{"id":374050,"date":"2026-04-11T04:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T04:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/374050\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T04:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T04:42:10","slug":"rupauls-drag-race-ep-15-recap-rupaul-a-paruza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/374050\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race\u2019 Ep. 15 Recap: RuPaul-a-Paruza"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race<\/a><\/p>\n

All RuPaul-a-Paruza Smackdown<\/p>\n

\n Season 18<\/p>\n

Episode 15\n <\/p>\n

\n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n

2 stars<\/p>\n

**\n <\/p>\n

\n A lip-sync reunion delivers a bit of fun, but the stakes are so low that it\u2019s impossible to get too excited about the results.
\n Photo: MTV\n <\/p>\n

Look, I like watching lip syncs. You probably like watching lip syncs too! That\u2019s, like, half the point of watching this show. This episode provided that \u2014 and not much else. It was a fine hour of TV but not particularly interesting or well produced.<\/p>\n

Previous lip-sync \u201cLaLaPaRuZa\u201d reunions served to complete story lines for queens like Morphine, Megami, and Suzie Toot by allowing them to clean up their unfinished business. In Morphine\u2019s case, she finally earned the win she was craving. Megami got to prove she was fierce, not just mopey. Suzie got to show versatility and sexiness after bombing the Vegas challenge. All really good, interesting stuff. This week \u2026 Juicy got to show she was good at lip-syncing. And I\u2019ll be brave enough to say I already felt pretty confident that Juicy was good at lip-syncing. There just isn\u2019t much there.<\/p>\n

Randomly, the biggest character in the reunion portion ends up being Ciara. She\u2019s pissed about how she went out, and the queens are annoyed and unapologetic. Jane then calls her out for the scraps-of-fabric thing, which would be a lot more potent if she didn\u2019t literally win the challenge. Ciara cannot hold the episode on her back and, for the person who was the sole focus of much of the plotwork, ends up going out pretty early. The person who should have the unfinished-story-line gripe is Jane, who would ideally be back with a vengeance. Unfortunately, Jane walks in having accepted she will not win this because Juicy and Mia are there and thus does not really try that hard. Instead, we just sit with the girls who we know are good at this and are doing well.<\/p>\n

And, honestly, even that could have been more fun. I\u2019m not sure what happened to the budget this season, but for some reason, all the songs are RuPaul songs. Look, I don\u2019t hate all Ru songs (I\u2019m not a monster who can deny the appeal of \u201cA.S.M.R Lover\u201d), but they\u2019re also kind of same-y, same-y and not exactly amazing. In previous seasons, we got to see Q in a wildly inappropriate outfit and have to lip-sync to Janet Jackson, or Crystal Envy have to do a Sylvester song, or Mirage have to do a Nicki rap after botching words earlier in the season. That\u2019s part of the fun. None of these queens are doing these songs in their regular act, which means lower stakes. Okay, enough complaining. Let\u2019s get to the lip syncs.<\/p>\n

Ciara Myst vs. Athena Dion
The first lip sync is between two of the bigger personalities of the season. Ciara chooses Athena because she knows Athena will choose \u201cBorn Naked,\u201d which she does. Ciara is in a look inspired by The Substance, a movie that most gay guys liked a lot more than I did. (Sue me \u2014\u00a0I celebrated when Mikey Madison won the Oscar<\/a>.) Athena looks fine. Neither girl sets the world on fire. I\u2019d have gone for Athena for the win, but Ru chooses Ciara. It\u2019s a matter of taste between equally fine performances.<\/p>\n

Mia Starr vs. Mandy Mango
Mia goes against Mandy over the much less threatening DD or Vita for some reason. Mandy chooses the wordy \u201cJust What They Want.\u201d They both know the words. Mandy does some impressively energetic noguing, but Mia is simply a better dancer. She moves on.<\/p>\n

