RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE S13E15 “Reunited”: A Drama-Less Reunion Gets The Golden Boot

Oftentimes, the reunion episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, while not a guarantee, will usually bring at least some kind of entertainment in the form of drama. And yet, just like season 12’s completely forgettable attempt at a Zoom reunion, season 13’s reunion failed to bring the real drama. But the thing is, after the last year that we’ve all had, maybe drama at the reunion wasn’t what we needed, since this episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race was, from the moment the episode started, meant to be something lighter and more positive. Instead of confrontations, there were spotlights on each queen. Instead of contestants walking out on the show, the Final Four was given a Vogue-style walking interview (“69 Qs with…”) where they gave “off-the-cuff” and totally not rehearsed answers to silly questions.

At the beginning of the episode, RuPaul is standing in the theater at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles, with a half-structured set on the stage behind him, in preparation for the Finale episode. Ru takes a moment to thank the Drag Race crew and all of the medical professionals who made the season possible and safe while they filmed the season in the middle of the pandemic. The audience may have wanted there to be an all-out brawl between Kandy Muse and Tamisha Iman, but this reunion special wasn’t going to give us that, so we had to get with the program pretty quickly and accept that it was going to be over an hour of celebration, with a lip sync rematch for charity thrown in for good measure.

“Tonight, It’s All About The Sisterhood”

While last year’s Reunited special was a literal Zoom call that featured the queens dressed up for a drag pajama party (hot rollers included for some), this year production decided to use their money to make the episode as high-quality and as safe as possible, with queens filming from their hometowns. The episode follows this basic formula:

• Introduce the nine eliminated queens one-at-time (starting with the first-out queen, Kahmora Hall) via high-quality Zoom call where they get to show off their amazing looks from the comfort of their homes (or local bars) and talk about their run on the show as a highlight reel is cut in
• Premiere a short music video that each queen has produced for the fans where some of the songs are original and some are covers
• After 2-3 queens are introduced, then they ask each other fan questions over Zoom
• Sprinkled in throughout these spotlight segments are the aforementioned “69 Qs for…” where Gottmik, Rosé, Kandy, and Symone show up to the Ace Hotel and get followed by the Queen Cam.

Nothing too crazy happens in the episode but it is a treat to see a well-edited season recap of some of the show’s best fashion, shady moments, hilarious memes, and the sisterhood that these queens share.

As far as the spotlight segments go, the most noteworthy one is from Tamisha Iman’s when she gives us the only real clue-in to the season’s most dramatic moment – her fight with Kandy way back on episode five; the only thing Tamisha says is that she and Kandy will never be friends (woah) but that doesn’t mean that Tamisha wishes Kandy any ill will. On any other season not taking place during a pandemic, this would have been a part of a Round Two battle between the two queens during the reunion but, alas, this episode is all about positivity. I gotta keep reminding myself to get with the non-confrontational program.

This is still a show about drag queens though, so there’s still some hilarious, shady moments like the “Toot or Boot” segment where everyone gives their opinions on some of the fashion from the show (“Toot” if they love it, “Boot” if they hate it) and LaLa Ri’s paper bag look from the Bag Ball in episode five was so bad, got such a Boot that LaLa actually won an award for her terrible “garment!” LaLa was given the First Annual Golden Boot Award to commemorate her outfit being the worst of the season and, as someone who has won a similar “worst of” award in high school for messing up the opening night of Titanic the Musical, I am all in on this award becoming a thing and I adore LaLa for her good humor and funny acceptance speech (“I’m gonna put it in my bedroom, chile… next to the dildo”).

Along with getting the Golden Boot, LaLa also gets the chance to lip-sync for charity against Denali, the two having been picked by RuPaul as season 13’s “lip-sync assassins” (the queens that are most likely to win their respective lip-syncs). LaLa’s charity of choice is The National Black Justice Coalition while Denali’s charity is The National Center for Transgender Equality – whoever wins the lip-sync, their charity will receive $10,000. Since it’s not feasible to have the two assassins on the same stage together, they will battle it out over Zoom in a split-screen, similar to the lip syncs in last season’s finale episode. What makes this lip sync extra exciting is that it’s essentially a re-match between the two queens as LaLa was the one to beat Denali way back in the premiere episode and putting Denali with the Porkchop queens. It was a close one then and many fans felt that Denali’s ice skates were what kept her from winning.

