Welcome to RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every week, we’re debriefing the week’s new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. The roast challenge sees a couple of underdog queens rise to the top of the pack, while a maxi-challenge winner goes home for the first time this season.

8. Arrietty (last week: 2)—ELIMINATED

The second Ru announced the challenge would be a roast, the writing was on the wall for Arrietty. I admire that the fashion queen got this far in the season, particularly after nearly being eliminated, but she underwhelmed as expected while the other two queens with worse track records out-performed her by a lot. And then this week, Arrietty performed a roast the likes of which we haven’t seen since Utica in Season 13. It was a train wreck you couldn’t look away from. Part of me thought that maybe Ru would keep both her and Jewels Sparkles around to fuel a feud storyline, but the friends mostly making up in Untucked—plus Arrietty’s inferior lip sync performance—likely doomed her. I do think Arrietty should come back after she’s refined her comedy and acting skills a bit; she could pull a Naomi Smalls and really surprise us.

You know where she really should wind up next? Canada vs. The World. Her fashion and runway skills would make her easy pickings for Brooke Lynn Hytes to love, and her penchant for drama in Untucked would thrill the producers. Pick up the phone when you see a Canadian number call, Arrietty!

7. Jewels Sparkles (last week: 1)

You know that meme of Lois from Family Guy as Lara Croft running away from a burning plane? That was Jewels this week. She got the “advantage” of picking the performance order for the roast, only for her decisions to make enemies of both Arrietty and Lexi Love. She spent the whole makeup mirror segment under attack, apologizing to Arrietty unsuccessfully while defending herself against Lexi’s increasingly furious recriminations. Then, she got thrown off during the challenge by Arrietty stealing her jokes—brazenly!—and never recovered. Lexi dragged her on the main stage to the judges’ faces for placing her after Suzie Toot, she had to endure further lashings in Untucked and then she was made to lip sync. Brutal!

Luckily, Jewels came on “YA YA” mad as hell, and while it wasn’t quite a blowout (Arrietty left the “Boogie Wonderland” moves at home this time), the Florida queen did more than enough to guarantee her continued success in the competition. We’ve gotten our fair share of flipping queens on Drag Race, but there’s something unique and interesting about Jewels’ performance style, tripping and sliding into serves in a way we haven’t seen since Kylie Sonique Love. I’m almost eager to see her in a Lip Sync for Your Life once again.

6. Lexi Love (last week: 3)

I’m growing a bit weary of Lexi’s dramatics, to be frank. While I enjoyed her Lexi Lore Drops earlier this season, and SprayPaintGate was fun, her upset with Jewels this week was both undeserved and nearly incomprehensible. Lexi was one of the only queens who got what she wanted from Jewels in the order selection, but because she didn’t get it in the right way (read: being placed after Suzie, based on some previously disclosed insecurities that Jewels was supposed to factor in without Lexi telling her to), that justified Jewels being dragged and isolated in the werk room. I’m glad Lexi finally apologized in Untucked—after a heaping helping of prompts from Onya Nurve—because Lexi was flat-out wrong here.

Regarding her performance: I’m noticing Lexi has a tendency to freeze up or otherwise spiral when circumstances don’t match the exact plan she has coming into a challenge. It doesn’t make her any less of a star—quite the opposite, I’d say she has some of the clearest star quality to come of the Drag Race firmament in the last several years. But I’m beginning to wonder if Lexi has the constitution to thrive in this competition, or if her “inner saboteur,” as she’s so quick to invoke, might ultimately derail her chances.

5. Suzie Toot (last week: 6)

Hard to really get a sense of what went wrong for Suzie here. Her jokes weren’t bad—quite the opposite, a lot of them were really funny—and her delivery was largely fine, if a bit mean-spirited. But hey, it’s a roast, right? If I had to pinpoint the issue, it was that Suzie charged straight into her jokes without any kind of rapport-establishing moment. The assembled roastees, competitors and judges weren’t given any warning before she started firing. All three of the top competitors did a better job of segueing into their sets. Still, I’m reaching here: Suzie did great, and her being simply waved to safety is probably a sign that her super-negative edit from a few episodes ago isn’t completely gone. It’s a shame: her joke about “beating a dead horse—which, funny enough, is Raven’s job description” was probably the single best line of the night.

