‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 15, Episode 14 recap: ‘Heavy is the head that rocks the crown’

“At the beginning of this season, I promised myself to have an elimination every episode,” RuPaul reveals in the final deliberations of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15. The thesis of this season is laid bare in pretty stark terms: after the elongated premiere of Season 13 and the repeated frustrating non-eliminations of Season 14, Ru and the show made a pledge to return to the very roots of reality competition TV this season. No double shantays or chocolate bars: with a super-size cast of 16 queens, there would be enough to send someone home every single week.

I’ve complimented this commitment to the mission in previous episodes, but I didn’t expect Ru to say it so bluntly. In doing so, Ru implicitly acknowledges that criticism of Drag Race led to a change; something the show has been hesitant to do in the past. (Were this season shot after last year’s Emmys, I would assume this change would also be in response to the show losing to Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls.) I think this is a positive step forward for Drag Race, one where its relationship with criticism is healthier. One hopes that a Season 16 full of 90-minute episodes is on the horizon as a result.

But Ru’s pledge is challenged this week as he announces his intent at the start of the episode to only have a top three in the finale this season. The top three format was largely abandoned when the show introduced Lip Sync for the Crown finales in Season 9, as the tournament structure requires four queens. However, the modified format of the Season 14 finale, built for that season’s herstoric final five, gives Ru and the show some wiggle room. If they really want to only have three queens in the finale, they have a system to make that happen.

Yet would it be right for that to happen this season? With a final four this talented? After they deliver a dynamic Rumix music video and all look stunning on the runway? It’s a dilemma that pits Ru’s self-made promise up against the reality in front of him—and if you’ve been watching this show for the past several years, you should know how it turns out.

This finale follows the now-familiar format: a Tic Tac chat with Ru and Michelle Visage, a Rumix recording session, reflections on the season in the final werk room segment and the runway presentation. Nothing we see in the chats is terribly groundbreaking, but it is interesting to see the ways in which the queens play into Ru’s expectations of them at this point. Sasha Colby whips out Ru’s beloved “inner saboteur” phrase right at the start, but then tells a genuinely moving personal story about reckoning with her father’s death by suicide. 

Anetra, meanwhile, reveals that she grew up Mormon, which absolutely gags Ru. Props to Anetra for holding that one back until the final in-season episode of the season; that really gets Ru good. Also getting Ru good is learning that Luxx Noir London went to the Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing and Fine Arts in East Orange, New Jersey. What a delight!

Luxx also reveals in the Tic Tac lunch that her confidence comes from her parents encouraging her to be proud of herself. It’s a story that clearly really touches Ru, as later, during critiques, he notes how powerful it is that Luxx has family that supports her. There’s been a lot of talk from the judges this season about how “gay” Luxx is, which has never quite scanned to me—this whole show is gay as hell. What I think they mean is that Luxx has tremendous pride in herself and her queerness, and this episode helps connect those dots.

We soon get to the filming of the music video for our “Blame It on the Edit” Rumix, and it immediately seems like Mistress Isabelle Brooks is in trouble. She blames her outfit for restricting her ability to do Miguel Zarate’s choreography, and Michelle basically has to spook her into fighting for her life in the competition. Like in the improv challenge, it seems that Mistress really spirals when she’s not in control of a situation—not exactly the go-with-the-flow vibe that Ru usually crowns in his winners. Mistress eventually gets the choreography, but as seen in the final product, she’s the weakest of the lot.

On the runway, in the final Drag Excellence category, everyone looks gorgeous. Anetra goes for a futuristic-but-classic vibe that really works (although I don’t love the hair), while Sasha fully leans into futurism for a galactic look. It is, pardon the pun, out of this world. Luxx pulls out a wedding dress as her final piece of her Drag Race “collection,” and I truly believe it’s the best she’s ever looked. Stunning. Also beautiful is Mistress, wearing an intricately beaded gown that nonetheless proves a potential hazard in the event that she has to lip sync. But she proudly says she’s in her “glamazon era,” and she indeed looks incredible.

In “Blame It on the Edit,” Mistress serves the best flow when it comes to her rap, but her lyrics are pretty generic. They’re not quite as bad as Anetra’s, though (“Stomping on roaches”?), and unlike Mistress, Anetra’s incredibly slow verse means she barely gets her words in before her four counts are over. It’s a real miss from the queen of walking that fucking duck, and it puts her in jeopardy of not making the finale.

