“RuPaul’s Drag Race” Episode 1504 Recap: Unsweetened
This is a recap of RuPaul’s Drag Race episode 1504. Spoilers below.
I was wrong. Last week I seemed to be the only person who was in support of the shorter format, and this week revealed why. For an acting challenge it worked, but for double Snatch Game?? Not so much.
We begin in the aftermath of Poppy’s departure. Amethyst is having an existential crisis because she’s always thought of herself as a comedy queen and she’s failing at comedy. Meanwhile, Sugar says she’s done apologizing for being too much. I guess she means apologies in the RuPaul sense of the word, because I haven’t seen them. We then get some fun back and forth between Luxx and Loosey arguing about who was second and who was third.
It’s another day in the workroom and Mistress is having some fun. Spice asks if Amethyst plays baseball because “three strikes you’re out” and then reveals Mistress told her to say it. I may not like the twins but I do love Mistress mentoring them — and using them for a joke.
Ru announces the double Snatch Game and everyone is rightfully shocked. Also a shock — Ru splits the groups based purely on where the queens are standing?? The producers must have set them… right?
The first group is Marcia as Tim Gunn, Luxx as Amanda Lepore, Malaysia as Saucy Santana, Mistress as Rosie O’Donnell, Anetra as Gordon Ramsay’s sister Gorgenia, Robin as real housewife Karen Huger, and EsTitties as the Virgin Mary.
Marcia is definitely the most solid of this first group, even if it’s all a bit expected. Luxx, Malaysia, and Robin don’t bomb but also don’t do much of anything. EsTitties is crass and loud but that’s different then being funny. Mistress is funny as Rosie but she’s not doing a good Rosie! It’s not a good impression! It’s not specific! I think my favorite of this group was Anetra?? At least, she tried for something even if she got fewer jokes off.
The second group is Loosey as Joan Rivers, Sasha as Jan Crouch, Jax as the Mona Lisa, Sugar as Trisha Paytas, Amethyst as… Tan Mom(?), Spice as Miley Cyrus, and Aura as Bretman Rock. Loosey is by far the best of this group, though like Marcia, Joan Rivers and her Joan Rivers jokes just feel so basic. I wish Jax had been funnier because, again, the Mona Lisa is a choice! Sasha does a solid job even if we don’t see much from her. Amethyst is also fine, even if she once again made me uncomfortable more than she made me laugh. (Full disclosure: no idea who Tan Mom is, even after googling.) I thought Sugar did just as fine as everyone else. Aura bombs. Spice bombs and is offensive to Miley, a person I honestly didn’t think I cared enough about to get offended on her behalf.
Remember last year when Snatch Game was so bad that Ru made ALL the queens lip sync? This was worse. Or, at least, I think it was worse, except I didn’t see enough from most of the queens to really know if it was as boring as it seemed or if it was just cut short.
Some Snatch Games have had more people bombing, but they at least had more people taking risks and being funny. The only people we see more than two jokes from were Marcia and Loosey and not one of those jokes made me actually laugh.
Thankfully, the runway is better. Amandla Stenberg is the guest judge and the theme is Beautiful Nightmare which appealed to me as a Halloween Gay.
I don’t usually write about all the looks, but I need to focus on some positive so here we go. Marcia is a child’s nightmare of what a dentist would look like. I don’t agree with the judges that Marcia needs to be “more drag” but I do think this runway had less of an impact because she’d already done a teeth bit with the braces in her talent show.
Luxx is a zombie bride who has been drowned by her husband, cinder block tied to her ankle and all. I love it. Malaysia is a show ghoul which is more beautiful than nightmare. EsTitties is in a skin suit and eating titties which is more nightmare than beautiful. Mistress, Anetra, and Robin all do spider looks and I’d rank them: 1) Anetra, 2) Mistress, 3) Robin.
Loosey’s Snatch Game and personality may not have charmed me as much as most, but her drag queen Jason Voorhees got me. As did Sasha as a Tim Burton-esque witch and Jax as Medusa with Perseus’ head in tow.
Amethyst is Gaga with blood spurting out of her chest when she presses her boob. (It’s fine.) And Aura has exposed vertebrae on her back. (It’s cool.) Finally, Sugar and Spice are both haunted dolls and it’s about as underwhelming as their collective Snatch Game performance.
The top is Marcia, Mistress, and Loosey. The bottom is Aura and the twins. Everyone else is safe. Loosey wins. (I do, in fact, think her runway is what pushed her ahead of Marcia.) And Sugar and Spice are lip syncing against each other. I love television!
The song is Pat Benatar’s “You Better Run” and surprise surprise the twins have decided to do choreo with one another. It’s somehow both chaotic and very boring. In the end, Sugar goes home and Spice stays. And honestly? I’m no longer rooting against Spice. I’ll give her a chance! Let’s see her thrive solo.
That said, watching this lip sync, I wonder if RuPaul Charles thought, “Hmm so it wasn’t trans women who ruined my show — it was TikTok.” That’s what I was thinking.
Teleport Us to Mars!! Here Are Some Random Thoughts:
+ The emotional debrief this episode is Loosey talking about being bullied for being gay and living in the town she grew up in. I’ve gotta say… I find Loosey really annoying. She deserved her win this episode, but I hope it’s the last one. Glad you’re out and proud now though, babe!
+ I’m not against people doing internet and reality TV personalities for Snatch Game. But like pop stars, they usually bomb. Open to theories in the comments.
+ Another thing lost with the time cut is no mini challenges. I’m torn on whether I care. They’d kind of lost the spark in recent seasons if I’m being honest.
+ Last thing I’ll say about the time cut is I do think it will work better as the season goes on and personally I think they should have done hour and a half for the first half the season and then gone to an hour for the rest.
+ More distressing to me is Untucked isn’t after Drag Race? I’m supposed to wait around for an hour? I have not seen Untucked. Tell me what I missed in Untucked. (Just kidding I’ll watch it when it’s streaming.)
+ Queen I’m rooting for: my three loves (Anetra, Jax, Sasha)
+ Queen I’m horniest for: this runway it was Anetra
+ Queen I want to sashay: Amethyst then Loosey then Spice if she hasn’t proven herself