RECAPTION: Ru Paul's Drag Race Season 4, Ep 2

The opening of the second episode was some impressive foreshadowing for a reality show. When queens came in and saw Alisa’s message on the mirror (after she’d been eliminated), one of the queens asked, “Who wants to trade Jiggly for Alisa?” Every queen (it seemed) raised their hands and laughed. More on that later.

LaShauwn Beyond was dubbed the silent killer because the queens thought she’d win the challenge with her outfit. But she had no personality. Womp womp.

Ru Paul’s mini-challenge for the queens was to construct an ass from different forms of padding. The results were quite the spectacle, and PhiPhi O’Hara, Willam and Chad Michaels’ bottoms came out on top. The best thing about this mini-challenge: the impromptu half-drag looks.

Girl, it's 5'oclock GST, and you still haven't had time to shave?!

When it was time for the winners to choose their teams for the drag queen wrestling challenge, Jiggly and Madame LaQueer were the last 2 to be picked. This made no sense to me because Ru said she wanted “over the top wrestling characters”. Given Miss Beyond’s criticisms last week, I wouldn’t depend on her to create any kind of character. But maybe there was some truth to them wanting to send Jiggly home.  Madame LaQueer hasn’t made much of an impression on me this season, but her injured ankle is definitely a worry factor for these physical challenges.

Can we have a short conversation about how I NEED to be in a ring in spandex with those wrestling instructors! Logo (because I know y’all are reading), were they gay wrestlers?!

(Then again, they spend all night all sweaty trying to pin down men in underwear… if a few drinks doesn’t do the trick, I don’t know what will!)

Notice how Ru went right after the weakest link when she did her workroom checkins, asking LaShauwn to demonstrate her wrestling persona. Shade!

The first match was LaShauwn Beyond and Phi Phi O’Hara vs Latrice Royale and Kenya Michaels. I thought they had the best opening skit, and I loved the costumes for the whole group. They looked the most like two unified teams. Phi Phi and Kenya’s slapping match was a hoot, and Kenya slapping Phi Phi with the powder puff… as bitchy as Phi Phi’s been, that was definitely a satisfying crunch!

"Bitch, you're not supposed to hit me for real!" 

Dida and Willam vs Jiggly Caliente and The Princess was the second match.  Their skit was lacking, and Princess was NOT bringing it with the acting (which surprised me, mostly because I thought she was Sharon Needles with that wig). The costumes didn’t feel coordinated either, though I do like Willam’s Dallas-Cowboys-cheerleader-gone-red look.

Last was Sharon Needles and Milan vs Chad Michaels and Madame LaQueer. Chad was giving dangerously close to giving me 80s rocker, hair metal dude with that look. I loved Madame LaQueer’s huge boobs! Their opening skit wasn’t as good as the first but was better than the second overall. I had mixed feelings about making the big girl the unintelligible animal, but Chad and Madame’s evil team high five at the end of the skit was pretty damn fierce.

When Ru Paul came out for the elimination in that dress, I wanted to hit her with a bat and collect the candy off the ground!

¡Cover Chica!

Looks that stuck out to me from the girly-girl runway presentation:

Kenya Michaels was giving me so much Lil Kim. And NOT Nicki Minaj.

I adored LaShauwn Beyond’s Bubble gum.

Sharon Needles “beauty” look looked well intentioned, but something was just OFF.

Milan made so little impression.

Madame LeQureer: lovely from head to toe.

Loved Chad Michael’s dress was hot, but that was about it.

The Princes: Shoulders! Skirt! Windblown hair! But she looked old!

Latrice Royale’s DRESS! Gorgeous color on her! But what’s up with her light foundation?!

Willam’s stomach was HOT! But I was lukewarm on the look. And I wasn’t living for the walk.

While I didn’t agree with Chad Michaels’ team winning the wrestling challenge, I felt like she and Madame LaQueer were the most memorable pair. And from the judges’ critiques, there seemed to be a lot we couldn’t see with the editing for the show.

Notice how she said NOTHING to Willam besides “You’re safe.”

LaShauwn didn’t deserve to be in the bottom two with The Princess from what I could see, but my money was on her in the lip synch.

"Bye bye, queen!"
"Girl, get your shoes and get off my damn stage!"

During said lip synch, LaShauwn’s dress dominated that stage. But The Princess was right: if your shoes come off, you need to do some serious acrobatics.

In the end, LaShauwn, who they thought would win the challege last week, ended up chasseing away. Really, for me… Dida should have gone home.

PS, that last shot of Willam just highlighted how fucking awkward she is!

The Untucked special started out a bit slow, but after the winning team went into the Interior Iluuuuusions Lounge, I really wanted to hear what Jiggly had said about Sharon Needle’s boyfriend.

After a commercial break, we found out that Jiggly said that two drag queens dating was “disgusting.” Turns out Sharon’s boyfriend is a drag performer, and Jiggly had said this right after she found out about Sharon’s boyfriend.

Then Ru surprised Sharon with a video from Sharon’s boyfriend Alaska. It was so goddamn precious! She seems like a fierce entertainer. But is she schizophrenic? Why is Sharon so worried about her “health” and her “sanity”?

So, out on the stage with the non-winning drag queens, Ru asked who they thought should go home. The girls ALL went after Jiggly, which is pretty understandable since her personality is damn extreme. And as much as I love her presentation, I can see why the other girls don’t like her (and it seems a lot of that got edited out, too). I have to wonder if she’s ever been confronted with her personality issues as directly as in this situation with the other drag queens. Props to Latrice for breaking the ice with that whole conversation when they came back to the Lounge. She’s definitely the mother of the group, and that southern accent is the icing on the cake!

"Girl, you got 12 sisters who love you so much we want to send you home!" 

And even bigger props to Chad Michaels for talking about her struggles with plastic surgery. It really is nothing to try to bootleg, and it can literally be a matter of life and death. Every aspiring drag performer in the country is probably watching this show, and her testimony is important for everyone to hear.

Meanwhile back in the lounge, Jiggly’s intervention continued. Ladies, why are we yelling at Jiggly? I mean, Phi Phi was saying stuff that Jiggly needed to hear, but the delivery was all off! And Dida was yelling too! But when I saw Latrice raise her voice (and still say loving, relatable things to her), I knew the tension in the room around Jiggly was major! They were probably just trying to be heard.

And as much as I was rooting for Jiggly last week, homegirl really disappointed me with how she handled Sharon Needles’ confrontation. It just bled of ignorance. Just like she’d be livid if someone said something disparaging about Filipinos and then turned around and said, “I meant Filipinos in general, not you specifically. Don’t take it so personally!” Get it together, girl!

Oh, and wasn't WTF the perfect wrestling acronym for this episode, but what could it stand for? Leave your answer in the comments! 

Memorable Quotes:

“Princess is giving closed captioning while [Jiggly’s] in stereo.” –Willam

“She was going for Sex and the City, and it was more like sex in the alley.”

“Well, I’m not gonna turn that down either.”

“Your Sex and the City couture did not deserve a sequel.” –Ru Paul

Fine, fine! I'll take off my heels next to you!

“To do the whole song with no shoes. And closed-toed pantyhose! Like a web-footed duck! LaShauwn’s drag mother is gonna read him…” –Willam

Click here to check out my recaption for RPDR Ep 4.1
Click here to check out my recaption for RPDR Ep 4.3

Click here to check out my adventures on my first gay cruise!