- Hello, and welcome to The Pit Stop.
I'm your hostess Manila Luzon, and I can hear the cackling
from all the way down the street
because guess who's here? Jinkx Monsoon!
(cackling)
- Hi Manila.
You know, flying in on my broomstick this morning,
It was, the traffic in L.A. is terrible,
even for witches.
- You need to do a little transportation spell.
- Yeah a little Patrocacus Dopalis!
(cackling)
(upbeat music)
- Well, last week we saw Plastique Tiara sashay away.
Were surprised that Plastique left this early.
- Yeah! Really, I mean I thought if anyone was gonna go
to the end, it was the girl who had plenty of tricks
up her sleeve and then also had the look down.
- Mhmm.
- I'm always a big admirer of queens who can be funny,
but who are also gorgeous,
seeing as that's something I struggled with for a while.
(laughs)
- Okay so after the elimination,
Miss Vanjie is a little bit confused
because she doesn't know where she stands with the judges.
On one hand, she feels like they're giving her praise
because they love her personality
and they're always entertained by Miss Vanjie,
but they're also saying that she's
not really getting the challenges
or she's just being too Vanjie in the challenges.
She doesn't know what she wants.
Do you know what she's even talking about?
- You know, it's like if you have some kind of
funny mannerism or some kind of idiosyncrasy
that comes naturally to you,
it's great to fall back on that,
but you don't want that to be something you're
doing without making the choice to do it.
- I feel like the judges are just trying to push more
and more out of her to squeeze something different
out of her.
- When you're in a competition,
you can't just rest on one thing
because you know every other girl is
gonna be reinventing herself every single week.
So it's kind of the double-edged sword
of going into drag race as an established queen;
you want to stay true to your brand,
but you've also got to step up to
the competition aspect of it too.
And, it can't be easy being the DMX of drag, you know?
Vanjie gonna what? Vanjie gonna roll!
Vanjie gonna give it to ya! She gonna give it to ya!
(laughs)
Oh it's tough on the pipes. I don't know how she does that.
(laughs)
- We also see Nina West feeling a little hurt
that Brooke Lynn Hytes wasn't giving her any props
for allowing her to take her winning role
in the last challenge.
Do you think Nina is being a little bit sensitive
about things or should Brooke Lynn be like,
"Oh and by the way, I couldn't have done this
without Nina West as my partner"?
- I mean, so much can happen to your brain
when you're in the middle of competition.
You can forget to thank someone, you know.
You can take things too seriously.
I think if I were in Nina's position,
I would also feel a little irritated
if I gave up the starring role,
the role I won, to help a sister out,
and then she didn't even say thank you in the end.
But also, I don't think, Brooke Lynn hasn't shown us
that she's malicious.
I think we can give Brooke Lynn
the benefit of the doubt.
To go from the bottom to the top that rapidly,
of course she's going to be a little
in her head about it.
(tongue pop)
- Now let's get into the episode.
One of my favorite mini challenges so far,
Balls to the Wall,
where the girls have to team up with some of the pit crew
to put balls in a sack the fastest.
- I love these challenges,
but when it happened to me on my season,
I mean you're in that pink hamster cage,
you're in captivity, hormones are running wild.
I always felt so shy and nervous,
and I'm an ethical slut,
I'll get down if the opportunity arises;
but not on national television.
- [Manila] Miss Vanjie is stepping it up
because she made it the quickest.
- [Jinkx] Did you feel like she got a little jealous
when Brooke was getting all cozy?
- [Manila] Yeah, right?
- They kept cutting to Vanjie and she was like.
- [Milan] "Mm mm, you better not".
- What!
(laughs)
- [Milan] So winning this mini challenge you think
is going to be good for Vanjie's confidence level?
- I think the hardest thing for anyone
in Vanjie's position to be doing just so well,
and falling every once in a while,
every week matters more and more for her to succeed.
So, I think confidence is good
because second guessing herself
is what's keeping her from hitting the bullseye.
- Moving on to the maxi challenge,
this week we're going to have a magic show.
Oooooh!
- Witches and goblins and ghouls.
- Magic.
(laughs)
- [Milan] The girls need to name their magic act,
perform illusions, write and create
a whole magic act to perform.
It seems like a lot of fun,
but also a lot of work. What are your thoughts?
- I think the hardest thing in any group challenge
is to come to a consensus where everyone feels good
about what they're gonna do,
because inevitably there's one big personality
that's dictating to the rest of the group what to do.
And then there's one outlier that doesn't want
to do anything the rest of the group wants to do,
so you gotta just hope that they get along this week.
- Especially for Vanjie, who gets to choose the teams.
