S02.E07: Family That Drags Together

[violet and green]

8 hours ago, annewithaneee said:

When she lost her shit and her (now quite irritating) vocal affect, it was just like the last time Ganj broke down on the runway. That's how she really talks, and that's who she really is. She's a hyper competitive, poor sport, who will do basically anything to get what she wants.

As already remarked up thread, there were quite a few saying re Alaska: no, no, there's no smug!

Also, quite a few comments over the season of: but I see no entitlement!

I am old as dirt and have been around the block more than a few times, and I was cathected by a narcissist, so I do know the scent of entitlement quite well, and I never doubted myself on the air Alaska exhuded - in my view, from the minute she stepped onto set in Season Five, trailing  Sharon's win the season before.

But that voice! Boy, it only takes eyes and ears and plain common sense to know that exaggerated drawl is an affectation. Still there were quite a few in the early episode threads saying, no, no!, that's just how she talks, her mother and sister (or whoever) say so, too. So I wondered if I was wrong and I started to listen really closely, trying to imagine Justin coming out of the womb like that, or as a young boy, etc... No.

Apart from a lovely monster of ego arising from the shell of that curated persona (and that ego monster not being just a joke Katya made in ep one), we got to hear a rawer, petulant, enraged, manipulative and consequently less affected voice. Gosh, could it be that quaalude drawl is somewhat put on?!

[film noire]

I think Roxxy missed a chance to become a Drag Race legend.  Imagine how high her stock would be if - after Detox flubbed and blubbed -she'd asked Ru to eliminate not Alyssa but her,  based on not wanting to be mercy-saved by a friend one more time.  What a fan favorite she would be.

Edited October 7, 2016 by film noire

[snowblossom2]

My favorite part: beginning of episode Alaska calls Katya Adore. Fast forward to Alaska's sit down with Katya. Katya's reponse tô Alaska "Party" (aka Adore's catch phrase). Best shade, smartest shade of the season. I bow down to Katya

[violet and green]

10 minutes ago, snowblossom2 said:

My favorite part: beginning of episode Alaska calls Katya Adore. Fast forward to Alaska's sit down with Katya. Katya's reponse tô Alaska "Party" (aka Adore's catch phrase). Best shade, smartest shade of the season. I bow down to Katya

That was so good. Stone cold, too.

[zulualpha]

9 hours ago, annewithaneee said:

She's a hyper competitive, poor sport, who will do basically anything to get what she wants.(Alaska)

What more could you want from a drag queen?  Personally, I enjoyed the hell out of the tantrum.  "I will transfer $10,000 dollars to your Paypal!".  lolz.  And we know she has it because she's won the 10K tips a few times. 

If fans don't like how  Rolaskatox is playing out, they have no one to blame but the producers.  Certainly not any of the queens.  The show knew Rolaskatox was a thing when they cast the show and set up the system where the queens eliminate each other.  These three queens have a real life, years long friendship.  When the queens where putting make up on their family members, Detox was crying about her Dad and saying how nervous and upset she was when her Dad finally came to one of her shows, and she turned to Roxxxy and said "You were there".  And Roxxxy said yup or something like that.  Last week when Alaska said Roxxxy gave her the shirt she was wearing you could take that two ways.  One-Roxxxy literally gave her the shirt which was no doubt true, but also Alaska could be saying Roxxxy has given me the shirt off her back.  It's pretty clear that Roxxxy is a special person that other queens love and feel loyalty to. 

Roxxxy's hair and make up are consistently among the most polished and sophisticated imo.  And her shape is to die for every time.  As far as her outfits go, girl can sew and design looks with the best of them.  That often gets lost because Ru puts so much emphasis on being funny.  But I for one really appreciate Roxxxy's aesthetic,  her charm, her warmth and her professionalism.  She's one of the queens that's had an iconic moment on the show, the wig under wig reveal and her candy dress which blew everyone away.

[violet and green]

19 minutes ago, zulualpha said:

If fans don't like how  Rolaskatox is playing out, they have no one to blame but the producers.  Certainly not any of the queens.  The show knew Rolaskatox was a thing when they cast the show and set up the system where the queens eliminate each other.  These three queens have a real life, years long friendship.

I certainly do blame Ru. I don't blame Roxxxy for being saved. I was glad to see that beautiful interchange with Roxxxy and her Grandmother/Mother, so it was great she was kept around to make this ep. It's not her fault her friends keep saving her and eliminating bigger threats like Tati and Alyssa.

But Roxxxy herself gave Coco (her friend of 15 years? or am I hallucinating that? I'm pretty sure that was said) the old heave-ho. So real life, years' long friendship is not really a valid excuse for what's gone down.

