S15.E16: Grand Finale

[Starchild]

RuPaul crowns the Season 15 winner.

=======

Well, I think this was my 3rd-favourite potential winning scenario, behind Anetra or a double win, but I'm still happy.

That lip sync was incredible,  a double win was a very credible outcome.

Best part was the summary dismissal of Mistress and Luxx, very direct and matter-of-fact. Awesome.

Worst part: those songs. They all sucked. Every single one was dominated by the reprise of "I Hate People." Get a new song writer show, this one is played out.

Edited April 15, 2023 by Starchild
Figured out how to fix the title.

[Glade]

I'm really happy to see Sasha, an incredibly talented indigenous mahu win this year.  Anetra is also amazing and surely a shoe-in for future all-stars appearances where I think she will get her own crown.  I also liked that they acknowledged halfway through that Luxx/Mistress were not really in the running.  Seeing Willow and Jinx grace the stage was also a real treat.  Despite Ru's terrible songs, this was great.

Edited April 15, 2023 by Glade

[rlc]

It was 100% worth watching Orville perform to watch Luxx and Mistress enter their losing eras.

Happy with the way things turned out but have to admit that if Ru were choosing based on lip syncs, Luxx and Sasha probably should have been the final two. I understand that Anetra (who I absolutely adore) may have wanted to show something else, but why in the word didn't she walk that f***ing duck during the performance of her original song?????

I would have preferred to see Miss EsTitties win Miss Congeniality, but okay with any decision that annoys MIB.

 

[davidcalgary29]

25 minutes ago, rlc said:

It was 100% worth watching Orville perform to watch Luxx and Mistress enter their losing era.

 

Ha! The sentence of the week.

[Keywestclubkid]

48 minutes ago, rlc said:

 

I would have preferred to see Miss EsTitties win Miss Congeniality, but okay with any decision that annoys MIB.

 

Apparently it’s the girls the vote congeniality not Ru or producers 

 

why the fuck do they have them do original songs? It’s just BAD 99.99% of the time the production seems janky and the words sound like a 5th grader wrote them half the time .. 

[davidcalgary29]

11 minutes ago, Keywestclubkid said:

Apparently it’s the girls the vote congeniality not Ru or producers 

 

why the fuck do they have them do original songs? It’s just BAD 99.99% of the time the production seems janky and the words sound like a 5th grader wrote them half the time .. 

I'm sure it's done to maximize profits. Why pay a third party royalties to use a first-rate song when you can just pay yourself to create a crappy one? 

And c'mon, now: Ru went to high school.

[luckyroll3]

First off, did anyone else see Mistress' face when Malaysia won Miss Congeniality??? She was pissed!

I'm a little annoyed that they did these original songs instead of head-to-head LSFYLs, but if it was done to ensure an Anetra/Sasha final 2, then cool. 

There was so much going on on that stage during the final lip sync. Anetra was putting on her best Cirque du Soleil artistic gymnastic routine and Sasha (and all that BODY! My goodness!) was having a romantic evening lounging on a bear skin rug in front of a fireplace! I was having so much whiplash I couldn't even assess the damn lip sync. But yay for Sasha! I would have been happy with either of them taking the crown. 

 

[Keywestclubkid]

23 minutes ago, davidcalgary29 said:

I'm sure it's done to maximize profits. Why pay a third party royalties to use a first-rate song when you can just pay yourself to create a crappy one? 

 

It’ just feels soo low budget to me lol 

[Madding crowd]

Ru had a really ugly dress and the last couple finales she looks like she is frozen in place and can barely move. Bob Mackie looked like a child next to Ru.

The original songs are always so bad. I wanted Anetra to win but Sasha is beautiful and fabulous. It just seemed like she was a guest celebrity contestant that was guaranteed a win. Happy to see my all time favorite queen Jinkx-she is truly a star!

Something was satisfying about seeing someone with tremendous talent but still kind of raw like Jinkx or Sharon Needles win. I can’t say anything negative about Sasha though. 

 

 

[Starchild]

2 hours ago, luckyroll3 said:

First off, did anyone else see Mistress' face when Malaysia won Miss Congeniality??? She was pissed!

It was because it was Malaysia, right? After all the shit that she acknowledged stirring, she didn't honestly think they'd vote her Miss Congeniality did she? If so, talk about delusion.