DD Fuego vs. Vita VonTesse Starr
The final two of the first-seeded group are DD and Vita, who lip-sync to \u201cMain Event.\u201d DD does more, but Vita connects to the song better. Neither of these two is necessarily a lip-sync assassin. DD has some reveals, but she was also initially wearing a giant ball of tulle, so that wasn\u2019t exactly shocking. Vita is stunning and in a better outfit, and her composure wins her the lip sync.<\/p>\n

Vita vs. Mia
Vita, after making it to round two by the skin of her teeth, chooses Mia to go against in the second round, perhaps looking to bow out gracefully. Mia sticks to her strategy of \u201cwordy\u201d songs and goes for \u201cCall Me Mother.\u201d Vita knows approximately 80 percent of the words. Mia knows all of them. She deservedly wins it.<\/p>\n

Kenya Pleaser vs. Ciara
Kenya gets to choose her opponent and goes for Ciara. Ciara chooses \u201cPretty Gang,\u201d perhaps because this is a rap song and she is remembering that Kenya has a lot of trouble with words. But what she may not remember is that RuPaul regularly lets Kenya win lip syncs without knowing the words anyway. Kenya misses a bunch of words in this, but she\u2019s also ten times more entertaining than Ciara, so they let her win anyway. Is that fair? Uhh \u2026 probably not, but I was fine with bonking the sour Ciara anyway.<\/p>\n

Jane Don\u2019t vs. Discord Addams
Jane and Discord are the final lip sync of the second round. For comedy\u2019s sake, given Discord\u2019s walk, Jane goes for \u201cSissy That Walk.\u201d Fun! Discord can\u2019t really move, but she puts up a fight. It\u2019s a risk to give Discord this song because she has the ability to simply walk when RuPaul says \u201cwalk\u201d and suddenly have the room laughing. Jane has the smarts to know that if you can\u2019t beat \u2019em, join \u2019em. She does the Discord walk with Discord, effectively deflating her walk\u2019s potency. Plus she\u2019s just a better mover. This is the best lip sync so far, and it rightly goes to Jane.<\/p>\n

Jane vs. Juicy
In the final four, Jane is in a tough spot. Her ball gets picked, and she realizes she will either go against Kenya or Mia to the ass-shaking song \u201cPeanut Butter\u201d or Miami\u2019s dancing doll Juicy to \u201cCha Cha Bitch.\u201d Her likeliest route to the finale was probably through Kenya, but it was definitely not guaranteed, and I don\u2019t think Jane wanted to shake her ass. She chooses Juicy, knowing she will lose. And lose she does! Jane tries to give it a bit of meta humor, milking laughs from throwing money at Juicy and doing little jazz hands. That might work if Juicy weren\u2019t so good. Gone is the dreary Juicy from last week\u2019s lip sync versus Nini. This girl is ready to FIGHT. She does a reveal by flipping upside down so her dress comes off? It\u2019s amazing. Never seen anything like it. Total slam dunk.<\/p>\n

Kenya vs. Mia
Kenya and Mia then lip-sync to \u201cPeanut Butter.\u201d I kind of think Kenya wins it. Mia does a great job, but her dance style is so signature that it sometimes feels as if she doesn\u2019t adapt to the songs. Kenya is totally in the \u201cPeanut Butter\u201d mode, and she has a lot of great ideas about ponytails. Ru disagrees and gives the win to Mia. Not mad at it! Plus it gives us a Juicy-versus-Mia rematch, which is clearly for the best.<\/p>\n

Juicy vs. Mia
It comes down to the girls we all knew it would: Juicy and Mia are lip-syncing to \u201cCover Girl.\u201d They both do a good job! They have a little choreographed moment in which they simultaneously ease on down the runway, which is very cute. Mia does a good job, particularly as someone on her fourth lip sync of the night. That\u2019s crazy! But the truth is that Juicy eats her lunch. Juicy is one of the best, if not the best, lip-syncers ever on the show. She vogues, she splits, she dips, she has fun, and she\u2019s embodying the music. It\u2019s not really a competition. Juicy wins and it is right. Is it surprising? Not really! But that\u2019s what happens when you cast Juicy Love Dion on your season: She wins lip syncs. And good on her for it.<\/p>\n

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