“RuPaul’s Drag Race” is back to show more talented queens, songs, dances, lip-syncs, outfits, and comedy in its sixteenth season. With no one going home in either episode of the two-part season premiere on Jan. 5 and Jan. 12, there was plenty of time to get to know each of the queens and plenty of discussions to be had about their talent show numbers, lip-syncs, and runway outfits. Like the ranking system of this season, I’ll be offering my vote for the democratic placements and supplying my top three and bottom three queens from the two-part premiere.

My Top 3 of the Week:

1st place – Q – The talent show challenge has consistently been riddled with both rigged placements and lip-sync performances that can leave the episodes feeling stale. However, Q’s unique “puppet show” performance in the first half of the split premiere was goofy and confusing in the best way possible. However, her runway in this episode sent her over the edge into greatness. This look perfectly fit the category of reveals, and the fact that Q hand-made and hand-sequined those gorgeous wings made me instantly fall in love with her.

2nd place – Sapphira Cristál – Sapphira Cristál presented one of the funniest talent show performances of the entire group while also displaying real talent. Singing extremely high while doing splits, her song had unexpected lyrics that were hilarious and well accompanied by her vocal gifts. Her runway wasn’t astonishing in this episode, but I’m excited to see what she will continue to bring to the stage throughout the season.

3rd place – Nymphia Wind – In the second episode of the split premiere, Nymphia Wind encapsulated the audience with her drag. It is a crime that she didn’t win for her talent show number, and I’m sure that if it weren’t for her fellow contestant, Plane Jane’s shady voting, Nymphia would’ve won the episode with her Taiwanese cultural theater performance. Nymphia brings so much fun creativity and diversity with her drag, and I can’t wait to see what she does this season.

My Bottom 3 of the Week:

12th place – Xunami Muse – Xunami Muse wasn’t horrible in the premiere, but she consistently delivered mediocre performances. Firstly, her rap verse talent was in line with the all-too-common lip-syncs of the talent show episodes, but she didn’t add any extra flair to it. I was not a huge fan of her runway either, as the lining on the underside of her dress was visible and the look failed to properly brand her as the runway walking diva that her talent show number claimed to be.

13th place – Hershii LiqCour-Jeté – Hershii fell into both of the same traps as Xunami. Her lip sync branded her well, but again, the lip-syncing in talent shows on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is becoming tiring. Hershii had a gorgeous runway with her chocolate brown dress, but only taking off her ruffle garment did not fulfill the criteria of the runway, that is to do an outfit reveal. I hope Hershii can step it up in the coming weeks and match the level of her spontaneously fun personality out of drag.

14th place – Megami – I think Plane Jane said it best when she said in her confessional, “You take away the message, and what is your talent? Holding up posters?” Megami’s talent of just lip-syncing to “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blondes while holding posters with messages promoting queer protection was not a talent. Furthermore, her runway lacked a reveal and was too busy, with nowhere for the eye to look at. Megami definitely would have gone home for her performance this week if this had been an elimination episode, so I wonder what she will do next week.

The next episode will feature the season’s first elimination and much more heated opinions. Make sure to read the upcoming Racer Ru-view!