‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 13, Episode 13 power ranking: The final four is set

Welcome to RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every Saturday, we’ll debrief the week’s new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. The last acting challenge of the season gives us our final four, with a former frontrunner heading home. Which of the remaining queens has the best chance of taking home the crown?

5. Olivia Lux (last week: 5) — ELIMINATED

It’s fair to say Olivia has not thrived in the back half of this competition. While she scored two wins in a row early on, and was even at the top of the Winners’ Circle pack alongside Symone in their premiere, those victories feel so long ago now. 

Since Snatch Game, she has scored low or been in the bottom two of every challenge. She needed to really deliver something different this week to avoid lip-syncing, and the judges felt they were just getting the same from her. Even Cynthia Erivo, who did not have the benefit of seeing all of Olivia’s past performances, still noted how similar all of Olivia’s work was this week.

At one point, Olivia was a frontrunner. But looking back at her wins, it feels like what Ru was really rewarding was potential. She was a lot of fun in the improv challenge, but was her mime bit really a clear winner over Denali and Rosé’s high-energy sketch? Or even the subtle, smart comedy from Kandy Muse and Symone’s? 

And while I think her disco-mentary win was fair, a lot of the judges’ praise was about her positive vibes and smile, not about the performance itself. It was easy to get excited by Olivia’s promise—I got swept up in it myself—but her fellow queens were right in their main stage answers. She just needs a bit more time to grow before she can compete for the crown.

4. Kandy Muse (last week: 1)

From a high to a low: Kandy couldn’t pull a second win this week, and thus is entering the final four with a similar track record to her fellow New York queen, Peppermint. (In fact, they share the same single challenge win: For the roast.) Peppermint was also going up against queens with two, three and four wins—Sasha Velour, Trinity the Tuck (née Taylor) and Shea Coulée, respectively—but beat two of them to make it to the runner-up spot thanks to her lip-syncing skills. I think that’s actually possible for Kandy, provided it is indeed a top four this season. She’s one of the better lip-syncers of this crop.

Winning the season feels like a harder get, though. She’s lip-synced three times, nearly got sent home once and only has one maxi-challenge win to her name. Moreover, I don’t think she has the edit to support a win. While the other queens are all peaking (or at least holding steady) at the right time, Kandy’s trajectory has been inconsistent. 

Had she managed to win again this week, I’d say she’d be in great shape for the finale. But as it stands, even if there’s no elimination next week, I’m not sure a win at the end is in the cards for Miss Muse. I’ve really enjoyed Kandy this season, but I think getting to the finale will have to be the reward for her.

3. Symone (last week: 4)

Symone’s edit remains pretty impeccable, as she got the space to open up about her fears and insecurities this week. She clearly has high standards for herself, and didn’t want to falter at the final hurdle. And she certainly didn’t falter! She killed it in the acting challenge, and served a stunning interpretation of the pocket runway prompt, complete with a Hayley Williams reference in her hair choice. She got perhaps the highest praise from Cynthia, with compliments on her ease of performance and natural talent. These are all the hallmarks of Symone, and what have made her such a threat all season long.

So why am I suddenly worried?

Look, I fully admit the Lawrence Chaney/Bimini Bon Boulash situation on Drag Race UK Season 2 has me spooked. It is very plausible that Symone still wins this, and the edit all season long will reflect in our result. She’s also the strongest lip-syncer out of the remaining four, so if we get another Lip Sync for the Crown finale, she’s got the best chance of winning at the very end. 

But while Ru still seems impressed by Symone, he appears more and more impressed with her closest competition in recent weeks. Put it this way: Symone has been an A+ for most of the season, and she’s ending with a strong-but-slightly-lower A. Her competition, meanwhile, has risen from a B or a B+ all the way to an A alongside her. The playing field should feel even, but because the others have growth arcs, the momentum is with them.

Momentum isn’t everything—Crystal Methyd had the momentum and the fan support, and she still lost to Jaida Essence Hall. But it’s something, and it’s something Symone doesn’t really have. Instead, she’s got consistency, and along with her superior lip-syncing skills, it’s what she’ll need to rely on to guarantee her win at the end of this competition.

2. Gottmik (last week: 3)

If I had to take a guess right now who is going to win purely based on gut instinct, having been watching and writing about this show for years, I would bet it’s Gottmik—and she’d be a very deserving winner. After coming in a bit quieter and more hesitant than I expected based on her preseason material, Mik has fully flourished. 

She won the ball (albeit divisively) and Snatch Game (very decisively), and has done well in the roast, the improv challenge, the Rusical and the makeover. She’s shown a wide range of skills, plus some of the best runway looks of the season, and has kept Ru entertained with sharp, witty banter on the main stage. Combine all that with her only-growing-stronger edit, and I think she’s a real threat to take this home.

There have been some complaints among fans that Gottmik has been carried this season: That she’s not had to lip sync when she should have, or has been overpraised. I’d like to think I’m sensitive to that kind of favouritism—it was very visible last season with Sherry Pie, in particular. But I don’t sense it with Gottmik. 

The only time she landed in the bottom three this season was for the branding challenge, and her runway saved her there. (I enjoyed Utica’s surreal sense of humour in her commercial as well, but there’s a difference between something being iconic and something being a winning Drag Race performance.) And while some thought she should’ve been in the bottom for the disco-mentary challenge, Tamisha Iman and Kandy were a very fair bottom two that time around.

I think Gottmik’s performance this season has been praised appropriately, with maybe a minor quibble here and there. (I still would’ve given Utica the ball, and I maybe would’ve scored Mik low, but not bottom, for the disco-mentary.) She’s excelled at most of the major facets of this competition, and like Symone, she would be the first regular season winner from Los Angeles since Raja. My gut may be wrong—it has been before, more than once—but I’m starting to feel like this may be the Age of Mik.

1. Rosé (last week: 2)

This win was exactly what Rosé needed to be competitive in the finale. All season long, she’s felt like a solid competitor, but decidedly behind the L.A. girls in terms of win equity. This week, she continued to show the judges how much more relaxed and personable she’s become, she killed it in the acting challenge to make up for her loss in the first one and delivered one of her strongest looks of the season that addressed all of Michelle Visage’s past criticisms of her fashion. Not a bad week, especially going into the final four!

Rosé’s biggest obstacle at this point is not making a case for the win—as Gottmik noted in a confessional this week, Rosé’s a real threat to take home the crown. She’s won three challenges, done well in a bunch of others and the only time she was in contention to lip sync was on the paired makeover challenge. 

No, her bigger issue is that, of everyone left, she is either the weakest or second-weakest lip-syncer of the bunch. Statistically, she is absolutely the weakest, having lost both of her lip syncs. Gottmik only lip-synced in the premiere, though, and won against weak competition in Utica. But Utica also looked like a lackluster lip-syncer, and then turned out to be a Lip Sync Assassin later in the season. Gottmik could similarly surprise us. And if that happens in a traditional Lip Sync for the Crown tournament format, Rosé may have no one she can beat among the finalists.

What Rosé needs is a finale that befits her talents. If the custom drag performance element from last season sticks around, I think she’s got a real shot. She’s shown a tremendous sense of professionalism and creativity this season, and I trust her to come up with a final performance that is ambitious and entertaining in equal measure. If she just has to out-lip sync her competition, I’m dubious. But that’s what’s exciting about this endgame: Anything could happen! And with this strong final five week, Rosé has shown she’s just as in it to win it as anyone.