‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ episode 10 recap: Queens roast one another in ‘The Kennedy Davenport Center Honors Hall of Shade’

For this season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” RuPaul Charles brought back eight crowned queens to compete again for the chance to be named “Queen of All Queens,” earn a second crown, and take home a cash prize of $200,000.  Over the last nine weeks we’ve reacclimatized ourselves to the charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talents of Shea Couleé, Jaida Essence Hall, Yvie Oddly, Trinity the Tuck, Monét X Change, Jinkx Monsoon, Raja, and The Vivienne and were introduced to new twists: the Platinum Plunger and Legendary Legend Stars.

The plunger serves as a “block” to one of the queens in the next week’s challenge, handed down from the winner of that week’s lip sync winner. The winner is determined by a Lip Sync for the Win between the top two performers in the maxi challenge, each of whom receive a Legendary Legend Star needed to advance to the finale.

As of now, Jinkx and Jaida are in the lead with three stars each. Raja, Yvie, Trinity, Monét and Viv all have two stars each while Shea only has one. With only two opportunities left to earn stars, the need to place in the top is of the utmost importance to everyone. Which queens earn the Legendary Legend Stars this week and inch closer to earning their spot in the Lalaparuza? Check out our recap of the episode below:

The results of last week left Monét with her second star and the pride of winning the first ever spoken word lip sync, but Raja returned to the Werk Room defeated by the realization that the rest of the cast had fooled her into actually believing the Platinum Plunger had a secret power. As we saw previously, she truly bought into the concept and essentially asked to be blocked so that she could find out the secret. Bloop!

For this week’s challenge, Ru announced the queens’ induction into The Kennedy Davenport Center Honors with a Hall of Shade comedy roast. Lacking in mini challenges this season, Ru round an opportunity to bring the Pit Crew back into the fold by having the queens choose a balloon to pop against one of the guys’ bodies in order to determine the performing order of the roast. After the quickie thrusts were complete, the order became: Raja, Yvie, Shea, Jinkx, Trinity, Monét, Jaida and Viv.

Going into the roast, admitted comedy queens Monét, Jinkx and Viv all felt good about their chances while Trinity, Jaida and Yvie were all concerned. In previous seasons, neither Jaida nor Yvie competed in a roast and Trinity bombed her last swing at it in All Stars 4 (a roast that Monét actually won). Still, Yvie was excited for the chance to perform in a new kind of challenge and felt excited about following Raja in the second position.

As part of their preparation for the roast, each queen got time on the main stage with Ross Mathews and comedian Solomon Georgio to run through some of their jokes and brainstorming. Solomon gave them the advice of staying in the moment and paying particular attention to enunciation and radiation. Based on these short sessions, all of the queens seemed like they were on the right track toward strong performances because of their dedication to their own brand and not sparing any niceties on how deep they take digs at each other.

Prior to their performances, Trinity and Monét found time to step into a corner and strategize who they’ll block in the chance that they win. Because they already have three stars, they agreed that Jinkx and Jaida would be pointless blocks and Shea is “so far behind” that she doesn’t make sense either. The name they settled on as the best idea was Viv. Though they tried to be secret about their alliance, by this point everyone else was fully aware of their huddle sessions and that they’re likely working together.

On the main stage, Ru was joined by Ross and Michelle Visage, as well as this week’s special guest judge Ronan Farrow. We were also treated to a special appearance from Wintergreen, the drag queen persona of one of the camerapersons that was in a makeover challenge as Peppermint’s drag daughter. After her introduction, Raja kicked off the formal roast with a set that took digs at Shea’s lack of stars and Viv’s love of alcohol and drugs. Yvie was up next with strong jokes aimed at Jinkx’s looks, followed by Shea adopting a pleasant persona with undercutting digs, Jinkx objectifying Yvie’s dick, Trinity cracking jokes about Monét’s drag relation to Bob the Drag Queen, Monét delivering her high standard of charismatic comedy, Jaida stuttering through her jokes and recovering from them in funny fashion, and Viv closing with a hilariously and perfectly composed set.

On the runway, the queens walked in the “All Glowed Up” category featuring outfits that glow when the lights are dimmed. Raja opened in a 3D printed garment that shoots red lasers out of it. Yvie wore an elegant, glowing blue mushroom gown, Shea had on a sunflower-winged mini with glowing petals, Jinkx conceptualized witches burned at the stake with a white gown that glowed in red with flames around her face, Trinity went to Vegas in a strip light showgirl moment, Monét took to the skies in a deep blue celestial gown, Jaida fashioned a mermaid look in blue and pink, and Viv closed in a white and blue angelic catsuit with wings that flowed really beautifully.

In judges’ critiques, Raja wowed with a risky and gorgeous runway look as well as a surprisingly funny opening performance at the roast. Michelle was also surprised by how funny Yvie proved to be and Ronan loved the camp of her mushroom gown. They were also impressed by Shea’s “boss bitch” approach to the roast and Jinkx’s effortless ability to make people laugh. Jinkx also earned points for a runway look that told a story. The judges called Trinity’s look fun, but they focused on how incredible her jokes were at the roast and Ross made it clear that she got out of her own way this week. As expected, the judges loved Monét’s stand up because she’s so professional in stand up and unexpectedly they gave Jaida props for her bombed set because they liked how she managed to turn her stumbles into jokes. Last, the judges were floored by how well Viv’s runway look worked because the flow of the wings was so soft and natural and she styled it perfectly.

Based on their roast and runway presentations, Ru declared that this week’s top performers were Jinkx and Trinity. But in a small revision to the rules, this week there would be no Platinum Plunger block. Still, the top two performed in a lip sync to “Kings & Queens” by Ava Max in order to win the $10,000 cash tip. In the face off, Jinkx donned a young girl character that matched her doll-like look while Trinity delivered a more traditional glamor meets comedy lip sync. As we’ve seen many times already this season, the two queens interacted with one another throughout the performance, but Jinkx managed to stand out by serving less standard moments like a cartwheel that was outside of her usual tactics. Ultimately, Ru took to Jinkx’s approach and declared her the winner.

With this week’s results, Jinkx advanced to the lead with four Legendary Legend Stars while Trinity joined Jaida with three apiece. Ru confirmed that next week would be their final chance to earn a star and urged that “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”