Canada’s Drag Race Season 5 Episode 8 RECAP: WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!

The final five appear as guests on a late-night talk show. Ts Madison is a guest judge…

Trigger warning: this recap touches on topics relating to child abuse and sexual abuse.

We’ve made it to the penultimate episode of the fifth season of Canada’s Drag Race. Last week Minhi Wang won both mini and maxi challenges and we said goodbye to Vancouver’s Xana after her garment didn’t serve on the runway during the sewing challenge and a particularly heated discussion with Makayla in Untucked. With Xana gone, all of the remaining queens are Toronto girls. This week the final five will be welcomed as guests on a late-night talk show hosted by Brad, and we’ll find out who’s heading to next week’s finale! Let’s get into it.

This week’s episode begins in the werk room following Xana’s elimination. The remaining queens enter the werk room gagged, and a little sad about Xana’s departure. In confessionals Helena reveals she’s sad because she liked her feisty personality and everyone is feeling the weight of her elimination in the wake of her argument with Makaya. Over on the couches, the queens congratulate Virgo on her lip sync win, and she feels good about her win but being in the bottom the past two weeks has changed her perspective on the competition. Perla leads the pack in congratulating Minhi on her second design challenge win, who says she’s starting to believe in herself more in the competition. The rest of the queens check in with Makayla and tell her not to apologize to them for feeling her feelings. Makayla says her blow up at Xana is the accumulation of weeks of friction between the two, but Makayla says she respects her and doesn’t hate her at the end of the day. The queens all have a good laugh before getting out of drag.

It’s a new day in the werk room and the queens are ready for their last challenge before the finale. Around the table Makayla says they all have done amazing things in the competition and it’s still anyone’s game but Helena is the only one without a win. Ru’s video message interrupts them and tells them they can’t blame it on the edit when they’re live… Brad enters the werk room and tells the queens that he’s launching his own news network. The queens will need to get into correspondent quick drag before heading over to the main stage to present breaking news. The queens emerge in front of a green screen in various pant and skirt suits. They have to make the news up while watching a video of vintage beauty pageants, old Olympic footage, a spaceship lifting off, and that infamous Melinda Verga Untucked clip from last season. 

Following the news correspondent audition, Brad announces the winner of the mini challenge is The Virgo Queen. Brad also tells the queens that for this week’s maxi challenge, the five of them will be guests on his new talk show WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! Most of the queens are excited for this challenge where they’ll have to promote themselves, the new season of the show, spill some tea, and play some games. They head right to the vanities to do their makeup for the challenge. This is a realistic and practical challenge, since the queens will be doing this in the real world after the show. They talk about hosting gigs and their experience with improv. Makayla reveals she doesn’t really like hosting because she’s a little shy.

It’s time for What Just Happened and Brad welcomes the final five to the stage. It’s a Drag Race take on Watch What Happens Live and the queens will have to stand out while also giving the other queens time to shine. They kick it off with a superlative game. It gets a little shady but it’s all in good fun. Brad asks them more questions and some of them get emotional answering them. It’s a good balance of silliness and heart. They also get to play a game where they get to defend some of their worst looks on the season. Each of them manage to make a splash while letting the others shine, and at the end of the episode they get video messages from loved ones back home which gets them all a little teary-eyed. 

It’s elimination day and the queens are feeling excited about all of their performances in the challenge and getting those sweet messages from home. Around the mirrors they all talk about how much those videos from their loved ones mean to them. Perla reveals she has a complicated relationship with her abusive father and her fellow queens thank her for sharing and telling her how brave she is for doing so. Perla’s bravery inspires Virgo to open up about the time she was drugged and taken advantage of at a bar in the village at the start of her career. The queens rally behind her to support her and wrap her up in a group hug.

Out on the runway Brooke introduces us to this week’s panel of judges Traci, Brad, and this week’s extra special guest star Ts Madison! This week the category is “Statuesque” and the queens stun in their artful and powerful interpretation of the theme.

This week everyone is getting critiques and it starts with Helena. Brad tells her she was the perfect mix of shady, intelligent, and funny. Brooke tells her she got so many good quips in during the challenge and Ts said she gave it her all. The judges all love her stoney Medusa runway look with Brad saying all of her looks have consistently showcased her drag style while still delivering on the assignment. Traci compliments Perla on editing herself in the show but Brad thinks there was an opportunity for her to go further and dig deeper. Ts is blown away by her Schiaparelli-inspired runway, but it’s not giving statue to her and Ts comes to Perla’s defence. Brad tells Virgo she was a delight on the show and Brooke loved her responses to some of the questions. Traci liked her heartfelt and meaningful answers and all of the judges love her regal and elegant look. Brad tells Makayla her energy was off the charts and he loved that she managed to engage with all of the other queens. Ts tells her she’s proud of her but wanted just a little bit more from her. All of the judges love her goddess-inspired look. Brooke enjoyed how authentic and raw Minhi was in the talk show, but Brad thought she diplomatically sidestepped too many questions. However, everyone is in agreement that her Australian prawn-statue runway look was wonderfully presented.

Back in the werk room, the queens revel in the fact that they were just critiqued by Ts Madison. All of them did well this week, so the judges are splitting hairs at this point and it’s truly anybody’s game, but nobody wants to go home. Perla thinks she got the worst critiques and thinks she’s going to be lip syncing but the other queens tell her she’s just being hard on herself. Following the judge’s deliberation Brooke announces that the winner of this week’s challenge and the first queen heading to the finale is…Helena Poison with her first challenge win! Jimbo enters from backstage and tells Helena that she’s won $5000 from House of Jimbo, which she presents to her with a golden briefcase full of fake breasts. Safe and also joining Helena in the finale is The Virgo Queen and Minhi Wang. This leaves Makayla and Perla both up for elimination. This week’s bottoms lip sync for their lives and a spot in the finale to “Desperate Measures” by Marianas Trench.

Both queens are giving it everything they have with passionate performances coming from both sizes of the stage. After the lip sync Brooke announces the fourth and final queen heading to the finale is Makayla Couture, meaning unfortunately it’s the end of the competition for Perla, but certainly not the last we’re seeing of her.

Next week on Canada’s Drag Race: It’s finale time baby! Jimbo joins the queens in the werk room, have a photoshoot with reigning queen Venus, work on singles with musician superstar Orville Peck, and learn some new dance moves with Hollywood Jade before a new queen is crowned.