RuPaul's Drag Race Season 16 Review: Episode 8
The episode starts with Mhi’ya rubbing off Geneva’s mirror message and already, the girls are throwing shade at each other. Mhi’ya tries to be a bit more outspoken and less timid, but the other queens claim they liked her better that way.
It continues in a shady manner as the mini-challenge in this episode is the reading challenge. A few reads are pretty good; others are a bit more boring. Xunami reveals in a read that she had a crush on Plane Jane, which is a bold move on TV, and she ends up winning the challenge! However, from all of the reads, Dawn’s were the funniest, but Xunami takes the crown.
The maxi challenge this week is the ‚Snatch Game‘, as usual, with a lot of characters that many younger people and non-Americans probably won’t know, like James Brown, Meghan McCain, and Patti LuPone. Also, two made-up characters are in the game, the gold tooth fairy and Trina’s cousin Shaquita. The snatch game goes pretty well; Q is doing a good job with Amelia Earhart, and Sapphire makes James Brown funny even if you don’t know him. However, Plane Jane’s character Yelena stands out, earning the most laughs, while Nymphia fails to make Jane Goodwell funny. Dawn, Plasma, and Xunami end up being a bit boring, and the other queens are surprised by Mhi’ya’s performance as Sharquita, even though we’ve seen a character like her 100 times on Snatchgame before, which makes her boring to watch as well.
As the queens are getting ready for the runway, they talk about the queer cultures in their countries of origin, and Plane Jane brings up how she wouldn’t be able to visit Russia because of their anti-LGBTQ laws. She reflects on her relationship with her grandma, who read everyone to filth. Now we know where she gets it from! It’s a cute insight as we get to understand Plane a bit better. Saphhira tells us about her difficult relationship with her stepdad and how he passed because of COVID-19, and she missed his last call. A truly touching story which ends with all the queens giving her a group hug. The runway for this episode is ‚Dancing Queen’, and Kyra Sedwick is a guest judge. Even after googling her name, she still doesn’t ring a bell; maybe the American viewers know her better, but what is Drag Race without a guest judge that you have no clue about? A lot of queens are referencing their origins or upbringing, which gives a nice touch to the looks. Almost all of the looks are serving; however, what is Mhi’ya doing again? The runways are not her strength. She gets quite good critiques this episode, which is surprising as her look was awful and her snatch game performance boring. However, she is safe. Everyone is gagged when Plane Jane wins the snatch game, as everyone seemed to think that Sapphire would have won. Nymphia is safe, which makes Morphine and Xunami the bottom two.
The two are devastated as they are close friends and now have to fight against each other but decide to make the best out of a bad situation and deliver a touching lip sync where they end up dancing together and even have a little smooch on stage. Morphine ends up sending Xunami home, which seemingly hits her hard, and it is sad to see her go already.
Next week the queens have to do another sewing challenge; this season has had a lot of them so far! We will see who will struggle with not knowing how to sew next week.
RuPaul’s Drag Race S16 is streaming exclusively on WOW Presents Plus in the UK every Saturday. Subscribe to WOW Presents Plus via https://uk.wowpresentsplus.com/