‘RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’ Season 3, Episode 5 recap: And the rest is a drag

In the wake of last week’s underwhelming girl group challenge, one that pales in comparison to RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’s first two iterations, whispers among the fanbase have risen to a louder timbre: Is UK Season 3 bad? Or, less harshly: Is it a significant step down from its previous seasons?

I haven’t enjoyed this season nearly as much as the first two iterations of UK, but I was willing to continue giving it the benefit of the doubt. It was still fun enough, right? Then Canada’s Drag Race Season 2 premiered, and felt like such a breath of fresh air in comparison. Suddenly, what felt like “fun enough” from UK became insufficient, and the one thing I was hanging onto as UK Season 3’s strongest point—it’s still the freshest!—fell away.

Part of the issue has been that, up to this point, Drag Race UK has been content to continue on its current path. Victoria Scone’s departure was a massive blow, but UK barely took a second to reckon with losing such a frontrunner. (That Ru made no explicit promise to bring her back also frustrated fans.) 

Veronica Green, a major narrative force in the first half of last season, was similarly dispatched with little fanfare. And then there was a de facto double save last week that Ru barely made an excuse for, which felt incongruous with the actual quality of the lip sync. Kitty Scott-Claus telling Scarlett Harlett and Charity Kase that it was “amazing” at the start of this episode feels so unearned, and there’s a concern that we’ll continue on, business as usual.

But I’ll give the production team credit, because that turns out to be a pretty clever fake-out. After a maxi-challenge in which the queens make advertisements for home assistant “Draglexa,” the results are mediocre across the board. Frustrated and disappointed, Ru declares that there will be no winner this week, and someone will be going home. 

It’s a shake-the-table moment akin to the “fucking H&M” monologue from Season 2, though it’s not quite as quotable. But unlike that moment, which was controversial for its timing (right after the pandemic-enforced hiatus) and difference in class between Ru and recipient Joe Black, this one is much more effective at actually calling out what has been a lacklustre season. And if the resulting drama in mini-Untucked and the lip sync are any indication, it’s just what the season needs to reset itself and up the ante.

We’re back in teams for the maxi-challenge, as drafted by mini-challenge winners Scarlett and Krystal Versace. Scarlett goes with Kitty, Choriza May and Ella Vaday, while Krystal picks River Medway, Vanity Milan and Charity. This means that the teams will be two each from last week’s girl group teams, so new group dynamics will form quickly. Most interestingly, Scarlett adamantly refuses to pick Charity after Charity rejected Scarlett in the mini-challenge to work with Kitty instead. (More on the mini-challenge in the final thoughts.)

What becomes apparent is that this cast really lacks chemistry. Some have forged individual bonds, but when it comes time to work as a group, they have disparate ideas and no real understanding of how to work through differences. Scarlett suggests a Joan Crawford joke for their Draglexa, but the other queens don’t immediately respond to it, and Scarlett takes that as them rejecting it. She brings it up later on the runway as being turned down by her teammates, but Choriza says the issue was she didn’t fight for it.

Krystal’s team is even more of a mess. Charity and Krystal have very different ideas of what’s funny, and while I admire Charity’s dedication to her own ideas, I also think she needs to zoom out and get some perspective. Charity has been in the low-scoring group twice now, and nothing she’s doing is connecting with the judges—and with Ru, in particular. Krystal has two wins, and generally seems to know what is going to appeal to Ru. Why is Charity so insistent that she knows better? And worse, why does Krystal let Charity effectively take over as team captain?

You can see the writing on the wall in the recording sessions, as Michelle Visage purses her lips and furrows her brow throughout both groups’ commercials. When we see the final products, it’s clear just how bad both are. I think I laughed only once across both commercials, and it was at the “beat” function of Draglexa that Vanity shows off.

“These commercials this week, they weren’t cohesive. Everyone was shouting, and there was no originality there,” Ru tells the girls. “It was all what we’ve seen before. So I’m disappointed. I’m really, really disappointed. Y’all are playing it safe. That’s not how you become the U.K.’s Next Drag Superstar!” And then he announces that there will be no winner, and everyone is up for elimination. (However, he explicitly says there will be only two queens lip-syncing, ruling out a six-way lip sync situation.)

What happens on the runway is pretty fascinating, and remarkably brutal. Aside from Kitty and River, who both get rave reviews, everyone else gets substantial critiques. Ella’s group’s idea to use different voices for Draglexa is a fatal mistake, and her wig choices on the runway are aging her. Choriza’s runway doesn’t look expensive, and that’s specifically what the category is calling for. Krystal’s runway is too much like clubwear, despite a truly impressive long wig, and she goes for a hackneyed “blow… dry” joke that draws Alan Carr’s ire. Vanity is willing to really go there in the commercial, but she’s still not at the level she needs to be in the competition.

The harshest critiques are reserved for Scarlett, who is too predictable as the announcer of her team’s commercial, and Charity, who Krystal fully throws under the bus for taking over. Michelle makes the critique I’ve been wanting to hear of Charity all season: that while her high-concept, heavily-worked drag is valid and incredibly artful, she keeps ticking the same box instead of doing something surprising. 

Charity has enjoyed a large amount of fan support this season, and for good reason. Her runways are truly unlike anything else. But we’ve seen too many seasons for a queen to not realize that she’ll have to show a versatile side in the competition. The glamorous orange look she pulled out in Episode 2 was just a blip in her runway output so far this season.

