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RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 Episode 4 RECAP: B.tch, I’m a Drag Queen!

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 Episode 4 RECAP: B.tch, I’m a Drag Queen!

The queens recreate iconic moments from seasons past in their first over-acting challenge. Actress Julia Schlaepfer is a guest judge…

Last week we said goodbye to our first queen of the season. The crafty and colourful Lucky Starzzz was sent packing after she lost the lip sync to Joella and failed to choose the right lever that would send Michelle into the dunk tank. Sam Star took the top spot for the week with Arrietty trailing closely behind her in the first sewing and design challenge of the season, which was inspired by Monopoly. This week the queens will pay homage to the girls who came before them as they recreate some of the most iconic scenes from past seasons in an acting challenge. Let’s get into it.

This week’s episode begins in the werk room following Lucky’s elimination. Joella is feeling good about surviving and reads her message on the mirror. Arrietty, Suzie, and Lexi are all visibly upset about Lucky’s departure, which has Joella feeling a little confused.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 Episode 4 RECAP: B.tch, I’m a Drag Queen!

Over on the couches the rest of the queens congratulate Sam on her win, and Sam tells the girls who rated her last that they can suck her tuck. Everyone else congratulates Onya and Arrietty on their second and third place sports too. Arrietty is feeling a little sour about not winning over Sam and Kori isn’t feeling great about being in the bottom but is thankful she didn’t have to lip sync. 

It’s a new day in the werk room and the remaining queens are feeling ready to take on another week of challenges after last week’s design challenge. Around the table Lydia asks if anyone can do an impression of other queens and it gets rowdy before Ru breaks it up in a plaid suit and fedora. He tells the queens that the past 16 seasons have been filled with iconic moments, and they’ll be remixing them into music for Bitch! I’m A Drag Queen: Volumes One and Two. They pick their iconic moment songs out of a pink fuzzy box, which also divides them into their teams. It’s up to them to record their songs on their own, and they’ll be in charge of producing their own commercials in their volume one and two teams. 

With Ru out of the werk room they split into their teams to workshop commercial ideas and listen to their tracks for the first time. Everybody in Volume One is getting along well and they’re excited to put all of their work together. Over at the Volume Two table they’re coming up with some good ideas and they want to do better than the other group. They record their tracks off-camera and then quickly head to the stage to film their commercials. Volume One’s filming is running smoothly until Hormona has a hard time selling her song according to the other queens. Crystal really takes the lead with keeping everyone on track and it seems like they got some good footage. Volume Two pops into the studio and Suzie starts the group with a bang. All of them have unique visions for each of their numbers and everyone seems to be worried about Kori. 

It’s elimination day and another queen may be going home at the end of the night. Everybody seems to be quite confident in their performances, which is worrying some of the other queens. Some of the girls are asking other queens how they feel about their performance in the challenge to try and sus out the competition and the weak links. Over by the mirrors Lexi asks everyone if any of them started to do drag on Halloween and Suzie raises her hand. Lexi shared some traumatic stories which led to her doing drag out of a necessity to survive. Joella asks Onya how she got comfortable connecting with her culture and incorporating it into her drag, since she has a hard time doing the same, and Onya gives her some great advice.

Out on the runway Ru introduces this week’s panel of judges, Michelle, Carson, and this week’s extra special guest judge, actress Julia Schlaepfer. On the runway the category is “Quilted…For Your Pleasure” and each of the queens take turns walking the runway in kooky quilted looks.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 Episode 4 RECAP: B.tch, I’m a Drag Queen!

Following the runway, all of the queens gather at the front of the stage to watch their finished commercials. Volume One is up first. It gets a lot of laughs from the judges from start to finish. Volume Two is next and their commercial is also hitting all the right notes, with lots of laughs from Ru and Michelle. Ru tells the queens they’ll be judged individually. She calls Lydia, Lana, Acacia, Hormona, Jewels, Lexi and Sam and tells them they are all safe. 

The remainders are the tops and bottoms and critiques start with Joella. Michelle likes that she really went for it in the commercial and Julia tells her she could have gone further with it. None of the judges like her quilted bed look. Michelle tells Arrietty that Jewels edged her out a little bit in the commercial, and asks her to explain her white face paint. The other judges aren’t getting “quilted” from her runway look. Carson tells Crystal she did a great job working with her castmates, and Michelle tells her that her runway look is “delicious”. Julia loves her performance in the commercial, and Carson commends her 1930s quilt-inspired dress, and Michelle loves that she took a risk with her makeup. Michelle also loves Onya’s African quilt look, and all of the judges tell her she presented it perfectly, which translated to her commercial. Michelle tells Kori that the storyline wasn’t there and that the comedy wasn’t there. She tells the judges Plane Jane and Big Atlas made her dress, and Ru says she was disappointed with the construction in the back. 

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 Episode 4 RECAP: B.tch, I’m a Drag Queen!

After deliberations, Ru announces that the winner of this week’s challenge is Onya Nerve! Suzie and Crystal are right behind her with safe positions. Lip syncing for their lives this week are Joella and Kori King, meaning Arrietty is safe for the week. The two bottom queens lip sync for another chance in the competition to “Buttons” by The Pussycat Dolls ft. Snoop Dogg. Both of them shed a few layers of their quilts and give it all they’ve got. However, Joella does not know the words to the Snoop Dogg rap. After the lip sync, Ru decides that Kori stays. Joella has one last chance to stay in the competition. The levers are rolled in and Joella has a one in eight chance of pulling the right one. She pulls lever six and Michelle doesn’t move, which means she’s going home. But she is leaving with a trip to Vegas. 

Next week on RuPaul’s Drag RaceThe queens try their hand at live improv with an SNL-inspired challenge. 

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