[Glaadrial]

5 hours ago, AntManBee said:

Bullying is mostly about harassment and creating unease, and it sounds like she is almost excusing the online bullying of others because she is currently the Chosen One by the social media populous. 

Her point as it was described above, I think, suggests that online "bullying" is self-induced (i.e., you can't be bullied this way unless you choose to read the posts and allow them to affect you). IMO, that's the healthiest attitude to have about social media.

Not so much in this forum, but in other forums on this board, the "ignore" feature has been a godsend. At first, I was tempted to have a look at some of the posts by people whom I'd tagged to ignore, but that doesn't happen anymore because I was consistently reminded why I chose to ignore them in the first place.

But then again, I'm an old fart who learned at an early age that "sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me" unless I let them. I imagine that for some, however, the idea of not being able to read their social media is a fate worse than death.

[snowblossom2]

I am living for the drama of this season!

[belligerent]

I've always been team katya (#teamkatya???) but after alaska's hissy fit about how she needs to go to the final, I'm also now on #teamlower48 because wow, entitled much??????? I'm sure it's an "under stress" kind of thing and she is human, but that was kind of gross. I really wish detox had had the balls to send alaska home for it.

I didn't like Alyssa much in her season because she was so poisoned by the coco rivalry that it offset her charming weirdness, IMO, but she really was endearing this time around. Most of the queens I ended up liking more this time around or at least didn't like LESS, save for phiphi and now alaska. ugh. I feel bad for Roxxxy since as others have pointed out, she's stayed longer than other people who are popular. I don't know how the final works but if there's another elimination and Katya goes home before her, that would be pretty uh detrimental even though she had nothing to do with staying so long.

[Jesse]

On 10/6/2016 at 11:19 PM, Julie Firestone said:

I was living for Katya's Ann Jillian look. I was *It's a Living* for it.

...

...yeah, my wife didn't laugh either.

I laughed!

On 10/7/2016 at 0:40 AM, film noire said:

ETA: The great surprise for me this season was not only Alaska slowly melting into something I no longer liked (never mind loved) but that Alyssa Edwards shot upwards, all genuine sass and charm and -- tonight -- the graciousness of a First Lady handling a self pitying weasel demanding petting, even while biting. Somewhere along the way, Alyssa's drag (and her out of drag self) grew giant wings.

As someone else said, Alyssa is definitely smart enough to come off well!

On 10/7/2016 at 2:40 AM, Nerdlove said:

I got a different feel from Alaska's meltdown. It wasn't a good look, don't get me wrong, and I think it will lose her the show, but what I saw was a mini-psychological breakdown. What I mean is: I think this competition means TOO MUCH to Alaska. I don't know if it's even about the money to her, or the fame. Maybe it's about catching up to Sharon, or just sort of proving something to herself. But I don't know. It seems to just be the THING SHE HAS TO HAVE. Maybe it's partly because of getting sober? Maybe she promised herself that she'd get sober so she could win All-Stars? That's the kind of thing I've done to motivate myself -- set my eye on an almost impossible goal. Regardless, the degree that it matters to her shows in how carefully she planned and how hard she's worked. She worked on her Mae West really hard and probably planned a lot those bon mots. I bet she even pre-thought out some catch-all ideas for things to do for the expected range of challenges -- a commercial, acting challenges, and so on, to include her catch phrases. Even the way she comes across in her talking head interviews. She has this *LOOK* on her face and I've seen it before. I'm in comedy -- improv, to be specific -- and a lot of my friends/acquaintances have their eye on the top: SNL. There is a certain look that people get when they have their eye set on something and they realize they *might* not get it. They've based a lot of who they think they are around this idea of success. So, tonight, I actually felt sorry for Alaska because that was the most honest thing she's shown since she got here -- in fact, that may have been the ONLY honest thing she's shown since she got here -- and she seemed so empty and sad to me that I felt sympathy. Don't get me wrong, like I said. She was a mess and it could easily be interpreted as entitled and immature and yeah it kind of was. But I know what it does to people, to base who they are on an external goal. It doesn't end well. (That's two weeks in a row that I think I've offered up some armchair psychiatry. Hmmm... what does that say about me?)

Yeah, I think this is all right. She was really frantic in a weird way about possibly being eliminated. 

