‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ season 16 episode 1 recap: ‘Rate-A-Queen’

John Benutty
·10 min read
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“RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 16 kick started 2024 on January 5 with Part 1 of its two-part premiere. In this first episode, only one half of the new cast began the competition to begin “America’s next drag superstar” in two challenges: a photo shoot on RuPaul’s front porch and a talent extravaganza to show off their talent skills. But don’t get too comfortable because Ru threw in a “twystery” or two for the girlies as well.

Seated at the judges’ dais for episode 1 titled “Rate-A-Queen” was Emmy winning host RuPaul Charles, longtime bestie Michelle Visage, recurring judge Carson Kressley, and Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron as the extra special guest.

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The seven queens introduced this week are: Amanda Tori Meating, Dawn, Mirage, Morphine Love Dion, Q, Sapphira Cristál, and Xunami Muse.

Check out our full recap of episode 1 below:

In its grand tradition, the premiere began with the parade of entrances from this season’s new crop of queens – at least the seven that appeared in this episode. Queuing up first was Q, a queen from Kansas City that “guarantees” that she will “always be the grandest person in the room” because of her self-created fashions. She was followed by: Xunami Muse, “graceful” daughter of Kandy Muse originally from Panama; Amanda Tori Meating from Los Angeles who was promptly roasted by Q and Xunami for her “secretary” entrance look; Morphine Love Dion, the “absolute perra” from Miami who takes great pride in her “mug” and “voluptuous juicy ass;” Sapphira Cristál from Philadelphia who believes that “more is more” and is a trained opera singer; Mirage from Las Vegas describing her drag aesthetic as “a stripper who shops at Claire’s;” and the “ethereal elf goddess of Brooklyn,” Dawn, who like Q is a confident seamstress and makes all her own clothes.

The seven queens were surprised to hear the RuMail siren that indicated they were involved in another split premiere. Ru joined them to warn that the season will include “many twists and turns” all to culminate in one of them winning the $200,000 cash prize. Then, for their first challenge, Ru brought them to her porch for a doorbell camera photo shoot with him serving as director from behind the door. On their way off the porch, the queens were accosted by unfriendly neighbor Love Connie.

Following the mini challenge, as the queens dismantled their drag in front of one another for the first time, Amanda found herself right back on the roasting table. She told the room that she’s most afraid of the challenges in areas she’s talented in, but Morphine was curious what areas she thinks those could possibly be. Luckily for Amanda, she was saved by the Ru-bell when Ru re-entered to declare Sapphira as the winner of the photo shoot and to present the details of their first maxi challenge.

In their first test, the queens would showcase their performance skills in the “MTV Spring Break Talent Show” with a twist, of course. In addition to a cash tip of $5,000, Ru promised that the selected winner would also receive immunity, a word we haven’t heard on the show since season 5. Ru made clear that the prize of immunity could be used to “save yourself from a future elimination.” But immunity wasn’t the only twist in store because the winner would not be selected by the judges, but by the queens themselves in the new “Rate-A-Queen” peer evaluation system.

When the girls gathered again on Elimination Day the next morning, the talk of the Werk Room was how “Rate-A-Queen” would play out and what strategies would be employed by individuals and the group as a whole. Sapphira suggested that “good is good” and that she’d be voting based on talent while Amanda wondered if some girls would use friendship as strategy instead. One might even wonder if Sapphira and Morphine would build an ass alliance based on their mutual appreciation for larger backsides, natural (Sapphira) or enviously otherwise (Morphine).

Twists were one gag for the group, but they were left fully gooped when acclaimed thespian A-lister Charlize Theron walked into the Werk Room with a plate of malva puddings, a South African sweet treat, in a stunning Dior little black chainmail dress. Charlize brought more lightness to the room by admitting to how she’d be “f*cked” if she ever had to be a “triple threat” like they do and then stirred emotions by affirming their truth-speaking and authenticity as drag queens in the face of so much hate aimed at their community from the world.

On the topic of the drag community, Q opened up later about what it was like growing up in a small town and hiding their queerness for a long time, describing it as “worse” before they came out. Morphine then informed the girls that she lives with her parents, but they don’t know she does drag because she never leaves or comes home in drag. Her parents also aren’t fully aware that she left to film the show and so they’ll find out when the show airs.

