‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 15, Episode 4 recap: Snatch Game within a Snatch Game

Well, yeah, how did you think a double Snatch Game with 14 participants in a 42-minute episode would go?

It almost feels unnecessary to say this RuPaul’s Drag Race episode is a disaster on several levels. While Snatch Game itself is perhaps not as much of a mess as you’d think, the episode around it has to be crunched to fit the leftover time. Runways flash by in the blink of an eye. Judges’ deliberations are cut out entirely. Critiques are edited down to a line or two for each queen. RuPaul’s werk room walkthrough is excised from the episode. (Well, maybe that’s a good change.)

This version of Drag Race just feels anemic, and it’s not about the episodes being too short. For the first eight seasons, this length was the norm, and it produced several classic runs. The problem is that this size of cast, and the challenges that are being done at this phase, require more time to properly show. Why are we doing two Snatch Games, guaranteeing that some queens get only one chance to make an impression with their impersonation? It all reeks of a decision made after filming to edit the show down, and it’s making the season borderline unwatchable.

That’s such a shame, because this cast is terrific. It’s one of the most engaging groups of queens we’ve ever had on the show. And from a production standpoint, these decisions are cool! Giving the queens Snatch Game early is a way to surprise them, although it’s going to basically guarantee some major bombs. But from a post-production standpoint, the editors are being asked to condense too much content into too small of a package. The result is that standout queens are getting lost—Anetra hasn’t had a confessional in two episodes, for example. And in the episode where we finally get the climactic twin battle in the lip sync, there is absolutely no narrative content in the werk room that suggests this might be happening. Arguably the biggest story of the season is just over, with no real buildup in this episode.

If this is what the MTV era of Drag Race has in store for us, then I’m not sure this network move was the right call. I just have to hold on to my hope that, with a production built for a season with hour-long episodes, the next one might be an improvement.

There’s not a ton to talk about in terms of the episode itself. The two groups are split up rather arbitrarily, and then we get the usual werk room chatter of who could be doing what character. Without Ru’s walkthrough, we get no drama over queens switching impersonations—though Sugar lampshades what Ru would likely say, noting that internet celebrities tend not to do well. Despite knowing this, she for some reason chooses to do YouTuber Trisha Paytas, and without any of the signatures that make Trisha unique.

Aura Mayari, who freely admits this challenge is going to be her weak spot, also runs into trouble with an internet figure: Bretman Rock. There’s an argument to be made that trying to force an impersonation of a more Ru-friendly figure would be just as difficult as getting Ru to like someone he doesn’t know, but I’m not sure that washes. Alyssa Edwards basically just read lines she saw in Mommie Dearest clips as Joan Crawford, and it was enough to get her a safe placement on All Stars 2. Meanwhile, I’m not sure even a terrific Bretman Rock would be enough to get on Ru’s good side. It’s just an unwise choice, and Aura does absolutely nothing with it.

But Aura is saved this week—in somewhat dubious fashion—to make way for the Sugar vs. Spice smackdown. Make no mistake: Spice is also quite bad in Snatch Game as Miley Cyrus. She tries to have “The Best of Both Worlds” (ha) by playing both Disney-era Miley and the Bangerz-era Miley, but neither is on point enough to work. Michelle Visage does a better version of the former during critiques—put her on the Snatch Game panel! But as opposed to Aura’s Bretman Rock, which was poor in conception and execution because she didn’t do enough, I give Spice credit for doing too much.

I wanna talk about the twins more broadly for a second, because I’ve found myself by turns quite frustrated and charmed by them. Over at them, Sasha Colby gave my friend and colleague Mathew Rodriguez a great interview, which included her thoughts on the twins and “TikTok drag.” I recommend going to read the full answer, but in part, she says, “I admire Sugar and Spice and all these girls that are … it’s just second nature for them to film when they have to. They go into a room and they can see potential posts. And it’s a different muscle you have to flex.” In short: what Sugar and Spice do is entirely different, but that doesn’t mean it’s invalid.

I think you can see this “muscle,” as Sasha puts it, in how they approach the challenges on Drag Race. They are always looking for opportunities, and they’re not afraid to swing big. That’s really admirable! It comes across in both their runways this week, which are once again coordinated to be light and dark versions of one another, and in their lip sync performance this week, which they choreographed together. These are ~moments~ in that they’re memorable and have an impact. But that doesn’t automatically make them good, or right, for Drag Race.