So she chooses for her team Silky, A'Keria, and Yvie,
which then leaves Nina, Shuga,
and Brooke Lynn Hytes on a team.
What do you think of these team pairings?
- Yeah, I just think there's gonna be a lot
of friction there.
Whereas I feel with other team,
I think Shuga's really good at working with people,
I think Brooke Lynn's really good at
focusing on herself,
while, you know,
kind of following someone else's lead.
She could follow someone else's lead,
but she knows herself so well that she can stay strong,
even if someone else is taking charge.
And then I think this is just a
challenge right up Nina's alley.
- Were you as surprised as Mama Ru when we found out
that Vanjie didn't pick Brooke Lynn Hytes?
- [Jinkx] I feel like if I had a romance going on,
I'd be really self conscious about
everyone thinking that every move that I make
is about that other person.
So I probably wouldn't have picked
my boo either because.
- Ivy Winters.
(laughing)
- I wouldn't of wanted everyone to assume I
was just doing it because we were, you know
(kissing noises)
hubba hubba!
- Yeah, I suppose because the showmances
are always the ones you're like,
we gotta break them up.
- Yeah! You make yourself a target.
- [Manila] Okay, so let's look
into these magic performances.
First up we had Brooke Lynn, Shuga
and Nina, the mighty tux.
How'd you think they did?
- First of all, right away, I love that Nina was like
so Michelle calls me a linebacker,
so they think I need to get my proportions right.
She wore her football pads to Vegas!
And it really freakin' worked
because there's something just really
captivating about Nina even if
the hair's pulled back to here
and she's got her football pads on.
And she's like book ended by these two
gorgeous slutty, little like, magician's assistants.
It's that she is having so much fun
and she's so joyful about it that
she could be wearing a Grimace costume.
She could be dressed like a basketball
and I would still just love every moment of it.
- So you think they did good?
- I did! I thought they did really well.
I was pleasantly surprised with Brooke Lynn's
because I think beauty queens have a hard time letting go
of controlling their image and
the way people view them.
So I'm always happy to see a beauty queen
look stunning but then also like,
commit to the camp factor.
I thought Shuga was great,
I thought they were just cohesive.
They looked like they had every moment planned out.
They looked like they rehearsed a lot.
And rehearsal is very important in these things.
You only have so much time on stage
and you're competing against another team.
So if you don't make sure you're (beep) is solid,
then you're kinda just like,
you're leaving it to the hands of the gods.
- I think Shuga did a great job and I liked her outfit.
- [Jinkx] The whole team was great.
I wish the whole team just won this week.
I wish all three of them could share the prize.
- Next up we have Vanjie, A'Keria, Yvie and Silky,
the black magic.
What did you think of their performance?
(slow laugh)
- You know what, I gotta say right now,
improv could be easy when you're alone
and I think every queen thinks
because she can stand alone on stage
with a microphone in her hand and improv with the audience,
that means she's an improv superstar.
All of 'em could have done this alone.
But when you put them in a group together,
there you have the double edge sword
of four big personalities being in one group.
- Yeah, and because they were all big personalities
none of them were actually listening to each other.
When they were planning this,
Yvie saying like, "Oh, I want this rehearsed".
Vanjie's like "Okay well, I'm team leader."
but Silky and A'Keria are like "Oh no,
we wanna do this more improvy, on the spot
because that's what we're more comfortable with".
And Vanjie's like "Okay well I see both sides,
I'm the team leader let's kinda find a middle ground".
- Well and then in that early stage,
if you can't all come to a consensus as a group
early on, then by the time you're on stage,
you're screwed because it's a group effort.
- Overall, who do you think did
the best in this challenge?
- Nina. Nina West by far.
And then a close second for me was Brooke Lynn.
A very close second.
You know, I thought they both just,
they embodied what I wanted to see
from a drag queen magic show, ya know.
- Well who are your bottoms in this challenge?
- Yvie and Vanjie.
And it's hard to say that because I love them both
and have loved them both on this whole season.
But for me it all comes down to that moment
where Yvie goes, she's got the bra and she's like
"And now she has an over the shoulder boulder holder
and she can bounce".
(laughing)
No one's saying anything.
No reaction from the audience.
The judges panel, stone cold silent,
while we all just watched Yvie stand there with the bra go.
Vanjie's downfall can be encapsulated with one move.
Whoo hoo.
- You could really see Vanjie
really desperately trying to make this work.
When she just desperately knew
in all reality, this is not really working.
The magic continues because now it's time for the runway.
Caftan realness.
- My favorite looks were Brooke Lynn Hytes
and Yvie Oddly.
