Posted in: TV | Tagged: drag race, rupaul

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 18 Ep. 4: Designing Mashups & Trainwrecks

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 18 Ep. 4 "Red Carpet Mash Up" saw our queens looking to offer a fresh take on two classic red-carpet fashion looks.

First things first, MTV's RuPaul's Drag Race fans – if you aren't up to speed with the last episode, go catch yourself up and come back – I'll wait. Okay, all caught up now? Welcome to the emotional underbelly of RuPaul's Drag Race season 18! It's a design challenge, but the real meat of the episode feels like the "kiki and share life trauma while painting" portion. Kenya Pleaser talked about her mom, her upbringing, and coming out (and I could listen to her tell me literally anything). Mia Starr opens up about her late brother and making familial amends, and talks to Briar Blush as to why she's so awful to everyone.

Now, on to the main challenge: the queens are put in pairs and tasked with designing and sewing mash-ups of iconic red carpet fits…to be judged against each other. Finally, a challenge that's thicc and juicy. The pairs are:

Athana Dion and Darlene Mitchell are tasked with combining the florals of Kim K's 2013 Met Gala look with Zendaya's metal armor from the Dune 2 premiere.

Kenya Pleaser and Ciara Myst had to mash up Lady Gaga's meat dress with Britney and Justin's "Canadian Tuxedo" looks from the 2001 AMAs.

Briar Blush and Juicy Love Dion get Lil Nas X's 2020 Grammy's pink suit and Rihanna's canary yellow gown from the 2015 Met Gala.

Myki Meeks and Nini Coco pair Nicki Minaj's leopard look from the 2011 Grammys with J-Lo's tropical look from the 2000 Grammys.

Mia Starr and Vita VonTesse Starr have to combine Lil' Kim's "peekaboob" 1999 VMA dress with Katy Perry's Met Gala 2019 chandelier look.

Discord Addams and Jane Don't have to blend Cher's iconic 1986 Oscars look (with the big black feather headpiece, thank you Bob Mackie) with Sarah Paulson's chartreuse Ocean's 8 premiere gown.

Let's start with the bright spots of these Frankenstein mashups: Vita ate. The construction, design, and absolute glamour of it all are breathtaking. Athena's look was good – a little vintage familiar, but she sells it. The judges claimed to like Jane and Ciara, but mama, those looks were ugly.

As for everyone else…designers, these queens are not. They're very lucky Santino Rice isn't a judge anymore, because woof. Nearly all of these looks were ROUGH. Taste is not only called into question, but the queens legit think they eat? In these looks? Like, what?? There's no way that's real, and if these girls all genuinely think these were good looks, what the hell are they doing in a competition about fashion and art?

Vita wins the week, which is a complete no-brainer and could not be more deserved. Lip syncing to Kylie Minogue's "Lights Camera Action" are Briar Blush (for the second week in a row) and Kenya Pleaser. Girl, I don't think Briar knows the song (for the second week in a row). If she somehow survives this, I have absolutely no hope for the franchise anymore, much less the season.

Kenya is safe (cue the confetti) and FINALLY Briar is gone. Swear to god, if they bring her back in some kind of rigged bullsh*t stunt, the show deserves to give back every single one of its Emmys. Mandy Mango may still be gone, but at least there is a small sense of justice in the world of RuPaul's Drag Race.

RuPaul's Drag Race season 18 airs on MTV in the Americas and is streaming on WOW Presents Plus in all other markets.

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