SPOILER ALERT: NOT READY TO KNOW WHO WON AND LOST “CANADA’S DRAG RACE” EPISODE 8? THEN SAVE THIS TO READ LATER.
Safety: that’s what “Canada’s Drag Race” made me think of this week — on a couple of levels.
First and most important is safety from harassment, violence and even murder for LGBTQ people, something Canada’s Rainbow Railroad helps provide. Five gay men who fled dangerous discrimination in their home countries with the aid of the Railroad took part in the makeover maxi-challenge.
Second, there’s the idea of safety in the “Drag Race” competition: we learned this week that no one is really safe. That’s how two frontrunners, Lemon and Rita Baga, ended up lip-syncing for their lives and Lemon got sent home.
It was a shocker — for me anyway. But that’s how things roll when you’re down to top five.
I mean, Lemon had won two maxi-challenges; Rita had won three. Priyanka has now also won two, counting this week’s; Jimbo has one. And Scarlett BoBo, who finally won a mini-challenge, has been safe week after week so it’s not like she had a target on her back either.
At this point I’m sad to see anybody go, but I had a soft spot for Lemon.
Judge Brooke Lynn Hytes said Lemon’s “bright light, quick wit and open heart give us all life.” Lemon sashayed away with gratitude, saying she started with the least amount of experience of any of the 12 queens in the competition. “To have made it this far makes me feel so accomplished and so powerful and so ready for the rest of my future,” she said.
Lemon, as far as I’m concerned, your JoJo Siwa will live on in Snatch Game herstory.
So let’s review how we got to this dramatic state of affairs.
Things got rolling with a “Drag Race” favourite, Everybody Loves Puppets; you know, where the queens take puppets of their fellow queens, drag them up and, in judge Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman’s words, “read them to filth.”
Some bull’s eyes were scored. Lemon read Priyanka for her dismal Snatch Game performance and Rita outed Jimbo for her bitching about Jeffrey’s runway critique. But it was Scarlett who won – finally! – for her takedown of Rita and her “non-existent personality.”
Things turned from jeers to tears when Jeffrey introduced the five makeover subjects: Elton from Jamaica, Rebal from Syria, Dennis from Uganda, and married couple Eka and Rainer from Indonesia, all of whom had been brought here by the Rainbow Railroad.
In Jamaica and Uganda, there are laws against same-sex relationships. But even in countries without such legislation, anti-LGBTQ attitudes endanger the lives of queer people.
Rainer talked about how he and Eka had to move four times back home, fleeing out the emergency exit with the police at the front door. They received death threats and texts from people telling them to kill themselves. Dennis knew four queer people who were killed in his home country.
“I had to hide it, just like everybody else who lives in there,” Rebal said of Syria.
“The amount of love and appreciation that was shown to me by the Canadian people, by the community, by Rainbow Railroad and all the people who supported me, it was immense and overwhelming. It’s just amazing,” he added.
“I am proud as fuck to be Canadian. I love this country and what it stands for,” said Lemon, who was paired with Rebal for the makeover.
What she said.
Elton was paired with Priyanka, his favourite Toronto drag queen. Scarlett chose Dennis as her partner; Rainer became Rita’s newest drag child and Jimbo brought out Eka’s inner “slut.”
So how did they do on the runway?
Priyanka deservedly won the challenge for turning Elton into Elektra. I loved the lime green and hot pink outfits and I especially loved the energy between the two of them. Elektra might not have her runway strut down just yet, but she’s got presence and potential. And the best part of Priyanka’s win was her prize: a $10,000 donation to the Rainbow Railroad in her name, enough to bring one LGBTQI person to safety, said Brooke.
My least favourite look was Rita and Tari Baga’s mother-and-daughter “dollar-store” clown couture (to borrow a jibe from Jimbo). I also didn’t dig the colour-blocked bodysuits and fringed jackets on Scarlett and Violett BoBo, but Violett sure looked like she was having a blast up there.
Jimbo and, ahem, Bimbo both looked hot in their red latex bustiers and capes, but the judges were a bit uncomfortable with the way they played with each other’s fake boobs. Jeffrey said it was a little too “freaky-deaky sisterly kai-kai action.”
But the judges saved most of their scorn for Lemon and Lime, who at least gave guest host Amanda Brugel of “The Handmaid’s Tale” a chance to say “Blessed be the fruit.” I liked the 1920s style dresses and faux fur stoles, the neon gloves and wigs. Brooke and Stacey McKenzie claimed to love all that too, but Stacey also said the runway presentation was underwhelming. And Jeffrey said Lime looked more like Lemon’s drag mother than her drag sister. (Priyanka claimed Lemon painted Lime to look older on purpose so she could be “the pretty one in the room.” I don’t know about that.)
When the bitchiness settled, it was Rita and Lemon facing off with a lip sync to Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.”
Lemon pulled out every trick in her book, including a spin-splits combo and the first handstand of the season, but Rita just emoted the shit out of it. Plus, I feel like that “Little Miss Sunshine” crawl down the runway might have sealed the deal for Rita.
The good news: we now have a top four! Next week, the queens have to create three looks each for a “Snow Ball” and Michelle Visage is the guest host, so that sounds like fun. Until then …
You can catch “Canada’s Drag Race” Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Crave.
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