‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 17, Episode 9 recap: A living legend

Coco Montrese vs. Alyssa Edwards is one of those storylines that reality TV producers dream about. Not only did the two come into RuPaul’s Drag Race with existing beef—and were willing to hash out that beef in various squabbles all season long—but both were incredibly talented queens. Yes, they both landed in the bottom two a couple of times, but they were skilled at lip syncing their way out of danger. They managed to get all the way to the final six, at which point they finally were the two worst performers in a challenge, and they had to face off to Paula Abdul’s “Cold Hearted.”

“From the first day I walked into the werk room, and I saw her face, I wanted to step on the stage across from her and get vindication,” Coco said in a pre-lip sync confessional. And you believed her! The tension between the two was palpable, and Season 5 felt like it was hitting its crescendo in their battle. The fact that they were both in the competition for so long, and that their bottom two placement together was deserved, made the climax feel both natural and thrilling. Coco ultimately won the lip sync, but there were no ultimate losers: they made incredible television, they both ultimately returned for All Stars 2 and their feud is remembered as one of the most iconic storylines that Drag Race has ever seen.

Drag Race doesn’t always get such a smooth opportunity to make two queens face off in a way that befits a storyline. Sometimes, they jump the gun too quickly, like they did when fiery rivals Tamisha Iman and Kandy Muse landed in the lip sync in a very early episode of Season 13, leading to an unsatisfying departure for Tamisha. Sometimes, the tension lasts all season, but the resulting battle is unremarkable, as we saw with Brooke Lynn Hytes and Vanessa Vanjie’s Final 5 lip sync in Season 11. The two former lovers had taken up a lot of narrative space all season, but you don’t exactly see gays running to rewatch their “A Deeper Love” performance.

Season 17’s first narratively dramatic Lip Sync for Your Life, between boyfriends Kori King and Lydia B Kollins, doesn’t make for the most natural face-off. While Kori definitely deserves her bottom two placement in this week’s design challenge, there’s some judging trickery required to get Lydia down there with her. Ordinarily, I’d be more annoyed by such clownery. But against all odds, the resulting lip sync is more than worth the storyline manipulation it takes to get there. “Kiss Me Deadly” is the best lip sync of the season—and one of the best moments of the season overall—and serves as the culmination of a genuinely great episode of Drag Race. Does it feel organic like Coco vs. Alyssa did? Unfortunately not. But it’s terrific nonetheless, and shows that sometimes, producers can’t wait for iconic moments to fall into their laps—they have to make them happen.

The challenge this week is another design task, but with a very fun twist. All the queens will take inspiration from one of three Betsey Johnson collections: Punk Grunge Flappers, Betsey’s Prom and Prenup. This is a great challenge concept, and reminds me of something Project Runway would do in its early days. (Remember when the Season 5 designers got the chance to make something inspired by one of Diane von Furstenberg’s collections?) All the queens are incredibly excited; you can tell they feel a great deal of affection for Betsey and reverence for her work.

Suzie Toot, Lydia B Kollins and Jewels Sparkles all get Punk Grunge Flappers, while Lexi Love, Sam Star and Arrietty all go for the Prenup collection. Lana Ja’Rae is the only one who intentionally chooses the Betsey’s Prom collection. Kori King and Onya Nurve are left over, so they get put in the last two Prenup slots after the other collections fill up. There’s a funny moment in this when Lydia forgets to pick her own boyfriend to get to choose next. Suzie has to prompt her to think about it, which inspires an “oh shit” from Lydia and a very annoyed reaction from Kori.

If there are any actual hard feelings between the two, though, we don’t see any evidence of it. We’ve been getting more and more Kori and Lydia content, in a way that had people guessing we must be heading for a lip sync between the two. This episode solidifies that this isn’t some casual fling: they are very much into each other, and as we learned from Kori’s appearance at Roscoe’s in Chicago recently, they are still together to this day! This makes what comes later sting a little more, but hey. That’s show business.

