RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars review: Sex and the what now?

After Manila’s elimination last episode, I can’t say anything shocks me anymore, because that was the gag of the season. But who else deserves the crown, and why are they doing a SATC parody?

The queens were surprisingly not that phased by Manila’s elimination at the beginning of this week’s episode, except for, surprisingly, Trinity. Trinity was determined to play a fair game, so for Naomi to send Manila home for basically no reason except for being a threat, it obviously threw Trinity off.

But what’s done is done, Manila is gone, Latrice doesn’t even seem mad that her best friend was eliminated, but whatever. Let’s focus on what really matters: this week’s extremely confusing challenge.

This season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars has had some of the weirdest challenges ever, and that’s saying something because all of the challenges are usually pretty out there. Between last week’s odd Judy Garland dance number and this week’s years-too-late Sex and the City parody, I think they might be running out of ideas.

It would be one thing if they just had to do a Sex and the City parody, it would be another if they were doing a mockumentary about Sex and the City but it was weird that they kind of merged the two. And that didn’t help the queens either.

Naomi got to choose her character, and CHOSE SJP (not Carrie Bradshaw, not even Sarah Jessica Parker, just “SJP”), and she did not do the character justice. The judges raved about Trinity as Kim (again, not Samantha, or Kim Cattrall, just Kim) but I did not see it at all. I thought the only one who actually captured the character was Monet as Kristen — so, Charlotte — but the judges didn’t love it (except for Felicity Huffman).

The most confusing thing of all was the fact that they included Kristen Johnston’s character from Sex and the City, who only appeared on one episode. Yes, Lexi was iconic and her death was even more iconic, but she was literally just on that one episode.

Why would they bring her in, even if it was a joke about recasting Samantha? Who writes these skits?! As a huge fan of both Sex and the City and RuPaul’s Drag Race, I wasn’t very impressed.

Judging by the critiques on the runway, I was not surprised by the top two queens. Trinity’s cat look wasn’t extremely original, but that catsuit was perfectly fit to her body and her paint was on point. Monique also wore a catsuit, but she was Puss in Boots! That hat and those boots? Girl I was LIVING!

Naomi’s look was probably the best, because she was the only one to not take the cat theme so literally. She was a high-fashion ball of yarn, that’s genius! Unfortunately, her Carrie Bradshaw — sorry, SJP — wasn’t good enough to save her. I think Monet should’ve been in the top, the Pink Panther was a really unexpected way to take this runway, but the judges just did not love her. And Latrice… well… her dress was a choice, especially when a fashion designer is a guest judge!

For this elimination, Monet didn’t have to worry. I knew right away this would be down to Naomi and Latrice. Latrice had a huge target on her ever since she got eliminated the first time, and honestly, before her elimination, she wasn’t performing at her best.

Naomi had an even bigger target on her after sending home Manila. It all came down to how Monique and Trinity wanted to play. Going into the elimination, they really didn’t give us any hint about who they were voting off.

It would’ve been a real gag if Naomi was sent home, but Trinity won and she went for the obvious choice, Latrice. She was already eliminated once, so it only made sense to send her home again. The lip sync was kind of lackluster, or maybe I’m just over All Stars. Whatever it is, the last few episodes really just fell kind of flat — at least Manila’s elimination elicited some emotion out of us.

Now, all we have left is the finale. Will there be an upset like when Shangela didn’t make it to the final two, or will it be smooth sailings? All Stars has started to focus too much on the drama, so I’m ready for this season to be done so we can focus on a new crop of girls on season 12 instead.

Random Ruflections

• “I’m gagged that Manila is gone!” Same Trinity
• Naomi: “I sent Manila home because… I wanted to.”
• Monet also chose Manila, because Manila chose her. How does that help find the best queen?
• “I dont trust none of these hoes!” Same Monique
• Naomi, to Trinity: “Yeah Trinity what’s it like to be white?”
• Kristen Johnston was one of the most iconic SATC moments ever
• “Are you ready to Jimmy Choo up the set?”
• Naomi is a terrible Carrie Bradshaw
• Why does Trinity actually kind of look like Kim Cattrall?
• The challenges are so weird this season?
• Monet looks like a womaaaann as Charlotte!
• It’s SO WEIRD to include Kristen Johnston in this skit? She was on like one episode.
• Monique to Monet: “She’s the prissy white bitch, you didn’t give me that!”
• I love Monet’s Pink Panther, even if it looks a little like Miss Piggy.
• Latrice’s dress…is not cute.
• Naomi’s outfit is really different, she’s not just dressed as a cat or in an animal print
• Monique’s hat and boots are fabulous.
• OMG is Monet’s character supposed to be like Woke Charlotte on Instagram?
• THEY REFERENCED THE POST IT NOTE FROM SATC! That’s funny.
• Trinity really didn’t steal the show as Kim, what are they talking about?
• Monet: “I’m black under here, just so you know.”
• Jason Wu to Naomi: “Fashion with a capital F!”
• Those were some really lackluster reveals in the lip sync.