[cpcathy]

Good for Sasha, she’s a fierce queen. It makes extra sense that Ru crowns a trans queen in the midst of all this horrible trans hate we have now. 
I feel for Anetra, hopefully she gets a great career like other non winners have, I’d love to see her more often.

And LOL on the swift elimination of Luxx and Mistress, we should have had an old fashioned vaudeville hook sweep them away!

[funnygirl]

Miss Congeniality Malaysia Babydoll Foxx is the season 16 superior big queen, and Mistress goes home empty handed. 

We love to see it!

Congrats to Sasha. She was the only other choice if not Anetra. (but I do think Sasha has some unfair advantages)

I've never been more happy for a Drag Race season to be over. 

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by funnygirl

[rlc]

43 minutes ago, funnygirl said:

I've never been more happy for a Drag Race season to be over

I guess you’ve never watched a season with Phi Phi O’Hara.

[howiveaddict]

Best part was Jinkx singing.

[SemiCharmedLife]

14 hours ago, rlc said:

It was 100% worth watching Orville perform to watch Luxx and Mistress enter their losing eras.

Happy with the way things turned out but have to admit that if Ru were choosing based on lip syncs, Luxx and Sasha probably should have been the final two. I understand that Anetra (who I absolutely adore) may have wanted to show something else, but why in the word didn't she walk that f***ing duck during the performance of her original song?????

I would have preferred to see Miss EsTitties win Miss Congeniality, but okay with any decision that annoys MIB.

 

The T is that one of the dancers injured himself during Anetra's performance and that shock may have affected her routine and energy level.  I copied this from Yahoo News:

Anetra was the first of the semi-finalists to perform her solo number.

She took the stage with six back-up dancers. During the second lift in the song, either due to a miscue or slip, both she and the dancer took a spill.

The music stopped and a medic attended to the injured performer. Unfortunately, he was unable to continue, which meant all four routines — Anetra’s, Luxx’s, Mistress’ AND Sasha’s — had to be rechoreographed at the finale with only five dancers. This is especially challenging since each routine incorporated lifts.

Also, the lift that caused the accidental injury was to lead into a duckwalk, so Anetra probably scrapped it after the incident.  

I was thinking about the lift with MIB- they were down a dancer.

I am so thrilled for Miss Sasha Colby.  She embodies elevated drag and has met/ exceeded all expectations of this legend this season.  

 

[MsJamieDornan]

13 hours ago, funnygirl said:

I've never been more happy for a Drag Race season to be over.

For so many reasons, I agree !

[theatremouse]

Unrelated to the outcome, Loosey's outfit for the finale was about 12x more interesting than anything she did during the season.

[littlebennysmom]

On 4/15/2023 at 11:15 AM, cpcathy said:

And LOL on the swift elimination of Luxx and Mistress, we should have had an old fashioned vaudeville hook sweep them away!

Mistress' face when she realized she wasn't in the final two -- she entered her bitter era right then.

[Adeejay]

This season seemed pre-ordained.  From the first week, I had a feeling that Sasha and Anetra were going to be the F2.  I was surprised at the way Lux and Mistress were so "summarily dismissed".  Ru basically told them to get lost.  That wasn't cool, given how they carried the season with their witty remarks.  Jinx is truly a star.  She and Bianca Del Rio are my all-time favorite drag queens.  

[Starchild]

49 minutes ago, littlebennysmom said:

Mistress' face when she realized she wasn't in the final two -- she entered her bitter era right then.

Not only that, the video showing the 4 of them watching the finale suggests that she really did think she was in the running for Miss Congeniality. That she thought she had the majority vote. Drag delusion!

[Ms.Lulu]

1 hour ago, Starchild said:

Not only that, the video showing the 4 of them watching the finale suggests that she really did think she was in the running for Miss Congeniality. That she thought she had the majority vote. Drag delusion!

Yes, she entered the delusion era. How could MIB possibly think that she had a chance at anything? She has the likability of Silky, Mimi, Darriene, India, Gia and Roxxxy. She will likely be on our screens again in an Allstar season, but I doubt she'll ever win. MIB should just walk away in her kitten heels.

[Starchild]

Well, Ru likes her, so she'll at least get a chance at redemption on All Stars, I think.

[Lethallyfab]

I’ve said it elsewhere, I’ll say it here — Ru makes the Queens perform overly-produced mediocre original songs because it’s what he knows best.

