Welcome to RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every Friday, we’ll debrief the week’s new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 6 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. While we wait for the imminent reveal of the game-within-a-game, we currently have a top four. But will it stay four?
5. Eureka! (last week: 4) — ELIMINATED (?)
Tough to know what to say about Eureka! here. They’ve been eliminated, yes, but they’ve officially made it into the game-within-a-game at the last possible opportunity, and considering it has something to do with lip-syncing, I like their odds. Eureka!’s lip-syncing style has never been my favourite—too many kicks and splits, not enough vocal interpretation—but it’s been right up Ru’s alley, resulting in a win and two double shantays in Season 10. I would not be surprised in the slightest to see them pull out the win in this season’s twist.
That said, I would find that result unsatisfying. Look at their arc throughout their three seasons of Drag Race: they were removed for medical reasons after Season 9, then brought back for Season 10—deeply fair. But then they survived a lip sync they—in my opinion—clearly lost to Kameron Michaels in a double shantay. They then were part of another double shantay in the finale with Aquaria (although if anyone was getting the chop after that one, it was Aquaria).
Then they got brought back again for All Stars 6, and were eliminated at an entirely fair point after performing the worst this week. They also haven’t won anything all season, unlike everyone else in the top five. For them to potentially come back once again just for winning lip sync makes it seem like Eureka! has nine lives.
Eureka! is a star, of that there is no doubt. And their work off the show, particularly on We’re Here, is a testament to their star power. But this season has not been Eureka!’s to win, and I hope the ultimate results reflect that.
4. Trinity K. Bonet (last week: 5)
Of the current top four, the queen I’m most concerned about is Trinity. Her edit has been remarkably negative over the past couple episodes, with Ginger Minj all but outlining the case against her in a talking head last week (she’s only on some of the time, but not all of the time). And this week, she got in her head about being voted Moodiest and Most Likely to Leave Next (the latter of which she voted herself as).
Compare Trinity’s edit right now to everyone else in the top: Ginger is riding high as a giant threat to win, Ra’Jah is coming off a second win and Kylie is making her case that, after 11 years, she’s back to avenge her performance from Season 2.
Trinity’s arc has felt more about her individual wins and making it to the end than it has about winning this whole competition. She’s gotten her redemption, becoming a frontrunner and a threat in a way she never was during Season 6. And while she has very rarely stumbled—just in the premiere variety show and in the Snatch Game of Love—she’s felt more at risk of actually going home than, say, Ginger. I hope I’m proven wrong and Trinity’s arc is just revving up for the end, but seeing her decrying the “bullshit” of the twist in the preview for next week doesn’t seem promising.
3. Kylie Sonique Love (last week: 2)
I’m really torn between Kylie and Ginger for the win, although this week’s big victory for Ra’Jah O’Hara makes her a threat as well. True, Kylie is the only one of the current top four with only one maxi-challenge win. But what Kylie has in droves is narrative: she made her case to stay this week not based on track record, but what she has to offer as a queen returning 11 years later.
It cannot be understated what a unique journey Kylie is on, even for an All Stars season. She fully transitioned in the last decade, changed her professional name to Kylie Sonique Love (instead of just Sonique, making her the first-ever queen to go by a different first name between seasons) and leveled up her challenge and runway performances exponentially.
When I think about who it would be most satisfying to see win this season, I keep coming back to Kylie. True, she’s my favourite, and thus I’m interested in her victory for selfish reasons. But even beyond that, it feels like Kylie could be a different kind of All Stars winner. She’s from one of the first three seasons, which have never produced an AS champion. She would be RuPaul’s Drag Race’s first trans winner, and the second trans Drag Race winner after Angele Anang from Drag Race Thailand Season 2. And like Ra’Jah and Trinity, she would be the first winner to place lower than sixth in their original season, representing true growth.
I like all the queens left, and would be happy to see any of them take the crown. But a Kylie win feels just a bit different to me—it feels herstoric.
2. Ginger Minj (last week: 1)
All of that hopeful writing about a Kylie win aside, if you’re a betting fellow, you should still put your chips on Ginger. Think about the majority of the All Stars winners so far: they’ve made it to the end of their original season, and there’s been a huge contingent of the fanbase that argued they should have won. That was true of Chad Michaels, of Alaska and of Shea Coulée. And it would be true of Ginger if she won this season.
This week was a good example of what, exactly, Ginger offers as a winner. While her first few weeks of runways were pretty rough, she stepped it up for the remainder of the season. She’s always entertaining, incredibly clever and generous with her fellow queens. She has stomped this competition.
But you know who else in recent seasons has stomped the competition, only to lose at season’s end? Brooke Lynn Hytes. Manila Luzon. Gigi Goode. An obvious frontrunner losing is hardly unheard of, and it most often happens when they have no discernible narrative for the win.
That’s why I keep coming back to the story of Kylie in this competition in contrast to Ginger’s. What would a Ginger win mean? It would be a very good queen finally earning her crown after three tries. It’s a nice story! But it can’t help feel small, particularly when Drag Race has, in recent seasons, favoured crowning queens whose stories represent something more broadly.
Ginger would be the first American big girl winner, but unlike Eureka!—or even Ginger in her original season—Ginger has talked about that aspect of her identity surprisingly little this season. Again, like I said last week, maybe I’m being silly ignoring the signs. Your money is best bet here. But I can’t quite buy into Ginger’s inevitable crowning just yet.
1. Ra’Jah O’Hara (last week: 3)
Massive congratulations to Ra’Jah on a hard-earned second win! I’ve been very impressed this season with how Ra’Jah has listened to critique and feedback, and adjusted her performance accordingly. It reminds me of Heidi N Closet, another ultra-charismatic queen who killed it in the confessionals. And if there were a Miss Congeniality prize in All Stars, just like Heidi, I have no doubt Ra’Jah would win it. It would be a nice extra prize on top of the $30,000 (!) Ra’Jah has won from lip syncs and challenges.
Can Ra’Jah win the whole competition, though? On the one hand, she has two wins and just one bottom appearance—that makes hers the best track record of the lot, even before factoring in her multiple high scores in the early stages of the race. And the one time she was in the bottom, against A’keria C. Davenport, there was absolutely no risk of her going home.
Statistically, Ra’Jah is in a superior spot this season. But as we’ve seen in recent years, stats are becoming less and less important to securing the crown. Trixie Mattel, Monét X Change, Yvie Oddly and Jaida Essence Hall all had fewer wins or more bottom two appearances—or a combination of the two—than other queens in their season, but they all earned their crowns regardless. Ra’Jah’s track record alone, though impressive, won’t be enough for her to take the big W.
The big thing to look for in these next couple of episodes from Ra’Jah is a closing statement of sorts: Why does she deserve to win this crown? Unlike Trinity, I think Ra’Jah’s narrative has been more than just her week-to-week performance, but like Ginger, I’m not sure she’s succinctly expressed her story yet. She has a terrific case for the win: she was underrated in her season, came back with a new attitude and outlook and demolished the race this time around. If she can make that argument, I very much think this crown could be hers.
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