‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6’ Episode 6 recap: Witches better beware

It’s a new day in the RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars recap, and I’m feeling very excited! We’re halfway through All Stars 6, and while it hasn’t been a perfect season, it’s been a pretty damn great one. We’re looking at the best All Stars installment since the legendary All Stars 2, and so much of it is thanks to both the production and cast. The show feels fun for the first time in quite a while (save the absolute blast that was Drag Race UK Season 2), largely because the queens are being given the space to have that fun. Drama and gameplay aside, this cast is gelling so well, and their vibe as a group is what’s making the season so watchable.

Take when Jan walks into the workroom saying, “It’s a new day in the workroom!” She’s poking at a production convention, and she promptly gets both a laugh and a “shut up” from her fellow queens. It’s a cute, banter-y moment, and stuff like that goes a long way. All Stars feels like it’s taking itself less seriously, without making everything a joke. I’m genuinely looking forward to watching every single week.

That said, even the best-produced seasons occasionally have to clear their throat and take care of some unfinished business. This week, that business is the elimination of one A’keria C. Davenport. As predicted last week when she didn’t get any kind of comeback edit, A’keria’s trip to the top was destined to be short-lived. She’s scored low in too many challenges, and despite delivering some of the highest-level runway looks of the season, the judges just don’t seem to be interested in what she’s serving on the whole. 

You can see in her face during deliberations and the elimination this week that her journey with the show is done. She doesn’t want to quit, but even Ru’s promise of a “game-within-a-game” doesn’t seem to interest her.

As a result, this episode’s conclusion can’t help but feel underwhelming; it’s just what needs to be done to move the season forward—especially considering who is sitting in the bottom two with A’keria. And when it comes to the win, this also seems like the show taking a chance to solidify a queen’s standing in the competition rather than rewarding the single best performer of the week. It’s a Drag Race episode meant to move things along more than it is meant to be a standout. It’s the weakest episode so far—but it doesn’t make me worried for the season moving forward.

We start with the ritual reading of the votes from last week, and Jan is pissed. It’s actually a tie between her and Scarlet Envy, with Scarlet, Eureka!, Ra’Jah O’Hara and Trinity K. Bonet voting to send Jan home. “I was expecting maybe one or two lipsticks for me,” she says, looking incredibly pressed in her confessional. Also a little pressed: Kylie Sonique Love, upon finding out Ginger Minj almost chose to eliminate her. Considering Ginger won the lip sync, that was officially too close a call for Kylie. She doesn’t want to ever be up for elimination again.

So when RuPaul announces the American Horror Story-themed acting challenge (“Ru-merican Horror Story: Coven Girls”) featuring roles based on famous Ryan Murphy-affiliated actresses, Kylie is ready to fight. She wants Jessica, the lead role, and she’s willing to vie for it against Ginger. They play rock paper scissors, and Ginger once again loses. She’s gotta stop relying on this game she’s not very good at!

However, it works out nicely for Ginger, as she winds up with Emma, the character clearly fashioned after American Horror Story: Coven’s Madison Montgomery (played by Emma Roberts). The bitchy, stylish role gives Ginger the chance to excel as a character who is not perfectly designed for her. Her physical comedy in particular is excellent, and she earns a top spot this week. Also earning a top spot is Jan, who gets the Lea Michele/Rachel Berry role. She seems to resist the role , as she has expressed reticence about being compared to the high-strung Glee character in the past. But as Pandora Boxx says, “If there were ever a role that was tailor-made for Jan, it’s this one.”

When it works, it works: Jan absolutely kills it this week as Lea, and would’ve been my pick for the win. She does incredible Rachel Berry drag here, nailing every quip (“What in the Sondheim?”) with such absurd precision (“The only queen I bow down to is Idina Menzel”). It’s a softball across home plate, but that doesn’t change how hard Jan kills it. She and Ginger are both really working on another level in terms of what wins a Drag Race acting challenge. “Bitch, I think Jan was acting in the womb and Ginger gave birth to her,” A’keria says of the challenge frontrunners. 

