The queens travel back in time for the girl group challenge. Musician Simone Denny is a guest judge…
Last week the queens competed in their first design challenge of the competition. While some of them impressed the judges with their ready-to-wear looks, others left them wanting more. Minhi Wang came out on top with her expertly executed catsuit and handed the golden beaver over to Makayla Couture. Unfortunately this left Sanjina and Uma both in the bottom. After a lip sync, Sanjina was eliminated from the competition. This week the remaining queens will travel back to the ‘90s for the infamous girl group challenge and one more queen will be eliminated. Let’s get into it.
This week’s episode begins in the werk room following Sanjina’s elimination. Uma reads her goodbye message with some help from Makayla before heaving over to the couches. Makayla leads the group in congratulating Uma on her lip sync win. Uma says she knew she had to turn it out after none of the other queens chose her to save. Minhi tells Makayla why she chose her and Virgo breaks down talking about having her daughter with her in the competition and how proud she is of Sanjina, but in confessionals she says she feels a bit more free since she doesn’t have to be anybody’s role model anymore.
It’s a new day in the werk room and the queens are ready to head all the way back to the ‘90s for this week’s challenge. Around the table the queens congratulate Minhi on her win and Xana welcomes Makayla to the Beaver Lodge. They’re interrupted with a video message full of ‘90s music puns. Traci enters the room in a full denim ensemble. For this week’s mini challenge Traci will be holding auditions for a new daytime television show. After getting into quick drag the queens audition to be showcase girls presenting different prize items from the ‘90s. While some of the queens know what a fax machine and a thigh master is, others are completely baffled. Traci announces that the winner of this week’s mini challenge is Uma! Traci also tells the queens that for this week’s maxi challenge they’ll be partying like it’s 1996, because it’s time for the girl group challenge. Traci tells them to split up into two groups on their own.
Virgo, Makayla, Xana, and Perla make the first group, which means Uma, Jaylene, Minhi, and Helena are the other group. There are two songs for them to choose from and since Uma won the mini challenge she gets to assign the songs to the groups. They split into their groups and use walkmen to listen to their ‘90s-inspired instrumentals to get them in the mood to write their lyrics. Uma’s team is a little worried because the other group is full of strong performers, but that doesn’t mean they have this challenge in the bag.
The queens head out to the main stage which has been turned into a makeshift recording studio to lay down the vocals with Simone Denny. Makayla, Xana, Perla, and Virgo are up first. Xana steps up to the mic first and she’s nervous because she has no rhythm. Makayla is up next and she gets it right almost immediately. Perla’s horror approach wins Simone over, and Virgo impresses everyone. Uma, Minhi, Helena, and Jaylene are next with Jaylene recording first. She has to be encouraged to sing but once she opens up, she’s really good. Helena’s verse is a bunch of fun and full of references. Minhi really goes for it with her singing and Uma takes a comedic approach with her lyrics that Simone really likes. After the recording session each team gets time on the main stage to choreograph their routines. Virgo takes the lead with choreographing for her team and they do a good job picking it up. Uma takes the lead for her team and she’s keeping it simple so everybody can get it down. There’s a lot of partner work in their routine and it has Helena worried.
It’s elimination day and everybody is feeling ready to perform their songs on the main stage for the judges. They talk about performing in groups with other queens back home and Jaylene and Perla talk about their struggles being sober queens. Jaylene offers Perla some words of wisdom and the other sober queens share their stories including some heavy topics which all of the queens are supportive of. Out on the runway, Brooke introduces this week’s panel, who are all dressed in their ‘90s best, Brad, Traci, and this week’s extra special guest Simone Denny. The first group to perform is The Backdoor Girls (Jaylene, Helena, Minhi, and Uma). Their girl-powered anthem is a bubblegum pop fantasy. The dancing is really simple and it might cost them the challenge depending on how hard the other group goes, but overall, it’s a good performance and their lyrics are cute. VMXP (Virgo, Makayla, Xana, and Perla) are up next and they’re giving a bit more energy right out of the gate, though their outfits are giving more Y2K than ‘90s. Between the lyrics and choreography it’s a fair fight. Following the performances the category on the runway is “Grunge and Glamour” and all of the queens stun in their glitzy throwback lewks.
After the runway Brooke tells the queens that based on their presentations and runways Uma and Minhi are totally safe for the week. The rest of the queens represent the tops and bottoms of the week. Critiques start with Virgo and Brooke commends her stage presence. Simone loves that she took notes well during recording and Traci loved her Scary Spice vibe during the performance. Perla’s lyrics confused Brooke at first but she tells her they were very clever. Brad tells her she’s getting more comfortable on stage and all of the judges love her look but Brooke tells her that her makeup is still too pale under the lights. Traci tells Xana that she came into the performance with baddie energy but it didn’t match the rest of her sisters and Brooke said her verse and performance felt clunky and off-rhythm but the judges like her runway but wish there was a little more glamour. Brooke tells Makayla she could watch her perform all day long and Traci loved everything about her performance. Simone tells her she slayed the entire challenge. Brad tells her she nailed the ‘90s for being born in 2002. The judges tell Helena she had great lyrics that brought them back in time but she got lost in the shuffle for holding back to stay with Jaylene. Her look isn’t working for the judges unfortunately. Finally, Traci tells Jaylene she was excited to see her come out first but her performance got disjointed fast and Brooke agrees. Jaylene tells the judges she’s grateful that her team didn’t leave her behind since she was the weakest performer. They like her grunge part of her look but say it’s missing the glamour.
Brooke announces that the top queen of the week is Makayla with Perla and Virgo right behind her and safe for the week. This means Xana, Helena, and Jaylene are the bottom queens of the week. Makayla holds the power of the golden beaver. Backstage some drama is stirred up by the safe queens thinking Makayla would be in the bottom based on her performance. Uma and Makayla get into it before Jaylene breaks it up by congratulating Makayla on her win. Jaylene gets teary thanking Makayla for her support. The bottom three plead their case to Makayla. Some of them go off their emotions and others bring up their track record.
Back on the mainstage Makayla reveals that she has chosen to pass the beaver to…Helena Poison. This means that Xana and Jaylene are the official bottom queens of the week. The two queens lip sync for their life to Here Comes the Sunshine by Love Inc. Both of these queens are fighting tooth and nail in this competition and it’s made clear by each of them through their powerful performances. After a quick deliberation, Brooke announces that the queen leaving the competition this week is Jaylene Tyme.
Next week on Canada’s Drag Race: It’s finally time for Snatch Game! Which queens will rise to the occasion? And what’s changing with the Golden Beaver?
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