The Season 11 finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race featured three competitive queens, Brooke Lynn Hytes, A’Keria Chanel Davenport, and Yvie Oddly, as well as Silky Nutmeg Ganache, competing for the title of America’s next drag superstar. Tonight the competition came to a close, with Yvie Oddly being crowned.
While Nashville may be disappointed that his isn’t the year the crown comes to a Nashville queen, Brooke Lynn’s performance this season has been notable on many fronts, and her runways were nearly always flawless. Further, her on-screen romance with fellow contestant Vanjie Matteo made for a little drama for the fans. On the reunion episode, they swore it was real, but I’d love to hear from you folks in the comments whether you think it was all for the ratings or not!
Tonight’s winner, Yvie Oddly, whose spooky looks and quirky personality made for great television, was the predicted winner by many online pundits leading up to the finale. Joey Nolfi of Entertainment Weekly is just one of many who called the outcome of the episode perfectly without having even seen it. This is maybe one of this season’s biggest issues. While there was great backstory for many of the queens who hung on to the end, everything seemed oddly inevitable.
But back to Yvie: her personal physical struggles made for an impressive storyline, in large part because it didn’t come across as a plea for sympathy. Or maybe that’s just me. Her big personality meant you either loved her or hated her, but of the four remaining there was no doubt she was top two, and most had her pegged to take it home, as I said earlier.
A’Keria C. Davenport, in my opinion, skated through by leading the middle of the pack, but there’s no doubt she deserved to proceed to the finals more than someone else who also did, though arguable neither she nor Silky deserved to make the finale more than last night’s Miss Congeniality. If you’ve seen a few episodes and missed last night I probably don’t even need to tell you that it was Nina West. Nina carried Brooke Lynn through some tough spots, and helped so many others. She was also creative and had a style all her own.
Last but definitely also least… I know its popular to trash Silky, but I’m not doing it because it’s popular. I’m doing it because she’s trash. Or was at least edited that way. Early on, nearly every week, a queen that was nearly as bad as her, but clearly not as bad as her was sent home until there were no queens left as bad as her. Then Ru started sending queens who were far better than her home instead. No story, no drama, no ratings are worth subjecting viewers to Silky past week 3.
So congratulations to Yvie for her win, and Brooke Lynn for her great season, and Nina for Miss Congeniality. A’Keria, you were also there, girl, and I don’t hate you for it. Silky, finish that Ph.D. and stay the hell off a stage near me, please.
If what you’re looking for is a rundown of last night’s episode, or a detailed analysis of the season, this clearly wasn’t it. Check out The A.V. Club’s Kate Kulzick’s piece, which does a great job of summarizing and analyzing.
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