‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 17, Episode 5 Recap: Live From The Werk Room …

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While I stand by my assessment that RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17’s split premiere was not a strong start, the episodes that have aired since are a good reminder that you simply can’t judge a season by its premiere. (See also: All Stars 6.) Both the “Monopulence” design challenge and last week’s celebration of iconic Drag Race moments made for terrific episodes, and the train keeps on rolling for this week’s comedy challenge. Though you might roll your eyes at the return of RDR Live—I sure did—the episode defies expectations and becomes the latest wildly entertaining installment of the season.

Immediately after the challenge is announced (Ru saying it’s back by popular demand, which I raise my eyebrow at), we get a couple of storylines teed up for us. Hormona Lisa, who did so poorly with her stand-up routine in the premiere that she was technically eliminated for it—thank you, Badonkadunk Tank Sponsored by Las Vegas—is seeking Rudemption for her comedy chops. Meanwhile, Lydia B Kollins seems to lack comedy chops entirely. She is very worried about being able to survive this challenge, whereas I am worried for her longevity on RuPaul’s Drag Race entirely. It’s not like this’ll be the only comedy challenge of the season! What’re you gonna do for Snatch Game, Lyds?

We leap right into role division, and while things are mostly copacetic (Suzie Toot gets the role she craves, while no one is fighting Onya Nurve for the host role after what happened to Mirage), there are a couple of disputes. Crystal Envy wants a ditzy blonde part because she tells us that’s who she is. While we’ve seen her wear blonde, I wouldn’t say we’ve gotten much of a sense of her personality as a drag character—but I digress! Lana Ja’Rae says it would be more unexpected for her to play the part, and in a bit of a surprise, Sam Star speaks up to back Lana up. I had gotten the feeling that Crystal and Sam were close, but perhaps Sam’s only true ally is the desire to put on the best damn show.

Meanwhile, Hormona Lisa and Lydia are both fighting for the same, Golden Girls-inspired character. Hormona knows it’s the role she needs for her big comeback, while Lydia really wants it for … some unknown reason. Honestly, I don’t get it, and neither does Lydia’s erstwhile lover Kori King. It should be a cut-and-dried case for Hormona to keep the part, but Lydia guilts her, and Hormona gives it up. Spoiler alert: she shouldn’t have, but mostly for Lydia’s sake.

Almost immediately after the queens break out into their sketch subgroups, we can tell Suzie is either going to soar or sink in this episode. She goes on at length about her knowledge of sketch comedy while working with Crystal and Lexi Love, a “Weekend Update” fan, on the fake news segment of RDR Live. Lexi is put off by Suzie shooting down all of her ideas, and considering how favourable Lexi’s edit has been so far, I thought that perhaps Suzie was being set up for a downfall. It wouldn’t be until the sketch itself that the results would become clear.

If she did falter, though, Suzie wouldn’t be the only frontrunner doing so this week. In the podcast sketch group, Sam opts to adopt a deep “lesbian voice,” which her scene partner Jewels Sparkles correctly describes as “a bold choice.” Also not a good one! Sam really misses the mark here by not leaning into her Southern drawl, particularly with Hormona to play off of. If you’re going to make a different vocal choice, it needs to have some real comedic purpose, as Jewels’ choice to adopt an Australian accent does. (“Beaver” really does sound funnier in an Aussie accent.)

We’re thrown into RDR Live after the commercial break, starting with a Neanderthal City Council sketch. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, with Arrietty trying so hard not to fade into the background that she goes with an overly broad performance that makes no sense with her conservative character. Kori adopts a nonsensical-but-funny New Yorker accent to better results, while Lana does a solid job in the role she fought for. The stand-out is Onya, who is a natural in this kind of comic sketch. Again, she’s just got an incredibly watchable quality that is making her a real force in this competition.

After an abbreviated credits sequence (why not remake the full credits like in All Stars 8’s version of RDR Live?), we see Onya take a crack at the opening monologue. This is, of course, the scene that took out Mirage last season. Credit to Onya: she does the best she can with it, but the writing is god-awful. Drag Race challenge writing has improved over the years, but this is stilted, forced and uninteresting. Even someone as talented as Onya can’t make it much better than just okay; her performance in the cold open sketch is much better.

