‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ season 16 episode 7 recap: ‘The Sound of Rusic’

John Benutty
·7 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 16 continued on February 16 with the seventh episode in RuPaul’s quest to find “America’s next drag superstar.” Previously in episode six, Geneva Karr‘s branded doll edition was among the judges’ least favorite and she found herself in the bottom for the third time. This time she faced off against Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige who came fully loaded with an arsenal of lip synching tricks and sent Geneva packing. Meanwhile, Q broke the curse of safety and finally earned her first maxi challenge win.

This week, the remaining 10 queens take the stage with song and dance in the dynamic Rusical challenge. Seated at the judges’ dais for episode 7 titled “The Sound of Rusic” was Emmy winning host RuPaul Charles, longtime bestie Michelle Visage, recurring judge Ross Mathews, and musical theater director and choreographer Adam Shankman as the extra special guest.

More from GoldDerby

The queens still vying for the crown are: Dawn, Megami, Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige, Morphine Love Dion, Nymphia Wind, Plane Jane, Plasma, Q, Sapphira Cristál, and Xunami Muse.

Check out our full recap of episode 7 below:

Back in the Werk Room after Geneva’s elimination, Plasma classified the feeling as “terror” that any of them might have to lip sync against “the flipping diva” Mhi’ya in the future, but Morphine was not as convinced, pointing out “that’s not what ‘Drag Race’ is about. You gotta slay everything.” Joining Mhi’ya in her celebration was challenge winner Q, but Dawn was in her feelings about losing with “fashion” to a “fairy costume.” Dawn is one of the queens in the room that still does not have a win of her own. The last queen having a downer moment was Sapphira for giving in to her inner saboteur and wasting her Immunity Potion when she didn’t need it.

When Ru arrived the next morning to announce the Rusical maxi challenge “The Sound of Rusic,” she gave the queens permission to cast the roles themselves. After reading through the script, Dawn was unopposed for the “silly” role of Strudel, Mhi’ya was happy to take the “medium sized part” of Sister Sister, and Nymphia volunteered for Diesel without contention. Both Xunami and Jane were game to take on the “mean girl” roles of The Baronettes, but when it came to the villainous Baroness there was a battle for it between Megami and Q. Megami made the case that she hasn’t had a chance to stand out yet and Q offered her “physicality” as fitting for the role. In an agreed upon “rock, paper, scissors” game, Q won the role. Megami’s second choice was Mother Superior, but others thought Sapphira might be better suited for it and so Megami decided to default to something else instead of fighting for another role. At that point, Sapphira spoke up that the lead role of Mariah was her first choice, but that was the case for both Plasma and Morphine as well. When Plasma made the case that she has Mariah on her list “and nothing else” and it’s what she “came here to do,” Morphine decided she’d go with Sister Fister and Sapphira backed down to take Mother Superior after all. Plasma got the lead role she wanted.

With her role of choice in the bag, Plasma went on a tour around the Werk Room checking in with everyone on their familiarity of the source material. She explained that she grew up with “The Sound of Music” and it’s a very important part of her childhood, but Dawn wasn’t interested in hearing it and Morphine only got more frustrated that she wasn’t able to clinch the lead role for herself. Meanwhile, the villains were doing their own tour of the space to try out their mean girl attitudes and for Q and Xunami to practice taking a page out of Jane’s book.

Later that day the queens met Adam on the Main Stage for a rehearsal of the choreography he planned for the Rusical. A few eight counts into their practicing, in walked Emmy winner Melissa McCarthy as “Adam’s assistant” to sit in on the rest of their session and to bestow upon them her gratitude for what they do and how the drag community inspired her to have the confidence to get into show business. The girls most thrown off during rehearsal were Sapphira who struggled with the fast-paced learning, Mhi’ya who didn’t anticipate how difficult the musical theater steps would be, Q who once again moved too robotically for her to make sense in the role, and Megami who was slow to pick up her choreo as well.

The next day as the girls assembled their looks in the mirrors, Q revealed that she practiced her role all night and was feeling confident that she’d redeem her subpar performance in the girl group challenge. Jane told Q and Xunami that she was a ballroom dancer for nine years, but regrettably quit to avoid getting negative attention. Megami was particularly interested in impressing Adam because his version of “Hairspray” is one of her favorites and so, like Q, she rehearsed through the night in order to get all of her steps down.

Notable moments from the world premiere of “The Sound of Rusic” included a boisterous if otherwise dry showing from Plasma, a moment in a group dance when Mhi’ya’s habit flipped over her head and covered her face, a humorous solo from Sapphira, poor lip synching from Nymphia, animated facial expressions from Jane, clunky movement from Q, and muted dancing from Megami.

After the show, the queens walked the runway in the “I Can Buy Myself Flowers” category and then received their overall placements for the week. This week’s safe queens were Dawn, Nymphia, Jane and Xunami. First on top was Plasma who Michelle thought had the “nuances that make the theater the theater” and Adam noted she “never wavered” in her starring role. Michelle told Sapphira that she looked beautiful on the runway and “soared as the supporting actress” of the show. Ross thought she “stole the show” with “all the extras” she brought to the performance. Morphine was on the bottom despite a solid runway “flower power” hippie look and bringing great energy with the “moves and lyrics,” but Adam thought she could have “bumped it up a little bit extra.” The judges thought Mhi’ya looked better than ever on the runway, but Adam pointed out that she seemed in her dead during the Rusical and performed inconsistently. Ross said “the issue is I can see the work.” Megami had a big story for her wedding runway look, but the judges didn’t quite pick it up and then thought that she gave the “same point of view all the time” in her face throughout the competition. Ross told Q that she was “perfection” in the Rusical and “stole the show” and Michelle thought that she managed the choreo well.

Following further deliberation among the judges, Ru made the decision that this week’s winner was Plasma and that Sapphira and Q were both safe. When it came to the bottom three, the final safe queen was Morphine, leaving Megami and Mhi’ya as the bottom two. In the Lip Sync for Your Life to “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus Megami had a plan to “bring emotion” knowing that Mhi’ya wouldn’t be able to incorporate too many physical tricks into the ballad. But Mhi’ya, unafraid to take the stage without the flips she’s known for, managed to kick off her heels (literally) and find the groove in the music to deliver a much more lively show than Megami’s reserved rendition. Based on their performance, Mhi’ya stepped into her role as lip sync assassin and Ru broke it to Megami that she was the queen to “sashay away.”

NEXT TIME: It’s time for “The Snatch Game”!

SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?

Best of GoldDerby

Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.