Just about two and a half months ago, 13 drag queens began the Race to become America’s Next Drag Superstar. And over 11 episodes, we watched as the bewigged ranks lost all of the exciting big girls from this season and, last week, were pared down to just four glamorous contestants: Puerto Rican wacko Yara Sofia; the curvy (and also Puerto Rican) Alexis Mateo; the sassy Filipino Manila Luzon; and the ever-exotic Raja. Last night, we watched as — SPOILER ALERT — Yara Sofia bit the dust (remember, she was saved before!), revealing a finale-competing trio of Alexis, Manila, and Raja. (See: the photo for the trifecta’s final looks from last night. Dresses made from dollars!)

The offing of Yara, while totally one of my faves amongst the remaining queens, wasn’t surprising: Despite winning last night’s mini challenge with her Pop-It-On hair pieces, Yara was sort of a mess this week (err, every week?), when you consider her runway looks: Her entry in the Swimsuit Body Beautiful area was fine, but her Cocktail Attire After 5 looked like she was going to “Liberace’s funeral,” remarked one judge (so true), and her Evening Gown Eleganza was fittingly summed up by Raja like this: “If she were to sit down in it, it would look like a pile of garbage.” I dare say it looked kind of like one even standing up.

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Image Credit: Aaron Young for Logo

At the end of last week’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Ru announced that she was giving the judges a chance to bring back queens that they felt had been axed too soon, so I ran a poll in my post about the episode, asking: “Which queen should return to RuPaul’s Drag Race next week?”

When I last checked the results, Shangela (33 percent), Delta Work (26 percent), and Mariah (12 percent) were leading the way. And somehow, Carmen wasn’t a option in the poll (sorry, maybe that was a subliminal mistake that adds up to who I didn’t want to see back?), but surprise: Carmen was indeed who judges Michelle Visage, Santino Rice, and Billy B. decided should return. “I’m back, bitches!” she shouted after coming through a door to the work room. But in so many ways it was like, really, you’re bringing Carmen back? Ugh, what a disaster.

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The constant bitchiness of drag queens never ceases to amaze me. It was but a few minutes into last night’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race that found the increasingly nasty Manila Luzon sniping about last week’s sashayer Carmen Carrera: “In the workroom today, there’s a huge, huge void,” Manila started, sounding like she was going to lament Carmen’s exit. But then she brought it home: “That used to be taken up by Carmen’s giant a–.” Zing! Yes, and we’re off at the Race.

Last night’s theme? Hair. “It just takes one bad blowout,” Ru warned the five remaining queens — Shangela, Raja, Manila Luzon, Alexis Mateo, and Yara Sofia. “You could be hair today, gone tomorrow.” The mini challenge required the gals to create a headpiece out of materials, as Ru put it, “swiped from the gay beach,” in just 20 minutes. The whole exercise didn’t yield anything too delicious, except for a hilarious one-liner from Ru responding to Raja’s crab-inspired headdress. “Now have you had crabs before?” she asked him. “Yah, I actually pulled these right out of my panties,” shot back Raja, who also took home the win during the challenge. READ FULL STORY »