 Seventh episode, and I still have opinions! If you haven't already, read my review for episode one, episode two, episode three, episode four, episode five, and episode six. As before I've already given you a spoiler warning in the title and the cover photo and here's a third. Consider yourself warned. I really did enjoy this episode. There was some great comedy, some good looks, and there were a lot of grey areas open to interpretation. So let's get into it. 1. Monet's boy look jumper nonsense is everything. I want one in every color. 2. Eureka winning the mini-challenge. Okay, here are some thoughts. I've heard the rumors that Eureka wins this season, and the editing is making that seem like a very good possibility. But the thought I keep coming back to is, damn, I really hate Eureka. My worry here is that I just hate Eureka because of fatphobia, and that anything I may point out to be negative about her is just my way of trying to justify that fatphobia. It also could be southernphobia. I really don't know. As much as I want to plug all the big girls I do like, I feel like doing that is just a round about way for me to try to cleanse myself of any possible blame for that matter. One of the queens (whose identity I forget) reads Eureka by saying "Eureka, you've got to stop relying on that body ... fat," which a sentiment I'm quick to agree with. Since I don't find Eureka funny, I find it very easy to say 'Eureka just relies on being fat and loud, that's where her talent starts and stops' but since so many others, judges included, seem to like her, maybe I'm in the wrong here. It's also really tempting to buy into the 'the show needs her to win because we haven't had a big queen win yet and the show has started to seem fatphobic' narrative. It's complicated, and I don't really know how to deal with it. For now I think I'm going to stick with: Eureka's style of comedy is not a style of comedy I enjoy. I recognize that the editing and others may enjoy her, but for the most part, I do not. Divorced from any of her actual reads in the mini-challenge, when they air like five of her reads and only like one of everyone else's, the editing becomes too transparent to be a surprise. Come on editing, let's try to make it slightly less predictable. 3. Aquaria's Melania Trump. I know it's not gonna happen, but since Donald Drumpf so often comments on SNL performances, I really really hope he tweets about this. Like, there's no way in hell it's gonna be on his radar. But maybe if enough people tweet it at him??? Let's make it happen, Twitter. #ShowTrumpAquaria On another note, the editing really pushed the narrative of 'Aquaria will do Melania well because Aquaria isn't well spoken and Melania has similar qualities'. But then like, Aquaria had a lot of clever one-liners that did take thought. I still enjoyed it, but it was not as advertised. 4. So I basically predicted the future with the Vixen. If y'all don't remember, in my last ruview, I wrote this:
I'm not 100% positive of the quote accuracy, but that's the message she dealt, and I am here for it 100%. 5. Someone needs to take this damn stretch sequin fabric away from the queens. I get it. It's nice looking; it has a great effect on stage, and it stretches. But I honestly think we've only seen it twice and I'm already sick of it. It's like that pink cheetah stretch fabric from season seven that we saw like a hundred times.  I know that the show bought like 500 yards, but I'm done! 6. I love Aquaria's mermaid look. And like, I also really like this runway concept? I think taking away the queens' ability to walk really brought to light which queen had a concept and which ones were just pretty. 7. The Vixen v. Eureka part 20. This is also extra complicated. I relate to the Vixen on many different levels, and honestly take her side in most situations. Unfortunately, in this episode when she's under stress, her argument starts to conflict with the overarching opinion the editing has delivered to us. And what hurts me there is that I think that how silly she seems in this episode may inadvertently nullify any verisimilitude she may have had in previous episodes. For example, the Vixen throws out that she doesn't like how Eureka has the attitude of "I'm sorry but this is who I am, deal with it," which is unfortunately exactly how the Vixen behaves herself. It's like the paradoxical infinitely edged sword of calling out someone for tone policing. You can't say 'how dare you tell me how to behave' without in nature telling that other person how to behave. For more on this, please see blogger and trans-activist Rebecca Vipond Brink's article titled, "Calling Out Tone-Policing Has Become Tone-Policing." There are a lot of moments where Eureka definitely has crossed the line of just saying 'wow Vixen how dare you be angry,' but the editing here takes the side of Eureka. One of the main points that the Vixen repeats is that Eureka was acting unprofessional and was regularly interrupting everyone, and that wasn't shown at all in the editing. Did Vixen only perceive this because she thinks she did well and sees Eureka as a rival? Did Eureka actually do this but edited it out because they needed to be pro-Eureka? Was it a mix of the two, both, or neither? No clue! It's television! Main point is, this did not paint the Vixen in a good light, and many of her points didn't come across as valid, but I hope that we can all agree that her points in the past have been valid. 8. Okay Asia is a mood, and also Michelle Visage needs to not. This look is everything and nobody can tell me otherwise. (I lowkey resent Asia a little because she was all 'everyone thinks that mermaids are pretty but I think differently even though mermaids as monsters is like, also a very popular interpretation, please see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the TV series Siren, or like, any edgy Tumblr blog). I am here for the mask; I am here for the look; and it made Untucked like twenty times better. 9. The Eureka Vixen nonsense took all the attention and made Aquaria's win feel regrettably underwhelming. Aquaria was like the side act or something. When the show focuses so much on the drama, and the drama overshadows the actual competition part of the show, it starts to seem more reality tv than reality competition tv. We get it, the drama is spicy, but why are we actually here, editors. 10. Oh how I wish we had a real lip sync. At least Monique was well aware she didn't know the words.
But a note on Monique and her financial struggles. I get it, but I also hate it. I get it and that's why I hate it. For Monique to be able to say that 'I didn't have the money which is the primary factor in my poor performance' is a pretty air tight excuse. In Untucked she even throws out that she couldn't spend time memorizing the song because she had to focus on creating her look. I get it, and I can't knock it, and it forces the audience to think about the underlying inequalities at play in the show. Like, what are the producers supposed to do, give all the queens 10K before the show and have them see what they can do? It's complicated. I'm disappointed because if Monique had been at the same financial level as the rest of the queens, we could have more fairly ranked her. Anyway, RIP Monique, and may you profit like Chi Chi in the future.
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