Last week’s episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race uk season six saw the queens group together to pay homage to some of the most iconic British romantic comedies with saw the aforementioned ‘rivals’ paired together yet again. The last episode began with the fallout of the drama between the apparent villain of the season Chanel O’conor and our Welsh sister Marmalade, with our obvious bias aside, the latter absolutely tore the former apart only for them to end up in the same group for the maxi challenge later in the episode. Many people online have discussed the sheer amount of group challenges fairly earlier in the season and personally, I believe this has been purposefully produced to amp up the drama between the Welsh and Scottish queen established the episode prior. While this does inject a degree of tension as the audience is left to wonder if the two performers can put their fight behind them, it also does come across as fairly produced (particularly that moment where Marmalade was shown discussing their drama only for Chanel to creep up behind their former teammate without them knowing) and shows the creative team actively looking for some sort of drama to force into the episodes. One of the most iconic things to come out of this episode however was Kyran Thrax’s rather unique impersonation of British romantic comedy icon Hugh Grant to the point where Kyran was produced multiple personalised cameo messages as this character. The impression had many of the queens in hysterics through the filming process (including acting legend La Voix which obviously takes some doing) and secured Kyran their second win of the season which instantly marks them as a front-runner so far! On the other end of the competition however, we saw the first traditional elimination of the season with the oldest queen to ever compete on Drag Race UK Dita Garbo sadly being told to sashay away. Even though they went home fairly early in the season, it is clear that Dita Garbo is a very talented performer and we strongly recommend that everyone go check out their YouTube channel (available at https://youtube.com/channel/UCoSxPB8UQfiNBGkADI3rK-Q?si=1GY2_nkdxOiuJUbN) and specifically their re-do of their talent performance!
Those who have been following Drag Race UK since its inception will know that the British iteration of the show has become renowned for its girl group musical challenges (with iconic hits such as Break Up Bye-bye, BDE and Don’t Ick My Yum) so when it was announced that the remaining queens of this season would be grouped together to write, record and perform their own original verses to a Halloween inspired track the audience were instantly hooked to see if this batch of queens could match their pre-dissectors. Before we could even get to see the queens take to the stage however it was announced that the guest judge this week is none other than the wonderfully talented, British singer-songwriter Mabel which I thought was the perfect inclusion for this episode as she is clearly knowledgable about music creation and so can provide constructive and knowledgable feedback to the queens on their verses to the brand new track ‘dead or alive.’. On top of this fantastic inclusion, we were also treated to a guest appearance from x-factor alum Alexander Burke who supported the queens while they recorded their verses on the runway. Having these two music legends coaching the queens through the music production process is absolutely amazing as they have experienced this journey numerous times and so are able to provide accurate and helpful hints/tips throughout.
This week’s episode got off to a rather unusual start as we saw the queens being selected by Ru Paul himself (which again hinted at a certain degree of production interference) with Charra Tea, Relesa Slaves, Lill, Kiki Snatch and La Voix being grouped together with the self-selected name of ‘the things.’ I have made very clear in previous reviews my love of the cabaret icon La Voix (having been personally invited to the latest Cardiff show which you can read about at https://rhysreviews.com/2024/04/22/la-voix-red-ambition-production-review/) and so we know they possess an extensive plethora of theatre experience which can only help the live performance elements of the show however, we are also aware that the majority of their performances occur as a solo artist so we were excited to see how she would work as a part of a group. Those who have been following this season, in particular, will be aware that in the opening episode, Kiki Snatch made a point to discuss how they are not only a talented dancer and their talent show demonstrated that they are also a very talented vocalist and so this would be there challenge to do well in (spoiler alert they do this and more) which goes to explain why they went into this challenge with immense amounts of confidence. This conviction was not misplaced as we see the St Lucian queen leading the choreography section of the episode for their group and so the audience was excited to see what the group’s final performance would be and specifically how Kiki would shine. While we were talking about choreography, we were very shocked to see the cabaret icon La Voix not only discuss how but also visibly seen struggling with picking up choreography which is one of the few times this season we see the legend struggle in this competition. However, when it finally came time for the things to take to their stage for their final performance, La