This week’s episode begins with Kandy Muse feeling ecstatic about winning her first challenge this season as well as winning $30,000. On the Werk Room couch, the queens take the lipstick votes out of the voting box and Jaymes Mansfield received five votes to go home and Kahanna Montrese only received one vote. Kahanna admits that while she’s happy her competitors haven’t been voting for her, being in the bottom is getting to her.
The next day RuPaul enters the Werk Room to announce that for this weeks challenge the queens will be doing improv in the crime series “Forensic Queens” in the episode titled “Wha-Ha-Happened to Lil’ Poundcake?” The queens then cast themselves where Jimbo chooses forensic examiner Eva Dentz while Kahanna is struggling to choose a role because she knows she doesn’t excel in acting and improv challenges. Kahanna then goes with Imma Foxx and Jessica Wild chooses Ura Dragg, who are both Lil’ Poundcakes All Stars competitors.
When Lala Ri and Alexis Michelle play tug of war for the role of the security guard, Shari Coleman, Lala does not back down. Kandy and Alexis are then eyeing the same role of detective Anita Klew. Alexis then gets upset that Kandy gets her first choice while she doesn’t. Alexis then backs down and goes for the district attorney role of Effie Lee Bailey. Alexis then starts crying and Kandy says “Oh my god. I can’t with the dramatics. Enough,” and proceeds to wonder if queens are seriously crying over roles they didn’t want. Alexis admits she’s feeling the pressure of the competition.
When Alexis goes out for some air, Jessica and Jimbo immediately stare at each other and Jessica says, “I’m feeling like, what the fuck?” while Jimbo says “Oh, my god. Crazy.” When Alexis comes back Jimbo tries cheering her up by rubbing her heart. I think Jimbo just won me over with her kindness.
Kahanna then goes on a little rant about the energy in the room at the moment and the fact that this is another acting challenge and wonders how she’s going to do better this time around. She then says they’re going to need someone else to play her role because she’s done and wants to go home. Jimbo and Jessica are quite shocked and confused about what’s going on. Kahanna says she wants to remove herself from the competition before she gets hurt. Lala says to herself: “I just wanna be a drag queen that has fun, honey, and just live my best life, lord.”
Ru then enters the Werk Room and I’m sure the producers thought this moment was so dramatic, but Ru is an executive producer who is clearly about to put her producer hat on. Ru has a talk with the queens about being emotional while feeling the pressure of the compettion and says that emotions are not facts. Ru also says that she doesn’t want the little things to derail the queens from their experiences, especially this one on TV. Ru then singles out Kahanna asking if she’s actually ready to leave and Kahanna says, “No, I’m here for you,” then adds, “I’m here for me.” Ru then singles out Alexis for crying a lot throughout the competition and says there’s nothing wrong with being sensitive, but advises her to not let things sabotage the bigger picture.
Afterwards, Kahanna asks Jimbo how she lets go during these acting challenges and Jimbo says that you find the joy in it and then share that joy. Jimbo helps Kahanna find things in her character that make her feel good. Kahanna is very happy for Jimbo to go out of her way to make Kahanna feel comfortable and says, “I fuck with Jimbo for that.”
The only person who has a script in this improv challenge is Ru narrating the plot about Lil’ Poundcake’s disappearance from All Stars. Jessica plays Ura Dragg and Kahanna plays Imma Foxx who are competitors on Lil’ Poundcakes season that never aired. I think Kahanna took Jimbo’s advice to heart because she’s doing pretty well in this challenge. Lala as Shari Coleman, the security guard, does a fantastic job saying that the “Sha” in “Shari” is silent because her mom doesn’t know how to spell.
Kandy as detective Anita Klew is another case of Kandy acting like herself but this time I like it. She picks up a toy cat named Yvie Oddly and says, “A pussy?” Jessica then gives one of the best improv lines from the show. She says about Lil’ Poundcake: “She found her ETB card. And on a Taco Tuesday, she never left the card because she loved to celebrate Taco Tuesday. She liked the soft shell with carne asada. That’s her favorite, with guacamole. And guacamole is expensive, so she’s not going to leave without her card. That was weird for me.”
Ura Dragg shares with Anita that Imma Foxx doesn’t like Poundcake. Kandy speaks with Shari about how Foxx said she needs to get rid of Poundcake. Jimbo as Eva Dentz, the forensic examiner, has a German accent and to no surprise she’s hilarious. She says there was no DNA found because dolls don’t have DNA. Ura admits to Anita that after a phone call with her boyfriend where she heard him having sex with Lil’ Poundcake, she did think about killing Poundcake “because that slutty slut stole” her man.
