‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 14, Episode 5 recap: In the arms of the angles

Has an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race ever been quite so obvious about who will be eliminated at the end? I’m racking my brain to try and find a comparative instalment, but I’m coming up empty. Usually Drag Race will try to throw a bit of suspense into even the most clear-cut outcomes; think of Jinkx Monsoon defiantly claiming that Ivy Winters was “owning that part of the stage” in her lip sync against Alyssa Edwards.

But nope, there is no doubt about it: whether it’s seeming oblivious in a workroom conversation with Ru, coming across as one-note in her maxi-challenge performance or being demolished in the lip sync against Jorgeous, Orion Story’s run this week is that of a soon-to-be-eliminated queen. It would almost be less obvious if the show had punctuated her scenes with blaring sirens to indicate she’s in danger. 

And it’s not like she’s the only underperforming queen in this episode! The maxi-challenge sees the Season 14 dolls crafting parody PSAs for Save a Queen, a foundation dedicated to helping first-out competitors from previous seasons—specifically Season 7’s Tempest DuJour, Season 9’s Jaymes Mansfield and Season 13’s Kahmora Hall. Jorgeous and Jasmine Kennedie similarly underperform in the challenge and land in the bottom three, but it’s Orion who Jaymes, in a confessional, literally tells to pack her bags. And this is early in the episode! We don’t even see the final PSA or the runway by the time Jaymes says this!

In perhaps the most unintentionally hilarious bit, before Ru even gets around to announcing this week’s winner, he immediately announces that Orion is in the lip sync. Then, when it’s just Jasmine and Jorgeous left on stage, you get the sense that he’s merely deciding which dancing queen will get the pleasure of eliminating Orion. (As I mentioned back in their premiere, queens showing they can dance is a double-edged sword—advertising you can survive a lip sync is fodder for Ru to put you in the bottom repeatedly.) During the lip sync, Orion is barely shown, while multiple queens give confessionals about just how great Jorgeous is. When we see Orion lose her shoes—having learned nothing from June Jambalaya, as Jasmine notes—it’s just adding insult to injury. To paraphrase The Simpsons: Stop, stop! She’s already being eliminated!

In some ways, this episode’s heavy hand in eliminating Orion is a problem of the show’s own making. Bringing Orion and Daya Betty back after being eliminated made absolutely no sense at the time, and it resulted in Orion barely registering as a presence since. (Daya’s been more visible in the edit, but has yet to stand out in the challenges.) The fact that Orion survived a queen like Alyssa Hunter is proof positive that simply bringing her back for no reason was not paying off. So I get why there’s no talking around Orion’s departure, but I’m still surprised the show is quite as blunt about it as it is.

She’s not the only queen we see go home this episode, though. In a very sad development, Kornbread does not enter the workroom this week, and explains via video message that she has rolled her ankle. She has to be off of it for six to eight weeks, thus ending her run this season. I’m of mixed emotions on this: Kornbread was in many ways the star of the show, even if her challenge performances weren’t quite living up to the potential she showed in her premiere. You can feel the void in the rest of this episode left by her presence. However, I do think being able to tour and take time to further develop her drag before a return is a net positive, and I pity the queens who have to face off against her when she does come back. (Although notably, like with Victoria Scone on UK Season 3, no explicit offer is made for Kornbread to return for Season 15.)

For now, the show must go on, and the other queens now have a chance to get more of the spotlight. Daya seems most excited about this prospect, while Willow Pill is broken up about her best friend in the competition leaving. However, with a couple of exceptions, the results of this change in the status quo are effectively what we’ve seen all season long: Willow and Angeria Paris VanMicheals continue to dominate, and queens not quite meshing with the pack, like Orion and Jasmine, continue to struggle.

Change does come in the form of Lady Camden and Bosco, who are teamed up with Daya on Kahmora’s portion of the PSA. In a fun development, the returning first-out queens get to work closely with the dolls on their performances, offering ways to lovingly make fun of themselves. (Tempest practically writes her group’s script for them, bringing back her feud with Kandy Ho over the latter calling her old.) The results are pretty solid across the board, but Kahmora’s team—in a surprise even to the other queens—is the best of the lot.

Daya is just called safe—much to her chagrin in Untucked, where she tries to claim her teammates might be in the bottom—while Bosco and Camden are the two true contenders for the win. Angeria places with them in the top, continuing her absolutely stunning run (she’s literally never placed lower than the top three in a challenge), but critiques of her Spring Has Sprung runway look relegate her to third place. Camden gets major props for her line deliveries in the challenge: she, more than most, understood how deadpan she had to be to be funny. Michelle Visage gives her a note about being soft-spoken, which feels like setting up an eventual growth arc. Camden also looks great in a teacup-and-table runway that would be just a bit more impressive were it not for Victoria Scone’s similar look in the UK Season 3 premiere. (Lots of Victoria cameos in this recap! Miss her.)

