Survivor<\/a> knows vagaries are the enemy of success, and ultimately the ringleader of Glam, Ciara, still goes down this week.<\/p>\nYet you have Jane, who makes a lot of hay about hating \u201cRate-A-Queen\u201d as a concept. She came to be judged by RuPaul! Not some Florida bitches who don\u2019t know how to read! Expressing a continual worry that the girls will put her in the bottom out of vengeance because she\u2019s been in the top so much, Jane is very cocky about her placement in the competition. She has been an interesting beast so far, basing her entire arc on her continued ability to do well. She must be smart enough to know she\u2019s setting herself up for a downfall, right? If she\u2019s lucky, it will be early enough that she\u2019ll still be able to regain strength before the finale. I\u2019m expecting a lot out of this girl\u2019s Snatch Game.<\/p>\n
When it comes time to choose who\u2019s performing which week, Nini Coco freaks out. With an odd number of girls, she can just choose whichever week she wants, whether week one with Mia and Juicy \u2014 which has the added benefit of happening sooner \u2014 or week two. She chooses week one, the wrong choice. I\u2019m a little worried about Nini\u2019s inability to strategize. While other queens like Athena, Jane, Vita, and even Darlene are expertly crafting narratives about who they are and what they need from the judges for the camera, Nini is floundering. She\u2019s fabulously talented, but I\u2019m not sure she has yet figured out how to be on TV.<\/p>\n
The groups:<\/p>\n
Week one: Ciara, Juicy, Nini, Vita, Darlene, Mia<\/p>\n
Week two: Jane, Discord, Myki, Kenya, Athena<\/p>\n
On the runway, the category is \u201cNot Today, Satin.\u201d Ciara\u2019s devil look is totally forgettable. Her signature makeup doesn\u2019t make sense on top of a pretty dress. Juicy wears a fabulous flower dress that frames her face beautifully. Her preference for tiny little wigs may grow to grate on me, but for now I like that it makes her look like Jasmine Amy Rogers as Betty Boop. Nini\u2019s look is made by someone who is not her, since she hates sewing satin. It is a blue dress covered in satin loofahs. Not my thing. Vita\u2019s outfit relies on a flat nude illusion panel over her breasts, and it does not look right. Darlene\u2019s dress is just not good. She\u2019s yet to prove she has the glamour necessary to win this thing, though I\u2019d love her to prove me wrong. Mia\u2019s giant bow dress is fabulous, but her hair is all wrong. She hasn\u2019t quite figured out her proportions.<\/p>\n
Jane wears a dress with a satin sun on it and a bird around her neck. I think this is too literal. Discord\u2019s trash look is lumpy, and her walk hasn\u2019t improved. Myki, meanwhile, turns out her best look yet; I love the way that one piece of fabric floats above her head. Too bad for her that her best look so far is on a week she\u2019s not being judged. Kenya wears a coat that Jane brought because she showed up without an outfit. Honestly? This is my favorite Kenya look so far. Hair is right, makeup is right. She looks cute! Athena is in a pink monstrosity inspired by To Wong Foo. It\u2019s an evil garment.<\/p>\n
Ciara opens up the talent show. A few things: When she said she was reciting a serious poem she wrote, I groaned; this is potentially my least favorite kind of drag imaginable; and despite her a stellar outfit, I do not think the performance was very good. And YET, even I know Ciara shouldn\u2019t have been in the bottom over the performance of a certain other queen whom I like significantly more. At least Ciara had a stellar outfit! Vita is very lucky she\u2019s so charming.<\/p>\n
Juicy is amazing. The track doesn\u2019t sound good because they never do, but I\u2019m glad she\u2019s singing it. Doing a robot-themed number is a great idea, and I like how much personality she managed to infuse into that bot. She moves like a dream. Great performance.<\/p>\n
Nini brings her famous praying-mantis routine to the Drag Race stage for the talent show, to some girls\u2019 chagrin. I think it\u2019s smart. It\u2019s not as if her original performance was filmed by professional cameras. Plus, the track is new. Either way, this is fabulous, and looking over next week\u2019s performance schedule, I think she made an extremely faulty tactical decision regarding which week to perform.<\/p>\n
Vita stinks. She does a workout routine she doesn\u2019t know the words to. She\u2019s low energy. Her costume is unflattering. Her song isn\u2019t funny. She wears flats. It\u2019s by far the worst performance of the night. Sorry, girl, you should have been in the bottom.<\/p>\n
