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. While we ordinarily evaluate the whole cast, the structure of this episode means we’ve only got six queens to discuss.

NOT COMPETING THIS WEEK: Athena Dion, Discord Addams, Jane Don’t, Kenya Pleaser, Myki Meeks

Considering how much alliance talk we saw in the lead-up to the challenge, these queens more or less judged fairly. Either Mia Starr or Nini Coco would’ve made sense for the other slot next to Juicy Love Dion in the top, and Ciara Myst’s GLAM! alliance didn’t elect to keep her out of the bottom slot. If anyone benefitted from personal relationships, it was Darlene Mitchell, whose score in Rate-a-Queen was buoyed by third-place ratings from her friends Athena and Jane. Which is funny, because theirs wasn’t even a firm alliance agreement!

Quick thoughts on these queens’ runways: Athena’s Chi-Chi Rodriguez tribute was fun, in a great colour that stood out on the main stage. Discord’s dumpster-of-dresses-and-newspaper look was more conceptual than it was coherent, but I did like the train turning into a carpet for her to walk on. Jane’s outfit was exactly what she said it was: “I’m walking down the runway, giving very ‘woman with a bird on her’ vibes.” It was just stupid enough to work for me. Kenya turning Jane’s coat into an island girl dress was more impressive as a feat of quick thinking than it was as a garment. Myki’s satin ribbon look was one of my favourites in the category, very sculptural and cool. We’ll see how they do in their own talent show performances next week!

6. Ciara Myst (last week: 3)—UP FOR ELIMINATION

I’m torn between feeling like Ciara got short shrift and thinking this was inevitable. On the one hand, I appreciate that she worked hard to make her poetry performance draggy. My main critique of “non-lip sync talents” and the push for greater recognition of them is that too often, they’re just a talent done by someone in drag—it’s not intrinsic to their drag persona. Ciara’s talent, I would say, was very much an extension of her drag. And the reveal was decidedly draggy! It felt like both the judges and the other queens got a little nitpicky about the message (which, fair) and the supposedly messy reveals (less fair) to justify just not liking a poem as a talent.

That said: Ciara should’ve known better than to do a poem as her talent. The one time this kind of spoken word act worked was Tatianna’s “The Same Parts,” and that was the very first talent show! (All Stars 2 was a decade ago this year—can you believe that?) And “The Same Parts” was humourous, while Ciara’s piece was a lot of serious intonation about “this beauty I’ve become.” I know it’s a sticking point for many that the talent shows don’t reward a wide enough range of talents, and I get it … but this isn’t the way to change the tide. I hope, for Ciara’s sake, she gets an easy opponent in the lip sync next week.

5. Vita VonTesse Starr (last week: 1)

The agony and ecstasy of Vita’s arc continues, as in a normally judged week she would’ve likely been the one in danger. (She was actually in every judge’s bottom two; Ciara wasn’t.) She’s so excellent on the runway and in design challenges, but that proficiency is not yet translating into other parts of the competition. One major issue: she seems to be a poor lip-syncer. In both the premiere “Enough (Miami)” lip sync and now to her own track in this performance, she’s dropped a lot of the words, and not done a very good job covering her mistakes. Considering her run has been so volatile so far, I’m worried that Vita is going to land herself in the bottom sooner versus later, and she may not be able to lip sync her way out of trouble. My hope would be that her general strength so far would buoy her to safety, though that’s not always the case. (Never forget Plasma, sent home with two wins on her first lip sync!)

4. Darlene Mitchell (last week: 9)

I’ll admit, Darlene’s schtick is starting to wear a little thin for me. Her talent show was devoid of much talent, save some very basic dance steps and a lip sync. Most frustrating to me is that, with a table full of props to play around with, she basically did nothing! One lift of the power drill at the end? That’s it? While I appreciate that Darlene came into this season with a particular brand, and it makes sense that she would match that for something as signature as the talent show, the brand alone is not enough. She needs to elevate across the board, particularly on the runway. I was glad to hear Ross Mathews describe her satin look as “amateur hour”—that’s the kind of critique the judges (save Law Roach) seem a bit afraid to make these days, but it’s exactly what the look was. Darlene’s a total sweetheart, and I do think there’s more there for her to tap into. But we’re five episodes in; now’s the time to shift to a higher gear.

3. Nini Coco (last week: 4)

I’m not as pressed as Jane was about Nini bringing in an act she’s gone viral with. For one, the track was entirely new, since the OG was set to Jane Bell’s “MOTHER ATE.” For another, the likelihood that Ru had seen the act was basically nil, and this show is—at least usually—about impressing an audience of one. However, I do think the familiarity of the act ultimately cost her in the ratings. Someone like Discord, for example, might’ve been more likely to reward such an out-of-the-box act if it was surprising. (We actually don’t know who Discord ranked #1, but if my guesstimation work is correct, she had to rank Juicy above Nini for the math to work.) Ru clearly lived for it, though, and I do think that appreciation will carry over into future weeks.

Let’s talk about Nini’s moment of indecision regarding which week to perform in. She was actually correct to try and pivot to Week 2. Sight unseen with the other acts, I think she likely would have placed in the top two, and would still have the benefit of two GLAM! team members (Ciara and Mia) voting for her. But I get the sense that she has closer relationships with Myki and Kenya, and thus wanted them voting her way this week. That said, when Kenya revealed to her that she had conflicting loyalties, that was the sign to jump ship. Ultimately, she was far clear of the bottom, so no harm, no foul. But I do think she may have robbed herself of the chance to pick up her second win.

2. Mia Starr (last week: 7)

I find myself waffling between whether I would’ve put Nini or Mia in the top two this week were I voting. (Juicy would be my #1 with a bullet.) I think, based on runway presentation and to vary up the styles of acts in the top two, I would ultimately have gone with Nini. But the reason I’m unsure is because every time I think about Mia’s performance, a huge smile creeps across my face. Sure, the number was a bit low-concept, but who cares? She performed the fuck out of her song, with an assertive, fun dance style that feels so real for her as a performer. And while I didn’t love the silhouette of her runway, I did enjoy the high impact of the big-ass bow. If Nini’s performance and runway were precise and perfect, Mia’s were bombastic and charismatic. I can’t fault the queens at all for voting for her—she truly was a star on that stage this week.

1. Juicy Love Dion (last week: 5)

Speaking of stars! Juicy dances like very few other queens who have graced the Drag Race stage have been able to. Her physical control is just remarkable; there were moments in her performance where she moved in ways I didn’t think people could move. The scrambling crawl across the stage! The kicks suddenly and gracefully stopped in mid-air! The fact that she had such a cute, video game-style original number, and that she performed the lip sync so well while dancing her heart out, made this a true complete package. When people disparage lip sync numbers as unoriginal, I point them to performances like these. This was a show. She could take this to RuPaul’s Drag Race Live! in Vegas today and get rapturous ovations. Juicy is the first queen to two wins, and I’m so impressed. Watch out for this one—she might have what it takes to win it all.