Lip synchronizations, whether for a queen’s life, her legacy, the crown or the cut, are one of the most essential ingredients in the delicious reality TV cake that is RuPaul’s Drag Race. Each episode of Drag Race culminates in a heated lip-sync confrontation, but not all seasons of Drag Race has a real killer with lip sync. A lip dubbed killer is a queen like Season 2’s Jujubee or Season 6’s Trinity K Bonet who routinely sends other queens to Drag Raceis the Lip Sync for Your Life elimination format, and it does it with levels of talent and passion that could blow a circuit and break a screen when you watch it at home. We are only four episodes in Drag Race season 13, but on January 22, Alaskan Queen Denali consolidated her status as the John Wick of dubbed assassins.
Due to some formatting confounds this season, Denali has synchronized his lips in all the episodes in which she appeared, and last night was one of the best performances we’ve seen on television so far this year, period. After a parody acting challenge from the movie Hallmark, Denali landed on Bottom 2 in front of the beautiful Kahmora Hall, who made a wooden performance like a lesbian tree (if that’s not enough reason to watch this show, we don’t know that is) Both are coincidentally wearing looks inspired by majestic beasts – Denali as a resplendent quetzal, Kahmora as a golden dragon – giving this battle a mythical quality. Crystal Waters’ track “100% Pure Love” begins, and Denali immediately takes off his feathery tail to better kick and turn. Kahmora, for her part, is confined by her long dress and does little more than swing her arms and walk across the stage verrrrry slowly. But Denali is not going easy with his opponent. Needing to prove her worth to the judges and queens, she wanders, walks and struts, her energy blending perfectly with the 90’s dance track.
Many seasons in Drag Race machine, it’s rare to see RuPaul so impressed with a performance, but Ru and the judges laugh, pant and clap along with the mesmerizing and confident queen. “I feel sorry for the idiot who has to go against you,” Ru tells Denali as she declares her victor. Some fans theorized on Twitter that it is the fastest “shantay you stay” Ru-ling in Drag Race her story. It’s a lip sync massacre, it’s great television, and it’s as much fun as you can have while the bars are still closed.