Last Friday, Season 18 of RuPaul’s Drag Race finally commenced and we got to meet the 14 hopefuls looking to take home the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar. Tasked with a design challenge, the queens were put to the test as they went to work crafting their own fabulous outfits with scraps and leftovers from the Drag Race vault. Tonight, the queens are going to be teaming up for a performance on the main stage as newly-formed “Q-Pop” girl groups. All 14 queens are still in the competition, but tonight the first blood will be drawn when the “Porkchop queen” of the season is asked to pack her bags and sashay away. Below you’ll find our official predictions, or power rankings, for tonight’s challenge. The lower the contestant’s ranking, the worse off we think they will be going into tonight’s episode.
14. Mandy Mango
The watch party was dead silent when this queen’s looks came on screen. Just very underwhelming all the way around, although I will admit Mandy did have a few funny one-liners last week, so maybe she’s not totally doomed. But we all knew she was about to get murdered in that lipsync, too. Saved by the bell, I suppose, or in this case, saved by Miss Paul. Let’s just say, I hope she kept her day job (as an RN specializing in LGBT+ and HIV care, which is awesome! Sorry, Mandy!)
13. Discord Addams
Oh, Discord. That runway walk? Prison, honey. It was so much more than a walk, it was a march. Or a stomp. Even RuPaul herself commented on the walk as it came pounding down the main stage. Where’s Miss J. Alexander, the Runway Diva Coach Extraordinaire, when you need him? What’s worse, this Floridian queen has already exhibited quite a nasty, bitter attitude towards the other girls. The edit doesn’t seem to be very forgiving towards Ms. Addams at the moment, and her stiff runway walk doesn’t bode well for success in a girl group performance. Discord, you in danger girl.
12. Darlene Mitchell
What is with the recent seasons of Drag Race and casting country queens from LA? Isn’t this, like, the third or fourth one in as many seasons? This one was more than a little forgettable in the premiere, sadly. Unsure as of now if this understated vibe we saw from Miss Darlene last week will carry over to her girl group performance, but I do predict she will be feeling a bit out of her element in the Q-Pop challenge. I could see her being upstaged, or otherwise not quite emerging as a force to be reckoned with.
11. Briar Blush
Walking right up to the group and immediately saying, “MEH!” to one of the queen’s looks was diabolical, especially when Briar walked in wearing … that. The entrance look was a little underwhelming, and I’m not sure I can recall what exactly her design challenge look was. This queen is giving very bratty and catty vibes, which of course when it comes to drag queens, is always appreciated. However, I’m not so sure she’s going to be giving the same calibre of shade as her fellow Bostonian queens Plane Jane and Katya. This kitty queen’s cattitude may catch up with her quite quickly, and, like Discord, she may not be giving the producers much reason NOT to give her the bitch edit. However, it may not be the bitch who makes it to the finale edit, like the aforementioned Plane Jane; it might just be the bitch that gets left in the dust edit.
10. Myki Meeks
It was a meek week for Myki Meeks, but she does have my favorite face of the season. Her makeup is quite gorgeous, and I especially love the siren-esque way she does her eyes. But, outside of a cute and funny moment in last week’s mini-challenge, Myki Meeks didn’t have too much content in Season 18’s big opening. Is this because the Arya Stark-lookalike has much more to come in the following weeks, or is it because her storyline won’t be very relevant to the competition overall? I’m not sure how she will perform in the Q-Pop group, but I predict she will land somewhere in the middle of the pack. While Myki’s overall impact on the competition remains to be seen, let’s all not stop gushing over how adorable this queen is.
9. Mia Starr
Uh oh. Every season, at the onset of the competition, there’s one or two queens I tend to forget about. Not because I hate them or anything, maybe they just made a little less of an impression as the others. Last week, the title of Miss Forgettable unfortunately went to Mia Starr. Gun to my head, tell you everything I remember about Mia, I might be able to recall that she’s a Floridian queen whom Athena named as her strongest competition. Although those words are currently ringing hollow, as Mia didn’t quite leave her mark on the season premiere the way a strong competitor may be expected to. Maybe she will blow everyone out of the water in tonight’s girl group performance, who knows. As of now, however, Mia Starr doesn’t possess the same promising prospects as some of her Floridian peers this season. I’d love to be proven wrong, though!
8. Jane Don’t
Sue me, but I don’t know why Jane was in the top for her look last week. It really did look like some of Grandma’s old doilies that got scooped up from the nursing home dumpster and spray painted fun colors by some poverty-stricken, yet creative, queen. Is that not what it was? I guess, sure, it was decently constructed. But where is the fashion, darling? On the other hand, though, Miss Don’t has already shown herself as a strong contender to be this season’s confessional narrator; she may, like her Seattleite sisters Bosco and Irene, eke out her own niche this season in that way. As for the Q-Pop performance? I’m not sure what to expect from Jane, but I’m preparing myself to be whelmed by her.
7. DD Fuego
This queen seems, so far, to have quite a free-spirited, uninhibited demeanor that may serve to help her get further along in the competition. If she can dance, I can see her doing great in the Q-Pop challenge. But the makeup and style, however, are leaving a little to be desired in those departments. Like her namesake, I see some fiery performances in challenges from DD this season, but I’m not sure yet if she is well-rounded enough to make it all the way to the finale.
