RuPaul’s Drag Race Recap: Happy RuPaulidays! - Vulture

Don’t get me wrong: First and foremost, I watch Drag Race for the immense and diverse talents of all the contestants, of course.

The idea here is that they can trick the queens into shit-talking Elliott while she’s in the room.

This plan doesn’t make sense to me for two reasons: The first is that you usually don’t have to “trick” drag queens into being mean to you.

A half-baked plan, to be sure, but Elliott seems to find perverse joy in revealing to a crowd of crestfallen entertainers that, yes, she’s still here.

Denali can’t claim she got the short end of the stick, for instance, because Tina and Symone had the exact same lines and did just fine.

Now, as with any Drag Race acting challenge, we have the good (Symone, Rosé), the bad (Denali, LaLa) and the transcendent (Kahmora).

Symone and Rosé carry their team to a definitive victory with their Flag Day parody “God Loves Flags.” Symone stars as evil, closeted CEO Red Flag; she keeps the judges cackling from start to finish with her now-iconic facial expressions and inscrutable pronunciation of the work “factory.” Rosé plays her … Best friend.

The judges heap praise onto Rosé and Symone, but Symone’s stellar du-rag-train runway steals the show.

Perhaps it’s her firmly rooted sense of purpose and maturity, or perhaps it’s simply good old-fashioned midwestern manners, but Symone feels grounded to me.

Next up, in a solid second place, it’s Team “April Fool’s Rush In” starring Gottmik, Joey Jay, Kandy Muse, and Tamisha Iman.

Kandy wants this part so bad that she stakes her claim before the other girls even have a chance to open their scripts.

That was kind of everything, but not sure that’s how that works.” Yes, Kandy may be a tough pill to swallow, but the high you get is worth it.

But the judges love them some Kandy, and it’s a solid rebound after her low placement last challenge.

Finally, let’s talk about the team with the most to lose, “Misery Loves Company.” Denali wants to show she can stand out among titans like Symone, Elliott wants to prove she’s not the worst one here, Kahmora needs to make up for last episode’s disaster, and Olivia … is just chilling.

This leaves Elliott to play the ditzy cupid (“I actually am stupid,” she explains), Kahmora as a tree (more on that in a moment), and Olivia affably accepts the grandma (she’s just happy to be there).

On the runway, she’s a knockout, but it’s apparently not enough to make up for her grave miscalculation.

Much like Denali, her impeccable runway doesn’t save her, and it’s Chicago vs.

But Drag Race is known for its midseason shakeups, and I wouldn’t put it past these queens to steal the spotlight right back next week?