‘Canada’s Drag Race’ Season 2, Episode 3 recap: Scream, queen

After only three episodes, is it safe to declare Canada’s Drag Race Season 2 a good season? And not just good in comparison to Drag Race UK Season 3, but on its own a strong example of what Drag Race should be? Because I’m ready to call it! Honestly, I’ve been ready to call it since the first episode, but I’ve been burned by seemingly solid season premieres before.

Something feels special about the second season of Drag Race, generally. The original Season 2 remains one of the most dramatic and compelling ever, with feuds and fights among its cast members that have lasted for more than a decade. All Stars 2 is often considered one of the best seasons ever. UK Season 2 was a triumph that cast a long shadow over Season 3. And Thailand Season 2 is a beloved fan favourite among die-hards. (I didn’t watch Holland Season 2—I do need breaks from the series sometimes—but I’ve heard it was the exception to the rule, to say the least.)

From what we’ve seen so far, the Season 2 blessing continues with Canada’s Drag Race. This is a fun, feisty crop of queens that has more than matched their preceding class in entertainment value. The show looks and works a lot better; bringing in Trevor Boris as showrunner has clearly tightened a lot of the screws from last season. And most impressively, the judging panel has drastically improved, shaking off any too-gentle jitters from the premiere to really find their voice.

To that point, may I make the case for Amanda Brugel—“TV’s Amanda Brugel,” as Brooke Lynn Hytes likes to call her—as one of the most quietly impressive judges Drag Race currently has on its roster? I really liked her guest host appearance in Season 1, but that was a small sample. This week, we get our full, proper introduction to her as not just a judge, but a presence guiding the queens in the workroom and directing them in their horror movie parody. She proves herself to be more than up to the challenge, delivering her host dialogue with exactly the right mix of excitement to be there and confidence in her role. She raises the energy without taking the spotlight away from the queens, and her able direction and judging round out her skill set. As Brooke Lynn Hytes gets more comfortable in the main host role and Brad Goreski settles into his quips during the runway, it’s Amanda who’s coming across as the most assured on this newly reconfigured panel.

While Amanda gets her first major chance to stand out this week, it’s the queens who shine brightest in what is a shockingly good acting challenge. “Screech” is ostensibly a parody of the Scream movies, but it’s a good bit more clever than that. Sure, you’ve got a masked killer and a scene involving Drew Barrymore—er, sorry, Gia Metric as “Blue Scarymore”—picking up a phone and dying for the act. But what the acting challenge actually captures perfectly is how the Scream movies send up the tropes of horror, as “Screech” effectively and sometimes pretty brutally lampoons the tropes of Drag Race.

No mini-challenge this week, so we dive right into the cast selection, with last week’s maxi-challenge winner Pythia as casting director. She wisely mostly lets everyone pick their own character, though a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors leaves Icesis Couture with her desired butch jock character and Synthia Kiss with a confessional full of her saying “fuck” in reaction. 

Adriana, on the other hand, gets exactly who she wants in a ghoulish take on Brad Goreski named “Blood and Goreski.” So far, Adriana’s been under the radar—she’s had a couple of confessionals per episode, but she’s largely been a background character. Even in last week’s disastrous comedy clowns performance in the Rusical, she managed to slide by unscathed. Seeing her profess her theatre experience while snagging this role means either good or bad things for her.

Getting into the Halloween spirit as they prepare for the challenge, Kendall Gender opens up about how Oct. 31 is actually her sobriety date. She shares that, as a drug addict, she got to a pretty awful place in her life, and needed to be pushed to make changes and get sober. It’s the first of several Mirror Moments this episode, in a season that’s had plenty of them. I stand by my praise of the previous ones as being organic and earned—and that continues into Adriana opening up about her dad catfishing her ex-boyfriend to break them up (?!)—but while all individually powerful, this episode begins to steer too hard into them.

Imagine my surprise, then, that in “Screech,” Canada’s Drag Race immediately takes aim at the Mirror Moment trope and drags the hell out of it. Suki Doll, in character as an oversexed stereotype of a queen, dismisses a story from her fellow competitor (played by Pythia) with a casual, apathetic remark about how her story will change lives. She then immediately launches into her own Mirror Moment without a hint of irony. It’s hilarious, and while there might be a temptation to critique Canada’s Drag Race for having its Mirror Moment cake and eating it too, I very much appreciate the self-awareness.

The challenge is full of little moments like that. Eve 6000, as a dramatic narrator character, constantly stops the action to monologue to the camera. When Icesis’ jock character asks Gia if Ru was on the phone, Eve confesses, “But that wasn’t RuPaul! That was someone much, much younger!” This episode is a major redemption moment for Eve, who scored among those in the bottom the past two weeks. She and Stephanie Prince both try to go for the same character, but while Stephanie backs down upon seeing the large amount of lines, Eve steps up and embraces the challenge. For her efforts, she gets her first high score of the season.

