A brand-new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race has kicked off and its (to borrow a phrase direct from the RuPaul’s Drag Race cannon) it’s Florida vs The World! We have five queens from the Sunshine State competing in Season 18 and this season’s competition is filled with seasoned queens along with some newer ingenues here to make a splash (so far though, there is no Badonka Dunk Tank in sight).
The season premiere kicked off with RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni Raja, Bob The Drag Queen and Kim Chi peddling their pads off in an effort to…keep the Werk Room lights on? No matter the purpose, it gave the queens entering a brand-new type of entrance for Season 18, one with a darker hue.
Each queen entered the Werk Room and the Florida connection(s) was evident to both the Sunshine State stunners and the other queens instantly. Briar Blush instantly seems a bit prickly and standoffish, while Jane Don’t very clearly sees the Florida connection having the potential for alliances being formed.
The queens were formally welcomed to the competition by RuPaul himself and were immediately welcomed to a photo shoot with Drag Race family member (and Global All Stars judge) Jamal Sims. Screaming was the order of business, alongside a plethora of masked men, all of whom were ready to assist the queens in any way they needed to make the photo session a shrieking-ly wonderful time. The queens were each tasked with offering their best screams for this mini-challenge, and when the screams subsided, the wonderfully bawdy Kenya Pleaser won the challenge. Honorable mention for RuPaul inadvertently saying Nini Coco reminded her of “Alicia Edwards” (she meant the inaugural winner of Global All Stars Alyssa Edwards), which got raucous laughs all around.
The main challenge was announced and it was a bit of a twist on the traditional season premiere format. As opposed to the Talent Show, the queens were tasked with creating garments out of materials from past Drag Race seasons. We got cameos from items like Vivacious’ headpiece (the famed Ornacia) along with what looked to be Lexi Love’s garment from last season that was almost destroyed, but turned into a runway stunner during her season.
We head to the runway and RuPaul was joined by Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley and Extra Special Guest Judge Cardi B! Nini Coco & Vita VonTesse Star were in the top spots (after constructing their garments out of gift bags and umbrellas respectively). The bottom two were Kenya Pleaser (who inexplicably did not grab fabric to make a garment with at the onset of the challenge) and Mandy Mango (whose look was a bit disjointed).
One of the most important moments of the episode came when Cardi B joined the queens in the Werk Room. Cardi brought both Erika La’Pearl and Tokyo Stylez along with her to meet the queens, and they expressed how RuPaul’s Drag Race and the culture as a whole helped shape their own lives and careers in some ways.
Mandy and Kenya both were in the bottom two, while Vita and Nini were in the top. This was a no-elimination premiere episode, which both bottom queens were thrilled about. Nini & Vita performed a winner vs. winner lip sync to Cardi’s “Enough” and scorched the stage, but leaving Nini as the first challenge winner of Season 18, with the first elimination officially happening in Episode 2!
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” airs Friday on MTV at 8 p.m. (Check local listings).
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