RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7 — Episode 3 – Results and Recap (VIDEO)

Sasha Belle left the following message on the mirror: “Love you. I mean it. Ging for the win.” So, even she could see that Ginger Minj is the front runner. Katya tells us, in her over-emphatic way, that she barely escaped elimination. She can’t do that again. So far, check and check on the usual post-runway sequence.

As Violet undresses, her tiny waist seems to enrage Jasmine Masters, who can’t stop dissing the entire Team Aryan. She calls them “young hos,” and advises Violet to start wearing her “panties, bitch!”

The next day, Katya is wearing a puppy’s face, and Violet has her boy hair in an Olive Oyl bun. Jaidynn talks about the open sores on her feet after last week’s dance performance.

Video RuPaul recites some Shakespearean puns. “All the world’s a stage,” she says, “But watch your back, Henny. Because everyone’s a critic.” I smell an acting challenge.

Enter boy RuPaul, dressed in a Kermit-green suit and driving a scooter-seat. Is this some Inside the Actor’s Studio reference? I wouldn’t know, having never seen the show. Just the SNL parodies.

Or maybe it’s because of the mini-challenge. Which is to put on old lady drag and do a Soul Train dance line. Because that makes sense, right? (I didn’t think so.) What does make sense is that Kennedy (the dancer of the group) and Max (the old lady impersonator) win the challenge and become dueling team captains for two Shakespearean sketches, MacBitch, and Romy & Juliet.

By the way, RuPaul, please stop saying “Jiffs.”

Max chooses in descending order of talent: Ginger, Trixie, Kasha, and Jaidynn. Kennedy goes with Jasmine, Katya, Pearl, and Kandy. The last two unpicked are Miss Fame and Violet. Max chooses Fame, and Violet is left to wonder why, yet again, she’s the cheese standing alone. She seems more and more like Sheldon Cooper — brilliant at what she does, but unable to decipher even the most obvious social cues

Team Kennedy starts to work on MacBitch, which is based on a play that Pearl has never even heard of, let alone seen. Although Violet has been auditioning for the lead role of “The Bitch” ever since she stepped into the Werk Room, Jasmine wants the starring role, and Kennedy gives it to her. Violet is assigned the role of “Ghetto Girl.” After some rehearsal, Kennedy realizes that pushing Jasmine and Violet out of their comfort zones, into the zones of the other, was not the greatest casting decision, and makes them switch roles. Violet is happy, but wants to do another read-through. Kennedy nixes that idea. They need to start getting ready to film their sketch.

Team Max doesn’t have those problems. Ginger claims, “I’ve done Shakespeare plenty… and he liked it every time.” The casting just falls right into place. Kasha is given the drag mother role, Miss Fame is perfect as the vapid party girl, Jaidynn is “Mercutia,” hot-headed diva.

At the video shoot, RuPaul and Michelle Visage are ready to direct. There’s nothing much for them to do with Team Max, except when Jaidynn has a weird emotional meltdown. What happened to her ferocity? She’s like the Cowardly Lion. The last we see is Max giving Jaidynn a sweet pep talk and Kasha worrying for nothing.

The next sketch is a disaster. Pearl is narrating, and she’s so dull, it’s as though she’s doing a subversive meta piece of performance art about the blandest actress ever. Or perhaps a Katherine McPhee imitation. Katya tells us about a domino effect of people missing cues, costumes falling apart, and screw-ups, but the worst thing we see is Jasmine trying to remember her lines.

Jasmine hasn’t just lost her lines. Her lines have staged an escape from the studio and are halfway to Fresno. RuPaul finally declares the sketch a car crash — such as has never been seen in seven seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race. (Isn’t that a Queen song? The Seven Seasons of Ru?)

So, Team Kennedy starts Elimination Day with plenty of warning about who will be in danger. Jasmine’s strategy is to wear a dress so fabulous that RuPaul won’t have the heart to make her lip-synch.

Kennedy gets irritated by Miss Fame talking about her “aesthetic,” which leads to grousing by what Ginger has dubbed the “bitter old lady brigade.” That includes herself, Kennedy, Jasmine, and Mrs. Kasha Davis. They mutter about how these youngin’s don’t even know who they are yet.

Ginger tells a wonderful story about a woman who showed up at her club one night. The woman had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, but had put “see a drag show” on her bucket list. She wasn’t expected to live more than a month, but she returned every week for a year. When she stopped coming, Ginger found out she was in hospice. The entire club dragged up and went to the hospice to give her one last performance.

On that note, RuPaul makes her runway entrance in a neon green cat suit, covered with a draped black cape-coverall. The guest judges are Kat Dennings, and Mel B.

Interestingly, the runway theme is “Bearded Ladies.” Max is stunning in a look that perfectly blends Tim Burton, Salvidor Dali, Bob Fosse, and Colonel Sanders. Ginger has an Ali-Baba look, while Trixie is more Ancient Babylonia. Kasha has gone Cruella DeVille by way of Captain Nemo.

