Drag Race UK sends fan favourite queen home in shock elimination: ‘I’m not OK with this’
Drag Race UK season 5 episode 5 saw RuPaul send a fan-favourite queen home. (BBC)
Drag Race UK season five has aired its third elimination, and it’s without doubt one of the most heartbreaking exits in the show’s history.
(Warning: spoilers for RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season five episode five follow).
This week’s episode (26 October) was the Rusical, but with a distinctly Drag Race UK twist. The seven remaining queens had to choose their parts in a great British panto, aptly titled: Pant-Oh She Better Don’t: The Rusical.
After a quick round of vocal training from Michelle Visage and a choreography class with Strictly Come Dancing professional Karen Hauer, the queens took to the main stage to give the show of a lifetime.
Each queen performed well, with Visage announcing it one of the very best Rusicals ever seen on the show. Yet four queens did especially well, with Ginger Johnson, Kate Butch, Michael Marouli and Vicky Vivacious announced as the top queens of the week. Eventually, RuPaul crowned Ginger as the winner – earning her a second RuPeter badge.
Best friends, flatmates and occasional frenemies Cara Melle and Tomara Thomas were announced as safe, while DeDeLicious and Banksie were the bottom two of the week.
In a strange yet slightly iconic choice for a lip-sync song, the two queens had to battle it out to Susan Boyle’s rendition of Les Misérables “I Dreamed a Dream”. Both queens served musical theatre realness, but it was Manchester queen and fan favourite Banksie who ultimately sashayed away.
On social media, Drag Race UK fans were left utterly devastated by the elimination, with some begging for it to be “a joke” and others declaring it “f*cked up”.
Banksie previously won the design challenge in week two, and had provided plenty of drama thanks to her fight with Cara Melle and Vicky Vivacious last week, leading many fans to assume she would make it further in the competition.
“Didn’t think Banksie would leave this early she was definitely my top three,” wrote one surprised fan on social media.
“I’m done with this season,” declared a second, urging that they’d have preferred any of the other queens go home over Banksie.
“Banksie went home. DO NOT TALK TO ME. Please respect my privacy during these tough moments and this very difficult time,” demanded a third.
However, before she left the competition for good, Banksie did manage to prove herself as an icon yet again, by telling RuPaul that she was going to walk the runway for one final time.
Many fans have already suggested the moment is up there with some of the very best Drag Race exits of all time, like Vanessa Vanjie Mateo’s and Sminty Drop’s.
Drag Race UK continues on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer every Thursday at 9pm.
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