Rutrospective: The best of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, Season 2

Fans turn on Alaska

Man, did All Stars Season 2 bring the drama. Some of it was manufactured. First, RuPaul flipped the script on the whole show and announced that the strongest queen from each week would eliminate one of the weakest. Then, while we were processing that, she started teasing a mass return by all of the eliminated girls, a stunt that bloomed halfway through the season in “Revenge of the Queens.”

But honestly, she didn’t have to bother with these curveballs. The queens provided plenty of drama by themselves. It started early, when Adore Delano voluntarily left the competition after getting some harsh feedback on the main stage, and continued when Phi Phi O’Hara was eliminated and declared open war on the show and its editors. And in a normal season, that would have been enough. But not for All Stars 2.

Things didn’t climax until near the end of the run, when Alaska sent home fan favorite Tatianna and had a minor meltdown after she ended up in the back of the pack for the makeover challenge. Despite her excellent track record, many fans decided they no longer wanted Alaska to be the winner, and started to campaign against her on social media. Mostly, this consisted of stuffing her Twitter and Facebook accounts full of snake emojis, something Alaska immediately put to good use.

So clearly, Alaska didn’t let any of this bother her, but the incident paints an odd picture of part of the Drag Race fanbase. The fans who partook are passionate, surely, but also fickle, and not overly mindful of the supportive atmosphere RuPaul tries to foster. This was a strange snapshot of what happens when ardent fans bump up against the manicured absurdity of reality TV. It’ll make for a good talking point at the reunion.