RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18 Episode 3 Power Rankings

Last week on RuPaul’s Drag Race, shots were officially fired when DD Fuego became the first Season 18 contestant to sashay away. The girlies had been tasked with giving a “Q-Pop” girl group performance, wherein each girl group would be of a different genre: pop, disco, or punk. The pop girls were middling, the disco group was a train wreck, and the punk group ate, to put it in a nutshell.

No one has fully torpedo’d their chances in the competition, except for maybe the first queen on this week’s Power Rankings. Tonight, the queens will be acting in “RDR Live,” a sketch-comedy show akin to NBC’s Saturday Night Live. How will the 13 drag queens still in the running to be America’s Next Drag Superstar fare in tonight’s episode? Read the Power Rankings to find out ahead of the show. And, again, if we turn out to be wrong about this, well … sue us.

13. Mandy Mango

Girl, I don’t know, three death drops in one episode might be kinda a lot. Her death drops were so sudden. She went straight down to the floor at a violent speed. Is she OK; did she just crack her cranium, or? That looked very punishing on her body. Anyway, the runway look was a complete mess, big boot. Ms. Mango’s performance in the challenge was uncomfortably high-octane compared to the disorganized lethargy of the rest of the group. I don’t quite see how this queen will stick around for many more episodes. 

12. Juicy Love Dion

Ouch, this is quite the downfall from last week’s ranking. I don’t feel like she knew the words to her lipsync in the girl group challenge. If she wrote those lyrics, why is she telling us “watermelon tuna” with her mouth while the track is saying something else? Also, it was a poor choice to reveal some of her most impressive gymnastics on the main stage last week. Those sort of dance-weapons are most effective when there’s an element of surprise gaggery to their debut in front of RuPaul. She needed to pick a more distinctive, memorable moment to break out the tricks. Like maybe tonight, when she’ll probably be lipsyncing for her life. In the preview last week, we saw that Juicy, unsurprisingly, “doesn’t know how to do” comedy acting. Girl, if that’s the case, why the fuck are you on RuPaul’s Drag Race?

11. Ciara Myst

This one has been falling to the wayside a bit. I’ve been forgetting about Ciara Myst, and I don’t want to forget about an alt queen. If even a punk aesthetic isn’t enough to capture some attention, you may be invisible. And on Drag Race, invisible queens are not winners. You have to be seen to be recognized, don’t you? $20 says when she finally does get critiques, the first thing Michelle Visage will say is that she’s “confused” by Ciara’s gothish makeup. She’ll demand something “different” from her next week; then she’ll be promptly booted from the competition, just like Max when she finally wore non-grey hair, or Dusty Ray Bottoms when she didn’t do the dots in her makeup. 

10. Athena Dion

Mother Dust is crumbling quickly. She was real bitter about not getting schoolyard picked. That probably means Athena is already letting the psychological horrors of competitive reality TV get to her, and it’s only been two challenges so far. Good God, girl, get a grip! I think she may be a little too high-strung and/or uptight to shine in tonight’s sketch comedy challenge; I can already visualize her phoning it in from nerves. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. 

9. Discord Addams

THE WALK. THE WALK. THE FUCKING WALK! Please stop immediately. She’s getting fully dunked on in the runway editing, too. Who does she think she is kidding with that awkward, crouchy, linebacker-y walk? You’re supposed to swish your hips when you’re on the catwalk, not your shoulders. Aside from that, I did enjoy her confessional about playing in a punk band. That’s pretty cool, and it might explain her prison walk: she spends all her time on stage playing guitar and you don’t get to practice your walk very much while you’re doing that. 

8. Darlene Mitchell

Last week during critiques, Darlene got from Ru what I suspect might be some much-needed encouragement. Darlene shared that she is still adjusting to doing drag while in recovery from alcoholism; I would imagine it is a noticeably different vibe to do drag sober vs. doing drag drinking. Good for her for winning the battle against alcoholism; that’s awesome. Let’s hope that her chat with RuPaul on the main stage helps Darlene bolster her prospects in the competition tonight. 

