Welcome to RuPaul’s Drag Race Power Rankings! Every week, we’re debriefing the week’s new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 to determine which queens are riding high, and which need she-mergency care. With just two competitive episodes left before we reach the finale phase of this season, is there any chance someone can catch up to our frontrunner?
6. Lana Ja’Rae (last week: 6)—ELIMINATED
With the understanding that Lana leaving here was the only “fair” result relative to the competition so far, I think Lana got dealt a crappy hand this week. She did a far better job interpreting Sam Star’s story than vice-versa, and while her own story was a bit too broad for my taste, it still had a heartfelt core that the judges were strangely harsh about. (In general, there was a lot more reading into tone to detect authenticity in this week’s critiques than I would’ve liked.) And there’s no question she had the better runway entry of her pairing, considering it was actually ugly—though as much as I liked the reference, I do wish we had seen more than her simply wearing Kandy Muse’s old garment.
But considering this challenge was judged in teams, I understand Lana being in the bottom two. And I even understand why Sam would stay over her considering Sam’s been a dominant frontrunner, while Lana has yet to score a win. Keeping Lana would just mean sending her home next week. Here’s the problem, though: Lana clearly beat Sam in the lip sync. No amount of edited-in confessionals telling me how close the battle is can convince me otherwise. So Lana was better than Sam in the challenge, on the runway and in the lip sync … and still went home. Eliminations like this make it hard to justify when, for example, someone like Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige sends home Plasma despite Plasma’s far-superior track record. Is a Lip Sync for Your Life truly for your life in the competition, or is that conditional on other factors?
Ultimately, I can’t argue that this was Lana’s time to go when considering the whole competition. But I don’t like what the show had to do to make her elimination happen.
5. Sam Star (last week: 2)
I’m not sure if she was just psyched out about having to work with Lana, but Sam absolutely bombed this week—in every category! Her entry in the Ugliest Dress Ever category was particularly notable, as it signified a return to the über-polished Sam box that the judges have tried to push her out of. Granted, she brought this runway from home, so any personal growth she’s experienced in the competition wouldn’t change that. Still, she’s a seamstress: I’d have whipped up an actually ugly look in the werk room if I were her. The judges likely would’ve been endeared to the fact that she knew she had to change it!
As I said in Lana’s write-up, there’s not really a fair explanation for Sam’s survival this week beyond looking at how she’s done so far. I’d compare Sam’s performance this week to Sapphira Cristál’s in last season’s makeover challenge: a dominant frontrunner has an off day at the worst possible time. Do I think she’s going to miss out on the finale? No, I still think it’s likely Jewels Sparkles who falls short. But I do think that after weeks of feeling neck-and-neck with Onya Nurve, Sam let her rival sprint ahead in the race this week—and there may be no catching up.
4. Jewels Sparkles (last week: 5)
Jewels’ track record does not exactly look like I thought it would at season’s start. She spent most of the season scoring safe, then got some momentum with two top placements before finally winning the Betsey Johnson challenge. Since then, though, she’s been bad-to-middling in every challenge. She remains a major character in the edit, so it’s possible she’s a finalist … but I don’t know. Everyone left is a major character! Someone’s elimination is going to feel like their journey being cut short, and at this point, there’s more evidence in her report card that Jewels could be the one leaving pre-finale than anyone else. (I should note I’m assuming a final four here, but with two episodes left, we could see two more eliminations to a Season 16-like final three—at which point I would consider Jewels’ chances of getting there very poor.)
I don’t know if I want to go to bat for Jewels and Suzie Toot, considering their performances did have issues: Jewels stumbled over her words, and Suzie wasn’t expressive enough during her dance. But I just hated the judges’ other critiques of them so much. What does it mean that their performance wasn’t drag enough? Why is earnestness bad in a challenge that was explicitly framed as being about storytelling with “humour and heart”? I don’t mind the ultimate result of who won this week, but I think it took adjusting the challenge criteria on the fly to justify this team’s critiques—and unfortunately, that keeps Jewels’ momentum in the competition on pause.
3. Suzie Toot (last week: 3)
I feel the best I have in weeks about Suzie making it to the finale. Weird elements of her edit linger: the show spent a lot of time with Onya and Lexi Love as they talked about how Suzie has lost her sense of fun in the competition. But Suzie has been solid all season long. She’s never so much as dipped below safe, while queens like Jewels and Sam are out here landing ill-timed bottom two placements. I can’t say with any amount of confidence that Sam is going to make the finale and not also bet on Suzie. It helps that, despite being Ru’s dreaded theatre queen archetype, the host seems as interested in her as ever.
I think ultimately, despite my quibbles with their judging, I’m fine with this team being safe because of Suzie’s performance. Her story was nice, but it kinda gave Ginger Minj’s “red shoes” story from the All Stars 6 version of this challenge. Am I saying the story was fake? Not entirely, but it was all just a bit too pat. If Lana’s story was too broad, Suzie’s was actually too specific—too “cerebral,” even. She did well with Jewels’ choreography, but her lack of facial expressions made their collective performance less impressive. I think Suzie benefited greatly from the judging being in teams this week: if I had a scorecard and were judging this week individually, Jewels would be among the tops, while I’d be going back and forth on Lana or Suzie in the bottom with Sam. Still, the runway would’ve likely made up my mind: that Christmas dress was genuinely hideous. Incredible find on Suzie’s part.
2. Lexi Love (last week: 4)
If I were writing this power ranking based solely on this week’s performances, then to paraphrase Fall Out Boy, Lexi would be my #1 with a bullet. She was the clear winner this week, both in her conception and delivery of her own story as well as her interpretation of Onya’s. It’s funny: Lexi chose Onya as her partner because she wanted to be boosted by working with the best, but I actually think Lexi guaranteed their win this week. I’m glad she finally settled into herself once again and trusted her own power, because her performance this week demonstrated the confidence that’s been lacking from Lexi since the start of the season. Her 100-tulle-skirt runway was also a glorious mess, perfect for this category.
I’d like to think Lexi is safe for the finale considering this upswing, although there’s an argument to be made that her storyline is complete and she can go home. Really, the only person I feel 100% confident predicting getting to the end in either a top three or top four scenario is Onya. But if Lexi can keep up what she did this week for the last two, I think she’s got a much better shot than not of making it to the end.
1. Onya Nurve (last week: 1)
She’s going to win. I actually don’t think there’s room for debate left. Sam was Onya’s closest competition, and had a bad week at exactly the wrong time. Lexi started the competition strong and is looking like she’ll end it strong, but there’s a wasteland of safe and low placements in between those victories (plus that absurd, undeserved Snatch Game high). Jewels’ track record will barely get her into the finale. Suzie’s edit has not been one befitting a future winner. Onya has given us dynamic characterization, killer performance (four wins!) and a real sense of who she is on the runway. I just don’t see anyone who has the stuff to mount a real challenge—especially with the amount of time left on the clock. Onya would have to completely collapse in these last two weeks for that to happen.
All of that is to say: I actually didn’t love Onya’s performance this week and personally wouldn’t have given her the win. This is absolutely a point of personal preference, but I like when the Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent Monologues skew heartfelt. Onya’s was a terrific comedy performance, backed up by Lexi really selling the punchlines. In a pure comedy challenge, she absolutely would be my winner. (Although I will note that Onya’s delivery of her own monologue was a bit rushed.) But I like that this challenge calls for both humour and heart. And we’ve seen Onya lead with her heart in other parts of this season, so she’s definitely capable! This just wasn’t my favourite of her winning performances this season.