RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Recap: What the Tuck Just Happened?

Andy Swift

Updated Sat, January 12, 2019 at 2:29 AM UTC

Friday’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars ended with three mind-blowing twists — four if you count Lady Bunny’s resurrection during her own funeral — that will change the course of the entire season.

But let’s back up a bit: This week’s challenge required the six remaining queens to roast the drag icon via “a eulogy as hilarious and outrageous as Bun Bun herself,” and none other than Saturday Night Live‘s Cecily Strong was brought in to coach the ladies before they took the podium.

It’s kind of ironic that Valentina doesn’t consider herself a comedy queen, because nothing had me laughing harder than her coaching session with Strong. She (and I) totally lost it when Valentina opened by declaring, “Lady Bunny is an inbred pig and a whale.” (Like… what?!) I actually thought Strong was going easy on her when she said, “You’re coming in hard.”

Of all the queens she worked with, though, Strong seemed most concerned about Trinity’s routine. After listening to The Tuck’s mixed bag of jokes — ranging from unfunny to incredibly unfunny — she said Trinity needed to “go back into the house and find out where she left the drawing board.” Yikes.

As the queens prepared to hit the stage on Lady Bunny’s big day, Manila Luzon and Monet X Change had a much-needed heart-to-heart, effectively squashing the beef that had been simmering since last week’s episode; Monet wasn’t thrilled to discover that, had Manila beat Monique Heart, she would have sent her home. In fact, quite a few of the girls are looking at Manila differently after learning that. (Who would have expected her to become this season’s wild card?)

Speaking of wild cards, the performances in this week’s challenge were… well, let’s just say they varied. For every Monique, who had the judges howling with her Baptist preacher routine, there was a Trinity, who flopped so hard I questioned whether it was even her on that stage. And then there was Naomi Smalls, who made things even worse for herself by awkwardly laughing at all of her own terrible jokes. Overall, it was pretty grim — even for a funeral.

Following a heavenly runway, Ru announced that Manila and Monet were this week’s top two, followed by the first big surprise of the evening: “If you’re not in the top, you’re in the bottom,” Ru told the queens, explaining that Manila and Monet could choose any of them to go home.

As expected, the plea deals were a mess. Trinity tried to persuade Manila to cut Valentina, Manila wondered whether she should just cut Trinity, and Valentina didn’t “understand” why she was even in the bottom. (I love her, I do, but Valentina might be even more delusional than Gia Gunn.) I especially enjoyed Monique’s savage reasoning for Valentina to be sent home: “You take three hours to paint the same face, and unless it’s a character, there’s no personality.” (Again, I love Valentina… but where’s the lie?)

Neither Manila nor Monet particularly wowed me with their lip sync to Aretha Franklin’s “Jump To It,” so I was particularly gagged when Ru announced that they were both winners. (Wait, what?) And that no one is going home. (Wait, what?) And that “for the first time in Drag Race herstory, All Star rules are suspended until further notice.” (Wait, whaaaaaat?!)

And before the queens had a chance to process the fact that they would now be lip syncing for their lives, rather than their legacies, they received one last shocker: All of this season’s eliminated contestants are back for revenge!

Your thoughts on this week’s game-changing twists? How do you predict this will all play out? Vote for the queen you would have eliminated below, then drop a comment with your hopes for the rest of the season.

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RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Recap: What the Tuck Just Happened?

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