RuPaul’s Drag Race Recap: Sew What

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This week’s episode of Drag Race featured its annual ‘charm episode’ – a term I’ve borrowed from musical theater. In musicals, a ‘charm song’ is a mid-show number that doesn’t move the plot forward, but simply lets the audience connect with the characters and the show itself. A good example currently on Broadway is the baseball number, ‘What a Game,’ from Ragtime. It’s a fun, lighthearted moment that reinforces the show’s themes without advancing the story. For a classic instance, consider ‘Those Magic Changes’ from Grease, which primarily establishes the show’s setting and allows the audience to get to know the characters.

Over the past few seasons, RuPaul’s Drag Race has occasionally skipped an elimination in one episode per year. This happens when the queens perform exceptionally well, when the bottom two contestants are strong players the show wants to keep around, or simply when the energy of the week doesn’t feel right for a elimination. This practice began with a makeover challenge in season 12, but the current format – avoiding elimination through a top-two lip sync – started with the “Daytona Winds” episode in season 14. Seasons 16 and 17 also featured episodes where no one was eliminated, focusing instead on challenges. These episodes tend to showcase the cast’s camaraderie and make them more likable to viewers. By not having to worry about an elimination, the show can highlight the fun and friendships the queens share behind the scenes, giving audiences a chance to connect with them.

This week’s episode really highlights the show’s tendency to focus on the queens’ personalities. For the first time, they used this approach during a sewing challenge, which meant there wasn’t a pressing deadline. As a result, we got a lot of footage of the queens just hanging out in the Werk Room – they were a little silly, reminisced about the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow,” and even started a minor debate over safety pins. It was all very entertaining.

The challenges are meant to be enjoyable and test our knowledge of the cast. The episode starts with a reading challenge that goes reasonably well. Juicy struggles, but it seems to be more about how she presented the material than the quality of the jokes themselves—they weren’t great, but similar jokes often get laughs with better delivery. Myki ultimately wins, though Jane could easily have taken the top spot.

The promo hinted at a returning queen, but it was actually the eliminated contestants’ suitcases that came back! Before the show started, all the queens were asked to bring a suitcase full of fabric. Now, the remaining queens have to create an outfit using the materials from a previously eliminated queen’s suitcase. Some queens anticipated they wouldn’t be able to use their own suitcases, so they packed tricky surprises inside for the others, making this challenge particularly interesting.

Instead of going through the episode in order, let’s quickly check in with each queen and see how they’re doing in the competition.

Jane Don’t is performing incredibly well – she’s consistently been among the top competitors throughout the nine challenges, which is amazing. However, it’s becoming hard to connect with her journey because her biggest challenges seem to be about how her success affects the other contestants. While she’s entertaining and has a great personality, her “struggles” feel a bit frustrating. This episode especially felt like the editors were pushing her as the likely winner. A lot of this focus came from the extra difficulty she faced after receiving Ciara Myst’s box – Ciara deliberately gave her unusable fabric scraps, forcing Jane to create the material for her dress from nothing. This presented a real, tangible challenge for Jane, moving away from storylines focused solely on her internal thoughts.

Beyond that challenge, Jane also gets to present a segment on the song “Boom Boom Pow” and share her love for the Black Eyed Peas. She playfully narrates a bit about accidentally calling Ciara “Crystal,” joking about an imaginary fifteenth queen. Her runway look is surprisingly well-constructed, considering it’s made from leftover materials. While I think it deserved to be in the top looks, and I didn’t love the bright orange wig, overall it was a strong performance. She’s truly a talented competitor on Drag Race.

I’m so thrilled to see Kenya doing well! After a couple of really rough weeks with the design challenges, she absolutely killed it this week. It’s amazing to see her create something as stunning as her original entrance look – and she made it herself! She’s really been on a roll, landing in the top two for two weeks straight, especially after that surprising save over Mia Starr. I don’t know if this means she’ll make it all the way to the finale, but I definitely think she’s going to stick around longer than people expect. The key for Kenya is really showing her personality in her work, and this week she finally did it. The look she created was just full of her natural charisma and the judges clearly loved it. Now I’m just wondering if she can bring that same energy to challenges that require writing or when she’s working on makeovers. That’s what I’ll be watching for next!

The next group of queens are strong contenders who could potentially challenge Jane, but they need to step up their game. I’m particularly impressed with Myki Meeks, who has quickly become my favorite queen this season. She didn’t initially grab my attention, but her comedic talent has really won me over. While Jane excels at traditional Drag Race humor, Myki feels like a genuinely funny person creatively applying her ideas to the show – it’s a different approach. However, she needs to start winning consistently to have a real shot at the crown, and it wasn’t a great sign that she wasn’t featured much in this episode. During the challenge, she created a decent après-ski look, cleverly using Briar Blush’s style to her advantage. It was good, but clearly not her strongest area. Fortunately, next week’s challenge is comedy-based, which will play to her strengths.

