RuPaul Hinted How She Felt About Valentina in a past Episode | Season 9 Episode 9 Review
It’s been an emotional past two weeks for Drag Race lovers, with fan favorite Valentina falling in the bottom two for the first time ever, and being sent home by challenge teammate Nina Bo’Nina Brown.
With a win and a few high scores under her belt, and a wardrobe and smile that could snatch trophies, Valentina and her proud Latin aesthetic charmed the pants off of America and made everyone’s (including mine) prediction list for this season’s Top 3.
Let’s dive into this week’s episode and discuss the controversial elimination, where each queen stands in the competition thanks to this challenge and whether or not Ru hinted in an earlier episode that she had some doubts about Valentina’s attitude.
And don’t mind John Polly in the middle of the photos. I needed to pull these screen caps from the Extra Lap Recap because Logo won’t post too many photos. Luckily, he’s nice to look at as well. *Flashes Valentina smile*
This week, the girls were split up into three teams to create their very own original TV sitcom pilots. The dream team, Sasha and Shea stuck together and Peppermint, Trinity and Alexis got together to make a team of three, leaving Valentina and Nina to partner up with each other.
And this week’s runway theme was Club Kid Couture. Looks inspired by the club kids of the late 80s and early 90s. The lovely montage showed photographs of infamous club goers, and Sasha educated all the children in America about legends like Susanne Bartsch, James St. James and…one of my favorite artists of all time, Leigh Bowery.
Isn’t it incredible to think that the biggest names in club kid culture were promoters who started their own clubs? Some people just merely own businesses and venues. But these people all took such gorgeous pride in what they did that they all became the posterchildren for the environment they created. *sighs* Anyway, back to current drag.
SHEA AND SASHA
This week, besties Shea Coulee and Sasha Velour made us all crack up with their feisty crime-fighting duo Teets and Asky. With nods to disco divas and Russian spies, their sitcom was the perfect combination of action and comedy. And was the only of the three pilots that felt like a television concept that you could write seasons worth of episodes about. Wheras the other pilots felt more like movie plots.
Now let’s talk about their runway looks.
Sasha’s look was seriously gorgeous and graphic in the way that I expected. Although with her love for avant garde and her being a sort of modern club kid and New Yorker, I expected her to go more crazy with her garment. But perhaps she was going for a more accurate approach, wearing the sort of silhouettes and facepaint that many club kids donned. But I think it was true to her brand and that everything looked cohesive. I love her. TOOT
This week, Shea slayed my heart with her direct inspiration being the one and only Leigh Bowery. And the moment when she almost burned herself stoning her face made my heart warm for her. These over the top looks covering Leigh from head to toe was what made us fall in love with him. He really was inspired by mockery of gender and body type. He loved to create unrealistic silhouettes in his padding and tucking, and loved to recreate what a human’s face could look like, using makeup, fabric and props. And Shea really grasped that concept while still making the look match her brand and sense of style. Major TOOT
And of course, the dream team won this week for their synergy, the charming concept of their show and the memorable jokes they wrote. A well deserved win for these two stars. In my opinion, this episode puts these two in the top 3. Both have won two challenges together, with Shea having another solo win as well, Sasha has only fallen into the bottom 3 once and even then didn’t get that harsh of critiques, and both have shown originality, charm and writing abilities in these challenges while also proving they can work well with others.
Based on past seasons’ statistics, with her number of wins, Shea is poised to win this competition. Even if she did fall into the bottom in the next couple of weeks, as long as she can pull through and succeed in the other challenges, she will have a track record similar to past winners. If either of these queens don’t end up in the top 3, I will be one angry mamma jamma.
TRINITY, PEPPERMINT AND ALEXIS
This trio took us to church this week with a very clever and holy concept. Alexis and Peppermint play the conservative mothers of two gay boys. And with Sister Trinity’s help, they’re going to learn….I don’t know…how to deep-throat a baguette? It wasn’t clear what the plot was of the show, but it did make me laugh, and did also cement Trinity’s place in this competition as a fierce competitor. While this didn’t feel like a television show, and more like a made for TV movie, I appreciate their efforts and clever writing.
Now for the runway!
