Following the twist where Nina West and Gottmik gifted a Beautiful Benefactress Badge to Roxxxy Andrews and Vanessa Vanjie, the residual effects lingered in the Werk Room when Roxxxy and Vanjie earned their second badge with a challenge win. The queens began pointing fingers alleging alliances and mathematically setting up their friends to win in the end. For the first time this season, the queens got testy with one another, bringing back tension and drama that RuPaul’s Drag Race fans love and look for. But nothing will beat the shockingly attention-seeking moment on the Mainstage when Roxxxy was attempting to decide who to cut off. The pressure of the game is finally hitting the girls, and it’s causing things to finally heat up. Who says you can’t be competitive when playing for charity?
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 9 is a season for charity. With eight queens playing to earn a $200,000 prize for the charity of their choice, this season has left the fandom feeling a bit underwhelmed. While the performances are there and the runways are exceptional, the drama that reality television brings has been lacking. With a simple format, win and earn a badge, the queens have been playing cordial. Until the reality of being charitable could have negative consequences in the end.
The Beautiful Benefactress Badge Weighs Heavy on the Queens
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 9 has been a season of niceties. With charity on their minds, the non-elimination format has caused the season to fall flat. That was until the queens realized the stakes are actually present this go around. Old habits emerged, and the claws came out. With eight queens in the competition, some of the queens have realized that they’re going to have to remember all their math skills they learned in school. This season, the top two queens each week will earn a Beautiful Benefactress Badge. The three queens with the most Beautiful Benefactress Badges at the end of the competition will compete for the crown and the $200,000 donation to their charity.
Now that everyone, except for Shannel, owns at least one badge, the queens realize that the second someone else gets a badge over them, it causes them to fall behind in the race. And there are only so many challenges left in the game. The addition of RuPaul alerting the queens that, at times, they will be tasked to give another queen a badge when they win caused the queens to realize there is actually a difficult game at hand. As much as the queens do not want to admit it, there are alliances. And those alliances are playing into the badge game.
It was evident from the beginning of the season that Vanjie and Gottmik had an alliance. They had each other’s backs and did not waver from that when Gottmik gifted Vanjie the badge. Nina West had been accused of having an alliance with Shannel, so she skirted away from that accusation by giving Roxxxy a badge. Fans were shocked at the decision because Roxxxy, no matter what, is a legend of the game and a threat to win. Nina assisting Roxxxy’s ascent to the top just seemed perplexing. To make matters worse, Roxxxy and Vanjie won the next challenge, and it brought their badge total within a single episode to two each.
Nina’s move may have been an early fatal flaw to her success this season. She turned Roxxxy into a complete frontrunner. Some of the queens, like Plastique Tiara and Jorgeous, don’t seem far too concerned about the badge leader board. They’re just there for a good time and to showcase their artistry. Others, like Nina, realize the importance of how winning could literally change lives with a giant donation to their charity.
Gottmik Stirs the Pot While Being a Hypocrite
The tension in the Werk Room was amplified the moment accusations of alliances were called into question. And it all came through a silly game of telephone. The week when Gottmik and Nina were the top two, Gottmik accused the other queens of cheering solely for Nina in the lip sync. Of course, the others denied it, as did the flashback, but Gottmik made the moment about the alliances she heard were in play. Shannel tried to get to the bottom of who exactly put that idea into her head. Partially, it was to keep the aura in the room positive, but she totally wanted to get the tea of whom the mole was.
It took another episode for the truth to come out, since it was Roxxxy who said something to Vanjie, who said something to, you guessed it, her number one ally, Gottmik. Gottmik is willingly stirring the pot without looking in the mirror to acknowledge that her benefiting from Vanjie’s game is the hypocritical action she’s afraid others are doing. But at the end of the day, Gottmik was helped by Vanjie when the opportunity came to cut her off. She, and Roxxxy, as a pair, did not cut off Gottmik. It caused Angeria to get her second snip of the season. It’s a messy game and a whiteboard might be easier to explain what’s happening. But follow along, it does all make sense in the end!
The Ruby Snippers Do More Than Cut Off Another Competitor
During RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7, the winners were not eliminated as well and experienced a similar blocking situation known as the Platinum Plunger. Just like that season, the mechanic of preventing another competitor from earning a badge weighs heavy. Once again, it’s where alliances come into play. Fans remember quite well how much Monet X Change wanted to turn her experience into Survivor. For some of the queens, they know the best strategy is to cut off a queen with the most badges. Others choose their friends to remain safe and go after a queen who is well-rounded in the competition.
With no knowledge of the upcoming challenge, focusing attention on someone who is a threat is the best plan of action. So, when Roxxxy and Vanjie had a joint win, they together had to decide who to cut off. It ended up being Angeria as Roxxxy said she couldn’t cut off Nina for giving her a badge, with Vanjie claiming the same excuse. Angeria did have the most badges at the moment, but she still took this action personally. And more tension was in the air. With talk of Ruby Snippers and Beautiful Benefactress Badges filling the season, there has been some happiness on screen. The queens had a dance party with the Teletubbies. They did a duo challenge making silly real estate commercials. They showcased their looks in a day-to-night reveal runway. But all the positivity disappeared when Roxxxy, the winner of the challenge and the lip sync, was forced to make another tough decision: who to cut off.
Was Roxxxy’s Decision Really That Tough?
The way that Roxxxy went about it was cowardly. To start, she refused to look at the girls, walking across the stage with her back to them. She claimed she would just randomly stop at a queen, and they would be cut off. As fate would have it, she landed on Angeria. It was shocking. It was dreadful. It was pathetic. What was more shocking was Roxxxy then took back the decision. But everyone truly believes she knew what she was doing and only reneged on this because of the negative reaction from the room. The reality is, she knew exactly where each queen was standing on that stage. She may not have seen specific spots, but she knew who was on which side of the T. When RuPaul mocks your decision, you know it’s time to try again. This time she looked at the leaderboard. With Vanjie being her partner for the challenge, she could not select her. The answer was Gottmik.
In a way, Gottmik doesn’t deserve any sympathy for getting cut off. The tension she created in the room with the alliance accusations, in a way, was karma. For Roxxxy, she also gets no sympathy since she tried to run away from playing the game. She had to make a decision that wouldn’t piss anyone off, and yet she made it a bigger deal than it had to be. Never has anyone taken this long to make a decision on Drag Race! As it stands now, Roxxxy is the next target for anyone should she not win the next challenge. She has three badges and is likely guaranteed to be one of the top three. If history comes into play, there were certain challenges during RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 that the winners received two badges to keep for themselves. And that could be the game changer. It’s time to get aggressive ladies! So yes, they did a challenge this week, but it didn’t compare to the juicy drama that happened surrounding it.