Voix clearly got over their struggles as they delivered a highly entertaining performance to the Halloween track. It comes as a surprise to literally no one that La Voix sounded amazing with their signature brilliant vocals but I personally thought the lyrics themselves were very clever. Within their verse, La Voix talked about “running through the night in my sexy sheet” as she was dressed as a ghost in what appeared to be a wonderfully sparkly sheet. This showed that La Voix had not only thought about the musicality of the song but also considered the outfit she was going to be wearing which solidified the fact that she is a very established and talented performer! As previously discussed Kiki went into this challenge with unfazable confidence as this was absolutely not misplaced as she nailed the performance section of the episode as they demonstrated how much of a talented dancer they truly are! Throughout the performance, Kiki pulled out a plethora of drag race staples including splits, cartwheels, dips and even a backwards roll that had the judges totally captivated. On top of this insane, high-energy choreography Kiki also curated wonderful lyrics with an incredible rap-infused spoken word verse that ended with the iconic “let’s have a kiki” line which was clearly a reference to the legendary sister Sledge song and an obvious play on their name which I personally thought was brilliant. Also in this group was KIki’s St Luca sister Rileasa Slaves who also delivered an incredible rap-centric verse which was crammed full of West Indian attitude that really helped her to stand out amongst the rest of her group. Over the past four weeks, we have very quickly been developing a love of the insanely eccentric, house of gorgeous (which you can learn about in our review of the party Monsters tour which you can read at https://rhysreviews.com/2023/06/14/party-monsters-tour-production-review/) member Lill and it absolutely broke our heart to see her visibly struggling with not only the dance elements of this challenge but also missing key sections of their lip-sync performance. This would have been disappointing enough but when they are alongside such talented performers it really highlighted the mistakes.
The rest of the queens (namely Actavaia, Kyran Thraz, Zahirah Zapanta, Chanel and Marmalade) were grouped together as the brand new girl group Dracula’s Child which is obviously a tribute to Destiny’s Child with a Halloween twist. A few years ago I got into a little bit of trouble on a night out after making a shady comment about someone simply wearing a white shirt with blood splatters and jeans to a Halloween party and so seeing Actavia discuss their dislike for this idea while creating their lyrics was highly relatable. On top of this, Actavia also revealed that she would be using some of her national language in the verse which as a proud Welshman myself I thought was absolutely fantastic and can only help the endangered language! Another queen I have made no apologies about my undying support for is the amazing Marmalade (who we recently judged Jolene’s drag race alongside which you can read about at https://rhysreviews.com/2024/08/13/jolenes-drag-race-week-three/) and having known this queen for a fairly long time now, I know that they made a name for themselves for being a very talented burlesque performer. In this episode, however, Marmalade was shown to be visibly struggling with picking up choreography alongside her supposed enemy Chanel. Unlike the Welsh icon, however, Chanel was seen throughout the episode struggling including at one point where she refused to do the specified choreography which is not a good look, especially in group challenges like this one. I do have to say that it did appear at times that the other queens seemed to be excluding Chanel and Marmalade due to them struggling with picking up the dance sequences which again is not great especially when they are supposed to be working as a team! When it came to the actual performance of this group, they focussed much more on theatrical elements including the aforementioned choreography and cinematophry which helped to differentiate between the two groups which was very important as they both performed the exact same song. Within their routine, the team showcased an incredible sequence where three of the five queens demonstrated death drops and splits to depict a slasher-style sequence with the queens being ‘killed’ on stage. The closing sequence saw Dracula’s child huddle together as they finally crumble to the ground while Zarhaia in particular giving direct eye contact to the camera which is not something I can remember seeing on the show for a very long time! Dracula’s child performance began with a hilarious Alan Car picture under a dinner plate and this then transitioned into Zahirah Zapanta verse. I do have to say that their performance got off to a bit of a rough start as Zahirah visibly stumbled after insisting the walk onto the runway in a lift which clearly shook her for the rest of her verse. In this group I was very impressed with Kyran’s verse as they made a conscious effort to reference themself with their very clever lyrics. She not only mentioned her controversial bin bag entrance look and also talked about wanting to suck someone’s blood while dressed as a vampire which , just like La Voix , shows an incredible attention to detail not only carefully considering their lyrics but also the costume they would wear for this presentation.
