‘Canada’s Drag Race All Stars’ finale recap: The first Canadian ‘All Stars’ champion is …

After six weeks of cutthroat gameplay, dazzling drag and killer lip syncs, we have arrived at the grand finale of Canada’s Drag Race All Stars. Though it’s been a brisk journey, it’s been a wild one; any season that starts with two of your frontrunners being eliminated in the first two episodes is bound to be. But despite all the shenanigans, we’ve wound up with a very deserving and highly competitive final four. Yes, it has seemed obvious for much of this season that Aurora Matrix is going to win, but the other queens aren’t making it easy for her.

This finale is structured a little differently than we’ve seen before: other than the cold open and a Mini-Untucked segment later in the episode, everything takes place on the main stage. Brooke Lynn Hytes walks out (looking stunning) as usual to introduce the Coronation Eleganza, and we welcome back our five eliminated queens! Their looks range from pretty to drop dead gorgeous, with Pythia’s gold outfit being a marvel unto its own. She calls it “a perfect merge of architecture, set design, prop making and costuming,” and it is indeed all of those things. I also think Makayla Couture’s sea goddess look is one of her best ever.

Then, we see our final four: Jada Shada Hudson in a spectacular warrior look, Nearah Nuff looking the most beautiful she ever has in a blooming roses gown and Aurora pulling out her best garment of all time in a spectacular traditional Chinese dress. (Her hair alone in this look should win her $100,000.) Sami Landri stays very true to her own aesthetic with her look … but unfortunately, it sticks out as the worst of the lot to me. And I’m including most of the eliminated queens in that!

I’ve made no secret how impressed I’ve been with Sami this season. What she accomplished after coming back so quickly has been a delightful surprise. She expresses in the cold open that she was previously afraid of the Drag Race machine, and felt like she had to exist outside of it. Now, after making it to the finale of two separate seasons, she realizes that she’s gained strength from going through the process—while still getting to stay truly herself. This look feels a bit disappointing with that in mind; we’ve seen her do Sami Landri at a top level throughout All Stars, and I think this was a step down from that.

That said, it’s really just a look for the reunion portion—or, as Brooke Lynn calls it, “a final kiki.” Much of the talk centres on the Golden Beaver voting twist and how it affected the game this season. I appreciate that after queens like Juice Boxx and Tiffany Ann Co. call it a “social game,” Pythia corrects them, saying it’s a “strategic” one. We never once heard a voter this season say they were keeping Juice or Tiffany around because they liked them as people. It was always about keeping the weaker competition in. That’s why it never made sense for Tiffany or Nearah to say Pythia wasn’t fighting enough to stay: as Pythia notes here, nothing she could’ve said in that moment would’ve convinced queens like Aurora and Nearah to keep her around.

Generally, the rest of this talk is all in good fun. Nearah lets a frustrated Pythia know that the challenge after her elimination was a design task, and Brooke Lynn chimes in, “And you were missed.” Sami and Jada bond over voting the same way every week, while Tiffany owns her game of selling herself as the weakest threat. The most intriguing bit comes near the end, when Makayla asks Nearah about her “prickly energy” when Nearah campaigned for her and Aurora to be in the bottom two. Nearah praises Makayla’s “drag excellence” (a compliment you can tell Makayla really takes to heart), but defends that the only correct move in that spot was to guarantee one of her or Aurora went home.

As Nearah explains this, Aurora shifts in her seat a bit, clearly annoyed. She calls out Nearah for claiming to have had her back, but Nearah responds that Aurora never voted to save her. Aurora then quickly says she had a tighter alliance with Juice, laughs and throws out an inauthentic “love you, sister!” to Nearah. I bring this up because a) it’s edited in a way that is not favourable for Aurora, and b) it kinda explains why, even though Aurora’s been excellent this season, I’ve found myself rooting for queens like Nearah and Sami over her.

Aurora has evolved into a near-flawless performer. It’s been amazing to watch her storm this season, taking control of the strategic game to eliminate threats in her way and clear her path to the crown. But much as was the case in Season 4, she’s still a bit of a mystery as a person. I think I learned more about who she is when she guested on the Smosh Mouth podcast than I have across 15 episodes of Canada’s Drag Race. I’m not sure if it’s the competition, or being on camera, but there’s a feeling with Aurora that we’re still seeing a version of her that she’s putting on, not the real her.

