One of my all-time favourite challenges in RuPaul’s Drag Race herstory is the DragCon panel from Season 10. Part of why I enjoyed it is because it’s a practical application of skills that queens will need to use in their careers—DragCon is a huge opportunity for alumni. But I also really appreciated that it wasn’t just another comedy or improv challenge in different clothing. Queens being funny was a boon, but it wouldn’t suffice to just be funny.
The task: to put together an educational, informational panel. The results: pretty great! Eureka! (at the time not rocking an exclamation point) got the win, leading their team of Kameron Michaels and Monét X Change to their first high placements in the competition. And queens like Asia O’Hara, Monique Heart and Aquaria got their chance to shine as well, despite just being safe. While The Vixen, Blair St. Clair and Miz Cracker came up short, even their losing performance was hardly a disaster. So, naturally, in the seasons since, we’ve never had another task like it.
That is, until this week! All Stars 6 continues to prove it’s the best All Stars season since the Obama administration with a new challenge: Pink Table Talk. A take on Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris’ award-winning Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk, the queens must host a talk show in groups of three, with each show focused on a sensitive subject: body, sex and motherhood. It’s a deceptively difficult task, because unlike a morning show or celebrity interview challenge, there are no gimmicks or bits to this one. Besides a misguided segment in which the queens try out a product from a furry pink box (remember her, from the old Untucked format?), this discussion relies entirely on the queens’ ability to inform, entertain and open up.
Considering how frequently Drag Race plumbs the well of queens’ trauma for storyline, it’s fair to be cautious. How much will the queens be judged for not sharing enough of themselves and their painful pasts? Luckily, this is less about trauma and more about finding ways to relate—in fact, a lot of the most successful conversations are positive and uplifting, spinning what could be considered difficult experiences into opportunities. Once again, we’ve got some wonky judging, but the bulk of the episode is a triumph.
Credit: Courtesy of Paramount+
The episode begins with Jan having to reveal that, unlike the rest of the queens still in the competition, she voted to send A’keria C. Davenport home, not Yara Sofia. Whoops! She makes things worse by suggesting she was just trying to be on the right side of the vote, and the other queens (particularly Kylie Sonique Love and Scarlet Envy) encourage her to own her decision. It’s a conundrum for a queen who so clearly wants to be liked and respected, and A’keria definitely has her antennae up around Jan now.
The next day, Ru introduces the Pink Table Talk challenge, and like with the DragCon tasks, allows the dolls to pick their own teams and topics. Scarlet and Ra’Jah O’Hara quickly team up with Kylie, while Ginger Minj, Pandora Boxx and Jan form a group. Eureka! is delighted with their teammates A’keria and Trinity K. Bonet, pledging that they’re going to smash the challenge. After a quick rock-paper-scissors battle over the “motherhood” topic, the teams pick their subjects: motherhood, body and sex, respectively.
Team Sex is up first, and they set a very high bar. Their conversation is real without being maudlin, and upbeat without being surface-level. A’keria shares her experience living for a while as a transgender woman, Kiki, only to detransition and face the confusion of others based on her body. A’keria has talked proudly of being “Miss Ass Almighty,” but it’s fascinating to hear her open up about the ways in which her lower body is more a subject of intrigue than attraction.
Trinity similarly opens up about having sex while HIV-positive, emphasizing that undetectable means untransmittable (or U=U, as it’s often styled), and admits she does not have sex in drag. “Trinity is absolutely a virgin,” she says. “Josh is the manager and Trinity’s the artist.” Eureka!, on the other hand, absolutely has sex in drag, and also shares their experience being plus-size and having sex. All of them get the assignment exactly right, and their natural, easy chemistry is a delight to watch. They are the winning team—but none is the winning All Star.
Credit: Courtesy of Paramount+
More on that in a second. First, we have to check in with Team Motherhood. Considering Scarlet fights for the topic, you’d imagine that she’d have plenty to say about her two moms (both named Sherry!). Unfortunately, most of what she offers is pretty surface-level, especially compared to how Ra’Jah opens up about not having a close relationship with her own mom. She and Kylie connect over how their past childhood trauma affects them, with Kylie dispensing sage advice: “Don’t let that hurt child make your grown-up decisions.” It stands in such stark contrast to Scarlet telling a joke about how she has two moms because “they were having a sale!” Scarlet can’t let go of her character for the challenge, and she stands out in a bad way for it.
Kylie does decently as the moderator, and her moment of connection with Ra’Jah is a highlight. Unfortunately, she chooses to talk herself about being a mother to a dog, and it all but brings the conversation to a halt. She winds up in the bottom for the first time, next to Scarlet, but Ra’Jah skates to safety based on her individual performance.