Also in the top is Gia, who looks like she might win it all for a bit. Her runway for the “Good Girl Gone Bad” category is incredibly clever, as she walks out in “Mold Hollywood Glam.” (Yes, she’s in old Hollywood styling, but with mold growing on her.) It’s such a funny joke. Gia responds to her praise, however, by monologuing, which gets edited by the show into a cartoonish package. Brooke Lynn in particular bristles at Gia’s long-windedness; the former pageant queen clearly expects a tighter presentation on the runway.

Instead, with her bizarre but entertaining impression of Blood and Goreski, it’s Adriana who takes the win. She really goes for it comedically, practically twirling her moustache at every turn. Her delivery of “hashtag BOO” is perfect, and the whole performance really goes to some weird, funny places. She also serves up a full Marie Antoinette fantasy on the runway, in what is perhaps not the most on-theme look of the night (I guess she’s a Royal Girl Gone Dead?), but nonetheless stuns the judges. Adriana earns the win, and it’s a delightful surprise.

Less delightful is seeing two queens who did very well last episode struggle hard this week. Kendall avoids the bottom two just barely after a too-basic nun-to-devil reveal on the runway—she really doesn’t benefit from Pythia doing the same idea better—and a performance as bitchier-than-usual Brooke Lynn that never quite gets off the ground. She has some funny moments (“Well, fuck her, then!”), but this is a strong lineup of queens, and I can’t help but feel she’s a bit behind the curve this episode. Still, I’m glad she doesn’t lip sync, because she’s a good bit better than the bottom two in this challenge.

Stephanie lives to regret not fighting for the narrator role, for as the final girl of the challenge, she’s way too over the top. I’d understand if she thought she needed to overact, as prompted, but Amanda pretty specifically tells her to tone it down, and she purposefully ignores the note to make sure she gets the spotlight. On the runway, in a latex Dorothy Gale look, she’s okay—but it’s a bit underwhelming compared to some of the other looks.

The clear loser of both challenge and runway this week, though, is Synthia. Another queen who lost her battle for a role, Synthia gets stuck with “Amartha,” a hyper Handmaid’s Tale-tinted version of Amanda. Unfortunately for Synthia, she has not seen the show, something that Amanda playfully chides her for. Even without having seen the show, though, she should get the character better: she delivers each line in the same tone, and even her look is kinda wrong. Her runway look is cute enough, but as Brooke Lynn notes during deliberations, it doesn’t show off who Synthia really is.

It is, however, a good fit for the punk pop lip sync song: Fefe Dobson’s “Ghost.” While both Synthia and Stephanie do well, Synthia just looks more the part from the start. She’s also able to carry her energy throughout the performance, while Stephanie peters out near the end. I might’ve judged the result differently simply because I think Stephanie has shown more promise than Synthia, but Synthia shantays, and Stephanie sashays away.

We’re onto Snatch Game next week, and if there’s any doubts left about this season, let this challenge be the testing ground. If the show can keep it together through one of the franchise’s toughest signature challenges, the sky’s the limit for Canada’s Drag Race Season 2.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨A round of applause to whoever in programming made sure this challenge aired right before Halloween. Drag Race is notoriously apathetic to holiday episodes airing at their proper times—no, I will not acknowledge the Holi-slay Spectacular—so this was a treat for the season.

✨Fefe Dobson makes for a great guest judge. Not only is she sharp and in the mix with her critiques, she also gets a massive laugh from Brooke Lynn for not understanding Gia’s runway until they were in the middle of critiques. She also gets an emotional moment to respond to Synthia and Stephanie lip-syncing “Ghost.” I appreciate Kimora Amour’s tribute to her as a Black rocker, too. Just a lovely week of Fefe all around.

✨Keep an eye on the story thread that the Brat Pack very much does not want to lip sync against each other. That’ll come back at some point, I’d all but guarantee it.

✨Something that’s been happening in every episode, but I haven’t mentioned until now: Why is Brooke Lynn doing All Stars-style jokes about what the judges are doing during deliberations? Those jokes came about because the judges were no longer deliberating; the queens were. Here, the judges are deliberating. To flip a paraphrase from RuPaul: it’s funny, but it makes no kind of sense!

✨Pythia’s response to Eve hemming and hawing about not getting the most positive critiques: “They’re so thirsty for camera time, these girls.” I love Pythia.

✨Jimbo’s guest appearance in the maxi-challenge is welcome, especially since she tours a lot in the U.K. these days. I hope we see other Canada’s Drag Race Season 1 queens return this season—that was such a special crop of dolls.

✨Kimora on Océane Aqua-Black’s mirror message: “A whole book! This bitch wrote a whole book! Trilogy!” She may not be getting much focus in the critiques, but Kimora is on my list of the season’s top confessional queens.

✨“Kendall Gender: on the runway, your look was very Halloween. But in the acting challenge, your performance was very hollow, queen.” I had to pause my TV just to cackle.

✨“And remember ladies: I actually forgot my line.” After an episode spent lampooning Drag Race tropes, I love this from Stephanie. Sometimes it’s okay not to have the exact right quip or goodbye—Drag Race is an emotional rollercoaster. And it’ll be a slightly less exciting one without Stephanie around.

The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK will be available to stream Thursday, Nov. 4, at 9 p.m. EDT on WOW Presents Plus in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada.