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After last week, I kept thinking that it would be fun if Ricky and Valerie were paired together, because they're possibly the most naturally joyous two out of the bunch. And the 20-second Q&A pretty much proved that. But I was also mostly hoping that they wouldn't be paired together, because of exactly what we saw. Here's the thing, though -- how many times have we seen a non-contemporary guy paired with a contemporary girl, and they guy praised to the heavens for basically being the person who is doing their best to not mess up the lines of the girl who is dancing goregously around them? This is just the other way around. It was unfortunate that they pulled contemporary and Travis in the first week, because Travis can't help but show off Ricky. And no, Valerie can't be half of the pair who does that. It would have been better if they'd pulled any other style. Beyond that, my overriding impressions are that I still love Stanley, I'm suprised at how much I dislike Rudy and Teddy, and I had to look up which ones Carly and Nick were.

Well, nice to see that I wasn't just feeling like BenDeLa had done better than Darienne overall. Sigh.

I want to say that the season we had a final six instead of four (for a reason I totally do not remember other than thinking it was bogus) they had to rush though the show and we didn't get any rehersal packages. It was kind of weird, just because you are in fact used to them. But it was also nice. I particularly liked being able to take the dance as I saw it, instead of coming in with the super special message/meaning stuffed into my head. I actually like the rehersal bits for seeing how the dancers learn a different style, especially when it's in one half's genre and they're helping the other half. But the producers have definitely gotten worse and worse about editing them into "oh noes, will they get it in time?!?" bits.

Oh man, the moment Ru turned to Darienne first, I turned the tv off. I can't. It's not just that DeLa is my favorite. It's that while DeLa didn't do a good job of hitting the three challenge points, Darienne didn't AND put out three horrific outfits. Not to mention the rest of the season to this point. So what the hell, no. As for the rest... I totally understand why Adore won this challenge. The only one who actually fit all the descriptions. Good for her. I'm incredibly glad Michelle read Courtney for her outfits. I'm so tired of them. And as much as I love Bianca, yeah, she did in fact need to be a little more versatile, and it's coming off worse because she is the one who had no excuse not to kick everyone's asses in this challenge. Ugh. I'm going to have to watch the rest on tivo delay so I can ffwd through everything but Bianca and Adore.

Aw, I love the Allison and Twitch are married now, and the wedding looked like the happiest event ever. Haven't seen any spoilers for the new season. Did see from Tara Lipinski's instagram the other week that the Top 20 has been chosen and she's been one of the audition judges, but that's it. If folks do find actual spoilers, we should create a separate thread for those. And I don't know if anyone else watches any of the international versions of SYTYCD (those that still exist, anyway), but the Australian version came back this year. I'm still catching up (only watched the Top 20 showcase, so far, while they just had Top 6 week), and this solo has been making the rounds from one of the guys.

Oh, I couldn't see a damn thing DURING the dance, ffwded through most of it anyway. I meant as the judges were examining them after. Past seasons I remember some being torn and gaping in various really obvious ways post-performance.

Yeah, I didn't notice them say that this time, weird. But IIRC, the last few seasons that stress test has not gone well, so I was impressed that none of these six seemed to be falling apart in any way. Like everyone else, what I love most about this show is the friendship, fellowship, whatever you want to call it that happens between all of these folks. It seemed to be amplified this season, with no one really needing constant handholding, and I honestly would have been happy if any of these three won. But I really am pumped that it was Rashad. He comes across as so grounded but joyous. And I guess he and Tyler are looking at getting their own show on Syfy?

Oooh, increasing last looks time to get better paint jobs would be nice. I do really think 3+1 challenge days has only made the last episodes of this season better, and I wouldn't object to that being the norm. But it also obviously doesn't lead to that much more painting being done ahead of time -- the artists just get more ambitious and still run out of time. Other than that, yes, please bring back more of the makeup aspect of the job. The aging challenge in particular was always a fantastic look at what these folks are able to do when they're not in "go big or go home" mindset. I can only think that out in the industry they'll be asked to do that kind of work more often than gore and teeth. Plus, the monsters all start to look the same after a while. And as much as I do not want this to in any way begin to resemble Project Runway, I think "unconventional materials" type challenges, where the artists have to prominently incorporate a certain material or aren't allowed to use a certain material, would be fascinating.

