Unfortunately for Aurora, she misjudges badly. Not just the challenge, mind you, but also how her strategy so far this season might come back to bite her. I would argue Aurora has been one of the most prominent supporters of the \u201csave the weakest queen\u201d metagame this season, starting all the way back in the premiere<\/a> by saving Juice and sending Jackie Cox to be assassinated by Nearah. Now, it\u2019s her facing elimination, and suffice it to say it feels very different on the other end of this strategy.<\/p>\n Get free Xtra newsletters<\/p>\n Xtra is being blocked on Facebook and Instagram for Canadians as part of Meta\u2019s response to Bill C18. Stay connected, and tell a friend.<\/p>\n Sami Landri continues to demonstrate how locked in she is this season, mixing her Sami hilarity into great challenge performances Credit: Courtesy Bell Media<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond this newfound threat to Aurora, most of the queens\u2019 storylines really crystallize in this episode. The rock-solid voting bloc of Jada and Sami has become the most important duo of the game; after being on the wrong side of things the first two episodes, they were the only votes to save Nearah last week, as Aurora and Makayla split their votes between Juice and Tiffany. (Nearah does not let this go unnoticed\u2014more on her in a second.)<\/p>\n Both Jada and Sami have consistently been top performers this season, and while I don\u2019t personally agree with all those placements on Jada\u2019s end (particularly that design challenge look), there\u2019s definitely a confidence to her and an elevation in her drag that the judges are responding to in a major way. Once again, her performance this week is boldly her, blowing past malapropisms (\u201cHardy for the tardy\u201d?) and quickly improvising on the fly. There\u2019s always going to be something a bit more impressive about Jada in the process than in the final product: the delightful chaos of her ad\u2019s filming session is better than the ad itself. But her \u201cTurn Up Queen\u201d branding is the strongest of anyone\u2019s this season, and it comes through.<\/p>\n Sami, meanwhile, is locked the fuck in. While I liked Sami quite a bit in Season 6, she did at times feel like she was fine with quirking her way through the competition, content to let Eboni La\u2019Belle and Van Goth dominate both the strategy and the challenges. This time around, Sami understands how to make her Sami Landri signature drag and comedy work for Drag Race. Throughout the filming process for both her ad and her teammates\u2019\u2014a quirk of this challenge is that each queen is \u201crunning\u201d against two others, and must include attacks on them in their segments\u2014Sami is as delightfully surreal as ever. But she\u2019s weaponizing that weirdness in competitively effective ways. I\u2019m becoming more and more of a Sami stan every week.<\/p>\n Part of what\u2019s working for Sami is how she\u2019s focusing, rather unapologetically, on herself and what she\u2019s doing. Unfortunately, Makayla is struggling because she\u2019s doing exactly the opposite. In both this challenge and the girl groups task, she\u2019s ceded the spotlight to others when she should be the one out in front. It\u2019s an odd situation for Makayla to be in, considering she is quick to declare herself a star and a force in conversation with the other queens.<\/p>\n I wonder if she feels more comfortable being herself in these \u201csocial\u201d settings, like in the werk room and Mini-Untucked, than in an environment where she\u2019s putting herself and her work out to be judged. After all, even though she was a runner-up on both her original Canada\u2019s Drag Race<\/a> season and her Call Me Mother<\/a> season, her track records in both of those indicate that she struggles more in the competition than her reputation would indicate. That comes out during deliberations, when Makayla tries to save herself with the argument that she hasn\u2019t actually been doing that well. Sami agrees in confessional \u2026 but also says they know what Makayla is capable of. Her potential is what is keeping her a threat, even as she underwhelms.<\/p>\n The queens all stun as a collective in their Lavender Haze runway looks Credit: Courtesy Bell Media<\/p>\n I find Tiffany\u2019s position in this competition to be kind of pitiful, in the true \u201cdeserving pity\u201d sense of the word. She\u2019s been the butt of the joke a lot this season, seen this week in the queens and judges mocking her \u201cfive, six, seven, eight\u201d verbal tic as she stops and starts between shots during ad filming. I actually think Tiffany turns in one of her better performances this week\u2014the problem is that she does so in Jada and Sami\u2019s ads. In her own ad, she\u2019s clearly nervous, and her delivery is somewhat painful to listen to. (Brooke Lynn Hytes describes it as \u201cstaccato,\u201d and I think that is a very helpfully neutral term for it.) There are also, as Priyanka notes, a bizarre number of bathroom jokes.<\/p>\n More than that, though, Tiffany is left each week to make the explicit argument that the queens should keep her in because she\u2019s underperforming. This is All Stars, yet she exists really only to be saved, as a way for the other queens to kick out stronger performers. While there\u2019s something to be admired about Tiffany using every advantage available to her\u2014as Jada puts it, \u201cBaby, Tiffany\u2019s giving self-awareness\u201d\u2014there\u2019s just no denying that, like Juice before her, she is incapable of performing at the level required for this competition.<\/p>\n I was worried that the same was going to prove to be true of Nearah, too; while she\u2019s great in a lip sync and a performance challenge, through her two seasons she\u2019s largely demonstrated that that\u2019s all she excels at competitively. (Outside the competition, she is also incredible TV.) In the werk room and when she starts filming, it seems like Nearah will once again psych herself out of doing well. But lo and behold, she\u2019s finally able to let go and go balls-to-the-wall throughout her and her team\u2019s recording session. Not only is her ad one of the best, feeling the most like a real political ad, but she\u2019s also the clear standout in both of her teammates\u2019 ads. If Nearah\u2019s story this season is of feeling trapped in the Lip Sync Assassin box of her own making, this week she breaks out.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s another important dimension to Nearah\u2019s story: her bold, brash strategy. Her temper got the best of her in the premiere, and it resulted in her getting no votes to save from her would-be allies after she exposed them. Since then, she\u2019s built her relationships back up, primarily with Jada and Sami\u2014solidified by them voting to save her the previous week. However, Aurora, who should theoretically be her closest connection as her Season 4 sister, hasn\u2019t voted to save Nearah once. Crucially, in the cold open, Nearah doesn\u2019t lash out at Aurora\u2014she recognizes that it\u2019s not personal, but calls it \u201ca wake-up call\u201d to her sister\u2019s face. In confessional, she makes the meaning of this call explicit: she has no plans to have Aurora\u2019s back moving forward.<\/p>\n That sets the stage for this week, where Aurora does intend to save Nearah at first (Makayla later tries to talk her out of it\u2014more on that in the final thoughts), but the roles are reversed. After a genuinely terrible ad, one completely lacking any real message or jokes and in which she gets upstaged by both Nearah and Makayla, Aurora finds herself in jeopardy for the first time. She gives a little spiel about being in the bottom for the first time that is painfully generic, full of platitudes and polished in the way Aurora always is. It is so deeply out of touch with how the queens have wanted to see each other campaigning this season\u2014there\u2019s no fire, just a bit of spin and a smile, emphasizing how good she\u2019s been doing otherwise.<\/p>\n Then Nearah punctures the balloon: \u201cThreat, threat, threat.\u201d<\/p>\n After successfully campaigning against Aurora Matrix in Mini-Untucked, Nearah Nuff wins and gets to be the one to seal her Season 4 sister\u2019s bottom placement Credit: Courtesy Bell Media<\/p>\n This Mini-Untucked is a bloodbath, and an amazing one at that. Jada can\u2019t lie to Aurora: she is the biggest competition, and saving her would be silly. Sami is also on board, privately admitting in confessional she really wants to see Aurora lip sync in the cat prosthetic she wears on the runway this week. But no one makes the case quite as openly as Nearah, who explicitly tells Jada and Sami that they must save Tiffany to guarantee that one of Aurora or Makayla goes home. They want to do to Aurora what she and her Kitty Katz once did to Pythia<\/a>: send her to be assassinated by Makayla.<\/p>\n When Aurora asks the queens to \u201cfind it in [their] heart[s]\u201d to save her because of how badly she wants to win, Nearah practically licks her lips when she says Aurora can show how much she wants it in a Lip Sync for Your Life. Turning the queens\u2019 logic for not saving her in Episode 1 back around on Aurora is a delicious bit of irony. Aurora seems hurt by this, saying in confessional that while she never gave Nearah her vote, she also never openly campaigned against her the way Nearah is doing to her now. Makayla, meanwhile, keeps her sentiments in confessional much more to the point: \u201cNearah, shut the fuck UP.\u201d<\/p>\n The voting doesn\u2019t even need to be kept a secret cliffhanger this week. All three vote for Tiffany, with Sami calling this \u201cthe easiest vote of all time.\u201d After Nearah wins the challenge\u2014I\u2019m so thrilled for her, she really fought hard for this\u2014she opens the dam and confirms that Tiffany has been saved. The judges gasp at this decision, seemingly in awe of the naked strategy on display and likely thinking what excellent TV this will make.<\/p>\n The lip sync is to Allie X\u2019s \u201cBlack Eye,\u201d and here it\u2019s revealed the one flaw with this attempted strike on Aurora: she\u2019s still an incredible lip syncer. Both she and Makayla are fab in this performance, pulling out every trick without letting it become too much. It\u2019s just a great lip sync, one that gets a standing ovation from the judges at the end. Honestly, picking a winner would be near-impossible, as I imagine it is for the judges\u2014so they seemingly default to track record. Aurora shantays to safety, and Makayla sashays away.