Welcome to RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every week, we’ve debriefed the newest episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 to determine which queens were riding high, and which needed she-mergency care. But now, with our winner crowned, it’s time to take one final look back at our final four queens’ journeys to the endgame.

3rd/4th: Lexi Love (last placement: 3)

Though she didn’t ultimately snatch the crown, Lexi did the next-best thing in this finale: she won the crowd back. After coming in as a fan favourite, Lexi’s underwhelming performance this season and fixation on Suzie Toot led to much of the audience either feeling apathetic about her or fully turning on her. Her performance in this finale demonstrated the confident, in-command Lexi we didn’t see for much of the season, as if being back on roller skates was all she needed to return to her full power. But I think it’s more than that: I think being out of the pressure cooker of the competition helped Lexi reset, and she could come back in as the queen she’s always been inside.

Very savvy move pulling out all those reveals ahead of the lip sync, too. Sometimes, queens will save things like that to tease doing them in the future at some live performance or other venue. But Lexi basically instantly raised the stakes for the top two by doing so, and when they failed to live up to what Lexi had promised she would’ve done, the instant feeling became: what a bummer that Lexi didn’t get to make top two. I’m not sure how much Lexi was thinking about that—it honestly looked like she was just annoyed she didn’t get to do the reveals—but it was actually one of the smartest, most attention-grabbing decisions made all season long. If she can come back for another season in that mode, and avoid the trappings of her inner saboteur, I think an All Stars run could be a very, very good thing for Lexi.

3rd/4th: Sam Star (last placement: 4)

Sam’s trajectory this season is going to be fascinating to reflect on after some time away from the season. In the middle portion, it really did feel like she was on track to compete with Onya Nurve for the crown. But she never coalesced much fan support, and the storyline that she and the judges created for herself—pageant queen learns to loosen up—faltered around the Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent monologue challenge. Her decidedly not-ugly dress for that episode’s Ugliest Dress runway category gave the impression that she was forgetting lessons she’d learned, and her RuPaul’s Drag Race Live tryout plus her very pageant-y answers in this finale’s interview portion fed into that perception.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Sam is a spectacular drag entertainer. She’s got a very long career ahead of herself, and I would put odds on her becoming known as an underrated competitor as the years go on. But despite what it seemed like at one point this season, I think there was nothing she could do in this finale that would put her in contention for the title. As Ru told her and Lexi, this was just not her time.

RUNNER-UP: Jewels Sparkles (last placement: 1)

What a fairy-tale finish for Jewels. Sure, she didn’t ultimately win, but she got so much closer than I would’ve expected just a few weeks ago. As she said in her intro video package, she was underestimated, with all the queens saying she would be going home next in Spill the Tea. She not only avoided elimination that week with her killer “1 Thing” lip sync, she won the next challenge to secure her spot in the final four. In the finale, she made a terrific case for herself, and had me thinking she really had a shot to win it all. Getting even to the runner-up placement is a testament to how strong a finish Jewels had this season. (Well, except for the final lip sync, but no one came out of that one looking good.)

Of this cast, other than maybe Suzie, Jewels is who I would put the most money on winning a future season. She’s so young right now, with so much raw potential, and she’ll only continue to grow. She’ll benefit from more time to hone the Jewels Sparkles brand, and will be a truly dynamite live performer after some experience in Vegas and/or on tour. I know there are a lot of Jewels fans disappointed after this result, but the arc of Drag Race is long. She’ll be back before we know it.

WINNER: Onya Nurve (last placement: 2)

Condragulations to America’s Next Drag Superstar, Onya Nurve! I’ll be honest, I got really nervous in the last couple of weeks that this wouldn’t happen. Call it PTSD from Sapphira Cristál losing with basically the exact same track record, or suspicions that Ru told Onya to open up in the final in-season episode for a reason. Whatever the case, it felt like the winds were shifting away from an Onya crowning, and I’ve never been happier to be wrong. After the performance Onya put on this season, there could be no one else.

Regarding the “Abracadabra” lip sync: earlier this season, Dawn tweeted about an argument she’d seen on TikTok regarding what a lip sync actually means. “RuPaul says before the lip sync, ‘this is your last chance to impress me and save yourself,’ not ‘if you do better you don’t go home’,” she wrote. I think the same thing applies here: had Jewels turned in an undeniable, Sasha Velour-level performance, she might have been able to shift the tide. But while Onya was quite bad in the performance, Jewels was not that much better. The Lip Sync for the Crown is not to be won by a sliver, but a blowout—or else Ru will go with the decision he had in mind from the start. And that, in my opinion, is what happened here.

I’m sure the matter of how Onya won this will remain a debate in the fandom for some time, but the fact remains that she is our champion. I am thrilled for her, and thrilled for all the doors this will open for her. Hey Quinta Brunson, when are we getting Onya on Abbott Elementary? When are we getting Onya’s debut album? The sky’s the limit for her, and she’s just getting started.