specialist. Season 6’s premiere took that a step further, putting Brooke Lynn back on stage for a Lip Sync Just for Fun against the episode’s challenge winner. Again, this was an application of her particular skill as a Lip Sync Assassin, and felt like something only she could, or certainly would, do among the various hosts.

Flash-forward a year, and the problem I described feels like a thing of the distant past. Brooke Lynn has fully come into her own, and is even being voted best international Drag Race host in fan polls. (Personally, I would vote her best host period, but that’s just me.) So it’s delightful to see the “design for Brooke Lynn” challenge return—“by popular demand,” Sarain Fox says in the werk room—and give her another chance to show her prowess in this particular medium. The fact that, for most of the cast, this is their first chance at a design challenge, means the stakes are even higher.

That’s right, if you’ll recall, because of the split “Snatch Game or design challenge?” structure of the third episode in this season, four of the remaining six queens haven’t had to create a new garment in the werk room yet. (And of the two that have, only Van Goth actually wanted to; PM did not get a choice.) For us as viewers, that adds a level of intrigue to this challenge: Can anyone out-design Van? The answer, sorry to spoil, is no—but the other queens put up more of a fight than you might expect.

The premise of the challenge, other than being just an excuse to design for Brooke Lynn, is that the queens are creating show-closing looks for a collection at Paris Fashion Week—sorry, that’s Paris, Ontario Fashion Week. The queens will each get a chance to consult with Brooke Lynn and Slaysian Royale returning legend Suki Doll, plus get some actual construction help from Suki after the consultation. This helps safeguard against any abject disasters on the runway—but of course, Suki can only work so much magic in 10 minutes.

Eboni La’Belle plans to rely on another source of support during this challenge, though: Van! Last week, part of Van’s pitch for Eboni to use the Golden Beaver on her was that she would help her on a future design challenge. That chicken has come home to roost, and Eboni expects a lot of help. Almost immediately, Van backs away, insisting that she needs to do her own work before helping her Scissor Sister. When Eboni asks for assistance with a jumpsuit pattern, Van basically doesn’t respond, leaving Eboni to try and get one from Saltina Shaker or PM, to no avail. Van gets annoyed with Eboni in confessionals: “It’s literally an individual challenge,” she says. Eboni, meanwhile, is more directly confrontational, calling Van a “conniving cunt” in the werk room.

It’s hard to tell who’s most at fault here. True, Van did promise the assistance, and backed off at basically the first opportunity. But at times, it does feel like Eboni is asking for an unfair amount of labour from Van. Design advice and guidance feels like a reasonable ask, actual construction work, less so. But Eboni’s design is ambitious, and she simply does not have the skills to accomplish what she wants to without Van’s assistance.

In general, the group just seems stressed this week, which Sami Landri notes in a confessional. No one but Van knows what they’re doing as designers, and the Slay-Offs double elimination has made the werk room feel small. With only two eliminations to go before the finale, you can tell the cast is feeling the pressure. It’s a testament to this cast, then, that they turn out as many impressive garments as they do. A friend of mine (who sadly passed two years ago and was a huge Canada’s Drag Race fan—miss you always, Tony) used to talk a lot about the “GPA” of a Drag Race cast: basically, how well they performed as a group on average. This group’s GPA is much higher than Season 5’s, and so it’s little surprise they do better on the whole.

Before we get to the queens’ designs, we have a runway for them, and “Paris Spring Summer” is the category. The queens seem to mostly interpret this as “florals” (for spring? groundbreaking), and the results are … mixed. There are a couple of high-concept swings, including Sami’s blossoming look (unusual but I don’t like it) and PM’s “floating skirt” look (unusual and I like it!). Karamilk puts forth the strangest look of the whole night, a black bodysuit covered in carnations and dragonflies. It stumps the panel, and I gotta say it stumps me too. Saltina’s “orchid petal monstrosity,” as she calls it, is exactly that, while Eboni and Van knock this category out of the park. Eboni’s floral reveal from a maxi-coat looks rich as hell, while Van’s pastel watercolour look is both a real departure from her usual garments and still a natural fit with her drag.

Then we’re onto Brooke Lynn’s runway presentations, and there are a clear top and bottom three in the crop. Sami goes first in a vampy animal print look in red and black. There’s a fit issue in the bust, but overall? This is pretty good! It feels distinctly Sami, but also like a good fit for Brooke Lynn. (The fact that she’s wearing a black wig and dark makeup this week, when all the queens primarily used dark tones for their looks, is a true blessing.) Van comes next, and she is simply on another level. Her garment looks like something Brooke Lynn would wear to host an episode of this show. It is jaw-dropping. You will not be surprised to hear Van wins this challenge, and it’s really not close, but there’s at least one more look that stands up to it.

That look isn’t Saltina’s, which she describes when watching it come down the runway as “not as bad as I thought.” I will grant Saltina that this is technically true, and it’s not that bad, sure. But it is bad! More than anything, it feels half-baked—Saltina had a whole concept that she simply could not execute. I don’t fault a queen for not being a sewer by trade, but it was up to Saltina to judge her abilities and plan accordingly. She did not do that, nor did PM, whose trashy ballerina look is all tulle and fury, signifying nothing. I will give them this: It is a better effort than their last design challenge offering.

