Sam Star is a darling Southern Belle of the season, hailing from Alabama. As the drag daughter of a legend of the drag pageant scene and a former winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Sam Star has been under great tutelage, and Trinity the Tuck trained her well. Sam Star has brought the polish, poise, and passion necessary for the pageant world to Drag Race. Though some may see it as off-putting, it’s just a facade a pageant queen needs to have.
Her idea of drag is perfection, like the pageant world demands. But perfect isn’t always what the judges want to see on this show. As they have infamously said, they want to see “ugly.” Sam has found a chink in her armor. She’s acknowledged it, and she’s taking the criticism and growing from it. But it’s also exposed that sweet but sinister side. So, what does a drag pageant background have to do with anything? Perhaps the most fascinating part about Sam Star this season is her charm. And her charm, to some, may seem mean, but she’s just being a pageant queen!
Sam Brings the Sass on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’
At the start of the season, there was nothing that Sam Star could do wrong. Then, when she found herself at the bottom during the acting challenge, a new side seeped out. In confessionals, she brings sassy with a smile. She is unafraid to read another queen to filth behind their back. But she’s also found the strength to say it to their face, as she did with Suzie Toot and her Snatch Game performance. She did it again when Arrietty called her out about taking an easy part in the Rusical. In that instance, Sam pushed back and asked why she didn’t take it. It resulted in silence. Why? Because Sam knew the truth, and she was not going to let anyone bring her down. Then, in the latest Untucked, through some fun banter, she found the strength to pay homage to Megami’s talent show from Season 16, where she proudly hailed that she thought both Lydia B. Kollins and Kori King should both be sent home together. It was a hilarious moment, but from an outsider looking in, it could veer into cruel. Upon earning her second win, she gives a speech in the Werk Room, to which the other queens ask to cue the music as they know a pageant moment is before them. When Arrietty tries to shut her up, that evil pageant queen emerges. Hilarious to everyone but the one on the receiving end.
Never is what Sam does calculated or mean. It’s just how someone from the pageant system is trained to compete. You go for it, and you never back down. She has the charming “Bless your heart,” but will not be pushed, or the claws will come out. Sam has never shied away from kindly putting a queen in their place because she knows the truth. Perhaps in the outside world, Sam should pass on the banter, but this is RuPaul’s Drag Race. The cameras are rolling. You can’t be on television if you don’t make television!
Can Sam Star Rewrite the Past on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race?’
So why is this all important? Other pageant queens have competed on Drag Race before, yes, but none quite like Sam Star. None of them have veered into “villain” territory. While Sam Star isn’t a villain, some of the fandom wrongly thinks she is. Drag Race may be seen as the world’s biggest drag pageant, so having that mindset is important for Sam. Sam excels in the performance categories, earning high marks from the judges. She is scoring high in the unofficial “question and answer” when she’s face to face with the judges. She knows that every move she makes is being observed. For Sam to walk away with the season’s crown, she has to learn from the past and change her future.
Crystal Envy, her direct competitor this season, was eliminated for not “letting loose” and breaking free from her pageant persona. Sam must understand that strategy might knock her out as well. Additionally, Sam doesn’t have to be Miss Congenial to win, just authentic. She does have her congenial moments when she helps her bestie Lexi Love with her Betsey Johnson runaway. It’s a sweet moment that only a kind-hearted queen might do. Though, she later says that she struggled and was conflicted about helping the girls or throwing pearls on the stage. Funny, yet diabolical. Her drag mother, Trinity, fell into an antagonistic trap during Season 9. Like Sam, they were sharp-witted pageant queens, but Trinity is viewed as a villain. It took Trinity a stint on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars to finally earn a crown. Sam must continue to not be that persona her mother was and use her pageant demeanor and southern charm to win over the hearts of the judges. It’s nearly impossible to not adore Sam Star. Her marriage of pageantry and reality TV is becoming a potential winning recipe as long as she stays on the right path. I promise you, the sass isn’t mean. She will charm the pants off of you.