‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ recap: RuPaul opens up the library and the Betsey Johnson lookbook
Last week in Episode 8 of RuPaul's Drag Race, Suzie Toot and Onya Nurve lived their theater kid fantasies on stage in "The Wicked Wiz of Oz" Rusical, but both were outshined by the judges' pick as top performer, Sam Star, who tied them for two maxi challenge wins a piece so far this season. From the bottom of the pack, Kori King bested and sent Acacia Forgot home in a Lip Sync for Your Life face-off that left much to be desired from both performers.
This week, the nine remaining competitors get back behind the sewing machines for another creative design challenge which they must take inspiration from and present in front of fashion icon Betsey Johnson. Also on the dais with Betsey and RuPaul Charles as judges are Michelle Visage and Carson Kressley.
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The contestants still in the running to be named "America's Next Drag Superstar" at the start of the episode were: Arrietty, Jewels Sparkles, Kori King, Lana Ja'Rae, Lexi Love, Lydia B Kollins, Onya Nurve, Sam Star, and Suzie Toot.
Here is our recap of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17, Episode 9, titled "Heavens to Betsey!," which aired Friday, Feb. 28 on MTV.
SEE ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ winners list: Every season, plus ‘All Stars’
MTV
"When Marsha P. Johnson threw you, how bad did it hurt?" — Lexi Love
Instead of getting straight into the maxi challenge this week, RuPaul finally decided to open the library for the seasonal "Reading Is Fundamental" mini challenge. After hearing all of the reads, Ru selected Suzie as best in show, but many of the queens threw deep shade... mostly at Kori. Lexi referred to Kori as the brick that Marsha P. Johnson threw at Stonewall, Jewels said Kori's pronouns are they/them because she's "the size of a group of people," and Lydia acknowledged that while Kori is her top she will always be a bottom to the judges.
Then, for the maxi challenge, Ru explained that they'd each create an original outfit for the runway inspired by one of three classic Betsey Johnson collections: Punk Grunge Flappers, Betsey's Prom, and Prenup. As the winner of the mini challenge, Suzie got to choose for herself and, to no one's surprise, was drawn to Punk Grunge Flappers. She was joined in that category by Lydia and Jewels. Lexi, Sam, Arrietty and chose Prenup. Lana chose Betsey's Prom and then Kori and Onya defaulted into that category when it became the only one left available to them.
MTV
"Oh it's another slinky dress from Butthole" — RuPaul Charles
In the initial brainstorming stage of their designs, Lexi was emotionally perplexed over not coming up with a strong idea as quick as the other girls and getting in her head about the preview design challenges where she wasn't a top performer. Sam was there to help pull Lexi out of her own head and encouraged her to get excited and reset.
Later, when Ru dropped back in to check on the girls' progress, he brought Betsey along to give them a true expert opinion. Betsey told the Prenup group that for that collection she was inspired by the "celebration of everybody on the runway" and Ru pointed out that she was the first designer to include trans models on the runway. Among the Flapper group, Jewels brought a lot of different ideas to the table and Betsey asked her to "relax, breathe and rock out" by just following her gut. Ru was not impressed by Lydia's concept of "another slinky dress" since she has already shown so much of that on the runway. For the Prom group, Betsey emphasized that "your prom is kind of made by your dress," stressing the importance of making sure they make the runway feel like a party. Ru called Kori out for being "challenged" in previous design challenges and encouraged her to go for variety this time instead of reiterating the same silhouette again.
Post-walkthrough, Kori decided to switch gears to create a formal, floor-length gown instead of the "stripper" look she's been called out for in the past, but then overnight changed her mind and cut it up so that she wouldn't have to walk the runway looking like "grandma Fitzgerald stumbling" in a gown. Meanwhile, Jewels got hung up for a bit trying to decide which of many fur options she should embellish her velvet dress with and ultimately decided to use them all. The furs were the least of her problems, though, once Lexi pointed out that she had placed her velvet fabric in one direction on the front of the dress and in the other on the back. Lexi had to point out to Jewels that doing that with velvet creates two different color shades because of the direction the hairs of the fabric are laying. Jewels was gagged at her mistake, to say the least, but with confidence decided she'd just have to "sell it on the runway."
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"I would have really garbaged that dress up" — Betsey Johnson
Following their catwalk struts in Betsey-inspired couture, the judges named Jewels, Lexi and Arrietty as the queens on top and Kori, Lydia and Onya as the ones on bottom. That meant Lana, Suzie and Sam placed in the middle as safe. Betsey thought that Jewels really nailed the concept of her flapper collection that she sees when she closes her eyes and dreams and so Jewels finally secured her first maxi challenge win. On the flip side, Betsey took issue with how "simple and severe" Kori's look was and then the other judges thought Lydia's construction was shoddy, the fit imperfect, and had too much going on in not the right way.
Ultimately, the judges had cause to pit the showmance against each other in the LSFYL as the official bottom two, forcing one of Kori or Lydia to send their lover home. In their face off to "Kiss Me Deadly" by Lita Ford, both girls gave it their all and then created an instantly herstorical moment together by giving each other all of their tongue for a big kiss in center stage at the climax of the song. Thought she loved seeing them connect live on stage, Ru had to break up the couple by asking Lydia to stay and sending Kori home.
Next time on Drag Race...
Kandy Muse, Mistress Isabelle Brooks and Plane Jane are on the dais for the first ever "Villains Roast."
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