{"id":148080,"date":"2026-02-28T02:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/148080\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T02:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:52:08","slug":"two-miami-queens-faced-off-on-drag-race-who-went-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/148080\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Miami Queens Faced Off on Drag Race. Who Went Home?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tOnly one South Florida contestant remains on Drag Race after this week.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

MTV photo<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: This recap contains spoilers.<\/p>\n

Lip syncs for your life are designed to be intense, but few reach the emotional heights of this week on RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race. After Mia Starr\u2019s somewhat contested elimination<\/a>, the remaining South Florida queens<\/a>, Athena Dion and Juicy Love Dion, delivered top-notch reality television, showing great vulnerability and strength. The episode began with Mia\u2019s mirror message encouraging Athena and Juicy to bring the crown to South Florida<\/a>, but by the end of the episode, only one of them was left in the running.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was a mini-challenge to see who knew their fellow competitors best, but much of the episode was punctuated with glimpses into the deep friendship between Juicy and Athena. It was refreshing to see them share more about their private relationship before the cameras \u2014 they bravely discussed Juicy\u2019s difficult recovery from drug abuse and Athena\u2019s steadfast support. As Athena admitted, their relationship \u201chas a lot of layers,\u201d which puts Episode 4\u2019s dispute with Briar Blush<\/a> into context.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the main challenge, the queens put on a new Rusical, Fanny: The Hard Knock Ball, a comical amalgamation of Annie and the underground documentary Paris is Burning. The combination of orphans and ball culture made for one of the best Rusicals in recent memory. Juicy and Athena both struggled in the recording session. In a sense, they had the same issue: emoting with their voice. Juicy\u2019s vocal performance came off as one-note, while Athena remained stuck in a sing-song register that one queen compared to Dr. Seuss. While Juicy rebounded during the choreography rehearsal, Athena\u2019s lack of rhythm carried over. Ultimately, surrounded by great performances, Juicy and Athena simply fell flat by comparison.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u201cBeige Against the Machine\u201d runway had the potential to be boring, but the basic color prompt forced each queen to focus on material, texture, and volume in fascinating ways. It was one of the season\u2019s best runways, and Juicy and Athena delivered some of their greatest looks. Juicy took a diaphanous approach to Athena\u2019s upcycling of burlap, but both looked regal. Unfortunately, their looks were not enough to outweigh their weaker performances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Looking at Juicy and Athena\u2019s faces during the critiques, it was clear they knew they would have to lip-sync against each other. In fact, any Drag Race herstorian understood from the moment the Dion-duo walked into the Werkroom that this face-off was inevitable.<\/p>\n

The mid-tempo \u201cCall Me When You Break Up\u201d proved a great soundtrack for Juicy and Athena\u2019s emotional catharsis. Juicy captured the energy through her movement sans stunts, and Athena\u2019s typical composure in the face of an impossible situation was compelling. After joining hands, they arranged an Emmy-worthy moment as Juicy perched on Athena\u2019s knee to close the song. As Juicy broke into tears, Athena mouthed, \u201cI love you.\u201d The performance demonstrated the depth of their drag family<\/a>\u2018s bond \u2014 one that will remain even now, after Athena, Juicy Love\u2019s drag grandmother, has sashayed away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only one South Florida contestant remains on Drag Race after this week. MTV photo Editor\u2019s note: This recap…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1360,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-148080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-lgbtq","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148080","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=148080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}