‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 8’ Episode 7 recap: ‘Mama is here to straighten shit out’

There’s been something rotten in the state of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars this season.

We haven’t been able to shake this pervasive feeling of displeasure both across the fandom and among the queens themselves. Things have escalated into multiple messy social media meltdowns, fierce and unfriendly debates among fans, and so on. The last time I can remember Drag Race being this downright unpleasant to engage with was around the end of All Stars 3, when BenDeLaCreme eliminated herself and RuPaul gave his infamous, trans-exclusionary interview to the Guardian. This situation isn’t nearly as dire, but even last week’s strong installment of All Stars 8 couldn’t change the mood in Drag Race Nation.

Things on-screen reach a particularly dark point this week, as an argument about role assignments for a true crime parody improv challenge (one seeking to solve the mystery of “Wha-ha-happen to Lil Poundcake?”, Alaska and Lineysha Sparx’s beloved pageant doll character from Season 5) spirals out of control. Kandy Muse, like last week, finds the role she wants and sticks with it. However, while she and Jessica Wild were able to come to an understanding about the Rusical casting via an audition, noted drama queen Alexis Michelle isn’t so quick to throw in the towel.

Alexis and Kandy both want the role of a detective in the improv piece, and Alexis unsuccessfully attempts to get Kandy to take the district attorney role instead. Her argument—such as it is—is that both roles are practically the same, so Kandy can just take the DA character. Kandy pushes back: if they’re both the same, why doesn’t Alexis take the DA? Things reach a stand-off, and Alexis laments “some of the attitudes in this room right now.” She gives up the part, and then begins to cry—which leads Jimbo to try to comfort her. (Hilariously, this includes Jimbo saying, “Don’t worry! It’s early in the day!”) 

Kandy, however, is pissed off by this display. “I can’t with the dramatics,” she says as she walks away, adding in confessional, “Who died?” Alexis takes time to compose herself, and Jimbo does everything she can to turn her attitude around. But while that appears to be the major conflict of the episode, another one is brewing simultaneously: Kahanna Montrese threatens to follow in Heidi N Closet’s footsteps and quit.

If that sounds drastic and completely unrelated to what came before: it kind of is! Kahanna is clearly upset to be dealing with another acting challenge this week, and she’s uninterested in any of the roles. It seems like she’s already considering a drastic move before all the drama, but the bad energy in the room motivates her. She says she’s leaving, and begins to pack her things. (Both Jimbo and Jessica are completely flummoxed by this, with Jessica saying simply in a confessional, “This is a shemergency.”)

Another queen quitting in the same season would likely be catastrophic for morale, which is likely why production sends RuPaul back into the workroom. “Mama is here to straighten shit out,” he says to the dolls. This is clearly done on the fly, as Ru has to consult with production as to where this intervention should even happen. But credit to Ru: if it is improvised, he does a hell of a job getting everyone back on track.

“Don’t let your feelings sabotage your experience in this life. Do not!” he says, imploring the queens to be professional and keep the show going. “This is the greatest stage in the world for you to present your act on. Do not allow the little things to derail your bigger picture!” Some of it is Ru’s typical “GuRu” talk, yes, but a lot of it is pretty sharp and clear advice. This show is an emotional pressure cooker, no doubt. But it is a tremendous platform, and momentary feelings leading to drastic decisions could really affect these queens’ careers.

Ru asks Kahanna if she wants to go after this talk. “No, I’m here for you,” she tells Ru. Then, she corrects herself, to Ru’s pleasure: “I’m here for me.” Ru additionally advises the queens to remember something important: “Have fun.” That’s something we all could take to heart, honestly: Drag Race hasn’t felt all that fun as of late. Truly, even at its least impressive, there’s nothing like this show elsewhere on television. It should be fun! That doesn’t mean we should ignore its issues, but I’m choosing to take it as a reminder to find the fun in the show wherever I can.

Luckily, after this pep talk, the rest of the episode is indeed quite enjoyable! “We had a rough morning!” Jessica says in a confessional, but the queens shake it off for the improv challenge. Kahanna wisely goes to Jimbo to ask for acting advice, to which she gives advice very much in line with Ru’s own. “You find the joy in it, and you share that joy,” she says. This seemingly really helps Kahanna in the challenge, although by the time it does, it’s a bit too little, too late.

The plot of the sketch is that, during the filming of a never-aired season of All Stars, Lil Poundcake returned to compete. However, she went missing, and her case has so far never been solved. Through interviews, we meet two of the queens who were also in that cast (Kahanna and Jessica), who both have reasons to want Lil Poundcake gone. Kandy and Alexis play, as mentioned, the detective and DA on the case, while Jimbo plays an unusual forensic scientist. Everyone’s pretty good—and the format of the sketch allows for some actually funny moments.

But no one holds a candle to LaLa Ri. As uninvolved as LaLa is in the drama at the start of the episode, there is no questioning that this is her week as soon as we first see her in the sketch. As a security guard on the set who, spoiler alert, is actually the one behind Poundcake’s disappearance, LaLa is nothing short of terrific. She’s hilarious both physically and in her improvised dialogue, she sells her big villainous turn perfectly and she misses not one chance to steal the spotlight.