Now, that’s her prerogative. Drag Race is not owed a queen’s vulnerability, much as the franchise has at times tried to insist the opposite. But when I look at her competition in the finale, I feel we’ve gotten to know Jada, Nearah and Sami much better than we have Aurora. That’s not a reason not to crown her—but I do think, for me, it explains why I can’t quite bring myself to get invested in her winning on an emotional level.

After the reunion, the eliminated queens get a chance to Lip Sync for Your Pride in a mini-challenge, as all five lip sync at once to RuPaul’s “The Queendom (JROB Remix).” No one’s able to pull anything out at the level of Brigiding and Viñas Deluxe’s performance of this song, but Makayla is solid, and wins $2,500 for good measure. This is cute! I do think the eliminating-mid-performance element is kind of batshit, but in a very Canada’s Drag Race way. Innovation and taking big swings isn’t always clean, but it’s fun!

Finally, we’re on to the main attraction: three lip syncs between the top four to determine a winner. Sami gets first pick between two songs: “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” by Shania Twain, and “Cut to the Feeling” by Carly Rae Jepsen. (In a fun coincidence, not only are both songs by Canadian artists, but they both featured as lip syncs in RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 10!) Sami goes with the Shania track, and Aurora’s next up. Everyone expects Aurora to go with “Cut to the Feeling”—but, in a gag, she decides to go against Sami! Jada and Nearah are suddenly paired up without a choice, and as Nearah notes, Jada is quite nervous about this.

Aurora’s choice has left the two Lip Sync Assassins up against “the funny girls,” as Sami calls them. Hilariously, when asked directly whether she chose to go up against Sami for the song or the opponent, Aurora flat-out lies and says it was the song. But she tells us in confessional just minutes before it’s because she knows she can beat Sami! She goes on to claim it’s part of her repertoire in Toronto, which Jada throws a big heap of skepticism on in her own confessional. Honestly, Aurora lying just to lie might be the most interesting window into her personality we’ve gotten.

Anyway, you can guess how this all goes. After all, Aurora and Nearah were the top two in the first-ever Slay-Off, where Nearah emerged triumphant. Now that they’ve wound up on opposite sides of the draw, it’s inevitable that they’ll be reunited as the top two. Aurora, so smart for wearing a “That Don’t Impress Me Much”-style leopard print for a Shania lip sync, tears “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” up. Sami’s not bad, but Aurora adapts her own style to this song perfectly. Sami seems a bit bummed to be eliminated, but she has a campy exit as she ties her placement from Season 6.

Jada vs. Nearah to “Cut to the Feeling” is a much less interesting battle, as it almost feels like Nearah is going at half-speed throughout. But Jada is already missing words by the time Nearah puts the pedal to the metal at the bridge. Nearah wins, and Jada falls a placement from her runner-up status in Season 2. While I really like Jada, I’ll be honest and say that her making it into the Lip Sync for the Crown after threatening to quit last week would’ve left a bad taste in my mouth. I ultimately think it’s right that she goes out here.

And so we arrive at our final lip sync battle, as Nearah and Aurora emerge in matching bodysuits. Their storyline together is kind of incredible, from their previous battle in the Season 4 Slay-Offs to being untrustworthy allies this season. It makes sense that this particular season would come down to the two of them, the biggest game-players and best lip-syncers of the bunch. The final song is Lady Gaga’s “Perfect Celebrity” (Mayhem supremacy!), though Brooke Lynn does fake them out by pretending it’s “Black Velvet” again.

This is a titanic final battle, assisted by some excellent cinematography by the camera operators. It feels dynamic, with each of the queens outperforming the other at various points. If you really take this as a lip sync that will decide it all, it’s genuinely hard to predict who will come out on top. When the two embrace at the end—in a hug that feels representative of their true friendship, much more so than their scraps this season—there’s a comfort in knowing they left it all on the floor.

But of course, a final lip sync is never really the determining factor—it’s about the season before as well. With that considered, it becomes clear what will happen when Brooke Lynn announces the winner: Aurora Matrix is Canada’s Drag Race All Stars’ first champion. Huge congrats to her! She wasn’t my pick, but she was undeniably great this season. Even if her victory was expected, she never made it feel perfunctory. And I will always root for Season 4 supremacy.

