Seattle fashion queen Arrietty went home in Friday’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race after a shocking spat with her “sister” Jewels Sparkles. Arrietty spoke with Newsweek’s Parting Shot Podcast with H. Alan Scott about her favorite looks on the show, stealing jokes from her friend and contestant Jewels and the aftermath of her roast performance.
“I was like, since you got me, sister, I had to get you back, sister,” Arrietty told Newsweek. “I love balance.”
Last week’s episode of Drag Race had the contestants exercising their comedic chops in the Villains Roast. The Season 17 queens worked with comedian Whitney Cummings to write and perform jokes about infamous “villains” from seasons past, Mistress Isabelle Brooks, Kandy Muse and Plane Jane.
After winning the Betsey Johnson-inspired Maxi Challenge from the week before, Jewels Sparkles had the power to choose the lineup order for the Villains Roast—taking into consideration the other queens’ preferences but also ensuring a beneficial position for herself. This led her to place Arrietty directly after the consistently high-achieving queen Onya Nurve and just before herself—much to Arrietty’s chagrin.
“I’m feeling a little stabbed in the back,” Arrietty said in a confessional during the episode. “I think Jewels wanted to go after me because she knew I was going to do bad.”
As the contestants workshopped their material with Cummings before the roast, Arrietty wrote down some of Jewels’ jokes, stealing them for her own. And though Arrietty’s delivery of the stolen jokes could have been a lot stronger, the act itself threw Jewels off her game—leading her to a less-than-ideal performance.
The two rival queens ended up in the bottom two of the rankings after deliberations from the judges, pitting them against one another in a lip-sync battle to Beyoncé’s “YA YA.” After a passionate performance from both contestants, Arrietty was the one to sashay away.
Arrietty says she was not secretive about her behavior. “The funny thing is, I told her [Jewels] that I was taking them,” she told Newsweek. “She was literally saying them out loud, and then I was like, ‘Oh my god, that’s so funny.’ And I went straight to her and in her face, I said, ‘I’m taking that joke from you.'”
Ultimately, Arrietty’s gambit did not prove very successful. The fashion queen visibly struggled at the podium—having previously made clear her inaptitude for comedy—and noted that she could have done a lot better.
“There are a lot of what-ifs that I could have done in that moment. I could have written my jokes out,” she said. “Everyone had a card, and, for whatever reason, I was like, ‘Oh, I got this,’ which was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
“I am proud of myself because I did not stop,” she added. “Yes, I did fumble, of course. The ball wasn’t even in my court. But I did continue, and I did not stop. So even though I’m terrified of public speaking, I do applaud myself for that.”
Arrietty’s strengths lie more on the fashion side of things, having contributed some of the season’s most jaw-dropping runway looks. She won her first design challenge in episode six for her dazzling trio of undersea looks and consistently turned heads throughout the season with her unique style.
“I started doing drag because of the art and the aesthetics of it. I’m an artist, I love creating things,” Arrietty told Newsweek. “That was going to be my strongest warrior, I guess you can say, and I knew that going in. So I am very happy that people are taking a liking to it.”
Following her elimination, Arrietty has more projects in store, telling fans to stay plugged in on her social media channels. But in terms of who will win it all this season, her mind is set on Onya Nurve.
“I hope Onya makes it all the way because she is such a talented performer,” Arrietty said. “She is killing the competition. She knows what she’s doing. She could do a little better in the looks, but I’ve told her that many times.”