‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7’ Episode 9 recap: The night the lights went out in Los Angeles

It struck me while watching this week’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 that it almost functions as a celebration of the past, present and future of drag. It’s not quite that neat, I’ll admit; drag’s evolution is not a straight line. It’s more like a mixture of the classic parts of drag, the kind of drag we’ve seen on Drag Race and a demonstration of how Drag Race is influencing drag in the world. And it’s notable that this one episode includes all three—as if making a statement that drag is not replacing what’s come before, but adding on to already-built traditions.

Let’s work our way backward: this week, we see a “viral dance video” challenge that’s effectively a branding task in disguise. We’ve talked about these challenges previously, and the ways in which they reward slick professionalism. This one is more of the same in that regard: knowing your brand is paramount, even when coming up with a silly TikTok dance. And while I might bristle at how many times the show says variations of the word “brand” in this episode, I have to admit it’s a fair encapsulation of the ways in which Drag Race has affected the world of drag.

Queens like Trixie Mattel and Alaska have made themselves into global superstars with a mix of talent, hard work and a keen understanding of what makes them unique. Hell, Trixie in the past has said that queens who go on Drag Race should be ready with their merch before the season begins, not scrambling to come up with it after. And she’s right! Considering the way the fan base interacts with this show, the best thing a queen can do for herself is to have that brand identity ready to go from the start. Does it mean we don’t see as much evolution on the show? Sure. But as it has been said before, this is not RuPaul’s School for Girls. The show has never been about development of drag at its core, though Ru does love a queen to open up as a character.

If the branding challenge was all that was in this episode, I think I’d have disliked it. The dance challenge idea is cute, but it ultimately just serves as an excuse to do a marketing task in a different way. But what I appreciate is how the challenge contrasts with both the runway and the lip sync—and how one queen aces all three categories.

That queen is Monét X Change, who roars back into contention after spending the majority of this season with just one Legendary Legend Star. She comes up with a dance concept around “ex-changing” your ex, only for Ru to come in and suggest some more obvious money-based dance moves. “When RuPaul giveth you a suggestion, baby, you run to the bank and you take it,” Monét says, and it is the smartest thing anyone says in this whole episode. There is a rich history of queens taking Ru’s advice and it paying off huge—Heidi N Closet, Ra’Jah O’Hara—so why wouldn’t Monét take it?

To Monét’s credit, what she comes up with out of Ru’s suggestions is really excellent. She puts together a TikTok dance that is both simple and fun enough that it would go viral, and executes it with charm and panache. Of anyone, hers is the dance that feels like it most exactly answers the prompt this week. Other queens do well—including Jinkx Monsoon with a very funny peanut butter dance, and Yvie Oddly with a Gen Z-inspired moody teen dance—but Monét hits the target right on the money. (Pun intended.)

What’s fascinating about this challenge is how it reveals the different ways queens approach their own brand. Whereas Monét and Jinkx go for their clearest targets (Monét’s name as a pun and Jinkx’s mom character), Yvie gets creative beyond just bending over backward. Shea Couleé channels Debbie Allen for her Alvin Ailey-inspired dance, while The Vivienne goes full Brit while branding hers a “Viveo.” And yes, there are the obvious shout-outs to what you know about queens: Trinity the Tuck does a whole tucking-inspired dance, while Jaida Essence Hall puts a “Look over there!” step into her performance.

The only queen who really misses the mark is Raja, whose “R.A.J.A.” dance tries to employ the hippie-dippy character she’s used in other challenges this season, but doesn’t really work. It’s been surprising to see Raja shy away from the “fashion queen” label this season, including in interviews off the show, but I get that she wants to be known as more well-rounded. It just doesn’t serve her particularly well here to lean away from what she’s known for.

If the challenge represents Drag Race’s impact on the drag world, then the runway is a pure encapsulation of what we see on Drag Race itself. The category is “What Lies Beneath,” and it’s a reveal-a-palooza! Each look must incorporate “multiple” reveals. Some queens, like Viv, take this to mean two distinct looks, with a skirt ripped off the second for a “third.” Others, like Trinity and Raja, go for looks that involve slow reveals of multiple parts. But the most common is full reveals of new looks: Jinkx takes us on an art history tour through multiple artistic movements, while Monét offers a history of the fight for Black liberation in America. The latter is among my favourites this week, with Monét going from Harriet Tubman to a striking Black Panther look, ending on a Black Lives Matter-inspired dress that says “AND STILL WE FIGHT.” It’s a meaningful, impressive trio of looks, and it adds to Monét’s impressive week.

