‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ 7 Winner Pays off Years of Storytelling

RuPaul’s Drag Race has always told some of the best stories in reality television, be they the mirror confessions that draw audiences in (Season 9 was full of them), the onstage breakdowns that become part of queer canon (bus stop — all I need to say), or the — how do I put this politely? — production puppeteering that steers a season onto a preferred track. All reality TV tells stories (it is television, after all), but Drag Race has perfected the practice. It knows how to wring the maximum amount of drama and sickeningness out of every moment.

Something different, however, is happening on Paramount+’s RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, and the conclusion of the first-ever all-winners season has made this hella clear. After a shaky start to the series 10 years ago and a confusing, stunt-filled stretch, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars is now operating on a higher plane of storytelling. This show ain’t just crowning winners; this show is creating legends. SPOILERS ahead if you haven’t seen the grand finale of All Stars 7.

I write all that to say… yes, the right person did win RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 7, The All-Winners Season of Legendary Legends. After the final lip sync in the Lip Sync LaLaPaRuZa Smackdown for the Crown tournament, Jinkx Monsoon won the title Queen of All Queens over runner-up Monét X Change. This win, which — in true Drag Race fashion — will definitely be controversial for reasons I’ll get to in a sec, proves that All Stars is thinking not just in season-long story arcs, but series-long story arcs.

But first, the season-long story arcs. The two LaLaPaRuZas of the night, the one for Queen of All Queens and the other for Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses, paid off a number of storylines that the producers and editors have been crafting all season.

In the runners-up bracket, Yvie Oddly’s win over The Vivienne felt cathartic only because we’ve been watching Yvie watch lip syncs that she would kill from the sidelines. Raja’s win over Jaida Essence Hall didn’t feel as earned as other storylines; Jaida really is the winner of the season in every way that doesn’t actually lead to $200,000. She had the best talking head, the best attitude, and some of the best drag of the season (I still maintain that her Prince is actually a great Prince impression! Jesus, watch any Prince interview!!!).

Raja went on to beat Yvie after a close lip sync, but Raja’s win retroactively made more sense upon seeing Jinkx’s win. Tonight was about crowning the OGs, and y’know what? Ya can’t argue with it.

The winners bracket, though, was rightfully home to the highest stakes of the season. When the wheel chose Jinkx to lip sync first, I started praying to World of Wonder that she would not lip sync against Shea Couleé yet. I’m an unapologetic Shea superfan who 100% believes she deserved a spot in the final four and should have earned many more stars over the season. Shea is the Empress of Excellence. But the story that needed to be told actually began before the season did, back when fans pegged Shea for the win and Jinkx as an early out (back when we thought there would be eliminations). Jinkx’s standout performance this season pretty much ensured her a spot in the final lip sync, no matter how hard Shea slayed. Shea remains the Empress of Excellence (and I will buy that on a t-shirt, Shea).

Monét and Trinity the Tuck’s showdown — y’all know the story there. Twinners and orchestrators of the clumsiest alliance in Drag Race herstory (although it did get Trinity into the finale, so…) pitted against each other. Monét won after another close-call lip sync, but it would be weird robbing her of the top two as she was the queen with the most stars.

Now let’s talk about what happens when storytelling meets reality, which is a problem that Drag Race frequently faces. The reality of that final lip sync, of Jinkx vs. Monét to “Swish Swish” by Katy Perry featuring Nicki Minaj, is that Monét X Change absolutely won. This wasn’t the case of Jinkx eeking out a victory over Detox to an Yma Sumac number in Season 5. Katy and Nicki are firmly in Monét’s repertoire, not Jinkx’s. Monét duckwalked and catwalked and strutted and stunted like the prize was hers, and by the time she made it rain on stage it seemed like the prize was hers.

And then came the storytelling.

If you watch this moment on TV, you may not catch this. If you’re wearing headphones, you’ll notice that the audio noticeably shifts with the phrase “based on this lip sync and your performance all season long.” It sounds like it was added in post, which is no scandal. That’s TV production. But as soon as I heard that, I knew that the “all season long” part was put in there to justify (storytelling!) the impending Jinkx win even though Monét ate that performance.

And I’m not mad about it.

For one thing, compare this sleight of hand to the incredibly clunky tie in All Stars Season 4. Like I mentioned, you might not even hear the difference in audio quality. But this is why the producers film all possible outcomes. Over the course of the season, fans have responded overwhelmingly positive to Jinkx’s performance and — you know where I’m headed — her story. This has been Jinkx’s season from the reading challenge in Episode 1 to the end. Monét has also had a killer season, but the queens who won hearts were Jinkx and Jaida.

That Jinkx win, though, it does feel good and it’s another example of the kind of decade-long storytelling that All Stars suddenly became very good at executing. Remember Kylie Sonique Love’s win last summer? That crowning paid off a storyline that was unknowingly set in motion when Kylie came out as a trans woman in the Season 2 reunion 11 years prior. The trails she blazed and the crown she ultimately won — what a story!

Jinkx’s win feels in line with that. She was the underdog of Season 5, consistently underestimated by her arch-rival Roxxxy Andrews. Jinkx had what it took in the acting challenges (her Little Edie changed Snatch Game forever) but her runways were always iffy. That’s what fans were worried about going into All Stars 7: could Jinkx deliver on the runway? Yep, she could and did every single week (except the weeks where she had to sew). Her art history reveal look, her witch-at-the-stake eleganza, her regal gowns and jazzy little numbers — it’s like who Jinkx knew she was on the inside back in Season 5 had finally come out to play. Her All Stars 7 streak (5 weeks in the top two) is, well, legendary.

So not only does this episode serve as the finale of All Stars 7, it also provides a satisfying epilogue to Season 5 almost a decade later. The question is, can the inevitable All Stars 8 keep this macro storytelling trend going, or will the show go back to focusing on the forest rather than the trees? To quote RuPaul: “I can’t wait to see how this turns out.” And in the meantime, long may Jinkx reign.