RuPaul’s Drag Race review: And may the best magician win!

Main Challenge: Dragracadabra

Okay, now let’s jump right into the main challenge — our queens had to learn magic tricks and then put on a full magic show. Since Vanjie won the mini challenge (along with the gorgeous Pit Crew member Wilson, hubba hubba), she got to make the teams, and she may have hurt herself with her choices.

As usual, there was a very clear winner, and very clear losers. The first team, with Brooke, Nina, and Shuga, was dynamite as soon as they stepped onto the stage. They created an entire persona for themselves and planned an entire show around it. Nina was the ringmaster, because like she said, this is what she does for a living. She is known in her hometown for putting on these big productions with groups of local queens, she doesn’t just lip sync in a bar for a couple songs.

Brooke Lynn put her dance skills into her character and she definitely held her own with Nina, though Nina blew them all out of the water. She was quick, she was funny, and most importantly she was on the entire time! Shuga, unfortunately, couldn’t keep up with Nina or Brooke. She didn’t have any issue pulling off her magic trick, but she didn’t have the same fire her teammates did and she couldn’t land all her punchlines.

Shuga was still probably better than most of the second team, though. Yvie and Vanjie said right off the bat that they needed to plan out a show in advance, the way Nina’s team did, but A’keria and Silky insisted it should be spontaneous and come up with it as they go.

It really made me angry that Yvie made it seem like she was the only one who planned out her bit when she was talking to Ru on the runway, when Vanjie was right there beside her saying the exact same thing in the workroom.

Either way, they definitely should’ve planned more. They managed to knock all of their magic tricks out of the park, sure, but the overall show just felt awkward and uncomfortable.