Darlene does okay for herself. She does a hokey-pokey little singsong number about tools that uses sexual innuendo. It doesn\u2019t really go far enough, though it\u2019s definitely cute. I love Darlene\u2019s personality, but I need her to start pushing.<\/p>\n
Finally comes Mia, who rocks it. She does a rap track that she performs herself featuring two different flows. She\u2019s charismatic and funny, and she has an amazing grounded energy while performing. However, she wears two rainbow wigs that are both terrible. I don\u2019t begrudge her spot in the top. I\u2019m just saying.<\/p>\n
The voting queens mostly do right by the performers. Juicy and Mia end up in the top, which is sad for Nini but entirely her fault. Ciara, meanwhile, ends up in the bottom and will lip-sync against next week\u2019s loser. I\u2019m not feeling too bad for Ciara because I think the poem was ill advised and that the bottom girl next week will be Discord, who has six left feet.<\/p>\n
Then we get to the lip sync. It\u2019s to guest judge Zara Larsson\u2019s track \u201cPretty Ugly.\u201d You know the power of a good lip sync? I hated this song before watching this; now I want it to play at every club I go to for the next calendar year. Both girls kill it. It\u2019s amazing to see two performers of this level get a song they can sink their teeth into and just go for it. Juicy does gravity-defying moves throughout, but what surprises me is that she catches the vibe of the song in her face. Mia, meanwhile, is grounded and funny and pulls attention throughout. Ru gives them both the win. Honestly, I hate that. If it were a Lip Sync for Your Life, I\u2019d definitely keep them both. But this has such low stakes that they should just make a choice. For me, the winner is Juicy.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The girls talk about the talent show. Ciara reveals the full harrowing backstory behind her performance, and the girls privately note that it didn\u2019t come through onstage.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Zara is fun! Totally down to clown with the judges. I\u2019m assuming \u201cMidnight Sun\u201d will appear sooner rather than later on the show too.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ross\u2019s \u201cG.I. Joe in a paper dress\u201d joke about Darlene\u2019s outfit was my favorite critique he\u2019s had in a long time.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Trauma Makeup Corner: It\u2019s all confined to Untucked because the main show needs the space for strategy.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Gay Thoughts From Co-workers: My colleague Jesse David Fox just binged all five episodes of the season. Here are his thoughts after consuming what took us a month and change to see in one day:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been maybe ten seasons since my favorite queen is not someone seemingly in contention to win. When Kenya Pleaser talked about how much joy it brings her to see Mia Starr laugh every day and Mia responded to that comment by laughing a lot, I was in love. Then seeing her dance this week and transfer the energy she brings offstage to her art onstage was really moving to me. She has already \u201cwon,\u201d even if she won\u2019t win the season. I am less intrigued by Darlene Mitchell\u2019s drag, but similarly, I find their presence overwhelmingly winning. I guess I\u2019m rooting for Nini Coco to win because, in my estimation, she is the only queen to be funny on purpose this season (she also was very funny not on purpose this episode), even though she is (gasp) 29.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Predicted Top Four: I\u2019m getting worried that Vita can\u2019t do anything but sew. I\u2019ll go Jane, Juicy, Nini, and Mia, just for some fun. Would love to see Mia make it, but the proportions may hold her back.<\/p>\n
RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race<\/p>\n
Entertainment news, for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n
Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Notice<\/a> and to receive email correspondence from us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race The Rate-A-Queen Talent Show, Part 1 Season 18 Episode 5 Editor\u2019s Rating 5 stars *****…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[31681,9,24,63,36621,122,124,123,3296,36622,4943,1869,36620],"class_list":{"0":"post-118286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-mtv","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-overnights","13":"tag-queens","14":"tag-queens-headlines","15":"tag-queens-news","16":"tag-reality-tv","17":"tag-recaps","18":"tag-rupauls-drag-race","19":"tag-tv","20":"tag-tv-recaps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/d576c551c4419eacb3b9077d3affc9cc28--23A2995.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
<\/p>\n