Welcome to Canada’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every Saturday, we’ll debrief the week’s new episode of Canada’s Drag Race Season 2 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. A surprise Lip Sync for the Finale twist has the queens fighting for their spots in the final three. But despite previous lip sync wins, one queen falls just short of the end.
4. Gia Metric (last week: 2) — ELIMINATED
It was a bummer to see Gia go home before the finale, but I ultimately don’t think the order of her and Kendall Gender’s eliminations mattered much. This has felt like a battle between two queens for most of the season, and the only remaining question was which Brat Packer would make it to the end beside them. Statistically, it should’ve been Gia, who has had a much more solid run this season. However, in their lip sync to “Main Event,” Kendall’s focus on the words beat out Gia’s dance-focused performance. I actually think Gia has a tremendous upside when it comes to a potential All Stars appearance: she’s got such a specific sense of style and self, and she didn’t perform so well this season that we can’t still be surprised by her. With time, she’ll only grow more and more as a queen—and I’d love to see her come back stronger than ever.
3. Kendall Gender (last week: 4)
In no way do I want to discount Kendall’s drag or performance in this competition—she’s actually been a favourite of mine, with an effortless sense of grounded cool that makes her very rootable. But it would be a real misread to think she has a realistic chance of winning this crown. Not only is her track record the worst of the remaining queens, her edit does not resemble a winner’s at all—and she’s facing down another song-and-dance challenge. Her “Bye Flop” verse was roundly dismissed by the fandom (I kinda liked it!), and while she did well in the Rusical, that was a very different kind of performance. She’d have to really surprise the judges to have a chance at the crown—and even then, I still think she’s destined to end in (a very deserving) third place. Not every queen can win every season, but Kendall’s been a joy to watch regardless.
2. Pythia (last week: 1)
Man, you can truly flip a coin between Icesis Couture and Pythia to figure out who’s going to win. If I thought they had prepared a double crowning, I’d say go ahead and use it. (No stitched-together double crownings, though. Never again.) Pythia has really only stumbled twice this season: in the roast, and in her first lip sync in this episode. Unfortunately in both of those instances, Icesis has vastly outperformed her. Icesis also beat her out in the first two design challenges this season, leading to a whole storyline about how Pythia just wanted one design-challenge win. She did eventually win the makeover challenge, though, and Icesis had to lip sync. Funny enough, the other challenge Pythia won, the Rusical, was the only other time Icesis fell into the bottom two.
So you’ve got two queens who have existed in a constant duel, one gaining the advantage only to lose it shortly thereafter. It’s been thrilling to watch them, and I think either would make for a deserving victor. However, if you had to make me choose, I do think Pythia is ultimately going to come up just short of the crown.
1. Icesis Couture (last week: 3)
It might be my personal bias coming in, since I’ve been rooting for her since day one, but Icesis feels like the more likely of our two frontrunners to become Canada’s Next Drag Superstar. She’s been a force throughout this season, capable of turning even her lowest moments into triumphs. She’s been open and vulnerable, letting herself defrost (and getting complimented for doing so by Brad in this reunion). Had she just not gone over time in the roast challenge, she’d be walking into this finale with three wins, and with some of the most memorable looks of the season under her belt. True, the latter also applies to Pythia—can you see why it’s so damn hard to figure out the winner of this season?
But I think I’ve gotta stick with my gut here. I believe that Icesis will be Canada’s Drag Race’s second winner, and ultimately, that’s what I want to happen as well. Either she or Pythia would make for an amazing reigning queen, though—and after a season as great as this one, we deserve a great champion.
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