‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ season 16 episode 8 recap: ‘Snatch Game’

John Benutty
·8 min read
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“RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 16 continued on February 23 with the eighth episode in RuPaul’s quest to find “America’s next drag superstar.” Previously in episode seven, Plasma enjoyed her shining moment as the star and challenge winner in “The Sound of Rusic” while Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige and Megami didn’t strike a chord with the judges in their supporting roles. Despite a flipless Lip Sync for Your Life, Mhi’ya came out on top once again and sent Megami back to New York.

This week, the remaining 9 queens head to the celebrity dais with the classic impersonation challenge, “Snatch Game.” Seated at the judges’ dais for episode 8 was Emmy winning host RuPaul Charles, longtime bestie Michelle Visage, recurring judge Carson Kressley, and actress Kyra Sedgwick as the extra special guest.

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The queens still vying for the crown are: Dawn, 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 8 below:

Returning to the Werk Room on the heels of her second LSFYL win, Mhi’ya was proud that she earned her flowers without having to turn her iconic flip tricks in the head-to-head. She told the girls that Megami was “running her mouth” about how strong she’d be at their song and that there would be no moment for Mhi’ya to do her flips so she had to show her and everyone that she could still win. But falling into the bottom again meant for Mhi’ya that she needs to step her game up by showing the judges that she’s not timid and she’s ready to show more personality.

The next morning, Ru arrived to excite the girls with their opportunity to check a book out of the library for the “Reading Is Fundamental” mini challenge. In the annual reading challenge, Q called Mhi’ya Danny DeVito, Xunami called Sapphira “the Morgan Freeman of drag” and questioned whether Plasma was missing on January 6th, Dawn took jabs at Xunami not “making waves in the competition” and Nymphia overdoing the banana jokes, Plasma made a pun on Jane’s name and her departing the competition, and Nymphia went in hard on the things that make Jane “nasty.” Ru’s favorite and the winner of the mini was Xunami!

For this week’s maxi challenge, Ru invited the queens to put on their best celebrity drag in order to make her laugh in the “Snatch Game.” Then later, after an initial prep session, Ru returned to the Werk Room with legendary Cher impersonator Chad Michaels to bestow her advice upon the girls. The concepts Chad was really supportive of were Morphine as Anna Delvey and Xunami as the made up character Gold Tooth Fairy. She was less certain that Jane as Jelena Karleuša and Nymphia as Jane Goodall were strong ideas for making Ru laugh. Ru questioned whether Mhi’ya would be successful as someone as loud as Tiffany Pollard and suggested that she “be one of your loud friends” instead. Dawn pointed out that Sapphira was “playing the kiss ass game” by choosing James Brown with the knowledge that Ru is a huge fan of his. Before Ru left, he clarified for Jane that she only has three more opportunities to use her Immunity Potion before it expires.

Serving as the contestants in the “Snatch Game” were the Pit Crew members stunt man J.P. and model Laith. In their introductions, Q as Amelia Earhart, Sapphira, Jane, and Mhi’ya in her new role of Trina‘s Cousin Shaquita earned the biggest laughs, but Xunami stumbled through her first back and forth with Ru. Over the course of the show, Jane was able to interact with the other celebrities really well, taking quick jabs at both Nymphia and Morphine’s characters, while Sapphira and Mhi’ya continued to steamroll with their boisterous characters. Plasma as Patti LuPone and Dawn as Meghan McCain floated through the center with no highs and no lows, but Xunami, Nymphia and Morphine never found their groove (or their punchlines).

The next day as they prepared for the runway presentation, Sapphira appreciated that Xunami was “optimistic” about her performance, but cautioned her that she probably wasn’t in the top or the middle of the pack. Elsewhere, Morphine was begrudgingly “pleading” to Jane to use her Immunity Potion to save her, but Jane (to get her off her case) told her she has nothing to worry about. The general consensus in the room was that Nymphia was also circling the bottom and that the decision of the bottom two would probably “all come down to the runways.”

Prior to the runway, Jane opened up about how close she was with her grandma growing up and how her shadiness is heavily influenced by their relationship and her grandma’s attitude in life. Sapphira had a different experience, feeling unsupported by her MMA trainer dad when she came out until he turned a corner later on and became a fan of her drag. Both Jane’s grandma and Sapphira’s dad passed away before they earned their spots on the show and without seeing them in the glory of “what their drag can be.”

On the Main Stage, the girls walked in the “Dancing Queen” category. Standouts on the catwalk were  Xunami in a fringe salsa dress, Nymphia in an elaborate traditional Japanese Butoh costume, Plasma tap-dancing her way down the stage, and Morphine in a red flamenco gown. Before announcing the tops and bottoms, Ru offered Jane the chance to use her Immunity Potion, but she decided to keep it for another week. This week’s safe queens were Q, Dawn and Plasma so the other six remained on stage for judges’ critiques.

Michelle thought that Xunami had a “really good idea” with Gold Tooth Fairy, but “it went nowhere.” Kyra and Ru said that Xunami was beautiful on the runway, but she failed to bring that “know what you’re doing” attitude to the challenge. Carson said that Nymphia’s Jane was like watching PBS, but all the judges agreed that her runway was “so well thought out.” Ru pointed out that she was “too cerebral” in the challenge. As Ru did in the challenge, Michelle found an opportunity to clock Sapphira’s disguised dancing shoes on the runway, but overall the gave them “entertaintment” across the board this week. Kyra was a fan of Morphine’s dancing on the runway, but Carson was “not buying” her as Anna and Michelle was disappointed that she was “boring” with her impersonation. On the flip side, Michelle said that Mhi’ya “killed it” because she “stayed committed.” Ru was “so proud” of Mhi’ya because she “followed the direction” the judges have been giving her. Last, Jane earned high praise for her smart choice of character and Michelle was shocked to learn that it was a real person instead of someone made up.

After further deliberation, Ru announced that this week’s winner was a surprised Jane. It seemed based on the reactions of Jane and the others that everyone was expecting Sapphira to win. The safe queens were Sapphira, Mhi’ya and Nymphia, leaving close friends Xunami and Morphine in the bottom. In their face off to “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” by Whitney Houston, they made “the best of a really bad situation” by joining each other for a dance together in the middle of the song and bringing sisterly joy to the stage. In their moments apart, Morphine made the most of the stage and the lyrics, finding an opportunity to point to Xunami as the “man” in the song and using her flamenco gown to full effect. Xunami performed mostly in Morphine’s shadow for most of the song and so it made sense when Ru decided that Morphine earned the “shantay” and Xunami had to “sashay away.”

NEXT TIME: The sewing machines are back, back, back again for a “neo goth” design challenge.

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