‘RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under’ Episode 7 recap: The talent portion

RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under has been, shall we say, inconsistent when it comes to signature challenges. Last week’s makeover episode was perhaps the best installment of the season, while Snatch Game was a notable flop. So bringing over the talent show challenge from All Stars is a dicey proposition. Will this group of queens be able to step up and perform at the level of returning legends?

If you guessed “no,” congratulations, your very safe bet paid off. The Down Under talent extravaganza is largely underwhelming, with a couple of technically impressive performances that fail to entertain the judges, and a couple of entertaining performances that nonetheless don’t really qualify as talent acts. Only one queen, Scarlet Adams, seems to strike the right balance, winning the day with a pole dancing performance. (She says she hasn’t “really seen drag queens do pole before,” clearly forgetting Shea Couleé’s pole performance from the All Stars 5 premiere.)

But the result of this mess of mediocre performances is that RuPaul seemingly just picks the most entertaining bottom two possible, and eliminates an underdog right before the finale: Elektra Shock goes home after a beautiful contemporary dance performance that the judges nonetheless criticize for her poor drag. Considering Elektra was my last source of real investment in this season, you’d think I’d be more disappointed by her leaving. But sadly, eliminating the only queen left with any real narrative drive for the win feels like a move right up Down Under’s alley.

After Elektra and Scarlet bitch at each other a bit over Scarlet doing splits in her lip sync last week (remember: Scarlet threw Elektra under the bus to Ru for her reliance on splits), the queens prepare for the final elimination of the season. Some of them have brought unconventional talents. No lip-syncing performances here! While Elektra and Scarlet go with dancing, Karen From Finance makes balloon animals—or rather, balloon animal; she ends up just making one while dressed a bit like a dominatrix, then walking off the stage. (Michelle Visage is not impressed with the length.)

Kita Mean gives a similar type of performance by doing magic, which Ru almost immediately rejects. While she’s actually pretty good at the quick changing magic style, it’s like selling ice to a firebreather: Ru hates magic, and has no time for it. Combined with the fact that the quick change looks themselves are pretty standard dresses and it’s just one trick performed over and over, it ends up being a ho-hum performance. Of all things, this reminds me of America’s Got Talent’s inaugural season, when David and Dania impressed the judges at first, but then the panel got bored seeing the same act over and over.

What I will say about Kita, and why she’s probably my favourite now that Elektra is gone (I really was #TeamKiwi this season between those two and Anita Wig’lit, huh?), is that she has not done the same thing over and over in general this season. She has served a lot of different silhouettes and styles in her drag, and has also come into her own as the competition has progressed. There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to Kita Mean—she surprises you.

Conversely, Art Simone has not delivered at the level I expected of her when the season began. Not only was she eliminated and then brought back under dubious circumstances, she is also the only one of the final five to have never won a challenge. This week, she does a bizarre performance in which she… performs eating? (Jen Johnson from Big Brother 8’s impact!) The judges are delighted by it, but also perplexed. I lean more towards perplexed: it’s a funny enough act, and she’s definitely got a flexible jaw, but I just don’t think it’s actually a talent performance. It’s kind of frustrating to see her get saved over someone like Elektra, who actually performed.

Where Art really does excel is in the How’s Your Headpiece? runway. She comes out in a stunning butterfly number that actually looks alive—it’s truly a work of art (no pun intended). Then again, almost all the queens do well on the runway; this may be the best individual runway I’ve seen on Drag Race in a while. Elektra is super fun in a Fosse-style showgirl number, complete with swing built into the headpiece, both Karen’s and Scarlet’s looks are gorgeous and Kita looks really cool in an electric light look with high boots.

It’s a shame such stunning runway looks have to share an episode with such underwhelming challenge performances. But such is the way of Down Under: no step forward can be taken without sliding back. Still, it does seem that after many weeks of being confused by the Aussie and Kiwi queens, this runway finally gets some genuine praise out of Ru. This is as good a note as possible to end on before the finale.

After an underwhelming lip sync—one that almost seems like she might give up before it even begins—Elektra sashays away. Her name is put forth by all of her competitors during the Who Should Go Home Tonight? runway segment, so the writing is kind of on the wall. (For her part, Elektra says Art, who would also be my answer.) But I ultimately agree with the assertion that Elektra doesn’t need a crown yet. She’s grown a lot on this show, but Drag Race is infamously not RuPaul’s School for Girls. Down Under’s first drag superstar should be someone polished in their work, not someone still putting the pieces together.

But I personally would love to see Elektra again. She makes great TV, and with some more time and investment, she could be a killer queen. I can’t imagine there will be enough seasons of Drag Race Down Under to get to an All Stars installment, but who knows? Maybe she’ll find her way to another part of the franchise and show just how much she’s grown.

Next week, it’s the finale, with a RuMix of “I’m a Winner, Baby”! Find out who will be crowned Down Under’s first champion queen, and celebrate the fact that our journey with this show is coming to a close.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨Up and Down (Under): The edit of this episode is very kind to Kita Mean, even as she falls into the bottom two. Considering Karen From Finance and Art Simone have largely failed to impress in this competition (each had two good performances and a lot of mediocre-to-bad ones), I’d imagine it’s down to Kita and Scarlet. With three wins, Scarlet definitely has the track record. But both the response to her and how the show handled her previous blackface performances (not to mention all the other appropriative and racist performances they didn’t handle) has been so overwhelmingly negative. With some major trepidation about what a Scarlet win would do to the franchise, I’m going to be optimistic and predict a Kita crowning.

✨Scarlet actually leans on the fourth wall by noting that talent shows are typically only done on All Stars, and it turns out there’s a reason for that! While the idea of non-AS seasons incorporating AS challenges is an intriguing one, the talent show is so specifically about returning queens showing off either something new or tied to their brand. Here, it just feels like a free space for a performance task.

✨Rhys Nicholson’s response to Art eating as her talent: “Do you not feed the girls on this show?”

✨Raven makes a guest appearance in the workroom this week. These little visits have become standard on the international franchises Ru hosts, as Raven is always on set (well, except for in this season’s premiere) to do Ru’s makeup. As a result, it’s a little silly to introduce her like it’s a huge deal—she’s always there—but hey, that’s the magic of television. Elektra really flirts up a storm with her; have they been making eyes behind the scenes?

✨Raven’s entrance line is cute and COVID-19-timely: “Stop relying on that antibody!”

✨The Veronicas make a guest appearance via Zoom in Mini-Untucked like Dannii Minogue did earlier this season. However, they might as well be anyone, since all they do is ask pre-scripted questions about the competition. Feels like a bit of a waste, but to be blunt, the whole special guest star conceit this season has felt that way.

✨What we do get out of The Veronicas’ guest appearance is the utter bop “Untouched” as the lip sync song. A shame the performance isn’t great; Kita is largely immobile and Elektra doesn’t give it her best.

✨I think I can safely speak for most (though not all!) of the fandom when I say this season has been a near-disaster. I’m just about ready to wash my hands of this one and move onto AS6, and I would very much discourage any plans for a Season 2. There are plenty of other, better Drag Race spinoffs that World of Wonder can focus on instead of this one. (Speaking of which: bring back Drag Race Thailand for a third season!)

The season finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under streams Saturday, June 19, on WOW Presents Plus in the United States and on Crave in Canada, dropping at 3 a.m. EDT/12 a.m. PT. In other territories, check WOW Presents Plus for your local listings.