But surprisingly, neither of them actually secures the win.

That honour actually goes to Kylie, in a decision that I understand from a performance judging perspective and bristle at from a production one. Kylie is a clear third of the top three as Jessica: she’s really funny in some smaller, off-the-cuff moments, but she sounds laboured in her big speeches. I appreciate how she finds her way into all the deep grooves of Jessica Lange’s accent, and she responds well to Michelle Visage and Ross Mathews’ notes. (That said, Ross and Michelle are kind of a mess, and make several directing choices I largely disagree with. But I digress.)

On the runway, Kylie kills it in a latex bodysuit for the goth category, complete with red contacts and glasses and a gorgeous black wig. She gets her first win ever in the competition, with RuPaul citing her “star quality” in the acting challenge. Like I said, I get the win—she isn’t my favourite, but she’s good. And I’m still very much rooting for her to take this whole competition. But it’s frustrating to see her win despite her struggle in rehearsal, when other queens (particularly A’keria in the commercial challenge) get put in the bottom for their work in the filming process instead of in the final product. It’s an inconsistent judging criterion.

The wins in All Stars 6 are proving frustrating week-to-week, in a way that stands out in an otherwise pretty terrific season. It often feels like queens are winning based on storyline (Kylie, Jan) or as compensation wins (Ra’Jah, Ginger) after just missing out in another challenge. 

Here’s an alternate All Stars 6 for you: had Ra’Jah won the Variety Show for her excellent dress-in-a-minute act over Yara Sofia, Kylie could have instead won the Blue Ball. If the judging had not happened in teams—and in a universe in which she doesn’t wear those absurd curtain pants—Ginger could’ve won the commercial task, with Trinity now taking her rightful crown in the Rusical and Eureka! winning Pink Table Talk. Then Jan could’ve won here instead, for a committed, perfectly pitched performance.

This is just one arrangement—and I think Ra’Jah and Trinity should have two wins each—but it achieves the same result that we have now and feels just a bit more accurate in terms of how the competition has progressed. Instead, the current order shows just how arbitrary wins can be. Yes, it’s exciting when exactly the right queen takes home the top prize. But often, wins are used to push the story in a specific direction, regardless of who actually did the best that week.

Regardless, I’m thrilled to see Kylie get her first win, and glad the show’s investment in her has paid off. All the other queens are clearly delighted for her as well, with Eureka! and Ra’Jah beaming on the runway when she’s named the victor. Unfortunately for Ra’Jah, one sister’s success means another’s struggle, as she’s put in the bottom two with her Season 11 bestie A’keria. While A’keria’s line deliveries feel laboured, Ra’Jah’s problem is one of not taking direction. She goes with a very high-pitched voice in her role as a conjoined twin with Trinity, and it puzzles Michelle and Ross. While I think the voice is fine, when directors are telling you they want to hear something new, you need to try it out. Her bottom placement this week is likely more thanks to her performance in rehearsals than the final product.

There’s truthfully not much suspense to this: A’keria seems ready to go, and while she still campaigns, there’s not much to it. Ra’Jah gets emotional, particularly in her conversation with Kylie. She laments that when she went home last time, it was in the bottom against A’keria, and that the two of them are in this position again. It’s clear she cares deeply about A’keria, and it’ll be harder to go on in the competition without her sister.

Our Lip Sync Assassin this week is Manila Luzon, returning from her infamous elimination in All Stars 4. Manila is an interesting choice as a Lip Sync Assassin: when she’s a good match for the song, she’s excellent (“MacArthur Park,” “How Will I Know”), but if she isn’t, she misses pretty badly (“The Bitch Is Back”). Unfortunately for Manila, and fortunately for Kylie, the song is Christina Aguilera’s “Dirrty.” Kylie paid tribute to Christina on the runway earlier this season, so she is able to pose, bend and flip her way to an easy victory. Manila takes a brisk walk around the stage, then heads out. Nice to see her! And congrats to Kylie on her $10,000 tip!

