After last week’s Snatch Game, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars continues to hurtle towards anticlimax. This is mostly because the show has stuck itself with the bizarre balancing act of still having so many queens competing in the episodes right before the finale. Drag Race has balanced this dynamic just fine during non-elimination seasons, so why is the vibe so stalled-out this go around?

As we come to a close on a season that has been overshadowed by explaining the ins and outs of its new format and largely inconsequential drama, it’s a relief to come to an episode overloaded with drag performance. We got the reading challenge, the talent show, and a Foiled Again runway where most of the queens went big.

No one really went for the jugular in the reading challenge, except for Bosco’s read about Jorgeous’s esophageal “orphanage” — no shock that Bosco once again reads her way to a win. But leave the gags to Mistress, who already had that covered before the reading challenge happens, coming for Ginger, but more so the production itself for the favoritism she is being shown. There’s the notion that trying to hold back tears only makes someone cry harder, and that’s kind of what happens to Mistress trying not to be mad about her Snatch Game result. Later, touching Aja’s hair is, well, to co-opt MIB’s phrase of choice, certainly Doing Her Big One.

As for this week’s main event, consider me mixed-to-ambivalent on the Drag Race talent show as a recurring showcase. It’s a challenge where you can literally do anything (well, maybe not make a glass of water), but most queens opt to do … the same thing. In terms of songs you’ll only listen to once, the talent show is always a Spotify New Music Friday from hell. As you might expect, this round of All Stars is no different. But in performing an original song lip sync, there are two shortcuts that can help you stand out from the pack: (1) have a clear, firm concept to help it appear more inventive or (2) produce enough energy to fuel a mid-size city (i.e., be Aja or Jorgeous).

But for every queen who opts for lip syncing to an original track of Frankensteined gay catchphrases, we really hope we’ll see a Willow Pill or a Sapphira Crystal breaking all the rules with something unique. Ginger brags about her participation in the first edition of this challenge back in All Stars 2, but the standard bearer for bold DGAF talent show innovation remains her former competitor: Tatianna’s “The Same Parts.”

Whereas this challenge usually serves to introduce (or reintroduce) queens and allow an underdog to surprise us while expected heavy-hitters bore us, All Stars 10 seems to have deployed it to separate those who can win from those who can’t. Ironically, that deflates the talent show from half of what makes it compelling. The stakes here are only high because the finish line is so close, minimizing the potential reward for taking a creative risk. Of course most of the queens play it safe with an original song! Let’s just have a play-by-play slay-by-slay of how it all went down…

Despite having the kind of high-energy performance skills that can turn original song lip syncs into showstoppers, Aja still turns out something highly conceptual and linked to her spiritual roots. However, the daring pièce de résistance of the number is that Aja performs half of her number while wielding a machete. What’s working against Aj-ealia Banks, though, is her all-timer All Stars 3 talent show showing and its multi-meme spawning legacy. By comparison, this one isn’t as razor sharp.

Bosco smartly packages her original song as merely a vessel for delivering something else entirely: her burlesque skills. It’s also maybe the most passable of this batch of original tracks, supplanting good jokes where there would normally be AI-sourced lyrics about snatching crowns and slaying the competition. The showstopper of the entire episode is Bosco’s open-legged balancing act atop a chair, marking the most impressive thing abs have ever done on the show that doesn’t involve the Pit Crew. On the runway, her flawless femme fatale is also among the best. After drifting to the sidelines in last week’s Snatch Game, this is exactly where Bosco needed to land this week.

A number that doubles as a workplace sensitivity training course, Daya’s performance as a walking HR violation is a high-energy office-set sex romp. But hers is unfortunately one of the least memorable of the episode, and the office environment work/werk concept is a tad labored. I’m surprised to be a little underwhelmed by Daya’s showing this season, but her turn this week emphasizes that her runways are where her strengths lie. Where a few queens overdo the assignment, Daya’s duct tape gown reminded that her bad girl aesthetic still comes channeled through Daya’s exquisite taste.

Presenting a Broadway sendup, Ginger’s number represents a perfect distillation of the quality ceiling baked into the talent show challenge. She sounds great (though, sure, not singing live this time) but is held back by having to perform something original and completely lackluster. We would all be more impressed if Ginger were allowed to sing literally whatever real showtune she wants, so it’s a shame the brief period where licensed material was allowed in talent shows appears to be over. Ginger would never opt for performing this in the real world, she would just do “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” It’s a pale imitation, but no fault of Ginger’s.

Irene the Alien’s number is a little sweaty in trying to overcome the stain of her first talent show-ing, but manages some memorable and funny bits. More impressively, she does manage to walk away with the runway as a winged valkyrie, stealing the show thanks to a fluidly beautiful wingspan (despite awkward false arms). “We’ve seen a lot of wings, we’ve never seen these wings though. Those are remarkable wings!” Ru tells her, phoning in from a guest spot on Hot Ones.

