RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE S14E8 “60s Girl Groups”: The Drama Just Keeps Getting Better

Does anybody else have whiplash or is it just me? After last week’s triumphant episode that felt like a popped bottle of champagne, this week feels a little like a hangover, but at least a hangover that doesn’t take place on a workday. RuPaul giveth and RuPaul taketh away because this week garnered one of the best challenges of the season, but the winner of the challenge was questionable and then it resulted in a devastating elimination. Nonetheless, there are a lot of positive things about episode 8 “60s Girl Groups”.

The episode kicks off with Camden and Daya coming down off of their lip-sync and Camden’s win, while Jasmine reveals in her talking head that she thinks it should have been her in the Top Two alongside Camden instead of Daya, even going so far as to say that she’s pissed about it and basically saying that Daya didn’t deserve it – a statement I totally agree with and it’s so nice to hear another queen say it. Especially with how this week’s episode pans out.

The Shade Of It All

It’s the next day and, after what seems like eons, we have a mini-challenge! And not just any mini-challenge, we have The Reading Challenge, where queens put on stylish glasses and “read” each other because reading is the “real artform of insults”. A timeless tradition of Drag Race, the first up is Kerri, whose best read is zeroed in on Angeria, calling her P-shaped like Wendy Williams. From here, the reads just get better, with few stinkers. Camden calls Willow the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Jorgeous says that Bosco is greasy, and Jasmine jokes about Daya being a two-faced Gemini, a read that Daya takes pretty seriously as we later find out.

The undisputed winner of the Reading Challenge is Bosco who brings that infamous Seattle Freeze to the workroom, killing everyone after saying that Jasmine puts the “bottom” in “lobotomy”. It’s just…perfect. Bosco wins $2,500 courtesy of Sweetarts and RuPaul announces the maxi challenge – a 1960s girl group performance where the queens have to write, sing, choreograph, and perform a throwback song like “Bad Boy Baby” by the Shang-Ru-Las, “He’s My Baby” by the Ru-Nettes, and “Baby Is Love” by the Ru-Premes.

The queens get to choose their teams but there can only be three to a group. Right away, Daya says that she’s got “Bad Boy Baby” and we keep getting shown that she is not wavering on her choice, especially when it looks like “Bad Boy” has four queens. It’s very shady editing as it not only makes Daya seem aggressive even while other queens are saying the same thing. I guess the Daya-villain edit still has a pulse, especially when Jasmine’s commentary on her attitude is peppered in which is most certainly pivoting us towards a Jasmine VS Daya rivalry. In the end, DeJa decides to bow out from “Bad Boy”, which puts her in the Ru-Nettes with Jorgeous and Jasmine. Joining Daya in the Shang-Ru-Las, are Bosco and Willow and the Ru-Premes are Angeria, Kerri, and Camden.

As they do their recordings, Angeria, Bosco, and Daya get a lot of praise while Kerri and Jorgeous stumble, Jorgeous even moreso as she keeps adding syllables to her melody. We don’t get to see everyone recording their vocals though because there’s still choreography that needs to be worked through. It turns out the Willow is a great choreographer and everyone comments on how she likes to keep her talents close to her chest which will likely take her very, very far in the competition.

Later on, when everyone is getting ready, they start talking about their favorite girl groups: Destiny’s Child and En Vogue get brought up and of course, Lady Camden talks about the Spice Girls but the conversation turns interesting when Kerri reveals that because she grew up in a home that was so religious, she wasn’t allowed to listen to girl groups or any secular music. Even if she just hummed “Survivor” in her home, it warranted a spanking. Over the last month two months, we’ve learned a great deal about Kerri’s background – her jump rope championship or her father not even wanting to be in the same room as her when she was a child because she was too feminine – and this detail

After the discussion of Kerri’s background, Daya asks Jasmine about her read earlier in the episode about her being two-faced. It all goes back to two weeks ago in Untucked when Daya just wouldn’t stop talking about being safe and had said that skinny queens – like Jasmine and Jorgeous – can get away with wearing just fabric wrapped around their bodies, and Jasmine took offense. The two go back and forth a bit and while things cool down, you can definitely tell that there may be something on the horizon with these two and their drama.

My Baby Is Love, My Baby Is Happiness…

This week’s special guest judge is actor/comedian Alec Mapa (Half & Half, Ugly Betty) who joins RuPaul, Carson Kressley, and Michelle Visage on the judging panel. Mimicking the Bandstand television programs of the 1950s and 1960s, the different girl group performances are played from a previous recording complete with black-and-white backup dancers and a real retro feel.

First up are the Shang-Ru-Las and they are electrifying; everyone in the group does a fantastic job with everyone doing a pretty equally good job, though Daya’s lyrics do give her the slight edge. Next is the Ru-Nettes where DeJa just completely overshadows Jorgeous and Jasmine, as she looks, sounds, and perfectly dances the part – what a treat to see DeJa do so well! The challenge closes out with the Ru-Premes and, just like Camden says during the recordings, Angeria kills it and will likely be the winner of this week’s episode. Her vocals are great, her look is impeccable and she outshines everyone in her group.

