RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7 — Episode 11 – Results and Recap (VIDEO)

In the morning, Kennedy notes that the Old Lady Brigade (herself, Ginger, and Katya) are still here. Violet tells Katya that she originally thought she was really Russian — flown in special. Can she really speak Russian? “I can barely fucking speak English,” Katya replies.

The mini-challenge is the beloved Puppet Reads. Each queen pulls a puppet of another queen from a glory hole, then drags it up and delivers a puppet show.

Pearl is first. She has covered Kennedy’s puppet face in sequins, and makes fun of Kennedy’s chicken/horse/prostitute who got set on fire look. Kennedy just has her Pearl puppet fall asleep. Pearl is hilarious, but she’s hard to make fun of. Violet has Katya, but doesn’t even try to do a funny voice. Katya’s Ginger puppet makes fun of Florida and her make-up. Ginger wins by making fun of Violet. Her puppet Violet claims credit for her win.

The main challenge is a marvel of marketing tie-ins. I can’t believe RuPaul managed to get it, but it’s a Hello Kitty challenge, complete with a special guest appearance from Hello Kitty herself.

The queen have to make an outfit from Hello Kitty merchandise. So, in honoring their trademark guest, they end up having to eviscerate dozens of Hello Kitty dolls. This is so much better than Jessica Alba’s baby product sponsorship.

Ginger tells us throughout the show how much she’s not a costume designer. (Rumor says that “costume designer” is on her resume.) Just like she’s not a dancer, even though she apparently grew up in the theater, and did national Broadway tours. Well, okay. Ginger is obviously playing the game of low expectations.

Meanwhile, Violet is in heaven, because designing looks is what she does. She also helps Katya, who is having panic attacks all over the Werk Room. Kennedy is also out of her comfort zone, but more quiet about it.

RuPaul comes to do the walkthrough with special judge Santino Rice! The general audience seems to hate Santino, who is often hard on the queens, but the contestants always talk about how sexy he is. He and Violet flirt really hard over her boning — er, the boning head piece she’s — oh forget it. She’s got some really cool idea and he loves it.

Katya is lost trying to connect Hello Kitty to Katya. Kennedy doesn’t think she’s creative, but RuPaul and Santino both disagree. Santino encourages Ginger to cinch for her look. And it turns out Pearl’s “flazé-da” catchphrase is spreading like wildfire in the closed confines of the show. “I thought it was a real word,” Pearl explains, her forehead wrinkled.

Oh, but did I mention the twist? The pit crew comes in with five large marshmallow-shaped heads. The queens have to use these to create a character for Hello Kitty to befriend. Leading to the genius footage of the queens stumbling around the Werk Room in these giant white heads, trying to figure out how to wake the runway when they can’t even see.

Ginger thinks up a cow character, but she can’t remember what a cow’s nose looks like. This is what you get for sending Miss Fame home. She would know!

Our backstory of the week is Pearl. She started trying “Pearl” when she was ten years old, to avoid the unpleasantness (which is often hinted at, but never explained) of her life. As she grew older and realized she was gay, she started drawing “Pearl” on her own face, and the character came to life. Wow, now that’s a story.

RuPaul is wearing salmon pink and a Japanese top-knot. Michelle has black-and-white Manila Luzon hair. Rebecca Romjin is the other guest judge. And Hello Kitty comes back to walk the runway.

First up are the Kitty characters. Hello Violet is rather subdued, in a violet sundress. I think she would make a good friend, who wouldn’t overshadow Hello Kitty. Hello Ginger is a very cute cow in polka dots. I could see that working. Hello Pearl is Madonna wearing Miley Cyrus’s fur coat and bikini. RuPaul thinks she would be a bad influence on Hello Kitty (HK later agrees). Katya has a Russian flag and babushka. Hello Kennedy is your basic ghetto girl.

The next “kitty-gory” starts. Violet looks like a sweet pink sunchild with her round headpiece, and sixties mod outfit. Ginger has covered herself in Hello Kitties, including a stole made from stringing together about a dozen dolls. Pearl is in a plush fur sheath gown. She made a hat out of a Hello Kitty head. Like all Pearl outfits, it’s odd and strangely beautiful.