Did they say if Ru’s dress was a Mackie original?  Either way, it was ugly as heck.

I think between the Tribute Clip Show and the performance, Jinxx got more screen time than Luxx or Mistress.

 

[violet and green]

It was an odd experience. It felt so "canned". Then the live parts had such awful segue's - poor Bob Mackie standing there looking tiny and holding his award, and then Ru just ignores him, no gracious send off, and moves on to the next bit that is totally unrelated to him.

I really did enjoy the slapped-arse face of Mistress and the fury on Luxx after they were suddenly out, and at subsequent appearances for the rest of the show. Mistress could not even fake a smile!

Good to see Jinkx celebrated so fulsomely. And Willow Pill was a vision. I wish they had split the win and the prize money.

[Starchild]

34 minutes ago, violet and green said:

I really did enjoy the slapped-arse face of Mistress and the fury on Luxx after they were suddenly out, and at subsequent appearances for the rest of the show. Mistress could not even fake a smile!

That's another thing I noticed in the video of them watching the finale. When they didn't make it to the final lipsync, they seemed surprised and dismayed, especially Mistress.

I guess I should have realized that for them to film fake crownings for everyone, this part would have to have been filmed multiple times with different combinations. Presumably the lipsync too.

It still amazes me that once Anetra's name was called, Luxx and Mistress still thought they might be the other name. How could they possibly think Sasha wouldn't be in the final two? I knew as soon as Anetra was named that those two were done. Delusion!

[davidcalgary29]

7 hours ago, Lethallyfab said:

I’ve said it elsewhere, I’ll say it here — Ru makes the Queens perform overly-produced mediocre original songs because it’s what he knows best.

Did they say if Ru’s dress was a Mackie original?  Either way, it was ugly as heck.

I think between the Tribute Clip Show and the performance, Jinxx got more screen time than Luxx or Mistress.

 

Jinkx is a bona fide superstar -- she's going to appear on Doctor Who in a major story arc! -- so Ru's going to hitch herself to that rocket. More Jinkx!

[luckyroll3]

11 hours ago, Starchild said:

I guess I should have realized that for them to film fake crownings for everyone, this part would have to have been filmed multiple times with different combinations. Presumably the lipsync too.

I really wish they would stop with the fake crownings of winners. If they're that concerned about leaks, start filming the Finales live. I want to see some genuine winner (and salty loser) reactions, gosh darn it! Considering that Drag Race has one of the largest live/public viewings outside of sports, a live finale would work so well for the show. 

[Mahfouz]

No big surprise that Sasha ended up winning. 

BUT, the difference is stark between somebody like Jinkx who is a superstar and Sasha whose final drag act this season was basically just a woman doing a strip tease. Mrs. Mahfouz used the word "trashy" to describe her LS. 

Also wondering why the judges never once called out Luxx for her inability to do her makeup well enough so that she doesn't just look like a man in makeup. The no padding up top does NOT help that either. 

 

 

[Kaboom 2.0]

Loved the finale moments y'all have mentioned here but I'm also giving it up for Kornbread The Snack Jete's rap, I thought her performance was fantastic. AND love love loved seeing Princess Poppy's homage to Mean Girls' Regina George dress & brace from the ending of the film when the eliminated queens were introduced!! 

I'm glad Sasha won but I still thought Anetra had a shot of snatching that crown at the last minute. Anetra will certainly be on All Stars & must certainly win it, I want her to succeed in everything she does. 

Jinkx being given the spotlight to perform is just right & good & should always be the case. She is Everything. I thought it wasn't possible to love Willow Pill more yet she somehow makes me do it. 

I'll wrap this up by cackling at how much I LOL'd at Mistress & Luxx's stank facial  expressions when they were quickly eliminated. Move on, ladies, ain't nothing left to see here, ya don't have to go home but ya can't stay here. HAHAHA 

[MsJamieDornan]

8 hours ago, Mahfouz said:

Sasha whose final drag act this season was basically just a woman doing a strip tease.

Thank you !!! I'm not a Sasha hater, but that seems to be her only talent. I dont get the big deal they make over her. And calling her a legend, what for ?

 

8 hours ago, Mahfouz said:

Also wondering why the judges never once called out Luxx for her inability to do her makeup well enough so that she doesn't just look like a man in makeup.

