‘Drag Race All Stars’: Is It Time to Put an End to Snatch Game?

Snatch Game. It’s the moment fans wait for every season with unbridled anticipation, which perhaps is why it hurts so bad when it’s so disappointing.

Coming off of Season 9’s boring Snatch Game (in which Alexis Michelle won for a fine if not stellar impersonation of Liza Minelli) we surely had higher expectations for our queens on the latest episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. They are All Stars, after all.

Instead, we not only got a rendition which delivered more groans than guffaws, but we witnessed the downfall of fan favorite Trixie Mattel. It should have finally been her chance to land in the top after entering the workroom on the premiere as the perceived frontrunner, but instead, she almost got the boot after a surprising double win.

Producers set the stage for the heart-stopping false alarm at the start of the episode when they focused on a fight between Shangela and Trixie, who posted a note from Thorgy Thor that trashed Shangey yet again. (Side note: It’s amazing that Thorgy’s infamous bitterness has somehow outlasted her physical presence on the show.)

Shangela was upset that Trixie hung the note on the wall of her station, leading to some tension in the workroom. But there was no time for fighting because there was a mediocre Snatch Game to play!

It was no surprise that BenDeLaCreme did a great job as Paul Lynde after such a successful Snatch Game as Maggie Smith in Season 6. What was surprising, though, is that it landed her a fourth win in a row. Unless the most shocking twist in Drag Race history is headed our way, how do we get excited about who’s going to win the crown with stats like these?

Shangela was the other winner of the episode, giving us a spot-on impression of her friend Jenifer Lewis. The only underwhelming thing about that is the fact that Shangela basically based her entire drag persona on Ms. Lewis, so in a way, she was just playing herself.

Aja did a good job as Crystal LaBeija, but it’s a sad day when “good job” is enough to put you in the Top 3 of an All Stars Snatch Game. Bebe also landed in the safe position with her portrayal of Grace Jones, but it was really just another week where the OG winner did nothing to stand out.

When it came to the Bottom 3, however, the performances were a trainwreck that was hard to watch. Chi Chi was so unprepared for her Maya Angelou impression that she didn’t even spell the poet’s name right. Meanwhile, Phaedra Parks seemed like the perfect choice for Kennedy, but the Dancing Diva wasn’t able to land a laugh.

But it was Trixie, who desperately needed a win to prove she deserved her original frontrunner status, who fell the hardest. Although the queen does a RuPaul impression online that fans love, it didn’t translate to Snatch Game. Instead, we were treated to over-edited awkward pauses that had Trixie fans shaking in their pink plastic boots.

Apparently, there was a runway this episode with a Flower Power theme? But squeezing the episode into an hour meant there was no time to appreciate looks. Instead, we built up to what seemed like it was going to be the most shocking moment of the season. (But much like Snatch Game itself, it was all much ado about nothing.)

Shangela and Ben were both named winners after their lip sync to Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl,” which meant they both had the power to eliminate a queen. DeLa went first and revealed that she was sending Chi Chi home, which felt more than appropriate after she landed in the bottom every episode this season.

But when Shangela gave her speech before revealing the name on her lipstick, she made it seem like it was Trixie that she was sending home. In a collective gasp heard ’round the world, though, she revealed that she was actually sending Chi Chi packing.

No one can deny it was Chi Chi’s time to go and it was heartbreaking to watch Trixie’s emotional breakdown, but overall the fakeout felt like an attempt to add some excitement to an otherwise underwhelming episode. But much like Snatch Game, it just wasn’t enough.