‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 17, Episode 4 power ranking: You’re perfect, you’re beautiful …

The queens pay tribute to the past, while we power-rank them in present day

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. Which queens lived the quilted fantasy, and which hit bum notes in their musical performances?

13. Joella (last week: 13)—ELIMINATED

We’ll never forget the ’ella, even after she’s off our TV screens. Joella brought new levels of delusion to Drag Race, making even Valentina’s French Vanilla fantasies seem grounded by comparison. She’s been the meme queen all season long, so it’s fitting that she went out dressed as a giant mattress while trying to make the RuPaul face printed on her back convincingly lip sync to Snoop Dogg’s rap in “Buttons.” (A fever dream of a sentence if I’ve ever written one.) I implore World of Wonder to find any and every way to make use of Joella in future content—she makes incredible television.

12. Kori King (last week: 12)

The gap between Kori’s confidence and her performance so far this season is quite a chasm. I’m struggling to figure out what exactly she’s doing that the judges don’t like: she’s witty and quick, which are qualities Ru usually loves. (And he does seem to respond well to her runway banter!) If anything, it seems like Kori is trying to outsmart the show in a way: doing something on brand for her instead of responding to the design challenge prompt last week, then attempting to make a moment out of her failure in that episode during the challenge this week. While Drag Race does appreciate queens who can know and riff on their own brands and trajectories, it tends to want to produce those moments with the queens, while Kori is attempting them on her own. Maybe I’m overthinking it and this is just Kori’s Raven- or Monét X Change-style dip before roaring back in the coming weeks. But it does seem like she needs to pull out some kind of course correction to succeed moving forward.

11. Arrietty (last week: 2)

In the last several weeks, we’ve seen several queens judged in the top over and over again (Crystal Envy, Onay Nurve, Suzie Toot), and we’ve seen two queens fall into the bottom multiple times (Joella, Kori). Then there are a slew of queens that have only risen to the top or fallen to the bottom once: Acacia Forgot, Hormona Lisa, Jewels Sparkles, Lexi Love and Sam Star. Then you have Lana Ja’Rae and Lydia B Kollins both racking up safe placements. And then there’s Arrietty. 

 

Though she landed in the middle of her Rate-a-Queen pack, it seems largely accepted that she only made it there on the strength of Lana’s #1 placement for her. She followed that up by scoring in the top—then promptly fell into the bottom three this week. She’s ping-ponging around the power rankings in a way that is unique to her this season. The judges seem actually unable to make up their minds about her, with Michelle Visage complimenting her mug last week, then comparing it to CATS makeup this week. This erratic track record could be a good thing, as it keeps her in the spotlight and hearing from the judges, but I worry about her if she lands in the bottom too many times.

10. Lana Ja’Rae (last week: 9)

Lots of love to Lana, who seems genuinely sweet and is hardly making egregious mistakes, but I don’t have a lot of hope for her longevity in this competition. She’s competent in challenges and on the runway as the judges look for spectacular, and her confessionals and werk room presence are even-keeled and pleasant as the producers hope for big personalities. I’m just not sure I see enough for Drag Race to invest in with Lana. Her drag mother, Luxx Noir London, had both scored high in a challenge and was tearing up her talking heads by this point. While I know it’s somewhat verboten to compare queens, Lana herself has invited this comparison by proudly declaring her drag lineage. You could easily see the future in Drag Race for Luxx; the forecast is a lot murkier for Lana.

9. Lydia B Kollins (last week: 5)

A lot of what I said about Lana could be applied to Lydia—apropos that they were paired together this week, and both outshined by Crystal as a tumbleweed—but there’s one key, silly difference: “Butthole.” For reasons that defy my understanding, RuPaul has really fixated on Lydia’s middle name. Again, no idea why Tessa Testicle’s last name was so offensive to him on Global All Stars, while Ru loves saying “Butthole” as much as possible, but we accept the reality we live in. Anyway, Ru’s love of Lydia’s name hasn’t translated to a high placement yet, but I think that’s only a matter of time. But that’s the only thing that puts her ahead: both Lana and Lydia are the safest of the safe this season.

8. Lexi Love (last week: 7)

Lexi sure seemed relieved to be called safe this week! On my personal scorecard, it was between her and Arrietty for that low-placing spot, and I can understand why Ru went with Arrietty over Lexi. Arrietty failed to stand out next to another queen—a grave sin in Drag Race’s eyes—while Lexi’s concept just didn’t work. Ru will almost always give deference to a big swing, even if it’s a bad one, over a queen doing too little. That said, I do think this was a misstep for Lexi, and I’m not entirely sure how it happened. Remixing the moment was part of the challenge, yes, but Lexi chose an interpretation that literally did not match what Jasmine Kennedie was saying in the clip. The end result was a lip sync that was technically on point, but the whole performance made little to no sense. She avoided trouble for it this time, but hopefully it’s a cautionary tale for Lexi in how to approach these challenges moving forward.

