Welcome to RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every week, we’re debriefing the week’s new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. The queens teamed up for the girl groups challenge, but one group’s failure to live up to Ru’s expectations landed them all in the bottom.
14. DD Fuego (last week: 11)—ELIMINATED
Our first out is the only New York girl of the season—we’ve come so far since the NYC-dominated late-Logo and early-VH1 era! I’m sad to see a personality like DD go, especially when I thought she had the best verse in her group. “I’m not your cup of tea, okay, I’m tequila!” was a banger line. It felt like the show was just more willing to risk her life in the competition than it was with Athena Dion’s or Darlene Mitchell’s, and then Mandy Mango beat her fair and square in the lip sync. I’m not devastated to see her go, simply because it’s hard to get that attached to anyone so early, but she seemed like she’d have been a fun presence this season.
13. Mandy Mango (last week: 14)
Credit to Mandy: When she realized her back was against the wall, she did what needed to be done. Yes, getting out of her table costume proved a bit of a struggle, but once she was free of it, she dominated the lip sync. Mandy’s definitely a dancer, which should’ve served her better in this challenge, but her verse was painfully generic. And while she clobbered DD in the lip sync, I’m not sure she would’ve survived against Athena, the queen I do think she should’ve been performing against. So in a bad week for Mandy, she arguably got the best-case scenario, and she gets to avoid being the Porkchop of the season.
12. Athena Dion (last week: 7)
Given my druthers, I’d have put Athena in the bottom two this week. I thought she should’ve carried some responsibility for her team’s failure, even if DD’s throwing her under the bus was a bit messy. Once she wasn’t chosen by Nini Coco or Vita VonTesse Starr to be on one of their teams, Athena couldn’t get out of her own way. I’m surprised she misunderstood the disco assignment as badly as she did, and the choreography for her group was just so cheesy. I do like Athena, and I would’ve wanted her to survive the lip sync even if she was in the bottom, so I can’t be too mad at the result. But I gotta say, she’s not off to the start I’d expect for such a legend.
11. Darlene Mitchell (last week: 4)
Technically, Darlene was probably the worst in her group’s actual performance this week—which makes it all the more interesting that she was waved to safety first. I do think Ru seized on the falsetto scream as the most Sylvester-esque thing, and thus gave Darlene a pass, but considering Ru’s objection was that the group seemed to be mocking disco, I’m surprised. The comedic scream actually felt like the most direct mockery of all. In general, though, I think Ru is just intrigued by Darlene. The fact that we got the sobriety story so soon into the season, and Ru bantered about loving Darlene’s name, seems like a sign that she’s here to stay. I gotta say, I loved her trashy sunburn runway this week. If we get more of that kind of drag from her, I think she could stick around for quite some time.
10. Ciara Myst (last week: 9)
I don’t know about Ciara’s lip makeup, gang. It’s an interesting choice, but I find it pretty distracting, especially in a challenge where I need to look at her lips. It doesn’t help that she had one of the worst verses of the episode in my book. (I did think the fake slap part was cute, though.) I much preferred her runway presentation this week, with multiple pairs of eyes. It felt big and creative, which is her specialty, but still distinctly drag and not costume. If Ciara can channel more of her work in that direction, I have high hopes for her. (Even if I will, quietly, be hoping for a new lip every week.)
9. Juicy Love Dion (last week: 12)
I mean, if Juicy isn’t going to win a girl groups challenge, I’m worried about her. I thought her dancing this week was incredible, but her vocal performance was a bad fit—she just doesn’t seem to have the punk spirit within her. I was also a bit confused by the cat ear look, especially for this genre. Maybe she could’ve fared better in one of the other groups? On the runway, I liked the story behind her body part selection (her left leg, because she previously had surgery on it) more than I liked the look itself. It just felt a little timid for a leg slit dress; if you’re gonna go for it, go full Angelina Jolie.
8. Myki Meeks (last week: 8)
I’ve decided this #8 slot is reserved for Myki in perpetuity until she starts standing out. She’s not disappointing in any way, shape or form. But she’s also basically a non-entity competitively. Her look and performance in the challenge were good-not-great, reflective of the pop group’s performances as a whole. On the runway, I did really like her billboard look showing off her legs, particularly the FOR RENT gag as she turned around, but take that away and she was just wearing a corset. Again: not disappointing, just perfectly average. #8 she shall stay for now.
