Yahoo Lifestyle RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 Premiere Ends With Polarizing Twist — Do You Love It or Hate It?
Hormona Lisa is thanking her lucky stars — you know, not to be confused with Lucky Starzzz — after Friday’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Following one of the worst stand-up routines in Drag Race herstory, the Tennessee-based queen was voted into the bottom by her fellow contestants, forcing her to lip sync for her life against last week’s bottom queen Acacia Forgot. So, why isn’t she out of the game? Well, it’s kind of a long story.
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The conclusion of Drag Race‘s two-part Season 17 premiere gave the other seven contestants a chance to show off their talents — or lack thereof in some cases. Hormona, who takes every opportunity to remind us that she was “handpicked” by RuPaul, failed to land a single joke as she fumbled her way through a half-baked routine about, among other things, the perils of swamp ass.
Kori King put it best: “I don’t know what Hormona said her talent was, but her talent must be stopping time, because that was longest minute of my life.” And Jewels Sparkles couldn’t help but evoke the immortal words of Trinity the Tuck: “Where. Are. The jokes?” And before you accuse us of being too hard on Hormona, this is Season 17. You know a talent show is coming, so have an actual talent ready! It’s just like not having a good character planned for Snatch Game. You know it’s coming. There’s no excuse.
Needless to say, no one was shocked when the results of Rate-A-Queen revealed Hormona as Acacia’s lip sync opponent, nor were we surprised when Acacia defeated her to the tune of Ariana Grande’s “Yes, And?” Little did we know what was about to happen…
The premiere ended with RuPaul introducing the Badonka Dunk Tank, a weekly event in which each lip sync loser will get a chance to save herself. Basically, there are 10 levers, two of which have the power to reverse an elimination (at Michelle Visage’s soaking-wet expense, no less). And wouldn’t you know it, the lever Hormona chose was one of the lucky two, meaning that she will live to slay (or not) another day.
On the other end of the success spectrum, Lexi Love and Crystal Envy were voted as this week’s top two, battling it out to “Alter Ego” by Doechii. Both queens made their marks, but Lexi established herself as a true lip sync assassin, earning her first win.
Since we offered our early impressions of the first group of queens last week, it’s only fair to keep the library open and offer up our thoughts on this second group. So let’s break ’em all down:
CRYSTAL ENVY | Walking the runway as the grown-up Coppertone baby was a fun idea, though lazily combining it with a Jersey Shore aesthetic demoted Crystal’s look to “fine” for us. As for her talent show performance, we weren’t wowed, but we enjoyed ourselves. A series of dramatic turns into a costume change? What is this, Cinderella on Broadway? (A moment of silence for the four readers who appreciated that reference.)
HORMONA LISA | Hormona definitely deserved to be on the chopping block this week, but the fact that she was willing to lick the Badonka Dunk levers before pulling them proves that she has a competitive fire somewhere deep inside her. So let’s see it!
KORI KING | Besides being extremely quotable, Kori quenched everyone’s thirst with that wild talent show performance. And was that really Monét X Change’s costume from Werk the World that Kori rocked on the runway? Kori’s got Konnections!
LANA JA’RAE | Her talent show number may have been about being the “creme de la creme,” but it wasn’t all that impressive until its final drop. At least we have the memory of her flawless green leopard-print runway gown to fall back on.
LEXI LOVE | The producers had the right idea putting Lexi’s talent last, making sure the show ended with a bang. Not every queen can do cartwheels, splits and comedy in a single routine — and even fewer of them can do it while on roller skates. Just one thing: Can we stop calling her “auntie” and “grandma” and worrying about her falling down? She’s only 34 years old!
ONYA NURVE | Drag Race has lied to many queens over the years, convincing them they could rap when… well, they couldn’t. So we’d like all of those wannabes to take note: This. Is. How. It’s. Done. Onya’s original lyrics were fire and her energy was infectious. We’re all in, in, in on this queen.
SAM STAR | After 17 seasons, you’d think we’ve run out of “firsts,” but we’re pretty sure that Sam is the only queen to do a death drop off a bale of hay. And we love her for it. She may not have had the most exciting talent in the show, but you can’t say she wasn’t rocking that Western Barbie look.
OK, let’s talk: Which queen(s) did you fall for in Week 2? Did Acacia and Hormona’s lip sync turn out the way you expected? And are you a fan of the Badonka Dunk Tank twist? Vote for your favorite contestants in the poll below, then drop a comment with your thoughts on Season 17 thus far.
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