This week, the competition sped up with the quintessential RuPaul’s Drag Race challenge. The Snatch Game, a comedic remake of the 1970s game show, “The Match Game,” with drag race contestants expected to provide celebrity impressions. The challenge has appeared on every U.S. season of the show since its debut in season two. Season 16 provided one of the better Snatch Games in my opinion, with only one true failure. We saw multiple campaigns from various contestants for Plane Jane’s immunity potion, but she did not use it, winning the challenge while Xunami Muse went home in the best lip sync of the season. So many upsets happened this week, so let’s dive into the tops and bottoms of the week. 

My Top 3 of the Week:

1st place – Sapphira Cristál – Male characters are always an interestingly outside-the-box choice on Snatch Game, and Sapphira’s decision to play James Brown was amazing. However, as spectacular runway after spectacular runway crossed the stage, I began to understand why Sapphira was not the winner. Her runway wasn’t bad by any means — still strong enough for me to give her the top spot — but the super close competition this week meant Sapphira’s runway stood out less than what would normally be expected of a winner. Nevertheless, Sapphira performed the Snatch Game on an unprecedented level, and she is completely deserving of the top spot this week.

2nd place – Plane Jane – It is harder to crush the Snatch Game while using a less-known celebrity, but Plane Jane achieved this goal with her portrayal of Serbian pop icon, Jelena Karleuša. The pop sensation took to Instagram soon after the episode aired to share her utmost congratulations to Plane Jane, and it was very deserved. Although Plane Jane crushed it, arguably performing evenly with Sapphira in the challenge, her Latin ballroom dance-inspired runway was similar in color and vibe to Xunami Muse’s. For this reason, I think Sapphira deserved to take the win this week with both a strong Snatch Game, and a strong runway.

3rd place – Mhi’ya Iman Le’Paige – For the first time in this competition, I didn’t hate something Mhi’ya did. With such a polarizing challenge like Snatch Game, she was very clearly deserving of the spot. Mhi’ya took the judges’ critique and came out of her shell this week, playing her made-up character: Shaquita, the sister of American rapper, Trina. She would’ve been in much closer contention for the top spot this week, but her rickety runway pulled her away from the win. Next week is a design challenge, and although she was good this week, I hope this challenge takes her out of the competition. 

My Bottom 3 of the Week:

7th place – Morphine Love Dion – Actually quite funny this week, Morphine gave a Snatch Game performance that would have been safe on most seasons. This was an above-average Snatch Game, however, so the bar was set high and Morphine ended up on the bottom. My pet peeve with Morphine is one of my most common pet peeves with what the fashion queens bring to the runway; her sleeves are never lined. The underside of the fabric showed on this look and on her floral runway, so I hope she begins to line her sleeves and continue with her usually stellar outfits.

8th place – Nymphia Wind – With all of the factors of a possible good Snatch Game, Nymphia dropped the ball hard this week. She picked a great character, prepared multiple prop gags and had stellar makeup to look like Jane Goodall, but the editing really screwed her up. It’s super easy for the producers of the show to edit laughter behind some jokes to make them seem funny, and all they gave Nymphia was awkward silence. I actually laughed out loud during her Snatch Game multiple times. However, even in an episode of stellar runways, Nymphia stood out with her runway based on butoh, a Japanese dance style. This is why she stayed out of the bottom, and I hope she can bounce back quickly and destroy the next challenge.

9th place – Xunami Muse – Unfortunately, Xunami came into the Snatch Game with a great idea for a made-up character. These characters usually make for great performances, as it leaves the queen with the liberty to do whatever they would like. However, Xunami did not take a stance or apply any serious character to her role. Her runway couldn’t save her either, being similar to Plane Jane’s runway and her Cher runway from earlier in the season. It’s too bad Xunami went home, but she left with a bang and one of the best lip-syncs of the season so far.

Make sure to return for the next episode of the Racer Ru-view, breaking down more hot opinions on “RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 16, Episode 9.”