This time, there are no skates in sight, just high heels and cute dance outfits as the two divas lip sync to “Be My Lover” by La Bouche. Once again, it’s close (these two really know how to dance!) but RuPaul proclaims Denali as the winner and the $10,000 will go to her charity. But, since this is a feel-good episode, Ru says that LaLa’s charity will receive a donation of $5,000. The lip sync for charity was a nice break from the constant recap clips and super nice-ness of the queens, as well as the extremely well-done music videos each eliminated queen put forth.

The Music Videos

All of the music videos are really well-done and quite fascinating as they each showcase the different talents these individual queens have. Here are the music videos, in order:

• Kahmora Hall does “Giving Him Something He Can Feel” by En Vogue
• Joey Jay does “I Want You Back” by *NSYNC 
• Tamisha Iman does her own original song “Arrogant” (sampled from her infamous fight with Kandy Muse)
• LaLa Ri does her original song, “Bad Bitch Tip” featuring Ocean Kelly
• Elliott With 2 Ts does “Hideaway” by Kiesza
• Denali does “How You Like That” by BLACKPINK
• Tina Burner does her original song, “Turn It & Burn It”
• Utica Queen does “You Should Be Sad” by Halsey
• Olivia Lux does “I’m Goin’ Down” by Mary J. Blige

With the original songs, the best one, lyrically, was LaLa Ri’s as it showcased her rap skills and her impressive dance moves. Tamisha’s was really fun and iconic while Tina’s was forgettable, even though she had her New York City drag sisters showcase all of her red-orange-yellow looks from the season.

Out of all the music videos that were showcased, the best ones were, by far, LaLa’s, Denali’s and Utica’s.  Since the beginning of the season, Denali has shown off her ice-skating skills by releasing a music video of her doing a figure skating performance to the lip-sync song from that week’s episode. One of those music videos was even set on a frozen lake in Colorado! While her BLACKPINK music video wasn’t as breathtaking as some of the other ones she’s done, her unique take on lip-syncing puts her ahead of most of the other queens’ videos.

LaLa’s video is also really great as it’s the one that’s most like an actual hip-hop music video and damn, Ocean Kelly is a force. As far as thinking outside the box, Utica took the top spot; with nothing more than light changes and dual scissors that are used to cut out of an intricate web of black thread, Utica’s music video stands out for its artistry and unique look and feel. Unfortunately, the video is very short, and it felt like it was cut too quickly.

The rest of the music videos are pretty good, too. Joey Jay goes full drag king and dresses up like all the guys from *NSYNC and performs the song as them in a daydream, that is, until her manager at a bar – the one and only Lance Bass – tells her to get back to work, filler queen. Elliott’s has great dance moves, Olivia’s probably has the best overall look, and Tamisha’s feels like it could be a throwback to her pageant days (what with all the dancers around her). If this episode had omitted these short looks into the queens’ drag performances, in their element, and on their terms, the reunion would have honestly been unwatchable.

Conclusion

Once you let go of any want or need for catfights and meme-worthy conflama, this reunion episode was quite pleasant and enjoyable. Each and every queen was celebrated, some (but not all) of our lingering questions were answered, and we got to see some amazing drag – it might not have been the reunion that we wanted but it was probably the reunion episode that we needed in this chaotic and COVID-19-filled time. Will I watch it again? Eh, I’ll probably skip this one on my next season re-watch. Was it worth the air time? Yeah, I would say so. I was really happy to see a lot of these amazing drag queens on my screen again. Hopefully, in the future, I’ll be able to see them in person when I’m giving them tips at the bar they’re performing at. Ahh, now that’s something to look forward to.

What were you expecting from this season’s reunion episode? Did you want to see some fights? Let us know in the comments below!

A new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 can be seen every Friday at 8/7c on VH1.