‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ season 8 episode 5 recap: ‘Snatch Game of Love’
“RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” season 8 continued on June 2 with the fifth episode streaming on Paramount+. For the first time ever, RuPaul Charles announced a “second way to win” in addition to earning the coveted crown and $200,000 prize given to the traditional winner. One of the eliminated queens will also be named Queen of the Fame Games and earn a $50,000 cash prize.
The queens still in the running at the start of episode 5 were: Alexis Michelle, Heidi N Closet, Jaymes Mansfield, Jessica Wild, Jimbo, Kahanna Montrese, Kandy Muse, and LaLa Ri.
Check out our full recap of episode 5 below to find out what happened when the queens sat down to play “Snatch Game of Love”:
When the girls sat down following Darienne Lake‘s elimination, they counted the lipstick votes to reveal that everyone voted against Darienne except one person, obviously Darienne. Jimbo, having lost the Lip Sync for Your Legacy, revealed that her own lipstick was also a vote to eliminate Darienne. Despite losing the lip sync, Jimbo was the first queen to win two maxi challenges, so that made her the clear frontrunner. Alexis Michelle wondered if that would put a big target on Jimbo’s back and could potentially be a reason someone sends her home if she winds up in the bottom.
When Ru entered the Werk Room the next day it was to announce that for their next maxi challenge the queens would be playing in “Snatch Game of Love.” The goal of the game is to “charm the pants off a Snatchelor” while making the judges laugh in their best celebrity impersonations. As they prepared for the game, we learned that LaLa Ri would portray reality TV star Sukihana and Jessica Wild would be the Puerto Rican icon Iris Chacón. On season 2, Jessica was part of the first ever “Snatch Game” where she portrayed RuPaul herself. Elsewhere in the Werk Room, Jaymes Mansfield planned Jennifer Coolidge for her first ever “Snatch Game” and former challenge winners Alexis and Jimbo prepared Bea Arthur and Shirley Temple, respectively. At this point, Jimbo was already considering Alexis the toughest competition in this challenge.
Later in the day, Ru returned to speak to some of the girls about their ideas. Kahanna Montrese let Ru know she’d be paying homage to her drag mother by playing Coco Montrese. Kahanna said she wanted to channel having fun with Coco and it seemed she’d be emphasizing the moment when Alyssa Edwards called Coco orange. Jimbo told Ru that she’s never been Shirley before and so it’d be a risk to do a new character and Heidi N Closet brought pirate clothes up to Ru’s desk and said she’d be Blackbeard.
In the first round of “Snatch Game of Love,” Heidi as Blackbeard, Jessica as Iris, Kahanna as Coco, and Jaymes as Jennifer competed to win the heart of their Snatchelor, actor Matt Rogers. Heidi started off really strong with a few well-timed jokes about Blackbeard’s peg leg and Jaymes aced the voice and mannerisms of Jennifer. Jessica’s impersonation of Iris was animated enough to make Ru cackle, but Kahanna’s responses as Coco were too short and blunt so the humor in them was completely lost. As the round progressed, Kahanna struggled more and more and Heidi capitalized on it a few times by finding the opportunity to crack a joke at Kahanna’s expense. By the end of the round, Matt declared Jennifer as the Snatchelorette of his choice.
In the second round, Alexis as Bea, Kandy Muse as Renee Graziano, LaLa as Sukihana, and Jimbo as Shirley competed to win over their Snatchelor, actor Bowen Yang. In this group, both Alexis and Jimbo were really strong in their characterizations, but Kandy and LaLa were able to keep up with the pace enough to perform well also. At one point, Jimbo got up and danced across the stage and made a joke that even had Kandy breaking character to laugh. In the end, Bowen chose Shirley as his Snatchelorette
The following day, the queens assembled in the Werk Room to get ready for the runway and to discuss how they thought their “Snatch Game” performances went. Alexis and Jimbo said they had fun playing off of each other, but Kahanna was in her feelings about Heidi throwing her under the bus during the game. Kahanna voiced her concerns to Kandy who added that she heard that Heidi went to Jimbo off camera and said that she should “watch out for Kandy, she’s gunning for you.” Because of a shared feeling of betrayal by Heidi, Kahanna spoke up to Heidi about how she felt antagonized by her. When Heidi was apologizing to Kahanna, Kandy jumped in to add fuel to the fire by asking her why she told Jimbo a lie about her.
