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. We’re down to five after the makeover challenge, which means there’s only one or two more eliminations to come. If we assume the former, then who’s the last to go?
6. Discord Addams (last week: 5)—ELIMINATED
By and large, I enjoyed Discord’s obliviousness to critique in this competition. While I do quibble with how long she had been kept around relative to her performance, I only took issue with Ru and production in that regard. Discord herself, as long as she was still in the race, was right to charge forward doing whatever she could to stick around. However, her recklessness when heeding the judges’ advice finally came back around this week, as she ignored Ru’s unbelievably obvious hint in the werk room to change up what she was doing for this makeover. And considering Discord is a designer, she actually could have fixed her looks! Alas, she ran right into the unbeatable chainsaw that is “a failure to adhere to RuPaul’s advice,” and she landed in the bottom two for it.
Not knowing her lyrics in the lip sync was the last straw, and so her journey has come to an end. Farewell, Discord. I hate to see you leave, but Ru loves to watch you Discord Walk away.
5. Nini Coco (last week: 4)
I think I’m off the Nini train for the moment. Honestly, I just hope she actually makes the finale, because her current trajectory is not looking great. What was she thinking with the butterfly-and-catterpillar looks? She’s too smart to overlook that the judges—Michelle Visage in particular, if you believe Ru—want identical twin looks. Fraternal twins, at minimum. She may have had a concept, but Nini completely misread what the challenge would want. More than that, I really didn’t like that she put herself in the beautiful, fully transformed butterfly look, while keeping her partner in the much uglier caterpillar look. To sell the metaphor of the makeover, shouldn’t it have been the other way around? I’m getting flashbacks of Courtney Act making herself the hotter one in her mother-and-bride makeover in Season 6.
Similarly to Courtney, I think I’m getting something in Nini’s edit that has me convinced she is not going to win. At this point, the only question is whether Nini even makes the finale. Let’s assume a top four, since the only two times that hasn’t happened since Season 9 were because of Sherry Pie’s disqualification in Season 12 and Ru’s confusing (but admittedly amusing) decision to eliminate Q at the final hurdle in Season 16. I think two of the spots are locked, which leaves the remaining two between Nini, Darlene Mitchell and Juicy Love Dion. Which, not to spoil, but those queens’ trajectories currently look a lot better than Nini’s.
4. Jane Don’t (last week: 2)
In Drag Race fan circles, there’s a common joke that a dominant queen’s low or bottom placement near the end of a season is “for vulnerability”—that basically a legend in the making must show some weakness before she can be crowned. Think of queens like Raja, Jinkx Monsoon and Bob the Drag Queen all having to lip sync once at the end of their winning seasons. Hell, even the most dominant champions, like Bianca Del Rio and Sasha Colby, got one episode of not-great critiques on their way to the winner’s circle. Time will tell if this is Jane’s “low for vulnerability,” but it probably helps her candidacy that it was some real bullshit.
In what way did Jane and Maybe Don’t not look like sisters? Michelle really pissed me off with the talk of the construction of the dresses being too different. They were in the same fabric (different colours, of course), with the same design details at the top. Sure, they weren’t in the exact same place, but who cares! The wigs and makeup were a perfect match. I’m glad Law Roach shouted Michelle down on this one, because it was absolute crap. If I’m being completely honest? I’d have rated Jane on my own scorecard over the eventual winner of the challenge. We’ll get into it, but this was nonsense.
3. Juicy Love Dion (last week: 6)
What else could Juicy have done to win this week? Her makeover of “Loosey Love Dion,” aka Greg, was nothing short of phenomenal. The mug was the best of the week, and Juicy fixed her costuming problem with some quick sewing. The duo’s overall impression was fantastic. And while everyone else went with sisters, Juicy was wise to lean into mother-and-daughter vibes. Their storyline on the runway fit perfectly, and every time I saw Loosey’s face, I gasped anew. I could’ve seen this win going to either her or the other high-placing queen—but not the eventual challenge winner.
That said, it’s worth noting that Juicy’s critiques didn’t really address Ru’s underlying problem with the young Florida queen. His issue is not that her drag is not gorgeous, but that he perceives her as not knowing who she is as a drag artist. These looks were great, but that criticism remains. So if the last spot in the final four comes down to her or Nini, I have questions as to who will win out. Still, if you asked my gut right now, I’d say Juicy did just enough this week to reclaim her spot in the finale.
2. Darlene Mitchell (last week: 1)
I mean, come on. Darlene’s presentation was incredible! Not to sound too conspiracy-minded, but I thought it was very telling that Law and Danielle Pinnock absolutely raved about Darlene, only for Ru and Michelle to rain on that parade a bit. To anyone without a storyline to serve, it was obvious that Darlene should’ve won this week—or, if she lost, it should’ve been to Juicy. Her looks were hilarious and perfectly rendered. She didn’t make Chris, aka Bonnie Mitchell, look like a fool, even though they were playing foolish characters. She looked incredible! This episode was a real endorsement of Darlene as a makeup artist: I actually liked her look for Bonnie more than anything she’s done for herself this season.
Your guess is as good as mine as to why Ru and Michelle decided to lightly weaponize the “family resemblance” critique to keep Darlene from the win, but they both did it. I’m inclined to think Ru just is more interested in the actual winner of the challenge as a contender to win it all … but it’s not like he’s been uninterested in Darlene this season. And if he is interested in Darlene, what better way to communicate that she’s a real threat for the crown than giving her this W? I’m trying not to read into this too far, but I can’t quite shake that it means more than this individual victory decision. I worry that Darlene may not be a true threat for the crown—even as she continues to prove that she should be one.
1. Myki Meeks (last week: 3)
Myki has been a force in the back half of this competition, and I’ve been very impressed by what she’s delivered since her Rate-a-Queen-engineered stint in the bottom two. So I say this with love and respect: I truly do not get why she won this week. I understand that the judges seemed laser-focused on family resemblance (to an almost absurd degree, honestly), but while Myki and Morgan Meeks looked like sisters, the actual makeover was not at the level of Juicy’s or Darlene’s. (Or, to be real, even Jane’s!) Morgan’s mug wasn’t great, and the dress had major fit issues in the bust. If this were a rough crop of makeovers, I’d get the win, but both of the other queens in the top clearly outperformed Myki on my own scorecard.
All that said … the fact that she did win is what’s notable. Ru is clearly all about Myki at this point, and with Jane’s top streak finally breaking, it seems like there’s an opening for another queen to seal the deal. I truly can’t see anyone but Jane or Myki winning at this point—I’d like to say Darlene, but I worry Ru’s not taking her seriously as a contender—and we can look to herstorical trends for arguments either way. Gigi Goode won the most challenges early in Season 12, but eventual champion Jaida Essence Hall broke through late, and with a makeover challenge win at that. Meanwhile, Anetra got a controversial makeover challenge win over Sasha Colby in Season 15, but Sasha still beat her out in the finale. I think it’s a bit too soon to call this race, folks.
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