Drag Race Season 14 Recap: Episode 4: A Meta Acting Challenge & Bootyful JLo Runway

January 31, 2022
TOMMY

She…who…won…ACTION!

Having freshly lost June, this week’s ep of RPDR brought us the season’s first acting challenge. It should be noted, as the Corky St. Clair of my friend group, I am always extra excited for any actings challenges. On the heels of her win last week, Willow takes the helm as team captain, with Maddy’s survival giving them the second helm (I wonder if Maddy’s pronouns should be he/helm?).

Another week of Drag Race S14 means another week of Kornbread winning me over, and this week was no different. In the last few weeks, we’ve seen Kornbread step us a kind soul with Willow, a goofball pot-stirrer with Daya, and, this week, we saw her step up as a leader with Jasmine. The leadership to which I’m referring came in the form of needing to nip Jasmine’s loquaciousness in the bud. I’m always surprised when adults don’t understand the difference between talking with someone vs. talking at them; but suffice it to say, the lesson Jasmine was taught this week is a crucial one for all socially-functioning adults to learn.

One queen being what we Italians call a “chiacchierone” is a personal issue, though. What about creative issues? Well, Maddy’s team was facing just that problem when the team doesn’t quite jive with Alyssa’s “brand” of humor. Maddy did an impressively good job of keeping the team mostly focused, as well as flexing the Drag Race fangirl inside him.

While Alyssa’s humor didn’t necessarily unite the girls together, her coming out story sure got their attention. Alyssa revealed that when she came out as gay to her family (by way of gay porn being found on the computer), her father also came out as gay. We love a gay daddy, but formulaically-speaking, a “wonderfully supportive family life” doesn’t always make for great television, and is often a bad omen for that queen. That proved no different this week. While her wonderful support structures aren’t what did her in, they sure fit the formula. And a lackluster showing throughout the episode ultimately lead to Alyssa’s downfall this episode.

I was really a big fan of this season’s acting challenge. It was a first for the series insofar as it was very meta, and after 14 seasons and seemingly never-ending spinoffs, some self-referential humor was very welcomed. The acting challenge also proved to be a great vehicle to highlight all the things that make a queen great: performance, looks, and personality. The judges found Kornbread to be a bit one-note with this challenge, and while they weren’t entirely wrong, it will ultimately just serve to focus a queen like Kornbread. She’s proven herself to be a pro, and I’m confident this bread will rise! Though my girl Kornbread’s performance was a dish served lukewarm, Angeria Paris VanMichaels absolutely crushed it and took home the W for the challenge.

When it came to the runway, the theme this week was “A Night of A Thousand JLo’s.” By and large, the queens all delivered some really stunning looks. Most notably, Kerri slayed the runway in what seemed like a flawless homage to JLo’s iconic green Versace dress. The gag of it all? It ended up literally being the dress that JLo wore on the runway in 2019. This harkens back a bit to my critique in the first week, which is that I’m worried there is more of a focus on branding than it is on sheer talent and gumption. While this dress isn’t a “branding-specific” issue, it does tie into the notion that this show used to be punk rock, and now is feeling just a bit too polished.

Alyssa and Kerri ended up in the bottom two. I’ve commented before on how absolutely stunning Kerri is, and while that is true, she can’t rely solely on her looks if she expects to take home the crown. That said, it was ultimately Alyssa who lost the Lip Sync battle after fumbling with her prop gun (was it the silver bullet?). While I’m bummed that we lost the incredibly gorgeous twunk that is Alyssa Hunter, I’m happy we still have another gorgeous twink: Jorgeous. Angeria took home her second win this week, which is really no surprise. She crushed the looks, was great in the challenge, and she charmed the judges. But if viewers were unsure after the first three weeks, Willow made it clear this week: she's here to fucking win. Excited to see what comes of it all!