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The first bracket limped to the semi-finals in a ditch of laziness and the producers relied on theatrics and shenanigans to fill the episode because it felt like everyone involved in the production of the show checked out for the summer. Let’s be honest about it! Let’s get into this. We will cry a little.
So this is kind of what All-Stars is all about. It’s not really about the challenges, but about watching a bunch of drag queens hit and run and get a little annoyed with each other. The work itself is an afterthought. Thankfully for everyone (except one which we’ll get to in a moment), they just don’t have it. And if the producers were doing their job with any kind of energy, they would realize that these scenes don’t produce a lot of drama and therefore the long time spent on them is more intense for the audience. We want to see drag queens doing their best in what they do in the USDrag Raceseems to be less interested in that than it was before.
A group of low-ranking queens giving a high-ranking queen extra points is something that didn’t happen in the show’s worst days, but this is a group of drag queens working on the sister model because they all know that being pieces of each other on screen doesn’t pay off. Let’s be clear, though: this is not a complaint or a criticism. If the girls want to support each other and not get into bad fights, the producers need to stop promoting this kind of tom(andlorenzo) stupidity.
Mystique has been growing in her emotions all season, and on the one hand, we have to give her some kind of credit for suppressing her insecurities and not blowing anyone up, but on the other hand, she was starting to be a real drag (no pun intended) at the end of this episode, with raised eyebrows and pointed comments. It was strange at first, because there was no real shenanigans going on in this group; no shady deals or dirty or trash talking. Everyone tries to do their best and they all support each other equally on screen. It’s possible that Mystique’s old school and she doesn’t understand that the show is not full of grudges and vendettas like it used to be, especially because the queens understand that bad attitudes and constant beatings hurt their careers. But this also tends to highlight the limitations of this method of brackets (which is an indication of the laziness of the producer because it is much easier to argue with six queens in three episodes than to try to reduce sixteen of them during the course of the season) because we will not be able to get the big advantage of Mystique opening up to her partner during the challenge. Mystique and Lucky are both out and there is little chance that they will be questioned by the judges again.
As an aside – we’ve been saying this for years and never once got much in the way of support for this idea, but we’ll keep saying it as it’s important – we think there should be a “no good looks in the Working Room” rule in this game. This may seem like an odd thing to hang, but Drag Race was originally about the transformative quality of drag. The scenes in front of the makeup mirror that we take for granted at this point were revelations when they first appeared, and in the first seasons of the show, several notable drag queens refused to participate because they did not believe that drag queens should be seen without drag. The show was used to highlight the difference between queens in and out of drag. Not that Morgan’s cunty hat is equivalent to drag, but there is an increasing amount of makeup worn in the Werk Room every season, not to mention the occasional appearance of heels and skirts, and we think that the queens should be asked to show work in work clothes and leave a good appearance on the big stage. They are more vulnerable if they don’t have some kind of weapon they can rely on. Honestly, it would be ridiculous to give them all some kind of work uniform with a name like scrubs or overalls.
Unfortunately, the queens were given a better challenge and told to go in pairs. Improvised challenges tend to be the most frustrating to sit through and the most confusing, and seem like an easy way for the show to come off. There are no production numbers, no music, no choreo and not even any writing outside of the frame. All the show has to do is create the atmosphere, put together a basic set, and then sit back and let the queens find you.
Come up with fun challenges! Give these witches a chance to piss us off instead of always giving them challenges they hope to survive. When people list the funniest or most iconic moments in Drag Race history, it’s always about a queen who does an amazing job being a queen (or about delivering an eyelash reading, but that’s pretty much the same thing). To be fair, sometimes that means watching a queen fail spectacularly, but that’s still more fun than watching queens just race against the clock and face a challenge and hope to make it through.
We don’t really check these efforts because they were all equal, with veteran queens like Morgan and A’keria standing out for their smoothness and professionalism. No one was a disaster and no one delivered a funny performance. How could they do it? It’s a noble challenge to separate the wheat from the chaff, Morgan, A’keria and Dawn have duly risen to the top, but we keep coming back to the same question: Does anyone else remember when the challenges were fun to sit through?
Category: Paris, France 🇫🇷 Which runway is ooh la la? ✨#AllStars11pic.twitter.com/LBITbKSxNh
– RuPaul’s Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace)May 15, 2026
We had a lot of laughs in the episode. Just throw the house at them and call it a day.
But these queens are good at their jobs and the results are the best part of the episode. The flight path is usually that, because it depends entirely on what the queens bring instead of Ru or producers.
Dawn’s Parisian mouse was a beautiful, clever, and very detailed way for Dawn to interpret the section. Morphine has been putting out some great outfits and her take on the grave was of all time in terms of originality.
It was nice to see Rucky gushing over Lucky’s work after calling it cosplay last week. This was an amazing look and her artistry is almost too much for Drag Race to handle. Like many of Lucky’s designs, it could have benefited from some more detailing, but good work nonetheless.
Mystique looked great, but this is All-Stars and pretty lady drag won’t get you to the end.
These two stand out above the other queens in their polish and professionalism. Both looks are amazing, although we continue to disagree with Morgan about which wigs work best on her face.
Morgan and Dawn faced each other with a lip sync. There’s a good argument that A’Keria should have been there, but she was so far ahead of the other queens in terms of points that it made sense for the two to duke it out. They were equally well-matched to the song, but we think Morgan may have slightly outdone Dawn’s performance.
The judges disagreed with us. Still, we’re glad to see Dawn make it to the finals. The scoring took an unexpected turn, with A’Keria and Morgan tied for second place, leaving Ru to break the tie without explaining his reasoning. It’s not that we think the results are too shady as they are the result of not really doing their job and producing a realistically smooth competition.
But whatever. Props to A’Keria, who can never be seen as unworthy. Morgan will likely be summoned again when the jury is out. Now list the next bracket.
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