7. Kenya Pleaser (last week: 13)
There’s no doubt that Kenya’s a killer performer. While her verse was just okay, she sold the shit out of it with her dancing. She was the standout of her group in terms of actually drawing the eye while performing. I would not want to go up against her in a Lip Sync for Your Life, because she’s a commanding presence. On the runway, I admittedly rolled my eyes a bit at her body part being her “everything”—pick one, diva!—but she looked great. Her proportions in particular were really stunning. A solid rebound week for Kenya.
6. Discord Addams (last week: 10)
I give Discord props for finally redirecting her team and getting them punk as their genre, because it was by far the best choice. True, there was probably some selfishness in wanting the genre that was best for her. Funny enough, though, I thought she struggled a bit with the challenge. Her verse was repetitive and uninteresting, and she didn’t perform it particularly well. But she had the attitude right, and that set the tone for the rest of the team’s performance. I cackled that she’s still doing that damn runway walk—I assumed it was a choice for last week’s look, but it seems like that’s just her walk! Taking bets now on how long it takes before RuPaul finally points it out to her.
5. Vita VonTesse Starr (last week: 2)
Conversely, I do not believe for one second that Vita was actually playing 5D chess to get punk over disco, and I think it’s a little silly that she tried to sell that story. Like Discord, she sold the attitude of punk well, and while her verse was simple, I actually thought it was pretty effective. She also gets props as the best team leader: Her group felt the most cohesive and aligned when it came to the performance. Vita’s butt-focused runway look also could’ve read simple, but it was just really well done. That’s the theme of Vita’s performance across the board this week: straightforward but solid.
4. Briar Blush (last week: 5)
I remain obsessed with Briar, and her performance in the challenge and on the runway this week delighted me. Her vocal choice for the punk number was so wacky, but it really worked. I loved her verse, and she danced really well. Had there been multiple queens chosen to get high placements from each team, I think she would’ve been up for critiques with Jane Don’t. On the runway, her look showing off one finger was hilarious, and actually a pretty damn good drag look. Briar is my kind of queen, and I hope she continues to provide mess in the werk room and great work on the main stage.
3. Nini Coco (last week: 1)
Here’s the thing: you never really want to have your foibles included in the edit on Drag Race. But if they are, as Nini’s voice issues were this week, you want them to be presented in as positive a light as possible, and for them to ultimately go un-commented upon by the judges. The most prominent prior example of this I can think of is Symone in Season 13’s ball challenge; a good chunk of the werk room time was dedicated to her lack of sewing ability, only for her to be called safe come critiques. Nini got much the same treatment here. (Contrast this to someone like Suzie Toot in Snatch Game, where the edit was about how bad she did relative to her own perception, and the lack of critiques actually caused her problems later in the competition.) That’s why I feel comfortable keeping Nini this high despite her being underwhelming in the challenge: In a week where the edit could have ignored her, it went out of the way to explain her lackluster performance.
On the runway, her brain look was clever, particularly the hat, and I liked the gloves. I liked the dress less so, but it’s notable that once again, she made the entire outfit. I do think this season is angling towards a designer winning it—consider the amount of focus on who makes their own stuff in the entrances last week—and Nini’s smart to continue emphasizing her own craft.
2. Mia Starr (last week: 6)
If the queens were being judged on the amount of work they put in this week alone, Mia would’ve been our winner. I cackled when she held up her little choreography workbook in the confessional. And the work paid off! She got a group of dancers with varying levels of experience to all do some complex choreography very well, and the team looked really cohesive as a result. She also killed her own performance; she was just so much fun to watch. The judges seemed to get hung up on her runway not showing her face, but I appreciated the ways in which she wanted to just accentuate the parts of her body she chose. She wouldn’t have been my winner, but she was a very solid runner-up this week.
1. Jane Don’t (last week: 3)
I don’t think I expected to say “Jane Don’t, girl groups challenge winner” when we started this season, but the fun thing about this episode is that her victory is inarguable. She had the most clever, intelligent verse, and she performed it perfectly by switching between her two voices. Her Carol Burnett runway reference was camp, flawlessly rendered. Really, it was about as perfect a week for Jane as she could’ve hoped for. Last week, she seemed like a fun narrator for the season. This week, she seems like a threat to go all the way.
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