‘Canada’s Drag Race’ Season 3 finale recap: Our new Queen of the North is …

Canada’s Drag Race’s third season has come to an end, and yet I’m still wrapping my head around the season that was. Ordinarily I feel like I have a pretty good handle on how I’ve felt about a season as it ends: All Stars 6 was a joyous celebration of Rudemption, for instance, while Season 14 was an enjoyable—if overly long—return to form for the main series. Sometimes, I walk into a finale knowing how I feel, but the result flips my feelings somewhat; think UK Season 2, which did not earn its ending, but remains an incredibly enjoyable run of episodes regardless.

Rarely do I find myself at the end of a finale still reckoning with the season as a whole. I could chalk that up to CDR Season 3’s length, at just a scant nine episodes—but I knew how I felt at the end of the much shorter UK vs. The World. And unlike, say, All Stars 7, the finale format didn’t throw nearly all my enjoyment of the season out the window in one fell swoop. 

No, what has me ultimately still puzzled by Canada’s Drag Race Season 3 is that, for all its foibles, it very rarely failed—and for all its successes, it very rarely shone. It was a workman’s season of Drag Race: everything you’d expect, but nothing truly that surprising. That includes the choice of champion; while I wasn’t personally predicting Canada’s Next Drag Superstar’s ultimate victory, I also don’t think her win registers as the kind of come-from-behind shock that would delight the fanbase.

If it sounds like I’m complaining about this finale, I’m truly not: it’s a competitive, competent affair. It’s just, much like the season that preceded it, not the kind that’s going to engender particularly strong feelings.

After some profile introductions of our top four queens that recall the RuPaul’s Drag Race UK finale intros, we jump right in with our finalists. As the queens note in both the cold open and the post-theme song chat, they are a very diverse and very closely matched top four—easily the most so in Canada’s Drag Race herstory. This, theoretically, makes the final challenge more important than it’s ever been: it’s not a Broomix, but an original track task. The queens must write, record and perform their own verses for “True, North, Strong (and Fierce).”

Before we get to recording with Brooke Lynn Hytes and choreography with Hollywood Jade, however, we first get a photo shoot mini-non-challenge—with Season 2 champion Icesis Couture! I’m utterly delighted to see Icesis back; she is one of my all-time favourite queens, and though she’s had a relatively short reign, her impact on Canada’s Drag Race has been tremendous. She is so supportive with the queens during their chats, eagerly celebrating their victories and asking all kinds of encouraging, excited questions.

Never is she more enthusiastic, however, than with her daughter, Kimmy Couture. They have such great chemistry, and you can tell how proud Icesis is of her daughter. I’m surprised that later on in the episode, Kimmy will say that their photo from this shoot is the first they have together—I’d have assumed based on their dynamic that they’d have thousands of photos as mother and daughter. Icesis has clearly made a great impression in limited time, and comes across as a gigantic fan of Kimmy’s. (Rightfully so!)

We can mostly skip past the recording and choreography sessions—at this point, the show is mostly interested in raising its final four up versus creating drama—but I do want to give kudos to Brooke Lynn for how she coaches the queens while recording. Instead of simply feeding the queens line-readings, she knows how to guide them to the best possible version of what they want to do. It’s a real skill, and I’d like to see more recording coaches on Drag Race follow her example.

We hit the runway, BLH looking nothing short of iridescent and gorgeous, and are introduced to the “True, North, Strong (and Fierce)” performance. It is … okay! Maybe a bit less than okay? The neon looks are really strange for this song, and while no one bombs their verse, I can’t imagine any of these joining the legendary pantheon of finale verses. If anyone acquits themselves particularly well, it’s Gisèle Lullaby, who wisely slides a lot of her native French into the song. It feels like a real statement from her, while the others seem like a lot of boilerplate Drag Race verse phrases mashed together.

The choreo, however, is a different story. Both Kimmy and Jada Shada Hudson smash their moves, and Kimmy in particular comes off as a real pro. I wish her verse was better; hers relies on some familiar beats, although I do love her delivery of “it feels correct!” Jada’s verse, on the other hand, stands out more for her delivery—and when all four queens deliver last riffs before the song ends, hers stands out the most.

I haven’t yet mentioned a queen I thought we’d be talking about a lot more in this finale: Miss Fiercalicious. After a second maxi-challenge win last week, Fierce was entering the last lap with a ton of momentum. So it’s surprising to me that the air seemingly goes out of her tires as this episode goes on. She doesn’t do anything that wrong—her verse is okay, though I’ll admit her steps are the worst of the final four—but the judges just seemingly lose their enthusiasm for her at the worst possible moment. She, and her sister Kimmy, are summarily eliminated before the final lip sync (with some kind words from the judges, at least).

I’ll be honest: I don’t get this, and it throws a lot of the season’s edit out of whack for me. Why set up this whole arc of Fierce as the villainous underdog-turned-frontrunner if you’re just going to clear your throat and have her exit the main stage. It feels like Canada’s Drag Race wasn’t really willing to commit to a villainous winner, and admittedly, Fierce never got the total redemption that would be able to service a Violet Chachki-esque winner edit. Instead, fans rooting for her before this week are left to simply scratch their heads, shrug and hope that they’ll see her on a vs. The World or All Stars soon.

