RuPaul’s Drag Race Review: Grand Finale

Tyra Banks and America’s Next Top Model taught the world that fashion is about smoke and mirrors, illusion, and convincing the photographer, the viewer, and the audience that what their eyes see is actually what is there – even when it isn’t – even when it’s a boy in a dress.  However, as Auntie Noxee (Wesley Snipes) explained, even boys in a dress can achieve true queenly status by letting good thoughts be their swords and shields, ignoring adversity, abiding by the rules of love, and remembering larger than life is just the right size.  The Season 3 Grand Finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race crowned “the boy in a dress” who not only subliminally followed all of Noxeema’s rules but who also portrayed the most “charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent.”

Over the last four months, Ru has sadly asked 10 drag queens to sashay away as they lost the “lip-sync for your life” competition to “Raja” (Sutan Amrull), “Alexis Mateo” (Alexis Pacheco), and “Manila Luzon” (Karl Westerberg).   In their final challenge of the competition, the final three queens would have to become Greek goddesses, living statuaries, as they co-star in the music video for RuPaul’s video “Champion.”  Under the choreography of Ryan Heffington, the queens learned the basic steps for the video.  Mid-way through the competition, because they were the self-proclaimed prettiest and most talented queens in the competition, Raja, Manila, Carmen, and Delta Work began calling themselves “the Heathers,” which alluded to the movie Heathers about four girls in a trendy high school clique, three of whom were named Heather, who ruled their high school through intimidation and sex appeal.  In contrast, the Heathers referred to Alexis, Shangela, Yara Sofia, and Stacey Layne Matthews as “the boogers” because not only did the Heathers not find them attractive but they also did not see them as competition.  Ironically, in the music video the only two Heathers left in the competition, Raja and Manila, were being outperformed and overshadowed by Alexis Mateo, the last-standing “Booger.”  Although Raja has had the unique benefit of living, breathing, and working amongst the most powerful models and the most talented up-and-coming models, most memorably as the make-up artist for the models on America’s Next Top Model, he did not bring the pose and grace from the ANTM teachable moments to the set of the music video, and Alexis received all of Ryan’s praise as Raja and Manilla were heavily critiqued and redirected, as they impeded the completion of the video not only during the rehearsal but also for the filming.

During the second part of the rehearsal, the queens would be using one of the pit crew members as a prop.  The story line behind the interaction should have been that the queen has known the man for only two nights.  Again, Raja proved that he did not pick up any acting skills from ANTM because he could not seem to even fake an intimacy scene.  However, for Manila trying to balance the intimacy scene for the video and follow Auntie Noxee’s third rule, abide by the rules of love, proved a bit challenging as he didn’t want to compromise his relationship with Season Two’s Sahara Davenport.  Alexis Mateo implemented Noxee’s rule #4, larger than life is just the right size, when it came time the hair; however, Manila swore the hair on top of a six-foot man hindered him from being able to see a black spot on a white floor and being able to hit his mark in the video.  However, Raja finally worked one good ANTM trick – work like the rent is due.  Although he struggled during the rehearsals, Raja spread on the fake intimacy and worked it out during the filming of his scene with the pit crew member while Alexis struggled just a bit to work around his larger-than-life hair that supposedly was getting him “closer to God.”

On the main stage, Alexis, walking the runway in a pink showgirl costume complete with rhinestones and a pink parasol, and Manila, sashaying in a lime green and pink gown with sparkling jewels and a crown, unfortunately paled in comparison to the fashion forward, unique, and audacious Raja, whose outfit was inspired by the movie All That Jazz. As the top three queens, none of them received overtly negative critiques, as in the past; however, Alexis was the first queen asked to sashay away while Manila and Raja lip-synced for their lives for the final time.

During their final interview with Ru and the judges, the queens were asked to give pros and cons about each other and themselves.  A few important observations Raja made about the other two is that Alexis’s drag is stale and he does not think outside the box and Manila’s drag fits into a template.  While Raja’s cattiness with Shangela and his demeaning and belittling the other queens was reminiscent of high school and proved to be a major turn off, Raja competed not simply as a drag queen but as a model from ANTM.  From Marie Antoinette to a Warrior Woman, from week to week, Raja allowed the inspiration for his outfits, his make-up, and his hair to come from diverse cultures and genres in fashion history.  With his skinny physique and multiple tattoos, Raja may look like a boy in a dress, but for the last sixteen weeks he turned those dresses out and took home the prize and the title of being America’s Next Drag Superstar!

Season 3, Episode 15: “Grand Finale” (originally aired April 25, 2011)

Check out Poptimal’s coverage of seasons 1 and 2 of RuPaul’s Drag Race here.

Read more of Savannah DuBois‘ pop culture observations on Poptimal.

Images courtesy of Logan Alexander/Logo and IMDbPro