Like Aja, Jorgeous is in the shadow of a previous, more awe-inspiring performance–her All Stars 9 number when she was glamorously tossed across the stage. Arriving in her best Gale Weathers drag, Jorgeous quickly dispenses with theme and still gives us the high-octane bucking we expect from her. What Jorgeous’ number is missing is just one singular act of daring, but her confident showmanship nevertheless rises above the pack. At her best (which she is here), Jorgeous is her own special effect.

The two non-original track centered acts are the final two, starting with Lydia Butthole Kollins offering a burlesque retelling of Humpty Dumpty straight out of a Lynchian sex dungeon. Maybe I have a soft spot for every freak flag allowed to fly high in these talent shows, but I laughed throughout Lydia’s performance, no matter her reveals getting scrambled. At least the judges loved her runway, an alien stunner that looked like she had poached from the set of Species. Natasha Hennystridge! “My Beautiful Butthole”, RuPaul calls her later, and I hope she was making uncomfortable unbroken eye contact when she said it.

In something like a staged Funny Or Die sketch, Mistress lampoons both medical commercials and her own weight loss journey. The vibe is a bit like a scene that would occur between two musical numbers in a Rusical (not necessarily a bad thing!), yet with the pace of the sketch, there’s no time for Mistress’ jokes to land. It’s imperfect, but not the disaster her critiques make it out to be. The judges ultimately decide that Ruzempic has surpassed the season’s deductible, and Mistress is left with a bill. After her pre-challenge tussles with both Ginger and Aja, her bottom placement is unsurprising from a narrative perspective.

Though Bosco GLP won the challenge, the overall impression left by having the talent/variety show so late in the season is that it allows the producers to set aside non-contenders without actually having to eliminate them. Just before a finale with this many queens, safe essentially spells “not winning.” With the top three of Bosco, Jorgeous, and Ginger this week, they are probably the only queens with a shot at the crown. The momentum for the others feels basically dead, and most tragically so for Irene, whose triumphant showing in Bracket 1 has gone all but ignored in the semi-finals.

And with no queens embarrassing themselves, it’s discouraging to see Lydia and Mistress given what’s treated as obvious bottom placements when they both took the most creative risk. Surely they deserve some originality points, particularly absent any outright bellyflops this week. Regardless, they are the two to lipsync to Charli XCX and Billie Eilish’s “Guess” and it’s a hot one, though Aja is right to call out the queens’ lack of underwear emphasis (Invoking “panties, bitch!”? Yet again, Jasmine Masters is owed royalties). Both queens turn out a strong lipsync performance, but Lydia is the one the judges say rises above — it’s up, up and away with My Beautiful Butthole and its sashay away for Mistress.

With Mistress out — well, given the Wild Card Lottery, theoretically out — the season has now lost one of its few narrative arcs. The biggest indicator that this is a rough season lies in how it is struggling to tell a clear story. Ginger’s “why haven’t I won yet?” trajectory keeps repeating itself, and the season only seems half-invested in Bosco and Jorgeous’ renewed self-conviction. Again, Irene should be more of a story than the season seems to want her to be.

By contrast, Mistress’ maneuverings, the testing of her resolve, and the ensuing slow-motion spiraling wasn’t an entirely satisfying story, but it was certainly a story and one the season actually invested in telling. The workroom discussion about the current attacks on trans rights and queer visibility feels like the first drabs of the season allowing the queens to get personal, and it’s been a missing essential element. Even if we’re given a justifiable winner next week, I’m not yet convinced it will be the conclusion of a satisfying arc where we understand why we are rooting for that queen.

Extra Two Pieces and a Biscuit

• Who is stocking the Untucked lounge with hard-boiled eggs, and what have the queens done to deserve this??

• The Wild Card Fraudery cliffhanger promises either Kerri Colby or Mistress to return for the lip sync smackdown next week. Since this is all obviously rigged and “chosen” by the three mainstay judges, we really couldn’t have a third queen in the running. No, but seriously, it bears repeating: justice for Denali.

• Irene quotes Sun Tzu’s The Art of War in this episode when discussing the competition and when to strike your opponent. But what are Sun Tzu’s tips on contouring and choreo?

• Bosco’s secret weapon in winning this challenge? Honing her showgirl skills in the RuPaul’s Drag Race live show in Vegas. She’s the fourth All Star to win this challenge after appearing on the Vegas strip.

• With next week promising a Rate-A-Queen element, could the finale actually see an All Star 3 jury-esque shake-up? Well, you know the RuPaul opera glasses meme.

 After a season of a new format and inconsequential drama, it’s a relief to come to an episode overloaded with drag performance.