Welcome to RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every Tuesday, we’re debriefing the week’s new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. With just a joke or two for most of this season’s Snatch Game participants, though, it’s difficult to distinguish the performances by much.
14. Sugar (last week: 5)—ELIMINATED
There was very little discernibly Trisha Paytas about Sugar’s Trisha Paytas, and she once again played the same kind of character she has all season long. No doubt to me that it was fair she was in the bottom. I’m a little bummed that she’s the one to go, because I personally connected with her aesthetic more than Spice’s. But in terms of longevity, I’ll admit that Spice seemingly has a bit more to offer in terms of narrative. One twin down; how long will the other twin go?
13. Spice (last week: 9)
Here’s a dilemma for Spice: are her runways for the rest of the season going to make sense without Sugar there? So far, they’ve all been pairs, so I’m intrigued to see if Spice’s will still be able to stand out. As Miley Cyrus, Spice had some interesting ideas, and certainly took the kind of big swings Ru appreciates. She was bad, but not boring. Without the temptation to make the twins lip sync against one another, I think Ru might’ve spared her over Aura—but instead, she made her send her sister packing.
12. Aura Mayari (last week: 12)
Aura should really count her lucky stars on this one. Her Bretman Rock was unfunny from conception to execution, and more than that, it demonstrated really terrible instincts on her part. I just don’t see how Aura makes it much further in the competition. She’s got some great looks (her runway this week was a stunner), but she’s faltered in every single challenge thus far. If she can make her own looks, she might survive the design challenge next week? But even then, it would only be delaying the inevitable.
11. Robin Fierce (last week: 11)
Robin seems sweet, but as a character on Drag Race, there’s nothing happening here. She benefitted the most from Group 2 bombing, because her take on The Real Housewives of Potomac’s Karen Huger was not giving Grande Dame. It was giving “I have read Karen Huger’s Wikipedia page.” There’s been a big movement against calling contestants on the show “filler queens,” because it implies their drag isn’t valid, or that they don’t have something to offer. Robin clearly does! But it’s not in the Snatch Game, and the show is seemingly not interested in finding out where it is. I’ll be shocked if she makes it past the next two weeks.
10. Salina EsTitties (last week: 4)
Okay, gang: let’s get into it. First, as I’ve written about before (and as I’ll be getting into more in Tuesday’s edition of Xtra’s drag newsletter Wig!), doing historical characters is one of my least favourite approaches to Snatch Game. It gets too far away from the challenge’s origins for me, and basically allows queens to paint on a blank canvas in a way queens who portray recognizable celebrities cannot. That said, it is also clearly a savvy approach, and has been tremendously rewarding for queens since the practice really got going.
Salina’s take on the Virgin Mary as a horny virgin, however, was too pre-planned for my taste. She had her material ready to go, and barrelled through no matter what Ru asked or what was happening around her. To me, that’s a bigger issue than playing a historical figure, because it is both not improv (the core of the challenge), and it isolates one queen’s performance from all the others. There were other, worse, performances for the judges to critique this week, so I get why Salina was safe. But in terms of the future of Snatch Game, I’m really hopeful that we don’t see more queens try to replicate what Salina did here. It just doesn’t feel like Snatch Game.
9. Malaysia Babydoll Foxx (last week: 10)
Every week, like clockwork, I hem and haw my way through Malaysia’s challenge performance, only to be bowled over by her runway look. Her Saucy Santana (our second, after Jada Shada Hudson’s take on the character in Canada’s Drag Race’s third season) was a smart character choice for her, but she just didn’t have the jokes to stand out. A perfectly safe performance. On the runway, though? I absolutely loved her “showghoul” take on the Beautiful Nightmares category, as Ru called it. If she can bring this excellence to the design challenge next week, it could be a breakthrough moment for Malaysia.
8. Jax (last week: 13)
I’ll give Jax credit: the Mona Lisa is a bonkers choice, and she did just enough with it to keep herself safe. She’s not a historical figure, per se, but she’s also not fictional. It’s a whole new category of Snatch Game that Jax has created. That said, it was just good enough for safe, and Jax needs to be more than safe at this point. She’s fading into the background after that stunning talent show performance, and Ru seemingly isn’t that interested in her. It’s going to take more to stand out from this crowd.