4. Onya Nurve (last week: 7)

Onya was robbed of a top spot in my book. Her performance was commanding and hilarious in equal measure, exactly what you want of a queen opening the show. But I understand Ru and the judges’ thinking here. Onya has been decimating the competition, and her track record is fine without an extra high placement. Even I as an Onya stan appreciate the space being given to highlight a couple of underdogs instead of simply having her place in the top again. I’d have had Onya in the top over Sam Star before I replaced either of the other top contenders. (If anything, I wish this episode had featured all of the top eight getting critiques, the way the branding challenge in Season 12 that similarly featured underdogs breaking through did.) But I have no concerns about Onya in this competition based on this safe placement. If anything, I think the best is yet to come.

3. Sam Star (last week: 4)

This season feels like it’s going to culminate in a showdown between Onya and Sam, and I’m here for that. I’m a huge fan of both, and to continue my talk of journeys, I love that their routes to the frontrunner positions have differed. Onya has been a lone wolf of sorts this season, forging her own path but staying true to what she’s known about herself and her drag from the start. Sam, meanwhile, had to be given permission by the judges to let her freak flag fly, and since then has been absolutely on fire. What’s impressive is that she was already doing fine before that—it just wasn’t the kind of run that ultimately leads to a queen winning it all. Now? I’d give Sam a very fair shot to be our champion.

I give her those flowers to cushion what I’m going to say next: Sam would not have made top three on my own scorecard this week. Our eventual challenge winner and Onya would’ve been in my top two slots, and, like the judges, I would’ve opted to give Lana the boost instead of Sam. We just didn’t see enough of Sam’s set, and the southern fried shade thing she was doing wasn’t anything revolutionary. We’ve seen other queens do it, and better, in previous seasons. Still, Sam avoided her mother’s roast curse, which is worthy of praise on its own. If she can score another win, matching Trinity the Tuck’s Season 9 track record, watch out: we may be crowning America’s Next Drag Sam Star.

2. Lana Ja’Rae (last week: 5)

It was such a relief to see Lana’s past few weeks of steady growth come to fruition this week. I still don’t think she’s quite the judges’ cup of tea; their hefty critiques of her Naomi Campbell reference this week indicate they’re just not on the same page. But Ru and his cadre finally took notice of the fact that Lana’s confidence has been building. Law Roach’s critique from the Ball has borne fruit: Lana is finally presenting as the self-assured queen she seemed to be for years online. Notably, though, her confidence is unlike her mother’s. While Luxx Noir London is always self-assured, defying anyone to tell her otherwise, Lana’s had to convince herself of her own power in this competition. Neither approach is better than the other, but I appreciate that Lana’s journey feels uniquely her own. If she can keep this up, who knows what she’s capable of?

1. Lydia B Kollins (last week: 8)

This is a delightful win. I’ve been citing Season 12’s all-time great underdog episode a lot in my recap and ranking, because in my mind it represents the same kind of pattern-breaking shake-up that the competition desperately needed. Similarly, Lydia’s moment of victory recalls Heidi N Closet’s: a likable underdog who felt like she would perpetually have to lip sync her way out of trouble finally came out on top. Was there an element of surprise to seeing Lydia do so well that likely made her set more of a hit than if she was a frontrunner delivering those jokes? Perhaps, but I don’t think that diminishes Lydia’s triumph. If anything, seeing her finally make good on the promise she’s shown in lip syncs is even more enjoyable than a simple early-season victory would’ve been. You could even see the thrill on her fellow queens’ faces when Ru announced her the winner—amid a heated episode, they all just looked so damn happy to see her emerge victorious.