RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 2’s “Revenge of the Queens” is the best episode of Drag Race ever. That’s not just my opinion, but also the opinion of fans who rate the episodes on IMDb and that of other writers. That episode, which saw Alyssa Edwards and Tatianna win their way back into the competition via an absolute barnburner of a lip sync, set the standard for a Rudemption episode of All Stars.
All Stars then spent three seasons failing to live up to it. All Stars 3’s return challenge was a blast, pitting the queens against each other in a girl group battle (Jungle Kitty forever), but the returning queens lost the challenge, and Morgan McMichaels’ return felt perfunctory at best. She was also immediately eliminated again. All Stars 4’s LaLaPaRuZa had moments—Naomi Smalls’ “Adrenaline” performance!—but failed to deliver on the promise that anyone could go home, as no one actually did. All Stars 5 didn’t even bother with a Rudemption, and it felt like the tradition might officially be done.
But then comes All Stars 6, promising a game-within-a-game week in and week out. While some fans might have expected a complex series of challenges, or maybe even an entirely separate competition playing out elsewhere, the truth is more simple: it’s a lip sync gauntlet. Like Last Chance Kitchen works on Top Chef, each eliminated queen must perform against the current champion of the game. For example: Serena ChaCha and Jiggly Caliente, the first two queens eliminated this season, face off to En Vogue’s “Free Your Mind,” and Jiggly wins. She then moves on to face Silky Nutmeg Ganache to Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” which Silky wins.
Silky then goes on to absolutely demolish the rest of the episode.
Credit: Courtesy of Paramount+
“Rudemption Lip Sync Smackdown” is by far the best Rudemption episode we’ve had since All Stars 2, and it’s a terrific episode in its own right—but not because of its format (which is fine). No, what makes this an absolute smash is that it becomes Silky Ganache’s House of Fun: a world in which queens put up a great fight, but hit a storm of Silky having a goddamn blast. It all culminates in a climactic battle between Silky and the just-eliminated Eureka!, but no matter who returns next week, this episode is Silky’s victory lap.
If the top four celebrating making it to the end of the competition are Charlie Brown, then lip sync smackdown announcer Carson Kressley is their Lucy, pulling the football away. Yes, they are the top four… for now. But this twist reveals that one queen will be returning to the competition. All four are skeptical at first, but Ginger Minj and Ra’Jah O’Hara quickly take up residence as colour commentators for the competition as they watch from the workroom. Kylie Sonique Love quickly gets invested in it, too.
“So what if another girl’s gonna come back?” Kylie says in confessional. “Bitch, I made it this far. I can keep going, I know that. So I’m going to enjoy this. My alcohol’s kicked in. Bring it on!” This is exactly the attitude Ru wants to see from her queens—and it’s one Trinity K. Bonet does not share. Perhaps realizing that she’s the most likely to lose if there’s another elimination, owing to her three bottom appearances, Trinity is pissed for much of the episode. “Fuck that!” she says in one talking head. “They ain’t gave me 30 minutes to bask in the goddamn glory!”
I understand Trinity’s frustrations: it sucks to think you’ve made the final four, only to be told otherwise. But I think the focus on her negativity bodes poorly for her making it into the (final) final four. I was already worried based on last week’s edit, but getting called “Stone Cold Steve Austin” and “Eeyore” by your fellow queens is not how you want to be received. To Trinity’s credit, she does have several moments of excitedly watching lip syncs, laughing at the audacity of Silky pulling a full bar out of her breasts (“Gotta take her to the club, they ain’t never gonna check her titties”) and screaming at Silky smashing a guitar prop on stage. But those moments feel drowned out by the countless reaction shots of Trinity looking upset.
When I first learned of the twist format, I wondered why we didn’t get these lip syncs week to week, maybe as a special feature in Untucked. That’s how Last Chance Kitchen works, after all. But the commentary from the current top four queens shows why this has been kept for its own episode: not only do we get a bunch of funny moments from them, it also helps solidify their edit heading into the top five redux episode. It’s very clever storytelling from Drag Race, and amplifies what’s already a great installment.
Credit: Courtesy of Paramount+
Back to Silky Ganache’s House of Fun: after she pulls out the wet bar in her Cyndi Lauper lip sync (I’m with Ra’Jah, how did the ice cubes not melt?!), she proceeds to pull out every trick and gag in the book for the subsequent lip syncs. Against Yara Sofia, she has an outfit reveal and a bottle of water to pour on herself. Against Scarlet Envy, she’s got a flag to twirl. Against Jan, she’s got a fake guitar to play, making all the air guitars we’ve seen on the show pale in comparison. She’s got reveals for days—you can tell Silky really thought about what she’d wear to lip sync if she won this season, and I admire the level of preparation.
Nowhere is that more evident than in her lip sync to Aqua’s “Barbie Girl.” This whole section of the episode is really interesting. A’keria C. Davenport declines her invitation to return for the game-within-a-game, saying she’s happy with what she’s done so far. (It feels both like a Chi Chi DeVayne-esque acknowledgement that this hasn’t been her season to win, and a BenDeLaCreme-esque resistance to continuing to play by Drag Race’s rules.) However, despite automatically advancing, Silky insists on performing anyway. “Even though I’m not on the stage with those girls doing maxi-challenges, I take this seriously,” she says. “This is my maxi-challenge.”