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t blame the queens for using the strategic apparatus Aurora helped develop against her and taking the shot, but I imagine there will be much on Aurora\u2019s mind next week now that she\u2019s survived. If she is still going to win it all, it\u2019s crucial that she\u2019s had this moment\u2014something queens like Lemon on Canada vs. The World Season 2<\/a> lacked. A winner\u2019s journey can be obvious, but that doesn\u2019t mean it should be unchallenged. Thank goodness for Jada, Sami and especially Nearah for having the gumption to try a Matrix revolution.<\/p>\n Untucking our final thoughts<\/p>\n \u2728 There\u2019s a mini-challenge this week involving reimagining bad former CDR design challenge looks in pairs. Nearah and Sami get Aimee Yonce Shennel\u2019s shower look (which Nearah lip synced against her in!), Tiffany and Jada get Miss Mo\u00e7o\u2019s neon look and Makayla and Aurora get Melinda\u2019s \u201cVivienne Westwood! \u2026 inspired\u201d look. Hilarious that two of the three come from the same challenge in Season 4. Of the looks, only Makayla and Aurora\u2019s actually improves on the OG, so they win for making it \u201cfashion and fun,\u201d splitting $2,500 from the PrEP Clinic for their troubles.<\/p>\n \u2728 The ad recording segment includes a \u201cnonpartisan Pit Crew\u201d to film with. Jada is, unsurprisingly, horny for them.<\/p>\n \u2728 I want to highlight how Makayla makes the (ultimately irrelevant) case to Aurora to save Nearah, because I think it presents a kind of meta strategy that American Drag Race is often reluctant to embrace. Her point is not generically that Nearah is a threat, but that she is specifically potentially problematic if there is a Slay-Off challenge in the offing. She admits that they don\u2019t know what else is coming before the finale, but that if it is a Slay-Off, Nearah has already beaten her once. This is so much more interesting to hear than vague notes about a queen being a potential threat, and I hope we see Canada\u2019s Drag Race embrace being transparent about this even more in the future.<\/p>\n \u2728 A round of applause for guest judge Robby Hoffman, who is fucking hilarious this week. The comedian (and wife of The Traitors winner Gabby Windey!) gets things off to a wild start with the declaration that \u201cDaddy is finally home,\u201d and spends most of critiques trading barbs with Brooke Lynn. When Brooke Lynn puts her People\u2019s Choice Award-winning credentials against Robby\u2019s Emmy, Robby gets in a devastatingly sarcastic \u201cOkay, now I\u2019m proud of you!\u201d that has the queens howling. The energy on that set must\u2019ve been crazy if Sami\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m scared\u201d later is any indication\u2014yes, Sami is scared by uncomfortable energy. But here\u2019s the thing: Robby\u2019s critiques are also really solid! She\u2019s kind of my ideal Drag Race guest judge: fully herself, but also engaged with the competition. Love her.<\/p>\n \u2728 Jimbo and Priyanka both look positively stunning on the panel this week. I think Pri\u2019s mug is my favourite of hers ever? And Brooke Lynn comes out in a Silky Nutmeg Ganache-inspired runway look that truly delights me. I\u2019ll reserve most of my notes about the judges for the finale, but this is their best showing yet as a panel in my book.<\/p>\n \u2728 The runway category this week is \u201cLavender Haze\u201d\u2014\u201cThey won\u2019t even let you say \u2018purple\u2019 anymore,\u201d Robby jokes at the start\u2014and it\u2019s a strong showing all around! Makayla\u2019s showgirl look is the best thing she\u2019s ever worn on the main stage, so high-impact and impressive, while I love the overall impression of Nearah\u2019s lavender marriage look. (I do wish it weren\u2019t so short, but hey, that\u2019s Nearah for you.) Aurora\u2019s high-fashion cat fantasy is different for her in a way that I like, even if the prosthetic does make her look kinda crazy during the lip sync later. Sami\u2019s \u201cGlami Landri\u201d look is gorgeous and very her but still elevated; I love the sheer cape. Tiffany\u2019s traditional Vietnamese wedding dress is really beautiful, and Jada\u2019s extravaganza look is a lot of look. But it works for me! Maybe the best Canada\u2019s Drag Race runway overall since Season 3\u2019s Paint runway?<\/p>\n \u2728 With a C.U.N.T. Test on the horizon next week, we are about to retire the Golden Beaver vote for the season. I gotta say: great twist. The Golden Beaver itself remains CDR\u2019s greatest innovation\u2014so much so that other franchises are now cribbing it, cough cough Chippy Tea\u2014but the voting structure gives it an extra dimension. I would love to see this format on a longer season with more queens, honestly.<\/p>\n The next episode of Canada\u2019s Drag Race All Stars will be available to stream on Thursday, August 6, at 9 p.m. EST on WOW Presents Plus in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada. Subscribe<\/a> to our drag newsletter, Wig!, for exclusive Drag Race content delivered straight to your inbox every month. You can find all of Kevin\u2019s Drag Race coverage on Ruvisiting<\/a>, and follow @ruvisiting<\/a> on Instagram.<\/p>\n![\"Sami](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CDRAS_104_C-2.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CDRAS_104_A-2.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Nearah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CDRAS_104_B-2.png\")
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