Congratulations to anyone who has written a book (RECAP)

RuPaul's Drag Race S16E14 "Booked & Blessed"

I kinda love these deeply RuPaul-based challenges. Drag Race was always envisioned as a retracing of Ru’s career footsteps, and there’s nothing the lady loves more than going on a book tour. Plus, being funny on podcasts is probably one of the most important modern day prerequisites to any entertainment career, so best get to practicing now, girls!

SLUE FOOT: EMBRACING ALL OF ME

Sapphira’s whole thing this season has been having more charisma than everyone else in the room, so of course that translates beautifully to being charming a podcast. Her other big thing has been being the shrewdest student of sucking up to RuPaul (complimentary), which she’s also able to expertly deploy this episode. Right off the bat, she names her book “Slue Foot,” referencing the nickname RuPaul has affectionately (I guess…) bestowed upon her. Though in her interview with oomfie Matt Rogers (the Barbara Walters of Brooklyn alt comedy), she admits to being embarrassed by the moniker at first. But after reflection, she was ultimately able to fold it into her larger philosophy of self-love and acceptance. It’s pretty brilliant. That little glimpse into Sapphira’s internal world – and her warm, inviting manner of speaking on it – has the effect of transforming the book title from mere brown-nosing to an earnest encapsulation of her life’s journey. Who’s doing it like her.

BREAKING WIND: THE ART OF LETTING GO

We get a really beautiful glimpse into Nymphia’s psyche this episode as well. In other challenges this season, we’ve seen her default to goofy, whacky characters in an attempt to avoid the nakedness that comes with vulnerability. But for the first time, Nymphia speaks openly about her deep well of insecurity that stems from her perceived inability to adhere to western beauty standards. She’s also speaks on how drag has served as a therapeutic exercise as a means of changing (and accepting) the self. It would be a stretch to say that Nymphia’s charisma is on the same level as Sapphira’s this episode, or that her self-love journey is as complete or codified, but – from a growth perspective – it’s a momentous leap forward. Looking beyond her exquisite runways and performance chops, this is probably the most distilled concentration of winner energy we’ve gotten from Nymphia all season. And for that, she’s awarded a well-deserved third win.

ALPHABET SOUP: SAVOR EVERY BITE

Where Nymphia has a breakthrough, Q seems to be rapidly unraveling. Her sore loser energy, ever present, seems to only be growing and festering as the weeks go by. After the powerpoint challenge, Sapphira bore the brunt of it, but this week it’s Plane who receives her ire. The two are at each other’s throats from the first minutes of the episode, and it continues well into the third act. Q… you know we can see you right? I’ll give anyone the grace of one or two bitch fits, but I’ve gotta draw the line at a month long tirade. Worse still, Q’s negativity never crystalizes into a breakdown or anything resembling catharsis. Instead, it’s constant deluge of unsatisfying snide remarks and passive aggressive jabs. Regardless, she’s determined to even the scoreboard this episode, and attempts to do so with the book title “Alphabet Soup: Savor Every Bite.” And Q actually isn’t bad at tying this (bad) title into her book’s philosophy, or connecting it to a vulnerable anecdote about her relationship with her mother. However, it does little to distract from the fact that her book cover is uglyyyyy, mama! They say never to judge a book by its cover, but I believe the full expression goes: “Never judge a book by its cover, unless the cover looks like shit from butt.” And unfortunately, that is the case here. Most of the judges’ critiques harp upon this indisputable fact, and so her bottom two status is assured.

PLANE CRASH! HOW I WALKED AWAY FROM DISASTER

(Brief side note, I wholeheartedly believe that if Plane had made her cover a picture of her riding a Boeing 767 like a rodeo bull crashing into the World Trade Center she would’ve won. Ok moving on…)

Loathe as I might be to admit it, I think RuPaul’s pop psychology is right on the money with Plane. There’s a real resistance to being vulnerable from her this week (and most weeks.) Cold, icy bitchiness works as a gimmick when you can switch to earnestness on a dime like, say a Bianca del Rio. But Plane’s barbed personality is not as well-honed as those of her cunty predecessors. It’s almost a little uncomfortable to watch Plane so openly read her competitors in a challenge where everyone else pretty clearly got the memo to be sweet and talk about their moms. We’ve gotten glimpses of Plane’s insecurities in the Werk Room as well as this week during critiques, but she’s yet to find a way to distill them into a narrative or life philosophy the way Sapphira and Nymphia have. And so Plane too lands in the bottom with best frenemy Q.

The lip sync this ep is to “Better Be Good to Me” by Tina Turner. Not a ditty I would expect to be in either of these queens’ respective wheelhouses. That said… Plane kinda eats that shit up! We’ve only gotten one other opportunity to see Plane lip sync this season (all the way back in the premiere), so I’d kinda forgotten that she’s no slouch when it comes to performance. She has an ease and familiarity with her body that betrays her years of dance experience. Combine that with titty shaking on beat with the snare drum? Well, Q didn’t stand a chance.

And just like that… our top three is decided! I still think this season is pretty much all wrapped up, but with Nymphia’s win it makes the race that much tighter going into the finale. I can’t wait to see how this turns out 👀