‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7’ Episode 5 recap: Commencement couture

Ah, graduation season. It’s a time of closure of one chapter and excitement about beginning another. It’s caps and gowns, stoles and tassels and yes, commencement addresses. RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 pulls out a very well-timed speech challenge this week, as Ru asks his dolls to address the hypothetical graduates of Drag U. (Between this and Drag U sponsoring the Super Bowl Halftime Show challenge in All Stars 6, a Drag U revival feels imminent, no?)

This is a challenge that really could only be done on an all-winners season, I think. It requires a mix of humour and gravitas; a sense that, though this is a silly challenge, you could really see this queen addressing a crowd with an important message for the future. It’s a credit to the queens that no one bombs, and a couple of them pull out genuinely inspirational speeches. The result is an episode that gets All Stars 7 back on track after a rocky improv task, and feels once again like the winners are being treated as winners.

Before we can get into the challenge, though, we have unfinished business from last week: The Vivienne has blocked Monét X Change, but she really wanted to block Jinkx Monsoon. This is a fascinating thing for Viv to just confess to the room, because it gives two people a reason to block her as revenge. Viv is confident, though, responding to questions about Jinkx blocking her with, “Well, she’s not going to have the opportunity to block me.” This, as we find out later in the episode, is a major case of testing fate!

What’s more interesting to me is Viv’s suggestion as to why she should block Jinkx: she sees the two of them competing in the same comedic, theatrical lane. There are a few cases of queens working in the same zone this season: Jaida Essence Hall and Raja are fashion girls, while Monét and Shea Couleé are both rapstresses with strong skills across most Drag Race categories. Trinity the Tuck is probably the most well-rounded, while Yvie Oddly’s eccentric approach to challenges hasn’t hit with the judges yet. The ideal order for blocking, in my mind, should be the person with whom you share the most natural lane, followed by one of the more well-rounded queens. So I get Viv’s decision-making, if not her predilection for honesty.

Speaking of Monét, we really see the Survivor stan in her come out this week, owing to a couple of key twists. First, as the blocked queen, she gets to decide the speech order for the challenge. (“I’ll go first; Vivienne will go home,” she jokes.) Second, Ru reveals that this week, challenge winners will receive two Legendary Legend Stars—but they can only keep one. The other must be given away at the start of next week’s episode to a competitor.

Monét, very wisely, uses her pecking-order selection power to encourage the queens to give her a star if they win. Trinity, her ally, promises her a star; Raja says she’ll consider it. I’m not sure how much this game-playing is going to pay off for Monét, but I very much appreciate her trying to work within the format. This is the same thing I praised Blu Hydrangea for during RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Versus The World: when the format isn’t just standard Drag Race, it’s on the queens to find ways to work it to their advantage.

After order is decided, the queens workshop their bits with Carson Kressley and guest judge Nikki Glaser. The mostly-positive-critiques vibes move into the workshop sessions as well, as the queens largely get praised for their work. Interestingly, Raja is the one who struggles most, as her high-concept bit (“A cult leader,” she says bluntly) doesn’t click for Carson and Nikki. In contrast to, say, Jinkx having two separate stories they really like, it feels like the winless Raja is a bit behind the curve.

That is, of course, a fake-out, though—Raja absolutely kills this challenge. From the jump (“I am aware of your presence”), she presents herself as a kind of astral-brained Gwyneth Paltrow. She really commits to the bit, while laying out punchline after punchline. “Fuck a LOT, like a lot lot,” she says. “Fuck ’til you can’t fuck no more!” She’s finally in the top this week, alongside Jinkx, whose story of getting hit by a car in Amsterdam makes for great speech fodder. She says something insightful about processing trauma while layering in jokes, repeatedly reminding the audience that she was “hit by a fucking car!” They’re a very worthy top two for this challenge, with Jinkx being the first to hit two Legendary Legend Stars.

As mentioned above, everyone does decently on this challenge, though by virtue of putting herself first, Monét’s performance fades from memory quickly. (Sadly, what’s most notable about hers is her comb in her hair falling out very early in the speech.) Shea gets some great lines, like her high school life not being a John Hughes movie because she’s Black, and earns a shout-out during deliberations for her efforts. Trinity goes to a really emotional place about having to leave school to take care of her grandma, and it’s nice to see her open up more than she usually does. Jaida is effortlessly funny (“Hold for applause”), and wears some great graduate-realness drag as she speaks.

The other two are among my favourites this week, and would’ve filled out my personal top four. The Vivienne uses her sobriety journey as a punchline for an absolutely sloshed character, committing to a bit of getting increasingly drunk throughout the show. When she finally goes on last, she’s obliterated, and nails the drunken delivery. “Jinkx Monsoon finished top of her class; Trinity the Tuck finished top of her professor” is a personal favourite line, but the whole set is really good. I honestly thought, based on critiques and deliberations, we might see Jinkx versus Viv once again.

My personal vote for most inspiring speech has to go to Yvie. Yes, she has some funny moments, like her pratfall at the start. But the content of her speech, about the power of failing to learn lessons for the future, is the stuff of a genuinely great commencement address. It’s also particularly interesting to hear from Yvie, who has been a bit backgrounded this season. She’s got a real unique and insightful perspective to share, as she demonstrates in the “Veiled It!” runway category as well. I’m rooting for Yvie, and I’m eager to see when she’ll be able to land a challenge win of her own.

