‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 1, Episode 4: Celebrate Life

Live! Work! Pose!

If I have one major complaint about season 1 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, a season I otherwise think is charming as hell, it’s that the storytelling is really not at the level of future seasons. Think about the episodes we’ve seen so far: What are the storylines? There are character arcs, like Shannel’s repeated feeling of being robbed in the challenges, or Bebe Zahara Benet’s growth leading into her win last week.

But those aren’t stories in the way we know Drag Race to tell stories now. Drag Race’s best stories are rivalries (Alyssa Edwards vs. Coco Montrese), supportive friendships (Katya and Miss Fame), mother-daughter relationships (Bianca Del Rio and Adore Delano), and so on. So far, the queens have felt siloed into their own lanes, only capable of commenting on the others’ work in their confessionals. Interactions between each other have been few and far between.

Those confessionals do give us some idea of what the queens think of each other, though. The clear top three — Bebe, Ongina, and Nina Flowers — all seem to respect each other. Nobody likes Rebecca Glasscock, and repeatedly insinuate that she’s being fake. Shannel thinks she’s better than everybody. And Jade Sotomayor seems on the outskirts, through no real fault of her own. Finally, in this episode, those arcs finally start to clash.

The challenge this week is to record a PSA for MAC’s Viva Glam campaign, the products for which are sold exclusively to benefit HIV/AIDS research. What exactly the PSA should look like is a point of confusion for the queens: Shannel seems to think she’ll have her full 10 minutes on set to tell one story, while the tone of other queens’ PSAs range from celebratory (Ongina) to solemn (Bebe).

Rebecca is easily the worst of the week, as she fails to even complete the recording of her PSA. She has a breakdown thinking about a friend who lives with HIV, and while her emotions certainly feel real, the other queens have their doubts. Bebe repeatedly floats the idea that Rebecca is not being authentic in her confessionals. And considering a reveal that comes later, Rebecca’s behavior is suspect at most, and somewhat inappropriate at least.

She’s joined in the bottom by Jade, who never manages to get in a groove during her shoot, and the perpetually aggrieved Shannel. Despite utterly fucking up the challenge, Shannel insists her problem was just not understanding the assignment. (To be blunt, I don’t think Shannel would’ve done well this week no matter what she did.) She pulls out a juggling routine to do on the runway to distract from her poor performance. It’s hilariously too much, but in a very endearing, Shannel way.

“You have to celebrate life.”

Nina and Bebe both score high with the judges, but I think only one such score is justified. Nina’s PSA is pretty scattered, the queen speaking hesitantly throughout. I understand the language barrier, but instead of leaning into it, Nina seems to stumble through. Combined with a rough runway, and her high score feels misjudged.

Bebe, on the other hand, really nails it this week. Her runway presentation is very high-fashion and draggy mixed together, with some gorgeous elements that work nicely together. She focuses on being a daughter of Africa in her PSA, and thus speaks from a very personal, emotional place, without losing her usual grace in her manner.

But Ongina takes an entirely different tack, going lively and fun in her PSA. She still manages to communicate a serious message about HIV/AIDS, but focuses on the idea of celebrating life. It strikes a chord with the judges, as does her best-yet runway presentation. She takes the win, her second of the season.

And then things get real.

Overwhelmed after her win, Ongina admits what she had no plans of saying on national television: she is HIV+. She says through tears that “You have to celebrate life,” giving her already great PSA a whole new resonance. She celebrated in her PSA because she celebrates in her life. And not for nothing, but her optimism and resilience despite her own experience make Rebecca’s response to the challenge feel a lot shallower.

It’s notable that Ongina only confesses this after she already gets the win. On modern Drag Race, Ongina would’ve hinted at this episodes ago in a confessional, revealed her story to the other girls in the mirror, used it as the fuel for her challenge performance, and then brought it up again on the main stage. There’s something so much more honest, and thus affecting, about how it happens here. Striking personal moments can feel real on a reality show — they just have to come from a real place.

So finally, we see a breakthrough story: Ongina’s heroism and strength. And just after that, we get another, when Rebecca beats Jade in the “Would I Lie to You?” lip sync. I’ll talk about this more tomorrow in the power rankings, but suffice it to say, I do think Jade turns out the better performance — but I get why Ru wanted to keep Rebecca. The younger queen gets on everyone’s nerves, as we see when Jade utterly dumps on Rebecca on her way out the door. “Rebecca is the fakest bitch I’ve ever met in my life,” she says, and the mask is finally ripped off our season’s new villain. Out with the Akashia, in with the Glasscock. Spoiler alert: That storyline will be what keeps us fed until the very end of this season.

Final Thoughts Wouldn’t Lie to You:

• Though season 1 didn’t have a Reading Is Fundamental challenge, the little critique session that opens the episode basically functions as one. Just, instead of aiming to be funny, the queens are just criticizing each other! One other issue with season 1 is that it doesn’t have the same fun in its format as later seasons do.
• There is a proper mini-challenge, though, as the queens are tasked with doing each other’s makeup — for the second time this season, after the girl group challenge. This is easily the season that involves the queens doing each other’s makeup most; the only other examples of it that I can remember are the makeover challenges in seasons 7 and 11. Shannel is robbed of the win, and she makes sure she tells us so. (I actually agree with her, in this case!)
• Speaking of Shannel, there’s an interesting moment in the main challenge prep in which she says she’ll not even be Shannel for the challenge — that she’ll “visually be Shannel” but she’ll really just be Bryan. This is more of the thinking that you see a lot in the first two seasons: that the drag persona is just a character, not how the queen identifies. There’s no right or wrong way to approach this, but it’s interesting how different the dialogue was back in 2009.
• We get more focus in critiques on appearing masculine, this time directed at Nina Flowers for wearing a pantsuit. Just to be clear: Nina’s outfit is bad because it’s ugly, not because it makes her look too manly.
• Jenny Shimizu makes for an absolutely electric guest judge, which I’d kinda forgotten! Telling Bebe “I would be doing coke with you if this was the ‘90s” is chaotic, and a serve. I wouldn’t mind seeing her come back. Remember when Jenny Shimizu was culture?
• I think Ru’s offense at Jade’s tuck was just too much for Jade to overcome. She was never getting over that particular hump. (So to speak.)

The next Drag Race Rewind recap, covering season 1, episode 5, will be available to Patreon subscribers next Wednesday, April 29.