Welcome to Canada’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every week, we’ll debrief the week’s new episode of Canada’s Drag Race Season 6 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. There’s a new maxi-challenge winner in town after this week’s chat show challenge—but who is it?

9. Dulce (last week: 8)—ELIMINATED

I really soured on Dulce’s performance across this season. She aced the cruise line commercial challenge, but since then has not only underperformed, she’s gotten pretty sour. Her “I’m sorry if you were hurt”-style non-apology to Velma Jones about her below-the-belt jokes about Velma’s mom really rubbed me the wrong way, and she frustrated her teammates with her need for them to affirm that they wanted to work with her. She was inventing problems in her head, and I do think that was a major factor in their whole team having so little chemistry in the challenge. By the time she landed in the bottom two, I was ready to see her go no matter how she performed in the lip sync. That Karamilk clearly beat her was just icing on the cake. I’m sure Dulce is a delight in real life, but on Drag Race, she did not have a delightful showing.

8. Karamilk (last week: 5)

Thrilled for Karamilk that she got to lip sync in a full beat this time. Also thrilled for her that she absolutely killed it. She is a dynamite performer, not quite as trick-focused as PM but similarly effortless in her fluidity. I wish we could see the side of Karamilk that comes out in a lip sync come out in her challenge performances. Like in Snatch Game, Karamilk wasn’t the worst this week, but that kind of sliding through is about to put her in a very precarious position. Now that Dulce is gone, Karamilk is among five maxi-challenge winners, a real competitive threat in Velma and a newly ascendant PM. She needs to improve her fortunes in the maxi-challenges—though luckily for her, the Lip Sync Slay-Offs are right around the corner.

7. Saltina Shaker (last week: 2)

Yeah, this is what I expected out of Saltina from the first couple of episodes. She had calmed down considerably after her maxi-challenge win, including absolutely smoking Van Goth in last week’s reading battles challenge. But her anxieties and confidence issues bubbled back up in a big way even before the episode truly got started. If I had to guess at what exactly was happening here, I’d say that Saltina felt like the narrative was slipping away from her. So, she wanted to come into this episode with this whole owning-her-confidence story—hence the monologue before the challenge. Then, she and her team actually did bomb the challenge, and she repeated the same idea of owning her confidence in Mini-Untucked. That’s the only way I can explain the nearly exactly repeated story beat: she tried to get ahead of the narrative, then the narrative smacked her in the face. Regardless, I’m glad she got the Golden Beaver, because of the three in the bottom, she has shown the most promise. But I’m concerned about where exactly she goes from here in terms of her storyline.

6. Velma Jones (last week: 3)

Honestly, no one outside of the losing team did poorly this week, so imagine a pretty sizable gap between Saltina and Velma. Still, if anyone was the worst among the best, it was my favourite queen of the season. She got outshined by PM and Sami Landri in their group, with PM asking great questions and Sami taking control as the moderator. She did fine, just not as well. Then on the runway, I felt for her that she brought a funny costume for what seemed, on its surface, to be a campy prompt—only for most of the rest of the cast to go quite serious and meaningful with their looks. Still, even by her own standards, this was underwhelming. Velma has had some killer outfits on the runway, and her maple syrup look just felt a little cheap in comparison. Not a bad week for Velma, but not a great one either.

5. Van Goth (last week: 7)

I hemmed and hawed as to whether Van should be fifth or fourth, but I’m ultimately placing her here because I’m getting a bit concerned about her edit. In nearly every episode so far, Van has been depicted as either antagonistic (her beef with Velma in Episode 2), conniving (her alliance machinations with Eboni La’Belle in Episode 3) or simply annoying (PM clocking how much she says “clock it” in this episode). Up to this point, I haven’t been worried about it since Van is our competitive frontrunner. But with her now turning in two just-okay performances in challenges she has the skill set to win, I’m wondering if it’s not sending a signal. After all, no Canada’s Drag Race winner has had even a mixed edit—Icesis Couture was probably the closest. Hell, a strong sign that The Virgo Queen was going to win over Makayla Couture last season is that Makayla was presented as a much more divisive character. Maybe CDR is just trying something new on this go-around, but I’m increasingly less confident in Van as a likely winner as the weeks go by.

4. Mya Foxx (last week: 8)

If Van stocks are ever-so-slightly falling, then Mya stocks are rising—and I think it’s because of the expectations game. Van is frontrunner-coded, getting lots of camera and confessional time in each episode and having a major role in the narrative of the season. Mya, by contrast, had a very quiet start to her season, but has been surprising with strong challenge performances. She won Snatch Game in pretty commanding fashion, did very well in the reading battles despite her loss—she and Eboni were the best of the whole set—and then this week did very well in her segment. I would say she actually outshone Van, though they both took a backseat to Eboni. (Interestingly, this makes two episodes in a row that Mya was good, but not as good as Eboni; foreshadowing something?) I still have doubts about Mya’s win equity, just because she is more of a background player among the cast, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if she makes it to the endgame.

3. PM (last week: 9)

Look, stuff like drinking out of the dirty jug is never going to be for me. By and large, PM’s drag just sits in a space that I can appreciate from an artistic perspective while not enjoying it on a personal level. I do love how they move, and I love how their personality shines through in moments like their interview with Kiesza. They’re an excited, positive presence, and when they find their spots to shine, they really shine. I would’ve been fine with them winning this week, honestly. But I’m gonna struggle as the weeks go on to see a path for PM to win the whole show, because PM’s drag philosophy is just so not what I’m looking for in a winner—and I don’t think Drag Race is looking for it, either. If PM can find their way to the endgame and make their mark on Drag Race as a finalist, I think that’ll be the victory.

2. Eboni La’Belle (last week: 1)

Eboni is my pick to win at this point. While Van’s edit has hiccups, Eboni is shown as a true delight, and one of the main narrators of the season. It’s notable that, as Dulce was spinning out in Mini-Untucked over being in the bottom, it was Eboni that the show chose to undercut her point: “When has the challenge ever asked for you to be serious, dry and monotone?” Then, as if to cushion any potential blowback at Eboni for being harsh, the show included her Laganja Estranja reference immediately after: “… kinda like your vajoina.” She did a fantastic job in the challenge—Brooke Lynn Hytes is right that Eboni is “made for TV”—and while her runway did have some issues, I appreciated the Marsha P. Johnson tribute. I’m interested to see how she performs in lip syncs next week; she, Mya, Velma and Saltina are all still mysteries to us in terms of a Lip Sync for Your Life. If she can kill it when under that pressure, she may be unstoppable.

1. Sami Landri (last week: 4)

A huge congrats to Sami on her first maxi-challenge win! Her finally clinching a victory did feel inevitable—a queen like Sami, coming in with as much hype as she did, has to pull off a W at some point. This challenge was the perfect format for Sami’s talents: she was amiable, quirky and funny. She was a big part of Kiesza instantly feeling at ease. And on the runway, her injectables look was the right balance of camp and genuinely impressive. I like Sami’s odds of making a bit of a run, especially with her new alliance with PM and Velma. Those three aren’t just bonded by a home drag scene or by their entrance order in the competition (looking at your first-three-in alliance, Van), but by a real desire to boost the “weirdo” or “clown” queens in the competition. In a season full of failed alliances, this seems like the one with the most potential to actually make a run—and if a weirdo is going to win, I think it’s going to be Sami.