‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 17 finale recap: America’s Next Drag Superstar XVII is …

The conventional wisdom goes that RuPaul’s Drag Race finales are bad. This is mostly rooted in memories of the mid-Logo era, when the show shifted to big-theatre final episodes but had minimal content to fill time. Seasons 7 and 8 introduced one-queen original songs, which helped fill the time, but it wasn’t really until the show moved to VH1 and introduced the Lip Sync for the Crown that finales got more interesting. Of the 16 previous main series finales, I would say eight of them are good: Seasons 1–3 (the in-studio finale era), Season 8 (the reunion of all winners), Season 9 (Sasha Velour, enough said), Season 12 (yes, the living room finale is excellent) and Seasons 14 and 16 (the return of the original numbers, leaving out the production mess that was the Season 15 finale).

.500 is an excellent batting average in baseball, and I would say it’s a decent average when it comes to producing a Drag Race finale. These episodes have to do a lot at once: reflect on a 14-week competition in a meaningful way, catch up with the finalists and their loved ones, give the whole cast a final chance to show off their best drag, fulfill whatever pet project World of Wonder is interested in at the moment—hello, Giving Us Lifetime Achievement Award—and, of course, decide the winner of a season. Really, it’s impressive that they ever get it right and deliver an entertaining episode of television, much less eight of them.

Unfortunately, in this season’s case, the conventional wisdom bears out. The Season 17 finale is a slog of an episode, culminating in what might be the worst Lip Sync for the Crown we’ve seen since Asia O’Hara released a bunch of butterflies to be crushed by a flipping Kameron Michaels. What’s worse is that, despite the episode’s failures, I’m not sure many of them will be remedied going into future finales—either because they’re not what World of Wonder seemingly wants to do, or because they’re inelegant fixes that are nonetheless better than the previous problems.

A bit of a peek behind the curtain here: I was on vacation for the past week, so I wasn’t able to watch the finale until 24 hours after it aired. Thus, I knew the winner, and have seen the general sentiments online—namely, that there was dissatisfaction about how the winner was chosen relative to the performances in the finale. I’ll get into that a bit, but more than anything, I have to say: I just can’t imagine getting worked up about this episode. It’s bad and boring, sure, but that just makes it a waste of time to be dismissed. The winner was likely going to be the winner barring any major incident in this episode, and there is decidedly nothing major in this finale—either positive or negative. (Well, except Nymphia Wind’s step-down look, which really did prove to be a swift reminder of how much better Season 16’s fashions were.) If the finale brings you that much displeasure, though, don’t fret: there’s always more Drag Race around the corner. All Stars 10 on May 9, anyone?

As always, seeing the whole cast return for one final runway of pure eleganza is a treat‚ though I do wish they’d consider reviving the Season 13 finale ball concept. (With a budget cap, perhaps.) Among the eliminated queens, I love Lucky Starzzz’s galactic concept, Arrietty’s final form elf drag, Lydia B Kollins’ glamorous vamp look and Suzie Toot’s take on Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. Turns out, she makes a better Audrey II than Audrey I! The final four all look excellent, but Jewels Sparkles’ ultra-dramatic skirt takes the cake for my favourite. Lexi Love once again pulls out an excellent wig, and Onya Nurve’s mug is the best we’ve seen all season. If anyone’s disappointing on the runway, it’s Sam Star—she looks good in cowgirl pageant drag, but it’s expected.

Then Ru comes out to perform his song “Good Luck and Don’t Fuck It Up.” It is the exact same performance you have seen from Ru a million times, with a vague schoolteacher-and-students concept that amounts to the Pit Crew dancers in schoolboy looks and Ru holding a pointer. The number finishes, Ru welcomes the audience and it is immediately clear that this finale filming on the main stage is A Problem. It feels so small and unfabulous, decidedly not the impression you want people to take away from the culminating moment of the biggest drag competition on earth.

The current operating theory among fans is that we are getting these in-studio finales because of what happened behind the scenes of Season 15’s finale. For the uninitiated: according to contemporaneous reports, one of the show’s dancers got injured during Anetra’s number, which required re-choreographing not just her number, but every queen’s number on the spot. This led to a massive delay in filming. There were also rumours that Mistress Isabelle Brooks did not take her elimination well and delayed her return to the stage for the Miss Congeniality presentation, but I don’t think that mattered as much. If anything, it just points to a general sense of chaos during filming that, were I a Drag Race producer, I would want to avoid.

