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RuPaul's Drag Race S16E10 "Werq the World"

It’s an election year and you know what that means: time for a Drag Race political episode.

While Drag Race political forays typically skew a little earnest and more than a little generic, there’s something spookily predictive about this challenge in particular. Back in season four, Sharon Needles won the “Frock the Vote!” debate challenge; in season eight, Bob the Drag Queen brought herself and Derrick Barry to victory in the “Shady Politics” commercial challenge; and most recently, Jaida Essence Hall won “Choices 2020.” Sensing a pattern? These political episodes have a perfect track record at picking the season’s overall winner. So despite this episode’s glaring (GLARING) flaws, it may just end up being the most impactful and predictive of the season. I have… let’s say “qualms” with the judging this week, so instead let’s see how everyone did in the Official OrangePaulp Ranking:

1. Sapphira Cristal

Ultimately, Sapphira gives the type of performance that this type of political challenge is made to highlight. Sapphira chooses to make her verse (at least in part) a tribute and homage to “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the Black national anthem. After all, what better way to craft an inspiring get-out-the-vote anthem than by honoring one of the most iconic anthems of all?

“And if we lift every voice together, use our power in that groove, we can stand whatever the weather and make them see the truth.”

The lyrics are lovely, the message inspiring, and the performance of it all is impressive indeed. There’s a reason this challenge predicts season winners: it has a way of highlighting the coherence of a queen’s personal brand, especially as it relates to the world around them. Sapphira is a seasoned, thoughtful queen, and (as if we didn’t know it already) this week proves she has the goods to truly take it all the way.

2. Morphine Love Dion

I’m so happy for my girl Morphine this week. She performed great, and looked even better. If I learned one thing this week its that funk is a tough genre to write a rap to. And while this song’s, well, “funky” rhythm ensnared many a queen, Morphine rode the beat with ease. She found a flow that worked for her and stuck to it, all the while perfectly executing choreo on a completely different rhythm. Very impressive.

While she doesn’t quite clinch the win, top two ain’t too shabs! A perfectly timed rev up in momentum for the OrangePaulp Fan Favorite.

3. Plane Jane

Hot take, I suppose, but Plane Jane easily makes into the OrangePaulp Top 3 this episode. Most of the queens last night really struggled to make their lyrics coherent (more on that later…), but not Plane:

“The ignorance is strong so we gotta flex, spreading the love while I’m spreading my legs. Drag it up and fight for what’s right, no great battle can be beaten overnight, so groove to the beat and tell hate to kick rocks, and if you’re at the polls you can catch this box.”

Consistently good use of wordplay, and seamlessly integrating her personal brand (slut)? These other girls could never. The judges hem and haw about Plane looking nervous during her choreography (something I didn’t pick up on) and critique her for giving her immunity to Nymphia as opposed to saving it for herself, but it all rings hollow to me. Once again, sorry to the haters, but Plane Jane did pretty great this week and no amount of narrative framing will convince me otherwise.

4. Q

Q has very little going for her this week. Yet again, she has a real tough time coming up with a verse, and her unsteady stage presence only highlights the simplistic nature of her lyrics.

“We all live in a crazy place, we’re not all the same but we need our space. We all need the right to live, keep my man, and save the kids.”

There’s no denying Q’s talent at a sewing machine, but when she steps out from behind it in a performance-based challenge like this one, the seams of her drag persona begin to rip. Given that the last of the season’s design challenges are likely behind us, Q will need to find a new way to stand out from the pack going forward, or her top four dreams may be cut short.

5. Dawn

Dawn’s arc this episode is one of almost mask-off villainy. Last week we got a taste of Dawn beginning to embrace villain-hood as we watched her “help” Plasma. Many online gave her the benefit of the doubt, assuming she really did want to help her bestie, it’s just that her advice just ended up being misguided... But I’m not so sure. “You know what you could do? This would be so evil…” Dawn whispers to Plane while Nymphia records her verse. “Tell her you’re gonna [give her the immunity potion], but then don’t.” Evil! Nasty! Darksided! And honestly? Genius. Now if only we could put the power of that mind to work revising some of these lyrics:

“We’ve got power, being true to love will always make them cower, write enough laws all while healing up our inner child.”

I’m quite unmoved. Between this week and the Snatch Game, Dawn has, once again, gotten away with murder.

6. Mhi’ya Iman LePaige

“Don’t let them win, let’s keep it going. Martin Luther King, I have a dream!”

^This was judged as a top verse FYI.

7. Nymphia Wind

“Aspire to community. Nymphia for equality. Do not ban my beauty. You better get that power within your flower, you have a seat at the table when you vote yellow.”

Yeah, Nymphia needed that potion bad this week (or at least she would’ve had the entire concept of the immunity potion not been rendered pointless by the end of episode twist). To say her verse is the least dense of all her competitors would be an understatement. And that low word count is not her friend: we can hear every lyric clear as day, much to her detriment. If it wasn’t obvious that Megami ghost wrote every word of Nymphia’s verse before, it certainly is now. Thank god she’s gorgeous!!

Finally, we reveal the twist of the episode: it’s a top two (Morphine and Sapphira) and no one is going home. A Meghan Trainor lip sync capping off a flop episode with no elimination… RuPaul wants us dead and trust she will be using our corpses as biofuel for her nuclear bunker. As you might expect, Morphine does well and Sapphira does even better. If there’s a silver lining to this week’s challenge, it’s that Sapphira at long last has her second win. And an impactful one at that.