From Kings to Queens: 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Season 10, Episode 10

Hello everyone! Let me just start off with a super quick aside. Yes, I know that Season 10 of RuPaul's Drag Race is more than halfway over. In my defense, I just learned about this platform, so if I would've known about it during the premiere of Season 10, you bet your padded behind I would've started these reviews right out of the gate. You also may be asking yourself "But Parker, there are already dozens and dozens of RuPaul's Drag Race reviews; why do you need to do one too?" To that I say, it's the summertime, I'm really bored, I need a creative outlet to keep me busy and I really love RuPaul's Drag Race. Since there are so many reviews of the show, I definitely do want to thank you, the one who chose to read this for some reason, for taking the time to read my specific ramblings about a show that features men (and gender nonspecific people) dressing up as beautiful glamazon women. I honestly truly appreciate it. Now that that's out of the way, let's get into this week's episode!

After the Non-Elimination

Following last week's amazing lip-sync, the girls return to the workroom and immediately start discussing what just happened. Congratulations are thrown around for Eureka and Kameron Michaels whose double-split (for those new fish who didn't know, Joslyn Fox and Laganja Estranja were the first queens to do this gagworthy stunt in Season 6) kept their silver foxes on life support for another week. That is, until we get to Aquaria.

"You seem really upset about it," Eureka mentions. "I guess I am," Aquaria bluntly replies. Aquaria goes on to explain how she's never liked the double shanties in the past and how she wishes that track record (oh no, that dreaded term!) would've been taken into consideration if there had to be one. "I know I've been kicking ass all f--king competition, and I'm mad I can't go on to the Top 5 now because there's people who've been, no shade, but people who've been skating by..." Now, I know her tone wasn't the most appropriate and she easily could've (and probably should've) kept her mouth shut, but I have to say I admire the fiery ferocity that Aquaria's been exhibiting since The Vixen's elimination. I'm not the type to be boldly confident, so when you have someone like Aquaria who, much like Season 7's Violet Chachki, isn't afraid to admit her success and determination, I can definitely get behind that. Especially when she has the talent to back it up.

However, Asia O'Hara doesn't feel the same (which is equally as valid, we're not about to go attacking people for opinions, Mary). "But that is so narcissistic for you to correlate them two staying further away from the crown..." Asia remarks. After Monét X Change attempts to mediate the conversation, Aquaria closes by saying that she's simply frustrated that she might not have that type of mercy in the upcoming weeks of the competition. The closing narrative that's being set up is this random rivalry between Team New York (which includes Aquaria, Miz Cracker, and Monét X Change) and Team Tennessee (Eureka and Kameron Michaels). Don't ask me where this came from all of a sudden, I have no clue. The editors must've needed some kind of dramatic storyline after The Vixen and her television-gold drama got the axe. Regardless, we'll see how this pans out.

Side note: Monét swinging her pendulous breasts and saying "tiddies" in a high-pitched voice alone in her station is definitely my favorite part of this episode.

The Mini-Challenge & Maxi-Challenge Preparation

After a very mature apology from Aquaria for her frustrations the previous day, the girls are tasked with serving some butch, he-man realness for RuPaul's new body spray "Trade." Kameron absolutely slays this challenge, but hey, what's surprising about that? It's so funny seeing little Kameron who's extremely sweet and soft-spoken portraying such a "bro." Surprisingly this is one of the few times we've seen Kameron shirtless, so all of you thirsty viewers better be sure to lap it up while it's there.

Minus the eyeshadow and eyeliner mustache, Aquaria serves up a character very reminiscent of 90 percent of the guys on my college campus. Precious Monét has a slightly difficult time not queening it up, Eureka completely transforms into Larry the Cable Guy, Miz Cracker gives me some young Steve Buscemi realness, and Asia does that sexy dude, lip biting thing that I wish I could do but literally can't to save my life. Eureka is announced as the winner (which I'm pretty sure was only so that she could utilize the win responsibility) and she is tasked with pairing the queens up with their social media guys for the annual makeover challenge. She pairs Tyler Oakley with Monét, Chester See (ex-beau of Grace Helbig and fellow straight guy #1) with Miz Cracker, Kingsley with Aquaria (an admitted act of sabotage by Eureka), Anthony Padilla (Smosh co-creator and fellow straight guy #2) with Kameron, Raymond Braun (I promise I'm not trying to be mean, but the only one I didn't know) with Asia O'Hara, and Frankie Grande (Ariana Grande's brother) with herself.

