Welcome to RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Power Rankings! Every week, we’re debriefing the week’s new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 8 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. One queen should’ve gone home this week, but Heidi N Closet’s decision to leave the competition spared her. Will she be able to recover?
8. Heidi N Closet (last week: 4)—QUIT
This deeply unsatisfying and sudden end to Heidi’s journey leaves me with a lot of “what if?” questions about this season. Heidi was doing well in most of the challenges, and serving better drag than she did in Season 12, but wasn’t quite getting proper recognition from the judges for it. She likely would’ve been safe during Snatch Game this week, and I’m not sure what it would’ve taken for her to break out of the pack. Still, she was one of only two queens (alongside Jessica Wild) I could really see challenging Jimbo for the crown at this point. Heidi may not have won if she stuck around, but I think it would’ve been a fight. With her gone, I feel like this season is only going to become more of a steamroll.
7. Kahanna Montrese (last week: 6)
Like Vanity Milan on Canada vs The World before her, Kahanna has only Heidi’s quit to thank for her still being in the competition. Heidi sticking around would not have changed the bottom two this week (yes, I disagree with Alexis Michelle on this point), and Kahanna would’ve been sent home by the group’s vote. It would’ve been a deserved elimination, too, after Kahanna’s off-base take on drag mother Coco Montrese, as well as her reveal-free Reveal Yourself runway look.
My feelings about Kahanna haven’t changed much since the start of the season, to be frank. She’s a strong performer after honing her skills at RuPaul’s Drag Race Live!, but she lacks the comedy skills to really succeed on All Stars. Moreover, while her runway looks are impressive, they also all sit in a tight showgirl range. Her stage experience may get her through next week’s Rusical, but the next comedy challenge she hits is likely the end of the line for Kahanna.
6. Jessica Wild (last week: 3)
I’ve long been a defender of Jessica’s RuPaul impersonation on the original Snatch Game. It was just out-of-pocket enough to be perfect—an energy that her take on Iris Chacón could’ve used. She was just too one-note, and not interactive enough with the other queens. And while her chicken-and-egg reveal runway was quite cute (plus had actual reveals!), I worry that Jessica is too reliant on that one episode of her Season 2 in which she played a chicken run for her modern brand. Remember that you won the rocker chick challenge, Jess! Hopefully we see that musical savvy come back out during the Rusical next week. In the meantime, even without Heidi’s quit, there was no way Jessica was going home this week. She had the votes by a large margin, and her bestie Jimbo would never send her home.
5. LaLa Ri (last week: 5)
LaLa didn’t do anything wrong this week, but I’m starting to wonder when we’ll see her break out from the pack. Her take on Sukihana was the definition of a safe Snatch Game performance, and her runway look stretched the definition of what a “reveal” is. While LaLa remains a terrific presence in the confessional chair, at a certain point, a queen needs to have her star turn where the judges can see her—not just play to the audience and her fellow queens. We didn’t see LaLa in Season 13’s Rusical; perhaps this could be her chance to become All Stars 8’s leading lady?
4. Kandy Muse (last week: 2)
Kandy isn’t to blame Heidi’s quit— that was Heidi’s choice. Of course, if Kandy did say what Heidi accused her of, it wouldn’t be a great look for the New York queen. That said, I’m inclined to believe that Kandy did say something more along the lines of Jimbo being tough competition, and Heidi just extrapolated from there. Regardless, the trust between Kandy and Jimbo is damaged, and Kandy’s alliance structure has suddenly fallen apart. (She’s still technically allied with Jessica, but since Jess is so close to Jimbo, I’m not sure how strong a bond that will prove to be.) So far, I would argue Kandy has coasted this season on her own star power. Her runways have been solid but not spectacular, and none of her challenge performances has been stellar enough to earn her a win. With just seven queens left and her spot less secure, now is the time for her to step it up in a big way.
3. Jaymes Mansfield (last week: 8)
I’ll give Jaymes credit: while her cadence as Jennifer Coolidge was a bit too quick, she had the voice down, and she kept up comedically with the best of them. In a particularly weak group, she shined all the brighter. That said, I’m very glad Michelle Visage finally said what has been obvious all season long: Jaymes’s runways are, by and large, quite “same-y.” (Of course Ross Mathews interjected to contradict Michelle—I grow more irritated with him every time he appears on the panel.) It feels like Jaymes is playing for Rudemption right now more than she is for the win: to prove that she is good at Drag Race, and should’ve stuck around longer on Season 9. On that point, I don’t disagree. But if she’s going to make it to the end of this race, she’s got to demonstrate she’s competing on an All Stars level, both in the challenges and on the runway.
2. Alexis Michelle (last week: 7)
I’ve been riding hard for Alexis this season, and I do think she was a solid second place this week. But I understand why she couldn’t quite pull off the win this week. While she was quite good as Bea Arthur—a choice perfectly calibrated to Ru’s interest pool—the character necessitated the same posture onstage and delivery of all her jokes. The bits where she interacted with other queens (particularly taking a cigarette from Kandy’s Renee Graziano) were great, but she largely had to be prompted into them. She wasn’t dominant in the way Jimbo was during the whole performance. And while I liked her Into the Woods-inspired witchy runway reveal, it lacked the shock factor of Jimbo’s Adam-and-Eve reveal. Alexis proved this week she’s a contender, but it may take next week’s Rusical for her to finally get a win.
1. Jimbo (last week: 1)
Honestly, I think it might be all over but the crowning. That’s a wild thing to say just five episodes into a 12-episode season, but Jimbo is proving to be an unbelievable force. She’s won three of these first five challenges, and scored high in the ball. (She was just safe for the girl groups challenge, but she did much better in this one than in the same challenge on Canada’s Drag Race.) She might trip up in the Rusical next week, but we’re still so early in the season that I doubt anyone will try to clip her given the chance—especially after Kandy and Heidi’s mess this week. After all, if you eliminate the frontrunner, you become the next target. Pangina Heals proved just that when she cut Jimbo in UK vs The World.
If she can survive the Rusical, I really don’t see a challenge coming that will prove to be Jimbo’s downfall. And if you’re about to cry, “But her lip syncs!”—I hear you, but to quote Gigi Goode, I don’t have the same concerns. Trixie Mattel won All Stars 3 without a single Lip Sync for Your Legacy win, after all. And while there will be some kind of final lip sync this season, as we saw in All Stars 7, all it takes is a few choice words to negate its importance: “Based on your performance all season long …” No, my friends, I think Jimbo’s got this. And this is the earliest since Symone that I’ve felt comfortable calling it this soon.
Why you can trust Xtra