7. Acacia Forgot (last week: 10)

This was by far Acacia’s best week yet. I thought she and Sam kept up well with each other in their song, despite the overall style not really being a good fit for either of them. Sam seemed worried about working with her, but they made a good team. I do wish that Acacia would escape the Dolly Parton mold on the runway, this week paying tribute to Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors, but the sentimental value of this presentation makes me give it a pass. Plus, I loved the use of doilies in the wig. Overall a very decent week for Acacia, but she’s going to need to push herself even further to break out in this competitive group.

6. Hormona Lisa (last week: 11)

I don’t understand how the other queens were confused by Hormona’s vision. It was an incredibly clear concept that matched Shannel’s words exactly. In fact, I’m inclined to believe that if anybody but Hormona were doing it, the other queens would’ve had no objections. The group has been remarkably quick to jump on Hormona for her mistakes—or even perceived mistakes—in a way that seems more related to her status as Ru’s chosen child than anything else. To be clear, there are genuine reasons to doubt Hormona’s readiness for this competition, including her stunt with the rhinestones last week. But in the spirit of remixing iconic Drag Race lines, for her fellow queens, it seems like whatever she does, it’s not okay ’cause she’s Hormona.

5. Jewels Sparkles (last week: 6)

Jewels got to be The One Who Outshone Her Partner this week, although that ultimately led just to a low placement for Arrietty, not a high one for Jewels. Overall, though, Jewels has nothing to be ashamed of this week. She demonstrated she can perform in these kinds of high-concept, comedy-focused challenges, which will benefit her down the line. On the runway, her supervillain concept was cute, but like many of the looks this week, it didn’t read as a quilt in the way you might hope from a Quilted for Your Pleasure runway category. A decent week for Jewels, but her placement on this chart is mostly buoyed by her overall strength so far this season.

4. Sam Star (last week: 1)

The same goes for Sam, who I’m placing over Jewels on the strength of her runway. She and Acacia did well in the challenge, especially considering they weren’t handed a song that played to their strengths. (Imagine the two of them on the Morgan McMichaels-Mystique Summers country number!) But again, Sam’s runway was the star of this week: a quilted pillow headpiece sitting atop a sleeping bag-inspired gown. I didn’t love the “I WOKE UP LIKE THIS” embroidered on the back of the headpiece—in general, I’m wary of writing on garments, especially ones as gorgeous as this—but that was my only note. Sam’s pageant drag is really shining in this group, and I think she’ll continue to prove herself as one of the strongest runway queens this season.

3. Suzie Toot (last week: 8)

I think this week was absolutely crucial for Suzie. Her performance in the challenge was great, demonstrating a kind of hard-rock edge that stands in contrast with her tapping, theatre kid vibe in her premiere performance. Hers was one of the only segments that looked like a real music video, and I credit her for directing it well. But even more crucially, Suzie presented a Lord of the Rings-inspired runway look that both fit her general vibe and felt like a true display of versatility. Most of that was done by varying up her face—her mug looked so much better this week, to Michelle’s delight—but the garment itself was a wow as well. If Suzie is going to go the distance, weeks like this are exactly what she needs to keep her momentum.

2. Crystal Envy (last week: 4)

I have rarely been so delighted to have misjudged a queen like I did Crystal. I worried that she was just a bit too generic in the premiere, from her drag to her name. But Crystal is fighting Sam for the designation of strongest pageant queen this season, and so far, I’d give her a slight edge. Her runways are fantastic—I thought she was by far the best in category this week—and she’s showing real versatility when it comes to the challenges. She’s a real performer, which translates well in a lot of different kinds of tasks. I’d hesitate to say that we should pencil her in for the finale, because I do think Ru is going to make a choice between her and Sam at some point (and Sam has a win), but I foresee Crystal hanging around for quite some time.

1. Onya Nurve (last week: 3)

A huge congratulations to Onya, who absolutely smashed it this week. Her runway look was a gorgeous interpretation of her African heritage that completely fit the prompt. Ru raved about her hair, and I have to agree—it really brought a capital-D Drag element to the look that elevated it. Then in the maxi-challenge, Onya took a great track and some great source material (that Laganja Estranja stand-up always kills me) and turned it into a five-star performance. Her track was a genuine showstopper. There was no correct result this week other than awarding Onya her first win. If she keeps this up, and maintains Ru’s love of her, she’s got a real chance of going all the way.

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TV & Film, Culture, Drag Race, Analysis, Drag

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