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

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 Ep. 9 Review: Designing Drag Queens

RuPaul's Drag Race S17E09 had a Betsey Johnson challenge that felt correct for most of the competing queens, and the looks were sickening.

RuPaul's Drag Race season 17 has another design challenge? Anything that isn't another acting challenge! All jokes aside, this continues with the trend of feeling like an actually good episode of RuPaul's Drag Race and not something cheap or gimmicky for press or filler. Betsey Johnson is an iconic modern designer, and of course it feels so right for her designs to inspire this week's challenge. The queens get to choose between three classic Betsey collections:

Punk Grunge Flapper

Suzie Toot – similar to the snatch game, she seemed to be in her element and talking a big game, and her look was just alright. It wasn't bad, but it didn't blow me out of the water – it was exactly what it says on the tin: punk grunge flapper.

Lydia Butthole Kollins – roadkill she betta don't. Her look this week was a bit of a flop, it was on brand for her, but the pelts might have been just a little bit much for the judges. In the immortal words of Tim Gunn, it's a lot of look.

Jewels Sparkles – she ate this week and absolutely served this collection the house down. RuPaul loved it, Betsy loved it, and she ate, period. Well-deserved win, finally.

Betsey's Prom

Onya Nerve – guuuuurlll, she does not sew and you can tell. Despite that, she did, in fact, have a garment, albeit a tube dress with a few sad bows on it. No Jewels to save you in this design challenge, though she was low but not the worst of the week.

Kori King—oh, miss King. I have a dream that she serves a look in a design challenge that's not a short mini dress and blonde Barbie hair. And yet, here we are, and here she is at the bottom again, lip-syncing for her life.

Lana Ja'rae – her look was…okay, I don't really remember it, which is the best we can hope for from her in a design challenge. It wasn't awful, hooray! Is this the progress Rosa Parks promised us?

Prenup

Lexi Love – after a dramatic workroom meltdown (so expected by this point), she pulls it together and rips off a silhouette from yet another runway show from back in the day. Does anyone really get her references anymore? Regardless, her look was good, and she served a full-body mosquito net veil with a giant tulle ruffle at the bottom, and it was great.

Sam Star – her look was straight-up Madonna circa "Like a Virgin" era, and it was expected and safe but still good. I mean, it is Madonna.

Arrietty – ATE. She served black and white non-binary realness, and it was absolute perfection. I am a sucker for a good bowtie look, and she delivered.

Jewels won the week leaving Kori King to lip sync against her showmance Lydia Butthole Kollins to Kiss Me Deadly, and in an ELECTRIC display (which I believe is a first for RuPaul's Drag Race), they made out mid-performance. How can you not when the song literally begs for it?

Sadly, it was finally Kori King's time and she was sent to sashay away, no twist, no dunk tank.

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

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