So, Canada’s Drag Race All Stars. Pretty great, huh? Yes, it suffers from running for just a handful of episodes, and I’d love to see an expanded Season 2 order considering what a success this has been for Crave. It’s one of the gaggiest little seasons we’ve ever seen, and the cast—with a couple of unfortunate exceptions—really performed at an All Stars level. I’d love to see most of these queens on another season, particularly Nearah, Sami and Pythia. And I’m already making wishlists for future seasons in my head! (Top of the list: SYNTHIA. KISS.) I’m glad we got this extra time on the CDR set this year, and as always, I can’t wait to come back for another season in the winter. Until then!

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ The X-Factor style intros of the top four return, but in their more subdued form from recent mainline seasons. I think I’ve identified why I ultimately don’t like these: while a finale is about the finalists, I’d rather have a season recap that breaks down the whole story of how we got here, not just the last queens standing. The reunion in this episode helps, but I’d much rather have a narrative recap versus these final four intros.

✨ It’s just family this week on the judging panel, which means it’s time for our regular analysis of the judging panel! Speaking generally, I think an all-drag-queen panel, first tried out in earnest on Slaysian Royale, is a great idea for seasons with returning queens. These are contestants who have been through the ringer of the main season and gone out to work in the world post-Drag Race, so it makes sense to have them be judged by their peers. However, I wouldn’t want this to become the norm on regular seasons. While, yes, drag artists have a personal perspective on the art of drag, there’s value in diverse perspectives. Plus, getting to have expert judges for particular kinds of challenges (design, comedy, etc.) is invaluable. I think my preferred format would be a drag artist host and main judge, a regular drag artist judge on the panel, a rotating recurring judge for a non-drag artist perspective and a guest judge.

✨ Speaking specifically about Jimbo and Priyanka: I’d give them both solid, but not stellar, marks. For my money, Priyanka was the better of the two, but not by any significant margin—I just got the sense she was being more honest about her opinions. Jimbo really skewed positive most of the time, but had a major redemption during the C.U.N.T. Test judging as Joan Rivers. That was, by far, her best stint, as if being a character gave her the freedom to say what she really thought. Overall, though, I think the panel needs someone more unapologetically opinionated to sit up there. What I’m saying is: Icesis Couture for the Season 2 panel, please!

✨ As she told us a couple episodes ago, Brooke Lynn has been doing this for nine seasons now, and her experience comes through in every part of her performance. She is simply excellent in this role, and her fashion this season continued her trend of excellence. I have absolutely no notes.

✨ There’s a Miss Congeniality vote sponsored by Shark in this episode—separate from the Shark fan vote—and they even allow a little campaigning for it in Mini-Untucked! Tiffany, Juice and Makayla all make their cases, while Jackie feels deflated in hers, seemingly aware that these queens who barely know her won’t be voting for her. In a particularly kind act, Pythia doesn’t campaign, instead throwing her weight behind Jackie’s candidacy. Ultimately, the queens pick Juice, who gets $10,000 from Shark. Good for her!

✨ I’m a little iffy on the Slay-Off style selection of songs and opponents for a four-person Lip Sync Smackdown for the Crown. First, basing it on the order of the C.U.N.T. Test winners is circumspect, since the queens had no power over the order in which the challenges happened. But more problematic is what ultimately happened: if the first two queens want the same song, the whole exercise ends early. I think this probably should’ve just been a wheel selection for both fairness and dramatic intrigue.

✨ On that note, I feel like Aurora’s choice to go against Sami was arguably what got her the crown. While Aurora would’ve likely won the first lip sync either way, if she had beaten Nearah in the first round instead, and Sami beat Jada, I do think Sami’s titanic fan support could’ve made her a very compelling alternative for the crown. But since she was taken out in Round 1, Sami was not an option. Just a little “what if” to consider!

✨ Two queens who competed in their original season together, had a seasons-long storyline together and who wore red and purple, respectively, for their final, evenly matched season in a returning-queens season of Canada’s Drag Race … welcome back, Silky Nutmeg Ganache and Ra’Jah O’Hara!

✨ Thank you all so much for joining this season—it’s been a blast. And while I know it’s felt short for many, I actually think we got the exact right amount of episodes for this season’s story. Any more strategic eliminations, and I think we risked having someone not at the same calibre in the finale. The way things worked out, we had a gaggy first two-thirds, only to settle down for a genuinely competitive final stretch. It felt just right to me, and hats off to the production team at Canada’s Drag Race for nailing their first true All Stars season.

While All Stars may be over, our time up north has just begun. We’ll be back later this year for our usual coverage of Canada’s Drag Race—now in its seventh main season, and 10th including the spin-offs! In the meantime, you can subscribe to our drag newsletter, Wig!, for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox every month.