Beyond Yvie’s, the results of the veil-based runway category are … remarkably scattered. So many of the looks either don’t really have a veil at all, or are only incidentally about the veil. Notably, Trinity calls herself out for wearing yet another giant train, and promises that this is the last of them. (Though I do love that the other queens are calling her “Trinity the Train” now.) I imagine Raja’s look is going to inspire a lot of discourse: it’s a lot, and a lot of it is gorgeous, but the magazine element she has attached to her back doesn’t move on the runway as effortlessly as you hope it would.

Okay, y’all: we gotta talk about the lip syncs this season. Maybe it’s just a matter of who’s been winning, but we’re seeing some real stinkers from this set of legends. “Old MacDonald” was a triumph for both Shea and Monét, and Jaida did well on “Green Light.” But beyond that? Woof. Viv last week and Jinkx this week are the only performances I would rate even middle of the pack. Raja is actually terrible this week on Lizzo’s “Better in Color.” Jinkx at least leans into a comedic interpretation—Raja doesn’t know the words, and dances like she’s in the crowd at a wedding. Rough!

Jinkx wins her second lip sync, earning $10,000 and getting the chance to block someone. Of course, there’s only one real option: she blocks Viv. So no one’s been blocked twice yet, while Jaida, Raja and Yvie remain the only dolls unblocked. And, of course, Yvie is now the only queen without a Legendary Legend Star.

We’ve still got six episodes left before the finale, so there’s plenty more stars to come. I don’t know if we can even begin to ascertain who will be in the finale yet—except, of course, for Jinkx. With three wins and two stars, she’s ahead of the pack, and I imagine she’ll get a few more comedy and acting challenges in the back half of the season. Increasingly, the season feels like it’s leading to her second crowning. If they want a chance at the victory, it’s up to the other queens to stop her in her tracks.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ I don’t love the give-away-a-star twist, mostly because it feels like anyone who’s a recipient of one who gets to the end will have an asterisk next to their placement among track-record-minded fans. But I do appreciate that just five episodes in, we’re getting twists to the format. There’s a lot of potential with the Legendary Legend Star system, and I hope the show continues to be dynamic with it.

✨ “If a queen wins a challenge and has nothing to show for it, did she really win the challenge?” Jinkx getting philosophical on us!

✨ Post-blocking, Monét walks into the workroom with toilet paper stuck to her shoe. “Apparently I’m just … a shitty queen.” That’s maybe what I love the most about the blocking twist: the queens are really having fun with it. Viv paraphrasing Ginger Minj by saying, “Ya got me, gal!” post-block is also really fun.

✨ Feels like the “Platinum Plunger Sisterhood” lie about a power is weakening a bit, no? Monét barely attempts to keep up the façade. Additionally, since Shea and Trinity’s initial suggestion was that winning the lip sync while blocked would pay off big, you have to assume someone’s eventually going to pull that off.

✨ I’ve been critical of Drag Race’s approach to American politics before—a lot of twirling “vote.gov” signs, not a lot of engaging with what the political scene actually looks like today—but I gotta say, having Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi come out on the runway and basically just tell everyone to vote is a new level. The timing is particularly unfortunate considering the current gridlock of the United States Congress on just about every major issue (most recently gun control in the wake of a terrible wave of mass shootings). If Drag Race wants to talk politics, and it really should, considering a Texas lawmaker is out here trying to ban children from seeing drag shows, it needs to go beyond just telling people to vote. Civic duty is important; the moment we’re living in calls for much more.

✨ Any guesses on who Raja and Jinkx will give their extra stars to? Raja indicates she’d consider giving one to Monét, but I think she’s much more likely to give one to her fellow recently starless sister Yvie. Jinkx’s is much more interesting—might she give one to Viv to relieve the sting of the block?

✨ After a scattered “it’s a new day in the workroom” talking head, Jaida confesses, “I had a lot of coffee, I’m sorry.” She is the confessional queen this season, and I love her so much.

✨ Jaida and Jinkx duet via xylophone and ukulele in the workroom. Monét is not impressed: “Jaida, ain’t you Black? Where’s the rhythm?” 

✨ What on God’s green earth is Ru wearing when he comes into the workroom? 

✨ New Drag Race franchise alert! On Thursday, Crave announced that Brooke Lynn Hytes, Brad Goreski and Traci Melchor will judge a new competition: Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs. The World. (Whither Amanda Gorman, I ask?) Not only is it coming, it’s actually premiering this year. There’s also a third season of Canada’s Drag Race proper coming this year, so the Queens of the North will be taking over the “motherpucking world” for the back half of 2022. As perhaps one of the biggest fans of UK versus The World, I’m excited for this! Can the Canadians fare better on their home turf than they did in the United Kingdom?

The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 will stream Friday, June 17, at 3 a.m. EDT on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on OUTtv and Crave in Canada. Check World of Wonder’s streaming guide for other countries’ release plans. You can subscribe to our drag newsletter, Wig!, for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday afternoon.