38 thoughts I had watching Drag Race All Stars 8, episode 2: ‘And with that, she’s lost the win’

It seems like just this morning we were watching Monica Beverly Hillz sashay away in Drag Race All Stars 8‘s first episode. And that’s because it was.

That’s right, All Stars 8 dropped its first (free to view) episode as the part one of a double bill, and if you’ve not read my thoughts on episode one, here they are.

The gay avengers (cast of AS8) are back for round two in an instantly legendary parody of Saturday Night Live, but, whereas last week’s front-runner stumbles, a Canadian invasion begins to mount the offensive, gathering allies and momentum.

We get another gag-worthy lip-sync assassin – a twist I wasn’t fond of at its conception – and yet another queen sashays away. The girls are here to play and it’s not going to be pretty.

Here are 38 thoughts I had watching:

• I can’t get over how right Kahanna looks this season. A brand new b*tch.
• The girls get out the lipsticks to find out who voted for whom. It was Darienne and Monica at the bottom, and we find out that Kahanna voted for her to get the chop. RuMocracy-wise, however, we discover that Kandy, Lala and Jaymes all voted for Darienne. The size queen herself.
• It seems Untucked will be essential viewing this season: all three queens who voted for Darienne say they were swayed by Monica’s pleas.
• “You’re out of the will,” says Darienne. I’d be fumrious (fuming and furious) too.
• The Fame Games feels sort of like a kick in the t*ts. “You were eliminated, but here’s a little Instagram competition for you.”

• To quote many a Drag Race queen, it’s a brand new day in the werk room and the queens are told they’re starring in RDR Live!, and that, well, the clue is in the name, they’re performing their sketches live.
• The classic role-assigning goes relatively smoothly, which is weird. Kandy goes for the opening monologue that bookmarks giving big flop or slay vibes, but Lala, Naysha and Heidi clash.
• Naysha says she can do anything because she’s so talented, then we immediately cut to her confessional, in which she says that she’s: F**king p**sed.” Which is it, bestie?
• Kandy gets her mind games hat out, she’s such good TV. “Did you get the part you want, Naysha? Blame Heidi?” Stir, mama, stir!
• An actual SNL star, Bobby Moynihan is here. Drag Race‘s budget really has gone through the roof, hasn’t it?
• Jessica Wild talking about engaging in water sports – and not jet-skiing – was not on my All Stars 8 bingo card.
• I love seeing Ru refer to old episodes of the show as if he has any recollection of, say, Kahanna’s acting challenge from season 11 or Jessica’s chicken from 13 years ago.

• Naysha reveals that her voting criteria is she’ll keep you if she’s excited to see your work again. Bold words from someone who was eliminated from her original season twice.
• Lala and Heidi are very casually over at a werk room table, in a definitely-not-producer-prompted chat. Heidi now has an alliance with Lala, and a separate one with Jimbo and Kandy. I need a red-string map.
• I’m so excited to see the cast utilise the opportunity to have All Stars be an actually strategic competition. I want psychological warfare, backstabbing and Katniss/Peeta levels of alliances.
• It’s challenge time: Jaymes, Lala, Naysha and Heidi are in sketch one and they’re kind of all slaying it. Jaymes is leading the way, and, in just two episodes, I’ve gone from: “Why have they cast a first-out on All Stars?” to “I cannot wait to see what this queen does next.”
• Kandy is killing the monologue, as to be expected, so is Kasha. This is such a great challenge. It’s much more like a live drag show, albeit more scripted.
• Kasha refers to season seven’s Shakesqueer challenge, which really does feel like the Drag Race equivalent of a fever dream.
• Jimbo and Jessica do well with their “breasty bimbo” sketch – talk about being typecast.
• Darienne and Alexis are Michelle Visaging it up and I can’t stop looking at Alexis’ golden boobs. What is this feeling, so sudden and new? They work really well together, but Visage herself does in fact trample the two into the ground with her cameo.
• Lala is not playing that didgeridoo for real, and I feel she was the worst.

• Runway category is Net Gala, and Kandy looks like Kim K stung by a million bees.
• Kasha and Jessica’s runways are full of butterflies and nets. Somewhere, Asia O’Hara just woke up, screaming in a cold sweat.
• Jimbo’s looks? They’re insane. She’s insane.
• Admittedly, I’m not style superstar Carson Kressley, but I don’t get how Heidi’s look is netted.
• Kahanna – serve after serve after serve.
• Darienne just puts a giant net on a basketball-print dress and that, to me, is art.
• The judges are just making up critiques, everyone could understand Naysha’s lines.
• Heidi is told she’s improved in all the right ways and that’s absolutely correct. Lala, however, was airlifted out of a bottom placement like Katniss at the end of Catching Fire. None of her jokes landed!
• Kahanna’s look is a little dry, she’s told, but that runway look, I’m sorry. She could do nothing and I’d stan.

• Jimbo, unsurprisingly, wins the challenge. I sense the J-Train gathering passengers to leave the station.
• Kahanna and Naysha are in the bottom two, which immediately means Eliminaysha has gone for a hat-trick, given that Kahanna won last week’s challenge.
• Love this slow-mo of the girls leaving the stage every episode. Camp.
• Again, Untucked looks like it’s essential viewing. The main episodes aren’t including lipstick deliberations.
• So Jimbo is about to lip sync, which should be fun to watch.
• Against Pangina Heals, Jimbo’s UK vs The World eliminator, I know you’re lying. Give the producers a raise. That obviously means that with that, she’s lost the win. Pangina could lie dead on the stage and Jimbo would have lost.
• I was right, which is my favourite thing to be – Pangina wipes the floor, meaning the RuMocracy vote sends home… Naysha.
• The teaser for next week shows three lipsticks for Kahanna, alliances shaking and a ball. All Stars is off to a flying start.

All Stars 8, episode 2 is available to stream now on WoW Presents Plus.

• Nov 29 2023

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