There are few issues on this life which might be extra disquieting than an abnormally tall, utterly bald man in a Thom Browne swimsuit, unexpectedly bursting by way of the door to scold you on your sins. I’m not precisely aware of the Bible, however I’d guess there’s some kind of scriptural story similar to that. That’s as a result of, when RuPaul walked again into the Drag Race All Stars 8 workroom to corral his assortment of little dollies—sorry, I imply, “beloved contestants”—it felt like a mandatory divine intervention.
Season 8 of Drag Race’s already-cutthroat spinoff has been shortly devolving into sheer insanity over the previous couple of weeks. First, there was the unanticipated self-elimination of contestant Heidi N Closet, after some alleged maneuvering of in-game allegiances backfired, inflicting her associates to briefly activate her, and the stress to change into an excessive amount of to deal with. Final week, Jaymes Mansfield was eradicated by a unanimous vote, regardless of Kahannah Montrese—additionally on the chopping block—already being up for elimination for a number of weeks in a row with out going house. And the way may we neglect our pricey Alexis Michelle, crying by way of all of it with the efficiency pedigree of Stella Adler herself?
All of this drama got here to a head this week, when Kahanna was confronted with one more improv problem, which she’s did not excel at to date, tempting her to pack her baggage as nicely. Whereas the strain was mounting for Kahanna, Alexis Michelle and competitors frontrunner Kandy Muse obtained into one other heated alternate, arguing over who would rating the extra coveted function within the problem, which resulted in Alexis, as soon as once more, breaking down in tears. Then got here RuPaul, who watched this pocket of chaos develop bigger by the second, like a really wheezy Huge Brother, and stepped in to place the worry of God again into his forged.
“Alright women!” was not what any of the queens anticipated to listen to rising from the sheetrock partitions of the workroom. It’s uncommon that RuPaul will ever break character and deviate from the present’s established method, however on this case, the one different possibility was prone to lose a day of taking pictures to rewrite the problem script if the present misplaced one other contestant. “We gon’ collect spherical, we’re gathering round!” Ru continued. Anybody who may doubt the candidness of the second can see that it’s actual by the way in which Ru frantically pointed across the workroom, on the lookout for the best blocking sample to line the queens up. “Mama is right here to straighten shit out!”
“We’re gonna have to speak women,” Ru mentioned, shifting his eyes one after the other down the road of queens. “I simply wish to set you straight earlier than you make any errors which you can’t undo. You’re having all these emotions—after all you’re going to have these emotions, you’re below a variety of stress—however emotions aren’t details. You’re having feelings? Go, ‘Oh yeah, I’m feeling some sort of approach, however I’m gonna do that factor, as a result of I’m an expert, I’m an expert!’”
Naturally, Ru couldn’t get by way of somewhat sermon with out referring to certainly one of his favourite phenomenons: the inside saboteur. “Don’t let your emotions sabotage your expertise on this life, don’t. That is the best stage on this planet so that you can current your act on, don’t enable the little issues to derail your larger image—ooh she’s going to preach this night!”
Even Kandy, usually a really stone-faced queen, couldn’t maintain it along with Ru dangling the fragility of this chance earlier than them. “It’s typically exhausting to take a look at the larger image while you’re within the state of affairs, as a result of there’s so many feelings occurring,” Kandy mentioned. “However simply because you have got one emotional day doesn’t imply you must throw this chance away.”
Then, Ru—the taped dailies recent in his thoughts—addressed Kahanna particularly: “You are feeling such as you’re able to pack your shit and go?” Kahanna held her head excessive, and informed Ru that she was staying, each for Ru and for herself.
With one other self-elimination efficiently prevented, RuPaul nodded and slowly began to fade, changing into completely translucent, till he may now not be seen in any respect. Simply kidding! He walked out of the workroom laughing, seemingly wiping the sweat from his forehead and reassuring the crew that their variety of shoot days wouldn’t have to vary.
However Ru’s interruption did efficiently shake the forged. The principle problem—a Dateline-esque crime journal present known as Forensic Queens (not the strongest title)—was a raging success, the funniest and most concerned problem of the season to date. Dare I say, it was the toughest I’ve laughed at a Drag Race major problem for the reason that epic echo of RuPaul’s “No matter occurred to Merle Ginsberg?!” first rattled by way of my ears in Season 7. Every of the queens did nice, leaning into the improvisational absurdity of the problem. It was so wild, dragged-up, and delightfully wacky, that I can solely liken it to RuPaul’s 2007 magnum opus movie, Starrbooty, maybe the very best praise I may give any piece of media.
All Stars 8 has been getting barely stale amongst franchise followers on-line, and an off-script, fourth-wall-breaking RuPaul was precisely what this season wanted to climb again onto the rails. Like LaLa Ri mentioned instantly earlier than RuPaul burst by way of the door: “I simply wish to be a drag queen that has enjoyable, honey, and simply lives my greatest life, lord.” Now, LaLa, I believe all of us can.
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