When Ru comes back into the werk room, he introduces an expert on Betsey Johnson: Betsey Johnson! Getting to consult with the designer herself during the walkthrough is an amazing opportunity for the queens. Each conversation is fascinating, and provides a look into Betsey’s private mind that I just love. I could listen to people who are great at what they do talk about their work all day long. It’s why I love MasterClass videos!

Soon enough, we’re at the runway, and there are some real winners on this runway. The top three are head-and-shoulders above the rest, but the safe queens put in solid work across the board as well. (Of those three, I’d say Lana’s look is most successful, then Sam’s good, but obvious, take and then Suzie’s decidedly un-flapper punk look.) A big hat tip to Lexi, who overcomes her previous safe record in design challenges to produce a sexy, gorgeous wedding dress. She looks disappointed later when she doesn’t win, and while I have to agree with Ru’s ultimate decision, I empathize. Lexi does very well this week, and although she’s not talking about it in confessionals like Suzie is—or, at least, we’re not seeing it—you can tell she’s hungry for another win.

The top two for me (and, it seems, for the judges) are Jewels and Arrietty. The latter produces a stunner of a “groom’s gown,” complete with a white bow tie to reference Betsey’s love of bows. The outfit is so intricately made, it’s kind of shocking that Arrietty made it on the spot. Had she won, I would’ve fully understood: this garment is a work of art. But it’s Jewels who comes out on top (finally!) with the best take on the Punk Grunge Flappers collection. She’s the first out on the runway, and it’s an instant home run. Her use of colour, her perfect styling, her faux fur pieces—it’s all tremendous. I spent the rest of the runway comparing the other queens’ look against hers, that’s how instantly memorable it is. It also feels like the truest marriage of a queen’s aesthetic with Betsey’s own.

Onya avoids the bottom two this week under decidedly suspicious circumstances. Her dress is awful, with bows literally stapled onto her dress in haphazard fashion. There’s no shape to her garment, and although she styles it well, that can’t save it. Kori also really whiffs this week with a simple hot pink slip dress. What’s such a bummer is that there’s nothing Betsey Johnson about it. It’s just another Kori King look, and an ’80s wig and mug can’t elevate it. Combine that with the construction problems, and Kori earns a very fair trip to the bottom two this week.

But Lydia’s isn’t quite as fair. I could see quibbling with the construction enough to justify putting her in the “low” spot for the week. Onya’s look is worse in every way, though. Lydia has a fantastic concept, mixing a feminine pink dress with fur frippery. Maybe she takes it a step too far with the facekini, but it’s giving something interesting. Onya’s look is poorly made and not a good concept. I’d absolutely have kept Lydia safe this week.

Onya vs. Kori as a Lip Sync for Your Life matchup, however, would be quite boring. Onya would flatten Kori, and even if Kori surprised with a better-than-expected performance, there’s no way Ru’s letting go of Onya. So Ru puts Lydia in the bottom two instead, sparing Onya from having a bottom two placement and forcing Lydia to send home her boyfriend.

The lip sync song is “Kiss Me Deadly” by Lita Ford, and this is a goddamn banger of a song. Lydia and Kori are both plugged into it, but Lydia is just on fire in this lip sync. Like in “Boogie Wonderland,” Lydia just seems physically connected to the music. She moves with precision that doesn’t sacrifice the fun. And in a final moment we’ll all think about long after this season, she and Kori fully make out at the end of the song. The makeout itself is great (as Sam says, “There was tongue!”), but it’s the others’ reactions that really make the moment. Carson Kressley is scandalized, Ru is delighted (the biggest smile and clap I’ve seen from him in years!), Betsey and Michelle Visage are having a ball and all the other queens cheer like crazy. There’s a shot of Jewels fully jumping up and down in the back that I had to rewind and replay several times. It’s a joyous moment, and it’s such a fun lip sync.

