Itâs an election year and you know what that means: time for a Drag Race political episode.
While Drag Race political forays typically skew a little earnest and more than a little generic, thereâs something spookily predictive about this challenge in particular. Back in season four, Sharon Needles won the âFrock the Vote!â debate challenge; in season eight, Bob the Drag Queen brought herself and Derrick Barry to victory in the âShady Politicsâ commercial challenge; and most recently, Jaida Essence Hall won âChoices 2020.â Sensing a pattern? These political episodes have a perfect track record at picking the seasonâs overall winner. So despite this episodeâs glaring (GLARING) flaws, it may just end up being the most impactful and predictive of the season. I have⊠letâs say âqualmsâ with the judging this week, so instead letâs see how everyone did in the Official OrangePaulp Ranking:
1. Sapphira Cristal
Ultimately, Sapphira gives the type of performance that this type of political challenge is made to highlight. Sapphira chooses to make her verse (at least in part) a tribute and homage to âLift Every Voice and Sing,â the Black national anthem. After all, what better way to craft an inspiring get-out-the-vote anthem than by honoring one of the most iconic anthems of all?
âAnd if we lift every voice together, use our power in that groove, we can stand whatever the weather and make them see the truth.â
The lyrics are lovely, the message inspiring, and the performance of it all is impressive indeed. Thereâs a reason this challenge predicts season winners: it has a way of highlighting the coherence of a queenâs personal brand, especially as it relates to the world around them. Sapphira is a seasoned, thoughtful queen, and (as if we didnât know it already) this week proves she has the goods to truly take it all the way.
2. Morphine Love Dion
Iâm so happy for my girl Morphine this week. She performed great, and looked even better. If I learned one thing this week its that funk is a tough genre to write a rap to. And while this songâs, well, âfunkyâ rhythm ensnared many a queen, Morphine rode the beat with ease. She found a flow that worked for her and stuck to it, all the while perfectly executing choreo on a completely different rhythm. Very impressive.
While she doesnât quite clinch the win, top two ainât too shabs! A perfectly timed rev up in momentum for the OrangePaulp Fan Favorite.
3. Plane Jane
Hot take, I suppose, but Plane Jane easily makes into the OrangePaulp Top 3 this episode. Most of the queens last night really struggled to make their lyrics coherent (more on that laterâŠ), but not Plane:
âThe ignorance is strong so we gotta flex, spreading the love while Iâm spreading my legs. Drag it up and fight for whatâs right, no great battle can be beaten overnight, so groove to the beat and tell hate to kick rocks, and if youâre at the polls you can catch this box.â
Consistently good use of wordplay, and seamlessly integrating her personal brand (slut)? These other girls could never. The judges hem and haw about Plane looking nervous during her choreography (something I didnât pick up on) and critique her for giving her immunity to Nymphia as opposed to saving it for herself, but it all rings hollow to me. Once again, sorry to the haters, but Plane Jane did pretty great this week and no amount of narrative framing will convince me otherwise.
4. Q
Q has very little going for her this week. Yet again, she has a real tough time coming up with a verse, and her unsteady stage presence only highlights the simplistic nature of her lyrics.
âWe all live in a crazy place, weâre not all the same but we need our space. We all need the right to live, keep my man, and save the kids.â
Thereâs no denying Qâs talent at a sewing machine, but when she steps out from behind it in a performance-based challenge like this one, the seams of her drag persona begin to rip. Given that the last of the seasonâs design challenges are likely behind us, Q will need to find a new way to stand out from the pack going forward, or her top four dreams may be cut short.
5. Dawn
Dawnâs arc this episode is one of almost mask-off villainy. Last week we got a taste of Dawn beginning to embrace villain-hood as we watched her âhelpâ Plasma. Many online gave her the benefit of the doubt, assuming she really did want to help her bestie, itâs just that her advice just ended up being misguided... But Iâm not so sure. âYou know what you could do? This would be so evilâŠâ Dawn whispers to Plane while Nymphia records her verse. âTell her youâre gonna [give her the immunity potion], but then donât.â Evil! Nasty! Darksided! And honestly? Genius. Now if only we could put the power of that mind to work revising some of these lyrics:
âWeâve got power, being true to love will always make them cower, write enough laws all while healing up our inner child.â
Iâm quite unmoved. Between this week and the Snatch Game, Dawn has, once again, gotten away with murder.
6. Mhiâya Iman LePaige
âDonât let them win, letâs keep it going. Martin Luther King, I have a dream!â
^This was judged as a top verse FYI.
7. Nymphia Wind
âAspire to community. Nymphia for equality. Do not ban my beauty. You better get that power within your flower, you have a seat at the table when you vote yellow.â
Yeah, Nymphia needed that potion bad this week (or at least she wouldâve had the entire concept of the immunity potion not been rendered pointless by the end of episode twist). To say her verse is the least dense of all her competitors would be an understatement. And that low word count is not her friend: we can hear every lyric clear as day, much to her detriment. If it wasnât obvious that Megami ghost wrote every word of Nymphiaâs verse before, it certainly is now. Thank god sheâs gorgeous!!
Finally, we reveal the twist of the episode: itâs a top two (Morphine and Sapphira) and no one is going home. A Meghan Trainor lip sync capping off a flop episode with no elimination⊠RuPaul wants us dead and trust she will be using our corpses as biofuel for her nuclear bunker. As you might expect, Morphine does well and Sapphira does even better. If thereâs a silver lining to this weekâs challenge, itâs that Sapphira at long last has her second win. And an impactful one at that.
What do you think about Jane giving her potion to Nymphia? Power move? Genuine act of good will?
I fully believe that Plane Jane was given middling critiques solely as punishment for giving Nymphia her potion. Especially since it was always going to be a non-elimination episode, it didn't matter what they said to her and they wanted to make her sweat.