RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE S14311 “An Extra Special Episode”: A Exhilerating Lip Sync Smackdown Raises The Stakes

In the wake of the worst Snatch Game in RuPaul’s Drag Race herstory, the queens open this week’s episode sitting on the couches in the workroom, ruminating on how terrible they had done during the last episode, except for our most recent winner, DeJa Skye. The queens talk and wonder over how things will go in this week’s lip-sync tournament to determine who will be sent home and Daya – the queen who’s been given a villain edit for being salty towards other queens – brings up a valid point in her confessional.

Lip Syncs have been a major aspect of the show that has always decided who gets to stay and who gets to leave, but they are a double-edged sword. Yes, you can basically fail your way to the end of the competition by doing badly in the challenges but then slaying the lip syncs (this was brought up way back in season five with Alyssa Edwards explicitly saying that she would lip-sync to the crown if she needed to) but no queen has ever, and hopefully will never win the crown this way. However, the danger is that queens that definitely will not win could take out all of the frontrunners by beating them in a lip-sync, which makes for great television, but not for a very satisfying outcome. And with this episode, there is a real chance that Jorgeous and Jasmine – two queens that have lip-synced many times throughout this season – could very easily eliminate queens who have done much better in the competition, and that has Daya worried.

And she’s really not wrong because, while the best lip syncers aren’t necessarily going to win the crown, it does get to a point where they’ve overstayed their welcome. And remember, Daya had already lost a lip sync against DeJa way back in episode two so she has every reason to be worried that, even though she’s been doing well in the competition, it’s a major possibility that she could go home, and she doesn’t really find that fair.

Daya tells the other queens that she’s angry over Jasmine and Jorgeous getting all of these chances to do stay and still ending up doing poorly in the competition, prefacing with her now-infamous “no offense, but…” The other queens are pretty quiet when Daya speaks her mind on the matter, making her look like a bit of a bitch. However, when it’s brought up later in the workroom as the queens prepare for the lip sync tournament, Bosco says that she indeed wasn’t pleased with the outcome and that she thinks that Daya was saying what the other queens were thinking. Bosoco quickly pivots the conversation to being about how she’s irritated with herself for failing so badly in the Snatch Game and she’s embarrassed by her failure, a sentiment I’m sure everyone else shares.

In her confessional, Bosco says she’s worried about going up against Jorgeous or Willow and Daya says to the room that she’s worried about going up against the dancing queens in the competition like Jorgeous or Jasmine. But let’s be honest, the best moment in the episode would undoubtedly be a Daya VS. Jasmine lip sync! Especially after Jasmine brings up Daya’s habit of saying “no offense” before airing her grievances and the two have a back-and-forth that unleashes Daya’s habitual eye-rolls. Is Jasmine trying to clear the air or, as Daya hypothesizes, is Jasmine trying to Daya in her head?

The Lip Syncs

There are no special guests this week, only RuPaul, Michelle Visage, Ross Matthews, and Carson Kressley, as everyone makes their way to the mainstage decked out in their best dancing costumes – except for DeJa of course since she earned the privilege of watching the lip syncs. RuPaul explains the rules for the “LALAPARUZA” (a ridiculous spelling, if you ask me) and it’s actually pretty straight-forward: there will be six lip syncs and the winners of each lip sync are declared safe from elimination until there are only two queens left in the competition, the final queen to lose the final lip sync must sashay away. There is a lot to choose one queen to lip-sync and that queen gets to choose her opponent and Jasmine Kennedie’s name is the one that’s chosen from the lot.