Ultimately, one of the two has to sashay away, and it’s Kori’s time. I’m sad for both her and Lydia, but I’m glad Lydia is staying—if only to see her lip sync once again. And I’m very happy for Kori that, after a season in which she seemed really determined to make good television, she’s leaving with a genuinely legendary lip sync moment. We’ll be talking about this one for years. Thank you, Kori and Lydia, for giving us a kiss for the ages—the MTV Movie Awards are calling your name!

Untucking our final thoughts

We get Reading Is Fundamental this week! Nine queens is a lot for the Reading Challenge, which means a lot of queens only get one joke shown. But as a result, the package really does read as a Greatest Hits collection, and there are some good ones in here. Onya has my favourite read of the whole set: “Lana Ja’Rae! You know, Ru, a lot of us came here to start our career, but Lana came here to end it!” Lexi gets a good burn in on Kori: “Kori King! When Marsha P. Johnson threw you, how bad did it hurt?” But Suzie ultimately wins it all with a pair of great gags. To Lana: “Lana Ja’Rae! At this point, all you can do … is disappoint the judges.” And to Lexi: “Lexi Love, you are just steps away from reaching your dreams. Twelve steps, exactly.” She earns $2,500, and a bit of a pep in her step after not winning the last two weeks.

Kori, Lana and Onya all wind up with the same collection for the challenge. Ru notes that “It’s getting racial up in here,” deadpanning, “I wonder what high school you guys would be going to, Martin Luther King?” The queens laugh, but it’s Jewels’ quick riff that makes me cackle: “Not Rosa Parks.”

“You can call me Notre Damus … What’s his name?” Sam is hilarious in this entire episode, but special mention has to go to her forgetting Nostradamus’ name, then upon being corrected, perfectly resetting into delivering her confessional line like it was her first time.

We get a lot of great Lexi-Sam content in this episode. Lexi alluded to their closeness a few weeks ago (in one of her shady bits about Sam’s “SheDevil blood”), but it comes through in a big way as Sam pep-talks Lexi out of a spiral as the challenge begins. Lexi admits she’s more frequently emotional since transitioning, and Sam admits Lexi is “a complex character.” But she loves that they’ve found each other, and they seem genuinely so supportive. A lovely friendship!

Sam says in a confessional that she’s glad Lexi could “snap out of it,” repeating it in full Cher voice. “Throwback to the Rusical,” she says to the camera in an aside I would call Heidi N Closet-like.

There’s a great bit of cinematography in this episode, which is not something I always get to say about Drag Race! (The two most iconic shots I can remember from the show: catching Phi Phi O’Hara’s reaction to Alyssa Edwards and Tatianna’s tie in All Stars 2, and Lady Camden lip-syncing “Don’t Let Go (Love)” in Season 14.) Arrietty compliments Lexi’s “really pretty tulle” as she drapes the fabric over herself. As she does, Sam pops up out of frame to block Lexi. “Thank you, I get that a lot,” she snarks. It’s a really funny shot!

Ru just fully refers to Lydia as “Butthole” at all times. It sends me. Whatever gets his favour, I guess!

Two updates from Lana in the werk room: she didn’t get to go to prom because of COVID-19 (that bitch corona), and she misses Joella. Same on the latter, girl.

The entire moment with Suzie in a makeshift durag had me in tears. Nothing made me laugh quite as hard, though, as Jewels’ joke: “You’re gonna have Symone so gagged with that! Black Girl Magic!”

I just want to give the show one final round of kudos for such a wonderful tribute to Betsey Johnson. Having her walk the runway at the end and do her signature split is the cherry on top of a gorgeous, episode-long celebration of what makes her so goddamn fabulous. You can tell just how touched she is by the whole thing. More episodes like this, please!

A coverup and bikini look from Ru! I’m gagged!

The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race will air Friday, March 7, at 8 p.m. EST on MTV in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada. Check back every Monday 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 month.