RuPaul's Drag Race Season 16 Episode Review: Episode 10

The new episode begins with Mhi’ya being given the title of “lip sync assassin” as she has now been in the bottom 3 times but always won the lip sync due to her tricks. She seems to feel quite secure in her situation, which makes her become more and more shady!

Dawn and Morphine don’t have a win yet and can feel the pressure getting bigger, so they want to do especially well in the next challenge. This week, the queens have to write and perform a verse for the inspiring anthem “power,” which is supposed to inspire people to vote and shine a light on the political situation in the USA right now. It’s an important topic as it affects LGBTQ+ people and drag right now, so it is great that Drag Race shines a light on it.

Some queens are doing better and some are doing worse in the challenge. Mhi’ya is confident in her verse writing skills even though she rhymes "equal" with "equal." Nmphia is freaking out again, this time because Megami isn’t here to help her. The struggle continues as Mhi’ya, Plane, Q, and Nymphia are having a hard time recording their verses.

Plane is thinking about her immunity portion as it expires this week. She might be giving it to someone else, maybe Nymphia. Dawn suggests telling her but then not doing it, which would be very shady! Even though Plane is always made out to be the villain, Dawn can be even shadier than her sometimes!

Some queens also struggle to learn the choreography as Morphine is moving like a chicken and Dawn points out that Q has “Barbie hands,” which now can’t be unseen anymore! Plane hops around on one spot even though she has a dancing ballroom history, making it seem like she should use her immunity portion on herself!

As the queens are getting ready for the main stage, Dawn tells us about her journey with therapy and her multiple mental health diagnoses. She says getting the help she needed through therapy has had a positive impact on her life and that mental health is as important as physical health. Her little background story is an important message and a nice detail in getting to know her better.

Even though some queens were struggling preparing for the performance, it ends up being quite good! Nobody is slipping up and the queens' verses all sound good. The runways this episode are also good, especially Nymphia with her banana dress and Sapphira who is giving Queen Charlotte. Dawn’s runway is quite different but cute and weird at the same time, while Q with her big hat looks like a glam jellyfish x Beyoncé.

Surprisingly, Plane gives her immunity portion to Nymphia who is as surprised as everyone else. Nobody would have seen it coming that Plane, out of all queens, would give her immunity to someone else! It seems like all the begging from Nymphia’s side has paid off in the end.

When the queens seem to get asked the famous “who should go home and why” question, instead Ru asks everyone if they are registered to vote. A lot of Americans who are eligible to aren’t, so it is great that they put this topic so much into the spotlight in this episode.

Morphine finally gets some good critiques but ends up being one of the last 2 queens on stage, amongst Sapphira. However, they are not the bottom two, but two top queens who lip sync for the win. Sadly, Morphine doesn’t take the win but at least she was finally in the top.

It’s a bit odd that nobody went home this episode as at least on the runway they could have picked the worst two looks as everyone was doing well in the challenge. We will see next week who will get eliminated and who will stay in the competition!