Katya is in a pink and black catsuit, festooned with what look like Hello Kitty dice. The pink curves on the suit remind me of Hot Wheels race track pieces. Finally, Kennedy comes out in a black leotard with pink bows. They look like kites with rhinestone tails. The most interesting part is a “purrse” she made from three cat heads stacked on top of each other.

The judges decide that Violet looks beautiful and always delivers. Ginger has great attention to detail, but seems a little too literal. Pearl is dramatic, but minimal. Hello Kitty would not hang out with her Hello Pearl character. Katya is deemed “so wrong, it’s strong.” Hello Kitty kind of wants to hang out with her, even if a Russian prostitute is not the best influence. Kennedy is basic and her looks fizzled.

“Bring back my litter!” RuPaul commands. Violet is quickly given the win. (Did she actually win a prize? I must have missed it.) Katya and Kennedy are up for elimination.

The song is “Roar” by Katy Perry. Which makes all the sense in the world (for once). The only problem with the song is that it does start out slow. Katya gives me drama (and life!), while Kennedy gives backflips and jump splits and basically tears up the place. She stays.

RuPaul assures Katya that she is a star. And a hammer. And a sickle. Katya thanks her (in Russian), then leaves pulling crazy poses.

Katya leaves the competition having no regrets. She does, however, have many Rugrets. Check out her channel, because her videos are not to be missed.

Untucked

There’s not much to fight about backstage this week. Katya and Kennedy are both certain that they’re in the bottom. The queens — at Ginger’s prodding — talk about their worst moments in the competition.

Katya’s was last night, when she had a panic attack. I guess this was when the camera crew was gone, because we don’t get any flashbacks. “You should have called me,” Ginger says. “Panic attacks are what I do.” Kennedy reminds Katya that they are her support group.

Violet’s worst moment came early, when she thought that everyone hated her. She talked about coming in like she was going to win, and Katya assures her that her confidence is her best quality. “Fame was the only one who looked in my eyes and saw my soul,” she says. Ginger jokes that it just that Violet was the only one who would listen to Fame’s never-ending stories.

Kennedy’s worst moments always came when the assignments were given. Ginger’s worst moment was the conjoined twins challenge, because she was stuck in her head the entire time.

They talk about Santino, with Kennedy complaining. Ginger disagrees that “less is more.” “More is more,” she says, while the shady sound effects try to make it seem like she’s dissing Pearl. But she praises Pearl’s simplicity. We get a flashback to the runway, where Pearl said, “I don’t like to just put a lot of shit on myself.” All the other queens look down at their kitty-licious outfits and laugh at the read.

Kennedy goes off to refresh her lip gloss and practice her lip-sync. The others discuss Pearl’s worst moment, which was the famous RuPaul staredown. She almost left the competition, but now thanks RuPaul for giving her a needed kick in the ass.

Katya goes to Kennedy to tell her how much she loves and admires her — just in case. They hug.

Pearl and Ginger smoke outside. They discuss Ginger’s love of Katya, and that she loves Pearl. Second best. They discover that they were both home-schooled. Ginger, because she was too busy doing theater (national tours!) to attend. Pearl, because she hated school too much to go.

At five minutes, Violet starts wiggling back into her heels. Katya does leg swings, and Kennedy stretches.

As Katya is eliminated, she’s so intent on making funny faces that she almost tumbles down the backstage stairs. There’s just a flash of disappointment in her eyes, but Russian woman are strong. Her regret is not connecting with the judges as strongly as she did with the other queens. Her proudest achievement is enduring the competition without taking one drink — or finding a crack dealer.

In the Werk Room is a note from Kennedy. That’s when the tears start. Katya seems to be the hardest cut of all. Outside, she amuses the crew by pretending to throw a temper tantrum with her luggage. She drives away, spouting Russian good-byes.

Bonus Video:

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