“Beavery afraid!” That’s the pun that greets us and the Canada’s Drag Race Season 6 queens at the start of this episode. Yes, as everyone and their mother expected, the Golden Beaver is back for another round, bringing with her the best twist in Drag Race franchise herstory. Starting this week, it won’t be the judges deciding who is in the bottom two, but the winner of the maxi-challenge. The reappearance of Miss Beaver sends the queens into a tizzy of attempted alliance-making and scheming, but the gag of this twist is you never know how any queen will move with the Beaver until she actually has it in her hands.
Our dozen queens return for Episode 2 feeling comfortable with each other—Paolo Perfección is so comfortable, she’s ready to have sex with everyone—but surprised by their new guest. Straight from the flagship RuPaul’s Drag Race series, it’s Carson Kressley who walks into the werk room this week! As I mentioned in last week’s recap, Carson will be rotating in the third judges’ seat with The Traitors Canada star Hollywood Jade and frequent former guest judge Sarain Fox. All love to Hollywood and Sarain, but it’s Carson’s presence that is the biggest gag of the three. The regular judges are given way more to do on Canada’s Drag Race than on Ru’s show, including hosting segments in the werk room.
While I’ve bristled at how Traci Melchor and Brad Goreski have handled these in the past—truly, only TV’s Amanda Brugel in Season 2 could do it as well as Brooke Lynn Hytes does—Carson is a pro TV presenter. He’s been doing this for literal decades, since Queer Eye for the Straight Guy first burst onto the scene. And those years of experience immediately shine through, as he deftly and ably introduces this week’s maxi-challenge: cruise line commercials.
The queens call this an “acting challenge,” and it is one—but not in the traditional sense. While the queens are given a general concept for their advertisement, they conceptualize and write the piece themselves, doing their own character creation and casting as well. I’ll always prefer a challenge like this to the ones where the show provides a script; let these queens rise or fall on their own merits, not because of bad material foisted upon them. The results this week are a mixed bag, but they represent what these queens actually wanted to do with this challenge, and that’s valuable for us to know as we seek to identify who will go the distance this season.
The first team of Paolo, Hazel, PM and Eboni La’Belle take on a “Singles at Sea” commercial. Almost immediately, these queens interpret “single” as “horny as fuck.” Which, sure, part of living single is sometimes feeling a bit randy. (I say that as a person of single experience.) But they really turn up the dial on it, to the point that Hazel tries to warn that it might be too much. There’s no stopping this train, though, even when, during the recording session, both Karamilk in confessional and Carson to their faces note that it’s probably too sexual. (And I haven’t even mentioned PM’s blowjob bit with the bananas, which is so bonkers that it kinda works.)
Paolo and Hazel struggle the most here, both immediately getting knocked by Carson for their diction. Paolo commits to the troll by picking up a gag for her solo segment, attempting to talk through it and sounding completely nonsensical. Paolo seems game to try whatever, and is genuinely excited for an acting challenge, but her ideas for her character are just completely off the mark. Hazel, meanwhile, seems to endure the punishment for the whole group for the sketch being too sexual—funny, considering she was the one to voice the concern first.
The Self-Care Sisters, a group made up of Saltina Shaker, Van Goth, Sami Landri and Velma Jones, fight. The girls are fighting! What seems to be a genuine miscommunication with Carson before they start recording over how much Velma was responsible for turns into Van jumping down her throat repeatedly. Velma seems confused by the whole thing, later citing a lost-in-translation issue for the conflict, while Saltina is thrown off by the squabble. She recovers, and does well with her spiritual-turned-cult leader character, while Velma nails the physical comedy of the bit best. Van is fine, while Sami doesn’t take a big enough swing with her character.
The last group is the Golden Gays, a senior citizen cruise concept brought to you by Dulce, Mya Foxx, Star Doll and Karamilk. On its surface, this seems to be the group with the most cannon fodder, as none of them were in the top last week. But all of them except Dulce have some acting experience, and Dulce surprises by bringing great confidence and energy to her performance. My favourite line delivery of the whole episode comes from Dulce in a one-two-punch setup with Karamilk. “We know you golden gays love your white parties,” Karamilk says. “Which is ironic, ’cause we’re the ones hosting it!” Dulce follows up. It’s a great joke, delivered perfectly. The whole team is safe, except for Dulce, who gets high marks from the judges.
Parental issues are on the menu during this week’s mirror moments, with Hazel, Velma and Dulce all opening up. It’s Dulce whose story inspires the most tears, as she explains her abusive relationship with her parents, her emancipation at age 16 and her near-nonexistent relationship with them now. There’s a very sweet bit of rallying around Dulce from the other queens, with Van even leading the group in a titty shake like what Dulce did in the challenge. It’s nice to see Van and Dulce have such a nice moment after Van apologizes to her at the top of the episode. Maybe there’s a future friendship in store for these two!
The runway this week is “In the Shadows,” which is a bit vaguer than CDR usually goes with its prompts, but produces some good results. Most decide to go with some kind of demonic creature: Van’s a two-headed teddy bear, Star becomes an aswang (in a genuinely surprising and very cool transformation), Dulce goes with a La Llorona reference, Karamilk becomes a genetically modified bat and Hazel becomes a Scottish kelpie. Basically everyone looks gorgeous, but Paolo in a too-simple and off-the-prompt trash bag look and Sami in a roadkill gown that doesn’t quite hit the floor are noted as two underperformers by the judges.
