#JusticeForTrixie
We've all been there. You're watching your favorite television show, reading a book from your favorite series, listening to the latest release from your favorite artist and you see, read, hear something, that takes you aback. Your mouth drops open. The only reaction that fits is for you to exclaim "What. The. Fuck?!"
That is exactly what happened on the latest episode of one of my all-time favorite TV shows, "RuPaul's Drag Race," when Ru told season 7 stand out Trixie Mattel to sashay away. Now, let's be real, Trixie didn't do the best in the maxi main challenge. It was a challenge that she should have slayed. It was to create a spoof out of a RuPaul hit song. Trixie's team was the worst, but she didn't have much to work with. Pearl continued to sleep walk through the show. She didn't seem to be a big fan of the "Tan With You" concept that Trixie came up with, but she wasn't offering up any other ideas. Katya just tried to stay out of it and Miss Fame decided now was the time to take some initiative whether she was shouting the word "cock" whenever the camera was on her or with her singing and dancing skills.
It became obvious that shit was going to go down during the judges critiques, which seem to be getting shorter and shorter. Katya, Jaidynn Diore Fierce and Kennedy Davenport were singled out as the best in each of their respective groups and Kennedy was declared the winner. Which made sense to literally no one except maybe Ru. What did Kennedy do exactly? She didn't really bounce back from her bottom two showing the week before. With this group of queens is going from atrocious to mediocre such an amazing thing that it deserves a win? I'm not Jaidynn's biggest fan, and how she has not been clocked and read for literally wearing a variation on the same outfit every week is beyond me, but the bitch's Bianca Del Rio was fierce and she deserved the win over Kennedy.
In the end, Pearl and Trixie were in the bottom two and Pearl stayed. My jaw hit the floor. How did this happen? How did Kennedy, Mrs. Kasha Davis and Kandy Ho outlast a queen who, Ru admitted, had the funniest audition she'd ever seen? How did someone who came up with the concept, wrote most of the lyrics and basically carried her group end up in the bottom two over a queen who was wearing an ugly dress, a moldy wig, and who, when conceptualizing her drag look, simply goes for pretty and FAILS. Miserably.
And I'm sorry Michelle Visage. I know you are trying to play damage control and tell folks that there was more to that lip sync we didn't see that justified Pearl staying, but here's the thing. Blondie's "Dreaming" is 3 minutes long. We saw like a minute and a half of it and in that minute and a half Trixie was slaying it. She knew all the words. She was smiling. She was full of energy. She was dancing. She was feeling it. What was Pearl doing? Showing a little bit of energy? Making intense faces? What happened in that minute and a half that we didn't see? Did Pearl transform into a whole new person. Was she doing back flips and splits? Did pads magically appear? I'd really like to see this full lip sync.
Sigh. I really don't like to ever throw around the word "rigged" when I talk about any reality show competition, but maybe this was? Has Ru already decided who she wants and doesn't care about anyone else? Is there hope for Trixie on the show? Are they faking us out? Will Trixie show up in a few episodes, make her triumphant return and win the whole thing? My gut tells me no. Maybe next season Trixie will pull a Shangela and win the whole thing.
So, join me in the comments and lament Trixie's untimely departure or tell me why she deserved to hit the road. In the meantime, here is Trixie herself letting us all know that just like Mary J. Blige, she is going to be just fine.
