Returning to the Werk Room, Hormona Lisa has departed the competition, Lana Ja’Rae is emotional, and Kori King is particularly satisfied at the elimination. Arrietty is relishing being in the winner’s circle, and Crystal Envy’s frustration about not snagging a win yet is starting to crack her picture-perfect facade.
The queens enter the Werk Room for the day and are met with one final parting gift from departed queen Lisa; her ever present bob! RuPaul then enters the Werk Room and lets the queens know that this week, “We are playing the Snatch Game!” The rules are simple as Ru notes; “impersonate a celebrity and make us laugh.” One queen that is extremely excited about the Snatch Game is Suzie Toot, who quickly proclaims, “The Snatch Game is what I, Suzie Toot, am here to do!”
While the queens are preparing their Snatch Game performances in the Werk Room, they receive a visit from RuPaul’s Global All Stars Season 1 winner Alyssa Edwards who joins Ru for the Werk Room walk through (there is nothing quite like, after being introduced to Lydia “Butthole” Kollins, hearing Edwards say, “Who was that again?”). Edwards offered some sage words of advice for the queens, encouraging them to “trust their instinct, listen to, yourself, follow your yellow brick road, and just make it fun.” A particularly funny off-script moment happened when RuPaul, questioning King for consistently wearing the same netted pumps on the runway, actually grabs the aforementioned boots off the shelf herself to present to the group. Ru also zeroed in on Envy’s own consistently picture perfect presentation, noting that she takes herself “a little too seriously,” encouraging Envy to “have fun.”
The Snatch Game characters that the performers inhabit this season are in a word, WORD. Acacia Forgot takes on internet sensation Tricia Paytas, offering up a pretty uneventful performance. Toot delivers Little Shop of Horrors legend Ellen Greene, and while delivering one solid line involving one item (a tongue twisting delivering of “scissors"), Toot’s delivery of Greene is essentially one note. Lexi Love instantly implodes as Gilbert Gottfried, instantly falling out of character mid-delivery. Sam Starr portrays pageant coach and reality star Kim Gravel, staying in firm character throughout, while Lana Ja’Rae portrays Rosa Parks, offering a performance that hinged on one signature RuPaul line (“Is the bus still running?”) and when Ru himself delivered the line, Ja’Rae came totally unmoored, simply attempting to coast throughout the remainder of the challenge.
Onya Nurve totally inhabited Eddie Murphy gloriously, while on the other side of the coin, Arrietty delivered Baby Cupid as a…baby. (enough said) and Lydia B. Kollins was cerebral and clever as director and visionary David Lynch. It was Jewels Sparkles though, who truly stood out on this season’s Snatch Game, delivering a portrayal of woods residing diva “Miss Bigfeet” delivering character, humor, and above all, making Ru roar with laughter.
The remainder of the panel was not as successful, with Envy delivering an unfortunately off the mark Nicole Richie and King’s unfortunate Big Ang portrayal, which did nothing to bring Kori to the front of the pack just yet. The cast bantered back and forth consistently with Sam Starr and Jewels Sparkles seeming to receive the most laughs from RuPaul and Snatch Game players Alyssa Edwards and Gay I (you have to see it to believe it).
The judges assemble on the Main Stage, with RuPaul, Michelle Visage, and Ross Matthews joined by “Abbot Elementary” creator and star Quinta Brunson. Heading to the Main Stage, the category is “Nailed It” and that is exactly what some of the queens manage to do. Forgot delivers a detailed and clever Swiss Army inspired look, while Toot’s Iron Maiden look erases any blemishes from her Snatch Game performance courtesy of this stunning look. Lexi’s Cher look is something that we have been anticipating all season after seeing her runway aesthetic (the nails are a stunning something extra), while Starr’s plastic surgery look is oddly familiar (it looks a lot like the look Trinity the Tuck wore on “Botched”). Lana delivered a familiar aesthetic, Kori’s Parisian style mime is uninspired, and Envy comes roaring out of her traditional picture perfect box with a Wolf Man-hybrid look, complete with forehead prosthetic.
Onya, Jewels, and Sam land in the top, with Lana, Envy and Arrietty landing in the bottom for their performances. After the judges deliberated, Nurve scored another much deserved win while Envy and Ja’Rae landed in the bottom. The Lip Sync For Your Life to Selena Gomez’s “Hands To Myself” complete with Envy’s now signature tumble/somersaults and with Lana unfortunately losing her wig near the end of the lip sync, although she recovered quickly. The lip sync ended and to the surprise of the queens (and as it turned out, the fans), Envy was eliminated from the competition.
