Welcome to RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every week, we’ve debriefed the week’s new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18 to determine which queens were riding high, and which needed she-mergency care. Now, we take one last look back on the arc of our three finalists—including our newly crowned superstar.

Third: Darlene Mitchell (last placement: 2)

Colour me genuinely surprised that Darlene wasn’t given a chance to Lip Sync for the Crown. I do think she might’ve been a victim of the decision to film the finale shortly after the rest of the season; Ru and his producers didn’t get the chance to see what a fan favourite she’d become. But I do wonder if there wasn’t something else at play here: a tacit admission on the show’s part that, for all her charisma, Darlene was not quite ready to be America’s Next Drag Superstar. That seemed to come through in her final performance, during which she mostly just walked back and forth across the stage. Her song was okay, somewhat catchy but not strong enough to stand up in memory as the other queens performed. I would say she was a clear third in this finale.

There will certainly be great demand for Darlene to come back for All Stars, and I do think she has tremendous upside if she does so. She’s going to return with massive fan support, Ru’s appreciation and a clear brand identity that can still be built upon. Whether she can win is dependent on who’s there with her, but I’d happily put some money on Darlene winning a crown at some point. For now, she can rest on the laurels of knowing that she ended the season the clear favourite among fans. That can take you to some truly fantastic places—not to mention some awesome booking fees.

Runner-Up: Nini Coco (last placement: 3)

No question in my mind that Nini won this finale. “Stimulate” was the best song of the three, an actual bop that stands out among the usually mediocre finale tracks. And that performance? She blew the other two out of the water. Killer concept, great choreography and she nailed every part of it. It’s always debatable how much these finale performances really make or break a queen’s chances at the top two—I would say the show mostly ignored them in Seasons 15 and 17, but they moved the needle a bit in 14 and 16. This year, I would say Nini making the Lip Sync for the Crown was very much due to “Stimulate.”

Ultimately, though, that wasn’t enough to earn her the crown. And while there was a certain “What the hell, why not?” quality to the idea of Nini taking it home, I do ultimately think it was right that she fell short. I said in my autopsy of what went wrong with Season 18 that Nini has one of the strangest edits for a finalist ever, and it actually only gets stranger knowing she made the final two. Why would the show give her this edit when this finale was filmed months ago? Why did the last in-season episode go so far to prop up Darlene as a contender, while it felt like Nini barely scraped her way into the endgame? A season defined by its baffling storytelling had to make one more absurd decision before it wrapped up, I guess.

Still, I’m proud of Nini for putting up such a fight, and making her spot in the top two undeniable. She was a victim of very strange production choices this season, but when she was in the driver’s seat, she turned out some great work. I very much look forward to seeing what kind of live numbers she comes up with now, with some post-Drag Race budget to spare. The praying mantis number was only the beginning!

Winner: Myki Meeks (last placement: 1)

Condragulations to Myki, America’s Next Drag Superstar XVIII! While I have my quibbles about how exactly we got here, I consider the Florida queen a deserving champion. She’s had some major star moments this season, including and especially her Snatch Game impression getting her invited on Drew Barrymore’s show, and I think she’ll be a good ambassador for the show. There’s a confidence and clarity of purpose to Myki that impresses me, and I think it makes sense that someone so competent would be the last queen standing amid the bizarre rubble of this season.

I do wish Myki’s story had been more in alignment with the story of the season. I found it strange that, in her top three recap package, she named the Rusical as the high point of her season—a challenge she notably did not win. I don’t doubt that it actually was her personal highlight, as the experience seemed to genuinely heal something within her. But considering she has four other wins, it felt a bit discordant, as if to question whether the judges were really rewarding the things about Myki that Myki herself is most proud of. (The fact that her Drew also did not win the Snatch Game adds to this feeling.)

The circumstances in which Myki won are always going to bring about questions: would she have won if Jane Don’t were in the finale? Did she actually win that final Lip Sync for the Crown against Nini? Did she deserve all four of her wins? I don’t know if I could confidently answer “yes” to any of those questions. But I also don’t think it really matters. The season is over, and Myki is our victor. The journey to the crown is but a memory; the Meeks reign is the future. And I do think she is the type of queen to really make the most of her time as America’s Next Drag Superstar. So congratulations to her once again! Cheers to a terrific year and career ahead for her.