There are some good lines in the beaver aficionado podcast recording sketch (“from the k.d. lang Wildlife Foundation” cracks me up), and both Hormona and Jewels do well in it. Honestly, I think Jewels is best-in-show, but I’m inclined to grade Hormona on a curve because she mostly exchanges dialogue with Sam. Sam is actively bad in this sketch, draining every moment of comedic potential and giving Hormona nothing to play with. It’s no wonder that Hormona gets better the instant she starts to play more with Jewels.

We then get a RuPaul “musical performance” of “Devil Made Me Do It,” and I will once again say that if you’ve seen Ru slightly shimmy to the sound of his own song once, you’ve seen all you need to. I remain amused that Ru has decided later in his career that he loves to get up on the main stage and boogie, but I wouldn’t mind a bit more of a concept.

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The “Queen News Network” segment continues to be hampered by the writers’ decision that it’s hilarious that the two anchors secretly hate each other. Seriously, this has been part of the sketch in every single iteration of RDR Live, starting with Heidi N Closet and LaLa Ri sniping at each other in All Stars 8’s version. Luckily, this version moves past that joke fast, and some of the material is actually solid! Lexi handles it much better than Crystal does: the Jersey girl is pretty stilted in her delivery. They’re both blown out of the water by Suzie, though, who is made for this. Her portrayal of Ru’s old babysitter who actually came up with all of Ru’s catchphrases is hilarious, and in just a couple of minutes, Suzie creates a whole character. It’s by far the best performance of the week.

Finally, we get a Golden Girls-inflected hospital sketch, and the less said about this one, the better. Acacia Forgot once again performs above expectations, but is still just okay. She really benefits from Lydia’s utterly lifeless performance. I don’t know why Lydia fought for this character, because she reads every line in the same flat, bored cadence. She’d have been better off deadpanning it as one of the Queen News Network anchors. This is a decent week for most everyone in the cast, but Lydia turns in the worst performance she’s given all season.

After a mostly cute Tickled Pink runway, we learn that Onya, Hormona and Suzie are our top queens of the week. I get Onya being up there for a genuinely good cold open performance and heroically making her way through the monologue, but I would’ve put Jewels in the top over Hormona—especially considering the runway looks. Hormona’s bubblegum pink gown is exactly what you’d expect from her, while Jewels serves an unusual My Fair Lady look with bell bottoms. It’s surprising and fun, and it really should’ve gotten her into the top three. (The less I think about Onya’s genuinely terrible runway this week, a kind of bodysuit made of pink shoes, the better.)

Quibbling about who the runners-up are feels silly, though, considering Suzie just decimates this week. Not only is she the best in the challenge, she’s also my pick for tops on the runway, in a pink clown getup that feels perfectly Suzie while still continuing to play with her makeup. The fact that she looks perhaps the most beautiful she has while in an even more clownish take on her signature beat shows how much she’s evolving in such a short time. She picks up a second win for her efforts this week, and considering she’s the first to two maxi-challenge victories, I think we simply have to call her our new frontrunner.

Sam has a brush with the bottom two after her bad RDR Live performance, but her showgirl drag seems to save her from having to lip sync. Instead, it’s Arrietty vs. Lydia in the bottom two, and this is where the episode really shifts into high gear. You’d think the former would have this in the bag. She took a big swing in the challenge while Lydia just flat-out bombed, and the judges do like a queen who takes a risk. Plus, she has several of the queens rooting for her. But then we get an incredibly surprising lip sync to Earth, Wind & Fire and The Emotions’ “Boogie Wonderland,” which sees Arrietty indiscriminately pulling out every trick in her bag, while Lydia gives an impressive, controlled performance. It’s a shock to see Lydia out-perform Arrietty, but out-perform she does.

The other queens are gagged when Ru calls Lydia as the winner of the lip sync. I’m not sure if they genuinely think Arrietty performed better (an incorrect take), or if they just didn’t expect their friend to go home so soon. But their reaction makes it all the more intense when Arrietty’s fate is left to the drag gods and the city of Las Vegas, as she pulls another Badonkadunk Tank lever through tears. And what do you know, she gets it right! In retrospect, maybe it was too obvious that “1” and “7” would be the correct levers for Season 17. Or maybe the city of Las Vegas would only sponsor so many free trips to Vegas, and that magic number was five? Or perhaps the theories that this was all rigged from the start are spot-on, and the judges aren’t done with Arrietty’s journey just yet.

Whatever the case, Michelle Visage has survived her final dunk, the other queens are delighted and Arrietty’s back in the game. We’ll see her and the rest of the top 12—god, we’re five weeks in and still at the top 12—next week. Until then!

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