‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 6 Premiere: Split Beginnings
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From one even-numbered season with a dominant frontrunner and a likable cast, we move on in our RuPaul’s Drag Race rewatch to … uh, an even-numbered season with a dominant frontrunner and a likable cast. Welcome to season 6!
I kid. Honestly, despite their similar strengths, seasons 6 and 8 don’t share a lot in common. Season 6 is much longer, allowing for more character development of its cast. The challenges are on the whole stronger, with some really iconic performances lying in wait for us. And perhaps the most major difference is something it shares in common with season 12: a split premiere.
That’s right, instead of giving us the full cast of 14 at once, we only meet seven queens in this episode. In season 12, the show chose not to eliminate anyone in its premieres, but here, we are indeed losing one of these seven queens. As Ru notes when he explains the split, there’s less room to fade into the background with just seven queens — everyone gets critiqued, and everyone is vulnerable.
At the time, I wasn’t that fond of the split premiere, particularly because the group we get here isn’t as strong as the group we’ll discuss next week. It feels like we got off on the wrong foot with them. (This is the exact opposite in season 12, which started with the much stronger crop; only eventual winner Jaida Essence Hall stood out from group 2.) But time has been kind to many of these queens, including and especially meme legends Gia Gunn and Laganja Estranja, while utter drag stars Adore Delano and BenDeLaCreme also make their debuts here. It’s a stronger premiere in retrospect than you’d think — and hey, any episode that features a bottom two like Vivacious and Kelly Mantle, plus a fan favorite underdog like April Carrion, has got to be enjoyable.
If you ever wondered when the super-quotable entrance lines started on Drag Race, look no further than this premiere. Laganja’s “Oh, y’all wanted a twist, eh? Come on, season 6, let’s get sickening!” is the quote that launched a thousand catchphrases, complete with death-drop to punctuate it. Gia immediately lives for it (“Yes! Bitch! Work!”), which is foreshadowing of the great professional relationship they’ll have for years to come.
Those two take up most of the oxygen when it comes to funny reactions, particularly Gia. I’ve said before I think she’s the best confessional queen the show’s ever seen, and this premiere goes a long way to making that point. Now, that doesn’t always mean she’s nice — far from it, Gia is villainous from the word go. Laganja, on the other hand, is just A Lot, in ways that you can either love or hate. The editing is clearly not with her in this episode, as the judges uniformly seem over her when it comes to critiques.
She thrives in the mini-challenge, though, which is a photo shoot while jumping off a platform into a foam ball pit. Most of the queens struggle to use their legs in appropriate ways — and we have Mike Ruiz, who is forever obsessed with sexy, as the photographer, so that’s a no-go. But Laganja’s dance training pays off here, as she uses her long legs to take a brilliant photo. It’s a very deserved win.
Getting that victory allows Laganja to pick who gets what set of materials in the main challenge. Surprisingly for a show often as copyright-conscious as Drag Race can be, the maxi-challenge involves designing outfits from items “left over” from various television shows. Ru does love TV (see: Snatch Game, most of All Stars 1), but it’s still interesting to see him talk about Duck Dynasty (remember her?) and Dancing With the Stars.
Presaging her later campaign to get on, Laganja chooses Dancing With the Stars for herself, while giving Gia Keeping Up With the Kardashians. (If you told me in 2013 that Kardashians would be ending and Tyra Banks would be hosting Dancing With the Stars, I’m not sure my brain would be able to process it.) Both produce pretty simple garments, inoffensive enough, but annoy the judges with their runway dialogue. Laganja’s got catchphrases locked and loaded, while Gia fires off “Absolutely” after “Absolutely.” Did anyone tell her Absolut Vodka isn’t the sponsor anymore?
Ignoring her friends pleas to be assigned The Golden Girls, Laganja instead gives Adore Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo, to Adore’s dismay. To be fair to Laganja, I believe she genuinely just does not hear Adore, but it screws Adore nonetheless. She makes a mess of her materials, with both her and the judges agreeing her outfit is awful. But she successfully spins a story out of mermaids and Heatherettes, which charms the panel and helps her avoid the bottom two.
Meanwhile, BenDeLaCreme gets The Golden Girls instead, and turns her materials into a couture gown with nothing but some hot glue. It’s a pretty clear win for DeLa — April does well with her Duck Dynasty look, but the panel’s unanimous raves for DeLa spoil the winner pick — and deservedly so. Michelle Visage will later cite this look as why you don’t need to know how to sew to make it work on one of these challenges, but I think that actually undervalues what DeLa does here. She has incredible vision, and needle-and-thread or not, she executes it flawlessly.
That leaves us with our bottom two: Viviacious and Kelly. And as I said, this is a strong bottom two — not necessarily based on what they do in this episode, but based on their personalities. Kelly is genuinely a workhorse veteran who deserves all the respect in the world, while Vivacious is club royalty and a meme icon all her own (Ornacia!). But their takes on Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones, which actually feel like two of the easier entries to take on (so costumey!), both fail.
They wind up in a lip sync to Madonna’s “Express Yourself,” one of Madge’s many LSFYL songs. Kelly tries her best, but Vivacious has this one well enough to stick around. Plus, she’s the more entertaining of the two, so I think her staying is more than a fair decision. Sucks for Kelly, of course, but her legacy since the show has remained secure.
Next week, we’ll meet the other seven queens, lose one more, and then see the groups reunite. How will the second group compare? Spoiler: we’ve got a great group awaiting us.
There’s room for every Final Thought, let’s just say that:
- The supertrailer isn’t as spoilery as some seasons’, but it still gives away more than we would get now. Of particular, hilarious note is that Bianca Del Rio’s eventual stand-up set is spliced in like it’s her actually yelling at Michelle Visage and Santino Rice. Anything to make this season seem more dramatic!
- Kelly throws a bit of shade at Willam over reading her “IMDb page” in season 4. She would never do that! (To be fair to Willam, she would never go out on the first episode.)
- We are firmly in the last days of RuMail’s former name, and thank God for it. It’ll be phased out in three episodes’ time.
- This episode marks the debut of “Sissy That Walk” as the runway song, which would stay around for two seasons. Still the best, I’d say!
- RuPaul declares immunity formally dead in this episode. Cause of death: Alyssa Edwards’ Katy Perry, I believe.
- Adam Lambert is okay as a guest judge, but is remarkably focused on gender in his critiques. Very reminiscent of season 1 and 2 judging. More humorous is him hardcore flirting with April Carrion. When he tries to defend April’s buzzcut hair in the back as hot, RuPaul fires back: “That’s because you want to fuck her.”
- Love a “cheesecake” shoutout — miss you, Dida Ritz!
- Gia about there being only seven queens in this premiere: “Is there no budget this time around?” God love her.
The next Drag Race Rewind recap, covering season 6, episode 2, will be available to Patreon subscribers next Tuesday, December 15.
