‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ recap: SprayPaintGate pits Lexi against Onya after a ‘sea sickening’ mishap
Last week in Episode 5 of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17, the queens spoofed Saturday Night Live sketches in the recurring challenge “RDR Live!” and then walked the runway decked out all in pink. Suzie Toot earned her second maxi challenge win while all dolled up as a clown, and Arrietty was her own version of a sad clown when she faced elimination after a Lip Sync for Your Life loss to Lydia B Kollins. Luck was on Arrietty’s side though when she pulled the correct lever on the “Badonka Dunk” tank, sinking Michelle Visage for the second and final time at a chance for safety.
This week, Michelle and host RuPaul Charles were joined at the dais by guest judges celebrity stylist Law Roach and actress/model Hunter Schafer as the queens walked the runway in three different ocean-inspired looks for the “Sea Sickening Ball.”
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The 12 contestants still in the running to be named “America’s Next Drag Superstar” are: Acacia Forgot, Arrietty, Crystal Envy, Hormona Lisa, Jewels Sparkles, Kori King, Lana Ja’Rae, Lexi Love, Lydia B Kollins, Onya Nurve, Sam Star, and Suzie Toot.
Here is our recap of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17, Episode 6, titled “Let’s Get Sea Sickening Ball,” which aired Friday, Feb. 7 on MTV.
SEE ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ winners list: Every season, plus ‘All Stars’
MTV
“I have webbed toes and I swim like a f–king superstar” — Jewels Sparkles
Before revealing that they’ll be walking in this season’s ball, Ru and Norvina, president of Anastasia Beverly Hills, entertained the queens with a mini challenge where they had to transport lipsticks through a glory hole as members of two competing teams. In the winning group was Onya, Suzie, Lexi, Sam, Lydia and Acacia, each earning a $500 cash tip reward for their success.
For the ball maxi challenge, Ru wanted the queens to walk in three categories: first, “Bathing Beauties” featuring “sizzling hot swimwear;” second, “Sea Creature Couture” inspired by “colorful marine life;” and third, “Sea Sickening Eleganza” to show off an upcycled original creation made from marine debris “commonly found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”
During the brainstorming session and beginning stages of outfit creation, Lexi and Sam realized that they might be heading down the same path with their ideas. Fortunately, despite each using a tarp as the base of their dresses, Lexi was making something for off the shoulder and asymmetrical while Sam envisioned a full ball gown. Silhouettes in general were a major talking point for Ru when he returned to counsel the girls on their concepts. He was concerned for Hormona that Michelle could clock her for doing the hourglass shape again and warned Crystal about working on a fitted slip dress with fabric that isn’t stretchy enough. He also informed Lana that during the last design challenge the judges almost put her in the bottom when they realized how unfinished her garment was.
MTV
“She’s the goal for me — that’s what I want to do. I want to model, I want to act, I want to come and judge ugly drag queens” — Lexi Love
In a sequel to her fight with Jewels over trim during the first design challenge, Onya found herself back in the when her “honest mistake” snowballed into a “SprayPaintGate” smackdown with Lexi. So what had happened is Lexi was drying the paint on her tarp/fabric outside, but Arrietty and Onya mistook it for a tarp they were intended to use as protective cover while spray painting their own pieces. When Lexi noticed the brown and blue paint damage to her materials and asked the girls in the Werk Room who was responsible for it, Onya remained silent. Later, Arrietty fessed to being responsible for the blue paint, but it wasn’t until Lexi connected the dots on Onya’s drying brown garment to know that she was responsible for the rest of the damage.
What pissed Lexi off the most, of course, was that Onya didn’t own up to it when asked. Instead, from Lexi’s perspective, Onya turned her back to her. Onya defended herself by saying that she didn’t think it was the right time to tell her because she was so worked up and preferred to wait until a calmer moment. Lexi was unwilling to accept the apology and felt like Onya had potentially “f–ked [her] entire Drag Race everything … and not even on purpose.”
The next morning, having fixed the mistake overnight, Lexi pulled Onya and Arrietty aside to “get this bad juju out of the way” by apologizing for her own role in getting crazy the day before. She told them that she’s “not gonna hate anybody over garbage.” Onya accepted Lexi’s apology and then offered one of her back, which was also accepted. Observing from the sidelines, Lana explained that it’s become normal for this group of girls to fight and then makeup in similar fashion to brothers and sisters because “all you can do is laugh.”
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“The only thing I got in common with this girl is that we’re both bottoms” — Law Roach
Following the presentation of their three looks on the runway, Ru and the judges gave safety to Jewels, Lydia, Onya, Suzie, Kori, and Lexi. Remaining as the tops of the week were Sam, Arrietty and Crystal, and the bottoms were Acacia, Hormona and Lana. The only queen to impress the judges universally across all three looks was Arrietty. Law thought it was smart of her to “play into the Avatar of it all” with the bathing suit, Hunter loved that she captured the “ethereal essence” of the lion fish in her second look, and Michelle called her garment made from scratch one of her favorites across the whole showcase. For that reason, Arrietty was declared the challenge winner one week after nearly going home.
Because Michelle and Ru thought Hormona played it too safe across all three looks and Law didn’t see the confidence in her looks on stage that he would expect from Lana, they became the o-fish-ial bottom two. Based on the Lip Sync for Your Life to “get him back!” by Olivia Rodrigo, Ru decided that she wanted to see more from Lana and that Hormona’s time on the show had come to an end.
Next time on Drag Race…
Quinta Brunson and Alyssa Edwards appear as guests for another iconic round of “Snatch Game.”
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