RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7 episode 12 recap: The Born Naked video

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7 episode 12 is the music video episode. The girls are filming the video for Born Naked – choreographed by Candis Cayne and directed by Mathu Anderson. The person eliminated from this episode will be CUT OUT of the final music video. Daaaauuuuyyyyymmmm… Darienne would’ve been screwed last year.

But before we get to that, Ginger has to have a little cry over missing Katya. The final four have a little bit of tension for each other. You shouldn’t be here! No, YOU shouldn’t be here! Rowr! Ginger needs a smoke and a nap.

By the way, whatever happened to the random acting challenge that went with the video? It seems like an awful amount of work for just a few seconds to make it into the video. Unless that is part of the challenge to see how well they work with Mathu Anderson. You would think they would’ve worked with him already earlier in the season.

Lunch with Ru – she’s “juicing” the Tic Tacs now for her traditional lunch with the contestants.  It’s time to cry! Kennedy shares a ton of family history – her dad died within the past 2 years and she’s the guardian for a mentally challenged sister. Ginger talks about her father leaving their family for his high school girlfriend.

Before we get to Pearl & Violet’s lunches, we get to see Pearl & Violet vs Ginger & Kennedy in the workroom getting their final look together. Pearl & Violet are prancing around in pretty things while Kennedy & Ginger are getting their wigs closer to heaven.

In Violet’s lunch, she talked about learning how to rely on herself. No tears. Ru goes in on Pearl & asks what she was like at 7. Pearl described that time in her life as traumatic. She doesn’t cry though, much as Ru tries to get to her.

Time to film the individual dances in front of a green screen for Ru’s music video. Kennedy does great, of course. Ginger loses part of her wig. Pearl’s stiff & her wig starts sliding back. Violet freezes up, forgets the choreography and her earring falls off.

Time to film with Mathu Anderson. Yay! Ru’s in his best boy-drag, although I liked his Jerry-curl look from last year better. We don’t get a lot of Ru acting, which is a little disappointing. The queens each play the three characters, rotating each time. We really only get the bad highlights at this point. None of the queens do well as the morose teen. Maybe Ginger does well in that character, as we don’t see her.

Time to paint for the runway! The Bitter Old Lady Brigade decides to come for Violet a little bit. They tell Violet that she doesn’t have people skills & isn’t professional enough. Rowr! It’s a little harsh, at least what we see. Pearl thinks Violet is handling it well, but Violet keeps it pretty quiet, and we get no confessional to know what’s going on in her head.

Kennedy’s final look is a sculpted sparkly pride dress. Violet Chachki goes with a cabaret-style look. Ginger is in a white fringy pageant dress. Pearl goes with something from the Dee Snyder intimates collection, according to Carson Kressley.

Ru holds up a picture of little Kennedy & asks her to talk to little Kennedy & give her some advice. She goes down the line & asks each queen to do the same. Kennedy & Pearl cry at this one. Ru got everyone but Violet to crack this year.

So after we’ve had this little emotional moment, it’s time to read the outfits & performances. The only outfit that doesn’t get compliments from the judges  is Violet’s – Michelle doesn’t think it’s her best drag. I can’t imagine that Violet didn’t say something about wanting to stand out from the pageant girls, but we don’t see it if she did.

Watching the “screen tests” we learn that the girls were switching characters so that the scene would have Ru and the queen playing all 3 parts. Now I’m wondering if the acting challenge of only the winning queen will be used in the video (if it’s used at all).

The final bit on the runway is the queens giving their “This is why I should be America’s Next Drag Superstar” speech. Kennedy basically says she should because she’s been working a long time & the younger queens might screw it up & not know how to condone themselves. (I think she means conduct.) Violet already thinks she is America’s Next Drag Superstar. Ginger wants to co-win with Kennedy & dress as conjoined twins for a year. She also throws Violet & Pearl under the bus and says it’s time for a super-sized drag queen. Pearl talks about busting her ass. She looks exhausted because she is. Interesting that the 2 older queens felt the need to throw the younger queens under the bus, where the young queens didn’t. Take note older queens – it wasn’t cute.

Before Ru makes the final cut, all 4 queens have to lip synch for their lives, just like last year. So we’ll finally see Violet lip synch. Kennedy’s dress with its mermaid skirt will definitely not let her do another split. Now that we’re listening to more of the song, can I confess something?

It’s kinda boring. Sorry ’bout it.

It’s hard to follow-up Sissy That Walk, which was so fun for last season’s finale. Born Naked is just kind of a ‘meh’ tempo & doesn’t seem to give the girls much to do in their lip synch.

Who made the final 3 for season 7 of RuPaul’s Drag Race? Those queens are: Violet Chachki, Ginger Minj and Pearl. Kennedy’s journey ends here. Not sure if I agree with that – I thought Pearl was weaker overall in the season. But the decision is not mine. Maybe Kennedy’s speech did her in. We’ll never know.

Are you #TeamGinger, #TeamPearl or #TeamViolet. Tweet your choice to https://twitter.com/RuPaulsDragRace/ #DragRace. They’re filming the finale tomorrow, so we’re all caught up. Who do you think should be crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar? Let’s discuss below!