The fourth episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” released Friday, marking the possible return of the show’s “Golden Age.”
The “Drag Race Golden Age” is widely known in the show’s fandom to encompass seasons four through six, a time on the show where fights between contestants ran rampant. Episode four of Season 18 recalled the golden years, with intense drama flooding the “Werk Room” and carrying onto the mainstage.
The episode opened with a fight between Mia Starr and Briar Blush. Blush has been poking the bear with both Athena Dion and Starr, causing rifts between Dion and her drag daughter, Juicy Love Dion. The feud culminated with Starr absolutely tearing into Blush.
This seems to be an extension of the “Drag Race Golden Age,” when rivalries between queens brought real-life drama to the show. The producers are finally letting the queens’ personalities drive conflicts rather than splicing audio of talking heads or creating drama out of thin air, enhancing the show’s authenticity.
The next day, RuPaul urged the contestants to pair up with their “bestie.” Continuing to grate on Dion’s nerves, Blush took Love Dion as her partner, leaving Dion with Darlene Mitchell. This turned against Blush, however, as RuPaul revealed each pair was to compete against their partner, taking in a random pair of red carpet moments and design in a fashionable mashup.
Blush wasn’t entirely negative this episode, however. While the queens prepared for the runway, the show included footage of her sharing her life’s story to explain why she was being so bratty, giving her space to make up with Starr.
The “Drag Race” golden age is unfortunately also characterized by queens being marked as villains. For example, Season 4’s Phi Phi O’Hara, now known as Jaremi Carey, quit drag following the backlash she received over her fight with winner Sharon Needles. The new golden age remedies this by making three-dimensional characters of their queens, such as Blush.
On the runway, RuPaul and mainstay judge Michelle Visage were joined by style icon Law Roach and Broadway star Annaleigh Ashford. Roach was an exciting addition, as he has been proven to serve cutthroat critiques and amp up the drama.
I agreed with who RuPaul chose to win each of the pairings except for Dion, whose victory seemed crafted for storyline purposes, emphasizing her overcoming Blush.
While designing, Dion had a moment where she sewed a wedge of fabric in the wrong place. She threw a tantrum despite the entirely fixable situation and created a massive chunk of unlined fabric for a cape — one of my biggest pet peeves.
Her competition with Mitchell, however, had one of the strongest looks of the week. She constructed a gown in the fabric of Kim Kardashian’s 2013 Met Gala look with a metallic necklace to reference Zendaya’s “Dune 2” premiere runway outfit.
While Mitchell saw success, she was beaten out by Vita VonTesse Starr, who took the win with her mashup of Katy Perry’s 2019 Met Gala look and Lil’ Kim’s 1999 VMAs look. VonTesse Starr combined her references to make a beautiful gown of shimmering lavender fabric and a chandelier motif that dominated the runway.
Unfortunately, Kenya Pleaser and Blush ended up lip-syncing “for their lives” to stay in the competition. Roach heavily critiqued Blush’s look, leading to Blush passing out on stage and being escorted away for medical attention.
Multiple queens on the cast had their doubts and pointedly called her out for faking it. It was later clarified on “Whatcha Packin’,” the YouTube show where Visage talks to the newly eliminated queens, that the faint was real.
This is the drama we want and remember from the golden age. It isn’t manufactured. It’s the raw interactions between overworked queens with each other and with the judges.
The two queens lip-synced to “Lights Camera Action” by Kylie Minogue, and Pleaser absolutely destroyed Blush, sending the fainting queen packing. She has been the main character of the season thus far, so I’m curious how the season will progress without a key player.
The episode demonstrated the best of “Drag Race.” It’s a scandal-packed show that highlights the personalities and talents of some of the best drag performers in the game.
With strong casting choices for drama and an emphasis on non-manufactured feuds, I think that the show has had a stark bump in quality since its 2023 move to MTV for Season 15.
To MTV, take RuPaul’s advice: “Good luck, and don’t f%k it up!”
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