Just like every year, we have to get some footage of the queens familiarizing themselves with their makeover partners. It isn't as bad this year since they're not just random people off of the street, but I still don't really like having to get used to new personalities in the workroom. Long story short, Raymond loves Latrice, Anthony and Chester are *gasp* straight, Frankie's extra and wore tight underwear purposely for the cameras, and Kingsley and Tyler have wanted to try full drag but never have. Overall, RuPaul's workroom banter is some of the liveliest we've seen in years, and I'm so glad that she seems to be having so much fun this season. A short runway practice (5's across the board!) and mirror talk later, and it's finally time for the runway.

Runway

Mama Ru comes strutting down the runway in a half-black, half-red gown and introduces this week's guest judges: Lizzo, who was absolutely fabulous with her bedazzled hair, and Miles Heizer, who was about as energetic as Pearl after downing a bottle of NyQuil.

First down the runway were Asia and America O'Hara. Wearing matching coats that looked like they robbed a fierce sample sale at Joann Fabrics, they both served charisma and cohesion. Not my favorite, but not bad by any means.

Eureka and her sister Eufreaka (no, Cynthia Lee Fontaine wasn't invited back for a third season) were next, basically looking like Eureka's feather eleganza from the third episode. While they both looked put together, cohesive, and served a lot of energy, I was slightly disappointed seeing such a similar silhouette from Eureka with a recycled hair loaf to boot.

Aquaria and Capricia Corn suffered from the same problem that Raja and Enigma did in Season 3. Sadly, the stunning runway impact that these queens have just wasn't instilled into their partners. While Aquaria stomps the runway as usual, Capricia is struggling to embody confidence, which comes as a surprise if you know Kingsley's online persona. Their faces were beaten for the gods, but their looks had a rather weak conception. A matching color does not a family resemblance make, girl.

Then, the star of the episode hit the stage. Miz Cookie absolutely dominated the entirety of the runway. She let go of her inhibitions and was flirty, funny, and fun-loving. In my opinion, Miz Cookie's transformation was, hands down, the best of the night. It was truly a transformation, and you could barely even tell that Chester and Cookie were the same person. It was honestly so amazing to see another straight man be completely overtaken by the magic of drag. Miz Cracker was there too, but she played it smart and let Cookie take the spotlight. Decked out in Cracker's signature blond and pink combo (with Cracker wearing a headpiece that gave me Violet Chachki's Hello Kitty eleganza tease), this pairing stole the night. Finally, Cracker is back in the game. Now if only we could get Miz Cookie on Season 12's waiting list along with Season 9's makeover star Wintergreen.

Sadly, it only went downhill from there, folks. Next to the stage were Monét X Change and Short Change, looking like your favorite aunties just hit the town feeling fun and frisky on their way to pick up some wine for their girls' night book club meeting. While the two of them had outstanding chemistry, the overall look just wasn't there.

Finally, Kameron and Kelly Michaels hit the stage in their disco queen realness. Similar to Aquaria, their faces looked great, but the looks just weren't cohesive enough. When they were paired up, I just had a feeling that they were destined for failure. I adore both Kameron and Anthony's personalities. In fact, I find them to be quite similar. However, that was part of their downfall on the runway. Kameron has been criticized in the past for being too quiet and not interjecting enough. Put two of those personalities together for a challenge that is supposed to involve an over the top stage presentation? You see what I mean.

Side note: I'm not even going to waste our time discussing their "RuTube" video. It was super boring and they barely discussed it during the judging. Next.

Judges' Critiques & Lip-Sync

Ultimately, Asia, Eureka, and Cracker were applauded for their transformations. Asia was commended for making a duplicate jacket in such a short time and for really bringing the family resemblance for the challenge. The judges said that they were worried that Eureka and Eufreaka's two "bold flavors" would be too much to handle, but the two of them managed to make something delicious. Finally, Cracker was congratulated for Cookie's stunning transformation and the detail that she put into both looks.

On the other side of things, Aquaria was criticized for leaving Capricia behind in the looks department, and Monét and Kameron were both criticized for lacking a true "family resemblance."

In the end, Miz Cracker was declared the winner, snatching her first win of the season. Monét and Kameron were put into the bottom two and performed to Lizzo's iconic bop, "Good as Hell." While both queens gave good performances overall, I feel that Monét definitely shot herself in the foot by spending so much time walking off stage and returning. I totally understood the play on the song's lyrics, but too much time without your mouth being seen is never good. Kameron gives another solid performance and is declared safe, while Monét is told to sashay away. We're gonna miss you and your sponges sis!

