‘Canada’s Drag Race’ Season 6 finale recap: Who wins and becomes Canada’s Next Drag Superstar?

At one point during the Canada’s Drag Race Season 6 finale, while Eboni La’Belle and Van Goth are fighting across the werk room, Sami Landri sums it all up in a confessional: It is “the correct endpoint for the Van and Eboni show.” That really is a good description for this season, no? True, the other 10 queens in the cast entertained us this season, from first-out Paolo Perfección’s delusions to Mya Foxx’s winning Snatch Game, with even Hazel and Dulce giving us a last-minute reunion fight in this finale. Many have called this CDR’s best season yet, and the cast was a major reason why fans were so entertained.

But in terms of the story, Sami’s quirky growth arc and PM’s lip sync battles to the top can’t hold a candle to the Van and Eboni show. The two allies, calling themselves the Scissor Sisters, stormed the competition, earning seven maxi-challenge wins between them. Eboni saved Van when she needed to with the Golden Beaver, and both generally had each other’s backs. That is, until tensions over how much Van was obligated to help Eboni in the second design challenge of the season boiled over, and the former besties have spent most of the last two episodes lightly (and, at times, not so lightly) shading each other.

From around the Slay-Offs, if not even a bit before, it has been clear that the Scissor Sisters would be our top two. But which would win? I argued in last week’s power rankings that Eboni was being edited as the hero of our story, and the season’s protagonist. With their light turn against each other in recent episodes, this seemed to be casting Van, a queen who has quite readily embraced the “villain” label (including in her finale single), as the antagonist. With that in mind, I felt quite comfortable predicting that Eboni would be our winner, even as I went against the recent trend that CDR’s first-episode winner would ultimately be crowned. I said this with an acknowledgement of bias, as Eboni is my favourite of this final four, but I nonetheless felt confident.

Well, you can’t win ’em all.

I actually don’t have that much to say about this finale as an episode. CDR really has its format down: the X Factor-style intros of each queen in the recap (which I thought were noticeably tuned down and more enjoyable this season); the photo shoot and chat with the most recent winner, in this case The Virgo Queen; the singles for each queen, recorded with a celebrity guest (previously Nelly Furtado and Orville Peck, this season guest judge Rufus Wainwright); a reunion runway and Mini-Untucked with the eliminated queens and, ultimately, an elimination down to a top two for one final Lip Sync for the Crown.

It actually works really well as a finale format, and I’ll give the normally quite experimental CDR production team credit for not tinkering with a good thing. But as we’ve seen in the past, the finale performance really doesn’t move the needle much, so it’s hard to get too invested in it. In this episode, for example, there’s no real argument to be made that Van does the best in any particular element. Her single, “The Villain,” has a catchy chorus, and she isn’t bad by any means in the performance. But Sami has a better song, PM has a better performance and Eboni has both. Her final runway for the Coronation Eleganza category is gorgeous, with a Van Gogh reference dress, but she covers it up with an unnecessary shroud. Compare that to Sami, who comes out in a jaw-droppingly weird and wonderful look, and it’s hard to make the case that Van deserves the top two spot over Sami based on this finale.

But of course, the finale is not the only thing considered. Van, as she reminds us many times in this episode, has a historic track record with four maxi-challenge wins. The other queens do push back on this a bit, with PM in confessional making a common fan complaint canon: “This isn’t Project Runway.” Van’s four wins feel a bit less impressive when you remember that three of them were for design challenges, and one of those three was in a three-way tie with PM and Eboni. Moreover, she did not score high in a single challenge she did not win, and actually struggled a bit in challenges you’d expect her to do well in: the Reading Battles to an extent, and the Lip Sync Slay-Offs in a major way.

I wonder if, in this episode, Van herself is realizing that beyond her boasts of a historic track record, her résumé is a bit thinner than you’d expect for a winner. It would explain why, as Eboni attempts to give Sami her flowers by calling her Eboni’s biggest threat—clearly not out of a sincere belief that Sami would beat her, but a kind acknowledgement of how far Sami has come—Van throws a temper tantrum over it. This, to me, should’ve been disqualifying for Van to get the crown. While I can understand frustration at feeling overlooked, especially by a friend, the extent to which this goes on is excessive. It’s over nothing! Eboni’s answer to this clearly producer-prompted question has absolutely no impact on who is going to win.