Again, there’s not much suspense to the elimination, but I want to highlight and give kudos to how Kylie sends A’keria home. In a season with a lot of apologizing for votes after the fact, and even some lying about queens being safe with other queens (leading to a minor Twitter dust-up between Trinity and Silky Nutmeg Ganache), Kylie is forthright. She hears A’keria out, but makes no promises. As she eliminates her, she speaks of A’keria’s “positivity” and “great spirit” in the competition. “She is a fucking queen among queens,” Kylie says. And when she reveals her lipstick, she says, “A’keria, bitch, you know I live.”

It cushions the sad moment of seeing A’keria sent home. While this feels inevitable, it’s hard not to mourn what could have been. I thought for sure A’keria would be a frontrunner, but she never quite found her sea legs. She leaves her sister Ra’Jah as the last remaining Season 11 queen—and hopefully Ra’Jah will be able to do her proud in her absence.

And so ends a predictable, but nonetheless enjoyable, installment of Drag Race. If the rest of the season were episodes like this, I’d be harsher in my assessment of it. But this really does stand out as an episode that just needed to move the plot forward. Now that this is done, and we have our top seven (with the game-within-a-game forever looming), we can see who really has the stuff to win this whole thing.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨Ra’Jah notes that there’s been a different winner every episode this season, a trend that extends with Kylie’s win here. This has come up in a couple different text conversations at this point, so I do think it’s worth noting this pretty major caveat: this has happened multiple times in regular seasons (Season 5 went eight episodes without a repeat winner), and while it’s new to All Stars, the first four seasons had two winners an episode. We’d definitely have a repeat winner by now under the old rules. This is still a pretty even competition, but the solo wins give a false sense of just how split it is.

✨That said, note in the preview next week that Jan calls out Eureka! and Pandora as the only queens remaining without a win. As I said above, I do think Eureka! should have a win by now, but there’s definitely a big light shining on Pandora at this point. She’s also been basically invisible in the edit—can she turn her fortunes around next week like Kylie does this week?

✨Funny bit of trivia: because of certain circumstances, A’keria cast votes against all of her Season 11 sisters (Silky, Scarlet and now Ra’Jah) this season. Same energy as Miz Cracker only eliminating her Season 10 sisters in All Stars 5.

✨Kylie says her “first time in drag” was as Mary Magdalene in church. It was a non-speaking role. Look at how far she’s come!

✨The Soul Train-inspired, RuPaul-starring finale of the sketch… I actually blocked it out after watching the episode for the first time. What a bizarre choice.

✨Angela Bassett is the Zoom acting coach of the week, serving a similar function to how Anne Hathaway and Scarlett Johansson popped in during Season 13. She looks positively radiant (“She look like a coin!” Trinity squeals), dishes on working with Ryan Murphy, her tricks to playing Tina Turner and more. A’keria notes that she does a little twitch with her mouth before she smiles, and it’s the most endearing thing. Bring her back for a full guest judge gig!

✨Angela’s American Horror Story co-star Emma Roberts fares less well as the week’s actual guest judge. She’s pleasant, but doesn’t offer any substantial critique, and her banter on the runway is pretty lackluster. Not everyone’s a winner! But it’s a shame, because I’d have taken her for a pretty game guest.

✨“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in these past few years, voting is very important.” Kylie’s got political jokes!

✨Eureka! and Trinity appear to be getting cozy! Jokes about Brooke Lynn Hytes and Vanessa Vanjie Mateo aside, I’m not sure it’s as simple as them dating—they seem intimate in a very queer way that I appreciate. I just hope the edit doesn’t lean into it too hard.

✨“What is a Gleek?” Oh, Ra’Jah. How I wish I also didn’t know what a Gleek was.

The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 6 will be available for streaming on Thursday, July 29, on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada.

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