‘Canada’s Drag Race’ Season 3, Episode 7 recap: Rusically inclined

I almost feel like I set myself up to be disappointed by this week’s Canada’s Drag Race Rusical.

In this past edition of Wig!, Xtra’s drag newsletter (which you can and should subscribe to now!), I wrote at length about last season’s campy, near-disastrous Rusical, Under the Big Top. In particular, I focused on Eve 6000’s memetic performance as Revealiana, the flop-filled reveal specialist who had a few tricks up her … sleeve. I framed my praise of the whole season in terms of both Eve’s Revealiana performance and the greater Rusical, saying specifically, “It may be a mess, and it may be cringe to watch, but I can’t help but embrace it wholly. I was gooped and gagged, and I don’t believe it.”

By comparison, Squirrels Trip: The Rusical is a much more fine-tuned affair. The songs are well-written and done in very particular Broadway styles. The characters have their niches, but are also actual characters—as opposed to the broadly drawn caricatures of clowns from Under the Big Top. And all top six queens do a decent enough job with the material; there are no clear flops like there were last season.

Yet I can’t say I was either gooped or gagged by this Rusical, which goes for the season as a whole. I’ve enjoyed Season 3, and I actually think we’re in for quite a fight between our final five queens for the crown. But it lacks some of the charm, some of the can’t-help-but-love-it camp value of Season 2. I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault in particular: production has done a great job with the challenges this season, and I enjoy this cast a lot. It’s perhaps just an example that a season you love isn’t about everything going right, necessarily, more that it’s going right for you.

But we’ve still got a couple of episodes for this season to land the plane, so let’s instead focus on the Rusical episode itself. We actually get one of Canada’s signature slightly-too-elaborate mini-challenges, as the queens must audition for a new movie sponsored by MADE. Honestly, none of this is particularly memorable, except for Vivian Vanderpuss’s drag take on Annie with a giant wig. (I also appreciate Miss Fiercalicious subtly channelling Rachel Berry in her look.) Kimmy Couture wins the mini-challenge, which: sure!

The main attraction is our Rusical, which Vivian describes in confessional with great excitement. “This is the big one! Everyone remembers the Rusical!” she says. To which I respond: is it? There are some great Rusicals in Drag Race herstory, like Season 12’s Madonna: The Unauthorized Rusical and Season 14’s Moulin Ru, but those are few and far between; even some of the most memorable to me, I realize are not necessarily the fans’ favourites. (Have I mentioned I love Under the Big Top yet?)

With just six queens, there’s very little room for this cast to hide in a Rusical. Accordingly, everyone gets at least one big spotlight number, although Gisèle Lullaby purposefully takes a role that only shares a number with another queen—specifically Irma Gerd. Gisèle’s thinking is that, as a not particularly strong singer, this is the safest route for her. However, Irma is dismayed when Gisèle first starts to sing, as she realizes that this won’t be an easy walk for her in the challenge.

Vivian also fears her footwork failing her, as she realizes she picked a role that has “strong choreography.” What that means is unclear, although with Hollywood Jade behind the steps, Vivian has reason to fear a tough regimen. She tries to get someone to swap roles with her, but to no avail. Fierce even admits she encouraged Vivian to take the ultra-dancey role as a bit of retribution for Vivian assigning her and Bombae a ballad in Episode 3’s lip sync challenge.

But this is a fake-out, because Vivian smashes the choreography despite the complex steps. Credit to Jade, whom I’ve criticized in the past for being too stringent in his work with the Canada’s Drag Race queens: he pulls back this season, keeping up the difficulty, but not leaning into drama in his coaching. His one bit of quippiness—“We’re still in the first two lines of the song,” he says to an overwhelmed Vivian—is genuinely funny, and Vivian takes it in the right spirit. That congenial working relationship produces great results for Vivian, who dances her way into her first win this week.

Fierce, Kimmy Couture and Jada Shada Hudson achieve varying degrees of success across the maxi-challenge and the runway in the Dystopian Drag category. Fierce comes closest to snatching the win away from Vivian, smashing her performance in the Rusical and turning out The Shape of Water-esque fish monster drag on the runway. If I have any quibble with her performance, it’s that her runway entry reads more underwater sci-fi than dystopian. But she has a great week, regardless—she just can’t quite snag that second consecutive win.

