Review: RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9, Episode 10—”Makeovers: Crew Better Work”

RuPaul displays his knack for casting on a fun makeover episode, and a once-underdog contestant makes a strong case to win it all.

After a memorable run on the show, Nina Bo’Nina finally sashayed away from RuPaul’s Drag Race, something that’s been on the way for a while now. With her frequent bouts of self-doubt and melancholic energy, it must be wearing to be around her for too long. At the top of the episode, she gets down on herself for sending Valentina home in last week’s lip sync, and Peppermint says what we’re all thinking: “I’ve never heard of that in any situation in humanity. I need to make you feel good about the fact that you did a great job.”

At the same time, there’s a big part of me that wishes Nina could stay. There’s something fascinating about her, a drag queen who’s competent enough to not only get on RuPaul’s Drag Race but to get really far into the competition, but not confident enough to enjoy it. I never stopped wondering what she was going to do next, but in the end, Ross Matthews was right: “I’m so excited by what you bring to this competition, Nina, but I need you to bring it at a 10.” Fascinating or not, there are girls here who want this more than Nina, and her talent can’t make up for their hunger.

Case in point: Trinity freaking Taylor. Here’s someone who didn’t make much of an impression on me in the first couple of episodes — she was spirited and put together, but I didn’t get the impression she had the creativity to go the distance. But if Nina’s run on the show proved anything, it’s that creativity by itself isn’t enough. Determination counts for a ton, and Trinity is nothing if not determined.

In the wonderfully named “Crew Better Work,” the queens had to turn members of the RuPaul’s Drag Race crew into drag queens, and Trinity immediately sets herself apart. She and her partner, a cute young set PA named Rizzo, step out in skimpy cheetah-print bathing suits, complete with impeccable tucks and sky-high pageant hair, and prance around the stage like a couple of old pros. I mean, Rizzo danced backward in heels! If he’s done drag before, Trinity got lucky. But I think it’s equally likely that she just drilled Rizzo to hell and back until she got the result she wanted, up to and including that terrific tuck. (Trinity put it, “You’ve gotta pull it back or I’m gonna pull it back for you.”) That dedication deserves to be rewarded. Tonight, Ru rightly handed Trinity her third win of the season, and personally, I’m hoping she hands her the crown as well.

Unless Trinity, I dunno, has a breakdown and comes out on the runway in a tee-shirt and a pair of jeans next week, but somehow I doubt that’ll happen.

Makeover episodes have a spotty history on this show. A lot of the time the problem is that the girls are asked to make over strangers, so everyone’s on their best behavior. That’s boring. The show got around this problem in season 7, when Ru had the girls makeover queens who had already been eliminated. That worked perfectly, because everyone could pick up exactly where they left off. By drafting crew members for the makeovers, Ru showed another stroke of genius. We may not know these guys, but the queens do, and their easy familiarity helps bring out their personalities. Audio guy Bradey, who works with Alexis, even asks Ru if he’s co-hosting next season. “Fuck you, Michelle Visage!” The second I heard him say that, I knew this was going to work.

And as it ends up, several of the guys are hilarious. My favorite was associate director Duncan, Sasha’s partner. This guy already has a rapport with RuPaul, and his deadpan sense of humor had me rolling. Camera operator Sarge was also a blast. Even before he got on the runway, he was throwing genial sass RuPaul’s way in the workroom, rolling his neck and brandishing his doorknob-sized earring.

And when he got on the main stage, dear god — that guy (drag name Winter Green) was having such a great time vamping for the judges. (RuPaul: “Gorgeous.” Winter Green: “I know.”) Guest judge Kesha looked she was going to have a coronary. Earlier in the episode, RuPaul makes a comment about drag bringing out a person’s true nature, and after seeing these guys feel the fantasy and inhabit their characters, it’s not hard to believe there’s something to that. That was what made this episode special: a shared understanding of how transformative, and how fun, drag can be.

It’s a shame that Peppermint, Sarge’s partner, didn’t make an equally good showing. This was a look challenge, and Peppermint’s looks have been very inconsistent. Sure, her club kid outfit was a thing of beauty, but before that, she wore the same pink slip for several weeks in a row. That visual laziness reasserted itself here, where Peppermint slapped a couple of dresses on herself and her partner despite them having almost nothing in common. The sleeves were both long, I guess.

A couple of the judges got down on Alexis and Bradley for looking “unfresh.” But I was with Michelle on that one — at least their Barbarella-looking space-age hooker-wear matched, and their lip sync performance was well-coordinated. Their outfits didn’t have the playful clashing of color and print that Sasha and Duncan’s did, but they were entirely presentable.

The same couldn’t be said for Shea and her partner, PA Josh. They looked glamorous in their matching black-and-white ballgowns, but disaster struck early when Josh’s wig went askew and Shea had to fix it. “I help my sister the best I can and get my ass off that runway,” Shea said. Understandable, but not the kind of voiceover you want to have to make.

For her part, Nina gets tossed in the bottom for her uninspired corset-and-thigh-high-boots look. To be fair, she did try to sew new outfits for herself and her partner, art coordinator Aaron, but she had to abandon that plan before it came to fruition. And to keep being fair, I dunno if trying to sew new outfits when you don’t know how to sew is a great idea. Her playful bunny mask is neat, but she didn’t have time to work it into the rest of the outfit, and deservedly lip syncs for the third time.

The song is “Cool for the Summer,” by Demi Lovato. This is the first time we’ve seen Shae lip sync, and I was expecting her to bust out a few more tricks — jumps and flips and stuff like that. I imagine someone like Aja would have thrown themselves into this song with more abandon.

On the other hand, I’m glad both she and Nina kept it subtle. Lip sync tricks have become cliche at this point, and both of these girls took on the harder task of embracing the sensuality of the song and letting it flow through their bodies. Plus I enjoyed Shae’s Naomi Campbell walk.

And now that the frontrunner has been in the bottom, we have a Drag Race rarity: a tight race, particularly when Sasha has a good chance of winning next week’s ball challenge. I have my fave, but I’m glad any of these girls could take it.

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Random Ruflections

• Considering how shocking Valentina’s elimination was, it’s almost surprising how quickly the girls move on. On the other hand, of course, they move on. What are they going to do, have a memorial episode?
• It’s always fun watching Shea Couleé try to speak through a thick face mask.
• Sasha: “I like a strong and powerful woman, so I’m going with Duncan.”
• RuPaul: “Who do you choose for Trinity?” Sasha and Shae at the exact same time: “Rizzo.” Gee, I wonder why?
• Trinity on Josh’s runway walk: “Have you ever seen a dog walk in snow? It looks just like that.” And I love how unapologetic Trinity is about wanting Shae to leave so she has less competition. “Bye girl.”
• RuPaul: “How do you [avoid getting in your head?]” Duncan: “Drugs?”
• On top of having the best outfit and the best act, Trinity’s partner also had the best drag name: Glittafa Daze.
• Sometimes I’m watching this show and I have a quick moment of clarity where I think, “I can’t believe this is a show.” It happened tonight when Peppermint put her foot on the small of Sarge’s back and yanked on his corset as hard as she could while Sarge, a burly straight man, grimaced and got a sickening waistline. See also: Trinity taping back Rizzo’s penis for him. This show is so great.
• RuPaul: “The time has come to lip sync for your job!”
• RuPaul: “What do you think you’re going to take from this experience?” Rizzo: “I’m going to take this tape off.”
• Nina: “I almost want to just stand on stage and point and do a Charlie number.” Oh, Nina, even when you’re getting down on yourself, you make me laugh. Best of luck. Sue me.