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 Betsey Johnson as their fashion north star this week, the final nine produce some pretty great looks. But one queen fails to capture her spirit, and is thus eliminated.
9. Kori King (last week: 9)—ELIMINATED
The second Kori turned the corner in a simple pink mini-dress—a badly made one, at that—it was over for her in this competition. Aside from maybe Lana Ja’Rae, I don’t think Kori could’ve landed next to anybody in the bottom two and survived without a truly out-of-this-world lip sync performance. (And Lana has really improved in recent weeks, so I don’t think that was in the realm of possibility.) To her credit, she did well in “Kiss Me Deadly,” but Lydia B Kollins more than matched her prowess. Kori has been a fun character, and I think it’s only a matter of time before we see her back for All Stars—hopefully with a more carefully curated wardrobe. But this feels like the right placement for her in this season.
8. Lydia B Kollins (last week: 7)
We have our Lip Sync Assassin, folks. Lydia has a musicality as a performer that makes her a surprising threat. Every move is precise and passionate, and she can match different genres. It’s a good thing, too, because the lip syncs are Lydia’s best category in the competition by far. It’s not that she’s bad in challenges or as a designer—in fact, I don’t think she should’ve been in the bottom two this week. But she’s increasingly out of her depth as the field has winnowed. I just don’t see a challenge type that I can imagine her winning over everyone else left. She may make it a few more weeks based on her lip sync ability, though! And if there’s a LaLaPaRuZa at season’s end? Watch out: I could see her taking the title of She Done Already Done Had Herses home.
7. Onya Nurve (last week: 2)
I tend to agree with Lydia’s assertion that Onya should’ve been in the bottom over her—and I say that as an Onya stan. Onya’s performance in the design challenges has depreciated over time: she had a real shot of winning the first one, was lucky to score safe in the Ball and now just missed out on having to lip sync for the first time. That’s a remarkably high variance in a single challenge type, and we don’t really see it anymore on Drag Race. Remember last season’s design challenges, and how the top three consistently included some combination of Dawn, Nymphia Wind and Q? I’m not sure why Onya faltered here, but I do think it’s funny that the first time she hasn’t somehow sabotaged one of her fellow queens in a design challenge, she scored low. It’s like she needs to get into some mischief to do well when designing her own garment!
6. Suzie Toot (last week: 4)
At least for the moment, Suzie’s edit has returned to a neutral-leaning-positive one. This makes me feel better about her lasting for most of the rest of the season, although I’m still somewhat skeptical about her spot in the finale—especially with Jewels Sparkles finally clutching a win this week. As far as her design this week, I thought Suzie’s was just okay. It wasn’t offensive, but it was pretty simple. If I wanted to push it, I’d say she deserved the low spot over Lydia. She seemingly psyched herself out of leaning into the flapper aspect of her prompt after Ru shaded it as predictable, and thus she produced something that didn’t feel very Suzie. This should be the last design challenge this season—the max we’ve ever seen is four in Season 3, but most seasons just have two or three—so Suzie may be safe. But if Onya or Lydia had turned out a look at the level of their Monopulance entries, Suzie could’ve been lip syncing for the first time this season.
5. Lana Ja’Rae (last week: 5)
Quietly, Lana has upped her game in a major way. Her performance in the Rusical was one of the best of the episode—I’d have put her in fourth on my own scorecard over Suzie—and her design effort this week was her best yet. What I was particularly impressed by was how fun it felt. Lana’s looks have felt a bit self-consciously Fashion Queen in my book, like she was trying to fit an ideal aesthetic versus wearing things that are right for her. This garment, and particularly the styling, leaned into Lana’s youthfulness and vibrance in a way that made her shine. Onya’s joke in the Reading Challenge about Lana coming on this show to end her career cut deep, and I know she was disappointed by her first few episodes. But she’s hitting her stride at a great time, and I’m excited to see even more from her.
4. Sam Star (last week: 1)
All of the top three did incredibly well this week, but if I have to single out a true winner of this episode, it’s Sam. Not because her look was better than theirs; I thought it was fine, but too on-the-nose for a Betsey look. No, it’s because she was the main character of this episode, and we only usually see that treatment of non-challenge winners when they’re a real threat to go all the way. (See also: Lexi Love’s multiple focus episodes earlier in this season as she was racking up safe placements.) Sam made me laugh out loud multiple times in this episode—“You can call me Notre Damus” and her resulting confusion had me in stitches—and she gave off the feeling that she’s finally, truly settled into herself this week. Dare I say she was reminding me of another pageant diva from the South—maybe one who just won Global All Stars? I think Sam’s got a ways to go to be as iconic as Alyssa Edwards, but I’m very much enjoying this new Sam.
3. Lexi Love (last week: 6)
You could see Lexi’s palpable disappointment upon being told Jewels won this challenge instead of her. Though she wouldn’t have gotten my vote for the win—or even first runner-up, honestly—she did improve on her previous design efforts significantly. I loved her wedding dress, especially the veil element, and her choice to pair the all-white look with a rainbow wig was really genius. In many other design challenges, Lexi would’ve been the rightful victor. But the top two produced masterful work, garments that had incredible construction and detail, and merged their own points-of-view with Betsey Johnson’s most effectively. We’ll see what the fallout of Lexi losing is next week, but at least on the merits of the outfits, I have to agree with Ru’s decision on this one.
2. Arrietty (last week: 8)
As a designer and seamstress, Arrietty is at the top of the pack not just this season, but across all RuPaul’s Drag Race seasons. Her work this week was just breathtaking. She married (pardon the pun) her darker aesthetic with Betsey’s sense of whimsy so beautifully. Doing a groom’s dress was a brilliant take on the category—and the use of one of Betsey’s bows as a bowtie was a masterstroke. Honestly, the more I think about the look, the less convinced I am that Arrietty should’ve lost this week. I will say, the winning garment absolutely screamed Betsey, while you had to examine Arrietty’s look a bit closer to get the inspiration. Still, it was really spectacular stuff. Arrietty may not be the best-equipped when it comes to other Drag Race challenges, but when it comes to design, she’s nearly unparalleled.
1. Jewels Sparkles (last week: 3)
She finally earned her first win! There may be debate about whether it’s too little, too late—the longest any eventual winner of OG Drag Race has waited for a maxi-challenge win was Jinkx Monsoon at five episodes, and this is Jewels’ eighth. But in order to have a chance to win it all, Jewels had to finally clinch a victory, and she did it at a great time to build momentum. I loved what Jewels made this week—it felt so completely her, but also oozed Betsey Johnson. To me, no one captured the spirit of the challenge better while also making a dynamite garment. Major credit to her on the styling, too: going for a sleek, black look helped the colours of her dress pop all the more. As an increasingly big fan of Jewels, I’m thrilled to see her take this victory. May it not be her last in this competition!