‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ season 16 episode 2 recap: ‘Queen Choice Awards’
“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.” On January 12’s second episode, the remaining seven hopefuls left their first impressions in a DMV-inspired photo shoot and then showed off their talents for their peers to rate and rank from best to worst.
Seated at the judges’ dais for episode 2 titled “Queen Choice Awards” was Emmy winning host RuPaul Charles, longtime bestie Michelle Visage, recurring judge Ross Mathews, and singer/actress Becky G as the extra special guest.
The seven queens introduced this week are: Geneva Karr, Hershii LiqCour-Jeté, Megami, Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige, Nymphia Wind, Plane Jane, and Plasma.
Check out our full recap of episode 2 below:
The queens entering the Werk Room this week were unaware that they were the second group in a split premiere. Believing herself to be the first to walk in, Hershii LiqCour-Jeté described herself as “glam, camp, auntie drag” and is the next contestant from the Jeté family as she is the drag sister of Kornbread Jeté. She was followed by: Plasma from New York, a “1950s Hollywood glamour” queen that idolizes classic divas; Geneva Karr from Texas, the first Mexican-born queen to appear on the American series; and Plane Jane from Boston, who says she is known for her big boobs and small waist. It was at this point that the girls peeked around the room and noticed that there was already stations set up with wigs and costumes, cluing them to the fact that another group of queens may have already been around.
Next to join the girls was Megami from Brooklyn who got her start in drag by attending and dressing up for Comic Con. Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige from Miami came through next promising to get “fliptastic” as a dancing sensation that has gone viral online with multiple photos from her drag brunch gigs. Last two come in was Nymphia Wind, a queen from Taiwan that now lives in New York and prefers to dress in yellow as a signature color.
For their first mini challenge, Ru had the queens stop by the SheMV where Love Connie and Ts Madison were behind the desk waiting to take their driver’s license photos. For the shoot, all the queens stood on the sidelines in queue as each performed for the camera. Ru was also in the room to heckle the girls interview style and to help get them to deliver the perfect first impression. Once complete, Ru met them back in the Werk Room to announce that the best photograph was produced by Nymphia, earning her a cash prize of $2500.
As in the first week, the queens were set to perform in a talent show and would not be judged by the judges, but instead by each other in the “Rate-A-Queen” system and the winner would earn immunity to save herself from a future elimination. With the news of the rating twist, the queens immediately started pondering how they’d “play the game.” Jane said that she wants “to be fair in [her] assessment” and Megami agreed that it should be based on personal opinions of their performances in the challenge. Away from everyone else, Nymphia softed to Megami that they should “start a New York alliance” because she’s “here to play the game.” Plasma, Hershii and Geneva all questioned whether or not Jane was going to play fair considering she was so catty for the entire morning.
While the girls got ready for the “Queen Choice Awards” talent show, the consensus in the room seemed to be that Jane, Mhi’ya and Nymphia were the queens to watch, but that rubbed Plasma the wrong way because she felt like no one had their eye on her, “the underdog.” Nymphia also opened up the room about what the drag scene is like in Taiwan and she proudly explained that it’s a very open country and was the first Asian country to legalize gay marriage. Hershii surprised the girls when she mentioned that she and her partner are parents to two kids by way of her partner’s sister who needed help taking care of them. She told them that the kids make her the happiest person in the world and she loves being their dad.
Ahead of their Main Stage debut, Becky G surprised the queens with a stop by the Werk Room to introduce herself and hype them up for the night. She said that she’s looking “for representation” so that they can show their unique perspective for the world.
Hosting the “Queen Choice Awards” was Derrick Barry, our resident Britney Spears impersonator. She had Geneva come to the stage first for a comical dance number that highlighted her Mexican heritage. Hershii went next with a jungle safari themed performance and song about keeping your wig glued tight so of course she whipped her head all over the stage. Plasma went in a different direction by giving a Broadway-style one woman show that included vocal impressions of celebrities (but not Ru herself). Nymphia returned to her cultural roots with a traditional Taiwanese dance. Megami wanted to bring some sincerity to the stage with a piece about supporting drag queens both on and off the screen. Mhi’ya delivered on her promise of a show stopping dance number that included tumble passes, backflips, a headstand, and a tumble into splits. Jane was the last to take the stage with a “burger finger” number that started with her in a hamburger costume and ended with an oversized breast plate reminiscent of Jimbo.
After the showcase the queens walked the catwalk in a “Made You Look” category. Nymphia started as an unripe banana that revealed down to a ripe banana (dress) and a browning banana bikini. Hershii turned the corner in a big puffer coat and then tore it off to reveal an “it’s chocolate!” form-fitted gown. Plasma wore a pin cushion tomato costume that slowly revealed down to a pinup girl suit. Mhi’ya started in a fur coat and then tore it off to walk the runway in a swimsuit. Geneva wanted to underscore her heritage again in a traditional Mexican style dress. Megami stayed true to her costuming roots with a goddess-inspired look with wings. Jane went from Russia in a white queen’s gown to Boston in a sports fan booty shorts look.
Though the judges weren’t scoring them this week, they did provide assessments of their performances. Ross called Nymphia camp perfection and Michelle said that her decision to show her culture let them in to who she is. Michelle took issue with the length of Hershii’s dress, but her and Ross both thought the whiplash song was good because it gave her something to be the namesake of. Becky liked that Plasma put so many different things into her talent show, but Michelle disagreed and thought she should have been a master of just one talent. The judges thought Mhi’ya could have let her reveal last longer on the runway, but they were impressed that she taught herself all of the acrobatic tricks that she’s made herself famous for. Ross told Geneva that he “fell in love” with her instantly because she was funny and beautiful. Michelle applauded Megami for the message of her performance, but had a qualm with how long it took to get to the point and then was disappointed that there was no reveal in her runway look. It was Jane that the judges found to “excel at stupidity” both in her talent and on the runway.
One by one the queens stood in front of the Rate-A-Queen monitor and decided on their rankings for the night. We saw Geneva rank Jane number one and Mhi’ya rank Geneva number one. Jane ranked Plasma number one, but told the camera that she hated her makeup and this was her way to “ensure” that she found herself in the top spot. She put Mhi’ya second. In second position, Hershii had Nymphia and Plasma had Jane. In third position, Nymphia had Megami. In fifth position, Geneva had Hershii and Nymphia had Mhi’ya. In last, Mhi’ya had Megami and Megami had Mhi’ya. Jane put Nymphia in last.
Based on their rankings, the top two queens of the week were Jane and Geneva. Thankfully for the others, Ru did not announce bottoms and told them that no one would be going home. To determine the ultimate winner, Jane and Geneva went head-to-head to Becky G’s song “Shower.” Still wearing her oversized breast plate, Jane’s boobs pulled focus in the showdown and eventually had Michelle and Ru cackling over her realization that one had popped out very early on. Geneva gave a much more heartfelt performance to the song by an artist she truly adores. By the end, Ru and the judges could not contain their laughter for Jane’s stupidity and so she was chosen as the winner of the lip sync, earned immunity for a future elimination and claimed the $5,000 cash tip.
NEXT TIME: All 14 queens come together for the first time.
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