Joining Kylie and Scarlet in the bottom three is Jan, who once again gets knocked for being at a 10 at all times. This is a recurring criticism of the New York queen, who breaks down at a couple points about reading as inauthentic when she’s trying to be her true, cheerleader self. I do think Jan gets hammered for being too upbeat too often, but she absolutely deserves her bottom slot this week based on her performance. When Ginger opens up about an intestinal problem that changed her body type, Jan cuts in to say, “And that is the vulnerability the judges are looking for!” It all feels too calculated, too aware of being on Drag Race. So despite her team otherwise not landing in the bottom, Jan does.
Pandora gets a low score for staying too surface level, but it’s actually Ginger who gets the big surprise on the team. Owing to her smart work as a moderator and sharing her own experiences, she gets the solo win this week. It is… a dubious choice, let’s say that. I love Ginger, and she does well this week, but Eureka! is a pretty clear standout for me. It feels like Ginger is set up for a win more than she earns it. And once again, questionable judging hampers what is an otherwise great episode.
However, that’s a momentary dip, and we pick right back up in deliberations. Scarlet obfuscates the truth of her critiques—hiding that Ru actually tells her that she made him “uncomfortable” by performing too much—and spins her feedback as positive. This just about makes Jan’s head explode, and she accuses Scarlet in confessional of pinning a narrative on her. Kylie is pretty quickly ruled out of being a voting option, which means it’s a dead heat between Jan and Scarlet.
After a fake-out involving Bianca Del Rio (more on that in Final Thoughts), the Lip Sync Assassin curtain reveals Season 10 and All Stars 5 queen Mayhem Miller as the challenger. She and Ginger lip sync to Lizzo’s “Phone,” and any qualms I have with Ginger’s challenge win swiftly disappear. The pair delivers one of the best camp lip sync performances we’ve ever seen on this show, complete with in-sync dashes around the stage, some duck walking and incredibly sharp lip-syncing. Ginger beats out Mayhem, earning $30,000 and the right to make the elimination choice.
Ultimately, Ginger chooses to send Scarlet home, keeping Jan safe for another week. Scarlet is pretty gutted to be leaving, and I can’t blame her. She’s done far better in this competition than her all-safe track record would indicate, and she more than proved that the fan support for her in Season 11 was deserved. She’s a star, and I hope this isn’t the last we see of her on Drag Race. This may not have been the season for her to shine in the judges’ eyes, but she shone for the audience regardless.
Untucking our final thoughts
✨I don’t really get the point of the Bianca Del Rio fake-out. No queen believes she’s actually there to lip sync, and her jokes insulting the All Stars just come across as tired retreads of the “Some Stars” jokes we’ve heard before. Additionally, considering this season was shot while COVID-19 protections were still firmly in place, I’m a little confused about the logistics of this. Did she have to quarantine and test repeatedly just for a walk-on gag?
✨Ginger gives $2,500 of her lip sync winnings each to Jan and Pandora, her teammates in the challenge. Mayhem wants a cut, too, but all Ginger is offering is a ride home.
✨Kylie does not take her safety in this vote for granted, campaigning hard to both Ginger and the group. “These girls are my sisters,” she says in confessional. “But sisters will come for you, and sisters will steal your boyfriend, and your favourite T-shirt, and all that shit. So I have to fight to stay here.” Amazing quote.
✨Aisha Tyler makes for a great guest judge, having previously been a co-host on The Talk. She’s got good, specific critiques for the queens, and adds to the conversation. She also does a whole mask reveal bit involving flower petals—a reference to Sasha Velour’s iconic “So Emotional” lip sync. It’s cute!
✨I am Ginger’s smile falling off her face when Jan replies to Ginger talking about “fantasy” with “Jantasy!” To quote Chad Michaels: “We got it, girl. We got it.”
✨Kylie says the vote last week was “anonymous,” which prompts Ra’Jah to ask: “Do you mean unanimous?” They’re a very cute pair! I like their friendship a lot.
✨TRINITY: “You smell like a woman.”
KYLIE: “That’s funny, because I put on cologne today.”
✨As seen in Untucked, the decision between the group was 4-4-0, meaning Jan and Scarlet tie for votes to eliminate. I wonder what happens if the LSA wins and it goes to a tie: Does the top All Star’s vote break the tie? Does Ru break it? A unique little wrinkle!
The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 6 will be available for streaming on Thursday, July 22, on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada.
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