Heidi did not hesitate and said she did tell Jimbo that Kandy is gunning for her because Kandy said it. Heidi asked Alexis, who was apparently part of the conversation off camera as well, to corroborate. Alexis nodded her head in agreement at first, but then backtracked as soon as Kandy questioned her about it. Kandy said she did call Jimbo competition, but not that she’d send her home. Eventually, it became a triangle of distrust between Jimbo, Heidi and Kandy who had been in an alliance.
The room eventually got very quiet and Heidi started to feel very isolated. She said to the group, “Let’s just have fun tonight and when it comes down to voting, vote Heidi.” Everyone urged her not to say that, but she added, “It’s coz I do not like what this has become because this has become really ugly and really hideous and I do not like this.” She then got very emotional and said they don’t have to bother voting because she’s going home and walked out of the Werk Room. Kandy went after her to stop her, but Heidi said “I need my peace and my joy” and confirmed that she wanted to leave and won’t regret it. Kandy returned to the group and said, “Yes she’s gone. She left.”
On the Main Stage, Ru was joined this week by Michelle Visage, Ross Mathews and guest judges Matt and Bowen. Before the queens walked in the “RuVeal Yourself” category on the runway, Ru confirmed for the other judges that Heidi did leave the competition and that she would also not be participating in The Fame Games challenges. Following the runway presentations, Ru gave safety to Kandy and LaLa, leaving the other five to hear judges’ critiques.
Michelle appreciated what Jessica did with Iris, but said “there was so much more you could have done.” Ru added that she was excited about the character, but agreed that it didn’t hit the mark. Similarly, Michelle didn’t think Kahanna showed enough with Coco and Bowen said that maybe Coco’s disgruntled personality was too flat of an idea to make work in improv. The judges did really like Kahanna’s sexy runway outfit though. Michelle told Jaymes that she saved the first “Snatch Game” group with a great portal of Jennifer, but countered that she’s doing the same look too frequently on the runway. Ross said that Alexis was perfect as Bea even down to the outfit and Ru called it “marvelous.” Lastly, the judges thought Jimbo as Shirley was “insane” and “wrong in all the best ways.” Bowen said “the concept matches the quality which matches the comedy” and Matt called her the “best physical comedian” the show has ever seen.
Based on the critiques, Ru declared Jimbo the top all-star of the week for the third time. That left Alexis and Jaymes as the other safe queens and Jessica and Kahanna as the bottom two vulnerable to elimination. Later, Jimbo’s Lip Sync Assassin opponent was revealed to be season 14 dancing queen Jasmine Kennedie in a battle to “Hallucinate” by Dua Lipa. Right off the bat, Jimbo almost slipped in her heels and stumbled, but rebounded with a comedic wig toss that revealed a fun rainbow wig. Meanwhile, Jasmine showed exactly why she’s a lip sync threat, moving fluidly across the stage in well-timed acrobatic dance moves and with a rhythm as smooth as silk. At the end, Jimbo congratulated Jasmine by saying, “You f-ing talented bitch.” It was no shock then to hear that Ru agreed and declared Jasmine the winner.
Jasmine’s win meant that the $20,000 tip rolled over to next week and that she’d pull the lipstick of the group vote to determine whether Kahanna or Jessica would be eliminated. Before Jasmine could pull the lipstick out though, Ru said she “made the difficult decision” to “remain blonde” and that no one is going home!
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