Bosco, however, ultimately snags the win. In the challenge, she works around the bizarre requirement that the queens’ lines rhyme—literally why—by doing a kind of beat poetry with her work. On the runway, she comes out as a stormcloud and reveals into a sunny yellow dress, in a look that is more impressive as a complete package than in parts. (Maddy Morphosis pulls out a much more impressive stormcloud runway.) Ross Mathews says that there’s a hint of “danger” with Bosco, which is an odd note, but I get in essence what he means; she’s got a sharper edge than most of the queens this season.

With Bosco’s win, she breaks up the Angeria-Willow monopoly that’s existed since the second premiere. Notably, with Kornbread’s departure, only those three have wins under their belt, and we’re in Episode 5. Assuming no double-wins and that every episode from here on out is in the traditional format, there are eight more maxi-challenge wins on the table. Plenty of time for queens like Camden and even DeJa Skye to score victories of their own. But I am glad the monotony of wins got cut off early, before we got locked into a rut similar to that in the first half of Season 12.

It’s interesting watching this episode after the underwhelming RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Versus The World premiere. I can say I enjoy watching Season 14 more than I enjoyed watching the new international All Stars spinoff debut, but not by any large margin. And yet neither season is yet truly bad; they’re just not great. They’re “mid,” as the kids say. (If it seems unfair to judge UK Versus The World by just one episode, remember that it’ll just be six instalments all-told; as of next week, we’ll be through a third of the season.)

Last year saw Drag Race hit tremendous highs—España! UK Season 2! All Stars 6! Canada Season 2!—which made the franchise feel fresher than it has in years. At the same time, though, there were some big bombs: Drag Race Down Under was a disaster of a season, and UK Season 3 was a chore to watch week in and week out. I didn’t watch all of Drag Race Italia, but I’ll say what I saw of it felt pretty labored, and I’ve heard the second season of Drag Race Holland was perhaps only second-worst to Down Under last year. Only Season 13 fell into a true middling quality range, but the length of the season worked to its detriment. (I still hold that it’ll work better on a binged rewatch.)

So on some level, middling seasons are unusual in the modern Drag Race climate: we’re more used to seasons that either fail spectacularly or thrill throughout. I’m eager to see if Season 14 can burst into the top tier as it goes on; I think the fact that it’s as enjoyable to watch as it is speaks to greater potential. But for now, the middle ground is where the season will stay, and Orion Story will sashay away. Hey, look, I can rhyme too!

Untucking our final thoughts

✨Sarah McLachlan showing up at the end of the Save a Queen PSA to say “Hi, I’m Sarah McLachlan, and this is wrong on so many levels”? Genius. Perfection. Funniest part of the whole PSA. (That said, that’s a low bar; the PSA is pretty rough.) Good on Sarah for being a good sport about a challenge poking fun at her SPCA commercials.

✨This week’s watch party reaction was strongest when Maddy pulled out her “One bad take, ah-ah-ha!” Count von Count voice. In general, the Maddy appreciation seems to be inching up and up in our group; one of our number watched separately this week, and even he texted to offer praise for Maddy. Is she slowly, quietly earning the respect of the masses? Or is this just a small sample, unrepresentative of the whole?

✨The top confessional queen of the episode is Kerri, who has a lot of fun talking heads this week. (Her description of Sarah McLachlan’s commercials is hilarious.) But a strong second is actually Jaymes! Calling Willow’s “Lesley Gore meets Jessica Fletcher” character a “Cabot Cove creation” had me howling.

✨Take a drink every time Bosco talks about “points on the board.” A scorekeeping queen!

✨The bumping-and-grinding mini-challenge with Bruno and Bryce from the Pit Crew is mostly useless fun (and some nice promo for Box Underwear, which looks much better-fitting than the Rounderbum undies did back in Season 10). That said, I grow weary of the show’s unhinged glee every time Maddy has to interact with the Pit Crew. Ru practically howls at the idea of her having to hump Bryce. Considering Maddy has explained her interest and comfort in exploring gender roles, it’s safe to say this isn’t a big deal to her—and the show comes off silly for emphasizing it.

✨Cackling that Tempest comes in wearing Daya’s confessional shirt. It’s a good shirt!

✨Untucked is feisty this week, with Daya and DeJa both passive-aggressively snapping at their fellow queens. You can tell these girls do not want to be just safe anymore, and while it doesn’t escalate into a bigger fight, it does feel like something is brewing.

✨Letting the eliminated queens walk the runway is a delightful choice, and Kahmora looks absolutely stunning in her garment. They’re not on the Spring Has Sprung theme, but that’s okay! They’re returning queens; they play by their own rules.

✨I genuinely hope Kahmora never learns how to say “I was rooting for us!” correctly.

The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race will air Friday, Feb. 11, 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.