At some point, about halfway through the season, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 4 felt like it could actually threaten Season 2 for the best U.K. season title. What a difference five episodes make, huh?
Season 4 hasn’t been a disaster, but it has definitely disappointed relative to its potential. A string of dismal mid-season departures—Baby’s withdrawal, Le Fil’s elimination and especially Dakota Schiffer’s shock boot—left us with an unbalanced final five. Black Peppa and Pixie Polite won their only badges early in the season, while Jonbers Blonde became the second UK finalist after Ellie Diamond to make the endgame with no maxi-challenge wins. And while the four-challenge-winning Danny Beard and Cheddar Gorgeous cleaned up the rest of the season, the last few challenges, in particular the acting task and roast, were largely underwhelming affairs.
I’d be able to forgive this if Drag Race UK were willing to lean into this as a two-queen race: a battle between two legends of the British drag scene and close friends who dominated a season in a way we’ve never seen solely two queens do before. But this season finale illuminates what is a greater problem with the franchise right now: an unwillingness on the show’s part to state facts in the hope of keeping a greater sense of competition alive. No one gets so much as a mild critique on their performances in this episode. Everyone’s a star, everyone’s got a reason why they should win and the final two are chosen with no explicit reasoning.
This finale could have been the culmination of a season-long duel. We could’ve seen the show admit that, yes, Peppa hasn’t managed to surpass the high bar she set way back in Episode 1. We could’ve seen a recognition that, sure, it’s impressive that Jonbers made it to the finale, but she’s not a real threat to win based on her performance all season. We could’ve seen the show be discerning in a way this final four deserved, graciously but deservedly dismissing Peppa and Jonbers earlier, thanking them for their work, but understanding that the title is going to go to either Cheddar or Danny.
Instead, the Drag Race UK finale, like so many recent seasons of the Ru-hosted shows, favours sentimentality over competitive spirit. And while I know this lighter, softer version of Drag Race has its fans, I find myself once again wishing the franchise was not losing its edge.
Credit: Courtesy World of Wonder
The truth is, even without seeing this episode, you could recap most of it blind. We once again get X Factor-style intros for our four finalists, although they’ve toned down a bit from recent seasons (thankfully) and include a recap of sorts of the season. We get the introduction of a Rumix challenge, which is actually a RuMegaMix: each queen gets assigned one of Ru’s songs to write and record a verse for. Danny gets the best of the lot with “Call Me Mother,” while Peppa gets the iconic “Sissy That Walk” and Cheddar takes “The Realness.” Jonbers gets the somewhat disappointing “Kitty Girl”—the song is great, but of course, it’s already been Rumixed.
Once again, the amount of time these queens get for their verses is just not enough. I once again must give praise to the Canada’s Drag Race producers, because their whole cast of nine on Canada vs The World’s premiere got substantial verses on “Bonjour, Hi” for the girl groups challenge. When they don’t have a lot of bars for their verses, queens tend to default to stock Drag Race phrases: they’re here to slay, they’re gonna snatch the crown and so on. We get a lot of that in this episode as a result, and that plus the rapid-fire nature of the RuMegaMix makes this an unmemorable performance.
“Unmemorable” is basically the name of the game in this finale, as we go through all the usual motions, starting with the typical chats with Ru and Michelle Visage. It’s been incredibly frustrating to watch what used to be such a delightful hallmark of finales, the Tic Tac lunches, reduced over the years to what are basically another competitive element. What used to be a chance for Ru—in drag, let’s recall!—to connect with the queens more personally has become a chance for the contestants to push as many of Ru’s and Michelle’s buttons as possible. A sad story here, talk of the power of belief (or, as Jonbers puts it here, “visualization”) there, and the queens are reduced to talking points instead of getting a chance to present as their honest selves.
One point of interest comes when Ru and Michelle ask what the crown would mean to Cheddar. This is a chance to talk about all the ways in which winning this show would change your life, but Cheddar actually demurs. She all but says she doesn’t need the crown; she’ll be doing the same thing after this with or without the title. That’s bold, considering what a pageant the Drag Race finales have become, but it makes me respect her even more for not pandering.
Credit: Courtesy World of Wonder
After the RuMegaMix performance—which I actually think Jonbers might’ve done the best in?—we get our usual Grand Finale Eleganza runway. Once again, one queen goes against the grain, as Peppa opts for an “up-cycled” look instead of a traditional gown. It’s striking, and she pairs it perfectly with white braided hair. Of the others, Cheddar’s “H.R. Giger–inspired fantasy” is gorgeous, but expected of Cheddar (not necessarily a bad thing for what is effectively the summation of your time on the show), while Danny’s “phoenix rising from the ashes” look is gorgeous.
Jonbers likens her final look to Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings costumes, but it’s a bit underwhelming compared to the others. What is remarkable is her mug, which is so dramatically elevated from where she started in this competition. Of all the talk of the ways Jonbers has grown this season, the one that strikes me as most true is all the praise for her makeup skills. While I question Ru’s note about no one in recent memory applying critiques like Jonbers has (Crystal Methyd’s season was just two years ago!), the truth is that Jonbers is leaving Drag Race with a heavily elevated beat, and that’s to her credit.
