Welcome to Canada’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every week, we’ll debrief the week’s new episode of Canada’s Drag Race Season 6 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. With the Golden Beaver making her grand return this week, one of the most hyped queens coming into the season suddenly finds herself fighting for her life.
12. Paolo Perfección (last week: 12)—ELIMINATED
I actually really felt for Paolo in this episode. Eboni La’Belle’s read that she puts on the “Paolo” persona as a mask seems spot on to me, and in Mini-Untucked, we got to see what happens when that mask falls. It can be easy to dismiss troll or meme-y queens as unserious or uninterested in the competition, but Paolo’s emotional response to being in the bottom is a clear reminder that no matter their drag persona, they’re competitors, too, who want to go the distance while performing as the artist they are. I thought it interesting that she and Sami Landri wound up in the Lip Sync for Your Life—the “battle of the buffoons,” as they called it—as it felt like the show deciding which meme queen they wanted to see more of.
Based on their performances this week, I do think the panel was right to keep Sami over Paolo. While Sami’s performance didn’t go far enough, Paolo’s was just off the mark entirely. And on the runway, while her trash bag looked funny, it technically didn’t fit the prompt, and as Traci Melchor noted, it really didn’t go far enough. Here’s hoping Sami can keep Paolo’s buffoon legacy alive for the rest of the season—but I admit, I’ll miss Paolo’s off-kilter energy.
11. Sami Landri (last week: 6)
Not where I thought I would be talking about Sami on this power ranking just two weeks in! She and Paolo seemed genuinely gagged that Saltina Shaker chose to save Hazel, but considering Hazel got good comments on her runway look (which neither meme queen did), I understood it. More than anything, I hope Sami really takes the judges’ critiques to heart this week. Carson Kressley said it best: better for Sami to swing big and give the judges plenty to talk about than to undershoot and leave them bored. The question to whether Sami can go the distance in this competition is whether she’s able to channel her camp sensibilities into what Drag Race asks for. I would argue Canada’s Drag Race is more open than other franchises to different kinds of queens—see: Melinda Verga placing fifth in Season 4—but the judges do still expect some meeting in the middle.
10. Hazel (last week: 10)
Hazel’s bottom three placement this week is a lesson in how not to handle off-the-rails group dynamics in Drag Race challenges. She knew that the Singles at Sea crew’s creative direction was too sexual and not on point, and she tried to voice it—but not loudly enough. She wound up taking the brunt of the blame for it (granted, Paolo was also on the bottom, but more for her own failings than the group’s). Hazel got the Golden Beaver from Saltina, and I do think that was more for her runway than anything else. But this is the second week in a row she’s pulled out a great look after an underwhelming challenge performance. At some point, the runways won’t be enough to save her.
9. Karamilk (last week: 9)
I actually thought Karamilk was doing well in the challenge when her group was recording … but the final product told a different story. She came across much lower energy than Dulce, who outshined her in all their scenes. There was also something going on with Karamilk’s mug in the challenge—not sure if it was the lighting or her makeup, but her face looked a decidedly different shade than her body. She more than made up for it on the runway in her bat look, though. The whole thing was a smash—those wings! Spectacular. More of this, please, Karamilk!
8. Mya Foxx (last week: 7)
Mya and Star Doll didn’t have much to do in their sketch, but I do think Star found more to do, y’know? Like every moment they were on screen together, my eyes went to Star. Mya didn’t do badly, but similar to Karamilk with Dulce, she got outshone by her screen partner. I do really like Mya, and find myself rooting for her, but this was a tough week. Her runway was an interesting concept—the demon behind the mirror—but it had a major presentation problem. Maybe the best thing about the look was her makeup … but you could barely see the makeup because she held her mirror up in front of her face for most of the runway walk. A strategic misfire.
7. Eboni La’Belle (last week: 3)
It’s hard to balance how much I personally like Eboni with how she performed this week. How can I not love a queen who calls out her own overly rehearsed confessional by saying “That was so corny boots. That was giving Caucasian. Oh my god, why am I Saltina Shaker up in here?” Hilarious! Yet in both the challenge and on the runway, Eboni underwhelmed. She wasn’t the problem with the Singles at Sea group, but she certainly wasn’t the solution—she was, at best, a neutral presence in the sketch. Then on the runway as a gothic glamourpuss, she looked nice, but it was one of the lower-effort garments. Hard to keep up when your competitors are pulling out high-concept looks with gorgeous mugs to match. I still feel good about Eboni’s overall trajectory, which is why I’m not dropping her even further, but this wasn’t the second week I was hoping for from her.
