RuPaul's Drag Race Season 16 Episode 11 Review
The new episode starts with Morphine being pressed about not winning, but who could resent her for it? Dawn and Plane are shading each other over their runway looks, which is nothing new. Every episode starts with the queens throwing shade!
For the mini challenge, they’re playing "Spill the tea", where the queens have to answer a question and vote for themselves or their fellow queens. The challenge is quite fun; it would probably make a good party game! For every right answer, they each get $100, but one time, Mama Ru accidentally says $100,000, and for the rest of the episode, Michelle Visage is taking her part in instructing the queens for the next challenge. Was it a slip-up that caused her to retreat? It seemed like just a silly little joke.
In the main challenge, the queens have to make a presentation about drag in groups. Mhi’ya and Dawn are paired together, which makes an odd pair. Even though Dawn is confident about her presenting abilities, they are struggling. As the queens are getting ready, Q shares that she has been HIV positive for a while but hasn’t even told her family because of the stigma that’s still attached to it. It is truly a touching story and an important topic still, not only in the LGBTQ+ community.
She and Plane Jane go first in the challenge, and they are both quite funny, presenting slides with pictures of slides and making out when they exit the stage. Dawn is doing okay, but Mhi’ya comes across as timid and doesn’t bring any energy to the presentation. Last but not least, Nymphia, Sapphira, and Morphine are on, and they are doing well. However, Sapphira starts slipping up, and Morphine seems overpowered by the other two. Nymphia is quite funny with her accent; however, it could almost come across as a bit insensitive.
The runway this episode is "Drag Con 1989", and none of the looks really hit, except Nymphia who is serving a hip vampire version of Grace Jones in the movie Vamp, with drawings on her dress that remind of Keith Haring and a wire bra and headpiece. It is the most fashionable and eye-pleasing look on the runway in this episode.
Even though she did great in this episode, she is only safe, like Q and Plane Jane, who both did well in the main challenge. Sapphira wins again in this episode, and everyone is gagged, including her. As a viewer, it leaves us wondering why she won as she slipped up in the challenge. Mhi’ya and Morphine make the bottom two, lip-syncing to a slow song. Immediately, Mhi’ya starts by throwing her cape over Morphine who can get ahold of it and swing it away in the next second.
She takes revenge by throwing a fake breast at her. Mhi’ya is once again doing her flips, but it can’t save her this episode. After being in the bottom 4 times, she goes home. It seems like it’s her time though.
Next episode, the queens have to do a toilet-themed design challenge, called "bathroom huntie"? Interesting concept for sure, let’s see how that will turn out.
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/