During critiques, there’s an interesting moment in which the judges highlight Cheddar’s “vulnerability” in participating in Drag Race. It’s a note I can’t remember another queen ever getting—basically an acknowledgment that someone as legendary as Cheddar is in the U.K. drag scene participating in this show is notable. She doesn’t need this, but she’s engaged fully nonetheless, and she’s basically only slipped up once (in the comedy challenge). She’d be a remarkable winner for the show. And despite my rooting for Danny over these last several weeks, the finale actually has me pulling for Cheddar by the end.
Of course, we can’t quite get to the inevitable ending yet, because we’ve still got speeches to our younger selves to get through. You know, I hoped when Canada’s Drag Race lampooned this trope in Season 2, it was a sign that the franchise as a whole would move away from it. But no, we’re still doing it, and it just all feels so rehearsed. I don’t doubt the sincerity of the queens’ emotions, and there are some lovely moments here. But I do feel like, instead of genuinely responding to what’s in front of them, the queens are pushed to say something that will fit in with their narrative in the competition. It’s a formula, and it’s become incredibly predictable.
Credit: Courtesy World of Wonder
The one unconditional joy in this finale is getting to see the UK champions return: The Vivienne, Lawrence Chaney and Krystal Versace. I know there have been quibbles about all of their victories, but they all look gorgeous, and they offer great advice to the queens who are preparing to potentially win. My personal favourite bit comes from Lawrence, talking about interacting with fans: “Never be disrespectful to the people who are literally paying your rent. We are living the dream of people liking us! How amazing is it—that people like us?” (It’s also such fun to see Viv back on her home series after her stellar All Stars 7 run.)
Finally, after all that, we finally arrive at the battle this should’ve all been about: Cheddar vs. Danny in the final lip sync. Both these queens are experts in their craft, and both would make for worthy winners. It’s noteworthy that, when the top two is announced, Cheddar says she would be content with either result—that it would be her or her friend taking home the crown.
Again: this is the kind of stuff that would’ve made this finale really compelling! I would’ve loved to hear more about Cheddar and Danny’s bond, and what it means for the two of them to be the last queens standing. But because the show insisted on making this a top-four finale, when two of the queens were, by virtue of their track records and narratives, not realistic contenders for the win, we instead have suddenly arrived at this result. I really wish the show had been more careful about crafting this arc, because it could’ve made up for a shoddy back half of this season.
Ultimately, after an emotional lip sync to “This Is My Life” by Shirley Bassey, it’s Danny who is our newest champion. There’s plenty notable about Danny’s win, not the least of which being that she is the first bearded queen to win RuPaul’s Drag Race. And considering her work all season long, this is a more than just result. Do I think that, when it comes to narrative, she’s the more traditional, expected victor? Sure. But that matters little when her work has been so stellar all season long. No, this crowning is inarguably a great result—and it instantly feels right to see her in the winners’ circle alongside Viv, Lawrence and Krystal.
This finale isn’t bad, necessarily; it’s just frustrating. There’s a lot of wasted potential, and the hewing to the familiar format is not helping Drag Race move forward as a franchise. There will always be room for traditions, but unless the producers shake things up, I imagine we’ll be getting a lot of disappointing endgames. Half the battle of a Drag Race season is landing the plane, and these days, it feels like we’re hitting a lot of turbulence on the way down.
Untucking our final thoughts
✨ Peppa notes she’s sent home a quarter of the cast across her many Lip Syncs for Your Life. It actually could’ve been a full third if not for the double shantay against Jonbers!
✨ Claudimar Neto is the choreographer for the RuMegaMix. He’s a professional dancer and made headlines for his dancing on one of Little Mix’s tours. He seems like a delight!
✨ It’s fun to have the whole cast of queens from this season (save a still-absent Baby) there for the RuMegaMix, but I wish they had more to do than just stand for most of it. Glad they at least get to present on the runway one last time—special shout-out to Starlet’s absolutely stunning look.
✨ MICHELLE VISAGE: “Ru, you remember Paula Abdul’s ‘Vibeology’? This is Cheddar’s follow-up, ‘Entomology.’”
GRAHAM NORTON: “We got there.”
✨ Not Michelle calling Jonbers “the Pokémon of this competition” because she always evolves!
✨ Thanks so much for joining us this season! It may not have been the most satisfying, but I’m still very glad we got to meet most of this cast—Dakota in particular has quickly become an all-time favorite of mine. I’m sure we’ll see her and some others back on the show soon. In the meantime, two other UK veterans, Vanity Milan and Victoria Scone, are competing in Canada on Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs The World! We eagerly invite you to join us for our coverage of that short season as we wrap up 2022 in Drag Race recaps.
The next episode of Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs The World will be available to stream on Friday, Nov. 25, at 9 p.m. EST on WOW Presents Plus in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada. You can subscribe to our drag newsletter, Wig!, for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday afternoon.
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