Posted in: MTV, TV | Tagged: drag race, rupaul

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 Ep. 14 Thoughts: What Happens in Vegas

MTV's RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 Ep. 14 saw our queens thinking, "Vegas, baby! Vegas" as they auditioned for the live Las Vegas show.

MTV's RuPaul's Drag Race is nearing the finish line, but before we reach our final destination, the first stop is Las Vegas! To be specific, the RuPaul's Drag Race: Live show at the Flamingo Las Vegas. This week, the five remaining queens have to compete for a headlining spot in the Vegas show after their time on Drag Race, and of course, a spot in the final four for the season 17 crown. Just a point of clarity before I go on, though. What follows are my personal thoughts and feelings on the episode and the season overall – words like "rigged" and "riggery" aren't meant as any kind of serious accusation towards anyone doing anything shady. I choose those for my writing style to mean that the producers and editors could do a better of offering more well-rounded looks at all of the queens competing.

Onya Nurve is the clear frontrunner, and I hate it. Make this at least feel like a fair fight, please. Yes, yes, she's sickening – and has a great story, and is deserving, but the edit this season has pushed her to win, and frankly, it's a little annoying constantly seeing "Onya can do no wrong, she always makes the judges laugh, Onya has 4 wins, Onya is totally going to take the crown unless she blows it in an insane way," which is very unlikely. She's a fantastic queen, yes, but it feels hollow and formulaic at this point.

Jewels Sparkles is the other frontrunner at this point, and that's a surprising twist given that she's been lackluster in this competition and has the track record to prove it. If this turn came maybe halfway through the season, I would be here for it, but having this upswing in a season right at the end when she should have gone home at least twice feels cheap. In the Vegas promo, she's trying so hard to make this "ting!" thing happen, and I absolutely loathe it.

It's like fetch; it's never going to happen. She feels like she's "found her place" in the competition, but unfortunately, that place is a generic queen who's pretty good at lots of things and has a standard "drag queen girlie-pop" kind of look, and it's boring. BORING. It's a travesty that boring queens make it so far in this competition just on the merit of doing well for a challenge and then continuing to coast. It's too little too late for Jewels, and going into the finale, if it's seriously down to her vs Onya, the producers have done her dirty because that's far from a fair fight anywhere outside of a lip sync.

Lexi Love is another queen I feel similar about—she was cast to check the box for "fashion queen who's in her head," but her storyline this season was a little too lackluster, and I really disliked her from the jump. Her looks are great, but the way the edit focused on her life struggles every week, as well as this unchanging silhouette, was boring before we even got to the snatch game, which she should have gone home for.

The fact we have not seen her in the bottom two is absolute riggery to the point where she doesn't even feel like a real competitor, just some form of nepo hire they can't get rid of. Does she have blackmail on RuPaul or something, and that's why she's been coasting this long? It's annoying when queens with a real point of view and personality who really tried at a challenge and thought out of the box leave when queens like Miss Alexis Love here continue to just coast on the virtue of making entertaining reality TV interview clips.

Suzie Toot is an interesting queen, and she has a schtick and personality to boot. Sadly, it feels like we've been robbed in the edit this season because they love her, great critiques and wins, and then suddenly it's the Suzie hate train, and she's gone right before the finale. Like, what? Make it make sense, they hated that she showed HER personality they've done nothing but praise in the promo video and called it "not Vegas enough" like…hello, people come to Vegas for personalities. Do you think Celine Dion exudes Vegas vibes? Not really, but that doesn't stop her annual residency from selling out.

Vegas is about the draw of personalities, and if you think that Jewels is going to bring more people to the show than Suzie, you have no idea how marketing works. RuPaul is delusional, and the only reason that makes sense to cut Suzie out of the finale is that they're saving her for other shows or opportunities down the line. There were several points this season where she should have been at the top and even won, which would make her, Onya, and Sam even as far as track records go. But alas, this isn't Eden's Fairness Race; it's RuPaul's Riggery Race, and it feels bad at this moment and has for a lot of this season.

Sam Star does fill the "pageant queen who comes out of her shell" casting this season, but at least she's enjoyable to watch in and out of drag. She has a personality, her looks are sickening, and she's still poised. Of the finalists, she and Suzie are the only ones who come close to having as much personality as Onya, and it's a shame they were both at the bottom this week, with Lexi and Jewels prioritized over both of them. This really is RuPaul's Subjectivity and Favoritism Rac,e after all.

Perhaps this is a prime example of society outgrowing the old reality TV system and tropes – we no longer need or appreciate the same cookie-cutter contestants season after season with sensationalized drama that's obviously fake when the drama of a high-stakes competition with big personalities is enough. The producers and editors here need to take a more hands-off approach and let the audience think for themselves and draw their own conclusions instead of being spoon-fed exactly how they should think and feel.

Next week's episode is the annual lip sync Lalaparuza, which brings back all the eliminated girls and matches them up in lip syncs bracket-style. The week after is the finale, and our final four are locked in and ready to fight for the crown.

RuPaul's Drag Race season 17 airs on MTV on Friday nights.

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