Welcome to RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every week, we’re debriefing the week’s new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. The roast challenge is one of Drag Race’s signature tasks, with a formula for success—so it’s notable that the one who breaks the challenge wide open is the one who wins.

7. Kenya Pleaser (last week: 2)—ELIMINATED

The second Ru went tough-love on Kenya in critiques, I knew this was her time. Ru gets really frustrated when the queens he sees as ready-made to be stars—the ones with charisma out the wazoo— are not able to put the pieces together. In retrospect, it might’ve been better for Kenya to be a surprising early out, someone that the fandom would cry out about being robbed and demand come back for All Stars soon. That way, she’d have the time off the show to work on her challenge skills and her drag, and come back and storm. As it stands, I think Kenya needs more time to cook before she makes her return. She’s clearly a superstar, but as we saw this week, being charismatic can only get you so far.

6. Juicy Love Dion (last week: 6)

All that said about Kenya, there’s no question who did the worst in this week’s challenge. Juicy bombed, and bombed hard. When you’ve got the guest of honour getting more laughs at your expense during your set than you’re getting, you know it’s dire. Michelle Visage gave Juicy really good advice to create a character to help her in the roast—a plan that has worked for queens like Coco Montrese, Jimbo and Jorgeous in the past. Why she didn’t go with it is beyond me. She could’ve brought back her RDR Live character! It may not have won her the challenge, but it could’ve helped boost her out of the bottom two. Because here’s the thing: despite having two wins, Juicy feels like a hanger-on at this point, not a threat to win it all. Her mid-season slump is not letting up, and while it’s great to see her shine in the lip syncs, that’s not really enough to get her to the end. I do still think Discord Addams is next out the door, mostly because I cannot imagine her beating Juicy in a lip sync, but Juicy is looking like the last cut before the final four.

5. Discord Addams (last week: 7)

I’ve just lost my patience with Discord’s place in this competition. While I know she has a fervent fanbase out there, and I do think she’s been robbed of some recognition (particularly in Snatch Game), the fact is that she has not done well by any reasonable metric this season. It’s rare to see someone make it this deep with this mediocre of a run. She’s not doing badly; she’s never been in the bottom two, but that’s problematic on its own since she doesn’t benefit from the juice of delivering a strong performance fighting for her life. Her run reminds me a lot of Miss Fame’s in Season 7: a lot of low placements along the way, maybe a nice moment or two and then an unceremonious elimination far too late.

I wrote about the importance of a good boot order in this month’s edition of Wig!, and I would say Discord’s continued presence is the major issue with this season’s boot order. Her story isn’t going anywhere. We’re in a pattern of the other queens saying Discord should’ve gone home the previous week, Discord shrugging it off and that being the end of it. I admire how unbothered she is, but narratively, that dynamic is not interesting. Same thing goes for the Discord Walk of it all: she gets better one week, but then regresses the next. The judges giggle, Ru seems like he doesn’t really care and then everyone moves on. It’s all just stuck in one gear, with no change in dynamics, as bigger personalities and challenge winners are sent home instead of her. All love for Discord, and all respect to her fans, but it’s beyond time for her to go.

4. Nini Coco (last week: 3)

Contrast how Discord’s story isn’t going anywhere with Nini’s arc about not being able to read the room. This has been set up in previous episodes (the “Nini’s got a gun” of it all), and it came to a head at a natural moment in the roast. You could accuse Nini of self-producing a bit too much here, trying to make this part of her “storyline” for the episode, and I don’t entirely disagree. But instead of just bringing it up as an excuse, she genuinely wanted to try and work through it. I thought her conversation with Jane Don’t was a really nice one, and I agree with Jane’s advice that she needs to own it more. Similarly, I thought Ross Mathews’ note that she needs to find a way to “lube” up her jokes a bit, while said in a typically Ross-ish way, was a good one.

The question now is what Nini does with this feedback. Her attempts to moderate didn’t work in this episode, and she landed her first low placement for it. If she can make a moment of overcoming her social anxieties, she may have the narrative juice she needs to give her a real boost in the finale. She’s clearly got the chops in most challenges for it, and has one of the best runway packages of the season. The widow look this week was so clever! She has the goods, now she just needs a little bit more to get her over the line to the final four.

3. Myki Meeks (last week: 4)

Of everyone remaining, Ru seems the most jazzed currently by Myki. Her praise of the Florida queen is always put in bigger terms than just the challenge, complimenting her brilliance and aptitude. When Ru even raved about her runway this week, which I thought was just okay but Ru was rapturous about, it was clear that Myki has captured his attention. Myki seems like the only real threat to Jane’s crown at this point, simply because she has more of the narrative heat. I thought she was a clear third of three this week, but still did a very good job. The repeated arm gesture at the end of her jokes was very smart: it was funny on its own, and it also built in comic value across the challenge. I think Myki is locked for the finale at this point—the only question is if she can pick up another win or two along the way. If she can muster a track record that even somewhat compares to Jane’s, we may still have a race on our hands.

2. Jane Don’t (last week: 1)

Jane. Don’t. Lose. She has been in the top for 10 challenges in a row. The only time she wasn’t in the top was in the half of the Rate-a-Queen Talent Show when she wasn’t even competing. Her run is nothing short of incredible, and all safe bets are still on Jane to win it all. That said … I did think it was interesting that Jane didn’t win this week. By all “real” metrics, Jane did the best in the roast. Her jokes were the funniest, she got consistent laughs on everything she said and she was a total pro. She aced the formula of the roast. And then someone came along, broke all the rules, and won over her. When Ru was presented with polished perfection and someone a bit rougher doing something more innovative, he went with the latter.

It’s really hard to make a reasonable argument against Jane’s track record setting her up for the win. And though I’ve seen some quibbling with her “winning is hard!” edit, I would say her overall portrayal on the show has been much better than, say, Suzie Toot’s. Suzie’s elimination was shocking because of how well she did, but looking back, all the foreshadowing was there. I don’t see such foreshadowing with Jane. But I do think, when it comes time for Ru to crown a winner, he’ll be looking to see something surprising from her. If she’s just polished and as good as she’s been all season, I could see Ru’s eye wandering to Myki or Nini. So the irony is, after Jane’s spent all season at the top, her greatest challenge will be finding a way to top even herself.

1. Darlene Mitchell (last week: 5)

I love a queen who takes a big swing and makes it work! Darlene’s roast threw out all the common knowledge of how to win this challenge, but it didn’t matter, because she was hilarious. She had everyone in that room amped about her set, and she rode the energy to a dominant performance. Honestly, up until Ru called her name as the winner, I didn’t think she’d get it, because she didn’t do the challenge “correctly.” But I should’ve remembered that Ru loves a curveball when it pays off, and also that Ru has seen a lot of roasts at this point. Someone changing the game and doing something wildly different is going to keep his interest. It feels great to see Darlene finally break through, and for what is a genuinely deserving performance.

Can she ride this momentum into the finale? I’m predicting her to get there at this point, but she could use one more big win before then to guarantee her spot. I’m not sure she can win—I think any argument I could make for her as a late-game insurgent applies better to Myki—but I see Darlene as a Crystal Methyd type who could win the fan vote. Of course, that didn’t ultimately land Crystal the win, but she’s had a thriving career off the show since. That’s exactly what I envision for Darlene, and I’m so happy to see it.