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RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 Episode 3 RECAP: Monopulance!

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 Episode 3 RECAP: Monopulance!

The queens take on their first sewing challenge inspired by a popular board game. Actress Sandra Bernhard is a guest judge…

Last week we saw the second group of queens take on the talent show. Lexi Love impressed with her roller skate routine and Crystal Envy’s original song was enough to knock the other queen’s socks off because they were voted the top two queens and had an epic lip sync to Doechii’s “Alter Ego” for the win (it went to Lexi). Joining Acacia in the bottom lip sync was Hormona Lisa. Acacia won the lip sync but Hormona was saved by Michelle Visage, a dunk tank, and 10 mystery levers, so nobody went home. This week the queens will (hopefully) serve us fashion when they turn on their sewing machines and fire up the glue guns with the first fashion challenge of the season. Let’s get into it!

This week’s episode begins in the werk room following Hormona’s game of chance with Michelle’s Dunk Tank. Hormona is feeling very good about saving herself from becoming the Porkchop of the season, but the other queens aren’t as thrilled. Over on the couches Kori tells Hormona she doesn’t love that she’s still here. Hormona also leads the group in congratulating Lexi Love on her win. It gets shady fast after they start talking about things that were said in Untucked by Joella. There are a lot of queens disappointed that nobody was sent home and Hormona can feel it from all corners of the werk room.

Alas, it’s a new day and all of the queens are excited to take on another challenge. Around the table, they wonder if Rate-A-Queen will be back this week. The game has officially started and Ru enters the werk room to introduce this week’s challenges. He tells the queens that they’ll need to play the game like a boss lady of the boulevard if they want to win. A pit crew member appears with a box and Ru reveals that for this week’s maxi challenge they’ll be drawing inspiration from the iconic board game Monopoly. They take turns picking cards out of the pit crew’s community chest, winning some money with each card they pull. They draw cards until each of them has a property card. They’ll all have to create outfits inspired by Monopoly-land. They’ll have to use material pre-determined by the property cards they’ve picked, meaning every colour will have at least two queens wearing them. 

Some of the more conceptual queens are feeling nervous working with actual fabric. The queens with the red fabric have a faux fur that’s giving Elmo none of them really know what to do with. The pageant girls are feeling really good about creating opulent and expensive lewks. Although they may be working in colour story teams, this challenge is being judged individually. Joella reveals she doesn’t sew and she has faith in herself that she’ll make it through this challenge. Kori King is working with what she knows, and decides on a mini dress design. Lexi aims big with her orange look and gets really excited, really fast with her concept. Between fabric bolts, trim, and embellishment, there’s a lot each of these queens will have to do to make their finished outfits. A lot of these girls are using sewing machines, which is a good sign, but Joella is feeling like she’s a little behind with constructing her look. 

Ru re-enters the werk room to check on the progress each of the queens has made. They talk to Ru in their colour groups and get some sage advice for their garment construction and urges some of them to think outside their leotard comfort zones. Before he leaves, Ru presents the queens with the Rate-A-Queen results all bound neatly in a pretty book. They all gather around the table to look through the results, which reveal how every queen voted in the first two weeks. SHADY! It reveals a lot of things including alliances which is gagging some of the other queens. Now everybody knows where they stand with each other, which should make the next few weeks interesting to say the least. They get back to designing and sewing. Onya stole Miss Jewels’s trim and she is not happy about it. Lucky struggles with the sewing machine, so she opts to plug a glue gun in, but some of the other queens try their best to help her. 

It’s elimination day! The queens put the finishing touches on their Monopulance lewks while also getting their makeup and hair ready. Hormona is pissed because she glued her own stones to the dress and Lexi called it out, so she’s heading back to her mannequin to pull hundreds of stones off her dress. Lydia and Kori are really vibing, and over in the corner Arrietty and Jewels have their Latina drama clique. Lucky is feeling better about her garment and she’s doing something very different with her hair and makeup this week. Onya “apologizes” to Jewels and it blows into a bit of a fight that involves more of the queens taking sides. Over on the other side of the werk room Lexi and Sam connect on their humble and crafty beginnings. This is the last time all of them will be in the werk room together because someone will be going home tonight.

Out on the main stage Ru introduces us to this week’s judges panel Michelle, Ts, and this week’s extra-special guest judge actor Sandra Bernhard. The queens strut down the runway one by one in their handmade, monochromatic looks. The majority of these looks are really well constructed.

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 Episode 3 RECAP: Monopulance!

Ru sends the safe queens (Acacia, Crystal, Hormona, Jewels, Lana, Lexi, Lydia, and Suzie) backstage leaving the tops and bottoms on the stage and the critiques begin with Lucky Starzzz. Michelle tells her there are some rough edges on her look and she immediately breaks down. Ts tells her the problem was with how she sold the garment. Ts tells Arrietty that she did a great job with her sexy red dress and the rest of the judges agree. Michelle tells Kori her body is bodying, but Ts tells her that her yellow outfit is giving cheap hooker. Ts tells Joella that she’s pretty but she does not like this outfit because it is not giving rich. Sandra tells Onya she had her focus and Ts tells her she is definitely serving rich bitch energy and Michelle agrees. Finally, Sam Star’s presentation is what captivated the judges, who all commend her on her stunning sapphire garment and its flawless construction. 

Following the judge’s deliberation Ru announces that the winner of this week’s maxi challenge is Sam Star! Arrietty and Onya are the runners-up. Ru saves Kori King from the bottom, leaving Lucky Starzzz and Joella both up for elimination. The two bottom queens lip sync to “The Way That You Love Me” by Paula Abdul. Lucky immediately takes her hoop skirt off and gets DOWN. She’s really selling this lip sync and Joella gives it all she’s got on her side of the stage. After a high-energy lip sync from both queens, Ru decides that it’s Joella who will stay in the race. But Lucky still has one last chance to stay in the competition. Michelle and the dunk tank are revealed back on stage, and she only has a one in nine chance to stay. She pulls lever three and unfortunately Michelle doesn’t drop, which means it’s the end of the competition for Lucky Starzzz. 

Next week on RuPaul’s Drag Racethe queens create commercials based on iconic moments from the show’s herstory. 

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