‘Canada’s Drag Race’ Season 6, Episode 4 recap: Battle it out

After last week’s double Golden Beaver disaster, the cast of Canada’s Drag Race Season 6 is a little shaken up. Van Goth, our frontrunner this season with two maxi-challenge wins in three episodes, feels “a little responsible and a little guilty” for Star Doll’s departure—particularly since, as she reveals to the other queens later, they had an alliance. But hey, at least Star isn’t there to haunt her. 

The same can’t be said for Hazel with PM, as Hazel has now thrown her friend under the bus twice—first by not picking them to choose their challenge in last week’s “Snatch Game or Design Challenge?” decision, then by saying in Mini-Untucked that she wouldn’t save them with the Beaver. Thanks to Van saving them, PM is very much still there, and they’ve got some feelings about Hazel.

Maybe the most righteously angry in the lot is Karamilk, who feels well screwed-over by her friend Mya Foxx. Mya says choosing between her and Velma Jones was “an impossible choice,” and says that while Karamilk did do better in the Snatch Game, Velma’s track record was better overall. Only in confessional does Mya admit that this was a strategic move on her part, as she sees Velma as more likely to win challenges in the future—and thus keep Mya safe with the Golden Beaver. (I would argue that she should’ve tried to extract some promise from Velma on this if that was her plan, but I digress.)

Karamilk isn’t having this. She says to Mya’s face that she’s pissed off, and in confessional, she calls Mya’s choice “fake as fuck.” She also says that “Velma’s bullshit,” which feels a bit like misdirected anger, but there’s also definitely an undercurrent with this cast (outside of her fellow Francophone, Sami Landri) that they want Velma gone.

Long story short in all this: There are a lot of feelings bubbling up! So what better to do than to throw the queens into a roasting challenge? Making its grand return from Canada vs. The World Season 2, it’s the Reading Battles maxi-challenge!

Carson Kressley is back in the werk room to introduce the challenge and pair the queens up. As the winner of the mini-challenge—more on that in the final thoughts—Sami Landri gets to pick for herself, and she chooses to battle PM. From there, it’s random selection: Hazel is chosen and picks Karamilk (who’s clearly annoyed), Dulce picks Velma, Eboni La’Belle picks Mya and Van and Saltina Shaker are our final two. Later, Saltina will say she wanted Van specifically—a bold move, considering Van is clearly in the judges’ good graces, but as we’ll see later, Saltina has a plan in mind.

Carson teases a mystery guest judge, and the queens are thrilled to learn that it is Drag Race legend and Global All Stars winner Alyssa Edwards! Alyssa might seem like an odd choice to coach and judge for a reading challenge, considering how badly she flopped in the RuPaul Roast in her original season. (Though she did win a comedy challenge to return to the competition in All Stars 2!) But Alyssa actually makes for a terrific coach, because she’s not focusing on their jokes—she’s focusing on their approach. Since her original season, Alyssa learned of her own power, and her handling of challenges that don’t sit in her exact wheelhouse changed. When she talks during one of the coaching sessions about understanding how a queen’s “character” would tell the joke, it really clicked into place for me: Alyssa made “Alyssa” larger-than-life, to the point that anything she said in-character would be hilarious.

These queens aren’t at that level yet, of course, still refining their personae. But Alyssa’s advice goes a long way with this group. You can tell during the battles later on that, even as some of them stumble, they work their way through it instead of letting it throw them off course. That’s straight out of Alyssa’s advice, and it makes the battles overall a lot more enjoyable. I especially appreciate Alyssa’s response to Karamilk worrying about offending people: It’s a reading battle, why wouldn’t you want to cause offense? Alyssa seems to not only really help the other queens, but also simply makes the results of this challenge better for the audience. That’s a true entertainer.

We get a quick runway before the battles, with the category “My Chemical Reaction.” Sadly, because of the setup for this episode, we don’t get to see these looks much, as they change into their reading battle looks after. I would’ve switched the order here; some of the runway looks are really cool, and they could’ve used more time on screen. In particular, Mya has a cool smoke effect and a gorgeous mug for her eruption look, Eboni pulls out a hair salon-themed look for her combustion runway that’s both fun and gorgeous and Velma gives us what might be the best runway of the season so far with her precipitation look. Just an absolute stunner.

But then we’re onto the meat of the episode: the battles. Each duel will have one winner declared, who is safe from elimination and enters contention to win the challenge. The losers are all at risk of elimination, with Brooke Lynn Hytes and the judges choosing three of them to fill out the bottom three. Thankfully, there’s a crowd set up like a comedy club for this challenge—comedy challenges are always better with a crowd to watch and react.

Van and Saltina are first, and Saltina’s kinda got Van by the wig on this one. Van spends too much time reading herself, while Saltina picks up on those and twists the knife. Honestly, Van gets better critiques from the judges than I’d have given her—I think Saltina blows Van out of the water. But still, even with kid gloves for Van, Saltina still wins. We then get another pretty lopsided battle between Dulce and Velma. In something of a shock to me, Dulce goes below the belt, making repeated jokes about Velma’s alcoholic mother. The first one doesn’t land, which is why it’s wild that she keeps going with it. Velma’s a good sport, and just sticks to her very good material about Dulce, coasting to a win.