Kimmy gets major—and deserved—praise for her “gold digger” character in the Rusical. I was a little worried for her in her recording session, as she doesn’t seem to be hitting the punchlines of the song enough. Part of a Rusical is being able to underline the moments that are meant to be nailed, and Kimmy’s initial performance felt a bit generically poppy. But by the time she hits the main stage, she’s golden. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for her silver runway look, which is yet again a bust-and-panty look rendered in new materials and colours. The judges practically scream at her to show them something else, which sets up an interesting challenge for Kimmy in the Masquerade Ball next week.

Also in a predicament heading into the season’s third design challenge is Jada, who did so well in the season-opening design task, but landed in the bottom two on the second. This week on the runway, her road warrior drag can’t help but feel underwhelming next to the rest of the queens, and both she and the judges note that. Moreover, the judges ding Jada for not going there in the Rusical, even though she sounded good. I personally disagree, and would’ve put her and Kimmy as our safe queens for the week instead of slotting Jada into the bottom three. But I’m glad, at least, that she doesn’t have to lip sync a third time.

Instead, we get Irma on her second go, versus Gisèle on her first. These two are seemingly placed in the bottom for failing as a pair: their choreography in their duet number is really out of sync, and Gisèle’s vocals are timid. Surprisingly, considering Gisèle is the more concerned going into this week out of the two, the judges actually come off as more interested in what the Québécois queen is doing. For Irma, it feels like the writing is on the wall.

But even if it weren’t, I’m not sure how you could edit the two queens’ Lip Sync for Your Life to Alannah Myles’s “Love Is” as anything but a win for Gisèle. While Irma gives a lot of the same energy as she did last week, Gisèle is a controlled, able force. She paints a stark contrast to Irma’s more impulsive moves, and delivers one of the stronger lip syncs of the season. She stays easily, and Irma sashays away.

Overall, this is a pretty boilerplate episode of Drag Race. And there are worse things than that, to be sure! But after last week kicked the competition into high gear, this can’t help but feel like a speed bump in the road, slowing us down heading into the final two installments of the season. Can a ball challenge help rev things up again? And which of these queens will fall short of the final four? I do think we’re gearing up for a real battle this week, but it may take an extra bit of magic to deliver a thrilling penultimate episode.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ We get a little skirmish in the cold open, as Fierce starts off the episode quite high on her own supply. When she tries to call out the other girls for underestimating her, Vivian clarifies: “I didn’t underestimate you, I just didn’t care.” Fierce responds by telling the then-winless Vivian to “step your Vanderpussy up!” And to Vivian’s credit, she does just that.

✨ Really good fashion moments from all three of our judges this week. I don’t know if Brad Goreski actually wears contacts, since he’s back in glasses by the time he’s at the judges’ table, but he looks quite debonair without the frames.

✨ I do have to knock the show for thrusting Brad into the coaching roles in both an acting mini-challenge and Rusical maxi-challenge, though. Brooke Lynn Hytes showed last season that she could, at minimum, do a great job at the latter, and if I recall her run on Season 11, she demonstrated her chops in a couple of comedy challenges as well. Brad just doesn’t feel like the right fit by comparison.

✨ Kimmy admits she’s unfamiliar with the word “angina.” “I’ve never heard of that word before. I’ve heard of vagina! That’s the one I have!”

✨ Jada’s mirror moments story about thinking she’s being fucked by ghosts? Gold stars all around. Absolute perfection. No notes. Give her a Pulitzer for simply speaking the words “My bootyhole, it felt weird.”

✨ Musicologist Jeremy Dutcher is fun and game this week, and continues the run of guest judges well-suited to critique their assigned maxi-challenges. He gives some really nice notes about the queens’ vocals, although he’s not quite willing to go negative. Still, I love him responding to some particularly absurd runway banter with, “This is fucked, I love all you people.”

✨ “How you Dune?” Brooke Lynn says in full Wendy Williams voice when Gisèle turns the corner on the runway. Brad doesn’t get it. “Because she looks like she’s from the movie Dune,” Brooke Lynn deadpans in response.

The next episode of Canada’s Drag Race will be available to stream Thursday, Sept. 1, at 9 p.m. EDT on WOW Presents Plus in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada. You can subscribe to our drag newsletter, Wig!, for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday afternoon.