Written by Mackenzie Stolp
WARNING: This recap contains spoilers for episode 3 of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under
After last week’s rollercoaster, we needed something fun and chill for the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under. That is exactly what the show delivered with this girl group episode – one of my personal favourite challenges.
As Scarlet and Elektra won the mini challenge, they could choose their group members. Scarlet Envy chose Coco, Etcetera, Anita, and gave themselves the name ‘Outback Fake Hoes’. ‘Three and a Half Men’ was composed of Karen, Maxi, Kita, and of course Elektra. Both performances were fairly good, however none of the verses really stood out in comparison to past Drag Race groups. It was refreshing to have an average episode after the chaos of last week but at this point, it just feels like none of the queens are pushing boxes. As they are all well-established drag queens in Australia, they know themselves and their capabilities and they’re doing it well. Give me the messiness and drama! Where is it!
Every episode has to have its dramatic moment before the challenge and in this one, Coco finds a note in her workstation saying, ‘watch out’, which feels like very weak producing; no one confesses to writing the note and it feels like a quick drama grab that ultimately fell flat – it was completely pointless.
The runway category of ‘Bogan Prom Real’ has got to be one of the greatest ever. Coco and Kita didn’t give Bogan at all, Scarlet’s goon bag was genius (I am pretty biased in favour of a goon bag) and Karen’s tribute to 80s bogan was honestly tear-jerking: so perfect.
It’s not too shocking that Scarlet won the challenge, the goon dress was the only outfit that really fit the runway brief. It’s also not a surprise that Coco went home, if you’ve been in the bottom in 2 out of 3 episodes you’re not going to last very long. It is super disappointing to have the first top seven that are all white. The diversity of the queens from the beginning was terrible, but to eliminate both queens of colour in the first three weeks is disappointing.
Overall, it was an enjoyable episode but wasn’t very shocking or unpredictable. I think we’re in for a big twist next week; maybe Art coming back…
The next episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under drops 4pm on Saturday 22 May.
Read our recap of episode two here.