7. Mia Starr

In the middle of the pack is where I think Mia Starr perfectly fits. Yes, her Q-Pop performance was energetic. It was cute, and semi-reminded me of Bimini’s iconic girl group number, although I think that may be more because of the pink costume than gymnastic talent (I think the Earth is probably still shaking from Bimini’s floor-slamming splits.) Mia received a top placement last week, but who knows if she will be able to sustain that energy going into a sketch comedy challenge, where everyone is sure to be on their most attention-seeking behavior?

6. Briar Blush

Briar didn’t do too shabby in last week’s punk performance. I felt satisfied with the amount of times with and velocity with which she threw her body to the floor in a black leather-clad getup. Her lyrics were double-entendre filled, par-for-the-course fare lyrics, at least from your run-of-the-mill drag queen. Maybe that’s been my problem in connecting with Briar’s vibe on the show so far. Everything I’ve seen from her feels pretty standard. I’ve yet to be truly wowed by Miss Blush, but maybe let’s see her lipsync for her life; then I’ll decide how to feel. 

5. Vita VonTesse Starr

The runway look was, as Briar said of the girls upon meeting for the first time, “MEH!” I didn’t feel like the outfit was giving what it was supposed to, in the sense that if she’s supposed to be showing her favorite body part, and she chose her butt; why wasn’t the butt the most memorable part of the fit? Also, her punk performance was serviceable, but “Vita, Vita, Vita, you know you wanna eat her” was probably the most nausea-inducing lyric I heard in the entire Q-Pop challenge. 

4. Nini Coco

There was much drama last week surrounding Nini’s voice and her less-than-stellar vocal performance in the girl group track. Well, RuPaul, you did just ask these girls to shriek at the top of their lungs just (what I assume was) yesterday, and there wasn’t even a camera involved in that mini-challenge. Why were the girls screaming? I especially want to know the answer to that question since Nini’s place in the competition could very well have been compromised, if the judges’ panel elected to give her grief about her pitchy, rough vocal take. But they didn’t, and Nini got off scot-free. Not to get all “edgic” on people, but if the edit is already budgeting its time in order to afford a Nini storyline, that probably says a lot about her trajectory here. Who knows what sort of character arcs she’ll be embarking on next? Of course, as long as Nini’s in the running for the crown, none of us here in Denver will be mad at it. Go, Nini!

3. Kenya Pleaser

The watch party was hyped to watch this one redeem herself from her rough first impression a few weeks ago. And redeem she did, I think, because her pop performance was bouncy, cute, and sassy. Kenya will be one to watch this season. She has lots and lots of charisma from what we’ve seen so far, and if she can solidify her prospects in the long run with a solid comedy acting performance tonight, things will be looking even more up for Ms. Pleaser. 

2. Myki Meeks

Myki Meeks’ runway look last week was extremely adorable, cool, and innovative. I loved the billboard concept and its execution. That was very memorable, but the Q-Pop challenge was a different story. All I can really remember about Myki was that her look for the performance was heavily channeling Mirage, but I don’t think that was intentional. She certainly doesn’t seem to possess the same dance-weapons that Mirage was packing, though. I do imagine, just because of the quirky, old-Hollywood-esqueness of this queen, that she’ll probably be okay in a sketch comedy challenge. I’d love to see her camp it up and slay a highly dramatic role in tonight’s “RDR Live” challenge.

1. Jane Don’t

Jane and her mouthy runway look snatched our top spot going into tonight. She ate that punk performance up last week and demonstrated not only her strong stage presence, but her quick wit and ability to write jokes. Going into tonight’s improv comedy sketch challenge, Jane Don’t is working with a solid foundation of top placements built into her track record for the first few challenges. I wouldn’t be surprised if this Seattle queen found herself placed in the top this week as well. 

Photo courtesy of MTV