In a notable presentation, Velma debuts Johnny Jones on the runway! (I will be using she/her pronouns for Velma and he/him for Johnny.) He looks sexy as hell in a werewolf look, prompting Traci Melchor to flirt with him during critiques. As long as Drag Race largely ignores drag kings—we’ve only seen rare glimpses before, like Victoria Scone’s “Victor Scone” presentation during Canada vs. The World and Kylie Sonique Love as Steven Tyler in an All Stars 6 challenge—these kinds of moments are going to continue to be historic. I love both Velma and Johnny, and I’m thrilled CDR is giving them both the space to shine.
After we see the final commercials, Dulce, Velma/Johnny and Saltina are named as the top performers, while Sami, Paolo and Hazel make up the bottom three. Hazel at least gets good remarks on her runway, while Sami and Paolo get across-the-board tough notes. Of those in the top, Dulce gets knocked a bit for her runway despite nothing but fawning praise for her performance. That seemingly leaves it between Saltina and Velma/Johnny, and while I would once again hand Mrs. and Mr. Jones this win, the judges go with Saltina. It’s a defensible choice—Saltina really does carry her team’s concept, and her emotional story about her scars-based runway presentation is powerful. But much like me, the queens in Mini-Untucked are surprised to see her take the victory.
During deliberations, we see a much more sincere side of Paolo, as she seems genuinely wrecked at the idea of going home so soon. Hazel also breaks down a bit, while Sami struggles to find any reason to fight for the Golden Beaver. It really leaves Saltina in a strange spot: who do you save out of these three? I appreciate how much these girls seem to want their place in the competition, but I wish that they would channel that emotion into powerful pleas, not momentum-halting breakdowns. Still, it’s the first elimination—I can’t blame anyone for getting overwhelmed.
The bottom three all change into lip sync looks (a welcome change), and Saltina saves Hazel. The queens are really gagged by this, with Paolo even saying she wasn’t expecting that on the runway. I don’t totally get why, though. Sami herself admits in confessional that she can’t make an argument for the beaver, while Paolo’s critiques were much worse than Hazel’s. I likely would’ve done the same thing as Saltina, even if I do think Sami has more to offer the competition in the long run. Especially in this first week with the Golden Beaver, you really don’t have anything to go off of except critiques.
Saltina’s choice sets up a “battle of the buffoons” between Sami and Paolo, who lip sync to Trooper’s “Raise a Little Hell.” “This is gonna be an interesting lip sync,” Brooke Lynn says before it starts, and to quote Aja, indeed it was. They both bring a quirky energy to it, and are actually more evenly matched in the first half than I would’ve expected. But then Sami starts pulling out stunts, while Paolo seemingly doesn’t know the words. It becomes a clear decision by around the two-thirds mark, and the judges’ decision is but a formality.
An acting challenge is always a speed bump for a season to overcome, even one that started as strong as Canada’s Drag Race Season 6 did last week. But I think, overall, this installment keeps the momentum up. What’s standing out to me in particular is how well I know this cast already—they feel like distinct characters who I’m learning a bit more about every time they’re on screen. And unlike the Season 5 crew, this crop of queens feels up to the task of competing on Drag Race. We’ll see if that holds, but I’m encouraged by these first two episodes. Until next week!
Untucking our final thoughts
✨ Eboni shades her own too-produced confessional in the cold open. “Canada’s Drag Race, you better watch out for Eboni!” she says before bursting into laughter. “That was so corny boots. That was giving Caucasian. Oh my god, why am I Saltina Shaker up in here?”
✨ Sami is excited to be in a group with three queens who were in the top last week. “Three tops for one bottom? The odds are in my favour!”
✨ We get a great bit of Karamilk’s backstory, as she opens up about finding out at 19 that the man who raised her was not her biological father. She reconnected with her actual father, who it turns out is himself queer! Karamilk describes their relationship as the first time she felt really accepted by someone in her family, hinting that things with her mom and adopted dad weren’t so easy. It’s a nice moment, especially in an episode that’s not otherwise much about Karamilk.
✨ There’s something about Hazel whispering “They’re definitely gonna fight after this” about Van and Velma while in a ’90s working mom getup that really sent me to the moon.
✨ After Van’s issues with Velma, Paolo notes that this is her second tiff with another queen in as many episodes. “She’s a sickening bitch, you know?” Paolo says in a confessional. “But she’s also a bitch.”
✨ Eboni says she really gets Paolo and appreciates her presence. “She listens!” Eboni says. “And I do be talking a lot.”
✨ Brooke Lynn looks hot as a blonde, tatted bombshell this week. Thrilled once again that the Season 4-calibre looks are back this season.
✨ Beauty content creator Glamzilla is the guest judge this week, and she’s decent! I wish I had more to say about her, because she really did a fine job, but there’s a reason why …
✨ … and that’s how, out of nowhere, the regular judging panel turned out what might be the best single episode of critiques I can recall in years on Drag Race. Seriously, they were fantastic, on-point, emotionally connected to the queens (Traci’s moment with Saltina!) and sharp as a tack. Between Carson’s really solid notes to Sami on how to elevate her camp while keeping the spirit, Brooke Lynn’s specific but effective notes on Dulce’s La Llorona look and Traci’s Missy Elliott reference when explaining what’s wrong with Paolo’s trash bag garment, they all get great moments in. More of this, please! (And can Carson bring some of this energy back to the flagship series’ judging panel?)
✨ Paolo’s loud-ass sneeze before the lip sync … god, I’ll miss her.
The next episode of Canada’s Drag Race will be available to stream on Thursday, Dec. 4, at 9 p.m. EST 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 month.
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