‘RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Versus The World’ Episode 5 recap: ‘London’ girls

“I hope I still have a career after this.” That’s one of Blu Hydrangea’s first quotes in this episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Versus The World. In the wake of her positively seismic decision to eliminate frontrunner Pangina Heals, Blu reflects on the fact that she knows Pangina will be “so loved” by the fans, and eliminating her may bring about huge consequences. But, she says, Pangina is huge competition, and might’ve easily eliminated Blu the very next week. She had to take her shot when she could.

This is a really remarkable start to the episode, and it stuck with me as I watched the rest of it. To say the discourse about eliminations this season has been toxic would be like calling water wet: Pangina and Blu have both faced extreme social media hate for eliminating Jimbo and Pangina, respectively. It has been, regrettably, deeply predictable, but no less disheartening to see. To paraphrase All Stars 3 winner Trixie Mattel, that’s a lot of emotion for a six-episode season with a grand prize of a song with Ru.

Blu may be the first to explicitly need reassurance from her fellow queens that she’ll have a career after a controversial elimination, but her fear is not unique. A lot of queens have spoken after All Stars seasons about their fears of fan backlash for eliminating favourites. UK Versus The World has been remarkable by virtue of how cutthroat the cast has been willing to be, in stark contrast to nearly every All Stars season we’ve seen before. And yes, it has resulted in some actually painful eliminations. Jujubee eloquently expresses that when talking about “the devastation that Pangina’s feeling,” noting that as the only Thai queen competing, she felt “the pressure to represent an entire country.”

But Pangina herself understood Blu’s decision, even immediately after it. “This is the game,” she said. And every statement she’s made in interviews post-show has backed up that she does not blame Blu for her choice. Plus, as Michelle Visage says later on the main stage, she’d have done the very same thing Blu did. (Mo Heart and Baga Chipz also confirm that they’d have eliminated Pangina given the chance.) Everyone on the show seems largely in agreement that, while it was a brutal end to Pangina’s run, Blu made the correct strategic decision.

So after an absolute firestorm of controversy, it does feel like time to move forward. Pangina is doing great; she’s booked, she’s busy and she’s gaining new fans and followers at an astronomical rate. Make no mistake: I’m sad to not see my favourite of the season in the semifinal, too. But the semifinal must go on regardless.

Luckily, by the time the queens return to the workroom as the final five for their Rumix challenge, Blu has shaken off her shock. In fact, she’s low-key living for herself, bragging in her verse about being an “eliminator.” (She has a prop lipstick in her segment of the song that says “GOODBYE,” which is very funny!) Ru asks her if she has any remorse, and she admits that Pangina’s reaction surprised her, but she stands by her decision. Ru seemingly endorses it, too, though she does note: “Live by the sword, die by the sword.”

That sword, this week, is a distinctly American one because in the Rumix to RuPaul’s “London,” Juju and Mo positively smash it. It’s a big moment for Juju, who has spent the last three weeks of this competition on the chopping block, barely dodging elimination twice. You can tell her redemption narrative is ramping up in her recording session with Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall (once again a delightful guest judge), as she’s vocally in another class from the rest of the queens. Her verse, dedicated to her hometown of Boston, is very cute, and in the Work of Art runway category, Juju finally turns out a look worth her spot in this competition. The judges heartily welcome Good Juju back, and she scores one of the top spots of the week.

Mo, however, is my clear choice of winner for the week. Her Salvador Dali-inspired runway is breathtaking, complete with a flowery headpiece and external heart. Mo has quietly put together one of the best single-season runway assemblages this season, showing how far she’s come since Season 10. Her verse for the Rumix is incredible, and her positioning as the final soloist in the song is perfect as the only queen to rap. Her quick flow and clever lyrics make her the obvious standout.

The British queens are okay this week, but land in the bottom at a crucial juncture of the competition. Blu fares better in the Rumix than Baga, infusing her choreography with a bit of Irish flair. Like in her “Break Up (Bye Bye)” verse, Blu proudly reps Belfast—to the point that I wish she’d focused more on that and left out the part about her run in the competition—it’s just a bit too scattered. On the runway, she goes with a look that’s more Mondrian than her stated Picasso impersonation, and I agree with Graham Norton that it looks like it’s wearing her. It’s much better than Baga’s, however, which is a cheap-looking take on Van Gogh’s sunflowers. However, Baga’s verse is better than Blu’s (and better than her “Rocket (To the Moon)” verse from UK’s first season). On the main stage, however, her performance is remarkably low-energy. This happened in the Rusical too; it’s tough now to remember the confident, forceful Baga from “Break Up (Bye Bye).” 

I figured going into this season that Baga would easily secure the win, but at this point, I think she’s one of the least likely to take the crown.

Blu and Baga are lucky, however, that Janey Jacké does the worst this week. Admittedly, she’s not as much of a disaster as I expected from the recording session. “Fun fact: Janey can’t sing,” Juju says in confessional. “If there was a meteor that was gonna hit planet earth, and the meteor said, ‘I need someone to sing, anybody.’ Janey would be like, ‘I volunteer!’ We would all die.” And she’s not exaggerating! Janey makes Jasmine Kennedie sound on-pitch in comparison.

Even Jade can’t help but question why Janey goes this route: “Just out of interest, if you know you couldn’t sing, why did you pick to sing?” But Jade is correct in her critiques later that autotune saves Janey. Still, her lyrics are very simple, and praise for her Andy Warhol-does-Marilyn Monroe runway look can’t save her. She may have the most wins of the top five, but she also has, other than Juju, the most bottom placements.

