RuPaul's All Star Drag Race season 3 episode 4 review/RuView: A tough week for a talented Trixie as she ruins RuPaul

Spoilers for S3E4 ahead

What is a drag queen’s job? It’s a tricky question to answer, especially since the birth of RuPaul’s Drag Race - which now demands that a drag queen should be an all-singing, dancing, acting, celebrity-impersonating, challenge-winning, flawless-looking, message-delivering super-star who’s take on the age old art form both conforms to the standard of the glossy TV show format, while offering a totally unique take on what drag really is, all while shining through as a real, honest, good person with integrity and intelligence.

And while so many of the brilliant queens who gain star status after their time on the show make juggling all these CV worthy skills seem like a breeze, it’s natural that even the most talented queen in one area is painfully bad in another.

Nothing quite lays evidence to this fact than the infamous seasonly Snatch Game — where each queen boldly impersonates a character from head to toe, beat to body language, catchphrase to comedy. It’s probably the most memorable episode of every season, with fans remembering and iconising the best — Sharon as Michelle, Bob as Crazy Eyes, Bianca as Judge Judy, Chad as Cher; but while we fans venerate those shape-shifting queens who can seemingly do anything after Snatch Game glory, we also remember, with a cringe, the worst: Kenya as Beyonce, Miss Fame as Donatella Versace, Detox as Ke$ha, and, after this week, Trxie Mattel as an utterly disastrous RuPaul.

Before the show, her fans on the net had convinced her it was a hilarious idea — a way to stake a claim in the Snatch Game Hall of Fame, especially as she never made it there in her own season. But, as Kennedy rolled her eyes, “nobody has been successful doing RuPaul.” And it was doubly hard for Trixie, in comparison to say a forgettable Jessica Wild as the mother of the queens, because everyone (including Trixie) had unprecedentedly high hopes.

But as the pressure rose, so did that drama — and after a blow-out with Shangela in the work room, where Shangela discovered a note Trixie had pinned up written by Thorgy calling her a bitch — Trixie was somewhat shaken. But shook we were not by her ghastly, head-wobbling portrayal of Mama Ru — whose usually iconic one liners landed worse than, the worst of the worst, Max as Sharon Needles. It was a true cacophony of cricket sounds, tumble weeds, and raised eyebrows from Michelle; a calamity which sent Trixie spiralling to the bottom of the pack, and the bottom of her feelings.

Over on the top of the pile was, once again, Ben De La, in her filthy portrayal of the once well-known Hollywood Squares star Paul Lynde — the campy queen famous for poking fun at all the closeted gays in Hollywood in the 60s and 70s. While it can often be risky to play a man, the judges’ sides were split after Ben delivered her incredibly well-timed comedy-of-euphemisms like clockwork. Shangela, as her friend Jennifer Lewis — star of the movie Beaches — was an intelligent portrayal of a seasoned, loose-lipped, Broadway diva and, while not quite as sensational as Ben De La, she snatched the game too, slowly proving her path as the, quote, “Daenerys Targaryen of drag”, rising to the top week by week, chain break by chain break.

All of this drama made for an exhilarating elimination, and after another sub-par-nowehere-near-as-good-as-Alyssa-and-Tatiana-level lip-synch to Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl”, both Ben and Shangela were kissed with a double win, and the chance to kiss another queen — each — goodbye.

Ben, assessing ChiChi’s Drag Race CV, chose the charming queen who can lip-synch like no-other for the chop. Meanwhile, everyone was clenched to the nines expecting Shangela to boot Trixie after their prior cat-fight. As she spoke, “this queen left her season without the crown, but went on to be a winner off the show” everyone gasped — RuPaul, Aja, Michelle in disbelief — as Trixie burst into tears, knowing her time was up. But, in true Mother of Dragons style, Shangela was fair and revealed a lipstick in a shocking climax which also read ChiChi’s name.

And while all’s well that ends well — with even ChiChi visibly relieved at her elimination — Trixie’s confidence lay in bits after a rigorous week which tested both her allegiances, her ego, and her skill set. It’s doubtless that RuPaul’s Drag Race is the best reality TV show on the air, but it’s painful to see queens who are so remarkably talented judged so harshly on areas that aren’t their strong suit. It’s the nature of the show, yes, but sometimes it’s worth remembering that what RuPaul expects is not definitively what drag is about. Drag and drag artists are more than a series of challenges to be won and lost, and this show, while brilliant, lifts up those who work well in this framework, often ignoring vast skills queens have in other areas.