The thing that got me about this episode was why in the world did they do the critique with the drag brides standing there? That didn't seem necessary, and felt downright mean given the context -- here, let me marry you, and then have you stand there and hear how bad I think you look. Also, not that I don't believe there's no way Joslyn's guy didn't know what he was signing up for, but the laughter on the mainstage over his fears also came off as insensitive and kind of ignorant. The NBA (and its farm system) are only a baby step up from the NFL when it comes to having rampant hetero culture and that's not setting the bar real high. No matter what's in his head or how badly he expressed it, while I don't know what kind of flack he's going to catch, he will catch some, and that's sad and wrong. Don't laugh at it. Eh, this just rubbed me wrong. I did love Bianca and the way she bonded with her guy. Dela did a great job, even if the editors all but ignored her this week. And all the vows were very sweet. But I came out of this episode feeling off.

Wow, I'd completely forgotten about that Bollywood piece. Thanks for the reminder! I have a horrible time picking favorites. I'd have to pick one from each genre or something.

This chat/recap from Chad Sell and TinTim explains a lot of what I feel about the whole "real DeLa" thing from Michelle. Frankly, I think she's asking for the wrong thing. I've only seen this season and last, and don't have any history past that with the drag community, but I haven't seen any other queen who puts on such a fully realized character along with the drag every time. Like, at this point it's more jarring for me when Ben speaks as himself while in drag (the few times it's happened in Untucked) than seeing him in the workroom. DeLa is essentially a different person than Ben. So Michelle asking to see more of "the real DeLa" is not going to get her the performer behind the drag; it's going to get her exactly what she got on that last stage, with Ben giving them the most signature DeLa outfit ever. Is the actor/performer-type drag that BenDeLa and Jinkx do so uncommon?

This. Maybe some of it is that Darienne never says these things to the person she's sniping at -- it all either comes in talking heads or on the other side of the workroom -- but at least for me, it's also that she's not coming from a place of ignorance (Gia) or delusion (Laganja), so it's coming off as a personal animosity rather than just a bitchy comment. I do think DeLa made it uncomfortable asking the question out in front of everybody, but my opinion of Darienne had already changed and I frankly put that moment down to production/editing forcing a public "confrontation" instead of a quick side convo. I honestly think Bianca and Adore are the only ones in that room who would have easily come back with that kind of response.

So I think I've figured out why I enjoy Adore. Some of it may be due to her already having reality show experience, but she actually has self and situational awareness in a way that I think only Joslyn also has among the young set of queens. She can laugh at herself - see her coming right back at Bianca with a laugh even before they got the library mini challenge - and the multiple times we've now seen her blast right on through Laganja's frankly pathological idiocy. I also laughed out loud at her "I want to be just like her when I'm 57. [collapses laughing] Oh shit, she's gonna kill me" talking head about Bianca. Anyway, glad to see Joslyn stepping up. Sucks to see Darienne continue to sink into mean bitchiness that reminds me way too much of Roxxy. And sad (but not really surprised) to see the last of Milk. I'm still mostly living for DeLa and Bianca, and it makes me so happy that this didn't trip either of them up, I was actually scared going into this that it would.

Another TWOP refugee, and another who was there since it was MBTV (took me freaking forever to stop calling it that). I never engaged in the Drag Race thread over there, only been watching since last season and it took me a while to find my feet, but I love reading what you all have to say, so figure I might as well use this as the kick in the ass to jump in. My favorites at this point are DeLa, Bianca and...damn, that third spot keeps shifting on me. I love the polish and experience that Courtney brings to the table, but I also love the enthusiasm and heart that Adore gets all over everything, and Joslyn has become a close second to Ben on my "omg, I just want to hug you when you're not being your drag character" list. So, yeah. Hi! Great to have a full forum for this show.