On 10/7/2016 at 3:03 AM, Glaadrial said:

I wrote in last week's episode thread that if Kati had chosen Roxxy's lipstick case that there could be the possibility of scripting being involved in the choices that were made with regards to who won that lip-sync. Building on that, if ever there was a week where having a bottom two instead of a bottom three really makes sense, then this is that week. Not only did Alyssa challenge for being in the top two, but also, we bore witness to putting the Real into Reality TV. The tears she shed, IMO, were arguably the most sincere ever recorded in DR Herstory! I'm not a fan of tears on reality TV, but Alyssa's grief was heartfelt and very moving. Moreover, her interaction with her sister was also possibly the most real of anything we've ever seen on a Reality TV show. I mean, we all know the girl can't act her way out of paper bag, but this season for Alyssa Edwards, as far as I'm concerned, is worthy of an Emmy (like the one Bette Midler got for being Johnny Carson's last guest).

I'm a little sad that all the conversation here (including my previous post!) has been about the Dramz, when all the family stuff was so great!

[phoenix780]

On 10/7/2016 at 10:49 AM, AntManBee said:

I stand by my opinion from last week.  The T-Boz look was cute, for a second.  It does not stand up to scrutiny though.  The look supposedly references the Creep video, but doesn't look anything like luxurious nightwear.  Instead, she came off looking more sporty, like Da Brat, then sultry like T-Boz.  Knowing three simple dance moves from 1995 doesn't impress me much.  In Raja & Raven's Toot or Boot, they also note Tati's shoe choice, which upon reflection, was unfortunate.  

Was she referencing Creep? It felt like earlier T-Boz to me, which was more tomboy from what I remember. 

I still like Alaska. A few days past seeing it, the tantrum doesn't seem like such a big deal. But...she owes Detox the money, right. Sounded like a verbal agreement. 

[marsha]

That was all kinds of sad, this episode.

The family visits and make overs were all grand and there wasn't one I didn't like. The scenes between Alyssa and Tabby were heartbreaking as well as Detox and his sister mourning of their father. It was great to see Roxxy's grand/mother and much she was into the whole thing and it's clear where Katya and Alaska get their humour from!

So, I agreed with the choice for Top Two but I would have chosen Katya over Detox. Showing your silicone butt ... again? Please. Katya had that lip sync! I knew the second Detox won that Alyssa was going home and unless Katya kills it in whatever competition(s) that are left she'll be next. If it does end with a FuckOffYouTwats as the final three then I hope the hell Roxxxy wins (and I would never, ever thought I'd write that sentence!)

Alaska's behaviour was ... well, talk about showing your ass! The thing about offering $10,000.00 was, I'm fairly sure, was just said in the hysteria of the moment and I guess it'll be brought up at the Reunion. My only hope is that when Katya reveals what lipstick she had hidden in her bra it says 'Alaska' and then we see Alaska go all 'Carrie' on the workroom! That would almost save what's left of this bizarro world RPDR All Stars2!

[Halo]

On 10/6/2016 at 9:43 PM, Granimal said:

I apologize if this was meant for me, since I think I'm the only one that didn't think Alaska was smug. I think I'm the only Alaska apologist on the board. I didn't mean to "call anyone out". I don't care if other people have opinions that are different than mine. I didn't see any smugness at the time, but I didn't hate on anyone that did. I'm not going to apologize for having an alternate opinion, but I will always apologize if my tone comes across rudely.

Nah, I also said I don't find Alaska smug. I don't think anybody was rude about, to be honest. We just have a variety of opinions. 

On 10/7/2016 at 0:40 AM, Nerdlove said:

I got a different feel from Alaska's meltdown. It wasn't a good look, don't get me wrong, and I think it will lose her the show, but what I saw was a mini-psychological breakdown. What I mean is: I think this competition means TOO MUCH to Alaska. I don't know if it's even about the money to her, or the fame. Maybe it's about catching up to Sharon, or just sort of proving something to herself. But I don't know. It seems to just be the THING SHE HAS TO HAVE. Maybe it's partly because of getting sober? Maybe she promised herself that she'd get sober so she could win All-Stars? That's the kind of thing I've done to motivate myself -- set my eye on an almost impossible goal. Regardless, the degree that it matters to her shows in how carefully she planned and how hard she's worked. She worked on her Mae West really hard and probably planned a lot those bon mots. I bet she even pre-thought out some catch-all ideas for things to do for the expected range of challenges -- a commercial, acting challenges, and so on, to include her catch phrases. Even the way she comes across in her talking head interviews. She has this *LOOK* on her face and I've seen it before. I'm in comedy -- improv, to be specific -- and a lot of my friends/acquaintances have their eye on the top: SNL. There is a certain look that people get when they have their eye set on something and they realize they *might* not get it. They've based a lot of who they think they are around this idea of success. So, tonight, I actually felt sorry for Alaska because that was the most honest thing she's shown since she got here -- in fact, that may have been the ONLY honest thing she's shown since she got here -- and she seemed so empty and sad to me that I felt sympathy. Don't get me wrong, like I said. She was a mess and it could easily be interpreted as entitled and immature and yeah it kind of was. But I know what it does to people, to base who they are on an external goal. It doesn't end well. (That's two weeks in a row that I think I've offered up some armchair psychiatry. Hmmm... what does that say about me?)

