‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ season 14 episode 3 recap: Which queens struggle to juggle three looks in ‘A Pair of Balls’?
In part one and part two of the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 14 premiere, the new set of queens were split into two groups and two queens sashayed away early. After failing to stand out in their talent show performances and their chances to save themselves in lip syncs, Orion Story and Daya Betty became the pork chops of the season.
This week, RuPaul Charles brought all of the girls together for the first time, but kept them in their groups as they strutted the catwalk wearing three different looks two fashion balls. Read below for our recap of episode 3 to find out which queens come out on top this time and whose fashion falls flat in “A Pair of Balls.”
The 12 remaining queens are: Alyssa Hunter, Angeria Paris VanMicheals, Bosco, DeJa Skye, Jasmine Kennedie, Jorgeous, June Jambalaya, Kerri Colby, Kornbread “The Snack” Jeté, Lady Camden, Maddy Morphosis, and Willow Pill.
It wasn’t long after Daya’s elimination that Alicia Keys popped up in the two-way mirror again to alert the part two queens that the part one queens were entering the building for what Kerri deemed the oncoming “royal battle of bad bitchery.” A number of the girls were already aware of one another through past experiences working together or seeing their work online. With the full group together at last it was a quick reminder just how real and fierce the competition will be.
The next morning, Ru dropped by the Werk Room to throw not one, but two wrenches back into the competition. Enter: Orion and Daya! That’s right, Ru was bringing the pork chopped queens back for a second chance and with no caveats — they too would be eligible to take the season-ending crown. But she also warned that the judges would not be saving anyone else this season. Instead, there would be just ONE save and that would be determined “by the gods.” Enter: the pit crew with a display of chocolate bars, only one of which contains a golden ticket that will save a queen from elimination in the chance that she loses a future lip sync. One by one, Ru had each of the queens choose and then sign a chocolate bar to be opened only in the situation where they lose a lip sync.
Twists out of the way, Ru then presented this week’s maxi challenge to the now fuller group of 14 queens. Dividing them once again into their original groups of seven, Ru announced that they’d be walking in two distinct fashion balls in three different looks. The part one queens would show in the Hide n Chic Ball wearing Zebra Print Resort, Leopard Evening Gown Down, and a brand new look made from scratch using animal print fabrics in Wedding Gown Eleganza. The part two queens would then show in the Red, White & Blue Ball wearing Red Hot Resort, Evening Gown Down: All in White, and a brand new look made from scratch using red, white and blue fabrics in Wedding Gown Eleganza.
The main challenge for the queens this week was the creation of their wedding gown looks, requiring the girls to get crafty and show off their sewing skills. The task was one that came easily to some of the queens with real world experience using the sewing machine, like Kornbread’s seamstress DeJa and Jasmine who says she creates her own looks each week she performs in New York City. It came not so naturally to others, like Kerri who accepted a lot of help from Jasmine (fan-girling off the fame of Kerri’s drag mother) and June who was entirely uncomfortable doing anything other than gluing and pinning. Feeling less stress was Daya who had enough time to take Kornbread up on a $1,000 bet that she wouldn’t eat an actual dragonfly they found dead in the Werk Room. Yes, an actual dead dragonfly. And she ate it.
Later in the day, friendships started to solidify around the room. Kornbread noticed that Willow’s mood had changed, and knowing that she struggles with physical ailments, stopped by to encourage her through issues with her hands clamming up. At the makeup mirrors, Angie and Camden realized that they had a friendly affinity for one another, largely supported by their love of each other’s accents and humor. June, on the other hand, wasn’t as friendly with the returning queens and stopped by to let Orion know of her disappointment that they brought her back, but vowing to take her out again if it comes down to it. Also throughout the day, Orion opened up to Daya and others about her mom’s suicide a few years ago and Kornbread had to step away when she was asked about her own relationship to her mother and family that were not supportive of her through her teenage years.
With no mini challenge to sort out this week, Ru kicked off the maxi challenge straight away with judges Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley and “Bling Empire” star Christine Chiu joining her on the main stage. First to walk were the zebra looks from the part one queens, featuring stand out looks from June and Willow in “pedestrian” power lunch outfits and Kerri in a glamorous short dress with hot pink tights and heels. Next was the red hot resort looks from the part two queens with a surprise reveal of lobster claws from Jasmine and a tiny red dress with a strong walk from Jorgeous.
The second looks from the Hide n Chic Ball delivered leopard stand outs from Alyssa in a super high end garment, Willow in a black on black print with gold chains, and June who tripped her way down the runway in too much fabric. The part two queens walked in all white next with Angie shutting the house down in a gorgeous jumpsuit with pristine dress-like overcoat and DeJa in her own wide-legged pantsuit.
The final looks were the wedding gowns from both groups. Highlights included Willow again in a pantsuit with draped back for a rock-esque take on wedding dresses while both Kerri and June displayed their simply-assembled looks that remained messy on the catwalk. Compared to Angie’s perfectly fit red sequin gown and DeJa’s hourglass brocade gown, the Americana girl attempts from Daya and Maddy were not up to par.
After the balls, Ru gave safety to eight queens, leaving Willow, Orion, June, Angie, Jorgeous and Maddy on stage as the tops and bottoms. Willow was the first to learn she was a top of the week, receiving compliments for putting forth showstoppers because of what Christine called “balance” between hard and soft. Willow explained to Ru that her exploration of bad taste is how she arrived at having good taste. Michelle clocked Orion for not showing enough versatility between the three looks and presenting the same character each time. June was complimented for her zebra resort look, but took hits for a lack of attention to detail and for having really messy second and third looks. Carson told Angie that everything she presents is “edited and elevated” and he called her all white look one of his favorite things ever on the series. Jorgeous was on top for knowing how to fit garments to her body and for owning her sexiness even if her interpretation of wedding was very different from everyone else. Maddy fell to the bottom for having looks in all three walks that were just fine, lacking the extra things that would elevate them to exciting drag.
Once Ru consulted further with the other judges, she arrived at the decision that this week’s winner was Willow! In order to narrow the other five down to a bottom two, Ru gave safety to Jorgeous and Angie from the tops, and then to Orion from the bottom. That left June and Maddy in the vulnerable position of having to save themselves with a lip sync to Kylie Minogue’s “I Love It.” Right away, June started stripping away the extra fabric of her gown, leaving just the slip dress. Eventually the dress began to slip down below June’s bra, but instead of owning that, she occupied herself with pulling it up and kicking off her shoes. On the other end of the stage Maddy was performing perfectly well enough to not look like she was falling apart in the way June was and so by the end, Ru had no choice but to ask June to open her chocolate bar to see if she’d be saved or eliminated. In the first unveiling of the chocolate bars, June opened to reveal just chocolate and no golden ticket and so she had to sashay away.
NEXT WEEK: Carson and Michelle direct the queens through “super teasers” of past tense moments from Drag Race herstory and Jennifer Lopez pays a virtual visit to the girls.
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