Season 16’s finale was a weird outlier, still not in the big theatres of old but also filmed at an odd time (two months after the season finished filming), possibly to avoid a potential IATSE strike later on. While that stage shared a lot in common with the current main stage—in fact, it might just be a different build of the current stage—the space felt grander. For there to be no modification to the stage since the main season filmed this go-around just makes this feel like another episode of Drag Race. Filling the audience with nondescript people doesn’t help, nor does sticking the eliminated queens in the back of the crowd. It just doesn’t feel right, and it’s a major reason why this episode does not work.

The queens each perform an original song, and unlike in past seasons, they sing their own vocals! This is something fans have been asking for for a while, and it pays off for most of them. Onya, the strongest vocalist of the group, sounds ready to hit the charts with “It Do Take Nurve.” She’s a pro, dazzling with what is probably the lowest-concept number of the three. Onya’s whole position seems to be that she doesn’t need a bunch of extra tricks when it comes to performing—that she is the magic. Watching this, I gotta agree! Lexi may have her roller skates, and Sam may have a whole red carpet reveal, but Onya has Onya. Nobody else can say that.

That said, I do really like both Lexi and Onya’s numbers. Lexi’s “Classic” starts out with a Death Becomes Her reference, then launches into her skating all over the place. It’s a real slay, and a reminder of how electrifying Lexi’s talent show performance was at the start of the season. It’s a shame she got so much in her head during the back half, because when Lexi is on, she’s a superstar. Sam’s number is very much what you think of when you think of a drag variety number—I got real Alyssa Edwards vibes from the whole thing—which makes it interesting that she’s gotten a more muted reception among fans. My hope is that there’s still a place for this kind of pageant excellence in Drag Race moving forward, but for the first time since Jaida Essence Hall’s victory, pageantry does feel a bit out-of-step from where the show wants to live.

Which brings us to Jewels. In the last in-season episode, I had the realization that Jewels is kind of the perfect fit for what Drag Race is looking for right now. She’s young and charismatic, and can dance with the best of them. She’d make a great fit at RuPaul’s Drag Race Live or on a Werq the World tour. She’s moldable, not so set in her drag style yet, but still distinctive as a personality. She’s seen Drag Race as her dream for years, but now that she’s achieved that and made it all the way to the finale, the world is her oyster. There’s a very good argument that, despite having the worst track record of the final four, Jewels actually makes for the best fit for being America’s Next Drag Superstar.

WIth that in mind, Jewels’ finale showcase is a remarkably savvy pitch for herself. “Ding” is probably my least favourite number of the lot, but by picking a broad drag comedy number, Jewels shows versatility. In her interview with RuPaul, she centers Drag Race as not just the thing that got her into drag, but also what helped her accept herself. Perhaps most impressively, she makes the case that in this cultural moment, as a proud Latina and a product of immigration, she can be a beacon for so many. When she talks about the American dream, I honestly think it’s all over. Like so many winners before her, Jewels has the argument and the narrative for the win. That’s no small thing, and I think it secures her spot in the Lip Sync for the Crown.

The Lip Sync for the Crown is to “Abracadabra,” the biggest song off Lady Gaga’s truly terrific Mayhem. I like this trend, which started with “Padam Padam” as last year’s final lip sync track, of the season culminating in a battle to the big gay song of the moment. Lexi and Sam are eliminated before the lip sync, with Lexi speed-running her reveals in what might be the finale’s funniest moment. This leaves Onya and a genuinely shocked Jewels as our top two, but only one can be crowned queen.

Unfortunately, they have to be crowned after a truly terrible lip sync. Again, I can’t understand all the Sturm und Drang online about who won, because they’re both way off base in different ways. Jewels has lots of reveals, yes, but she speeds through them and struggles to pull some of them off. To this day, I feel like no one understands the lessons Sasha taught with the “So Emotional” lip sync. It’s not just about reveals, it’s about high-impact reveals done at the right time to match with the song. Sasha didn’t just pull off her wig to let rose petals fall, she did it at the peak of the song’s climax. Simply throwing out low-impact reveals at random moments isn’t effective, especially when they’re done with about half the song still to go.

