‘RuPaul’s Drag Race 17’ group 2 power rankings from best (Lexi Love) to worst (Hormona Lisa)
On Episode 2 of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17, the second group of seven contestants hit the stage to introduce their brand in “Drag Queens Got Talent.” Performing this time around were Crystal Envy, Hormona Lisa, Kori King, Lana Ja’Rae, Lexi Love, Onya Nurve, and Sam Star.
Instead of RuPaul Charles, Michelle Visage, Ts Madison, and special guest judge Doechii scoring the participants, the seven who didn’t perform decided the tops from the bottoms via the Rate-a-Queen twist. By their judgment, Crystal and Lexi were the top two and Hormona was the bottom.
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After the first group performed, we ranked the contenders ourselves and placed Suzie Toot as our top and Joella as our bottom. This week, we dive into the second set of queens and, to no surprise, without the influence of friendships and alliances, our power rankings differ slightly from those of the contestants themselves. Check out our list below, and let us know what you think in our reality TV forum.
SEE‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ winners list: Every season, plus ‘All Stars’
1. Lexi Love
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Like Suzie last week, Lexi’s performance delivered on the promise of actual talent and was executed to perfection. Of course it worked in her favor that five of the other contestants in her round presented variations on the “lip-sync to an original song” concept without adding anything new. Even more impressive is that the other queens doubted whether or not Lexi could pull off her difficult idea, largely because of her age (33) — Arrietty and Jewels have affectionately dubbed her the “auntie grandma” of the season. Well, all we have to say is that if auntie grandma likes to kick, split, cartwheel, and somersault while in roller skates then the grand children should probably have a seat and take notes.
2. Onya Nurve
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It’s to be expected that most of the queens will deliver an original recorded track of some sort for their talent, but very few are as immediately catchy as Onya’s. The “in in in out, in in in out” refrain of her two-step song “In-n-Out” had all of her sisters on the sidelines screaming the lyrics by the second chorus, and even rapper Doechii was thumping to it from the dais. And instead of carbon-copying something a contender from a previous season has done, Onya smartly worked in to her lyrics just a mere reference to Plane Jane‘s iconic “Burger Finger” number from Season 16. Onya wasn’t serving smelly burgers, but she sure did eat.
3. Sam Star
When the queens decided who would perform on which of the two weeks, Sam was in agreement with Acacia that they should present their talents on opposite weeks in order to avoid the country vs. country showdown. Splitting the weeks did not work well for Acacia, who fell to the bottom anyway, but it did present Sam with a bit of an assist not having to deliver a mediocre lip-sync against Acacia’s more impressive live vocal. Sam is not lacking in stage presence or personality, but the “talent” of her performance was far from unique. Still, we agree with the judges that Sam has a certain “charm” about her and, my god, she paints her face very well.
4. Crystal Envy
Of all the girls that performed this week, Crystal had the best moves as a dancer, but it was hard to appreciate any of them because we were too distracted by the shake-and-go wig and clunky looking ice skater garment she chose for her number. In fact, it felt ironic that she was singing about anyone else “dripping with jealousy” when she was on stage looking like an impersonator of a Britney Spears impersonator. The highlight was indeed the spinning outfit change, but again, that’s a predictable move when a queen is on stage with a visible bodysuit underneath a poorly draped ream of fabric wrapped around her.
5. Kori King
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Kori was offered no favors in being placed after both Onya and Lucky in the performance order. Like them, Kori rapped an original track meant to deliver a catchy hook, but “I shake that ice” on repeat does not slap as hard as “in in in out” nor does it bring the excitement of breastplate lemonade guns. Funnily enough, even though Sam thought the rhinestones falling off of Kori’s costume at the end was a lowlight, we actually think the way the sound editors placed the sound of a piece of plastic ice bouncing off the floor was the high light of her entire performance.
6. Lana Ja’Rae
If Kori’s best moment came as a mishap at the end of her performance, then somehow it’s even more disappointing that the best moment in Lana’s routine was the voiceover and puppet-life face of her drag mother Luxx Noir London that she relegated to the start. Unfortunately, Lana’s performance never escalated from there and she failed to differentiate herself in any unique way from the two other rap performances this round. What’s worse is that she seemed more timid on stage than anyone else, except perhaps…
7. Hormona Lisa
Now, we understand that Acacia was sizing up her competition prior to the talent show and planned to sabotage the queen she’d feel most comfortable lip synching against, but after seeing Hormona’s trainwreck of a stand up routine in the talent show, it’s clear that the set up was really never necessary. Despite a lot of the girls warning Hormona that stand up would be hard to pull off, she went ahead with it and, as expected, never found her footing. It’s curious why her set would be so centered on roasting since it’s pretty standard at this point for there to be a roast or stand up as its own maxi challenge later in the season. Why worry about your peers sabotaging you when you can just sabotage yourself?
Next time on Drag Race…
The participants “take fashion inspiration from Monopoly” in their first design challenge of the season with Jewels warning Onya to “have your moment cuz you’re not gonna too have many more, bitch.” Comedian Sandra Bernhard serves as guest judge.
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