Only in RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 14 could a record-breaking five queens heading to the finale feel so expected. How could you not predict this? All season long, Ru has repeatedly eschewed sending queens home, first bringing Orion Story and Daya Betty back from their eliminations, then declaring an all-tops episode after a strong acting challenge, then granting Jasmine Kennedie and Jorgeous a double shantay. And even beyond that, we got the Snatch Game elimination drawn out through the LaLaPaRuZa, and Bosco opening up the golden chocolate bar to save herself from elimination.
It’s been a season of non-eliminations, and it’s ending with another. After Angeria Paris VanMicheals and Willow Pill lip sync to Lady Gaga and Beyoncé’s “Telephone” (a solid performance, nothing extraordinary), Ru once again eschews making a choice, and just sends the full final five through to the finale. That’s right: out of a 14-queen cast, more than a third of them have made the last stage of the competition.
I have conflicting feelings about this — most of them negative, but I am at least happy that we’re likely not going to see the same kind of finale as Seasons 9 through 11 and 13. (Pour one out for the honestly perfect virtual finale of Season 12.) Drag Race first came up with the Lip Sync for the Crown finale format at a time when it desperately needed change, and waved four finalists through instead of three. The likelihood of the show reinventing the wheel for this larger group is high.
But that aside: really? We’re really going to have a five-queen finale? All because, once again, RuPaul just wouldn’t make a damn choice? Trust me, I don’t particularly want to see a finale without either Angeria or Willow, and I’m ultimately pretty glad everyone in this final five is getting their shot at the end. (I struggled with Daya all season, but I’m ending on a positive note with her — the only person I might cut from this group would be the too-frequently-saved Bosco.) However, in past seasons, I’ve wanted Tatianna in the finale. And Latrice Royale. And Chi Chi DeVayne. And Vanessa Vanjie Mateo. It sucked not seeing favourites of mine make the ending, but you accept that because someone has to go home. For the show to suddenly say, “Nope! No elimination needed!” feels like Drag Race is giving up on being a competition with stakes.
Credit: Courtesy VH1
This problem has been incoming for a while. The title of America’s Next Drag Superstar may come with a crown and cash prize, but so many queens who fell short of the finale have gone on to much more success. It’s like what happened with American Idol in its heyday: for every Taylor Hicks who wins, there was a Chris Daughtry who actually had the most success. And while the cash prize is nice, it also hadn’t been raised since 2012 until this year. (VH1 announced after Wednesday’s finale filming that the prize is now $150,000 for the winner, with $50,000 going to the runner-up.) The fight to win diminishes when the success is arguably just making it on the show in the first place.
More than that, VH1 and World of Wonder have a vested interest in keeping queens around for as long as possible. Every one of them is a potential star to add to their roster of talent, and the more time they have on the show, the more the audience will grow to love them. The original purpose of Drag Race has come to live at odds with the reality of the current market: a cutthroat race to the finish doesn’t make sense for an audience that wants to get to know these queens and see them support each other.
Here’s the thing: while I personally will always favour the competitive olden days of Drag Race over this newer, softer version (hence why I was so high on UK Versus The World), I also understand a need for change. So if Drag Race wanted to, say, do away with eliminations entirely, or move to a format where eliminations were tiered — a few queens out after every few episodes, instead of one at a time — that would be fine. All I’d ask is that they be transparent about what that format looks like. Instead, we’re getting seasons that purport to be competitive affairs, but are so inconsistent in sending queens home that only five queens actually went home in simple “challenge, runway, lip sync, elimination” fashion this season (Those five: June Jambalaya, Alyssa Hunter, Orion Story the second time, Maddy Morphosis, and Kerri Colby.) Everyone else went home in double sashays (Jorgeous and DeJa Skye), after a lip sync tournament (Jasmine Kennedie), or being removed due to an injury (Kornbread “The Snack” Jeté).
The stop-and-start nature of the season makes it hard to feel invested in the result. If the show doesn’t seem to care about the competition, why should I? And so while this episode has some enjoyable stuff in it — particularly the music video for the “Catwalk” Rumix — it ultimately feels like just marking time for yet another week. I have my pick for who should win this season, but more than anything else, I’m just looking forward to more Drag Race that isn’t Season 14.
Credit: Courtesy VH1
For this season’s Rumix, the top five queens must write and record verses for what I would call the best song on Ru’s Mamaru album. Before they can get to those, though, they have sit-down chats with Ru and Michelle Visage. These are mostly your standard fare — learning a bit more about all the queens at the last second, with some emotional chatter mixed in — but I get by far the most out of Willow’s. She shares how her cystinosis has informed both her drag and her personal philosophy about death. It’s remarkable to hear her speak with such clarity and level-headedness about something so grave, and you can tell Ru and Michelle are impressed.
Next is recording the “Catwalk” music video, and with great apologies to Angeria, this is not her moment. She not only comes out in just a bodysuit (a particularly egregious choice considering they get to design their own custom performance looks), but she fails to catch onto the choreography in both the group and solo situations. In one particularly egregious moment, Michelle coaches her to crawl out onto the runway, and she ignores the note — but Daya Betty picks it up instead. Angeria just seems in her head this week, and it’s a shame to see such a strong queen end on a rough note.
