Previously on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, Morgan returned to the competition following BenDeLaChrist’s sacrifice to join the remaining queens in a raunchy, Awards Season rom-com. Despite not getting the role she desired, Trixie stole the show while Shangie was Shangie and brought the house down, while BeBe was the epitome of beige and Morgan was awks. After Shangela murdered Trixie in the lip sync, poor Morgan was put out of her misery and out of the competition for the second time this season.
The final four returned to the werk room to celebrate their achievements before BeBe immediately hit up Trixie to find out who she would have eliminated, despite the fact BeBe refused to spill the week before. Thankfully Trixie threw an oak tree’s worth of shade at BeBe to the delight of Kennedy and Shangela – out of respect for Morgan, of course – before admitting that she too would have sent Morgan home. Shangela was overjoyed to have come full circle, from first boot to finalist, though posed the question, who was about to Showgirls her (aka the frontrunner)? And while Kennedy and BeBe were quick to admit they would, it filled me with dread that this fairytale may not end happily for our obese stripper.
Trixie on the other hand was fairly confident the future Nomi’s were going to get the chop before the final lip sync. And bless BeBe, she thought she would fit in in the hall of fame.
The next day Ru arrived to introduce the final challenge, writing, singing and dancing in the most ambitious production number in drag race herstory. Obviously that made Kennedy feel far more confident, while BeBe and Trixie looked nervous. Until Ru mentioned Todrick, after which they were all nervous. To pile on the drama and intrigue, Ru then announced that the eliminated queens would be returning once again, making Shangela ask what we’re all thinking – why doesn’t Ru lock the damn door?
Ru left them with the ominous threat that the eliminated queens would play a role in the deliberations. This obviously sent the final four into a tailspin, with Trixie floating the spy-intell role, Shangela – like the episode title suggests – thinks they will be a jury and vote for the winner while BeBe thinks they and her remaining competitors will continue to perform backup for her.
The queens arrived to learn Todrick’s choreography where Trixie feared her thirst would get the best of her after being assigned the hottest – and I use that term loosely – dance partner. BeBe feared the extreme heights of jumping into a man’s arms and completely bombed the entire rehearsal and Todrick was annoyed by the fact they weren’t all committing to the routine. He then separated Trixie from the man making her dehydrated in all the ways and took the final four out the back and dropped the bomb that the entire thing will be performed and shot live, in one take. Filling Shangela and Trixie with joy at the prospect for destroying Read You, Wrote You, and BeBe looked like she saw the ghost of the lipsticks she refused to show the girls last episode.
Coronation Day arrived with Shangela still feeling giddy about how far she has come and Trixie spent time perfecting her dance moves before bringing up the ruruturn of the eliminated queens. While the queens expected animosity, they hoped it wouldn’t be as bad as the roast they received the first time they returned. BeBe then asked the remaining queens if they knew they would make the top four, with Trixie admitting she had doubts after Snatch Game, BeBe felt that she has the best track record and therefore wasn’t concerned.
Despite Roxxxy-ing her way to the final four, Kennedy absolutely slayed the live performance with her energy while Shangie and Trixie’s verses were near perfection and worthy of a crown but while BeBe’s verse was good, her dancing struggled and the OG winner was a distant fourth place. On the runway, BeBe dressed as a Big Cat, Kennedy coloured with all the colours of the rainbow, Shangela came ready to claim her crown and Trixie served sexy poodle.
With the runway complete, Ru confirmed Shangie’s suspicions and announced that following critiques they would return to the werk room with the eliminated queens who would then cast their vote to decide which All Stars will move on to the top two. While Trixie looked ok with the fact it was becoming RuPaul’s best friend race, Shangela looked like she was about to throw up, Kennedy was pissed and BeBe, of course, looked confident.
Despite bombing the performance BeBe received praise for her track record and for being brave enough to come back and defend her crown. Kennedy’s killer performance was well received and Shangela received universal praise for slaying the season with even Michelle admitting how proud she was of Shangie’s growth from season 2. While the judges acknowledged Trixie struggled at the start of the season, her growth was praised as was the fact she hit her strides at exactly the right moment. Ru then dismissed them all to face the jury and Michelle looked as anxious as I feel.
BeBe was up first and knew that none of the girls were feeling she deserved a second title. She tried to sell herself as an immigrant that had to fight each day to Aja as her point of difference to potential fellow Hall of Famers Chad and Alaska. Thorgy then tried to wrangle who she would have eliminated and ruturned to the competition out of her, with her lying that everyone was content with her not doing that despite Morgan being there and knowing it was a bold faced lie. Surprisingly she stood her ground and refused to tell them which lipsticks she had before DeLa went to town with the Wite Out, telling them if that is their reason for eliminating her, so be it. While she felt it was pointless and they had already made up their minds, the eliminated queens just wanted her to speak to them like sisters and give genuine answers rather than treating it like a pageant.
As such, she only managed to receive two points to move to the final two from Morgan McMichaels landing her in fourth place. Well technically tied for third … but that is something I’ll get to next.
Now I know I have been hard on the OG BeBe the last few weeks but if anyone should have been owning the competition like DeLa, it is the first winner to ruturn to the competition. That being said, she did well throughout the entire competition and if nothing else, got to showcase her talents to a larger audience without the horror of being filmed through an inch of Vaseline. As such, I pulled her into my arms backstage, condragulated her on a job well done and made her join me for a big ol’ roast BeBe Za’atara Lambet.
Despite it being of middle eastern origins, this meal is fit for the Queen of Africa. Spiced, rich and fresh, it is the best rack I’ve seen all week. No shade to the queens, obvi.
Enjoy!
BeBe Za’atara Lambet
Serves: 4-6.
Ingredients
2 lamb racks
3 tbsp za’ atar
1 cauliflower, cut into florets
1 tbsp ground cumin
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp chilli
salt and pepper, to taste
olive oil
Method
Preheat oven to 200°C.
Place the lamb racks on lined baking sheet and press the za’atar into the meat. Place the cauliflower on another lined baking sheet and sprinkle with cumin, cinnamon, chilli and salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Drizzle olive oil over the lamb and cauliflower, toss to coat again, and place both in the oven to bake for half an hour or so.
Remove the lamb from the oven, cover with foil and allow to rest for fifteen minutes while the cauliflower crisps up.
Cut the lamb into racks and serve on a bed of cauliflower before devouring, greedily.
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