6. Ciara Myst
Two alternative queens on one season? It’s about to be the battle of the goths, everyone. I don’t know about everyone else, but I’ll be sat with popcorn to see which of these dark ladies gets left in the Drag Race dust and which one might become the tokenized “quirky” queen by the time the halfway point of Season 18 rolls around. I’m placing my bets on Ciara, since she seems to be a lot less bitter than her counterpart Discord, who already had some choice words about Ciara’s drag name in the confessionals in last week’s premiere.
Sure, maybe Starry would make for a more “current” lemon-lime soda pun name, but I still think Ms. Myst will come out on top this season, and leave Ms. Addams in the dust. Whether or not she truly slays in tonight’s challenge is up in the air, as is the same for many of the queens going into tonight’s episode. But, as we have already seen, at least she doesn’t have the memorably bad, clompy walk of Discord, with whom she’ll no doubt quarrel with at some point this season. Which of these two will have to go back to Party City where they belong? I’m predicting that this week, it won’t be Ciara Myst.
5. Juicy Love Dion
Jorgeous should be seen as the exception and not the rule for winning a design challenge with a look that uses only half a yard of fabric. In the premiere episode, Juicy seemed a little in over her head. That outfit was totally inconsequential. It was a piece of fabric around her waist, and a bra with some pieces of flowy fabric coming off the shoulder. How … frugal, I guess? It was giving a very inept vibe in terms of formulating and executing a look for the runway.
However, she may also be similar to Jorgeous in another way: commanding stage presence. Juicy probably won’t be in danger this week, in the girl groups challenge. However, in the weeks to come, she may need to do a better job crossing her t’s and dotting her i’s in the competition. Especially since Mother Athena seemed to be just fine with throwing her (grand)daughter to the wolves this early on in the race.
4. Vita VonTesse Starr
Vita made a statement with her drop-dead gorgeous runway fit last week, and lots of people shared the sentiment that she, and only she, deserved the design challenge win. I do agree that her outfit was the most memorable and technically impressive look of the week, but, since it’s Miss Paul’s world and we’re all just living in it, that’s not how things shook out at the end of the day. Unfortunately, Vita didn’t have quite as much success in the top-two lipsync at the end of last week’s episode as she did in the design challenge itself.
Whether she was held back by the constraints of her amazing outfit, or she didn’t know all of the words to Enough (Miami) by guest judge Cardi B, or any other combination of extenuating factors that dragged down her lipsync performance, she didn’t quite shine as much as the queen she went up against, who did end up taking our #1 spot in the power rankings this week. She very well may come back with a vengeance in tonight’s Q-Pop girl group challenge, but personally, I predict she may fall to the middle of the pack or lower. After all, she did allow someone else to snatch the limelight and all the glory in last week’s Top 2 lipsync.
3. Kenya Pleaser
Last week on the runway, the hair was very pretty. And the makeup, too! I wish I could say that Kenya looked great from the neck up, but unfortunately, her outfit did include a very awkward collar piece reminiscent of both the Queen of Hearts and of a toilet seat. Her design challenge was quite a stumble, especially to be making in the first week of the competition. Although there are exceptions, historically in the Drag Race canon, queens who fall into the bottom in the first few episodes usually aren’t long for the competition.
We’ll see, though, because Kenya does have quite a bit of charisma and gives the impression that sending her home in a lipsync could prove to be quite difficult. Plus, her commanding stage presence may help her quite a bit in tonight’s Q-Pop performance. Let’s see if Ms. Pleaser can redeem herself from last week’s less-than-impressive design challenge showing.
2. Athena Dion
Not this bitch already giving Mommie Dearest in the first episode of the season. Athena in last week’s premiere came off cool, collected, and ready to slay, and with a built-in storyline thanks to her drag family, to boot. I could see her stepping into a confessional narrator role this season, or more generally, rising as a main character throughout the competition. She seems like one of those people who naturally turns heads when she walks into a room. There’s a certain well-rounded vibe coming from Athena, and she seems to be ready to do so in terms of challenges this season. However, although it did land in the safe tier, that design challenge runway was, to me, tragic. That look was hideous, sickly-sweet-cutesy, Baby Jane realness, and not in a good way. She may have completed “twenty-five sewing classes” before arriving to the set of Season 18, but no amount of sewing lessons in this world can teach taste.
1. Nini Coco
We here at OFM may be slightly biased here, as a Denver-based publication, but you can’t deny that Mother Coco ATE last week’s premiere. Fun fact, every single Denver queen in the herstory of RuPaul’s Drag Race has won a challenge within the first two episodes of her respective season, and Nini’s design win maintained that status quo. To boot, Ms. Coco also got to flaunt her performing skills for the judges and the other girls when it was determined that the top two queens of the week would lipsync for the win. That Cardi B track was no joke, either! It was quite a tall order in terms of memorizing lyrics, but Nini devoured and knew every single word to that rap. I’m quite sure, based on how she did last week, that this Q-Pop challenge is going to be no sweat for our girl. Great job, Nini! Keep slaying, and bring the crown back home to Colorado where it belongs!
RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18 airs Fridays at 6 p.m. MST. The morning of each episode, make sure to visit OFM, where we’ll be spilling the tea on our official predictions for how things might shake out for each contestant this year! If we turn out to be wrong, well … Sue us.
Photos courtesy of MTV