Nini Coco is a talented seamstress, but she didn’t quite stand out this week. I enjoy a lot about her personality, but she often seems a little too naive on the show. She struggles with the competitive side of things, and her indecisiveness is starting to become frustrating. While her creations are consistently good quality, I don’t really connect with her as a performer. It feels like she’s not enjoying herself, and that comes across. Her Snatch Game win feels less impressive now, but I’d love to see her relax and have more fun. That being said, her final design was really beautiful – the sleeves were gorgeous, and the orange bodysuit gave it a fresh, youthful vibe.

Darlene Mitchell is a consistently charming presence, and it’s clear she’s genuinely enjoying the competition. She’s incredibly likable because she approaches everything with a positive attitude and focuses on doing her best without putting too much pressure on herself – which makes her fun to watch. However, I’m starting to feel like her consistent, laid-back approach might be holding her back. I really want to see her push herself a bit further to succeed. Her fashion sense is on point – a cool mix of chic and edgy, which suits her perfectly. She’s also the most talented makeup artist in the competition, consistently delivering impressive transformations. Her bold, rusty mullet was a standout choice with her black and white look, and the segment where the other contestants tried it on was a highlight. Ultimately, I’m rooting for Darlene and want to see her shine!

This week, Juicy and Discord are at the bottom. Juicy is only avoiding the very lowest spot because it’s been a generally strong week, but her shoe choices are consistently awful. Honestly, they’re just not good. I’m really starting to worry about Juicy’s performance. She seems very insecure and, despite winning an early comedy challenge, is likely to remain that way. Being the youngest contestant by five years is clearly impacting her stage presence. I genuinely like her – she’s a kind and talented queen – but I don’t want to see her in the lip-sync for your life multiple times this season. She doesn’t really stand out even in the behind-the-scenes moments, except when she plays a somewhat unconvincing silly character during the ‘Crystal’ challenge. It’s hard to see how her journey will progress unless she shows more of her personality. However, aside from those shoes, her outfit was fantastic and perfectly suited the Miami theme.

Discord has really been a standout this season, surprisingly not because of her performance – though she did better than expected on Snatch Game – but because of her personality. She’s genuinely likable. While Jane poked fun at the runway walk lesson, I think that storyline will be one of the most memorable parts of the season, and in a good way. Ru’s thumbs-up to her during that moment was hilarious. As for the safety pins, the rule is ridiculous. They completely saved her outfit, even though it wasn’t one I particularly loved. I just don’t enjoy clothes that are ripped or deconstructed. It’s no surprise the other queens told Ru she should be eliminated – I would have too! The safety pins were the entire focus of the challenge. Hopefully, we’ll see how it all plays out in next week’s episode.

In the end, Ru decided to have a top two showdown, with Jane and Kenya battling it out to Patti LaBelle’s “Feels Like Another One.” Kenya really threw herself into the performance, but Jane was more focused and hit all the right cues. While I found myself watching Kenya more, Jane was technically much better. Jane ultimately won the lip sync, earning her a third challenge victory. Honestly, I think this was a bit of a misstep. Jane is talented, but I was hoping for more of a competitive challenge from someone in a season with so many strong queens. Hopefully, we’ll see someone step up and really fight for the win going forward.

And also on Untucked …

The show clearly centers around Discord after Briar’s departure, but there isn’t much conflict surrounding it. I was expecting more dramatic tension, and overall, the season feels lacking in drama since Briar left.

I’m wondering if this sewing competition means there won’t be a formal ball after all. Honestly, I’m starting to think the second challenge should have been the ball instead of the team-up challenge. I didn’t realize we’d only have one of those events. Perhaps they’ll bring back the ball as the final challenge for the top four or five contestants.

The short audio clips they use for each returning contestant are hilarious. I especially love Athena’s line, “I own the moon cuz I like the shine!”

This week’s competition is really heating up! Kate Bush is incredibly talented and delivered a flawlessly professional performance, especially during the comedy challenge. However, giving the win to a third UK contestant in a row might seem contrived. Gawdland relies heavily on her vibrant personality and stunning looks, which is working for her. Fontana is starting to become tiresome with her constant need for reassurance. Naomy has potential but lacks refinement, while Mariah is polished but needs more substance. I predict Naomy will be eliminated next, but I’m happy she got to showcase her look on the runway this week. Overall, it will be interesting to see how the rest of the season unfolds.

I loved seeing Myki Meeks on Drew Barrymore – it was a fantastic moment and exactly the type of performance that could win the competition. It really highlights why some people are starting to question whether Nini’s previous win still holds up.

I’m pretty confident Jane, Myki, and Nini will make the top four. Kenya had a chance to join them with a win this week, but since that didn’t happen, I’m guessing it’ll be Darlene. If Darlene does make it, I think the show should have a challenge to narrow it down to the final three.

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2026-03-07 07:56