7. Luxx Noir London (last week: 3)
Luxx may not have liked Trinity the Tuck’s Season 9 take on Amanda Lepore, but there was more to that one than there was to Luxx’s. Even the look wasn’t extreme enough here, and the jokes weren’t enough to stand out. Loved her runway look, though. I will admit, I think Luxx’s fixation on placements and track records is not a good use of her time on the show. Loosey LaDuca did the same thing in the cold open, and Luxx did it again with the safe girls in Untucked. Luxx is a talented queen who will almost certainly have a great report card at season’s end if she keeps delivering as she has. We just don’t need to hear about it every step of the way.
6. Amethyst (last week: 14)
Against all odds, Amethyst turned out one of the better performances as the notorious “Tan Mom,” aka Patricia Krentcil. It was a bizarrely early-2010s reference for a Snatch Game in 2023, but she had a distinct look, and the joke about Ross Mathews maybe being her son was one of the funniest punchlines in either game. So Amethyst avoids Akashia’s fate by going home after a third straight lip sync, but I’d doubt she’s going to make it much further than this.
5. Anetra (last week: 6)
What the hell does Anetra have to do to get a confessional these days? She’s giving me Kameron Michaels during Season 10, but unlike Kameron, she both won the first episode and went incredibly viral for her performance. Now she’s practically invisible in the edit. It’s all the stranger this week, since we have no idea how she landed on “Gorgina Ramsey,” a gender-flipped take on Gordon Ramsey who seemingly has nothing to do with him. Her accent was absurd, but she got enough jokes in (she’s from Nevada!) to charm Ru. And on the runway, she looked incredible. I’m still high on her, but I’d like to see her back in the mix next week.
4. Sasha Colby (last week: 1)
We didn’t see that much of Sasha’s Jan Crouch, but she had the look down, and she had a joke every time Ru came back to her. Again, a very safe Snatch Game. Had we seen just a bit more, though, we might’ve gotten Sasha in the top on the strength of her runway. This was jaw-dropping, the kind of illusion and impact that makes for an all-time great look. I watched the episode a second time at a bar, and the reaction to this look was one of the biggest I’ve ever heard from a crowd watching Drag Race. Her looks are world-class, and this was the peak so far.
3. Marcia Marcia Marcia (last week: 8)
I feel for Marcia3, because her Tim Gunn deserved more praise than it got from the judges. I get that her looks are not draggy enough for the show’s expectations, and I do think she’s being a bit stubborn in her aesthetic. But as funny as it was, she really deserved more than Ru trashing her look and then saying, “But good job today.” It almost seems like Marcia is getting the Jan treatment from Ru, and that’s odd to me. Their approaches to drag are quite different, their only similarity being that they’re both New York queens and have Brady Bunch-related names. That’s a bit too superficial for Marcia not to get praised when she does well, as she did this week.
2. Mistress Isabelle Brooks (last week: 7)
I just loved Isabelle’s take on Rosie O’Donnell. It’s the kind of off-kilter but consistent Snatch Game I adore. Alexis Mateo’s Alicia Keys, Chi Chi DeVayne’s Eartha Kitt … there’s just something about a very specific but somewhat inaccurate performance that tickles my fancy. I do think Isabelle will get a win sooner than later, but I understand why she didn’t take this one.
Side note: I’ve been referring to her as Isabelle, but most people I know are calling her “Mistress.” My reasoning is that, last season, we called the runner-up “Camden,” not “Lady.” But should I pivot to Mistress? Or should I even go “Mistress Isabelle”? Comment down below if you feel strongly!
1. Loosey LaDuca (last week: 2)
Loosey’s Joan Rivers was an act of bravura; a pure force of sheer dominance that you really couldn’t deny. Literally any chance she had to grab a joke, she had one. Her voice was down pat. Her look was perfect. Her references were all correct. Literally, what more could you want in a Snatch Game? Then on the runway, her dragged-out take on Jason Voorhees was unexpected but top of the class. Again, I may still have a place in my heart for Jimbo’s Joan Rivers, but there’s room for both of them. A more-than-deserved victory for Ms. LaDuca.
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