Alexis as Effie Lee Bailey, the district attorney, kind of blends into the background when in a scene with Kandy and Jimbo. Anita goes through calls from a tip line and it quite clearly sounds like Shari acting like Poundcake saying she left with some man. Shari then dramatically admits that she is the reason for Poundcakes disappearance in the most extra way possible and I love it just as much as Jessica’s performance. Then they show security footage of what looks like Ru in Shari’s clothes as she pushes Poundcake off the stage. Seeing Ru in such a non-pretty look was quite a sight to see.
After Foxx and Ura are cleared, Jessica says “But after all these years working hard, now somebody ask me, ‘do you want guacamole? It’s extra.’ I’m like, yes. And I can pay for extra guacamole.” Kahanna still doesn’t hold up too well once the challenge is done.
In the Werk Room for elimination day, Kahanna says she feels good about what she did in the challenge. Kandy and Alexis talk about how stressful the competition has been but things went well anyway. Lala starts a conversation on how helpful Ru’s advice was the other day. I think we all know producers were telling them to kiss Ru’s ass, right?
Ru walks the runway in a bodysuit that exposes her whole thigh with a gold glittery suit combined with touches of a biker jacket top with a massive wrestler-like belt that says “UBTTWRK.” She also has black fingerless gloves and a quaffed platinum blond wig so she looks like a drag Elvis. With Carson Kresley and guest judge Javicia Leslie on the judges panel, the queens walk the runway for the Miss Fill-in-the-Blank category:
- Jessica Wild is up first in a simple, pretty yellow long sleeve column mermaid dress with shiny paillettes throughout the dress and a brown corset that you can barely see. She’s holding a massive sausage along with several sausage links draped over her and a crown made out of hotdogs since she’s Miss Sausage Party.
- Kahanna Montrese is Miss Tired Ass Showgirl. She yawns at the beginning and end of the runway to fit the idea of a tired ass queen but her look is pretty. She’s in a green stoned skirt, breast pieces, and a see through long sleeve on her left arm and her right arm is covered in gold fringe while her midriff has straps of gold stones. Her hair is at least one and a half feet tall and looks like branches that have gold and silver stoned fringe hanging off of it.
- Lala Ri as Miss Bootlegger is wearing gold lame MC Hammer pants with relaxed fit sleeves in the same fabric, a white tank top, several gold chain necklaces, and a purse with a bunch of wigs hanging from it since she’s a saleswoman. She takes out a bootleg Asia O’Hara DVD from her purse. The whole look and presentation is genius.
- Kandy Muse as Miss Arrogant is wearing a look that references her look from season 13 when she got into a very heated argument with Tamisha Iman when Tamisha called Kandy arrogant. In that episode Kandy was wearing her backpack look. Here she’s in a mini dress covered in gathered blue and red fabrics connected by zippers on the skirt and blue and red fur pieces on the top. Honestly this is not one of her best looks, but the massive bubble shaped braids and updo that has two tiaras on her hair loafs is pretty awesome.
- Alexis Michelle is Miss Manpig in a full fetish look. She’s wearing a white mermaid gown with piss yellow at the bottom of her dress and a jockstrap off the shoulder band on her chest, one black fisting glove on her right arm, and a red hanky train in the back.
- Jimbo is Miss Tits McGee in a pink, purple, and silver iridescent skirt and cape with a glittery pink lining that also matches her bodice which is taken over by two massive z-cup breasts. She looks great, and apparently she’s referencing a pageant winner from Australia, but the look is a little simple for her even though the breasts are the main attraction.
For the judges critiques, Jessica gets great critiques for her look and how funny she was in the improv challenge; the judges love Kahanna’s look and Carson jokingly says her pageant queen sash is mislabelled and her character struggled at the beginning of the main challenge; the judges love Lala’s character and to no surprise they love her look as well; Michelle finally calls out Kandy for playing herself and not a character and on the other hand Carson doesn’t understand how her look supports her title; Javicia says Jimbo was very commited to her character and they love Jimbo’s point of view for her looks including this one; Alexis is complemented on being prepared but then critiqued for being too prepared on something like an improv challenge since her character didn’t take off but they like her runway look.
Lala Ri is deemed the winner of this week’s challenge, her first win in the show’s history, and receives a $5,000 cash prize. Jessica, Kandy, and Jimbo are safe while Kahanna and Alexis are in the bottom two. Lala is in a gold and nude illusion long sleeve crop top look with a pretty design on it with matching panties, black vinyl thigh high boots, and a fluffy blond wig with an ombre root. The lip sync assassin this week is Jorgeous from season 14 and they lip sync to “About Damn Time” by Lizzo. While Jorgeous does her thing, Lala Ri knows how to bring her effervescent personality to her grandiose performance. Jorgeous’ personality cannot be found in this performance though. Overall, it’s not one of the best lip syncs of the season. But Lala Ri wins and receives a cash tip of $10,000. Lala then reveals that she chose Kahanna Montrese’s lipstick to go home.