RuPaul’s Drag Race Season-Finale Recap: All Hail
In my conversations with Drag Race watchers over the last few weeks, I’ve found myself playing a shifting role. Depending on whether the person I’m talking to is a staunch supporter of Sapphira or Nymphia (nobody seemed to believe Plane had a shot, and we were all correct), I’ve found myself taking the opposite side. They believed Sapphira should win? I felt compelled to point out that, despite Sapphira’s ability to do almost anything competently, Nymphia’s facility with fashion is maybe the greatest of all time, and she represented a completely new perspective for the show. She’s the most innovative queen of the season, I’d say, and that Washington Post profile showed why she’s specifically made for this moment. Yet, if the person I talked to supported Nymphia, I’d feel the need to mount an argument in defense of Sapphira. She is the most polished queen of the bunch, is my argument, and she’s by far the most equipped for the kind of large-scale press opportunities that a Drag Race winner is expected to do, especially in an election year. It’s no mistake that she was honored by the City Council of Philadelphia — Sapphira is both a world-class drag queen and one who knows how to play to a large set of different audiences.
What I’m trying to say here is that, walking into this episode, both Nymphia and Sapphira were deserving winners. I locked my prediction in at a 70 percent chance Sapphira won and a 30 percent chance they went for Nymphia. So they ultimately went with the surprise choice? No complaints here. It’s been a race to the finish line, and Nymphia just barely edged out Sapphira at the end. I see how it happened and I’m happy for her (and her legion of fans).
And she had a pretty killer finale, too. For the first 90 percent episode, it felt like Sapphira entered with a winning hand and was playing all her cards exactly correct. She just felt like the star the entire time. Her song was the best by far, an exciting, funky number about self-empowerment that had me jumping out of my chair. It was seriously next level, and she commanded every centimeter of the stage. I was completely in awe. Her outfits (which I didn’t necessarily love on a… taste level) were the biggest and boldest, and then, during the RuPaul interview portion, she hit exactly the correct balance of poised and emotional. Sapphira came into the finale, did exactly what she needed to do, and nearly walked out a winner. She’s one of the all-time greats not only at drag, but at the act of Drag Race.
And yet, Nymphia is our winner. I see how it happened. For starters, she won that final lip sync. Sapphira is great, don’t get me wrong! But she’s also been forced to lip sync three times this season already — yes, two of those were for doing well, but she didn’t have the surprise factor on her side. Nymphia came equipped with stunts, along with another surprise in her acrobatic lip syncing style. Sapphira does a good, not great, job. She seems a little hampered by the weight of her costume at first, and then by her fake boobs later. Nymphia is a sprightly little scamp, running across the stage and getting everybody (noticeably including the other queens) involved. She outright wins.
While Sapphira’s episode is more polished, Nymphia also has a stellar, if very different, finale. Her number is not as compellingly written as Sapphira’s (I’m still unclear what level of culpability the queens have in creating these), but she performed it perfectly. “Queen of Wind” is not my type of song — a little too Ava Max-y, which to say “personality-less” for me — but she dances hard and looks stunning. Her looks are, no surprise, by far the best of the night. The final banana look is a stunner, and her pre-reveal performance outfit is gorgeous, probably my fave of the night. And, while Sapphira’s interview section is defined by poise, Nymphia’s is defined by true vulnerability. While Sapphira has been extremely open all season, there’s never been a moment where she seemed not in control of her own emotions. In the past two episodes, it’s become clear that Nymphia’s vulnerability is one of her great strengths in the competition. She’s able to be extremely real, to pull at your heartstrings, and to make you care about her as a person.
I suppose I should talk about Plane’s episode as well. I’ll say this: she’s extremely talented, she was the main character of the season, and she did a great job performing her number. “Bodysuit” is funny and silly and entertaining all the way through. Her facial expressions in that number, along with how well she hid the reveal, show her to be a world-class queen. Still, no part of me was surprised when she got cut. In the performance, there was a strand of hair getting in her face that was a persistent issue (that kind of detail matters in the finale), but most damning was her inability to take the interview portion seriously. She never fully let her guard down and got serious. Is that a requirement for a good drag queen? Maybe not, but it is a requirement on Drag Race. Taken in combination with her interview from last week, it’s no surprise that she was not Drag Race’s version of America’s Next Drag Superstar.
As an episode, this was a strong finale. Finales on Drag Race tend toward the boring — the giant stage makes them feel epic, but it’s always full of filler. This week is not so much an exception as a streamlining. There are no interviews with the eliminated girls, but given last week’s lip sync smackdown it seems clear that they all got their due. I ended up appreciating the slightly smaller stage, because the final lip sync was the most exciting one we’ve had in ages, and that was in no small part due to the space itself. Often, just two queens can’t fill that size of platform and the final moments of the season end up feeling piddly by comparison. This week, the show kept it moving and I was appreciative. For once, the finale felt tight.
And it all led to the moment when a worthy queen won. Did she eat the season entirely? No. But she is, by my measure, the most exciting queen out of the top three. She’s absolutely a star, and she’ll carry the show well by bringing what she already knew (great fashion, killer lip syncing chops) along with what she learned (how to connect to audiences while speaking). Can’t wait to see what she does with the platform. ALL HAIL QUEEN NYMPHIA!
Untucked
• We don’t recap Drag Race reunions, so I didn’t get to express any opinions on last week’s great, great episode. They are as such: Slay. Great work all around. Morphine vs. Megami was a lip sync for the ages, and Morphine deservedly won. And Megami completely turned around everybody’s opinion on her and took her booking fee sky high. So happy for her.
• Sasha Colby shows up, is likely high as shit, looks super hot, unzips then zips her costume a few times, talks about meeting the Vice President, leaves. I love Sasha Colby.
• Xunami and Sapphira tie for Miss Congeniality, to which I say: Good for them.
• Gay thoughts from gay people: I had to (kindly) bully him into it, but David Haskell, my boss’s boss’s boss and the editor-in-chief of New York Magazine, agreed to be our final Gay Thought for the season. Unsurprisingly, it is insightful: “In her interview with Matt Rogers, Plane reads her fellow queens for the following: ‘For Q, it would be her makeup, for Nymphia it would be her charisma, and for Sapphira it would be her taste.’ Plane is exactly right here — an instant, efficient, brutal, accurate response. Is it also villainous? Isn’t it clear that she respects all three of them? I don’t really understand why everyone seemed to judge her interview a failure, or really, throughout the season, how much of a villain she ever really is? You could tell Plane was deeply offended at how untalented Amanda Tori Meating is at certain elements of drag performance, but I also think it’s clear how impressed Plane is by Sapphira when they’re doing that speakeasy thing. Her critiques have been tough but I can’t remember a single one that was off-base, or even petty! In a weird way, I put her alongside Sapphira as the two most earnest and committed queens of the season.”
• In retrospect, I’d give season 16 four stars, which was what most of the episodes got anyway. Really solid. Should be the model for Drag Race seasons moving forward. Cutting Q and then Plane rather than just letting the finale be between four people is the type of stakes-building that the show needs to be better about. (I shiver thinking of season 14 having a top five.) It’s the best format they’ve had in ages, and the queens were great personalities. I think a little more interpersonal drama (especially on Untucked, dear God was that boring this season) would have catapulted it over the top for me. But still, best season since… 12? For context, I really love 12. Good stuff! Glad to see the old girl’s still got some juice in her.