Now, Brooke Lynn is a bit of a body oddy, oddy queen.
And I am not a body oddy, oddy queen
but I know when I like something
when I look at it and I'm like,
God I wish I'd thought of that first, you know.
When I look at an outfit and wish I had
had it designed for me so that that queen couldn't wear it.
(laughing)
And then Yvie's, I would never wear yellow myself
because I'm so pale it--
- Who would ever wear yellow?
- Turn me yellow.
(laughing)
But I really liked Yvie's look too
because it looked like fashion forward,
current, bohemian,
it just looked like her personality.
I also thought the most on the nose,
for the money, bullseye, caftan look was Nina West.
'Cause if you Google caftan from now on
you're gonna see Nina West in that big, pink--
- [Milan] She was giving you Lady Bunny with
the giant blonde hair and the pink sparkly caftan.
- [Jinkx] I mean like, what a great runway for Nina.
- My favorite was Shuga's.
Until she took it off.
Shuga, that robe was beautiful.
The fur line, the detail.
But then she took it off and ruined
the whole thing for me.
- Well it was one of those moments like
in a lip sync and when you see
the girl's hand go for her wig line
and you know she's gonna throw off the wig.
It was like when I saw her reach for this,
I was like
(deep inhale)
What's gonna happen?
And the was like, "And I don't wanna win!"
(hysterical laughing)
- Wow! Wow! Wow!
I was so excited when she came out
and I was like, I love this look.
And then I was like, oh I don't like that look.
It just kept getting progressively worse.
- I was very disappointed with A'Keria's
butterfly look because it looked more like
a skydiving suit than a caftan.
- Yeah, A'Keria, I needed to like,
I feel like she had that in her closet
and she was like "This will work for this
because I've seen caftans with pants".
But no, caftans are supposed to be loose
and billowy and I think that she
totally missed the mark on that.
- The rule is, do you have to tuck?
If the answer is no, then you're in caftan town.
- I'm not tucked right now, and I'm wearing a caftan!
Well, it's time for the judges.
And they choose Nina as the winner!
Do you agree with them?
- Absolutely well deserved.
You know I thought Nina had it in the bag
with snatch game.
I always defer to the judges, they're there for a reason.
But I feel like this week,
it was Nina's redemption because
she could've taken it snatch game week but
it's kind of more important that she took it now
because as the numbers dwindle everyone's
lookin' for someone to chop and
I'm glad it wasn't Nina this week
because she did really well.
- I'm very proud of Nina and I think
she did a phenomenal job,
we got an amazing magic show from her.
- [Jinkx] Mhmmm.
- [Milan] And then she really hit the nail
on the head with her caftan look.
- [Jinkx] Yeah.
- Well that leaves Miss Vanjie
and Shuga in the bottom, do you agree with the judges?
- I think it should've been Vanjie and Yvie,
quite honestly.
Mainly because I think the team that did better
should of been safe.
- I completely disagree with the judges.
I thought that Shuga was doing super well
this entire challenge.
I still think that because she was in that group,
the group did the best.
- Yeah! I think it should have come down to the
two weakest in the other group.
- At this point there isn't like,
a clear winner and there's definitely not
a person you're like, okay, she's got to go.
Any little thing can tip the scale and you
can be in the bottom.
- It's the nerve wrecking part of doing well.
The better and better you do, the farther you get,
the harder the competition is gonna be for you.
- So now it's time for the bottom two
to lip sync for their lives to save
themselves from elimination.
What did you think of this lip sync?
- I thought it was grade A drag lip sync, you know.
It was a perfect song for the two of them.
And from the moment the music started
both of them, like snapped into it.
They were just doin' drag.
Like, there's the only way to put it.
They were just doin' a good ol' Sunday brunch
drag number for tips!
- Yes! Vanjie did a fantastic job.
Because the song,
it swells with feeling and
the musicality, I think she started a good level
and then she was able to crescendo her performance.
I think that Vanjie did a great job.
- I have watched this season and
I've watched the lip syncs and I think to myself,
if I had to lip sync against these girls, I'd be out.
- [Milan] Well Miss Vanjie does it again!
And saves herself from elimination.
Which sadly means Shuga has to sashay away.
Do you agree with that?
- I mean, I think given the circumstances,
you wanna see who delivers in that moment
and let them stay.
That's the point of a lip sync for your life.
- Well that's another episode of The Pit Stop.
I wanna thank Jinkx Monsoon!
- Thank you. Namaste.
(laughing)
- Bye you guys!
- Oh, should we get outta here?
- Yeah let's get out of here. Poof!
(maniacal laughing)
(upbeat music)