Channel Guide Contributor
RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 8 Episode 4 begins with a dissertation on Derrick Barry. Who is Derrick Barry? What motivates Derrick Barry? Does Derrick Barry have a soul? Is that different from having soul? Does Derrick Barry know what soul is?
(Answer key: Don’t know; Unknown; Probably not; Confused; Nope.)
This week’s guest judges are Lucian Piane, Chris Stein & Debbie Harry from Blondie!
Purse first! Bob’s decided that the purse he made in episode 1 shall now be featured in every episode going forward. So it’s purse first into the workroom!
We apparently haven’t had interesting conversations waiting for their RuMail as this is the second week in a row where we just get right to teasing the challenge.
In teams of 3, the girls will be creating an 80s New Wave group and performing live. Ru reminds us of what he was like in the 80s AND I SO WISH HE HAD COME OUT AS 80S RU INSTEAD OF NOW RU ON THE MAINSTAGE! Don’t you think?
If Ru had come out looking like he did on the right, even though his 80s look on the left is nice, it would have been EPIC!
Team Best Friends Race: Kim Chi, Robbie Turner and Naomi Smalls
Team NY: Bob the Drag Queen, Thorgy Thor & Acid Betty
Team Leftovers: Derrick Barry, Chi Chi DeVayne and Naysha Lopez
The teams have themes of Punk (Team Best Friends snaps that up), Synth and Party. Runway theme is Neon Realness.
Team NY & Leftovers fight over who gets Party and who gets Synth. Chi Chi wants Synth and the others want Party. Bob pits the three against each other. Cue evil laugh:
Where’s the love for the Synth? HOW CAN THESE DRAG QUEENS NOT WANT TO DO SYNTH?!!? Duran Duran? Erasure? Kraftwerk? Howard Jones? Gah! Or go recent & go Bulletproof:
Also don’t understand why the teams didn’t fight over Punk. I could see Acid Betty wanting to avoid Punk since she dresses that way a lot of the time. But for anyone else it’s great: you don’t really have to be able to sing and you can wear ripped stuff.
Acid Betty is stirring the pot with Team Synth – emphasizing the geometric shapes in some Synth styling, specifically referencing Klaus Nomi. Let’s learn:
Both Derrick & Naysha think that’s a dumb idea. I have no idea if either of them have heard of Klaus Nomi.
Team Best Friends is focusing on chicken wings and dipping sauces for their song theme. Macauley Culkin? Are you there? Chi Chi is distancing herself from Team Leftovers. She used her neon outfit last week for the roller skating challenge. So she asked if she could take her time to make an outfit instead of actually working with her team on the challenge.
Thorgy is getting defensive/overly critical about their party song. She does have alot of musical experience, but she’s also the easily distracted type. So Team Best Friends starts poking Team NY, doing to them what they did to Team Leftovers. Catty Strategy. Well done ladies.
Lucian Piane tells Team Leftovers to talk-sing rather than sing. Well, mostly he tells Derrick to talk-sing. She wants to be a drag queen pop star and apparently drag queen pop stars don’t listen to producers for direction. Chi Chi is the only queen listening to Lucian.
Lucian tells Team Best Friends to do a loud primal scream to tap into their punk side. None of them can really do it.
Team NY is criticized for being too cheesy musical instead of B-52s. Bob is being really argumentative with Lucian. Lucian brings up an example of style, let’s say Lorde or the B-52s. Bob then says “I hate Lorde.” “I think we sound like the B-52s” Oh, Bob, shut up.
Even Betty is telling Bob to calm down. Acid Betty is telling Bob to calm down. Let’s let that sink in for a minute.
This week’s confessional is from Chi Chi: she’s going through bankruptcy right now. She uses the Shade Tree to talk about it, which I had all but forgotten about. Oh, Chi Chi, don’t think about winning the $100,000. Think about how you can use Drag Race to further your career & get yourself on BOTS or some other performance venue. Then you’ll be making more money for the longer run.
Thorgy is sick of coming in second place. She wants to win a challenge! Thorgy, everyone there wants to win a challenge. Coming in second is still a good thing.
Les Chicken Wings (Team Best Friends) is the winning team, duh, with Robbie Turner winning a wig wardrobe. It’s a special win for Robbie, on the bottom last week and in front of Debbie Harry. He had her poster on his wall! His parents might’ve thought he was straight. Debbie Harry was Robbie’s beard. Aw, that’s so sweet!
Chris Stein reads Chi Chi for wearing the same boots in the challenge on the mainstage. So awesome. Derrick is being compared to Chad Michaels, and not favorably.
Bob, Thorgy, and Acid Betty are safe. In the LSFYL is Chi Chi and Naysha Lopez. Once again, Derrick is safe. And crying. But safe. Naysha is in disbelief. Again. Her response is: “seriously?”
Yes, Naysha. Seriously. You didn’t expect to come back & get 2 episodes, did you? You didn’t expect to do a mediocre job on the challenge & skate by, did you?
They’re lip syncing to Blondie’s Call Me. Oh, they better not be boring. Debbie Harry’s sitting right there & Chris Stein will read you the house down since he’s like a Drag Race savant or something.
Naysha is doing a bunch of flips & has kicked her shoes off to do it. Girl, no one wins when they kick their shoes off.
Chi Chi matches her in complexity of moves, but she keeps her shoes & wig on. Yeah, Naysha, you’re going home girl. Again.
Yep. Bye Naysha! Anyone think someone else should’ve gone home? Should Derrick finally have been in the bottom? Talk to me, people!
UPDATE: You’ve got to watch Untucked! Robbie gets a bit surprise!
PS: Does anyone else miss Santino? I would love to see him back as a judge. I’m bored with Ross & Carson.
We haven’t had Ross in awhile, have we? Wait, was Carson even there? I don’t think he was. I like Ross better – he had decent feedback & quips.
Not sure I would go so far & say I miss Santino though, and I liked Santino 😉
That’s not Nebraska that’s the British queen that won the contest, whats her name… idk but she’s the British Drag Race Ambassador.
Ooh – thank you Jack! It’s The Vivienne! http://www.out.com/popnography/2015/5/29/rupaul-crowns-first-ever-uk-drag-ambassador-vivienne (Not be be confused with Vivienne Pinay.)
That makes way more sense, but I wish she’d been introduced
Thanks Jack. I thought it was Nebraska as well.
I love Chi Chi so I’m glad she stayed. I didn’t notice the boots until Chris Stein mentioned them. After Latrice wore those hideous boots for almost every runway until Michelle clocked her on it I usually notice things like that.
I didn’t notice Nebraska in the audience – good catch. I know she kept doing drag after the military make over but I’ve never heard of her performing anywhere. (I love those episodes where they show past seasons and give you updates.)
I loved Kim Chi’s look for the performance. He’s amazing with his wigs and makeup.
Me too – Chi Chi is really growing on me. And if you watch Untucked, you’ll hear the queens talk about past queens who have had very few shoes & did well.
I loved this week’s Untucked. Naysha left with such class. She was so sweet to leave Chi Chi a note as well as the body suit and the body stocking.
I also loved when Chris Stein and Debbie Harry went backstage to talk to the girls and wish Robbie Turner a happy birthday.
Acid Betty has really grown on me.
I can’t wait for next week. I love Snatch Game.
I know! Untucked is really getting good this season. And Snatch Game! Hooray! I kinda hope Derrick doesn’t do Brittney, but then it would probably be smart of him to do Brittney since that’s what he’s good at and he’s been so stinky of late.