Unconventional INDEED (Patreon)

Happy Tuesday, Patrons! My apologies for the incredibly late post on the latest episode of Drag Race Down Under! But, you know, sometimes you get back from a bonkers few days in Mexico with Mametown and you need a little bit of time to get your brain (and blood alcohol percentages) back to normal! 

That aside, I just finished watching the most recent episode and WOW. The semblance of a normal brain I had has been turned upside down again! 

We start with Elektra showing us what spiraling into your own sabatour looks like. Like one of those awful cats from Cats! she gets hissy and heated and defensive the more Scarlet and ETC ETC poke at her. And, honestly, I'm kinda bummed that Scarlet and ETC ETC are being actual Mean Girls. They're totally harshing the buzz I had about the down under queens being so fun loving and goofy. Watching Scarlet and ETC pick on Elektra gives me high school flashbacks of rich popular kids rolling their eyes at the unpopular kid trying to fit their band instrument into their locker. I don't like it! 

Moving on! Except not exactly. It's a new day in the werkroom but we continue with Elektra giving us her version of Aja's You're perfect, you're beautiful, you look like Linda Evangelista to Scarlet and ETC. Meanwhile Karen from Finance minds her business. And that business is FINANCE. But the cats! fight is broken up when Ru declares it's an UNCONVENTIONAL MATERIALS CHALLENGE! Woo! Honestly, I love these challenges. I love watching people turn shit into cooler shit. But the biggest turn comes when ART SIMONE pops out of the dumpster of discarded things and is suddenly back in the challenge?!?

Like, did I miss something? These are the exact notes I typed while watching:

OMG ART IS BACK WHAT IS HAPPENING?! HOW IS SHE BACK IN?! WHAT ARE RULES…WHAT HAPPENED? WHY? HOW IS COCO NOT ALLOWED BACK? AM I MISSING SOMETHING?! WHY IS NO ONE EXPLAINING WHY THIS IS HAPPENING!? OKAY SO IT'S JUST HAPPENING?!? IT'S HAPPENING. THEY'RE MOVING ON. WHAT IN THE HECK AND THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!?

Honestly, did I miss something??? Did Ru make a boo boo and realize how popular Art is and that their ratings might suffer if she's gone immediately? How did she not have to compete to get back in the game? Is this just the most obvious gesture of favoritism but we're going to pretend it's not? Like, I'm SO confused by it. Maybe this happens often on the show and I just haven't noticed before? Usually they have SOME reason?

Gimme a quick second to unbunch ALL OF MY PANTIES.

The queens dive into the dumpster like awful Americans at a Walmart on Black Friday and they're off to their designs! Maxi says she's not a sewer but took lessons before coming on the show which makes me 1. Love that Maxi knows she at least needs to prep a little bit but 2. Wonder what Maxi will be good at lol. She already can't sing, dance or sew... I love her to pieces but I hope she can act and/or tell jokes! We also learn that Karen can't sew and can't put together a look. Which makes me go hmmmm. I guess she's been so reliant on her Karen character that doing anything else is hard. That said, she decides to construct a garment based ... you guessed it... on a character. Which I first thought was an interesting way to approach this challenge. But then when she named the character and Ru didn't understand it I thought...you just talked to the manager Karen and he said you shouldn't do that, SO DON'T DO THAT. Instead, she does that. What a Karen.

We also learn that Wiggles absolutely loves to sew and is in the navy and also in the band in the navy playing trumpet and loves that too. I'd love to meet something Wiggles doesn't love. That said, I love Wiggles so much. Elektra also presents Ru with a crazy ass concept, and then Maxi presents Ru with a questionable quest to make something from what they call a "drag bag" and at this point it seems like everyone is in trouble. But before I could even process my anxiety about that Ru asks Scarlet to give Elektra advice based on last weeks challenge and MY JAW DROPPED. Don't stir that pot! GOOD GOD, give Elektra a break! SHEESH. She's gonna have a meltdown. Or I'm gonna have a meltdown. ESPECIALLY BECAUSE STILL NO ONE HAS EXPLAINED EXACTLY WHY ART IS BACK IN THE COMPETITION?!

As they continue to construct their outfits everyone's looks insane so it's hard to tell who's a front runner. 

We get to Elimination Day and Ru is wearing some crazy ass outfit that looks like a super hero glamazon costume made from a Mardi Gras float. WHY NOT?!

And the runway begins! Here are my notes:

Art: Wow she made that out of trash?? How did she make the headpiece?! And how is this Sexy Victorian Pepto Bismol queen back in the game??

Kita: balls balls balls! and one from her mouth? okay! all I think about are McDonald's Place Places which only make me think of used bandaids 

Etc etc: first impression is wow so shear and elegant - but then the more I look at it the more confused I am - I don’t know what that things was that she was holding? A sexy badminton racket??

Maxi: WOW MAXI THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN I THOUGHT IT'D BE. Like, I am truly shocked how well you transformed that drag bag!

Karen: I love that it seems like Rhys gets the reference - but I think it missed the mark for the challenge. Is there any design?

Elektra: ohhhhh nice ties! I think she did better than I thought she would??

Wiggles: aww it’s cool but a little stiff - she might have gone for an idea that was too lofty 

Scarlet: a very sleek picnic concept - a little simple but the fit is WOW 

Overall I thought everyone kind of did a good job. Other than Karen's, I didn't see anyone that was a total disaster. But the thing I'm starting to notice is how much the judges are favoring the more famous queens like Karen and Art (WHO IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW IS BACK IN THE COMPETITION FOR SOME REASON) and going harder on queens like Wiggles. It seems like straight up favoritism. Anyone else? Though I did like the guest judge saying he thought she just looked like Dora the Explorer doing bad things. He gets it.

Scarlet wins the challenge, which is fine bc she looked great but I definitely thought Maxi deserved the win. 

Then we end up with Karen and Wiggles on the bottom which is sad because it seemed like Wiggles put in SO much more work on her look than ETC even though it could use some refinement. At this point I already said to myself they're going to keep Karen based on the way things have been going. We have a lackluster lip sync...to me Karen did WAY worse than I thought she'd do after all that talk about fire under her ass etc. Maybe she left the fire in her talking heads with her Guy Fieri cosplay lol. It took me until episode 4 to realize she looks like Guy Fieri in her interviews. To probably no one's surprise Karen shantays and Wiggles sashays and I'm so sad. I thought Wiggles did a better lip sync but I guess they can only randomly bring back a famous queen once a season so they gotta keep Karen. *SHRUG*

Either way I'm sad to see Wiggles leave but I LOVE her asking about All Stars on her way offstage! I love her! At this point I wanna see Maxi really step it up...and though I do love an underdog I worry Elektra just might not have the vision to keep it up. Kita has still been hanging back to me...and if Karen's been waiting for comedy and acting challenges to shine well, SHE'S GOT A LOT OF IMPRESSING ME TO DO BC I JUST DON'T SEE IT AT THE MOMENT. However, I will give props that her dabbing when Ru said she was on the bottom made me lol. Okay, let me know what you guys think! Hope you're having great weeks! ❤️G