Untucked

As is tradition with the makeover "Untucked" episodes, congratulations and appreciation are given to all of the guests for doing such a great job. Eureka tries to explain her "tacky 90s" aesthetic for the night to no avail, and the "5 minute guy" steals the influencers away so that some drama can (hopefully) happen.

After the influencers leave, Cracker, Monét, and Asia start discussing who they feel is in the bottom while Kameron separates herself to prepare for her inevitable lip-sync. Unlike last week, Kameron seems to be in a better headspace this week. "I may be lip-synching, but I'm not upset with how I performed," Kameron tells Eureka. On the other side of the room, Miz Cracker, confident from her performance, has a lot to say this week. Cracker clocks Eufreaka as having a "scary face" with multiple "proportionizing" problems. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the extent of the drama for the entirety of the episode (God, I miss you, Vixen).

The atmosphere changes to a reflective one where Asia literally gushes over Monét for a solid 2 minutes. Meanwhile, in the smoking area (you have no idea how badly I wanted to say "silver lounge"), Eureka asks Kameron if she thinks that the others are talking about them while their gone. Even though she says no, Eureka starts venting to Kameron (who probably just wants to listen to her damn lip-sync lyrics) about how the other girls second-guess her performances when she does well. Now, I can't really say anything critical about this because I know that I would be doing the exact same thing if I were in that competition. I'm sure that that came across as irritating to some people (heck, anything Eureka does seems to annoy people and I don't know why), but as someone who doesn't like to be confrontational, I need a good venting session every once in a while. Kameron, being the good friend and great listener that she is, lets Eureka get all of her frustrations out, hopefully saving us from another awkward and unnecessary catfight.

As the influencers return to the Untucked area, we get another long, drawn-out portion of appreciation for the queens and the show overall. I don't mean that to come across as shallow, but it just gets slightly repetitive since it happens every year. Following that conversation (which was as long as Cracker's hair at LA DragCon this year), Miz Cookie applauds Eureka for the pairings that she chose. "The way that you paired everyone up, it was so perfect. It just felt like everyone was supposed to be with their person," Cookie states. This then brings up the awkward conversation between Eureka and Capricia (Kingsley) where Eureka admits to giving Capricia to Aquaria in order to make it more difficult for Aquaria (who is being a prepared queen and practicing her lip-sync in the back). Capricia is obviously disappointed by Eureka's act of attempted sabotage, and the episode transitions to the results of the Monét vs. Kameron lip-sync.

Monét has a very sweet departure, as expected. She reads the notes that the other queens left for her, wears a variety of wigs that she definitely should've worn throughout the season, and gives one last Maya Angelou impression. Oh, and of course we couldn't say goodbye to Monét without one last sponge reference!

Closing Thoughts (Episode & Eliminated Queen)

Normally I'm not too fond of the annual makeover episodes that Drag Race includes, but this was definitely one of the better ones overall. Having a group of guys that were all ready and willing to participate was extremely refreshing (looking at you Season 6), and I can honestly say that no one's makeover turned out as a complete disaster. I'm really happy to see Cracker get out of the rut that she was in, and really heartbroken to see Kameron slightly fumbling in the final stretch of the competition. This episode was chockfull of light-hearted fun, more testosterone than usual, and included the discovery of a superstar. I expect to see more Miz Cookie in the next few months, Chester!

As for Monét, I think that she had a great run on this season. While she might've started off a little shaky in the first half, being in the bottom two for episodes four and five, she more than made up for it with her performance in the second half. She had a she-larious Snatch Game with Maya Angelou, a stellar performance in the Cher musical, and was one of the only standouts in the "Breastworld" parody. Her fashion might not always be the most polished, but she always delivers a killer performance with grace, charm, and wit. As Alyssa Edwards would say, she's a lovely fifth alternate!

Be sure to watch Monét's new music video, "Soak It Up (feat. Bob The Drag Queen)" (be warned, while it is sickening, it is a tad NSFW), follow her on Instagram and Twitter, @monetxchange, and buy some of her merchandise at her website, www.monetxchange.com!

Personal Runway Rankings

1. Miz Cracker & Miz Cookie
2. Asia & America O'Hara
3. Eureka & Eufreaka
4. Aquaria & Capricia Corn
5. Kameron & Kelly Michaels
6. Monét X Change & Short Change