This recap contains spoilers for RuPaul’s Drag Race 1710
Finally, a great lip sync! And all it took was two girls in their twenties having a friend break up. This was a next level Drag Race episode. This season has been solid, but a tad unremarkable, and this week didn’t just have some excellent drag — it had excellent television.
But first! As you may have noticed, there was no recap last week, because I was recovering from surgery. Like many queens of Drag Race past, I got my face fucked up by a surgeon and return as your humble recapper with just a dash more cunt — and blood and puss and swelling.
Of course, I watched last week, but I didn’t take notes because I was on oxy and looked like RuPaul in episode 1004. BUT I was obviously thrilled that Kori and Lydia made out at the end of their lip sync and I was happy for Jewels’ win even though Lexi’s look was my favorite.
Lydia is sad about Kori but happy to still be there. She also takes a dig at Sam saying Sam should’ve been in the bottom instead of her. I love that no matter how well Sam does, Lydia remains a committed hater toward her. But Lydia and Lana are the only two remaining without wins so the pressure is on.
It’s a new week and Michelle announces a Badonka Dunk mini challenge! She and Joey Nolfi are going to ask the queens questions and if they get them wrong then they’re dunked. Turns out it’s less a game and more an excuse to dunk all the queens and get their money’s worth from the tank. It’s cute!
The main challenge this week is The Villains Roast aka the roast of Mistress Isabelle Brooks, Plane Jane, and Kandy Muse. Michelle refers to them as “three of the shadiest queens in Drag Race herstory” which is kind of like the 2025 Oscars not including any movies before 1972 in their “Los Angeles movies” montage. No one cares about HISTORY anymore!
Anyway, as last week’s winner Jewels gets to pick the order and this is where the drama happens. In season’s past, some queens have been pointedly shady in picking the roast order and others have tried to accommodate everyone’s preferences. Jewels genuinely seems to be doing the latter. She even starts by asking Lexi her preference first — second place last week — and Lydia second — bottom last week. But when Jewels returns with the order all hell breaks loose.
Lexi asked to go last and Jewels put her last. But Lexi is mad that she’s after Suzie and thinks that was designed to make her fail, because she thinks Suzie will do the best. First of all, she literally put Lexi where she asked. Second of all, yes, Suzie is a comedy queen, but I’m still confused by the assumption she’d be GREAT at the roast? She’s shined more in acting challenges than straight up comedy challenges and she doesn’t really strike me as a roast queen.
Regardless, Lexi is mad. But not as mad as Arrietty! Arrietty is mad at Jewels because Jewels placed herself after Arrietty. Arrietty believes this means Jewels thinks she’s going to do the worst and is rooting for her friend to fail. I’m sorry… what?? Arrietty is the first to admit she’s not a favorite to win the roast, so it makes sense Jewels would put herself after her. That doesn’t mean she’s rooting for her to fail? ALSO I think these queens have a deep misunderstanding of comedy. Sure, as a standup comedian it would be tough to follow a half hour set from someone funnier and more famous than you. But these are five minute sets from amateurs. If anything, the person before you doing well warms up the crowd/the judges to laugh more at your jokes too. Literally, the reason people have opening acts is because it’s tough to get a crowd to go 0 to 60. The person before you bombing is not helpful — the person before you doing pretty well is the ideal.
Whitney Cummings is a judge this week which is an interesting choice given she’s a frequent guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast and her last comedy special had a half hour of jokes at the expense of trans people. I guess if my facial feminization surgery was as botched as hers, I’d also be mad at the community who made it popular. Maybe she decided to come on the show for aftercare tips? Or maybe she just wanted to appear on a show that didn’t get canceled after two seasons. Sorry, that’s not totally fair. While her show Whitney was, in fact, a critical and commercial failure by every measure, she was also the co-creator of 2 Broke Girls which ran for six reasonably successful seasons. And since that show ended in 2017 she’s had a lot of other successes such as appearing in eight episodes of television — one for each year! enough to keep a SAG card! — and co-writing and directing The Roast of Bert Kreischer, someone the internet tells me is a comedian. Given this illustrious success in the entertainment industry, I’m not sure why Cummings is so obsessed with trans women in sports. She says we’re stealing her trophies, but I wasn’t aware Equinox boxing classes gave out trophies for punching down. Maybe the trans jokes are just the next step in her consistent career strategy: doing whatever necessary to impress the men around her as the Ghislaine Maxwell of the LA comedy scene. Personally, if I’d spent years sharing a bathroom with Chris D’Elia I wouldn’t care where trans women pee, but that’s just me.
Anyway, Cummings is there to teach the queens about comedy which should’ve been the first sign that the roast would be rough. She goes around queen by queen offering advice and sounds about as sophisticated as that Tim and Eric sketch where Zach Galifianakis teaches children to act. Thankfully, Onya is there to provide the real laughs as she calls out Suzie for referring to herself as cerebral. Also notable during this sequence: Arrietty steals some of Jewels’ notebook paper with Jewels’ jokes!
The tension continues in the work room as several other queens attempt to mediate to no avail. Arrietty moves her stuff away from Jewels and is being such a whiny little bitch! Suzie says where you’re placed doesn’t matter, how the placement affects you does and she is correct. Arrietty says that she wouldn’t place herself after a sister and Onya is like damn everyone in this room isn’t your sister??