My favourite of the runways, however, is Jaida’s. She pulls off four full-length dress reveals, each corresponding to a season of the year. It’s an incredibly creative, thoughtful look, and each dress alone would make for a striking runway garment. This season has had some impressive —and almost certainly quite expensive—runway looks, but week after week, I find myself most drawn to Jaida’s. She’s never lost the roots of her pageant background, but she’s also continued to push forward into the fashion realm. She’s more than proven why she won her original season, and I’m thrilled it looks like she’ll be making the finale this time around as well.

Jaida doesn’t score high this week—a choice that confuses me—but Yvie deservedly does, alongside Shea. The two winners are Monét, of course, and Jinkx, setting up a new combination of queens for the lip sync. I have to say, I’m impressed that we’ve only had one rematch lip sync all season long—with just eight queens, I figured we’d be seeing more of the same duos facing off. But no, this is our eighth original match-up, and considering the lip syncs we’ve seen from Jinkx this season, it seems like Monét’s to lose.

But then something special happens: Ru announces that “for the first time in Drag Race herstory,” the lip sync is not a song. It’s a spoken word performance—a lip sync to the iconic “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” monologue from Designing Women. This is a gay classic, and for great reason. As Julia Sugarbaker, Dixie Carter delivers a passionate defence of her pageant queen sister to a snobby rival, with such perfect quotables as “16 and one-half minutes of uninterrupted thunderous ovation” and “she spoke so eloquently of patriotism, battlefields and diamond tiaras, grown men wept.” To say that this is a legendary choice for the first spoken word performance is an understatement.

To say that Monét kills this performance would be an understatement as well. She absolutely demolishes it, catching every word, every breath, every hesitation. Her little touches, like throwing her gloves or gesturing at herself on “Congeniality,” delight the judges. The way she works the stage is impressive, even crossing in front of Jinkx at one point to underline her character’s strength. It’s a terrific lip sync, second only to her “Pound the Alarm” performance from Season 10. And it earns her a well-deserved $10,000 cash tip.

This is where Drag Race honours the very roots of drag, and I appreciate that it’s where the episode ends. Because as much as Drag Race has pushed the art form forward, drag cannot exist without this core: queens lip syncing to gay classics while audiences gasp and cheer. As much as drag evolves into Werq the World tours and studio albums and reality TV mega-franchises, it must still keep its underground queer heart.

And to me, that’s what makes Monét’s performance in this episode so special. Yes, she knows how to brand herself, and what she needs to do (including taking Ru’s advice) to thrive in the Drag Race machine. Yes, she can make powerful political statements in her drag, all while serving impressive looks. Yes, she can be a talk show host, a podcaster and a music artist. She can do all those things and push the art form of drag forward.

But goddamnit, she can also get out there in a bright yellow suit and deliver a Designing Women lip sync for the ages. Bravo to Monét: she smashed this episode, and proved once again just why she’s a winner, baby.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ Raja fully laughs at Jaida after blocking her last episode, while Jaida tries to play up being her friend and little sister. Raja is unaffected: “Sit your ass down!” It’s so funny! I love them both so much.

✨ Ben Platt is our guest judge this week! Sure. Listen, I’m not his biggest fan, and I do think his casual dropping of “I have a lot of experience with angsty teens … with Dear Evan Hansen” is hilarious. But I’ll give him credit that his critique of Jaida’s seasonal reveal look is 100 percent on point. And that’s more than could be said of some guest judges this season.

✨ Ru’s interactions with Yvie have been some of my favourites this season—they seem just on such opposite sides of the drag world, so it’s interesting to hear them in conversation. This week, Ru compares Yvie to both Gumby and an inflatable tube dancer you’d see outside of a car dealership!

✨ Always love Ru referencing Burlesque with a “Wagon Wheel Watusi” shout-out.

✨ The actual recording section of this episode is batshit. It’s just a bunch of random shots of queens doing things! There’s no rhyme or reason! I’m kind of obsessed.

✨ Will be thinking about Jinkx yelling, “I HAVE SEX, GET OVER IT!” for weeks.

✨ TRINITY: “What is everybody’s brand?”

YVIE: “I don’t have bones in my body.”

✨ Did you clock Jaida and Shea doing Lemon’s iconic “VIP guest list” dance from Priyanka’s “Come Through” video at episode’s end? I screamed! Iconic!

The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 will stream Friday, July 15, 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.