‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ season 8 episode 9 recap: ‘Carson Kressley, This is Your Gay Life’

“RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” season 8 continued on June 30 with the ninth episode streaming on Paramount+. For the first time ever, RuPaul Charles announced a “second way to win” in addition to earning the coveted crown and $200,000 prize given to the traditional winner. One of the eliminated queens will also be named Queen of the Fame Games and earn a $50,000 cash prize.

The queens still in the running at the start of episode 9 were: Alexis Michelle, Jessica Wild, Jimbo, and Kandy Muse.

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Check out our full recap of episode 9 below to find out what happened when the took to the podium for a legendary roast in “Carson Kressley, This is Your Gay Life”:

Having earned her placement as the top all star of the previous week, Alexis Michelle was thrilled to finally join the other queens with a win in the competition. She also won the lip sync and had to explain her decision to send LaLa Ri home. Alexis felt that the win allowed her to “stand on more common ground” with the rest of the queens, and Jessica Wild joked that it was an added bonus to see Kandy Muse get a bottom placement as well. That being said, both Jessica and Jimbo voted to eliminate LaLa as well so the result would have been the same regardless of the outcome of the lip sync. Jimbo challenged Alexis who promised LaLa that she wouldn’t send her home, but Alexis defended the decision by saying that things felt balanced between the two and then acknowledged that Kandy at least offered a strategic alliance to save Alexis in the future. That admission concerned Jimbo that Kandy might be making side deals, but she didn’t seem too worried about it.

When Ru joined the final four the next morning it was to announce the next maxi challenge. Ru presented a brief history of Carson Kressley‘s enduring impact on queer television as a way of introducing a “Roast of Carson Kressley” where they’d read Carson, the judges and each other in a loving, but cutting way. As the previous week’s winner, Alexis was tasked with deciding the performance order for the roast. Alexis gave the queens time to brainstorm before making her decision, but ultimately chose to open, have Jessica second and Kandy third with Jimbo closing the show out. Her thought process was to keep going on the high of her win last week, but said she wasn’t being strategic with any of the other placements.

For Jimbo and Jessica, this was their first time participating in a roast. Jessica told the other girls that she does not feel comfortable making mean jokes directed at other people, but Kandy gave her advice to be unapologetic and aim at making people laugh. Kandy was feeling confident because she won the roasting challenge on season 13 while Alexis was shaking in her boots because she did not do well during the season 9 roast of Michelle Visage where she placed in the bottom two. Out of the four girls, only Jimbo was considering the idea of portraying a character during the roast, eyeing bringing back her “Snatch Game” character of Joan Rivers for the challenge. Jimbo explained to the other girls that she’s not worried that judges will be disappointed she reverted to a character again because she shows Jimbo on the runway every week and she likes taking on characters in challenges because it is “an added layer that you can play with.”

To further prepare for the night, each queen got time in front of Michelle and comedian Alec Mapa to workshop some of their jokes. Alec thought that Jessica was “so sweet in naturally delivery” that there was more opportunity for her to go harder. He warned her that she can’t be too nice during a roast because mean is the whole point. Michelle’s main advice for Kandy was to focus on clarity because she and Alec were worried that she was running through the jokes too quickly that some of the punchlines were lost completely. After Alexis presented her storytelling type of jokes, Michelle called it “more like a wedding toast” and urged her to break it up for more punchlines. Jimbo did not arrive in Joan drag, but did tell Michelle and Alec that she’d be doing it. Michelle called it risky and Alec pointed out that “Joan was never ambiguous in her punchlines” so Jimbo had to focus on making hers clear as well.

Following the coaching sessions and the next morning, the queens prepared in the Werk Room before taking the stage. Jimbo was concerned that she didn’t receive as much positive feedback as she’d like to and Alexis trusted in her rewrites overnight that dropped some of the storytelling aspects of her set. They were surprised by a special visit from Katya, “All Stars” alumni and a “professional working comedian” that could provide some pointers based on first hand experience. Katya encouraged them to get “real nasty” with each other because it’s a roast, but mostly just skipped around the room attempting to instigate drama between them (in a humorous way of course) and then slithered out (literally).