It’s a really impressive moment. Silky is proud of what she’s prepared for the song, and wants to show it. And proud she should be. She reveals that she’s done one side of her body in girl drag, and the other side in boy drag, flipping from side to side depending on which part of the song she’s singing. It’s so fun to watch, especially when she’s on the ground rolling back and forth, and she has both the judges and the top four cackling. Ru claps hard in appreciation, and says, “I’ve made my decision. Silky Nutmeg Ganache: you are out of your damn mind, officially!” It’s a real triumph for Silky amid a whole episode of victories for her.
She has some close calls, particularly against Jan to Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker.” The Season 12 queen finally delivers a great lip sync, letting down any sense of pep or positivity to lean into the darkness. (Jan honestly never looks better than when she’s in dark colours and wigs.) Silky’s actual guitar prop gives her the edge over Jan’s air guitar, but Jan’s got energy for days. It’s by far the tightest matchup. Pandora Boxx also surprises by keeping up with Silky on Ariana Grande’s “Focus,” but Silky edges her out as well.
Credit: Courtesy of Paramount+
So with six wins under her belt—and a career seven wins, tying with Symone for the most in franchise herstory—Silky marches into the final battle with a just-eliminated Eureka! “Well, that was short-lived,” Eureka! says, as they return to the main stage. They look intimidated to hear that Silky has won so many times, but insist that it’s time for that streak to be broken. Silky, eating potato chips from a bag (one final prop!), seems confident.
While we don’t see the result in the episode, I do think it’s a fairly obvious one. After props and stunts helped her get to the end, Silky is unfortunately undone by them in a lip sync to Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” Not only does she take too long with the potato chips, she also gets caught up in her reveal, with the exterior jumpsuit actually getting stuck on her. It’s tough to watch, especially as Eureka! dominates the stage in the first half of the song. We see a lot of Eureka!’s signature moves, including their split and swing around the stage that we previously got in their Season 10 “New Attitude” lip sync.
But then something pretty powerful happens: Eureka! tells us in confessional that, on a whim, they brought their mom’s Life Alert necklace with them to wear during the performance. They miss their mother dearly, and it looks like those emotions all hit at once during the bridge. For both the bridge and the final chorus, Eureka! connects deeply with the song, effectively planting in one place and emotionally lip syncing the words. It’s a powerful performance, and absolutely my favourite of Eureka!’s from their Drag Race career.
There might still be a twist of sorts coming, but based on what we see in the final lip sync, I do expect Eureka! to return next week. And on some level, it would be a tremendous bummer to not see Silky get to come back after winning six lip syncs in a row. But while she may not get the return, there is no doubt she gets her Rudemption. Before their lip sync, Scarlet jokingly brings up Silky’s infamous promise from Season 11: “Now, if you have to lip sync, I know that you are motherfucking ready to do so.” That’s been an albatross around Silky’s neck since, particularly because in her one in-season lip sync (against Nina West to TLC’s “No Scrubs”), Silky’s performance was incredibly messy.
But Silky proves over and over again in this episode that she is motherfucking ready. She delivers on the promise of her “Meet the Queens” back in Season 11, and proves she has star power for days. No matter what the result, this is Silky’s finest hour. And we are all the better for having seen such an absolute stunner of a fight from her.
Untucking our final thoughts
✨It’s notable that the show includes the game-within-a-game warning from the premiere in the “previously on” segment this week, and even includes Kylie deciding not to worry about it. It’s almost a finger-wag to the top four: we warned you this was coming, so don’t be mad about it!
✨A fun thing about shooting the lip syncs week to week is that we see what’s effectively a boss rush of the guest judges. There’s Tia Mowry! And Emma Roberts! And Miss Tina Knowles-Lawson! Gotta feel for Charli XCX, who sits through three lip syncs total, and the one to her own song is by far the worst.
✨There are a lot of very fun bits with the queen reveals in this episode. Upon seeing the silhouette behind the curtain, Silky immediately says, “Oh, it’s Jiggly.” Against Scarlet, Silky bends down as the curtain rises and says, “Yeah, it’s me, bitch!” And when A’keria doesn’t show up for her lip sync and the curtain reveals no one, Silky deadpans, “Don’t tell me you brought Laganja Estranja back, bitch.”
✨Ru dispenses with formality when Silky decides to lip sync alone. “One All Star stands before me. Oh, who am I kidding? Hit it!”
✨The second Jan walks out—the second!—Trinity and Kylie immediately both say, “She mad!” Indeed, she looks pissed, which makes her confessional all the funnier: “I’m thrilled that I get another chance!”
✨The queens each get a chance to taunt each other before their performances begin, which adds a little Reading Challenge element to the episode. None is better and more casually brutal than Silky welcoming Jan by saying, “Jan Jan, she’s a man!”
✨Jan versus Silky really is my favourite lip sync, and I wouldn’t have minded a double shantay here. Let them both lip sync against Pandora! The top four all lose their minds over it, and Ru seems to really, unconditionally enjoy Jan for the first time in her Drag Race career. A nice final moment for her!
✨RUPAUL: “Are you ready to meet her?”
PANDORA: “Pass!”
The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 6 will be available for streaming on Thursday, Aug. 26, on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada.
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