Last night was the finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 2, in which three deserving queens and one queen who somehow made it there held their breath to see who won this originally-awesome-yet-turned-into-annoying-season. Spoilers ahead, but you probably already know.
Alaska was crowned the winner, shocking really no one who paid attention the entire time yet did shock the Katya stans who were hoping for a miracle last minute. There are tons of people who think this entire season was thrown for Alaska, but even though she put herself in the drag race weeds last week, you gotta give it to her in that she really did deserve to win this from the get go.
The finale showcases each of the final four queens doing their final challenge, which is split up into different parts. One part sitting down with RuPaul and Michelle Visage for their “What’s The Tee” podcast, as well as record with performer Ab Soto (THANK GOD it wasn’t Lucian Piane) to Ru’s amazing new song “Read U Wrote U”. Finally, to culminate all of this, they did a lip sync number that quite frankly is the best damn performance this show has ever done, in any season. And they have had some pretty memorable ones in the past.
They all do well, it is hard to really clock any of them as the choreography was mindblowing (especially Detox on the chairs), and I enjoyed the rapping of each girl and their journey. It actually made for a sweet ending that could’ve been something very different given how bad the previous episode went. Then they did the deliberations.
As mentioned in a previous article, Roxxxy really has redeemed herself this season as she came from being an incredibly hated villain in Season 5 to being a likable and reserved version of herself this time around. The thing with her, is that it is all aesthetic. Yes, there is a story there, but the overall “All Star” thing doesn’t really work and she should’ve been out of there early on. This episode would’ve had a much bigger impact if Tatiana or Alyssa was in her spot, given what each of them had to go through this season to get to where they were.
So it isn’t much of a surprise that when all is said and done, Roxxxy was eliminated right before the other three lip synched for their lives. When each of them were giving their last final pleas, her’s pretty much read like “thanks for keeping me around, I can leave now”. At least she’s fully aware of it, but I can’t help but think that she knew the hatred Rolaskatox was going to get, so maybe playing her staying around so quietly was a good move as opposed to coming off brash and unlikable like she did in her season.
That being said, we are left with Detox, Katya and Alaska. Detox really is a fantastic overall performer, but there is something about her that still doesn’t read “winner”. I can’t really put my finger on it, but it just seemed very bronze medal winner behind Katya and Alaska. Detox didn’t really have much to prove here. She is great with aesthetic and acting, but it just never seemed to come together the way she wanted it to really outshine the other two. I’ll give her this- her final lip sync to a surprising choice of song in a Gladys Knight song was her best she has ever done. And I loved her finale look, so I’ll give her that. Overall though, she somewhat pales in comparison to Katya and Alaska.
Alaska really is an All Star. To audition for the show 5 times, watch your partner get on before you, get on the show to only lose by a smidgen and then come back to All Stars 2 guns blazing really shows what the word “All Star” is, so I get why she won and I’m fine with that. A lot of us have to swallow that bitter “Katya” pill and realize that rooting for the underdog has its purpose in many ways. You don’t need to win the show to be a huge star, as many of them have proven. Congrats to Alaska though, well deserved.