‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 2, Week 1: Ru as My Witness
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If you ask me what the best season of RuPaul’s Drag Race is, I will answer with “season 5” 10 times out of 10. I can understand the argument for All Stars 2, and think UK season 1 will only grow in our estimation over time, but season 5 is the gold standard for a reason. It may simply be unbeatable as the best.
If you ask me what my favorite season of Drag Race is, on the other hand … that’s a different question. And while I might say season 5, All Stars 2, and UK season 1 at different junctures, I’d actually probably say season 2 most of all.
What makes season 2 so damn fun to watch, and why I think it’ll be a great season for this project, is that it’s a show finding itself in real time. Unlike season 1, which is fun but ultimately too much of a beta to be great, season 2 is where Drag Race becomes Drag Race. The signature elements and challenges are all here, and the cast is game for all of them, not to mention iconic top-to-bottom. Still, Ru’s just as invested in this crop as he was in the first season’s cast, so you’ve got the benefit of an attentive host as well. It’s not a perfect season, of course: The Vaseline filter is gone, but the rough picture quality still stands. And there are a few janky challenges early in the season before the show falls into its groove.
Still, this is a remarkable season, with tons to recommend it. And this premiere is no exception. “Gone With the Window” offers up a terrific first design challenge, some great results on the runway, and more drama than you can shake a wig at. It’s a welcome first step into season 2.
Immediately upon their introductions, you can feel the cast split up into pairs depending on who knew each other before. Shangela and Sahara Davenport are high school pals reunited. Nicole Paige Brooks and Sonique are Atlanta sisters. Raven and Morgan McMichaels are close friends. Already, these queens stand out in the crop of 12, because they not only talk about themselves, they can talk about each other. Among the other half-dozen, I’m personally most drawn to the stunning Jessica Wild from Puerto Rico, while I know we’re in for a ride with fishy younger queen Tatianna. (Fun fact: Her age as displayed in this episode is a lie. She was still 20!)
The queens note the new workroom, which is a major step up from season 1’s, and are quickly joined by a very friendly Ru. It’s so funny to see RuPaul not only shake hands and familiarize himself with the girls, but also know the queens’ names before they introduce themselves. It blows Pandora Boxx back that he knows her — imagine how blown back a queen would be if they got that treatment now.
Ru introduces the Gone With the Wind-inspired mini-challenge photo shoot, which Raven wins on the strength of her impressive photograph. This grants her the ability to choose her fabric for the maxi-challenge first, as it’s a window curtain design task. Get it? Gone with the Wind-ow? Funny! I like it. The other queens all have to fight for their fabric, and Tati and Morgan really get into it over one particular set. Tati doesn’t let go, despite grabbing it second, so Morgan has to go with some leftovers.
The top performers in the challenge are Morgan, Pandora, and Tyra Sanchez, who Ru immediately clicks with in the workroom. You can tell Tyra’s already one of his favorites, so it’s kind of surprising that she doesn’t take the win. Instead, it’s Morgan, who makes the most of her second-choice fabric and earns the win.
Personally, I’d have given the win to either Tyra or Jessica, whose gorgeous flower-enhanced jumpsuit gets waved on to safety. This is not the last time this season that Jessica will be given somewhat short shrift in comparison to her performance — she’s a very strong queen, but for whatever reason, she’s minimized this season. Perhaps her relatively low-key behavior damned her, as this group is full of big personalities.
One of those personalities is Shangela, who we know from previously recapped seasons, but at this point is just a rough-around-the-edges girl who hasn’t even been doing drag for a full year. She’s got charisma out the wazoo, but she just doesn’t have the skills required for a competition like this. She’s joined in the bottom three by friend Sahara, and messy queen Mystique Summers Madison. The latter’s split on the runway saves her from a bottom two spot, and instead the high school friends must battle it out.
The lip sync is a repeat of “Cover Girl” from the season 1 finale, and it’s certainly messy. The queens’ hair and shoe losses here strike me as sloppy in a way that Jackie Cox’s in our most recent contemporary lip sync does not. It’s all a bit too manic for my taste, though I admire the passion both performers bring. It’s only when Sahara gets more graceful, though, and pulls out her ballet moves that she really seizes the victory.
We say goodbye — for now, at least — to Shangela, who Ru seemingly knows is going to come back even in this moment. “I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of you yet,” she says. Ru of the past, you don’t even know the half of it.
Final Thoughts From Atlanta, Georgia:
- Since this is the first season with Untucked, and it’s also one of the better Untucked seasons, I’m gonna try and watch the side-show along with the regular one as much as I can this go-around. (It’s all available on Hulu if you want to watch it, too!) So when there’s something notable, we’ll have a little Untucked Corner here in the final thoughts. Speaking of!
- Untucked Corner: Before the main attraction, we get a lot of scattered chatter between the queens, including Nicole insisting Tati going to school in drag is “t***** behavior.” YIKES! But nothing is messier than the fight between Morgan and Mystique, which would be the stuff of legends on its own. The fact that it happens in the very first Untucked ever only adds another layer of iconicity. First off, Morgan is drunk in this. Second, “You have no manners!” is something I personally want to quote more. “Bitch, I am from Chicago!” is every bit as amazing in context as it is out. Juju trying her best to stop the fight makes her a queen of peace. But maybe my favorite moment of all is Shangela walking by at the end, fanning herself, saying “Well all right, can I focus on lip syncing for my life?” SO GOOD!
- “Jealous of My Boogie” is one of my favorite Ru songs, and while it doesn’t make for the best runway anthem, it’s still a ton of fun to hear every week. We love a synth!
- Nitpicky, but I never loved that they used to judge the mini-challenge as part of the maxi-challenge judging when there was already a mini winner. That’s one change in recent seasons I appreciate.
- Sahara mentioning her Asian boyfriend when explaining her outfit is an early Manila Luzon call-out!
- I feel like I say this every premiere of an earlier season, but it’s just insane how much the supercut gives away about the season. If you put together an outfit chart, you’d know who the top 2 was — because they show the top 2 lip sync’s aftermath in the supercut! Pandemonium.
- Another recurring segment this season: the Bring Back My Girls Accuracy Report. This is the season where Ru really started to work out what her catchphrase for returning the queens to the stage would be, and let’s just say she didn’t quite get it on the first try. This week: “Let’s bring the girls … back in.” Okay, a little rough, but we’ve got a dramatic pause, and three of the four necessary words. B, maybe B- start.
- Morgan and Mayhem Miller from season 10 (plus All Stars 5) are very close IRL, which makes me wonder: is Mayhem’s “I didn’t come to crash the party, I came to end it” an intentional or unintentional tribute to Morgan saying “I don’t start drama, I end it’? (Obviously it’s also a reference to her own entrance line about crashing the party from season 10, but we love a double reference!)
- We don’t see it in this episode, but since it does technically happen here before next week: Shangela is the creator of the lipstick mirror message, doing it on a whim and starting a tradition that still happens to this day.
- Absolutely howled at Morgan pronouncing Shangela’s name “Shahn-jah-lah” in Untucked. And we’re off, girls!
The next Drag Race Rewind recap, covering season 2, episode 2, will be available to Patreon subscribers next Monday, June 1.