Gisèle and Jada are our top two queens of the season, and I’m hard-pressed to remember a similarly gorgeously dressed top pair of queens from throughout Drag Race herstory. (Kimmy and Fierce also look great in the Coronation Eleganza runway category, as do all the eliminated queens who return for Mini-Untucked and one final runway walk.) Their task is to lip sync to a Céline Dion classic: “A New Day Has Come.”

Judging based solely on this lip sync, you’d think this would be an easy Jada win. She has been terrific all season at emotionally interpreting her lip syncs without losing control. Yes, Gisèle is also controlled, but she’s lacking a lot of the emotional firepower that her rival is working with. And while neither garment is great for a lip sync—they’re both in ornate gowns—Gisèle tries a kind of jacket flip near the start of the song that feels a bit flashy for such an intimate tune.

Icesis comes out in perhaps one of the top three crowning garments ever (seriously, holy fuck) to award our champion her crown, and it is … Gisèle! I’m happy for her, and in retrospect, I really should’ve guessed that Canada’s Drag Race wouldn’t let another chance to crown a Francophone queen go by. This win is partially for Rita Baga and Pythia, then, but it’s mostly for Gisèle herself, a queen who, as the judges said, truly was a Jacqueline of All Trades this season. She is the whole package, and I have no doubt she will have a spectacular reign.

Am I a bit sad for Jada? Sure. I thought she was going to win, and in my heart of hearts, I wanted her to win. But mostly, I’m walking out of this finale with the slightest smile. Everything was enjoyable, there’s little to rage about—but I don’t see myself revisiting this season much in the future. On to Canada vs. The World, I say! But in the meantime, Gisèle, prance as much as you can. You’ve earned that crown.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ Like last season, I’d like to take this opportunity at the end to evaluate our judges. Let’s start with our two B-named judges: Brad Goreski came in with the strongest run in his inaugural season, having surprised me and others with his humour and candor. Owing both to his absence in the mid-season for two episodes and a less organic approach to his judging, however, I’d say he fell slightly short of the standard he set for himself. I’m eager to see how he does on Canada vs. The World, especially with queens unfamiliar with his judging style. Similarly, I think CvTW is going to be a major challenge for Brooke Lynn, as she will likely be judging queens who competed in the same original format as her. However, she’s done nothing but grow as a judge and host across her first three seasons of Canada’s Drag Race, so I’ve got faith in her.

✨ My warmest regards for the judges, however, have to go to one Traci Melchor. I did not particularly enjoy Traci as Canada’s Squirrelfriend in Season 1, a role that I’m not sure anyone could’ve done well. And last season, she had a stilted way of hosting and judging that often felt like she was just reading cue cards. But huge kudos to her, she really let her walls down this season and embraced the process. Her critiques were often quite passionate—her speech to Jada during the Paint runway critiques is among my favourite moments of the season—and she showed more of what makes her not just a host, but a person. I loved her confession in this finale that Kimmy reminds her of pop stars she’d try to learn choreography from after school. So adorable! Traci wins my MVP award among the judges this season, and I’m excited to see where she goes from here.

✨ We get a guest judge for this finale, hockey player Sarah Nurse, in a choice I would best describe as “ill-advised.” No shade to Sarah, who is game and happy to be there, but she just can’t speak to these queens’ journey the way the main judges can. There’s a reason RuPaul typically keeps these episodes to “just family.”

✨ ICESIS: “Did you end up in the bottom?”

KIMMY: “I did, twice.”

ICESIS: “You are my daughter.”

✨ Miss Moço gets the final Mini-Untucked burn of the season in, calling Fierce “Miss Fake-a-licious.” It’s funny, but I’ll admit it stings a bit more knowing it’s basically our last impression of Fierce before she’s eliminated.

✨ I have a quick mea culpa to share: I previously stated I wouldn’t be watching Secret Celebrity Drag Race this season, as I didn’t want to overload on Drag Race content. Well, to quote Ginger Minj: “They got me, gal.” The revamped format of Celebrity has been an absolute blast to watch, culminating in last week’s epic duets episode. If you haven’t watched Violet Chachki and celebrity queen Chic-Li-Fay duet to Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston’s “When You Believe,” you have not yet lived. Thrilled to have been wrong about this one; it’s a joy.

✨ While it wasn’t my favourite season of Canada’s Drag Race overall, I still had a blast recapping this run—and I hope you all enjoyed the journey as well! Next on the agenda is the fourth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, which is currently set to premiere on Sept. 22. (There are some rumours that the premiere might be pushed back in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing, however.) We’ll be back for that season to cover our latest trip across the pond, but until then, you can keep up with us by subscribing to our drag newsletter, Wig!, for new Drag Race content every Tuesday. Until then, remember: stay true north strong and fierce!

When the season premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK does arrive, it will be available to stream at 4 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.