Heading into the 10th episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18, the Dion dynasty was down to one family member after Juicy Love Dion sent her own mother Athena Dion home following their bottom placements in the “Fannie” Rusical challenge. It was the second time in three weeks that Juicy had to lip sync for her life despite being a two-time challenge winner. Jane Don’t earned her own second win for the Rusical, putting her on par with Juicy and Nini Coco at the top of the track record leaderboard.
This week, the eliminated queens came back to haunt the top seven in the third design challenge of the season. Legendary supermodel Iman served as guest judge alongside series panelists RuPaul Charles, Michelle Visage, and Carson Kressley.
The queens still competing for the crown on Season 18 are: Darlene Mitchell, Discord Addams, Jane Don’t, Juicy Love Dion, Kenya Pleaser, Myki Meeks, and Nini Coco.
Read on for our recap of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18, Episode 10, titled “Drag in a Bag” which aired Friday, March 6 on MTV.
Darlene MitchellMTV
“Discord’s reads are a little dry, just like Nini told us that tongue was.” — Darlene Mitchell
With half the cast eliminated, it was high time that RuPaul opened the library for the always memeable “Reading Is Fundamental” mini-challenge. During the shade-throwing event, Nini took a hit from Darlene for her flavorless drag before Nini retaliated by pointing out that Darlene doesn’t have gigs. Myki went for the jugular, comparing Kenya to the “brick road,” Nini to a child only Casey Anthony could love, and coming for Jane’s weight. Discord, Juicy, and Kenya all did their best, but most of their reads fell flat. In the end, Ru selected Myki as the clear winner for her sharp-tongued digs at the other queens.
The other benefit of half the cast being out of the competition was that it made sense that the next maxi challenge would bring them back… well, in a sense. Instead of the girls coming back themselves, seven Away suitcases returned containing the drag materials they packed away thinking they’d use it to create the perfect party outfit. As the mini-challenge winner, Myki chose first to use Briar Blush’s materials and then started a train of selections from there on out. Kenya took Vita VonTesse Star’s suitcase, Juicy took Mia Starr’s, Jane took Ciara Myst’s, Darlene took Athena’s, Nini took DD Fuego’s, and that left Discord with Mandy Mango’s.
Jane Don’tMTV
“I knew I shouldn’t have trusted a bitch that wakes up at 7 a.m.” — Jane Don’t
While both Darlene and Jane were confident they chose the right suitcases to set themselves up for an easy win, they quickly realized that Athena and Ciara had left them scraps to work with. Athena gave over one non-stretch zebra print and only a much smaller portion of spandex. Ciara literally packed fabric scraps that were torn apart and had glue residue on them. The scraps were so bad that Kenya said she would have felt “fucked over” and left the competition; Jane realized that Ciara must have understood the assignment was that the materials would be given someone else and sought to sabotage.
Later on during Ru’s visit to the Werk Room, Juicy suggested that Athena might also have had sabotage on the mind and that’s why she didn’t claim her luggage when she could have. In his one-on-one time with each of the queens, Ru encouraged Jane to show more confidence in herself, advised Kenya to design within proportion, asked Juicy to consider “range” by adding padding to her jumpsuit, and engaged in a catwalk workshop with Discord. One concern that came up in different corners of the room was that Discord chose to use safety pins on her garment, which per the design challenge rules would only be allowed if they were used with a purpose and not as embellishment. The 800 she claimed to have used on the outfit called into question if she’d be clocked for “shenanigans.”
Discord AddamsMTV
“Three safety pins is trash. A thousand safety pins? Fashion.” — Discord Addams
On the catwalk in the “Party” runway category, Ru gave Discord a thumbs up on her “new” walk and Juicy took the advice to heart and padded her hips. Overall, Carson told all seven of the girls that “every look is so fully realized.” The judges liked how perfectly ’80s Darlene’s look was and Michelle appreciated that it was a “different look” for her. Iman had such high praise for Discord that she suggested she could be a designer. The only criticism Juicy received was on the preference of her shoe just before Jane received no criticisms on her “miraculous” ability to turn Ciara’s scraps into a beautiful dress. Nini also received praise for making a print “edgy and fun.” Iman appreciated the dimension that Myki created with her dark on dark bodysuit and overlay. Michelle was so impressed by Kenya’s construction that she didn’t actually believe she did it all on her own.
Even though the judges didn’t call Discord out for the rule infraction use of 800 safety pins, it was addressed when every other queen chose her as the queen who most deserved to go home this week. Some of them relied on “track record” for their reason, but Juicy and Jane were clear that they thought she wasn’t as resourceful as she should have been. Discord said that Darlene should go based off track record.
Despite the questionable decision on the safety pins, but because they loved all of the finished garments, Ru and the judges decided to make it a non-elimination round by giving safety to all of the queens. Instead of a Lip Sync for Your Life, Jane and Kenya were afforded the opportunity to Lip Sync for the Win as the top two of the week. In the head-to-head to Patti LaBelle’s “Feels Like Another One,” Jane was hoping to become the first queen to earn three wins this season, but Kenya was dressed so perfectly for the track in her sequined disco jumpsuit that it created a steep hill for Jane to climb.