It’s shady and absolutely diabolical but, Jasmine makes the best decision of our lives by naming Daya Betty – the queen she has been verbally squaring off with for weeks now – as her opponent. Daya is mad and plucked at having to go up against such a dancing diva but the ball is in her court because, unknown to Jasmine, Daya is the one who gets to choose the song! What a delicious twist! And because this is the first round, Daya has five songs to pick from, namely:

• “Respect” by Aretha Franklin
• “Never Too Much” by Luther Vandross
• “Don’t Let Go” by En Vogue
• “Love Don’t Cost A Thing” by Jennifer Lopez 
• “Radio” by Beyoncé

She chooses Aretha because it’s not a kicking and bucking song, which neutralizes the playing field a bit since Daya is just not able to kick and buck like Jasmine can. This is so juicy that almost feels over-produced but honestly, I don’t care – I need this lip sync smackdown. As the song progresses, Jasmine does her usual moves while Daya brings attitude and subtle dance moves that go with the song, taking up space at the front of the stage – one could say that she’s intentionally blocking Jasmine from the judges but to me, it looks like Jasmine just keeps doing her tricks and turns in a spot that happens to be right behind Daya.

By the end of the song, it’s clear that Jasmine is doing a bit too much while Daya keeps it cool and collected, making Ru‘s decision to declare Daya the winner a valid one. Everything had been building to this moment, not only the bitterness Daya felt towards Jasmine but also Jasmine’s extremely confident attitude before her lip sync against Maddy Morphosis way back in episode six which she mirrored before this lip sync against Daya, so confident in another lip-sync victory. Because both Jasmine and Daya have had their fair share of drama with other queens over the last eleven weeks, I think that any outcome would have felt correct because they have both been heroes and villains in these storylines, making this moment such good reality television!

In round two, the lot goes to Willow Pill who names Bosco, an outcome that Bosco did not want to happen! Willow says that she chose Bosco because she was sure that Bosco’s song choice would be in Willow’s favor. Ugh, her mind, I love Willow. But I also love Bosco so this is will be tough to watch! Bosco chooses “Never Too Much” by Luther Vandross, calling it one of her karaoke songs so this is sure to be a good one.

As the song begins, Daya and DeJa give commentary, which adds a little extra something that we don’t get to see on this show. Bosco is immediately moving around the stage while Willow looks to take it very seriously, giving a performance that’s very similar to Daya’s in round one. However, Willow is revealing a very sensual side that we haven’t seen before and it f*cking works so when Ru declares her the winner, I fully agree. Bosco is very sexy and does a great job, so it’s close but this was undoubtedly Willow’s win.

For round three, RuPaul declares a three-way lip sync between the remaining queens: Lady Camden, Jorgeous, and Angeria Paris VanMichaels. A lot for the song is pulled in Jorgeous’ favor, who goes against everyone’s assumptions (they all expect her to pick the J.Lo song), and decides on “Radio” by Beyoncé.

In this moment I am very worried for Angeria because Camden and Jorgeous are such powerhouses when it comes to lip syncing and this is the first time we’re seeing Angie perform like this. She’s the frontrunner so I don’t want her to go home! Unlike the first two rounds, this is certainly a song that needs some dancing and they all pull out the tricks and there’s even a dip or two. When Ru says “shantay you stay” to Jorgeous, it is 100% expected as she pushed herself to move a little bit better and a little bit harder than Angie or Camden. After Jorgeous sits down with DeJa and the other safe queens, basking in her victory, Daya gives Jorgeous her flowers, telling her that she is now a stan of the pint-sized prancer. It’s a moment that softens Daya and hopefully brings some peace between the two of them in the weeks to come while also kind of cementing Jorgeous as the best lip syncer/dancer of the season (so far) as she proved to be better than Camden in this round and Jasmine had already been defeated in the first round. That is honestly pretty impressive.

Onto round four. It’s Lady Camden’s name that is picked from the lot and, between the three remaining queens, she chooses to go up against Bosco. It’s a decision that leaves me so anxious because I also really love Camden and can’t stand to see either her or Bosco go up against each other and have one of them lose – it’s too hard! Bosco’s song choice is “Don’t Let Go” by En Vogue and, as Willow points out, we’ve already seen all of Camden’s dancing tricks, so this song may give Bosco the edge she needs. However, Camden turns it out and easily wins the lip sync, which means that Bosco has only one more chance to win.

