Review: RuPaul’s Drag Race (Season 12, Episode 13)

The Reunion episode was completely different than usual thanks to Ms Corona; however, it was fun, campy and authentic and felt less scripted compared to the usual reunion episodes. So, much happened in this episode, it felt as if the queens were able to truly open up about their time on the show without the pressure of discussing all of this a few metres away from the queen herself RuPaul.

The show started with a lovely song titled The Shady Bunch and it was fun and catchy and we are left with the ringing enthusiasm of Jan completely getting into her musical zone. The category for the video was slumber party and the queens rocked a variety of looks from Crystal Methyd inspired by Scrooge from A Christmas Carol whilst Jaida Essence Hall rocked a campy sleeping gown inspired piece with a pillow for a back piece, it was totally gorgeous. All queens from Aidan Zhane to Rock M Sakura looked fantastic despite leaving the season early on.

Before we got down to shady business we were greeted with a small clip on the highs of the season and it truly showed how this is one of the best seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race in a long shot. The running joke of the show was the technically only 12 queens on the season discounting Sherry Pie all together, it felt right the way they addressed the controversy. Instead of discussing the allegations regarding Sherry Pie or completely ignoring the situation they just made jokes about a 12-queen season though it was 13 queens.

We were first greeted from another Heidi Afrodite name reveal confirming she is official Heidi N Closet, because despite RuPaul’s pleas to rid her of the name, Heidi’s fans “pay her bills” so she will keep the name. Shortly after RuPaul told Heidi her name was a mistake; we saw Heidi’s best bits which consisted of her calling Nicki Minaj out for dissing her make-up. Yes, you heard that correctly Heidi called out Nicki Minaj, stay tuned for the Heidi N Closet diss track.

Now, to the juicy gossip, Aiden was called out by Ms RuPaul for only wearing one wig – the pussycat wig – the wig that RuPaul has her personal vengeance against. However, Aiden this episode improved her make-up immensely and looked beautiful. The real tea came when Brita did her apology tour and apologised for being rude to Aiden despite hating her all season. Though, it could come across as a PR stunt, being on the show itself is intense enough and can bring a horrible side out in a person, but in the reunion we saw the real Brita. A special shout out to Nicky Doll who was incredibly quite on the show, but in the reunion we saw the real confident and talkative Nicky who was not afraid to speak her mind.

In true RuPaul style she addressed the issues regarding the dating rumours on Gigi Goode and Crystal, they may not have confirmed anything but as a Crygi fan I felt the love. When Gigi said she fell for the mullet, I knew it was true love. But, maybe that’s the fangirl in me wishing the gorgeous and versatile queens make the ultimate Drag Race couple.

We may not have had a library challenge this season, but RuPaul made sure the library was open in the reunion with the winning crown going to Brita for her amazing comebacks and excellent reads. To name a few when talking to first contestant to leave the show Dahlia Sin, “you sure do talk a big game for someone who came in 13th place on a 12-person season” and gurrl it was a read. Then to her frenemy Aiden “I’m really sorry for how I treated you all season, but I was just preparing you for how Patricia Quinn would treat you after the Snatch Game.” (You can now hear Jan pressing the shade button on repeat).

The episode ending with a tease on how next weeks finale will work. There will be five lip-syncs and theories on how this will go down have been going crazy on the internet. Possibility number 1: All three do solo lip-syncs then the top two (or all of them) go against each other for the crown. Possibility number 2: They all lip-sync against each other in a three-way lip-sync, then one against another to choose the winner. Who knows? We will find out on the next episode.

What team are you #TeamJaida, #TeamCrystal or #TeamGigi?

Watch the finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race on 30 May (GMT) on Netflix.