Willow also hits a speed bump this week, getting the dreaded critique of not translating her performance to her face. This lands her in the bottom next to best friend Angeria, allowing Bosco, Camden, and Daya automatic passage to the finale. I’m a little surprised we get a bottom two here: the Rumix episode last season didn’t have one, although that was with a top four. (In Seasons 11 and 12, with a top five, there was a bottom two.)
We also, surprisingly, get a winner of the challenge, and it’s Camden! This is most pleasing to me as a Lady Standen, as she not only more than deserves it for her Rumix performance and verse (“Twist, turn, levitate / Act, pose, captivate”), but it gives her a crucial third win heading into the finale. Track record doesn’t matter much these days, so I don’t think this makes her any more likely to make the final two than before. But what it does give Camden is a lot of momentum — other than Willow, she feels like the queen with the strongest case for the crown heading into the finale.
Similarly, I think Willow being able to lip sync and turn it out is a boon for her. She’s proven she can hold her own in a battle for her spot in the competition (both here and in the “Never Too Much” lip sync), and that can only supplement her significant fan support. Sure, she only has one maxi-challenge win, but she’s been in the top plenty. I feel much better about her coming out of the lip sync than I do Angeria, who struggles to lip sync to “Telephone” while in a big gown.
But neither has to worry, as both stay, and we head into the finale with a top five. At the end of the day, the result will be the same: one queen will become America’s Next Drag Superstar. So on that level, I’m almost inclined to just shrug my shoulders at the run of non-eliminations. The destination is the same; does the path really matter? But I still believe it does. If we’re going to invest 16 weeks — four full months! — into a competition, then it should feel like a competition.
Ultimately, I’m still coming out of Season 14 feeling positively about it. The cast has defied low pre-season expectations to be one of the most likable, charming groups we’ve ever seen. The high moments of the season were both delightful and surprising, while the low moments mostly amounted to just feeling mired in non-eliminations. With some format tweaks, I think Drag Race could be in great shape coming out of this season.
But there has to be a desire to change on the show’s part. We’ll see just how committed production is to changing the game in two weeks’ time, with the grand finale. Until then, see y’all at the reunion.
Untucking our final thoughts
✨ “Lucky” and “Catwalk” have both provided a nice synthesis between the music video challenges of old (think Seasons 1 through 8) and the modern Rumix challenges. It’s a good mix of challenge styles! But I do think in the future, more time to prepare choreography could be a boon. Watching Angeria struggle through it isn’t what we want to see in the pre-endgame episode.
✨ No preview for the reunion aired after the episode, but I’m very hopeful that we’re back to an in-person format. Last season’s reunion was just dismal — not a reunion at all, to be honest. And these queens should have plenty to gab about.
✨ Really cool that the queens get to design their own looks and have them made for them for the music video. I have a suspicion that this has happened in other challenges — think about the Madonna Rusical, in which parts were assigned in the episode but everyone just happened to have a look perfectly suiting them. Of the looks, Camden’s is by far my favourite. Daya’s would probably be next, although it’s hard to get over that she’s wearing Bosco’s wig. Willow’s and Bosco’s are both mid-range — I think Willow’s is overpraised and Bosco’s underpraised — while Angie’s bodysuit is the worst of the lot.
✨ Ru’s dress in this episode is gorgeous, but I’ll admit, I laughed when Maddy Morphosis compared it to the one she made earlier this season.
✨ I once again am imploring the show to revisit the judges’ panel. I know Ru and Michelle are locked in — and for better or worse, I can’t imagine it without them — but the rotating slot needs fresh blood. Nicole Byer, Ts Madison, Loni Love, and Dulcé Sloan would all make for better fits in that slot than Ross Mathews at this point. And I say this as someone who once considered Ross the best regular judge! His critiques have all but disappeared at this point; it’s immensely frustrating to hear him contradict every valid point Michelle and Carson Kressley make. (I actually still like Carson a lot, and would be fine with him sticking around as a judge — but I’d rather a total change in that seat.)
✨ So who’s gonna win this thing? I’ve said for weeks that Camden and Willow feel like our best contenders, and the fact that they respectively get to win and show off their lip syncing skills in this episode is a good sign that their edits aren’t slowing down heading into the finale. They also, at the time of this writing, have the most fan support on both Twitter and Instagram. Of the other three, I would say Bosco has the best chance of surprising — especially since a traditional Lip Sync for the Crown may not be on the menu. (I say this now, but watch them just do a three-way lip sync for one of the semifinal battles instead.) But with the narrative of the season in mind, I’m going to ultimately predict Willow Pill takes the crown.
The reunion episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race will air Friday, April 15, at 8 p.m. EST on VH1 in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada. Check back every Monday and Tuesday after new episodes for our recaps and power rankings, and subscribe to our drag newsletter Wig! for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday afternoon.
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