But I can’t drag Jewels without dragging Onya for what I can best describe as “drunk mom at a wedding” dancing. Listen, Onya is a magnetic performer and personality who has proven throughout this competition that she can do a great many things. Even earlier in this episode, her banter with Ru about her runway walk is unbelievably entertaining. She’s a star. She, however, should never lip sync “Abracadabra” again. There’s one moment when she just fully stalks across the stage, like some unseen force is pulling her along, blocking Jewels as she struggles with yet another reveal. Between the top two, it’s a lip sync almost bad enough to be camp.

In the end, Onya Nurve is declared America’s Next Drag Superstar XVII. And I think that’s absolutely the right call. Much like Season 17 itself, Onya did not end her journey on the strongest note—but that doesn’t diminish what she accomplished this season. With four maxi-challenge wins that easily could’ve been five, Onya dominated the competition. She made the season more interesting with both her conflicts and her friendships. She may not fit the mold of what Drag Race is looking for as completely as Jewels did by season’s end, but that’s not what she set out to do. She set out to be the best Onya Nurve she could be, and Ru couldn’t help but take notice.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨Not sure if anyone has cared about this as much as I have, but with Ross Mathews not appearing on the finale judges’ panel (Jamal Sims is in his seat), that means Ts Madison officially had the most appearances of a rotating judge this season. While I would say Ts’ critiques weren’t as good this season as they have been in the past, and Ross actually had a couple of his best judging stints in years, I’m overall glad to see Ts more and more. The show has been dying for a more substantial shake-up to the judging panel, and this is a great step.

✨The Untucked best moments montage is the kind of thing that you would show at a reunion, not a finale. If you want to have a reunion, Drag Race, have a reunion!

✨Sapphira Cristál and Xunami Muse return, looking glorious, to present Olay’s Miss Congeniality prize. It goes to Crystal Envy! I had heard at the time of her elimination that Crystal left a bunch of wigs and clothes for her sisters, which speaks to why she would win this. Good for her! Olay presents their now-expected $2,000 consolation to each of the non-winning queens, too, which is really a nice gesture.

✨Other financial prizes, beyond Onya’s $200,000 grand prize, include $25,000 for Jewels and $10,000 for both Lexi and Sam. With her prize total of $220,800 this season, Onya becomes the fifth-winningest queen in a single season, behind Sasha Colby ($222,000), Jimbo ($230,000), Angeria Paris VanMicheals ($231,500, though it all went to charity) and of course, the Queen of All Queens, Jinkx Monsoon ($232,500).

✨Liza Minnelli appears to accept the Giving Us Lifetime Achievement Award. While my most cynical self continues to find this tradition a little silly—what compelled Drag Race to do this?—I do love that we get a segment in each finale dedicated to celebrating a legend in the queer community. Bob Mackie, Cassandra Peterson and Liza Minnelli make for a great list of first recipients, too. The whole thing is cute, and Ru clearly gets his life talking to Liza, although having a “Ring Them Bells” performance with Pit Crew dancers spinning around Liza does feel a bit blasphemous. Personal favourite part of the segment: every shot of an increasingly emotional Suzie Toot. Sweet!

✨Hannah Conda and Alexis Michelle spotted in the Liza intro video! Hannah Conda for All Stars 11, please!

✨The high of Nymphia in her truly amazing step-down look is balanced by the low of seeing her as Jane Goodall again. At least we get her on a FaceTime call with Jane herself, as the good doctor drags Nymphia for her wig.

✨Onya’s reaction to winning, both in the finale proper and in the live reaction video, is incredible. Her enthusiasm, and willingness to be loud and proud about it, demonstrates just how much she wanted this—like a battle cry after a hard-won fight. I love her very much, and I cannot wait to see what she does after this show.

✨I’m honestly still processing what I think about Season 17. Overall, it gave us some great television, including the revival of watchable Untucked. I love this cast, filled not with polished performers with dedicated brands, but queens who feel like real people, flaws and all. But the lows of this season, infrequent as they were, were so low. I still get furious thinking about the Snatch Game debacle, and the run of episodes from 11–14 was underwhelming (the makeover excepted). This finale doesn’t exactly help matters. I think I’ll remember it as a season of primarily ecstacy, with some agony thrown in. But we can’t dwell for long, darlings—All Stars starts in two weeks!

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 is over, which means we’re off-duty until All Stars. We will be covering All Stars 10, but our coverage will look a bit different. If you want your drag fix until we return, subscribe to our newsletter Wig! for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox monthly. See you in a few weeks!