This stretches out across two full segments. At one point, Van and Eboni are screaming at each other across the werk room, with Van accusing Eboni of never appreciating her help throughout the competition. Eboni eventually just apologizes and tries to move on through tears. Van doesn’t apologize in the moment, and although the two do have a small moment of healing the next day, it hardly seems sufficient relative to how unnecessary it is for Van to lash out like this.

The singles that the queens perform on the main stage are, by and large, quite solid. PM’s song, “Bottoms Up!”, feels almost like a full song adaptation of Sasha Velour’s “Category Is” verse: weird, queer and perfectly PM. Van’s song is “The Villain,” and while I like the idea behind it, I don’t love the actual lyrics as much. The chorus is catchy, though! Sami’s song, “Hey Sami Landri,” is the funniest and most enjoyable to listen to, while Eboni has written a true smash with “Rags to Riches.” It’s actually a good song, well-written and well-performed. I also appreciate that all four are a bit longer than we’ve seen with singles in the past 

After the Coronation Eleganza runway, we get a particularly feisty Mini-Untucked. Star Doll is very upset with Van for not saving her with the Golden Beaver, and Van’s attempts to skate over this drama are rebuffed until she finally compliments Star as big competition. The big battle, however, is between Dulce and Hazel, who have an unresolved conflict from Hazel’s mirror message. If this is all too long ago for you to remember—it certainly is for Eboni, who says, “Girl, the early boots are fighting about things I’ve already forgotten about”—it boils down to Hazel’s belief that Dulce should not have been saved with the Golden Beaver after the Reading Battles. This manifests in a lot of yelling over nothing, and it’s a bit silly, but I appreciate the spark of drama at the end of the season. (It also produces the absolutely hilarious outcome of Hazel winning Miss Congeniality moments after starting a fight.)

After Brooke Lynn Hytes stops by the werk room to check in on the girls—maybe she heard the yelling!—she deliberates with her fellow judges. She, Rufus, Traci Melchor and The Traitors Canada champion, Hollywood Jade, all find good things to say about each of the finalists. And those things are deserved! This really is a strong, diverse final four in terms of drag styles. Even PM, who I know has dealt with a lot of hate online, brings a very specific POV to drag that I’m glad is represented in this finale. It may not be to my taste, but their perspective is valid.

But of course, we all know where this is heading, including the other queens. Sami and PM look decidedly not surprised when Brooke Lynn announces that Eboni and Van are our top two. The Scissor Sisters (love Van earlier in the episode questioning why she made an alliance with so many S sounds in it) battle it out to Chappell Roan’s “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” an absolute banger of a song. It makes for a fittingly close battle between the two, with Eboni pulling out all the stops and Van, surprisingly, keeping up with her. I personally respond better to Eboni’s style of performing, but I give them both props for a closely matched battle.

And then Van wins. I can’t pretend that this is some grave injustice: She was one of the main characters of the season, and she was a dominant presence throughout the narrative. Her runway package really was the best of the cast, and I know she’ll be a strong representative for the series during her reign. I can both celebrate Van while also feeling terrible for Eboni, who did just about everything she could to win a crown. Really, the only area she did not excel in was design, and she happened to be going up against perhaps the best designer in CDR herstory. Should that have been enough to tip the scales? I would argue no, but I’m not in a judge’s seat.

I do think, based on Brooke Lynn’s Instagram caption announcing Canada’s Next Drag Superstar, that picking a villain winner was a big part of the decision-making here. And I understand that impulse! It’s been a long time since the flagship series has picked a villain champion—really since Violet Chachki in Season 7—and it’s fitting that the series that loves Drag Race the TV show most would want to crown a worthy villain winner. Where I think this falls a bit flat for me is that Van was not a villain edited to be right. Violet was harsh and judgmental, but the show ultimately took her side. Even someone with arch qualities that I wouldn’t call a full villain, like Yvie Oddly in Season 11, benefitted from the edit taking her side.

Van was wrong. She was wrong to go after Eboni like that, and she was wrong to betray a friend like Star. She was wrong to suck up so much oxygen in the room that deprived queens like Sami and Velma Jones their moments across the season, and she was wrong to promise help in the design challenge to Eboni that she was not willing to deliver. Some of these things can be chalked up to doing whatever it takes to win, like betraying Star and going back on her deal with Eboni. But some were just self-absorbed and unkind, and she never really had to bear the consequences of those actions. And of course, this is all about Van the character, not Van the person—I’m sure she’s a delight in real life, and I hope she proves just why she deserved this crown throughout her reign. I have no problems with her being our champion. I do have problems with the story the show told to get us to that decision.