Agree again. She looked like a young boy with not a lot of clothes on. It's creepy.

[Keywestclubkid]

8 hours ago, Mahfouz said:

No big surprise that Sasha ended up winning. 

BUT, the difference is stark between somebody like Jinkx who is a superstar and Sasha whose final drag act this season was basically just a woman doing a strip tease. Mrs. Mahfouz used the word "trashy" to describe her LS. 

Also wondering why the judges never once called out Luxx for her inability to do her makeup well enough so that she doesn't just look like a man in makeup. The no padding up top does NOT help that either. 

 

 

Rewatch her she isn’t just stripping everything was on beat from the moment the song started .. I mean do I think she’s the greatest thing since sliced bread no but she put thought into what she WAS doing and each movement had intent like Ru always preached 

[MsJamieDornan]

2 hours ago, Keywestclubkid said:

Rewatch her she isn’t just stripping everything was on beat from the moment the song started

Thats what good strippers do.

Edited April 18, 2023 by MsJamieDornan

[SemiCharmedLife]

Sasha served so much more than a striptease in the finale.  Her original song Goddess was complete with dance steps, lifts and great lipsyching.  Her LSFC included 3 reveals - which did include a skimpy outfit at the end.  All eyes were on her because she is entertaining, commanding the stage.  Her run on Drag Race this season has been more than versatile, proving herself a runway queen, but also adept at comedy, music videos, dancing and more.  One of her signatures is her body-body-ody, and that may not appeal to everyone, but she definitely earned that crown.

[Wonderlad71]

For those of you glad this season is over - did you watch Season 13? For me that was the weakest (original recipe) season ever (very poor narratives, weak challenges and Kandy Muse getting dragged to the final).

I think Mistress likes playing cartoon villain for the screen but her relationships with the girls seem to be fine outside of the show. I think having 'adopted' Sugar and Spice etc. , she had the expectation that she was liked enough to be voted for Miss Congeniality. That said, like previous show villains (see Roxxy Andrews / Raja O'Hara), she probably will grow from watching herself and have a redemption in the eyes of many fans. At 24, her drag career can still transform in many ways. Many people hated Eureka on Season 10 (although IMHO she was never a villain) but now she is loved by many more following her stints on All Stars 6 and We're Here. 

Sasha and Anetra were the Top2 I was expecting, although to be honest I enjoyed Luxx's performance more than Anetra's. Sasha is a great all rounder. Definitely see areas where Anetra can improve and she will be great in an All Stars. Both of them would have been good Miss Congeniality contenders ( I take it the finalists were not eligible? and they want to spread the prizes around ?) 

Some WTF's were Kornbread's lion lewk(???) and Loosey's (Dragula audition ?) makeup. Love Loosey but it came off as a bit try-hard and not work in this context.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Wonderlad71

[Mahfouz]

9 hours ago, Lethallyfab said:

So, to be clear, after watching a show devoting a third of its running time trying to refute the Right’s notion that drag queens are nothing but sex-crazed perverts out to groom and corrupt children, we’re going to try to diminish contestants’ achievements by calling them strippers?  Choices.

I was only talking about Sasha, not all the queens.

Also I was drawing a contrast between somebody like Jinkx who commands the stage (She was the highlight of the finale for me) and one person like Sasha whose final LS (not speaking about her original song), to me, was nothing more than a strip-tease. An on-beat strip-tease nonetheless but still a strip-tease. 

I guess, for me, it comes down to what I would rather see. A queen who is good enough to be wanted on Broadway (etc.) or one who could give the local gals a run for their money down at the Golden Cheetah. 

Also, I prefer to engage this show within my own paradigm of enjoyment. I'm not going to not express my opinion just because the Right is making shit up about drag queens. 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Mahfouz

[davidcalgary29]

6 hours ago, Wonderlad71 said:

For those of you glad this season is over - did you watch Season 13? For me that was the weakest (original recipe) season ever (very poor narratives, weak challenges and Kandy Muse getting dragged to the final).

 

Almost all of this season's problems are structural, though, and stem from the fact that initial cast interactions crucial in building up interest in the queens were left on the cutting-room floor. No other season has suffered that greatly from post-editing choices -- production really did get off lightly with S12 -- and the lack of contestants' backstory at the beginning of the season made it hard to care about anyone who made it to the end of it. S13 wasn't the best, and S14 went on for far too long, but choppy editing drained a lot of the fun out of those early episodes in S15, and momentum was never really regained. That's a pity, and it has nothing to do with the queens.

