This third installment of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 5 may have had contestants make their own “kidster” shows together, but there was no child’s play going on when it came to bringing the drama – especially between Alyssa Edwards and Coco Montrese, whose mysterious feud finally came into the light. With limited children’s TV screen time available, the queens were forced to compete for attention, and it’s now becoming clearer who embraces the spotlight and who consistently shies away. Let’s see which pageant titles the contestants earned this week.
Scorned and Dethroned: Alyssa Edwards
It turns out that Alyssa had won a pageant only to be disqualified and have Coco, her then-friend, take her place as queen. Between facing the drama from two years ago and getting picked last for the children’s TV challenge, this was likely an isolating week for Alyssa. But any publicity is good publicity, and she hasn’t slipped up yet, unlike her rival…
The Queen of Shades: Coco Montrese
Coco exhibited some rather unflattering personality traits this time around – apparently, a big part of their feud involves Coco trash-talking Alyssa after taking her crown. Insulted by her assignment to play a ventriloquist’s dummy in the kids TV challenge, she didn’t make much of an effort to support her team — and later, she used her tension with Alyssa as an excuse (honey, there are no excuses in show business.) But karma is the ultimate shade goddess, and Coco’s immaturity landed her in the bottom two this week, which means she already has to try much harder next time.
Zoe Good At Impressions: Detox
Detox’s impression of Rachel Zoe for the Toddlers in Tiaras-inspired mini challenge was comedy gold, and proved she has quite an arsenal of talents to offer. She also stole the spotlight playing a rooster in Alaska’s TV show. So far, she’s been bringing her A-game every week.
Sheer Responsible: Honey Mahogany
Honey is a good girl all over – she bites her tongue and works with the very difficult Coco, has yet to say anything mean about anyone, and always looks glowing and elegant, if a tad too safe. Her responsible, hard-working nature is a great quality, but it won’t amount to anything unless she gives us a little spice to go with that super-sweet personality.
Tossed Salad: Roxxxy Andrews
In embodying her TV character, the mumbling hillbilly Tasha Salad, Roxxxy proved that she can, as the judges noticed, “dare to be ugly.” But on the runway she channeled pure J.Lo, in a flowy dress and caramel locks, celebrating the more glamorous end of her broad spectrum of characters.
All Duded Up: Alaska
Alaska got into a little heat with the judges this week for dressing in male drag for her show (even though she was hilarious.) But, combined with her earlier impression of a pageant mom in the mini-challenge, the risk did demonstrate her ability to take on wildly different characters (even an exaggeratedly heterosexual man). Whether she’s dressed as a woman or a man, this girl is funny.
Old-School Glamour: Jinkx Monsoon
Jinkx donned a few historically relevant outfits this week, the most memorable being her revealing Dangerous Liaisons look on the runway. After telling a touching story about how her grandma accepted her and let her express herself through drag, it seems like that her fascination with vintage drag looks has a very strong emotional component.
Show Staller: Ivy Winters
Dressed as a Vegas showgirl on the runway, Ivy proved she can go over the top with her costumes, no problem. But even though she wore a lovely black sparkly ensemble with giant eyeball earrings for the TV shoot, she didn’t entirely captivate the judges with her on-camera performance.
Latin Lull: Lineysha Sparx
Lineysha reigned supreme last week, but this time she was lucky to have immunity. The idea of having a Spanish speaker translate certain words on her team’s kids show was inspired, but Lineysha lacked energy and ingenuity, translating everything word for word without any creative flourish. Overall, it was a scattered mess.
Cotton Candy: Vivienne Pinay
Vivienne’s cotton candy runway dress reflected her character surprisingly well – she has already proven that she can look pretty and sweet. But where is the substance? Her comedic timing was completely off in the TV challenge, and she couldn’t match her teammates’ energy.
Spontaneous Disaster: Jade Jolie
Jade ended up having to improv on set when her teammate messed up a line, and she definitely struggled with jumping back in, let alone grabbing attention. Can this queen learn to keep it together when everything falls apart?
Drawing Blanks: Monica Beverly Hillz
Monica seemed completely unfocused this week, from a performance in which she kept forgetting her lines to her final lip sync, where she sort of shimmied in place as Coco danced around her. Last week, she revealed she was a transitioning transgender woman and that the process was very much on her mind, so maybe a break from the spotlight is what this lovely lady truly needs right now.