‘RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under’ Episode 6 recap: Rugby realness

The category for this episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under: men! Lots of them! From an underwear guessing game mini-challenge, featuring an expanded Pit Crew, to a makeover maxi-challenge featuring gay rugby players from the New Zealand Falcons, there is more man in this episode than you can shake a stick at. And the queens are (self-admittedly) thirsty. So perhaps it’s the presence of cute gents that sparks inspiration and makes this one of the better episodes of the season.

The makeover results range from actually great (Kita Mean!) to the not quite polished (Scarlet Adams). Maxi Shield is the only queen to out-and-out bomb, while the looks from Elektra Shock, Art Simone and Karen From Finance all have their merits. It’s the first time this crop of queens has really gotten the chance to show off their individual aesthetics in such a clear, pure way, and I have a much stronger sense of each of them now.

But this episode is still just okay. Drag Race Down Under has consistently underwhelmed, and a slight uptick in quality can only do so much. (It’s notable that Scarlet’s apology from last week for past performances in blackface not only doesn’t come up in this episode, it’s not even included in the “Previously On” recap.) It’s nice to understand the queens’ brands better, but I still don’t quite see any of them as potential winners. At most, it makes me think of what a different season of Down Under could have been like.

After winning the mini-challenge, Maxi Shield gets to assign the rugby players to the queens. She goes with mostly cute, enjoyable pairs, but Elektra notes that she gave the cutest of the guys to Kita. This is presented in confessional as a potential hiccup for Kita, but if anything, it sets Kita up to make the best impression.

She goes campy with her looks, in big, bold prints and tearaways to give them some flourish on the runway. Her partner is incredibly game, and appears to be having the time of his life. Most importantly of all, Kita really engages with him, and makes him feel as much a part of the process as she is. It’s a clear win for the New Zealand queen, who has mostly been safe so far. If she’s getting a second wind, it’s coming at exactly the right time.

Someone who does not mother their partner quite as well is Art, who spends a great deal of time on her own makeup instead of working on her makeover subject. Karen jokes that she keeps looking over and seeing Art still working on her own eye makeup while Karen does almost everything for her own partner. The results are actually pretty strong, as Art goes with another Priscilla, Queen of the Desert reference (after Scarlet’s last week), but the pair’s lack of family resemblance immediately throws Art out of the running for the win.

Karen’s the only queen who even seemingly gets close to winning besides Kita, but the judges have some quibbles with her looks, too. She makes over her partner (who she perfectly names “Debbie From Reception”) into almost an exact clone of herself, akin to what Sherry Pie did in the Season 12 makeover episode. From a branding perspective, it’s impressive, but it doesn’t really allow Debbie to find her own space as a queen. As the judges note, her choice of big glasses keeps them from really seeing what Karen did to her partner’s face.

Elektra goes for very similar looks, too, but it’s very different from her usual look. She creates alien looks for herself and her partner, and it’s a pretty clever trick. Because the makeup is so bold and distinct, she gets an easy family resemblance. Rhys Nicholson is impressed, but Michelle Visage and RuPaul appear annoyed at how she got through the assignment.

For a moment, it seems like we might see her lip sync against Scarlet, as was foretold in an earlier Elektra confessional: “If anyone’s gonna send Scarlet home, it should be me,” she said. And Scarlet absolutely does deserve to be in the bottom for making her partner, Sapphire, look fairly rough. The makeup’s okay, but the look isn’t properly padded, and the hair is a mess. And while Elektra does place low, Maxi’s ill-fitting costumes for her and her partner land her in the bottom, lip-syncing against Scarlet.

Maxi has been fun to watch, and her “Absolutely Everybody” lip sync last week rates as my favourite individual performance of the season. But she goes up against a desperate-to-stay Scarlet, who turns it all the way out. She has a reveal into pasties, she dances up a storm, she just clearly fights for her life. She sticks around, while Maxi sadly sashays away.

This is a solid installment of Drag Race Down Under, and if we were on episode three or four, we’d be in for a fun season. But as it stands, this is a little too late in the game to change course. Coming out of the episode, I’d say if Kita can keep the momentum up, I’d be most excited to see her win. But truthfully, I just find myself eager for All Stars 6 to begin.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨Up and Down (Under): Scarlet lip-syncing is a sign that she may not be as invincible as it seemed. Meanwhile, Kita is on a real upswing going into the final two weeks of the competition. I wonder about Elektra, who is now getting the “relying on growth narrative” edit. And Art has just not done much since her return to prove why she should win this competition. I’d say Kita is the only one who seems 100 percent safe to make the finale at this point.

✨This version of the underwear mini-challenge is one of the stranger ones. It’s a guessing game about what kind of animal the guys have in their pants—and, indeed, they’re wearing stuffed animals in their underwear. Okay! Listen, I love an underwear mini, so I’ll take them where I can get them.

✨The makeover challenge is specifically presented as being brought to us by Revolution Beauty, the cosmetics sponsor this season. There have been a couple of cases of brands specifically sponsoring challenges on U.S. Drag Race (Absolut Vodka in particular used to sponsor a lot), but it does seem like Down Under features more specifically branded challenges.

✨“There are a hundred dicks in the world, and none of them are big enough to stop me from doing drag.” Elektra is talking about jerks here, but out of context it’s quite the quote! Elektra seems like someone who’s an underdog in the greater world of drag, so I’ve enjoyed her narrative so far this season.

✨Ru looks very different this week, wearing an outfit that reminds me of Kylie Sonique Love’s Gingerbread look from the Holi-slay Spectacular and a dynamic wig. It’s been interesting to see Ru experiment a lot more with his looks in recent seasons after years of wearing similar silhouettes.

✨Rhys Nicholson describes Elektra and her partner’s looks as “James Cameron does Chicago,” a reference that delights even himself.

✨“Better Than the Devil You Know” is the second Kylie Minogue lip sync ever in Drag Race herstory, after Season 7’s “I Was Gonna Cancel.” Strange that it wasn’t the lip sync the week Kylie guest-starred, no?

The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under streams Saturday, June 12, 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.