Unlike with Jimbo and Pangina’s eliminations—and honestly even with Lemon’s in the premiere—there’s not a lot of suspense to this. While Janey might technically be in the best spot among the queens left, she’s never quite found her footing in the competition. Her friendship with Pangina gave her a valuable ally, but without her, Janey comes off as the clear outsider among the semifinalists.

Juju and Mo lip sync to “Toy” by Netta, which was Israel’s 2018 Eurovision Song Contest submission. It is an absurd song, and these two have fun with it. It’s not my favuorite lip sync of the season—and I personally think I’d have picked Mo for the win for her dance-focused take on it—but Ru gives Jujubee her sixth Drag Race career lip sync win. (Her only loss remains to “Juice” against Monét X Change in All Stars 5.) It’s a big twist for the end of Juju’s run, and thus she’s the one who has to pull Janey’s lipstick and eliminate her.

So there you have it, folks! Our final four! It’s a pretty wild final four, considering none of them won a challenge until Episode 4 (of a six-episode season), and only two of them have a gold RuPeter badge. Earlier in the episode, the queens dance around the fact that, in terms of the competition, this is an underwhelming group of finalists—no one could’ve predicted we’d wind up here, especially the way we did. After a season of Ru falling in love with queens he’d never judged before, we’re left with a crew of his past favourites.

However, what this has also left us with is an incredibly evenly matched final four. There have been very rare occasions that everyone has walked into the finale with the same number of maxi-challenge wins: only in Seasons 3, 5, and UK 1 has this occurred before. Couple that with the Lip Sync for the Crown finale format, and it does feel like UK Versus The World is set to end with a true showdown.

Plus, no matter how underwhelming some of their individual challenge performances may have been, each of our finalists is absolutely a star. Baga may not be “the most famous woman in London,” as she jokingly claims, but she’s a popular TV star with an innate talent for comedy and acting. Blu is genuine and sweet, with a real naughty streak, and has brought some high-concept looks to the runway this season. Jujubee is a Drag Race legend, and finally broke through after weeks of struggling. And Mo is a beloved fan favourite who many (including yours truly) think should’ve won All Stars 4.

In short: it may have been a strange trip, but I like where this season is ending up. Just one more week to go before we find out who will be the first Queen of the Mothertucking World!

Untucking our final thoughts:

✨Up and Down: Theoretically, the final four are heading into the finale with a remarkably similar set of track records: everyone has just one win, with Blu and Jujubee having the only gold RuPeter badges among the finalists. (Pangina and Janey combined have one more RuPeter badge between them than the whole final four does. Yikes!) Juju’s many, many trips to the bottom would seemingly put her at a distinct disadvantage… but I don’t know! The fact that it’s a Lip Sync for the Crown finale would seem to favour her. And in a lot of ways, she’s been one of the most prominent characters all season long, just behind Blu among the finalists. I would put Blu’s chances just about the same as Juju’s, then Baga and Mo a good bit behind them. Truthfully, though, anything can happen in a LSFTC finale. May the best queen win!

✨The dramatic shot of one of Pangina’s coins falling on the table at the start of the episode? Cinema. Where is the Best Production Design Emmy buzz?

✨Good on Mo for keeping her word to Blu and not allowing any room for doubt. Amid all the talk of alliances and deals this season that ultimately amounted to little, theirs is a simple, easy deal, and it’s nice to see it pay off. (Even if Mo doesn’t win the lip sync after all.)

✨We obviously don’t see Mo’s lipstick, but I’d bet good money that it’s also Janey’s. Besides her promise of safety to Blu, she also makes the calculation that she could beat Baga in a performance finale. Much as Mo might want to visit the Netherlands, Janey feels like her only choice.

✨Baga and Juju have a frank conversation about their relationships with alcohol in the workroom, with Baga admitting that pre-Drag Race, she drank heavily without thinking twice about it. Juju, who so memorably and beautifully talked about her sobriety on All Stars 5, goes even further here, noting that she’s been called “boring” now that she’s sober and explaining more about the 13-year relationship she ended for her sobriety. I always appreciate when Drag Race makes the space for a conversation like this—I may mock the Mirror Moments, but you can tell when the dialogues are genuine.

✨On the other side of the workroom, Blu, Janey and Mo bond over the fact that, though they come from disparate places across the world, they shared a common experience growing up in a more conservative, religious space. It’s a nice testament to the potential of this international All Stars format: it’s not just about what each different drag scene has to offer, but how queens’ experiences compare.

✨Particularly powerful is what Mo has to say to those considering conversion therapy, something she is unfortunately familiar with: “You are enough. There is not one part of you that is broken. Don’t buy into the hype that there is something wrong with you. Lies. Lies. Lies. There’s nothing wrong with you.”

✨It’s interesting to see Baga emotional in her pleas to stay during deliberations, and to see Mo buy it so completely while Juju questions the authenticity. I ultimately believe Baga is being sincere, despite her previous claim that she only liked Blu and Jimbo this season, but I do think she’s wisely turning up the dial at the right moment. As Juju notes, Baga’s a clever one.

✨The popular opinion is largely against this elimination format at this point, as most notably articulated in this Vulture piece. But in my opinion, UK Versus The World has ultimately been fascinating to watch. We’re heading into this finale with a genuinely wide-open race! As I mentioned in my last Season 14 recap, a show like this is clearly not what the fanbase writ large wants anymore. The online response to the eliminations proves that. But personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing the Versus The World format stick around as Drag Race’s cutthroat little sister. It’s a satisfying dash of sour to complement the main series’ sweetness.

The finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Versus the World will be available to stream Tuesday, March 8, at 4 p.m. EST on WOW Presents Plus in the U.S. and Crave in Canada, as well as on BBC Three in the United Kingdom. For other countries, check World of Wonder’s streaming guide.