But we’re not done on the runway—oh no. Ru pulls out the dreaded “Who should go home tonight and why?” prompt for the queens, and it gets tense. Ella says Charity’s negativity makes it hard to work with her, and Scarlett similarly calls out Charity for her attitude. Kitty actually says Vanity, citing her inferior track record in the competition. 

And then everyone else—every one of the last five queens—calls out Scarlett. Choriza says she failed as team leader, which Scarlett pushes back on to little effect. Krystal and River both cite that Scarlett didn’t bounce back much from her dip in last week’s episode. Charity critiques her runway look, a pimp take on a Miranda Priestly character, as not having enough jewels, and Vanity calls her out for making excuses about being tired.

The whole situation sets us up for what is maybe the most intense mini-Untucked we’ve seen all season. Scarlett refuses at first to talk at all, angry with her fellow queens for throwing her under the bus. Ella attempts to frame her naming of Charity as a wish for her to get out of her own head, to which Charity correctly notes, “Telling me I should go home isn’t a way to make me have faith in myself, love.” 

Once Scarlett does finally talk, she cuts off her fellow queens, and both River and Ella hold her to account for not actually engaging in a dialogue. This causes Scarlett to walk off, and she hides in the shadows of backstage for a bit.

What’s so effective about all this is that it finally gives what’s felt like a shapeless season some structure. Even after she comes back and talks to the girls, there’s no resolution between Scarlett and her castmates. She thinks that, by throwing her name out, the girls have proven their friendships with her are not genuine. And while the queens insist that’s not the case, she’s not in a place to hear it yet. She just wants to prove, very clearly, that she has the fight to stay.

So after giving Vanity a little scare that she might have to lip sync, Ru declares a rematch: Charity and Scarlett must face off once again. Last week, Charity was the pretty clear victor of an undeserved double shantay, but Scarlett has just had a tremendous fire lit under her ass. She absolutely eats the lip sync to “Big Spender,” bringing the theatricality and precision required for the Shirley Bassey song. Charity goes for a more outré take, but it can’t help but suffer next to Scarlett’s. She stays, while Charity loses the rematch and sashays away.

Heading into next week’s Snatch Game and Reading Is Fundamental challenges, we have a Scarlett who is pretty furious with her castmates, and a group of queens who have been told that the time is nigh to get their asses in gear. 

Honestly, despite the non-win and mediocre pair of commercials, I’m more excited than I’ve been so far to see what happens with Drag Race UK moving forward. We have conflict, we have underdogs fighting for redemption and we have a cast that may not be the most dynamic, but is at least ready to step up to the challenge. If this week is what it takes to save the season, then I’m fully onboard.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨With Charity’s departure, Kitty is the only queen of the top seven to not yet have a RuPeter Badge. “Enjoy your badges, because I’m gonna win the rest of them,” she tells the other girls at the start of the episode. In truth, she’d probably have won this one if there was a win to give out, but alas, she’ll have to wait until next week to start winning.

✨Leigh-Anne Pinnock from Little Mix makes for a cute guest judge, although at times she looks a little uncomfortable with how negative the critique session is as a whole. She does have some great banter with Ru when he asks if she has an assistant: “Yes I do! They’re named Jade and Perrie!”

✨“RuPaul’s Dog Race” is the mini-challenge, and it requires the girls to, in pairs, perform in a makeshift dog show as handler and pooch. Kitty and Charity are my favourites, but it’s Krystal and Scarlett who win, with Krystal’s comedy clearly being what appeals to Ru most. (Again, Charity probably should’ve paid attention to this.)

✨Before the runway, Scarlett opens up to Kitty about her mom who is dying in a pretty heart-wrenching scene. Kitty seems to be the emotional sounding board of the season—she was also the one who talked with Charity about being HIV positive a couple weeks ago. Kudos to her for being such a supportive friend to these queens, and my heart goes out to Scarlett. As a person who lost a parent at about the age Scarlett is now, I know just how painful that can be.

✨“Expensive” makes for an odd runway category, no? How do you quantify it? Michelle even notes that she’s not sure if River’s is actually expensive, but it looks it. Speaking of which: River looks fucking amazing on the runway in a Southeast Asian garment. It’s the best she’s looked all season, and might be my favourite runway of UK Season 3 so far.

✨Very interesting to hear Ru take responsibility for the disappointing performances. He notes he didn’t go over the storyboards with the girls, and that’s his fault. That also helps cut into the “fucking H&M” factor of this speech: he’s owning his part in it as well.

✨The cut to Ru and Michelle sitting in stone cold silence after Scarlett’s team’s commercial? Camp.

✨And now a programming note: with both UK and Canada seasons currently ongoing, there is a lot of Drag Race happening on Thursdays. To spread out our coverage, starting next week UK recaps and rankings will now be published on Mondays and Tuesdays instead of Fridays and Saturdays. (Canada recaps and rankings schedule will be staying the same, coming out Friday and Saturday mornings.) Our hope is that extending the conversation will allow for more time to watch and digest UK before we talk about it every week. 

✨As always, if you want to get all our great Drag Race coverage in one place, plus some exclusive bonus content, you can subscribe to Wig!, our gag-worthy weekly drag newsletter. Sign up now!

The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK will be available to stream Thursday, Oct. 28, at 2 p.m. EDT on WOW Presents Plus in the U.S. and OUTtv in Canada, as well as on BBC Three and the BBC’s iPlayer in the United Kingdom. Additionally, episodes are available the same day on Crave in Canada. Our recap of that episode will be available the following Monday, Nov. 1.