Welcome to Canada’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every Friday, 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. We’ve reached the finale, but which queen has joined Priyanka in the Canada’s Drag Race winners’ circle?
RUNNER-UP: Kendall Gender (last week: 3)
You know what? In terms of this finale alone, I actually think Kendall won it for me. I have some quibbles, including with her final look (appreciated the silhouette, loved the hair, but the construction of her dress didn’t work, and the fit was a miss), and while I like her incredibly expressive performances, I get that her lip-syncing style is divisive. But where Kendall really smashed this finale was in the Broomix. Her verse was absolute fire; if “Bye Flop” was Kendall losing a battle with the beat, “Queen of the North” was her pulverizing it instead. She killed the choreography, and as Amanda Brugel noted, she came off as the star of the show.
That said, while I do appreciate a dynamite finale performance, Kendall’s body of work this season was not enough to secure the win. It’s not even about track record, though of course she had one fewer maxi-challenge wins than her competitors. It’s more that both on the runway and in the challenges, Kendall had few moments in which she unconditionally shined. There’s a reason the judges and editors both kept referring back to the same moment in the Roast of Brooke Lynn Hytes: that was her one clear great bit all season long. Still, as the judges noted, Kendall more than proved that she deserved her spot in the finale by what she did with the Broomix. She ended her run on the best possible note.
RUNNER-UP: Pythia (last week: 2)
This was so unbelievably close all season long, you could’ve easily convinced me that Pythia was going to win this crown. I know, track records don’t matter anymore, but Pythia’s was the strongest of the season. She demonstrated a weakness as a lip-syncer in last week’s Lip Sync for the Finale, but she survived over Gia Metric anyway. With that hurdle cleared, Pythia could’ve easily smashed every other element of this finale but the final lip sync, and made a clear case for her victory. And on the runway, she did just that, turning out a Grecian column look that was nothing short of immaculate.
However, I think Pythia had on average the weakest finale of the final three. Yes, that runway was stunning, but her Broomix performance and verse were the least impressive of the lot. She faded into the background during the “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” lip sync, too. I’m never sure how much to count finale performance when considering who should win a season—though the recent UK Season 3 finale certainly made it seem like a major factor—but I do think it would’ve felt discordant to crown Pythia after this final episode. Still, she should nonetheless be incredibly proud of herself. She put on a fantastic show this season, and she gave us looks that I’ll be thinking about forever. (And yes, I do include the centaur runway in that.)
WINNER: Icesis Couture (last week: 1)
“Not Grandma winning the whole damn show!” Win the whole damn show she did: Icesis Couture is the second champion of Canada’s Drag Race. And obviously, I could not be more thrilled. She, like Symone and Kylie Sonique Love before her this year, was my favourite from the word “go,” and she never stopped slaying throughout the competition. While I loved her looks all season long, including her two design challenge wins, it was her performance in the Roast of Brooke Lynn Hytes that convinced me she had this in the bag. I’ve watched her “Born to Be Brad” roast dozens of times at this point. She was just so confident, so assured that she could kill with a look—it was true winner energy.
Icesis is the eighth champion this year, soon to be joined by the victor of Drag Race Italia, and helps fill out what has been a fascinating winners’ circle. I’ll have more to say about all of them in next week’s edition of our Wig! newsletter (subscribe using the link below if you haven’t already!). But despite her frosty drag name, Icesis brings a warmth and love to the circle that is right at home. She’s hilarious and heartfelt, fashionable and fierce—and she is Canada’s Next Drag Superstar.
Drag Race is all but over for 2021—only the finale of Drag Race Italia remains—but we’ll be returning with coverage of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 14 in January! The premiere will debut Friday, Jan. 7, at 8 p.m. EST on VH1 in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada. Check back every Monday and Tuesday 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 Tuesday afternoon.
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