Once again, Trinity proves that she is the best dressed queen of the season. Every week, Trinity looks completely different in style, taking each runway theme to the next level, while still having recognizable makeup and adding her polished, pageant-like but also versatile style to whatever she does. I was blown away by this look and thought that she really took the challenge into a unique direction. The volume was just right, the hair was different from everyone else, the makeup was outlandish in the best way and the walk was really memorable. Gotta give it to my girl. Glad she had a better week than the last. TOOT
While the use of this Peppermint costume in the Season 9 promos gave away how far she’d go in the competition, I cannot blame the producers for showing it off. It is one of the best costumes of the season…and maybe in the top 10 in Drag Race herstory. What a creative play on words and what a beautiful silhouette and nod to club kid culture. Only thing that makes me sad is that she says she’ll never wear it again. It’s apparently “not her style,” because it’s not a blonde wig and a pink mini skirt, and she just had it made for this one episode. At least that’s what she said on YouTube. Hopefully it’s not the truth, and we’ll see Peppermint in more conceptual garments showing off her beauty and sass in many different ways. TOOT
Just like Nina’s look this week, this was yet another case of fabulous makeup being juxtapozed with a boring outfit. This bodysuit is something one can pick up at any lingerie store in a package. And while Alexis looks nice, nothing about this screams club kid in any sort of elevated way. And with her hair and makeup being so gorgeous, conceptual and cohesive, it was strange to see it with a piece of lingerie and a corset. I’ll have to give this a TOOT for the makeup and a BOOT for the garment.
While Sasha and Shea were the dream team, this combo turned out to be a bit of a disastah, with the workload and effort of each team member coming into question. After what I believed was a positive review of their show, Alexis came under fire for her runway look and having the weakest performance of the three in the pilot. She then (in her Alexis fashion) went on to claim that she wrote most of the content and that she felt that the workload wasn’t spread as evenly among the three of them as the judges had thought.
Who knows what the truth really is…But also, in this case, who cares? Nina and Valentina were clearly going to land in the bottom two this week, so in my opinion, Alexis should have kept it cute and put it on mute.
As for this team’s stance in the competition, I believe Alexis’ attitude and Peppermint’s failure to impress the judges more than once this season will ultimately keep them from reaching the top 3. While Trinity (who yes has had some tough times in this competition) is still turning out looks that please the judges, and proving to be a very versatile queen. I see her making the top 3, but not winning unfortunately. Just because she has fallen in the bottom more than once, which winners rarely have in the past. But if she’s not a finalist, I will be running down the street screaming “This gig is rigga morris!”
PS: Who else thinks this Peppermint reaction will turn into a popular Drag Race gif?
NINA AND VALENTINA
For this team, I’ll start with their runway looks.
Just like the first episode of the season when Nina stunned us all by painting her face like a peach while underwhelming us with a pink tutu, this week she stunned us all by painting her face like a skeleton (for the second time this season, I might add,) while underwhelming us with…another pink tutu. I was shocked by the odd juxtaposition of her incredibly detailed and skilled face makeup, and her hastily done body paint and club kid ensemble. It made no sense to me. She looked more like a 2009 “club kid” than what the runway theme was really asking for. A total TOOT for the makeup, but a total BOOT for the look.
I wasn’t so sure why the judges were so harsh on Valentina’s look being more high-fashion than club kid. It’s true that this was more polished than the average club kid look, but not every club kid was quite as outlandish and androgynous as the ones discussed earlier in the episode. Some people found the open dress code to be their ticket to dress in whatever sense of style they fancied that week. It was a chance for people to transform into a fantasy version of themselves, and for some, the fantasy was in being high fashion. Plus she did a nod to her Latin aesthetic. And I thought it was gorgeous. TOOT
Damn these club kid looks are good though. I didn’t give one full boot this week! This will truly be a runway to remember in my opinion.
Now here comes the hard part.
Nina and Valentina were less than impressive in their thrown together and uninspired pilot for “Nina and Tina,” where they played two cross-dressing hookers with dreams of winning RuPaul’s Drag Race. It was harped on that they didn’t really come with a plan or a true script, and it showed. As the judges said, this was more of a movie plot than a plot you could write episodes of a TV show about.
The awful writing and their lack of enthusiasm for the challenge put them in the bottom two and up against each other for elimination. And if you ask me, it was well-deserved.
Meanwhile in Untucked, we see Nina and Valentina sit together sharing a set of headphones, preparing for their lipsync. This past week, while they didn’t do a stellar job during the main challenge, the undoubtedly grew closer. This was shown in a heartfelt letter Nina wrote to Valentina after her elimination. And as proven throughout Drag Race herstory, (Yara vs Alexis in season 3, Raven vs Jujubee in All Stars,) lipsyncing against your friend is the hardest of all of the tasks. Wanting to fight to keep yourself in the game, but also realizing that no matter how things play out, either you or your friend will have their journey ended. And it’s possible that part of Valentina’s attitude during Untucked was that she was reluctant to perform against a friend. There is no hustle in her at all to learn the lipsync. It’s possible that she may just have thought it was going to be Nina vs Alexis that night, but we’ll never really know…until maybe the reunion, that is.
Finally, we get to 2017 biggest gag, which is that Valentina keeps her costume’s mask on during the lipsync. During the performance, the camera pans to Ru, Michelle and the other judges having dialogue about the situation, which every Drag Race fan knows, means drama is on its way.
