‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ recap: The messy feud between Suzie Toot and Lexi Love continues in ‘Ross Mathews vs. The Ducks’
Last week in Episode 10 of RuPaul's Drag Race, Arrietty took her leave from the chismosas corner out of anger toward her bestie Jewels Sparkles for seemingly taking a dig at her when deciding on the running order for the first ever "Villains Roast." As fate would have it, the two former besties were pitted against each other in the Lip Sync for Your Life as the bottom two. Jewels defeated Arrietty in that battle, sending the elf queen home for the second time, but without a Badonka Dunk tank to save her this time.
This week, the top seven put their acting chops to the test playing interpretations of viral stars in the Truman Capote spoof drama "Ross Mathews vs. the Ducks." Star of the hot new series, Ross Mathews, takes a seat on the dais alongside RuPaul Charles, Michelle Visage, and special guest Sam Smith as judges for the premiere and to critique the queens in the "Black and White Ball" runway category.
Read on for our recap of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17, Episode 11, titled "Ross Mathews vs. the Ducks," which aired Friday, March 14 on MTV. The contestants still in the running to be named "America's Next Drag Superstar" at the start of the episode were: Jewels Sparkles, Lana Ja'Rae, Lexi Love, Lydia B Kollins, Onya Nurve, Sam Star, and Suzie Toot.
SEE ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ winners list: Every season, plus ‘All Stars’
"You all spend a lot of time alone, don't you?" — RuPaul Charles
For this week's maxi challenge, Ru wanted the queens to "act up a storm" in a primetime limited series spoof where they'd play contemporary socialites called "The Ducks" inspired by "today's most viral vixens." To bring some Hollywood swag to the set, frequent Ryan Murphy collaborator Cheyenne Jackson served as director. When it came to choosing their roles, most of the queens got their first choice, but once again Suzie had to fight for the standout character of her choice. Both her and Jewels wanted the character Chicago inspired by Tiffany "New York" Pollard with a "big monologue at the end." Suzie argued that she can "go to town on monologues" because they're her favorite thing, but even though her sisters acknowledged that Suzie didn't get the part she wanted in the Rusical (Jewels got it) that they still didn't want her to get the role this time either. Suzie quickly realized she was "fighting a losing battle" and willingly gave up Chicago and took the role of Felicity instead.
Suzie's character of Felicity Slanderpump was a scene partner to the character Lexi chose, Lisa Rimmer, in a play on some of the biggest fights from The Real Housewives franchise. Lana and Onya worked together for their scene as up and coming rapper Big Fupa (Onya) and her past-her-prime mother Drippy Q (Lana). Lydia chose Dr. Scattington which meant she was paired with Sam's character Shonda Cox, a Southern woman who finds out her husband is having an affair with his proctologist. Jewels was set to deliver a monologue at the end, giving her the moment she was looking for to reclaim a spot at the top after being in the bottom last week.
"The prostate wants what it wants... so really chew on that" — Cheyenne Jackson
While filming on set with Cheyenne, Lana and Lydia showed improvement from past acting challenges that got the best of them. Everyone could tell that they had taken steps up in confidence, but only Lana was responsive to notes from Cheyenne and Ross while Lydia missed the marks asked of her a few times, specifically when it came to the funniest line of the script, "The prostate wants what it wants."
Having been thrown off by Suzie in the past, Lexi knew that she might have bit off more than she could chew by placing herself in a scene next to Suzie. Once again her nerves got the best of her and she struggled to get her line delivery out correctly. The queen that didn't expect to stumble through her script was Jewels, but Sam pointed out that it must have hurt Jewels to know the New York monologue that inspired her script so well because it just confused her with the slight changes to the Chicago monologue she was meant to deliver.
As clunky as their rehearsal was and with as many takes of their scenes as needed, the end result of "Ross Mathews vs. the Ducks" was quite impressive. Lana held her own when it was just her character, but Onya's intensity overpowered her and sucked all the air out of the room for herself. In the second scene, Sam embodied the wealthy Southern woman down to the bone and brought levels while Lydia stayed in the middle level throughout. Lexi and Suzie's scene was the most effective because both girls fed off the energy of the other, creating an interaction that served both of them very well. In the closing scene, Jewels had the biggest opportunity to shine, but chopped up the monologue in a robotic way that lessened the overall impact.
"I loved every line she uttered... except for her hairline" — Ross Mathews
After delivering critiques to all seven queens, dividing the group between those receiving positive affirmations (Onya, Sam, Suzie, and Lexi) and negative criticism (Lana, Lydia, and Jewels), Ru asked the age old question, "Who should go home tonight and why?" Unlike in past seasons where the girls were afraid of driving a wedge between themselves and another girl, the Season 17 queens were eager to give Ru their thoughts. Lana, Sam, Lexi and Jewels all named Suzie as the one they'd like to see eliminated, mostly because they it as a chance to get a competitor out. Onya said Lydia is the "weaker one" so she should go. Lydia went tit for tat and named Onya, but qualified that it's because she sees Onya as her biggest competition. Suzie said that "track record matters a lot" and so she named Lana.
Upon further deliberation, Ru did not listen to the queens at all and name Suzie as one of the safe queens along with Lexi. The overall winner was declared to be Onya for her "powerhouse" scene-stealing performance. Jewels was saved from the bottom three for a runway look that the judges think is a series herstory best, which left Lana and Lydia as the bottom two. During their Lip Sync for Your Life to Sam's recent hit "Unholy," Lydia made the most of her slim-fit gown by shuffling across the stage in a humorous and rather endearing way, but then she took a major risk by pulling a trick out of her sleeve (literally). In order to free herself from the constraints of her gown, Lydia took out a pair of scissors to cut the dress, but she got caught up and tripped to the floor while Sam and the other judges looked on in horror from the dais. Despite the big risk, Ru couldn't offer Lydia the reward of a "shantay you stay" and had no choice but to ask her to "sashay away."
Next time on Drag Race...
Ru casts the girls in "The Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent Monologues."
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