On the Main Stage, Derrick Barry welcomed the queens to the stage as host of the “MTV Spring Break Talent Show.” The showcase began with Morphine putting her Hispanic-Latino culture on display with lip sync to a Rosalía song that featured levels of humor, grace and perfect timing in her dance tricks. Up next was Amanda with an original comedy song that used a kitty as innuendo for body parts and sex. Dawn face-planted and was dragged on to the stage in the third spot with an original comedic song and performance of her own that introduced her quirky drag aesthetic through in a quick-change format.

Q went in an entirely different direction with “Q’s Puppet Playhouse” where she cleverly disguised her body against a black backdrop so that the focus was on a yellow ballerina garment that had floppy arms so that her real arms could be used to move the feet along a box stage. Needless to say, Ru could not stop cackling at the silliness of the effect as the puppet bobbed up and down.

Mirage arrived to serve high-Vegas voguing moves in a post-Anetra era that she says exemplifies her “floor work” and “heel-clacking” go-tos in her stage performances. Xunami answered Mirage’s call for dancing by ditching dance altogether and giving us a full rap song with simple struts up and down the catwalk. Sapphira closed the showcase with a live opera vocal in Italian that was paired with a video display of lyrics like “Daddy, forgive me” and “I’m in heat.”

Following the talent show, the queens walked the runway for their first time in the “RuVeal Yourself” category. Morphine presented a white towel dress and turban that unraveled to a swimsuit to show her Miami style. Dawn wore a “bride of the abominable snowman” costume to put her creativity front and center. Amanda spun into view with a skin suit and cartoonishly painted face, but her wig flew immediately off (to warm laughter from the panel), causing her to give it a second go where she later tore the wig off manually to unzip to alien garb underneath. Xunami had two reveals in an all red fashion look that elevated her proud walk down the runway. Q had an enormous all black outfit that had butterfly colors under the wings. Mirage walked next in “all the glam” of her “showgirl energy” with tits out. Sapphira was last to strut in a blue overcoat that revealed down into a purple number and then another boob-shaking breast plate.

Though they weren’t judging the queens, the panel offered critiques on their presentations. Carson and Michelle were not impressed by Morphine’s reveal on the runway, but Charlize said she was “thoroughly satisfied” and “seduced.” Carson was “drawn” to Dawn because of how fun her performance number was and her “LBE: Lucile Ball energy” overall. Michelle called Amanda out on makeup being a struggle point for her, but both Charlize and Carson said she is talented in the comedy department. Michelle also took issue with how Xunami’s performance “stayed flat,” unlike her runway presentation that had levels. The judges were “transported” by Q’s hilarious talent number and utterly shocked that she made such an elaborate costume for the runway. Charlize was totally taken by Mirage’s dance performance and Ru added that she used to go to a strip club just to see a performer click her heels like Mirage did, but Michelle warned Mirage that she needs to “clean up” a bit. Michelle had a couple of nitpicking issues with Sapphira’s reveals on the runway and her too-close-together breast plate, but she was saved by an “exquisite” talent performance.

After the critiques and back stage, the queens entered the Werk Room one by one to place their rankings on the Rate-A-Queen monitor. In the process, the queens rank their competitors from top to bottom with their favorite at number one. Amanda told us that all her votes would be strategic and Mirage based hers on who was funniest. We saw Q rank Sapphira in the first spot, Amanda rank Q in the second spot, Mirage rank Q in the first spot, Sapphira rank Dawn in the second spot, Xunami rank Sapphira in the second spot, Morphine put Xunami in fourth, Q drop Amanda to fifth, and Dawn and Q place Xunami and Morphine put Amanda each in last at sixth.

Based on the Rate-A-Queen decisions, the top two queens of the week were Sapphira and Q. For this week, the top two queens would lip sync for the win and immunity while there would be no elimination among the safe queens. Sapphira and Q battled to “Break My Soul” with Q going quickly into standard dance moves while Sapphira held back by lipsing the first verse as if it were spoken word. Sapphira’s performance evolved to incorporate comedic dance movements (ending with a hilarious boob-bouncing split), but Q never changed her energy and lost our attention. By no surprise, Ru’s decision was that Sapphira was the winner, baby, earning herself $5,000 and immunity for a future elimination.

NEXT TIME: The other seven queens enter the competition in Part 2 of the premiere.

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