Sami vs. PM is next, and Sami has come up with a very clever device for this: various different takes on what “PM” could stand for. “PM: Poorly made,” she intones with the right kind of comic seriousness. “PM: Problematic mug.” PM tries to shut it down early by insisting that their name is just PM, but it only makes Sami’s insistence on the bit funnier. PM’s actually pretty good in response, but I think what sets Sami apart is in what good humour she takes PM’s jokes. PM just looks a bit inflexible in comparison. Sami wins this one.

Then we get Hazel vs. Karamilk, the worst battle of the bunch. Karamilk is just okay, but Hazel stumbles over her words in a big way, and even powering through in an Alyssa-esque way doesn’t help. Karamilk is actually better in responding to Hazel’s faltering than she is with her own material. Karamilk wins, while Hazel is now in real danger. In less danger is Mya, even after losing her battle with Eboni, because she manages to do pretty well! Unfortunately for her, Eboni is on fucking fire. Eboni was made for this challenge. She gets the deepest digs in, nails multiple punchlines per read and does it all effortlessly. She is declared not just the winner of her duel, but of the whole maxi-challenge, and it is a well-deserved win.

Mya and Van are called safe—Mya justifiably, Van less so—which leaves Dulce, Hazel and PM to fight for the Beaver. I personally would give PM the Beaver here, as I don’t even think they deserve to be in the bottom three, but Dulce makes a couple of effective points in her favour. First, she notes, both Hazel and PM have already had the Beaver once. If we consider the Golden Beaver to be an “extra life” of sorts, it makes sense that everyone would get one. But her most effective point comes when Hazel and PM get into a big scrap in Mini-Untucked. It’s clear that PM is not just annoyed with Hazel, but genuinely hurt by their sister not supporting them. I both think PM’s reaction is a bit over the top and think Hazel is not being properly apologetic, so I get why we’re in a bit of a mess here.

Dulce, wisely, points out that the two clearly have a lot to work out, and what better way to do that than in the lip sync! Eboni is briefly distracted by a safety deal PM offers, but because they do it in the group setting, Dulce and Hazel just make the same offer. PM tries to argue that theirs is the only sincere one, but there’s no real reason for Eboni to believe that. One thing I’m not loving about the Beaver deliberations this season is that this group seems poised to hatch a lot of deals in private—but all the Mini-Untucked conversations are happening as a big group. It’s good for creating drama, but bad for allowing real strategies to form.

In the end, Eboni sticks with the safest plan and saves Dulce, leaving Hazel and PM to let out their frustrations to the tune of Avril Lavigne and Nicki Minaj’s “Dumb Blonde.” Avril lip syncs have quite a legacy on Canada’s Drag Race: Ilona Verley vs. Tynomi Banks to “Girlfriend”! Icesis Couture vs. Ra’Jah O’Hara to “Sk8er Boi”! And this one more than measures up, as both queens give their all. Hazel is dynamic and impressive in this lip sync, pulling out all kinds of stunts. She doesn’t have a great grip on the words, though, and her moves are a bit laboured.

That’s a shame, because PM is fucking outrageous in this lip sync. Back in the premiere, PM promised they were a quirky queen who could dance, and they did not tell a lie. Every move is effortless, and the stunts they pull are increasingly impressive. This is a real star-is-born moment for PM, a sign that they will be basically undefeatable in a lip sync. I’m bowled over, and I’m thrilled that PM is the queen who stays. Sad to see Hazel go, but she put up a great fight against a brick wall of an opponent.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ In the same beat that Van outs her own alliance with Star, Velma also calls out Eboni for their “female alliance.” Eboni denies it and says there’s no record—as the show plays the flashback of her offering that exact thing. “Velma got me gooped up this morning!” she says with a laugh in her confessional.

✨ Carson’s mini-challenge is reportedly a one-on-one styling session in “D-list fashionista quick drag,” with Carson picking one up-and-coming style icon. Of course, this is just a silly quick drag improv challenge, which Sami wins. Good for her! Feels like a great match of talent and performer. She gets $2,500 for her trouble, thanks to Swish Embassy.

✨ Giving Alyssa confessionals, and even having her reenact her infamous joke-writing meme from Season 5, is exactly the right use of Alyssa, among her various other contributions to this episode.

✨ We get a lot of Velma and Sami time in this episode, including an entirely-in-French conversation (a first for this season!). They talk about Velma’s start in drag nine years ago, and she admits in a confessional she struggled to get gigs booked from older queens who didn’t see the vision of casting a cis woman in drag. It’s yet another reminder of how much attitudes about drag have evolved over the years, even in just the last few.

✨ I must say, the panel looks good this week. They’ve been doing a great job of coordinating their looks, and it’s a little touch that goes a long way. I figure we’re nearly done with Carson episodes this season, and I’ll do my judging assessment at the end of the season as usual, but suffice it to say he’s been a great addition to CDR.

✨ Brooke Lynn’s little introductions of all the queens during the reading battles are great, but I fully guffawed at her line that contrary to popular belief, Dulce did not shoot Selena.

The next episode of Canada’s Drag Race will be available to stream on Thursday, Dec. 18, 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.