Culture

RuPaul’s Drag Race season 11 episode 8: The good, the bad and the Silky

Apr 19 2019
Written by Charlie Jones

The controversial queen of Drag Race, Silky Nutmeg Ganache. (Netflix)

RuPaul’s Drag Race floats its most eagerly awaited challenge of the sea-son, but there’s a twist. It’s time to find out which beaches sank or swam playing the Snatch Game at Sea!

Drag Race Season 11 Episode 8: Snatch Game at Sea, the verdict

How much Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent was episode eight packing?

Overall: C.U.N.

There were plenty fin-tastic (soz but sun’s out, puns out) moments this week. But, bizarrely, naught(ical) from Snatch Game.

I’ll get more pacific below.

Challenge: C.

Why were we at sea? Anybody?

The Snatch Game of Love—for all its faults—at least shook up the rules. This time we settle for sticking a cap on the captain and calling it a cruise.

The hat maketh the challenge, apparently. (Netflix)

I was so on board for the challenge, too. Up until Snatch Game we were treated to some swimmingly good moments. But then it arrived and I didn’t laugh once. Ugh.

At least the shipwreck line writes itself.

Runway: C.U.

There are two letters here and they belong exclusively to Brook Lynn Heights and Shuga Cain.

Shuga Cain impresses the judges—at last. (Netflix)

Drag Race: The Good

Watching Brook Lynn and Yvie Oddly seas the day with that lip sync was spectacular. Yeah, buoys!

yvie and brooke showed the other girls how to lip sync for your mfn life im shaking #DragRace pic.twitter.com/3NSTTxyRJ8

— i got s worded (@loveshotwendy) April 19, 2019

Brook Lynn’s runway was also phenomenal, giving us an entire outfit reveal that we’ve only seen once before during a finale (thanks, Peppermint) but have been gagging for ever since.

A BROOKE PISOU DEMAIS #DragRace pic.twitter.com/DxABzVaIWJ
— felipe (@justloveshawn) April 19, 2019

Ru lost her damn mind watching these Season 11 girls finally produce some eleven-gendery moments.

The mini challenge was on point, too. It would have been fun to open the library for Snatch Game, but at least they’re letting Silky Nut Meg Ganache win again. That beach has won every mini challenge this season.

She was also the best part of Snatch Game. Not when she was playing herself in the game (how on earth did she beat Nina?), but when she was playing herself in the confessionals.

“It ain’t even Celine Dion anymore, it’s Celine ya’gone.”

RuPaul is gagged. (Netflix)

Y’all coming round to Silky now, or still feel all ew, Jesus, gross?

It was also a treat seeing Jinx Monsoon, the epitome of drag excellence, back and schooling the newbies after so long.

Drag Race: The Bad

Snatch Game. Snatch Game was bad. I know it’s bad a lot of the time, but this was really bad. The overly-niche reality TV characters, badly portrayed, with no real jokes and a weird twist. Yeah, bad.

Truly, the only good work was done by the sound editors—if I hadn’t been listening, I might have thought some of them were funny.

Drag Race: The Ugly

It’s missing. All the drama gets saved for Untucked, and they’re using Drag Race to apologise to each other the morning after. Guess which makes for the more interesting show?

Drag Race season 11 episode 8: Who is on top?

It’s getting harder to separate the tops from the bottoms. We’re two months in and it’s still all to play for.

Brook Lynn Heights, 1st

Two wins, 4 high, 1 low, 1 bottom

Trinity spills the tee. (Netflix)

I mean, where is the lie?

But dear diva Dion, did she show what it takes to claw back a winning edit.

Silky Nutmeg Ganache, 2nd

Two wins, 2 high, 3 safe, 1 low

Blanking Yvie was the power move of the season and I’m here for it. Let’s just not have a repeat of Latrice’s #gowngate, shall we?

Yvie Oddly, 3rd

1 win, 5 high, 1 safe, 1 bottom

The Trixie Mattel award for skewing themselves while trying to needle a gay icon has bumped her down. But that lip sync could be just the ticket back to the top. We like to see ‘em fight for it.

Plastique Tiara, 4th

1 win, 4 high, 2 safe, 1 bottom

She polluted just enough Plastique into the ocean to be safe, but not memorable.

Nina West, 5th

Drag Race's Nina West camps up the runway.

Nina West is camp couture. (Netflix)

1 win, 1 high, 3 safe, 3 low

The only one who nearly made me laugh. Her edit is better than how she’s actually doing, which is promising. It’s also refreshingly lovely to see camp be given the same respect as high-fashion.