Drag Race Season 13 Makes Its First Cut: Was the Right Queen Sent Packing?

Andy Swift
·3 min read

Well, it took four full weeks, but the first queen has finally been eliminated from RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13. (Our condolences, by the way.)

Friday’s episode brought the “winning” and “losing” teams together for the first time all season (and with a shady little twist to boot). While Elliott With 2 Ts hid just off screen, the winners asked the losers why they chose to vote Elliott out, with Kahmora Hall replying, “I just really didn’t get what her drag style was” — words she would find herself eating seconds later when Elliott emerged for yet another Drag Race face crack. Several, actually.

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“It was kind of shocking when it was unanimous for me when y’all didn’t know nothing about me,” Elliott told her crowd of Judases. “But now I have a first impression of all of y’all, so it is what it is.” Watch that go down in the clip below, allowing the awkwardness to wash over you like Shanitizer:

With those fighting words on the table, it was time to begin this week’s maxi challenge: a trio of cheesy movies for the RuPaulmark Channel, “where the holidays aren’t just gay, they’re super gay!” Mama Ru divided the queens into three teams, each tasked with bringing either God Loves Flags, Misery Love’s Company or April Fool’s Rush In to the screen. Like most acting challenges, this was extremely… illuminating. Here are a few takeaways:

* Is it too soon to declare Symone the winner of Season 13? (No, it’s not!) Her performance in this challenge — a perfect blend of Julia Sugarbaker and Laverne Cox’s Frank-N-Furter (if you know, you know) — was absolute perfection.

* It blew my mind that Kahmora couldn’t get the emphasis right on her big line (“I was rooting for us!”), yet had no problem reciting Tyra Banks’ legendary “I was rooting for you!” line from America’s Next Top Model exactly as it should have sounded. Watching Ross Mathews work with her on that line was equal parts hysterical and frustrating.

* Remember when Tamisha Iman claimed to be a big Cher fan, then couldn’t think of a single one of her songs? I believe “Gypsy” was the closest she got. Either way, her hilarious, over-the-top performance as the Cher-inspired robot proved that you can fake your way through anything if you’re good enough. And she is. (Side note: Everything we learn about Tamisha makes me love her more. Hearing that she got her drag name from her oldest daughter was a moment.)

Now for the results, starting with the good news: As predicted, Symone was named this week’s winner. Not only were the judges impressed by her work in the challenge, but they were absolutely floored (and rightfully so) by her revolutionary do-rag train on the runway. Season 11 winner Yvie Oddly put it best on Twitter:

Given their lackluster performances in the acting challenge, Kahmora and Denali made sense as this week’s bottom two, though LaLa Ri also came very close to lip syncing for her life. (Not knowing that Flag Day was a real holiday does not excuse her awful performance in God Loves Flags.)

From the moment Crystal Waters’ “100% Pure Love” came on, Denali was turning up the party with moves on moves on moves. Kahmora, on the other hand, just sort of… walked around looking pretty? Honestly, I haven’t seen a lip sync this one-sided since Charlie Hides let Trinity the Tuck dance all over her back in Season 9.

But every season needs a Pork Chop, so it was with a heavy heart that Ru directed Kahmora Hall to sashay away.

Your thoughts on Kahmora’s elimination? Vote in our poll below, then drop a comment with your review of the episode.

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