Jaidynn has on another leotard, which looks exactly like the other leotards she’s worn. I don’t know if she’s got any specific idea, but maybe she’s going for Captain of the Pinafore, with all the metal on her chest. Miss Fame calls her look “classic Harlequin.” I can see it once she says it, but on my own, I would have said “1940s cocktail dress.” RuPaul calls is a cross between “Ginger Grant and Ulysses S. Grant.”

Speaking of presidents, Katya is full-on “Babe-raham Lincoln,” completed with a tuxedo dress and stovepipe hat. “Don’t go to the theater!” Michelle screams at her as she leaves the runway. Pearl has a devil theme going on, and her beard is made out of red paper tails (or maybe tridents.) Kandy Ho impresses Carson Kressley with a very 19th century Russian black coat dress with a large black furry box taped to her head. Michelle is also impressed with Kandy how well Kandy contoured. Violet looks elegant and pretty, even with an auburn beard, as she simpers down the runway in a pink Dior prom gown.

As suspected, Team Max wipes the floor with Team Kennedy in the video sketches. MacBitch isn’t as much of a wreck as it looked during taping, but it still only gets one half-hearted clap. Max wins the challenge, receiving two latex gowns from Siren Latex. RuPaul declares her entire team safe — and Kennedy’s entire team in jeopardy.

The judges rake Team Kennedy over the coals. Mel B. asks why Kennedy couldn’t see early on that her team wasn’t working. Violet mentions that Kennedy wouldn’t let them do the run through she requested. “I don’t want to hear any Goddamn excuses!” RuPaul scolds. “Make it work!”

In the end, Katya, Kandy, and Violet are safe. Pearl is safe, but with a warning. She needs to wake up! Kennedy and Jasmine are in the bottom.

They are both wearing the most fabulous gowns you can imagine. Jasmine’s is encrusted with black and silver rhinestones. It looks like it weighs a hundred pounds. Kennedy is in a black and purple mermaid gown. The song is “I Was Gonna Cancel,” by Kylie Minogue. Kennedy makes some impressive hip movements, and pirouettes. Jasmine is doing some deep plie jumps. But I can’t help wishing these two weren’t trapped in their outfits, because I know they’d be tearing up the stage if they could.

Kennedy stays, and Jasmine has to sashay away. It’s such a shame to lose her this early, but it makes her feel better that she lost to her idol, Kennedy Davenport.

Episode Video:

Untucked

Team Max makes their way in black and white to the backstage couch spot. Their mindsets range from Kasha’s “Thank God!” to Miss Fame’s pouty, “I thought I was stronger than safe.” Trixie leads a toast to their team captain, Max. Ginger delivers a couple backhanded compliments: Max is better than she thought on first meeting, and Trixie looks really pretty in her beard. Trixie beams. She’s softening up her Barbie doll look, and delighted that people have noticed.

They rag on Violet for a bit. Ginger notes that she’s been the winner and runner-up for two weeks, but always lands in the bottom two for the schoolyard pick. They agree that her negative energy drags every one down. But they all agree that her runway look is exquisite.

Then they start on Jasmine, who blew the challenge. Even Jasmine thinks she’s in the bottom, because she’s already packed her bags. Kasha mentions that Jasmine intends to stand still when she’s called to lip-synch. She won’t even move her lips. They shake their heads and call that disrespectful.

They talk about how awful it is to wear a beard. Nobody likes it.

Team Kennedy finally joins them. Katya is praised for her Babe-raham Lincoln look.

Kennedy gives the bottom line on her own team: they failed. Kennedy thinks the main failure was not knowing the lines. She and Violet fight a little about Kennedy refusing to do team run-throughs. But, the bottom line is, Violet was right about it. Kennedy can see that now. But she still’s mad about Violet not wanting to wear some skirt — which is a fight the editors didn’t have time to show us.

There’s a great part where Kandy starts talking about the importance of knowing your cue to speak, as well as the lines. The camera shows Trixie just staring at them — and you know she has to be thinking that’s way below acting 101. It’s acting kindergarten — or Headstart.

The bottom line of all of it is that Kennedy and Jasmine are lip-synching, and they both know it. Kennedy’s deflecting stuff onto Violet, because it’s easy to blame her negative energy. But Violet deflects that onto Miss Fame, and Kennedy talks for ten minutes about how Miss Fame talks too much.

Then they all run out of steam, and Kennedy and Jasmine are left to their misery, while everyone tries to get their beards re-stuck. At the five-minute warning, Jasmine is still saying she won’t lip-synch, but when the time comes, she does.

Afterwards, we see even more of the Walk of Shame. The runway and werk room are in separate studios, so they must out into the open air to do the packing sequence. Jasmine has only a few hats and her fabulous gown to pack up, and she’s ready to leave. When asked why she’s so prepared, she says the acting challenge defeated her.

Just as a bit of gossip: Ginger Minj has said that Jasmine only used three of the allotted five suitcases for her drag. The other two were filled with food. Which endeared her to all the other queens, because apparently the production is pretty skimpy with the catering.

Bonus Video
Whatcha Packin’

Bonus Bonus Video

Katya RuGRETS