Welcome to Canada’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every week, we’ll debrief the week’s new episode of Canada’s Drag Race Season 4 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. The top nine shift around quite a bit this week, as a big twist sends an unexpected pair into the lip sync.
9. Nearah Nuff (last week: 5)
Sorry, I gotta take points off for Nearah literally talking herself into the bottom two. She tore up the lip sync, and shouldn’t really have been there in the first place, but her antagonism in Mini-Untucked directly led to her having to fight for her life. She, more than most, seems aware of the strategic dynamics this season, so it’s strange that she’d make an unforced error like this. That said, she tore the performance up, and more than washed away the memory of her mediocre outfit. I’m growing to understand Nearah more as a queen as the competition goes along, although with how her relationships are going, I’m concerned she’ll have to save herself more than once this season. It’s rare you get someone calling a queen “a fucking bitch” with their full chest in a confessional these days!
8. Aimee Yonce Shennel (last week: 2)
All’s well that ends well, I guess, but I do have to question the wisdom of telling the Golden Beaver-holder to give you a tougher opponent in the lip sync. Melinda Verga was on the verge(-a) of giving up, while Nearah was fired up for a battle. I admire the drama, but strategically, this wasn’t Aimee’s best move. And if there weren’t a reason to keep them both around, I think Aimee would’ve been the loser of this battle. Moreover, I tend to agree with the queens’ consensus that Aimee’s was the worst look this week. Melinda’s wasn’t much of a transformation, but the leather details she added gave it a sense of style. Aimee, as the judges noted, leaned more into character than couture, and her presentation suffered for it.
7. Melinda Verga (last week: 6)
Hoo boy, okay. Let’s get into it. Melinda’s tantrum about the judges’ critiques already wasn’t a cute look, nevermind the fact that she was caught in 4K talking about how the judges are experts just a day before. I understand feeling defeated, but this was a bit of a silly response. Fun and dramatic! But silly nonetheless. She’s really lucky Aimee and Nearah got into a fight and landed themselves in the bottom two instead. I know Melinda had a rough time before coming to Drag Race with her partner’s health, but she can’t let herself get discouraged. The judges are clearly fans; interpreting their critiques so far as Melinda being “a punching bag” is a real miss. I didn’t hate her outfit this week personally—as I said, I liked the leather detailing—but I do wish we could’ve seen what she did with her gold fabrics instead.
6. Luna DuBois (last week: 7)
On the one hand, I admire Luna trying to shore up some alliances for herself. We can laugh at Drag Race’s various failed attempts to bring strategy into the mix (Thorgy Thor whispering “I’m open to alliances” to Shangela right before Shangela sent her home comes to mind), but the Golden Beaver is the most promising effort yet to actually force more dynamic social play. On the other hand, Luna was clearly trying to build a sub-alliance with Aurora Matrix and Venus within the Love Bugs, and they just defaulted to talking about the full girl group. Not a great sign! Overall though, this was Luna’s best week in the competition so far. I might’ve actually put her in the top three for her look—it was a little simple, sure, but it was stylish as hell and really flattered her. Plus, her presentation on the runway was her best yet. Hoping this is the start of great things for Luna!
5. Aurora Matrix (last week: 1)
Honestly, Aurora and Venus are virtually tied for me. Venus may have one more high-scoring placement, but the two are clearly settling into the same competent, confident niche in the competition. I liked Aurora’s look more this week, particularly the top half, but I didn’t like the colour or the fabrication of her skirt. A very fair safe placement. More interesting in my mind is Aurora’s strategic placement. She has this dynamic with the Love Bugs, but within it, she has great relationships with Denim, Venus, Nearah and now Luna. And outside of it, she’s got Kiki Coe on her side after giving her the Golden Beaver. Dare I say she’s the best placed strategically and socially of the whole cast? That could take her very far in this competition.
4. Venus (last week: 4)
Again, the difference in the scoring here between Aurora and Venus is minute. Venus’ look this week was pretty mediocre, but she managed to nail the styling so the judges didn’t notice—or at least, didn’t care to notice. Moreover, she got a lot of focal time in the werk room despite just placing safe this week. Her edit was reminiscent of Symone’s in her own design challenge in Season 13: panicking about not being able to execute the look, only for it to ultimately be much ado about nothing. And if you’re getting an edit that I would compare to a winner’s, that’s most certainly a positive sign.
3. Kitten Kaboodle (last week: 9)
A nice bounce back into the top for Kitten after a brush with elimination last week. I’ll admit, I’m not totally sure how she landed there over Luna or even Aurora, though. She seemed to get a lot of points for degree of difficulty, but Brooke Lynn Hytes was exactly right about losing her shape in the bulky silhouette. And while I can see what guest judge Christian Allaire was saying about combining formal and sportswear elements, the colour combination wasn’t aesthetically pleasing to me. Still, I’m a Kitten fan, so I’m happy to see her back in the top. It shows the judges are invested in her, which is promising for her longevity despite her dip into the bottom two.
2. Denim (last week: 3)
Consider Denim’s high placement on this ranking to be a precarious one, with Snatch Game coming next week. Denim’s utter inability to improv in the previous two episodes means I think she’s going to have a very tough time. On the other hand, she’s set herself up nicely to be saved by the Golden Beaver if need be. She’s racked up three top placements, has avoided the bottom three so far, and has an alliance with the Love Bugs (with a tight duo with Aurora within that). I really liked her crochet look this week, and I do think that with less stiff competition, she could’ve easily won this one. But there was no beating our champion this week.
1. Kiki Coe (last week: 8)
Kiki snatched her first win this week, and she promptly used her Golden Beaver powers to give us the most chaotic result possible. A tremendous episode for her, I’d say! I mean, looking at her gown, there was no other alternative. Her look was breathtaking, fitting her body so perfectly and introducing a unique element in the sleeve/shoulder treatment. She styled it so fabulously as well. And I loved Brad Goreski’s note about the gems at the bottom: not only did they serve the design, but they actually had “an engineering purpose” as well by weighing the garment down. Really clever, impressive work from Kiki, and a killer first victory. May it be the first of many for her!
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