Obviously, feelings are intense after weeks on a reality competition show. Especially one that feels like it’s about to determine the rest of your life. So I do hold onto that as a critique these queens. But I have never 180ed on a queen like I have with Arrietty! She’s so gorgeous and has such cool style and she just really needs to take a beat and either get some comedy skills or gain some confidence. People like Whitney Cummings are proof that even for a comedian it’s not always about being funny, but about moving through the world with a self-assured belief in your own success. You can’t blame others for your failures — not Jewels, not trans women athletes, not even a bad surgeon.
Ru, Michelle, and star of multiple failed pilots Whitney Cummings are joined by icon Ts Madison. Onya opens the show and does really well although when she gets to Plane Jane she doesn’t make a joke as much as she just insults her. Which, to be honest, is a very funny joke in itself. Arrietty goes next and like a self-fulfilling prophecy bombs hard. It’s so painful. And, on top of that, Jewels realizes she stole two of her jokes. Imagine stealing jokes just to tell them badly! Unfortunately, Jewels’ jokes weren’t very good in the first place and shaken by her feud with Arrietty — and armed with more bad jokes — Jewels bombs as well.
Lana to the rescue! Instead of being self-defeatist, Lana comes out there and gives it her all and while I don’t think she does great, she does really well considering this is not her comfort zone. During a roast filled with punching down, Lana’s last bit about Sam’s ancestors owning hers stood out as one of the best jokes of the night.
Alas for both me and Lydia, Sam then continues her streak of doing a really solid job. But speaking of Lydia! She does so well! Her jokes are clever and her delivery is great. Suzie then does pretty well — but not worthy of Lexi’s panic — and Lexi bombs but pushes through. Suzie introduces Lexi with a joke about how she has no friends and it’s not a great joke but it riles up Lexi way too much. It’s just so tough to watch Lexi have such obvious self-esteem issues. While I feel pretty certain that she will not win this season, I hope she does some work on herself and then comes back to crush All Stars. The only thing standing in her way is herself.
Comedians like Whitney Cummings love to complain about not being able to make jokes anymore, but this roast actually provided a valuable lesson. The fat jokes toward Kandy and Mistress were exhausting and tacky and most of them flopped. The best one was Lydia’s “big fan” joke because it was ACTUALLY CLEVER. The problem with a lot of comedians like Whitney Cummings is they think being a cunt to marginalized people should be celebrated even when it’s not clever. It’s not edgy to be cruel to people who received cruel treatment constantly. If that was the case, random men on the subway would get comedy specials. I don’t think fat jokes — or trans jokes! — should be off limits, but I do wish someone would call these queens out on the many missed opportunities by pretty much only focusing on size when Kandy and Mistress have so many other character traits, many ripe for humor.
The runway category is Who Wears Short Shorts? and by far my favorite look is Onya in short jean shorts that go all the way up to her chest only to unzip to reveal a denim top. All of the other looks are various degrees of solid even if Lana makes the classic fashion girl mistake of paying homage — this time to Naomi Campbell — without elevating.
Onya and Suzie are safe which at first surprised me — for Onya, not Suzie — but eventually I understood the judges wanting to make room to praise Lana for doing so well. Overall, the judges are pretty nice. I guess when someone bombs they know they bombed so they don’t need further critique.
Once again, Ru places the obvious last place recipient — Arrietty — in the bottom before announcing the winner. And the winner is… Lydia! I’m so happy for her! Lexi is then declared safe, because duh they want the drama which means it’s Jewels lip syncing against Arrietty to “Ya Ya” by Beyoncé.
I’m sure the song has something to do with it, as well as the heightened circumstances of course, but this lip sync was SO GOOD. They were fighting fighting FIGHTING and Jewels was moving around the stage like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance. Just an all around great lip sync. Having already been saved once by the Badonkadonk Tank and given her performance this episode, it was Arrietty’s time to go. But this lip sync was a fitting sendoff to my former fave who needs to work on both her comic timing and her emotional regulation.
Teleport Us to Mars!! Here Are Some Random Thoughts:
+ I love Libras so much — my partner is a Libra! — but Arrietty was textbook the bad side of Libras this episode.
+ Michelle kept saying Jewels look was Marie Antoinette but it really wasn’t? Everything that recalls 18th century court fashion isn’t Marie Antoinette.
+ Untucked was so fun this week with Onya and Suzie being smart and logical in their little two person debrief only for Onya to get sucked into the drama — for, again, speaking the truth — when the other queens arrive.
+ I did appreciate that Lexi eventually came around during Untucked and thanked Onya for being honest.
+ I do not think it was on purpose, but Sam sort of quotes Carol at one point saying, “Being sad is for ugly people and we’re not ugly.”
+ Queen I’m rooting for: Onya
+ Queen I’m horniest for: no one this week :(
+ Queen I want to sashay: Sam even though she deserves to stay to the end :(
Came to read your as-always excellent reviews of Drag Race, stayed for the Roast of Whitney Cummings! If only this episode’s roast was you reading her transphobic ass for absolute filth!
That roast of Whitney Cummings is the absolute pinnacle! When i reached “ one for each year! enough to keep a SAG card!” i actually truly gasp laughed
This was the best roast of the episode.
Didn’t know who Cummings was before reading this but always happy to witness an execution. I hope your recovery goes well Drew! Your writing is my favourite thing about this site.
This is (tragically) the first time I’ve stumbled on a recap/review of yours. The roast of Whitney Cummings + the fact that you READ MY MIND regarding the way Arrietty is out here making Libras look bad. Bless you!
drew, you ate that!!!
rest up!!