On the Main Stage, Ru was joined by Michelle and Carson as the queens presented, “Carson Kressley’s Big Gay Life.” Alexis began her set with some standard jokes aimed at the other finalists and then landed a sequence of jokes about Carson’s career that made everyone laugh. Jessica followed with a high energy presentation, but without strong jokes. Instead Ru seemed to cackle at Jessica’s delivery and stage presence. Her final joke, saying that Carson should be a contestant because of his own charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent was her best joke and it nearly sent Ru over the edge of the desk with laughter. Kandy went in hard on her sisters and the judges, calling out Jimbo’s inability to win a lip sync, Jessica’s hard to understand set, and Ru finding it hard to give Alexis a compliment. Her joke about Carson being an equestrian and her loving ketamine was the highlight. Jimbo was nervous about disappointing everyone with the Joan impression, but it, too, was a hit and she managed to take major jabs at everyone in the room. Before Ru ended the show, she surprised Carson with “one last queen that wants to say hello.” Arriving from “Celebrity Drag Race 2” was Jackie Would, also known as Carson’s friend and costar of “Queer Eye” Thom Filicia.

After the roast, the queens walked the runway in the “Snow Bunny” category. Alexis kicked it off in a full aquamarine body suit with a long tail and oversized bag, Jessica had a royal blue coat and ski outfit with fur trim, Kandy kept it skimpy in a glittering silver bikini and white fur coat, and Jimbo closed in a gown covered in white feathers and rhinestones. By this time Thom had de-dragged and joined the judges to offer critiques of the final four. Carson acknowledged with Alexis that she had the risky spot going first and though it was funny she could have used a stronger point of view. Michelle and Ru agreed that Alexis was funny, but unfortunately didn’t get as many laughs as the other queens that followed her. The judges thought Jessica did a good job of leaning in to her own personality and performing with confidence. Michelle said that Kandy did a good job with enunciation as advised, but she still rushed in between jokes in a way that didn’t allow a laughing audience to hear her setups for the next joke. Both Michelle and Carson said it was a huge risk for Jimbo to play as Joan, but it was a “huge, huge payoff.” Thom agreed with them that the impersonation was so spot-on that from backstage he actually had to remind himself that it wasn’t her. Ru called it “an honor to watch” because of how Jimbo lived up to the legacy.

Ru explained to the queens that in this stage of the competition, if you aren’t the top all star then you’re in the bottom. That being said, Jimbo was the clear winner of the week and so all three of the others would be left vulnerable to elimination. The decision gave Jimbo a fourth challenge win and placed Alexis in the bottom for the third time, and Kandy and Jessica in the bottom for the second time. This week we got to see each of the bottom three cast their lipstick votes: Jessica put in Alexis’s lipstick, Alexis put in Jessica’s lipstick, and Kandy put in Alexis’s lipstick. To determine who would have the power to send a queen home, Jimbo faced off against this week’s lip sync assassin Silky Nutmeg Ganache to “Freak-A-Zoid.” The song was the perfect opportunity for Jimbo to embrace the character she donned during “UK vs. The World” talent show, an all-white clown-like ghost creature that throws bologna slices at the crowd. She used that character as a foil to Silky’s performance, mimicking everything Silky did but in a jester-like way, leaving Ru and the rest of the panel in stitches. Silky held her own and played off of Jimbo as well, but because of the character, the performance was truly all-eyes-on-Jimbo.

Following one of the best battles of the season and a fourth attempt, Ru finally gave Jimbo her “condragulations” and the cash tip of $10,000. As the winner of the lip sync, Jimbo had say in which queen would be eliminated from the competition. Jimbo called it a difficult decision and based it on judges’ critiques and track record before showing the lipstick of Alexis. Jimbo’s decision narrowed the competition down to three queens left in the funning for the crown: Jimbo, Kandy and Jessica.

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