Meanwhile, Sasha and Luxx both absolutely turn it out in the (impressively well-shot!) video. Luxx has my favourite lyrics of the lot, and she picks up the choreography easiest among the queens. But I’d still place her a skosh behind Sasha, who is just mesmerizing in the video. By picking a lower register for her vocals, she achieves the same kind of sultry vibe that I imagine Anetra was going for, but still gets a lot of material into her verse. And her choices of looks for the video are just terrific.

Sasha picks up her fourth win of the season, just beating out Anetra at the buzzer for most wins of the season. This means we once again have a final four with a win distribution of 4-3-2-1, just like in Seasons 9 and 13. But will this season have a final four in the endgame?

Luxx is called safe, which means it’s Mistress and Anetra in the lip sync. The song is David Guetta and Kelly Rowland’s collaboration “When Love Takes Over,” which is a goddamn bop. Unfortunately, both queens are in restrictive gowns, which prevents how much they can turn it out—although wisely, Anetra planned a bodysuit reveal under her garment. (Still, considering how heavy the top half must be, her movement is still restricted.)

Both do a solid job, with Mistress’s face emoting more and Anetra giving the people what they want with a final bit of duck-walking. Ru makes his decision—and again, you know where this is going. “For the first time this season,” he says, “shantay, you both stay”. We are once again going to have a top four! And rightfully so, I’d say.

This opens up a few questions, though. What will the finale format be? Will we return to Lip Sync for the Crown, or can we expect more original songs? Will a final four be the expectation moving forward now as well? And of course, who is going to win it all?

All will be revealed at some point—but first, we’ve got a reunion to get through. And if these queens’ social media accounts are any indication, we should have plenty to talk about next week. Until then!

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ You know, nearly every season we see queens say something to the effect of, “I always saw this as the final four.” Mistress gets the honour this time. Usually I don’t believe them. But this time, I do! This final four has been absolutely dominant all season long, to the point where only two challenges were won by someone else (Aura Mayari for the girl groups and Loosey LaDuca for Snatch Game—Loosey also co-won the stand-up task with Luxx). You’d have to go back to Season 4 to find a season with quite as dominant a quartet—and this is all the more impressive considering how many episodes there were this season. This was always going to be the four, and that’s what makes it so satisfying that they’re all progressing to the finale.

✨ Luxx makes a mistake when Ru announces there will be a top three this season, saying the last time it happened was Season 8. While it may not have been intentional, there’s no doubt that Season 12 had a top three.

✨ Michelle Visage, coming out as a true Stanetra in this episode, says that Anetra and Marcia Marcia Marcia’s lip sync to “Boss Bitch” is her favourite of all time. While I can’t quite co-sign that (“Shut Up and Drive” will likely forever hold that place in my heart), I heartily approve this wanton act of stanning on Michelle’s part.

✨ Gotta admit, Mistress using her Tic Tac chat time to talk shit about Loosey is not the smartest choice, but it is the funniest. This reunion better be absolute fire, is all I’m gonna say.

✨ “Sasha is so hot,” Anetra says during the music video filming to Luxx, who enthusiastically agrees. “Am I a lesbian?”

✨ The judging panel situation has been odd all season long, with Carson Kressley only making infrequent appearances, and Ts Madison appearing only three times despite a supposedly upgraded role. This results in our final in-season episode being judged solely by Ru, Michelle and Ross Mathews—the worst possible configuration. Again, I really implore production to revisit the judging situation heading into Season 16, because it’s clearly the worst aspect of the show at this point.

✨ I’m basically over the speeches to their younger selves at this point, but at least this season it gives us Sasha telling her picture: “First of all: woman.”

✨ Screaming at Sasha triggering the “it’s chocolate” horn in her final confessional of the season. I miss you, “it’s chocolate” horn!

✨ I’ll get more into who I think should and will win in the power ranking, but suffice it to say I think we’re going to see a former Miss Continental with the Drag Race crown. But listen, finales can be wild! Shea Couleé lost in a flurry of rose petals once upon a time! You truly can never feel safe until the episode itself airs and Ru makes his decision.

The reunion episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race will air Friday, April 7, at 8 p.m. EDT on MTV in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada. Check back every Monday 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.