In a reversal of fortune from previous weeks, it’s Eboni who struggles this week, while Karamilk nearly scores her first win of the season. (Well, “nearly” is relative; she technically is the runner-up, but there was never a real contest with Van.) I think the difference between them is one of scope: Eboni goes with a very high-concept boa look that she does not have the technical capability to execute, while Karamilk wisely pivots when she realizes her initial idea—a see-through garment that Suki sounds the alarm on—was not something she could technically achieve. Instead, she just produces a simple, sparkly black gown that may not win any technical achievement awards, but nonetheless makes Brooke Lynn look fucking stunning.

The Golden Beaver is done, so we’re back to regular Drag Race rules, and as a result, Mini-Untucked is kind of a snooze. During deliberations, it becomes pretty clear what’s going to happen: Van wins, and Eboni is called safe out of the bottom three, leaving PM to fight for their life in this competition for a third time. This go-around, their opponent is Saltina, and despite their diametrically opposed performances in the Slay-Offs—Saltina in the Lip Sync for the Win and PM surviving the Lip Sync for Your Life—I have a lot more faith in PM as a performer. Saltina was already out of tricks by her last lip sync, while PM has proven consistently surprising in lip syncs.

The lip sync is to “I’m a Star” by Priyanka, and to be honest, this is neither of these queens’ best lip sync. PM still brings new moves, which I think ultimately puts them over the top, but I can’t argue that either performs like gangbusters here. I do think PM staying is the right call, but I can’t blame Van and Sami for being gagged in the back when Brooke Lynn announces the results. Saltina was much more of a contender for the crown, while PM feels like they’re marking time. Alas, it’s Saltina’s time, and she sashays away.

Colour me very excited for what’s coming next week: a gauntlet of four challenges testing the queens’ Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent. For a long time, it’s been a pet peeve of mine that Drag Race doesn’t make the semifinal challenge more difficult. This is the last stop before the finale! It should be a mountain to climb! Luckily, that sounds like exactly what this is, and I’m excited to see how these final five handle the task. We’ve only got two episodes left this season, and they’re shaping up to be barnburners.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ We get a little bit of follow-up to last week’s Mini-Untucked drama at the start of this week’s episode. Van feels that no one cared about her because she wasn’t crying over her poor performance, and admits in confessional that she isn’t interested in showing vulnerability. (I’d argue that’s a bad quality for somebody trying to win Drag Race, but I digress.) Then, Saltina says she was hurt by Van interjecting in her conversation with Velma Jones, and feels robbed of their last time together. Van does a decent job of smoothing this over in the moment, but I’m inclined to agree with her confessional about it: “This wasn’t a one-on-one candlelit dinner for you to gush over Velma.”

✨ Karamilk says she feels that Eboni and Van, with their final-two deal, have been counting the others out. Eboni, very wisely in my book, pushes back on this in a kind way: “I’m not counting you out! You’re here!” While Van continues to be a bit of an ass in the edit, Eboni is consistently shown in a more positive light. If the Scissor Sisters are going to be our top two, there’s a pretty clear indication as to who is getting the winner’s edit.

✨ I didn’t have time to check this, but I believe this was Sarain’s first time in the werk room! She was just promoted to rotating judge this season, with Brad Goreski’s departure, so she previously has only been a guest judge. I think she did a great job for her first outing if so!

✨ Gotta say, I’m not a huge fan of these Canada’s Drag Race improv mini-challenges where the queens aren’t shown their scripts or materials until they’re in the moment. It’s just never that funny to see them struggle, and nothing will ever hit the way Nearah Nuff pronouncing Siobhan as “Soy Bahn” did. But hey, good for PM winning their first (mini-)challenge, and $2,500 to boot.

✨ Erdem Moralıoğlu, the very attractive man behind the fashion brand ERDEM, is our guest judge this week, and the girls are thirsty for him! Saltina compliments his jawline, while Karamilk calls him beautiful. He’s cute and game, quotes Bimini and has great critiques. My only complaint: Why didn’t he walk the runway? Have your moment, Erdem!

✨ For her maxi-challenge victory, Van wins a trip to Punta Cana. While walking to the back of the stage with Karamilk, she says, “You wanna go to Punta Cana?” Then, the second Karamilk agrees, Van says: “No, just kidding.”

✨ I might be the cheese that stands alone on this one, but I’d rather the Golden Beaver stick around through Final 6. I can understand not having it for the semifinal round next week, so the judges can more strictly control who makes it to the end, but it feels weird to take it away prematurely. (Plus, with Van in control of it, the outcome would’ve been the same this week.)

✨ I get that Canada’s Drag Race wants to support their inaugural winner, and I loved the “Come Through” song choice back in Season 4, but some of these Priyanka songs …

✨ If you’re reading this recap the day it publishes: happy RuPaul’s Drag Race premiere day! If the first 10 minutes of the premiere are any indication, I think we’re in for a very fun season. Our recaps and power rankings for Season 18 will go live on Mondays, so check back after each weekend to get our thoughts on every episode. (Canada’s Drag Race coverage will continue to publish on Fridays for the last two episodes of the season.) Hope you’ll all join us for Drag Race’s 18th year!

The next episode of Canada’s Drag Race will be available to stream on Thursday, Jan. 8, at 9 p.m. EST on WOW Presents Plus in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada. You can subscribe to our drag newsletter, Wig!, for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox every month.