Edited April 18, 2023 by davidcalgary29

[MsJamieDornan]

2 hours ago, Mahfouz said:

Also, I prefer to engage this show within my own paradigm of enjoyment. I'm not going to not express my opinion just because the Right is making shit up about drag queens. 

Very well said.

[Keywestclubkid]

5 hours ago, Mahfouz said:

I was only talking about Sasha, not all the queens.

Also I was drawing a contrast between somebody like Jinkx who commands the stage (She was the highlight of the finale for me) and one person like Sasha whose final LS (not speaking about her original song), to me, was nothing more than a strip-tease. An on-beat strip-tease nonetheless but still a strip-tease. 

I

Gypsy rose lee, Dita Vontease Josephine Baker and many others Made careers out of it and what a field and how very lucrative it can be when you have "star"quality even when just "stripping" to the beat ........ I’m just saying putting down one talent to prop up another is definitely not something Jinkxx or Sasha would do … Sasha like Jinkxx has that something that makes you root for them.. it’s all good at the end of the day and they all make their money 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Keywestclubkid

[Mahfouz]

25 minutes ago, Keywestclubkid said:

Gypsy rose lee, Dita Vontease Josephine Baker and many others in their field Made careers off of just “stripping” to the beat but I guess that doesn’t matter .. I’m just saying putting down one talent to prop up another is definitely not something Jinkxx or Sasha would do … Sasha like Jinkxx has that something that makes you root for them.. it’s all good at the end of the day and they all make their money 

Thank you for the list of famous strippers. 

I'm not putting down the talent of stripping. I'm saying the difference was stark between a charismatic, talented, force of fucking nature like Jinkx Monsoon and what Sasha Colby showed us. One of these people are on Broadway. One of these people could carry a two-hour show with talent. 

This was supposed to be the BIG DEAL. This was supposed to be the culmination of a season's worth of hard work. And in the finale of what was Sasha's season, the queen for an older season was the star of the show. That's my point.

tl;dr Sasha Colby, as great as she is, can't hold Jinkx Monsoon's jock. 

[Keywestclubkid]

2 hours ago, Mahfouz said:

I'm not putting down the talent of stripping.

But you kinda are crapping over an art form that you seem to equate with being less than.. you get Jink also dabbles in burlesque also right? I just understand NOT all winners are the same .. Bianca doesn’t sing is she less of a winner? I get it Jinkxx is my all time favorite winner but even she doesn’t compare herself to other winners as less deserving because she does something they don’t .. Debating gotta love it 

[theatremouse]

Move on from the stripping or not discussion. It's derailing.

[Ananayel]

I would have preferred an Anetra win, but Sasha is also a perfectly fine winner. I hate that Mistress and Luxx got hauled along, but glad they got summarily dismissed. 

Overall, this season stank. Get this show off MTV, make it be 90 minutes again (and re-edit it to 90 minutes for reruns on another channel, VH1 or hell, even Logo. It's still around, right?) Untucked goes right after, that's not a space to try and trick us into watching your new crap. 

The shorter initial episodes with so many queens meant I didn't get to know or care about any of them until at least halfway through. They should always split the premiere into to groups to counteract that. It seems like, since we all know the structure and format after all these seasons, now is the time to really show us that drag is an art form, not playing dress-up.

I skipped the reunion, and I almost skipped the finale, but I'm glad I didn't because Jinkx. I used to try and watch every rerun I could, but now I don't bother. Time for an overhaul. I have a friend who has submitted audition material several times, and her profile has increased a lot recently, so I hope TPTB can get it together before Miss Naomi Dix, of the House of Coxx, makes her appearance.

Glad it's over, and I never thought I'd say that about my once-favorite show.

 

[MsJamieDornan]

3 hours ago, Ananayel said:

Glad it's over, and I never thought I'd say that about my once-favorite show.

 

I agree. This season was just......off.

[TVbitch]

I was rooting for Anetra, but it says a lot when my favorite parts of the finale were Jinx and the lovely Bob Mackie. All of the lip syncs were blah for me, and Ru seemed to be phoning it in. Maybe she was over this season, too!