The runway theme is “Heart On” and there’s actually an interesting variety of takes on the subject. While some queens went for something sexy like Willow’s really fun pink and red skirt made from various thongs and panties, others were very literal, like Camden’s pierced heart attachment, Jorgeous’ showgirl heart (plus lingerie), and Kerri’s dress made from what looks like blood vessels. Some of the best concepts are Bosco’s Dracula-inspired look, DeJa’s Sailor Moon-inspired outfit, and, of course, Willow’s runway look, complete with a wig that makes it look like she “just got f*cked in the woods.”

After the performances and the runway, RuPaul declares Bosco, Willow, and Jorgeous as the safe queens, which means that the rest of the queens get their critiques.

Daya and DeJa get really good critiques with Daya being called the best of her group while Carson calls her look a modern Club Kid (I mean, sure?) and Michelle gives DeJa props for actually being a pretty good singer.

Jasmine gets some negative critiques and in a total faux pas, she cuts RuPaul off while she’s speaking!! Oh my god! It doesn’t matter what the critiques are, Jasmine is at the Bottom. Angeria, of course, gets great critiques even on her runway look which barely fits the category but, um, sure, okay. She’s Angeria so she’s going to get high praise.

Next is Kerri and she gets some bad critiques, not only on her outfit, but also on her performance, which Michelle says slipped out of the Ru-Premes and into gospel throughout the number. The gospel note hits pretty hard as we had just learned about how that was essentially Kerri’s background as a child, musically anyway. Oh no, things are not looking good for Kerri.

Camden also gets some low critiques (which is fair, as she was very average in the girl group number) and Ru wants her to apply what she did last week (and she did so, so well!!) to what she will do throughout the rest of the competition.

Ultimately, Daya is declared the winner and, while I was initially annoyed by this outcome, a second viewing of the episode has helped me understand why RuPaul chose Daya. Despite the obvious winner being Angeria or DeJa, two queens who fully embodied the look and feel of their respective girl groups, Angeria’s lyrics were very straightforward with little humor or irony to them while DeJa’s runway look was critiqued for being a little ill-fitting. In enters Daya. Not only do the judges love her really twisted, “nihilistic” and funny lyrics, they also really adore her runway look (a sentiment I personally don’t share).

After Daya wins the $5,000 cash tip, Angeria, DeJa, and then Camden is declared safe, placing Jasmine and Kerri – two transgender sisters who shared such a wholesome and beautiful moment just last week – in the Bottom Two. The song is “Un-Break My Heart (Hex Hector Remix)” by Toni Braxton and it is…sloppy. Why are Jasmine’s lip syncs so sloppy? She’s supposed to be a professional dancer. In Kerri’s case, she did not inherit the dancing skills of her illustrious drag mother Sasha Colby (a fact that Jasmine herself brought up in this week’s Reading Challenge!) but she does her best. Even after awkwardly kicking off one of her heels, Jasmine manages to win the lip sync, which causes her to cry as she didn’t want to have to send Kerri, someone who has inspired her so much in such a short amount of time. However, there is still a chance for Kerri to stay! The golden ticket chocolate bar! Intercut with footage of Jasmine biting her nails (or was it her whole fingers?!) in anticipation, Kerri opens the RuPaul candy bar which reveals no golden ticket. Whomp whomp. And with that, Jasmine cries even harder, and Kerri Colby is asked to sashay away.

Conclusion: 60s Girl Groups

It’s a sad, terrible day in the Drag Race kingdom with Kerri’s departure, especially after her monumental part in last week’s amazing episode. But this is still a reality TV show and production needs to keep us all on our toes; of course, Jasmine and Kerri were going to lip-sync against each other after having such a beautiful moment together in last week’s Untucked. And obviously, the same episode where Jasmine ends up in the Bottom, the girl that she has a direct conflict with ends up winning the Maxi Challenge – it’s like a play-by-play of the gripping reality TV handbook that all of these competition shows keep to.

With this season’s 8th episode, let’s round up the statistics:

• Angeria has 2 wins
• Willow, Bosco, Camden, Jorgeous, and now Daya each have 1 win
• Because Angeria, Bosco, and Willow had won their challenges within the first five episodes of the season, they are most likely to snatch the crown
• Jasmine has been in the Bottom Two twice already, Jorgeous has been there once, and Daya was actually eliminated way back in episode two

We’re (presumably) reaching the end of the season and the odds are ever in Angeria’s favor. But man, this is such a strange season. We still have eight queens in the competition, Snatch Game is nowhere in sight, and I am honestly still not over Kornbread having to go home because of an injury! On the bright side, there are still so many amazing queens still in the competition and this was honestly a really good episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race; I am still humming and singing “Baby Is Love” by the Ru-Premes to myself and to my cat whenever he’s acting cute! The last time a song from Drag Race was stuck in my head was “Bing Bang Bong” (but only the United Kingdolls version!) from Drag Race UK season two and that was so 2021 – a full six or seven seasons of various Drag Race franchises ago.

Thankfully, I only need to focus on this season and I’m looking forward to focusing on the drama brewing up between Daya and Jasmine and getting to see even more amazing talents from this batch of Drag Race contestants as the competition gets more and more intense.

Who’s your winner for season 14? 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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