Round five is now down to Jasmine and Angeria and I will tell you right now, I cannot accept Angeria going home, especially not at the hands of Jasmine. I really like Jasmine, but she has been in the Bottom so many times and the thought of her taking out one of the best queens of the season makes me livid. Their song is “Love Don’t Cost A Thing” by Jennifer Lopez, a song Angeria says she has never lip-synced to before. From the jump, Jasmine goes all out with the dancing but she does a lot of the same moves that she had done in her first lip sync of the night, which doesn’t feel as fresh when compared to Angeria. It’s a bit of a toss-up and the queens backstage are giving their opinions, talking about how Angie either did so well or the fact that she CAN NOT leave the competition while Daya is the one to come to Jasmine’s defense in a surprise twist, saying that she really sold the sexiness of the song. It’s a very, very close call but RuPaul ultimately declares Angeria to be safe and I am so happy because Angeria going home just isn’t an option.

However, that leads to the final round and the two remaining queens: Bosco and Jasmine. I’m not going to lie when I say that I really want Bosco to stay and for Jasmine to go, not only because I like to root for a Seattle queen but also because the storyline is directing me that way: Bosco is a frontrunner, she is deeply hurt by doing so poorly in the Snatch Game, and this lip sync is a real underdog moment for her. Jasmine has been in the Bottom Two-three previous times in this competition, she was expected to do badly in Snatch Game, it is almost a given at this point for her to win in a lip-sync and, while her confidence was shaken thanks to the outcome of this tournament, there’s little reason to root for her, at least narratively.

The song for the final round is “Swept Away” by Diana Ross which is a very cool, sexy song that either of these queens could dominate with. Jasmine has proven to be a very sexy dancer but Bosco is the one who brings real sexuality and her “stripper moves” to the stage, working her unbelievably gorgeous body. Jasmine holds her own but it’s very clear that Bosco, the underdog of this episode, had won the lip sync and RuPaul declares her the winner….but wait! There’s still that goddamn chocolate candy bar. There is still a chance for Jasmine to stay in the competition. With every passing episode, the music leading up to the reveal of a possible golden ticket has become louder, more industrial, and teeth-gritting. But, like so many queens before her, Jasmine revealed it to be just chocolate. No golden ticket, no one last save. While this is very sad for Jasmine, it is a relief for everyone wanting the season to continue on.

Conclusion: An Extra Special Episode

After winning the final round, Bosco returns to the workroom, everyone cheers for her triumph and, we find that this week’s episode of Untucked takes place after Jasmine is eliminated so she’s not there as the other queens reflect on the episode and themselves. By this point, they’ve all accepted how bad most of them did in the Snatch Game and Bosco jokes that they were able to set themselves apart by how bad the majority of them did. And honestly, I’m glad about it. The last time there was a bad Snatch Game, it was season eleven and the Bottom Two ended up being Brooke Lynn Hytes and Yvie Oddly who gave us truly one of the best lip syncs in the entire franchise, and with season fourteen’s awful Snatch Game, we were given the gift of this gripping Lalaparuza Lip Sync Smackdown tournament. This was a really, really great episode and, as DeJa says in Untucked, it ended the way she felt it needed to because it was ultimately Jasmine’s time to go.

I will truly miss Jasmine because, despite being in the midst of various conflicts from the beginning, she always had this unwavering, positive attitude that just rolled with each punch that was aimed at her. Even with her overtalking and her overconfidence in her lip syncs, Jasmine was a lovely presence on the show, a beautiful addition to the pantheon of Drag Race transgender contestants, and a really juicy foil for Kornbread, Maddy, and Daya.

Next week’s episode will be a Ru-sical challenge and this breakthrough that we had been edging on for weeks has finally peaked. There are still seven queens in the running for America’s Next Drag Superstar and the momentum from these last few weeks needs to keep going or I fear that we may have a flop of a season. After this fabulous episode though, I daresay that I have faith.

Are you happy that we finally have an elimination? Let us know in the comments below!

A new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 14 can be seen every Friday at 8/7c on VH1.

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