RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7 episode 4 recap: Spoof! (There It Is)

After the tension on the runway, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7 episode 4 begins as usual. Some of the girls are missing Jasmine’s energy. Others, not so much. And we’re reminded that Pearl needs to wake up.

Pearl usually has a blast in drag. Except that one time RuPaul yelled at her for an extended period of time. Funny that.

After receiving this week’s message from Ru – the girls know they’re singing immediately. Plus it’s a parody challenge – they’ve got to parody RuPaul songs, straddling the worlds of music and comedy. They need to be in teams of 3 and they get to pick their teams themselves. That apparently is the mini-challenge this week, because we don’t see any other challenge.

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BTW, if you’re a new viewer/reader, welcome! If you’re totally new to RuPaul’s Drag Race, there’s a beginner’s guide to RuPaul’s Drag Race over on newnownext.com. Check it out if you’re confused.

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So here’s how the teams shake out:

Team 1: Pearl, Miss Fame, Trixie and Katya, and their song is Dance With U

Team 2: Kennedy Davenport, Ginger Minj, Mrs. Kasha Davis and Kandy Ho are assigned Let The Music Play

Team 3: Max, Violet and Jaidynn Diore Fierce, parodying Sissy That Walk – including mimicking the final video.

Team 3 was essentially the ‘leftover girls’ – those girls that weren’t standing near other girls & didn’t get picked.  They spend very little time wah-wahing about it. Except for Violet, of course.

Both team 1 & team 3 have members that decide that they don’t want to do anything sexual or gross. Violet thinks Max is being prissy (it’s amazing that the two of them are the same age). Fame is telling Pearl to think of something better. Only team 2 is portrayed as having it together.

Because it’s a music challenge we get Lucian Piane leading the girls through their recording. Pearl tells Lucian that her performance style is ‘wild.’ Wild like Ambien? I’ve seen some of her non-RPDR performances and I wouldn’t use the word ‘wild’ to describe any of them. Someone share a favorite Pearl performance below, ’cause I don’t get it. She looks great in drag, is super-cute as her boy self, but other than that she leaves me super-meh.

Violet’s behavior is off-putting to Lucian. Does this surprise anyone? No? Jaidynn starts off tentatively (sensing a pattern here) but gets stronger as Lucian works with her.

Ginger-Minj-ism: Ethel Merman and Paul Lynde had a love child bursting forth from Kasha’s vocal chords!

Of course team 1 is struggling with the choreography – you’ve got Miss Fame and Pearl butting heads.

I feel like a lot of this episode happened outside of the episode. I know that’s the case in all reality TV – there’s stuff happening all the time that we don’t get to see, like RuPaul not having it on the contestants. (MAANNN I want to see that!) But this episode feels like there’s even more missing than usual. Trixie and Max seem off the whole time and there’s no real visible reason why. Ru is even more poker-faced than usual.  Maybe there’s just too much getting crammed into each episode. Make the connections, producers!

We finally get acknowledgement that Kennedy Davenport knew Sahara Davenport (who we all know was on season 2 & passed away while All-Stars was airing).

Time for the mainstage! Michelle Visage is wearing green – and it’s an all-green runway! It’s her nightmare! The looks are good, but can Jaidynn give us a look that doesn’t have a crap-ton of gold trim & necklaces? That’s what I’m waiting for.

We get to see all of the music videos. They turned out pretty good, but the songs themselves were a bit ‘meh.’ I’m looking forward to some individual competin’ so we can see what these queens can do on their own.

Katya, Jaidynn Diore Fierce, Kennedy Davenport are pulled out as the stars of their respective music videos. Kennedy Davenport is crowned the winner. Meh. I think Katya was stronger, but it’s a better storyline to have Kennedy down one week & on top the next. Ginger Minj & Miss Fame are deemed safe. So the rest of the girls are up getting critiqued.

Michelle asks Pearl if she’s a stoner. Rude? Not rude? Pearl feels picked on. Trixie supposedly doesn’t stand out. Max gets critiqued for not wearing enough green. Michelle also wants to see Max in a hair color other than gray. The challenge seems to be accepted.

Violet Chachki seems to actually take constructive criticism from Michelle Visage, so what happened there? Who knows! The producers aren’t going to show any non-bitchy stuff from Violet apparently so we don’t get to see progression from her yet. It’s not her turn. Kandy Ho is told that a pretty dress isn’t enough and that everyone else has a theme or a story. Not sure what theme or story Ginger Minj or Kennedy Davenport have, but they’re not on stage so I guess we’re supposed to forget about them. Mrs Kasha Davis thinks Bea Arthur was inside her and that’s where her voice came from.

Sent to safety are Violet, Max, Mrs. Kasha Davis. Pearl is up for elimination, along with Trixie Mattel. Kandy Ho is safe. I find it kind of interesting that Kandy seemed to get a worse critique, but it’s Trixie in the bottom. They’re lip synching to Dreaming by Blondie. Pearl does a lot of arm-synching and maybe embodies Debbie Harry a little better, whereas Trixie seems to put more of her whole body into the performance.

But was the conversation between Trixie and Kennedy about whether or not Trixie is a comedy queen foreshadowing of this lip synch? If you don’t remember, check out the recap from episode 2 and watch Untucked. It’s about 5 minutes in.

We’ve also been set up that Pearl is getting her wake-up call. All signs seem to be pointing to Trixie going home. Dislike. And yes, that’s the way this cookie crumbles. I have no idea why, and not just because Trixie is my hometown girl. I just don’t get Pearl’s appeal as a performer.

And AARRGGHH apparently there’s another group challenge next week. Can we be done with those after next week? Please? Am I wrong? Are you looking forward to another group challenge? Who do you think should’ve been eliminated tonight? Let’s fight about it below!