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. Last week, we sized up the first half of the cast, but this week, we’re turning our eye to the final seven queens.
7. Hormona Lisa—SAVED
I’m here for Hormona driving the rest of her cast mad this season. While I’m sure it’s not fun to hear at length about how she was hand-picked by RuPaul, the other queens are treating Hormona like she’s committed some grand offense. Her being ranked last by her competitors, then losing the lip sync to Acacia Forgot, then being saved by a 20 percent chance lever pull and given a free trip to Las Vegas for her trouble? Best possible result. That said, Hormona fouling up at comedy basically guarantees she’ll be in trouble on a future comedy challenge, so I have little faith that she’ll be sticking around that long.
6. Lana Ja’Rae
Lana is a stunning queen, and she’s delivering something decidedly different than most of the cast this season. So I’m inclined to root for her! Unfortunately, her talent show performance was a dud. She was just too low-energy throughout, lacking the levels you need for a winning original lip sync performance. The few stunts she pulled out demonstrates that she does have the capability to snatch attention, but all in all, she’s lucky Hormona decided to perform in the same premiere as her. Credit to her for her runway, though, that lacing detail on the back was sexy as hell.
5. Kori King
I appreciate Kori as a character more so than a competitor at this point. Her not-at-all-veiled distaste for Hormona is consistently funny, and she’s got good commentary in the confessional booth. But pulling out one of Monét X Change’s runway looks for her first competitive runway was an ill-advised call, and while her “shake that ice” number was cute, Sam Star was correct in noting that her outfit was falling apart as she performed. I’m here for Kori as a narrative force this season, but I’d like to see her back up her shade with some great drag, too.
4. Sam Star
Clock the disparity between how the queens perceived Sam’s country-fried performance and how Ru and the judges did. Lydia B Kollins ranked Sam last—something that looks like it’ll come back to haunt her, based on the preview for next week’s episode—while Jewels Sparkles explicitly ranked Sam first out of the fear that no one else would. But if you took Ru and the panel’s word for it, Sam might’ve been in the top two. This week, Rate-a-Queen meant Sam wasn’t in the running for the win, but Rate-a-Queen is also coming to an end. Much better for Sam to have Ru’s favour than her fellow queens’ moving forward.
3. Onya Nurve
Onya would’ve easily made the top two were I rating the queens this week. While I liked-didn’t-love her peach cobbler runway—I thought the ass reveal was a bit too late in the presentation for an Is It Cake? category—I did think her number was terrific. It made for a good introduction to Onya herself, and she wisely did something audience-friendly with the dance steps built in. She also just sounded great on the song, confident and bold. Onya’s only been doing drag for a few years, but she’s a star. I think it’s only a matter of time before she snags a win.
2. Crystal Envy
Crystal, more than any other queen on this cast, truly transforms when she gets in drag. She’s gorgeous, and as she demonstrated in her talent show, she can perform with the best of them. I’d be worried about her in a Lip Sync for Your Life situation, because she put up one hell of a fight against Lexi Love to “Alter Ego.” Still, I’m seeing some signs of Crystal not fully thinking through ideas, or having too many and failing to edit. Her runway this week was a perfect example: the Coppertone baby all-grown-up concept was so perfect. Why, then, did she need to also wear airbrushed muscles? Those two ideas had nothing to do with each other, and the judges seemed perplexed. If Crystal can refine her concepts a bit more, she could be a real threat in this competition—but as we’ve seen before, it’s difficult for queens to adjust to runway critiques when they’ve brought a pre-prepared wardrobe. We’ll see.
1. Lexi Love
Superstar. Clear winner this week, and one of the only queens who I feel really has the fire to take this all the way to the end. Her roller-skating number demonstrated talent, yes, but also uniqueness among this crop and tons of nerve. And it takes just one confessional from her to see that she absolutely oozes charisma. She’s the whole package. These young queens better watch out for “grandma,” because she’s already surprised them once. If they don’t wise up, she’s gonna school them all the way to the $200,000 grand prize.