Anyway, here's something interesting. I went to some hashtag counter online and checked all four of the hashtag "teams". At about 9pm EST there was a large spike for each one, and another smaller spike at about 11pm EST. But it was on a completely different scale. For the 9pm spike, Katya was VASTLY in the lead with 10,000 estimated by the site (based on a 1% sample of tweets). Detox had around 220, Alaska had 600, Roxxxy had less than 100 (and barely breaks 100 if you include the spelling "roxy"). I mean, even if there's a pretty big margin of error here, Katya is still insanely in the lead.

 

I'm an unapologetic Alaska fan, but she was a crazy mess this episode. It did seem like something more was going on with her, and you may be right that she cares too much. You know she has literally NEVER been in the bottom before, right? I went back and looked at her progress during Season 5 to be sure, and she was low three times, but never once landed in the bottom two. She's also been really successful post-RPDR and maybe hasn't ever learned how to handle losing anything. That's totally not an excuse, just a potential reason for it. I completely agree that she is laser-focused and all about her craft, which can go too far. I danced ballet my entire childhood at a fairly elite school and I've seen a lot of meltdowns from high-strung, overachieving performers. It's never a good look. 

I'm still rooting for Katya and Alaska. I REALLY wanted Katya to win a LSFYL! I'm betting she would have sent Roxxy home if she won. Can't wait to find out. 

Edited October 11, 2016 by Halo

[Richard]

On 10/7/2016 at 10:49 AM, Zuleikha said:

 

According to Facebook, Alaska and Detox have donated the $10000 to charity.... 

 

(edited: don't know why there's an empty quote. I wasn't trying to quote anyone) 

Edited October 11, 2016 by Richard

[Cosmic Muffin]

Given that of the 10 queens on this show Adore, Phi Phi and Alaska have all shot themselves in the foot to some extent, I wonder how many former RPDR cast members are glad they didn't end up on this show. Maybe everyone who wanted on thinks they would have used the show to their advantage. Granted, also, Roxxy, Tatiana, Alyssa and Detox to some extent have used the show so far (or the editors have edited them) to improve their brands, as probably they all hoped to do. Coco, Ginger and Katya have all maintained their images, and probably benefited from the exposure of the show, I think, but haven't improved or damaged their images. I thought Katya was awesome before, and she hasn't let me down. But still, this show is not what I'd hoped for.  I really wanted to see more of the queens I like, and get to know some better, and to see them interact and do silly challenges. Still, damage is greater than I ever expected. I wonder if they'll have trouble casting AS 3, should they decide to have that show. Not sure where the problem lies, possibly with WoW feeling like they needed to create some sort of plot or narrative, but I'm not sure.

Apologies if this is more random than my usual posts, I'm home sick, and might not be saying what I'm trying to say clearly.

[Ananayel]

Alaska is OWNING IT.

This is how you deal with backlash. She knows she was a mess, but she's so crazy talented and self-aware, I'm back to being okay if (when?) she wins. She will be fine. Really, the only one who won't be fine after this is Phi Phi. Everyone else has either maintained or improved their image, I think.

[Halo]

4 hours ago, Richard said:

According to Facebook, Alaska and Detox have donated the $10000 to charity.... 

 

(edited: don't know why there's an empty quote. I wasn't trying to quote anyone) 

damn, beat to the punch. Sorry.

Edited October 12, 2016 by Halo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I was out of town so I finally had time to watch this episode. At first I was like awwwww, look at all the sweet family bonding and gentle mourning of parents who have died. Then RECORD SCRATCH - the rolastatox garbage was back in full effect. Ugh.

On the one hand, it was kind of nice to see Alaska finally have a genuine moment. As unpleasant as her meltdown was, we finally got to see her without the affectations et al. On the other hand, that was U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi. When she offered to paypal $10K to Detox, I was like guuuuuuuurl. And that was after the huffy pissy process of pulling off her wig and whining that drag hurts. NO SHIT. You think the other queens are unaware of that?

I've been on Team Katya since her original season and this season has done nothing to change that. She's still a funny kooky weirdo who gets overlooked by the judges.

Loved Anastasia of Beverly Hills coming to do eyebrows! I was kind of hoping that she would do the boys' eyebrows too. You know she must have been itching to fill in some of their eyebrows.