All in all, Canada’s Drag Race Season 6 is one of the best installments of the series. On my personal ranking, I have it a hair below Season 4, but I do think it has knocked Season 2 out of the second-place slot. Had Eboni won with this edit, or if Van had won with a different edit, I think it would be my #1. As it stands, I think it’s terrific, even if the last couple of episodes proved to be a softer landing than I expected. I remain a huge fan of this little northern corner of the franchise, and I’m excited to see what the team cooks up for Season 7. Though be warned, new queens who will enter the werk room later this year: If you see a queen whose first name starts with V win the first challenge, you might as well prepare for her to be crowned.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ When they’re talking about their biggest threats in the competition, PM and Sami both say Eboni, which no doubt primes the pump for Van’s later tantrum. (Van, of course, does not answer the question considering the circumstances.)

✨ In a fun twist on the video messages from home, the queens’ loved ones’ voices come through the speakers first, as a kind of haunting of their families. It’s just a little something extra, and I like it. One of my favourite Van moments in the finale is her confessional reaction to her father’s message: ​​“Dad on Drag Race is crazy.”

✨ The Virgo Queen mostly acquits herself well in this finale appearance, although as anyone who remembers her low-key personality in Season 5 could guess, the Q&A portion of her meetings with the top four is not her ministry. She looks good on the runway in her stepdown eleganza—not quite at the level of Priyanka or Icesis Couture’s looks, but hardly the miss that Venus’ was last season.

✨ Hollywood Jade acts as collaborative choreographer for the queens, taking a lot of their input and working on the fly. It reminds me of how Jamal Sims works on the American series, and it results in some really stellar dance work from PM and Sami Landri. Kudos to Hollywood for finding ways to enhance what’s great about these queens instead of just giving them standard choreography.

✨ Huge applause for Brooke Lynn’s final look. It’s a stunner.

✨ Speaking of the Queen of the North, let’s talk about our judges. Ordinarily, I run down each judge’s performance across the season, but the slightly more scattered panel this season makes that a hard sell. Like, how do I compare Hollywood Jade, who did the first and last episodes of the season, to Carson Kressley, who did four in the middle? Or Traci Melchor, who was there for every episode? I do think this structure was ultimately not the best for CDR. Carson brought a trained, professional eye in a way that we haven’t seen him do on the main series in eons, which elevated Brooke Lynn and Traci’s own critiques. Unfortunately, this meant that Sarain Fox’s positive-skewing notes, while usually a welcome respite, just felt a little timid in comparison. My suggestion: make both judges’ spots rotating. Have Traci and Sarain swap every couple of episodes, and have Carson and Hollywood take a half of the season each. (This should help avoid any potential work visa issues for Carson—he can’t just come in and out of the country on a whim, after all.) This way, we get a variety of different judging panel combinations, and it further positions Brooke Lynn as the constant of the group. I think that’s a position she’s earned. Ultimately, I like what all four bring to the table, but I think they could be a bit more strategically deployed.

✨ Some highlights of the Coronation Eleganza runway: Star’s gold-and-white look is a real stunner. In the battle of the all-red looks—Hazel, Dulce and Mya all stick to red—I think Mya’s is my favourite. Saltina Shaker gets best-in-show for her fallen angel look. Her high-concept runways weren’t always my favourite this season, but this is a real jaw-dropper. I actually like all four of the finalists’ looks, but special shout-outs to two queens whose garments couldn’t have been more different: Sami’s acid-trip combination of pink, black and animal print, and Eboni’s understated, sophisticated eleganza.

✨ Yeah, truly do not get that Hazel Miss Congeniality vote. Good for her, though! And always love seeing Jaylene Tyme back to give out the $10,000 prize.

✨ The queens tell Paolo about the power outage after her elimination. Paolo theorizes that her decision to put the universe into Eboni as she left is what caused it. I’m with Eboni: Paolo truly cracks me the fuck up.

✨ Thank you all for following along with our CDR coverage this season! Quibbles about the end aside, this really was a terrific ride, and a real return to form for the Canadian franchise after Season 5. Rumours abound that a Canada’s Drag Race All Stars might be on the horizon—do we think that’s real? If so, who are you dying to see back? I have one simple request: Let Synthia Kiss have the run she deserved on Season 2! Actually, I have a second: Please don’t let Global All Stars be the last chapter of Pythia’s Drag Race journey.

Canada’s Drag Race has come to a close, but the Drag Race mothership marches on! Check back every Monday after new episodes for our recaps and power rankings, and subscribe to our drag newsletter Wig! for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox every month.