Sugar and Spice’s runways are repetitive and interlinked; that’s not really up for debate, as we see on the main stage every week. Their sense of humour is not what’s going to land with Ru, and it’s often going to be too much even for the most generous viewer to digest in this format. They’ve been open about not having been around drag queens much before this show, and you can tell it in the way their rhythm doesn’t match those around them. These are things that, with time and mentorship (so excited that Mistress Isabelle Brooks has adopted them as drag daughters), they’ll become more comfortable with and grow. I actually believe, with that creativity Sasha said she admires, and their willingness to really go for it, Sugar and Spice could become megastars. But I do think they needed more time before coming on Drag Race to really home in on what they hope to accomplish with their drag.

Contrast them with some of the more veteran queens in the competition, like Isabelle and Loosey LaDuca. They’re our clear top two in Snatch Game this week, each playing a much more Ru-friendly celebrity. Isabelle’s take on Rosie O’Donnell is off-kilter and, at times, becomes Abby Lee Miller (perhaps a backup character?). But she’s funny as hell, quick on the draw—“I thought we were walking the duck, now we’re walking the dog!”—and commits fully to the persona. On first watch, I actually thought I’d have given her the win, particularly after seeing her creative take on the Beautiful Nightmares runway category.

However, upon rewatch, I can’t argue for any winner other than Loosey. While I might still prefer Jimbo’s take on Joan Rivers by a hair, Loosey’s dominance as the late queen of the red carpet is just undeniable. She takes every single opportunity for a new joke: when Bryce of the Pit Crew asks a clarifying question about the Snatch Game format, she immediately quips, “Rocket scientist my ass.” She has a joke about mayonnaise on aspirin that is shockingly funny. And even in little bits, like reacting to Sasha’s Jan Crouch pointing a cross at her, she’s hilarious. This is Loosey’s big week, and it’s all the more remarkable that she’s terrific, considering she’s in the much weaker Snatch Game group.

Loosey and Isabelle have a handle on what Snatch Game requires, and how to be dominant without messing with the flow of the game, in a way that the twins just don’t have. These are things that come with time, experience and being surrounded by other queens. The good news is that the twins are indeed getting those things now! Watch out for them on a future All Stars season, is all I’m saying.

But for now, one must go. And after their choreographed number to Pat Benatar’s “You Better Run,” Ru somehow decides that Spice won the lip sync. Honestly, this is one of the most arbitrary decisions we’ve ever seen on Drag Race. The two queens do the same thing! Genuinely, the only fair results would’ve been to keep or lose them both. But as the edit has been suggesting all season long, Sugar would be the first twin to go, leaving her sister to survive and thrive in her stead.

With the twin storyline over … I honestly don’t know what happens next? Sasha keeps slaying? The show remembers Anetra is there? Marcia Marcia Marcia slowly gets Jan-ed as Ru begrudgingly acknowledges her good performances, but deprives her of wins based on her runways? Truly the world is the show’s oyster, because, basically, no one is getting a discernible edit right now. 

I do, perhaps foolishly, still think there’s potential for the episodes to get better as we thin out the cast. But the show needs to start developing some storylines so that we have something to appreciate when we get there. Because right now, Season 15 is looking like a Season 7 or 11: a cast with a ton of potential, and a production that fails them.

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ Loosey and Luxx Noir London spend a lot of time trying to discern who was in second or third place last challenge, a trend that continues into Untucked. Talking about track records? That way lies madness, my dears.

✨ “Now Amethyst, I’m curious, do you play baseball? Because, you know, three strikes and you’re out!” Spice looks so satisfied as she delivers this Isabelle-fed line, it’s almost adorable.

✨ Trust that I will be getting into Salina EsTitties’s Virgin Mary in the power ranking, but here’s a preview, pun fully intended: Jesus Christ.

✨ Fun to see the boys of the Pit Crew given a chance to play Snatch Game! Calix and Bruno are game and fun, but owing to Loosey’s Joan riffing on them more, Bryce and Asaf are the standouts. I do miss when guest judges got to play the game, but if we can’t have that, this is a more than suitable replacement.

✨ Boy, that coming out segment from Loosey in the werk room was just breezed by, huh?

✨ Amandla Stenberg is our guest judge this week, and she’s great! Her presence also allows me to recommend you all watch Bodies Bodies Bodies, which Amandla starred in last year. So good!

✨ One positive change about this season: they’ve refreshed some of the music cues, especially in the judging phase. Drag Race music can get repetitive, so I like the new touches.

✨ A final fun bit of trivia to end on: Loosey is the second queen to win Snatch Game with a character whom another queen has won with in another season (meaning Jimbo). The first? Hannah Conda on Down Under Season 2, who won with Liza Minnelli after Alexis Michelle did in Season 9. With all the international editions, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened more!

The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race will air Friday, Jan. 27, at 8 p.m. EST 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.