6. PM (last week: 4)
I am realizing that PM’s drag might just not be to my taste. Her sleep paralysis demon look was an interesting concept, and by all objective metrics, she executed it well. But I was bored by the presentation, and I found the concept more confusing than compelling. She seems like a total sweetheart, but this marks two weeks in a row that I’m less impressed with her than the general consensus. In the challenge, though, I’ll give PM high marks for being really the only member of her group to figure out how to make their too-sexy take on the prompt work. By going over-the-top with it, she took it out of being just sex jokes and made it kind of desperately absurd. Overall, a fine week for PM.
5. Star Doll (last week: 11)
I was genuinely very impressed with Star this week, so much so that I think I may have misjudged her in the premiere. She found every way to make a low-key character in her sketch stand out, taking Carson’s encouragement to twerk on her walker and running with it. (Not many shows I can write about and earnestly talk about twerking on walkers.) Then on the runway, I was pretty gagged by her aswang look. It was a surprising transformation for her, and demonstrated a depth to her makeup skills and concepts on the runway that I didn’t expect. You could feel Suki Doll’s mentorship within her in her runway presentation. I’m still nervous about her limited screen time—doesn’t feel like she’s being built up as a major character—but I like a lot of what I saw this week from Star.
4. Van Goth (last week: 1)
To quote the philosopher Knowles-Carter, “You know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation.” Van is, for better or worse, the main character of Canada’s Drag Race Season 6 so far. So many fans disagreed with her win last week—hell, I did too—but she still got the viral exposure of lip syncing against Brooke Lynn Hytes. She’s now been in two separate spats, with Dulce last week and Velma Jones this week. I was pretty firmly Team Velma in their drama; Van came off incredibly sensitive in her reaction to Velma (seemingly accidentally!) taking more credit than Van thought she deserved. It was telling that Van had to be the one to apologize later, and didn’t even apologize that well. I thought her apology to Dulce earlier in the episode was better. But still, as Paolo noted, Van’s the common denominator in these issues.
I thought Van was fine in her group’s commercial—it was notable that she was the only one to place safe of the four of them—while her two-headed demon teddy bear look on the runway was genuinely terrific. Van’s got real potential, but I hope she can keep herself out of the fray moving forward.
3. Dulce (last week: 8)
Really proud of Dulce for her performance this week! You could tell she was nervous, being the only one in her group without acting experience, but she demonstrated that you don’t need to have gone to Juilliard to excel in a Drag Race acting challenge. She was confident and had great comic timing; I’m still giggling thinking about her delivery of “Which is ironic, ’cause we’re the ones hosting it!” Yeah, the La Llorona look was a little unrefined, for all the reasons Brooke Lynn Hytes highlighted. But the black tears gag was very fun, and I love that Dulce is bringing all these specific, recognizable references to the runway. I’m very excited about where she goes in the competition from here; Dulce has Verga upside, I’d say.
2. Velma (and Johnny!) Jones (last week: 2)
Another week, another chance for me to say that Velma was robbed of the win. How am I not myself? But seriously, when the other queens in Mini-Untucked said they were surprised Velma didn’t take it, I could only agree. Not only did she make the most of her time in the sketch, nailing both the physical comedy and her characterization, but she also pulled out a big surprise on the runway: Johnny Jones! He looked hot as hell in his werewolf look, and even had Traci flirting with him. Velma and Johnny were a dynamic duo this week, and if I had my druthers, they’d be walking away with their second maxi-challenge win in a row.
1. Saltina Shaker (last week: 5)
I want someone on that set to just hold Saltina’s hands and remind her that her track record so far is “HIGH-WIN.” Because that girl is nervous! She brings such anxiety to the critiques, and I just want her to breathe and enjoy her time. She’s doing well! Granted, I wouldn’t have placed her in the top last week, and I wouldn’t give her the win this week. But I’m sitting on my couch typing this while I get ready for American Thanksgiving. The only people whose opinions matter love Saltina, and she should take confidence from that. I did appreciate her opening up about her runway’s source of inspiration, giving her and Traci a lovely bonding moment in the process. And she was really quite solid in their sketch; the whole concept wouldn’t have worked as well without her anchoring it. Here’s hoping Saltina can finally shake off the nerves, because she’s clearly got the goods to go far in the judges’ eyes. But I worry her inner saboteur might stop her in her tracks.
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