Ru asks Valentina to remove her mask, which she at first pushes back on. But ultimately, Val is forced to perform bare-mouthed, and proves that she never even bothered to learn the lyrics, unlike Nina who dances about the stage doing her best Ariana head-shake.
This performance sends Valentina home in a shocking elimination. I don’t believe Nina will make it to the top 3, based on her past performances and having been in the bottom two twice (although, remember Pearl?) But I have to say, when push comes to shove, Nina is willing to work at the lip sync to stay in the competition. And that was more than I could say for her partner this week.
I wholeheartedly believe that RuPaul wanted Valentina to do well. I think she saw in her the skill and the smarts that she saw in past driven young winners such as Tyra Sanchez and Violet Chachki. RuPaul has never been one to snub an ingenue in the competition and doesn’t mind if the “best woman” is the youngest of them all.
Fortunately for Tyra and Violet, they never landed in the bottom two. Sometimes because they had immunity and other times because there were always two contestants who did worse in the challenge. However, regardless of whether you felt they deserved to win the entire competition, they showed a hunger to be in the competition. Tyra impressed Ru with her runway walk, her independence and her strength when it came to the drama of the competition. And beauty queen Violet, while she wasn’t the strongest performer in most challenges, was always up for looking a mess when the challenge called for it. Challenging herself in the Snatch Game as Alyssa Edwards, wearing a hideous frock during an “ugliest dress” runway challenge and trying to go over the top during acting challenges even when her fellow queens were putting on skillful performances next to her. And RuPaul did not see that same fire in Valentina.
Valentina has proven time and time again to be fashionable, beautiful, polished and charming. And that she always knows how to make a challenge fit her brand and cater to her sensibilities. But when faced with an opportunity to be creative and stand on her own without a script written out for her, she placed safe with an awkward roast performance and ultimately showed up to this pilot challenge with no plan and not a care in the world.
It seems to me that after weeks of being told that everything she was doing was perfect, beautiful, Linda Evangelista-esque etc…that she felt that with her effortless success would pull her all the way to the top. And by effortless, I don’t mean that she doesn’t try. She clearly puts on a show when acting and always has stunning garments and makeup on the runway. I mean that she hadn’t been giving it her all, because she knows that even just a small dose of her effort can be stronger than most people’s best. And that attitude ultimately put her in a situation where her best effort had to be tested and put on the spot. And as Farrah has said when interviewed here in SF (interview from my YouTube channel below,) Valentina felt that she would do so well that she wouldn’t have to learn the lipsync songs anyway. So she didn’t.
When RuPaul asks Valentina to remove her mask and Valentina acts with defiance, it reminded the world of Ru’s interaction with Pearl in Season 7, when Pearl argued with RuPaul stating that she didn’t feel she had to change her attitude or personality in the upcoming challenges. With Pearl being placed in the top 3 after falling in the bottom two twice in the competition, it was clear that Ru was interested in her success despite the backtalk. And that she felt (regardless of whether or not the audience agreed) that Pearl stepped it up after their little argument, and earned her spot as a finalist.
In my opinion, Ru wanted the same success for Valentina, proven by her comment “I thought you had the stuff to go all the way.” But Ru I’m guessing saw an arrogance in Valentina that she didn’t feel was winner material. Which is disappointing for Ru as well as the rest of the country. Valentina is so effortlessly fantastic, that all it would take for her to slay any competition was the willingness to give it her all every time.
Producers really try to edit the show to make it look as though no one ever has any criticism for Valentina. And perhaps it’s true out on the main stage, (cue Aja as Disastah with a long acrylic nail to her lip) but I was taken aback when I saw this bonus footage below of RuPaul giving Valentina advice.
While preparing for the 9021-HO challenge, where she was a standout playing a tipsy highschool virgin, Valentina was visited by Ru at her workstation, who brought up a wardrobe malfunction that had taken place on the main stage the previous week. While Valentina stood onstage fully nude with only two faux black censor bars taped to the front of her body, depicting Madonna’s Sex book cover look, her tuck came undone and almost exposed her completely. When she jokes around about the incident, Ru quips “Tuck better this time,” in a tone that surprised me a bit.
Valentina then goes on to talk about her character, pronouncing it “Mona,” which Ru quickly corrects “Monna.” I’m sure Ru has some corrections and unscripted advice for the queens that is left out each episode. However, it was interesting that no one is ever shown giving Valentina critique or advice besides this bonus footage instance. In my opinion, Ru sounds like she wants to be firm with Valentina to help her be better as a queen. But later on, Ru would see that the attitude she feared Val would have came to be the thing that would yank her out of the anticipated top 3.
It’s possible I’m overthinking things, but perhaps not as well. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment on this post or on my Facebook wall. Give me a like if you’d like to see more of my Drag Race coverage. And thanks for reading!
