‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ season 15 episode 4 recap: ‘Supersized Snatch Game’

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 15 continued on January 20 with the next step in the competition toward discovering “America’s next drag superstar.” Last week, Amethyst fell into the bottom two and won the Lip Sync for Your Life for the second straight time. She sent Princess Poppy packing while the challenge winner Sasha Colby was getting comfortable in the competition. This week, the girls take their seat on the panel of a very special and very “Supersized Snatch Game.”

Seated at the judges’ dais for episode 4 was Emmy winning host RuPaul Charles, longtime bestie Michelle Visage and recurring judge Carson Kressley. They were joined by actress Amandla Stenberg as this week’s guest judge.

The 14 queens still in the competition are: Amethyst, Anetra, Aura Mayari, Jax, Loosey LaDuca, Luxx Noir London, Malaysia Babydoll Foxx, Marcia Marcia Marcia, Mistress Isabelle Brooks, Robin Fierce, Salina EsTitties, Sasha Colby, Spice, and Sugar. Check out our full recap of episode 4 titled “Supersized Snatch Game” below:

Having fallen in to the bottom two for the second straight week, Amethyst returned to the Werk Room second-guessing her abilities as a self-described comedy queen. Loosey LaDuca was also in the bottom in the premiere episode, but rebounded into the top three on the second challenge. That didn’t stop Luxx Noir London from insisting that Loosey was third place and Luxx herself was second (to Sasha’s win) despite the judges’ not making that designation. Sugar and Spice checked in with the girls about how it felt to work apart from one another in the infomercial challenge. They’re used to performing as co-creators on their TikTok and social media content where they do most of their drag and so Sugar pointed out that having to learn other people’s planning and communication styles was her takeaway.

The next morning, Spice threw some casual shade at Amethyst, warning her that in baseball a third strike means “you’re out.” She wasn’t the only one throwing things around the Werk Room though — it wasn’t long until Ru entered and threw a major curveball of her own. For this week’s maxi challenge the queens would be participating in the largest “Snatch Game” ever. She went on to explain that there will be two games played with two different casts of characters.

The first group to play the game consisted of Marcia Marcia Marcia as Tim Gunn, Luxx as Amanda Lepore, Malaysia Babydoll Foxx as Saucy Santana, Mistress Isabelle Brooks as Rosie O’Donnell, Anetra as Gorgena Ramsey, Robin Fierce as Karen Huger, and Salina EsTitties as The Virgin Mary. The queens that got the biggest laughs from Ru were Marcia playing a slightly saucy Tim and Mistress somehow evolving from Rosie to Abby Lee Miller. Salina went a little too chaotic with her interpretation of a shocked-to-be-pregnant Mary and both Luxx and Robin had a dry approach to their typically over-the-top characters.

The second panel was made up of Loosey as Joan Rivers, Sasha as Jan Crouch, Jax as the Mona Lisa, Sugar as Trisha Paytas, Amethyst as Tan Mom, Spice as Miley Cyrus, and Aura Mayari as Bretman Rock. Loosey’s Joan was an immediate hoot and had Ru barreling over with laughter throughout the segment. She was able to interject in other people’s moments smartly, but Sugar’s attempts to do the same as Trisha flopped hard. Aura stuck out with some especially bad jokes as Bretman, but was outshined by Spice’s inarguably confusing Looney Tunes-sounding version of Miley.

Back in the Werk Room to get ready for the runway, Amethyst was feeling much better about her comedy after a solid Snatch performance. Loosey was also in high spirits, but got a little emotional when opening up to the other girls about what it’s like to still live in the hometown where she grew up bullied by classmates and teachers. She explained that drag has been a reclamation of her voice and a way to turn “what used to be a defense mechanism into a career” through comedy.

After the queens walked the catwalk in the “Beautiful Nightmare” category, Ru held Marcia, Loosey and Mistress back as the top three and Sugar, Spice and Aura as the bottom three. The judges all loved Marcia’s portrayal of Tim in the challenge and though Michelle was happy to see that she’d put a little more makeup on her face, Ru was underwhelmed by her nightmarish dentist costume. Mistress compared Marcia to how well Mistress paints face and then gave her extra points for being so completely committed to her Snatch character(s) that she made it impossible for everyone else to not buy into it. Amandla called Loosey’s performance the best she’s ever seen on the show and Carson loved how much style and camp she put into her drag version of Jason Voorhies for the runway.

Michelle and Amandla asked Sugar to put more of what makes Trisha funny into her interpretation of her and said she just didn’t go far enough. They had just as much advice for Spice, telling her that they wish she would have done different parts of Miley’s personality and career that would have played better. Michelle told Aura that she didn’t take Bretman far enough and Amandla clarified that she could have just let loose a little more and it might have worked.

Following deliberation with the other judges, Ru declared Loosey this week’s challenge winner. From the bottom three, Ru saved Aura based on a strong runway look, leaving the twins pitted against one another in the LSFYL to Pat Benatar‘s “You Better Run.” Ahead of their performance, the twins promised that it wouldn’t be like any other lip sync and it would instead be a “twinsync.” Sure enough, it was apparent that they had choreographed a performance to the song that involved them interacting with one another on stage. The decision threw the safe queens for a loop and caused a couple of confused looks from Michelle and Carson on the dais. Inexplicably, or perhaps because Sugar tripped a few times, Spice was singled out as the winner of the head-to-head which meant that Sugar would “sashay away.”

NEXT WEEK: Once again divided into three groups, the queens put their designer hats on for some interior decorating.

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