LaLa also is a delight on the runway, in a semi-convoluted “Little Miss Fill-in-the-Blank” runway category that calls for high-concept pageant looks. Alexis as Little Miss Manpig, with a dress fashioned after a jockstrap (and dipped in yellow at the bottom as a piss play joke—commitment to the bit!), is my absolute favourite. But LaLa acquits herself so well as Miss Bootlegger, in a look packed with personality that is still mega-cute. When she pulls out a bootleg “Asia O’Hara” DVD and tries to sell it for $5, it’s clear that LaLa has dominated the episode. She gets her first-ever maxi-challenge win, and beams with pride as Ru announces her victory.

But that’s not the end of LaLa’s domination! After Alexis and Kahanna are placed in the bottom two—fair on Alexis’ end, as she’s too low energy, while I might’ve kept Kahanna out of danger—LaLa must Lip Sync for Her Legacy. And her opponent: to my absolute delight, it’s Jorgeous! Could not be more ecstatic to have Little Miss “Hellotus!” back on the main stage.

However, it’s a tough matchup for Jorgeous, as she and LaLa lip sync to Lizzo’s “About Damn Time.” Genre-wise, this is a better fit for LaLa, and more than that, LaLa is clearly feeling herself in the performance. She really gets into the groove of the song, while Jorgeous seems to just be going through the motions at a certain point. LaLa wins, earning an extra $10,000 cash tip, and sends home Kahanna after the Vegas queen’s fourth trip to the bottom.

I’m not sure if this episode will be enough to shake Drag Race Nation out of its fugue state. The bad vibes might be too ingrained, and these kinds of Ru speeches tend to be divisive with the fandom. (Remember the incredibly divided reaction to his “fucking H&M” rant?) More than that, it feels a bit awkward that Kahanna was asked to stick around, only to send her home about half an hour later.

But I’m choosing to have fun with this episode, and LaLa makes it easy. While I’ll freely admit LaLa hasn’t set the world on fire throughout this season, she’s hitting her stride at exactly the right time. And what I love most about The LaLa Ri Experience is that it’s one of pure joy. We could use a lot more of that in the world these days—especially on Drag Race.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ The Other Half of the Story, Fame Games Edition: Monica Beverly Hillz’s “Miss Sunlight on the Skin” is theoretically a throwback to her Season 5 kids’ show challenge character, but I’m hard pressed to draw much of a connection beyond the name. Naysha Lopez goes full pageant glamour with her look, and making a “Miss Shady Lady” look out of glasses is a cute idea. Mrs. Kasha Davis, Darienne Lake and Jaymes Mansfield’s looks are all pretty unsuccessful to me, unfortunately. The Fame Games remains a bit of a bust—I’d probably vote for Darienne at this point, but she hasn’t made a definitive case for the title week after week.

✨ The Other Half of the Story, Deliberations Edition: Alexis makes a strong appeal to LaLa’s emotional side during deliberations, saying she could see the Season 13 queen going all the way—and she wants to be here with her! Kahanna mostly just talks about being happy about her own performance, and seems ready to go home. In the end, the queens unanimously (besides Kahanna herself) vote Kahanna out, keeping Alexis in, no matter the results of the lip sync.

✨ The edit of this episode’s Previously On recap is so shady, showing Kandy complimenting Jaymes Mansfield’s vocals and Alexis calling Kandy out for taking the role she wants and not having a backup. The storytelling is not subtle this season!

✨ Speaking of Jaymes: I’ll be blunt and say I don’t believe the explanations given on camera for the queens’ votes—other than LaLa saying she’s just voting however she wants. (She’s mother for that.) I believe, at minimum, there were conversations between the queens about their votes ahead of time; a unanimous vote for Jaymes, when everyone had just unanimously voted Kahanna out days prior, practically requires coordination. I’d be more inclined to believe there weren’t shenanigans afoot if this group didn’t have a proven history of dealing with such business off-camera. Alas, we can’t know for sure until someone decides to be messy and spill tea on social media or at Roscoe’s.

✨ Jessica has the most reasonable reaction to all the drama in a confessional: “Can I have a margarita now?” The best reaction out of a confessional? LaLa talking to herself at her work station, lamenting, “I just wanna be a drag queen that has fun, honey, and just live my best life, Lord.” Mission accomplished, LaLa!

✨ We get a moment of levity during Ru’s come-to-Jesus moment with the queens when he turns his attention to Alexis. “You’ve been crying this whole competition!” he says, cracking up laughing.

✨ Truly couldn’t tell you why, in the canon of the sketch, Lil Poundcake has a stuffed cat named Yvie Oddly.

✨ KANDY: “Where is the body?”
KAHANNA: “A’keria is the body!”

✨ Former Batwoman Javicia Leslie is our guest judge this week. She’s great! Offers good critiques and is clearly happy to be there. Granted, it’s a low bar to be great this season, but she clears it with ease—and looking fabulous, too.

✨ Speaking of looking fabulous: this license plate look, Ru? An absolute serve!
The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars will stream Friday, June 23, at 3 a.m. EST on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada. Check back every weekend after new episodes for our recaps and power rankings, and subscribe to our drag newsletter Wig! for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday afternoon.