The Dolls Are The Dolls (RECAP)

RuPaul's Drag Race S16E6 "Welcome to the DollHouse"

Adapt or die, folks!! This week’s episode – a design-meets-branding challenge where the queens must market a doll based on their drag persona – acts as a crucible of sorts for our contestants, many of whom have found themselves stagnating. Formerly unimpeachable front runners (like Nymphia and Sapphira) get caught sweating (in different ways), and our resident mean girl finds herself an assassin without a target. Let’s start with the latter:

Plane Jane has up until now been cosplaying as a Top Gun-style Tomcat fighter jet with her guns trained on Amanda. But with Miss Meating gone, she’s now more like to one of those Boeing 737’s I’m scared to fly because the door might come off. This week, Plane declares she’s beginning her congenial era. “It may be the season of lip filler, but there’s no filler queens here!” She at one point clumsily recites to a profound silence. Turns out being nice might take some work. Her resolve is further tested when Geneva claims the coveted bolt of red fabric Plane is eyeing for the design challenge. She’s left with a less than desirable sparkly seafoam stretch fabric, leaving her with no choice but to wander the Werkroom like a Dickensian orphan begging her fellow queens for scraps. (“Please, sis, may I have a yard?”) She starts with Geneva, but it turns out Plane’s strategy to convince her to swap is to explain to Geneva that she’s actually a bad seamstress who won’t be able to execute her vision. Which, shockingly… doesn’t work! She moves on to a distracted Plasma, where she’s able to snip a few yards away with little resistance, allowing her to (finally) begin constructing her garment. Here’s the thing, watching Plane interact with these girls in the werkroom, I do think there’s validity to a Freudian explanation of her cuntiness. For context, during weekly Mirror Trauma Dump Time™ Plane is seated next to Xunami, where she explains that her Russian father used to berate her with homophobic slurs and take any possessions he deemed effeminate. But the real kicker is her nonchalant attitude describing the whole thing. It’s obvious that harsh, nonconstructive, homophobic criticism is a common part of childrearing in Plane’s homeland (Boston, Massachusetts). And her attitude towards it all (“not blaming” her father) suggests that she’s normalized it in her interactions with others as well. Is this evidence of the beginnings of a spiritually clarifying  journey that will leave Plane in a more healed place? Possibly! Is it an indicator that her bitchiness will not be slowing and will continue into the season’s endgame? More likely!

Also experiencing a minor identity crisis this week: Nymphia Wind. Whether you're judging by the scoreboard or by the Drag Race fandom’s reaction, it’s safe to say Nymphia is the frontrunner of this season. But a large part of her early dominance has been her successful ability to self-produce. Her werkroom persona is the perfectly crafted happy-go-lucky ditz. Completely non-threatening, yet somehow fumbling into wild success. We saw it in the last design challenge, where Nymphia spent the episode flitting about the werkroom, all the while secretly constructing a God-tier garment in her hotel room at night. And we saw it last week in the girl group challenge, where she pretended to be scared of choreography and rapping. In both instances, she came out guns blazing, exceeded our expectations, and won the challenge because of it. But there’s only so many times you can “stumble” into brilliance before your banana-brained personality starts to seem extremely calculated. A quota which Nymphia has now exceeded. For this week, as she attempts to distract Q, writhes around on the floor, and complains to Megami that she’s inspirationless, nobody buys it. “She’s the banana who cried wolf,” Morphine declares. To be clear, Nymphia looks great this week. She’s clearly a talented competitor, and her doll dress puts her solidly among the “high safe.” But this werkroom shtick is just not gonna cut it anymore. The queens are over it and the audience can see through it. In order to translate this early season momentum into an endgame, she needs a new gimmick.

And while we’re on the subject, let’s talk about our other frontrunners: Sapphira, Q and Dawn. Though she’s safe thanks to her handy dandy immunity potion, Sapphira finds herself at a herstoric low point this week. Unfortunately, it seems by guiding Mhi’ya through her entire design process, she left herself with little time to finish her ambitious opera coat. Mothering a bit too close to the sun I fear. The resulting presentation is not bad, but the dress feels unstyled and the absence of the opera coat is certainly felt. She’s buoyed by her comedy and well-honed ability to charm the judging panel even in the lack of polished perfection, but Sapphira is not taking any chances: She downs her immunity potion the first chance she gets. Is this… self-doubt we’re witnessing? From Sapphira? A first time for everything I suppose.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Dawn, who – despite having zero wins under her belt – has an unflappable confidence that is sure to serve her well heading into the mid-season. Every move Dawn makes is just so intentional. Her quirky comedy, her design references, and her ability to shake up her makeup in a way that demonstrates her versatility while maintaining an authenticity to her brand. Every detail accounted for, this is a queen who is determined not to give any cynics on the judges’ panel (*cough* Michelle *cough*) an ounce of ammunition to use against her. This is a studied queen. While the least statistically rewarded of all the frontrunners, Dawn is queen I’m most confident we’ll find in the Top 4.

And of course, our winner… Q! After weeks of silvers, Q finally takes the gold tonight. And it’s a pretty unimpeachable win. Q is one of the best Drag Race seamstresses we’ve seen in years and this garment is proof positive of that fact. It’s a level above the rest, and revelatory of a level of skill and craft the other queens simply don’t possess. Does Q feel like a winner winner? Mm.. Still hard to say, but god bless her for elevating this season’s fashion game so masterfully.

Finally our bottom three queens Plasma, Mhi’ya, and Geneva, who all find themselves quite rudderless. Plasma, despite earning consistent compliments on her makeup, is unable to capture her own brand. Her doll makes reference to “living in the kitchen refrigerator” and being a “glamorous hag,” both which seem bizarrely far removed from her Old Hollywood actress persona and reference pool. Mhi’ya, who brands her doll “the Queen of Flips,” makes not one flip in her runway presentation. And Geneva Karr seems to look right past the branding gold mine built right into her name, much to Ru’s chagrin.

A little runway charm goes a long way, so Plasma is spared from the bottom this week, leaving Geneva and Mhi’ya in the bottom two. It’s one of those lip syncs that’s over from the moment you see the chyron across the bottom of the screen (‘Control’ by Janet Jackson.) I have no doubt you could head down to the Palace in Miami any Sunday brunch of the month and see Mhi’ya eating this song up. And, as Dawn points out, Mhi’ya has been pretty under the radar most of the competition, so it’s gratifying to finally see her bust out all her tricks. Despite a solid showing from Geneva, Drag Race tends to operate on a “three strikes you’re out” rule, even in more ideal circumstances.

READING RUNDOWN

“Your doll has RuPaul’s legs… you have Danny Devito’s legs.”

“From the neck up? Beauty queen. From the neck down? Horror queen.”

“Coming from you that means so much—”
“It should.”

Motion to add Law Roach as a permanent member of the Drag Race judging panel!!