As this was a Halloween-inspired episode, we saw the queens discussing why this season is so important, especially to those who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community as this is a time where everybody feels included and welcomed. While I myself are not the biggest fan of the more scary elements of Halloween, it is no secret that I am a massive fan of any sort of dressing up! I do think that there was some sort of disconnect between the Halloween-inspired influence of the episode and the Mother Nature Runway category. While in isolation this is a great category for the runway presentation, I do not think it really fitted the spook season influence of the maxi challenge.
I thought it was very clever for La Voix to decide to showcase a volcano-inspired look as she was able to make a joke about her name sounding like lava which again showed her incredible eye for detail and forward thinking. While I think that the black dress she decided to wear was not the most flattering for her body, I really enjoyed the lava she had running down the other side of her body which made it clear the theme of this outfit. She completed the look with a gorgeous orange and red flame-infused wig that made total sense with the rest of the look.
My favourite look this week however came from Relessa Slaves as she showcased a gorgeous blue dress which had fabulous fabric gracefully floating around her as she walked down the runway. This water-inspired outfit looked absolutely stunning on the St Lucian queen and this was the best look we have seen from her this season so far!
Zahirah Zapanta decided to use this runway category to pay homage to their Asian heritage with a gorgeous Japanese headpiece and collar piece that was absolutely covered with flowers that looked amazing on the queen. I was not fully aware of how much of a talented makeup artist Zahraih is as she looked absolutely beautiful in her flower outfit however I do have to say that the bottom half of the outfit was a bit lacklustre considering how gorgeous the top part of the outfit was!
It comes as a surprise to literally no one that Marmalade really came to life on the runway while they showcased an incredible butterfly-inspired look. She walked the runway with two fabulous butterflies with gorgeous stoned wings attached to both sides of her look complete with fantastic moth-inspired makeup that made total sense with the rest of the look! One of the more theatrical looks in this runway presentation however came from the eccentric Kyran Thrax who paid homage to 2019 horror movie Midsommar. While I can totally appreciate the fact that this queen made a conscious effort to tie together the Halloween theme on the maxi challenge and the mother nature category for the runway, Kyran walked the runway in a massive floral hooped outfit and purposefully teased both the judges/audience about a potential reveal. After teasing for the longest time, the queen removed the massive outfit to showcase a floral bodysuit which the judges were clearly very disappointed with.
For the first time in drag race UK her-story , this episode did not contain a winning group and instead, every person would be judged individually which was apparently due to the fact of the insanely high quality of both groups. It was announced that Rilessa was the winner of this episode which does make sense due to how incredible she was during both the challenge and their runway presentation but I do think that some consideration needed to be taken into place about the fact that Kiki Snatch choreographed the entire routine. I do think that the runway looks were what differentiated the two performers and so I do understand why Rilessa walked away with the win. I do have to say however that I am a little confused as earlier in this season Ru Paul himself announced that this season would see the return of immunity although there was no mention of this going forward. We saw Kyran gain immunity during the opening episode of the season but this became voided as Saki was injured and so seemed to be an unnecessary twist so far. On the other end of the competition, we saw Zahirah and Lill end up in the bottom as so the two Manchester raised queens had to lipsync against each other to “Dont Call Me Up” by guest judge Mabel. The two performers decided to go in two different directions with Zahirah deciding to showcase how much of a talented dancer they are with a collection of drag race staple moves including a death drop. At the end of the performance, it was announced that Lill would be staying in the competition with Zahirah being told to sashay away. I do have to say that if it was purely based on the performance, I probably would have selected Zahirah to stay but Lill does have a much better track record in this competition so I can understand why this decision was actually made!
Overall, the latest episode of Ru Paul’s drag race allowed the audience to see the queens showcase their musical talents with two queens in particular (namely Kiki and Rileasa Slaves) showcasing what they do best. While I do think that the runway category was a bit disconnected from the spooky Vibe of the first ever Halloween-inspired song, It is clear that the creative team working on this episode tried to make an effort to tie in everything with knowledge guest mentors and have a song by one of the judges used as the lipsync number. I would rate this episode 4 out of 5 stars!
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