RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Recap – Season 5 Episode 3
This week the queen's take on the iconic Girl Group challenge.
The maxi challenge that sets Drag Race UK out from its sister seasons in the US, this week saw the return of the iconic girl group challenge. Producing verifiable bangers in the past like ‘Break up (Bye Bye)’ and ‘UK Hun?’ from seasons 1 and 2, the pressure is definitely on for the queens to deliver with this seasons track ‘Don’t Ick My Yum’.
Badge Infused Confidence?
Straight off the back of last week, we saw Alexis Saint-Pete shantay away as Miss Naomi Carter lives to slay another day. Back in the werkroom there’s a notable shift in Banksie who, fresh off her design challenge win, has an air of confidence that puts her under the spotlight as a potential frontrunner for the season.
Girl Group Maxi Challenge
RuPaul enters and announces this week’s challenge is to write lyrics and choreograph the performance for their own 90s house inspired banger. He instructs the queens to form their own girl groups, the cattiness quickly unleashed as they sprint, strut and pirouette to their desired teammates. Fierce Force Five (Cara Melle, DeDeLicious, Michael Marouli, Tamara Thomas and Vicki Vivacious) gravitate to each other almost immediately, leaving The M52s (Miss Naomi Carter, Kate Butch, Ginger Johnson and Banksie) feeling a just little bit butthurt
After writing their lyrics the queen’s head over to record their vocals with Michelle Visage, and with only the occasional voice break needing to be autotuned, there are no clear weak links in either group. The team’s lyrics range from both political and hilarious, with Ginger claiming her biggest icks are Terfs’n’Tories and Michael Marouli calling someone a ‘big ballsack’ for wearing socks with sliders.
In the rehearsals, Fierce Force Five have quickly become our obvious frontrunners, with Cara Melle’s clear experience in choreography delivering a fierce routine complete with high kicks and drop splits. The M52s seem to struggle in comparison at first. With Miss Naomi Carter sporting an injured knee, and no obvious dancers in the team, the queen’s spend much time even asking the other group for advice. Eventually though, Banksie seems to step up into the leadership role and soon enough they’re back on track.
Performance and Runways:
On the mainstage, RuPaul is joined as usual by Michelle Visage, Graham Norton and this week’s extra special guest judge Sophie Ellis-Bexter. Watching the performances, each can be appreciated on the merits of what they offer. Miss Naomi Carter’s injured knee worsens, resulting in The M52s rechoreographing around her positioned on a sofa, but still delivering an entertaining performance. Fierce Force Five, however, deliver a more energetic routine that’s more fitting with their groups bold personalities.
Moving onto the runways the category is ‘Night Of A 1000 Pop Icons’, and it certainly does not disappoint. With no outstanding flops, my personal favourites were: Cara Melle’s recreation of Beyonce at Coachella, Miss Naomi Carter’s Beyonce in Lemonade, Banksie’s David Bowie fit and Michael Marouli’s Frankenstein-Spice Girls ensemble.
With strong performances all-round, RuPaul announces that The M52s are safe and that there will be no elimination, with Fierce Force Five announced as this episode’s winners. In the judges critiques, it really does seem as though we’re splitting hairs – DeDeLicious is challenged to switch up her nose contour by Michelle and Vicki Vivacious told she fell into the background the most out of her teammates by Graham. Cara Melle receives positive critiques all-round for both her choreography and look, whilst Tamara also garners good critiques for her stage presence and lyrics.
Untucked and The Lip-sync:
Back in the werkroom the queen’s untuck and discuss this week’s challenge. Tamara has several standouts here, joking in the confessionals how she thinks DeDeLicious talks about herself too much as well as calling out banksie’s deliberately shady lyrics – ‘Botox and big egos’. Whilst there’s no truly gag-worthy drama yet , there’s a presence and freshness to this season’s cast that seems far superior to seasons 3 and 4.
Back on the mainstage Ru announces the top two queens of the week are Cara Melle and Tamara Thomas, the two Lip-syncing to ‘Remember’ by Becky Hill and David Guetta, a fun bop which the queens turn out the best lip-sync of the season too – yet a little disappointing not to hear a Sophie Ellis-Bexter song when she’s sat right there! It’s a pretty even match between the two, but Cara Melle edges out slightly and takes the win.
Overall, definitely the best girl group challenge since season 2, in a season that’s shaping up to be the best we’ve seen from Drag Race UK in years. With more eliminations to come, only time will tell…
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