RuPaul’s Drag Race Finale Recap: Did the Right Queen Win Season 16?
Long live the new queen! Season 16 of RuPaul’s Drag Race reached its dramatic conclusion on Friday, culminating with a lip sync smackdown for the crown.
This time around, it really was any queen’s game. A recent TVLine poll was split almost completely evenly between the final trio — Nymphia Wind, Plane Jane and Sapphira Cristál — with Sapphira edging out her tied competitors by only a single percent. Even the queens’ track records are remarkably similar; Plane and Sapphira each have four wins under their belts, while Nymphia has three.
But this being the finale, it all came down to which queen was most determined to lip sync for her life, which queen was able to reach the deepest into her bag of tricks, and most importantly, which queen was willing to act an absolute fool.
Before we get into the big winner, we need to talk about Miss Congeniality. Sound the trumpets, because for the first time in Drag Race history… we have a tie! Last year’s recipient of the title, Malaysia Babydoll Foxx, took the stage to announced not one but two successors — Xunami Muse and Sapphira! The former wasn’t a surprise, but the latter? Uh, yeah! We assumed that still being in the competition would have made Sapphira ineligible, but hey, a win’s a win.
OK, time for the main event. As a last-chance effort to impress Ru, the three remaining queens performed to songs written specifically for them. Nymphia rose to new heights as “Queen of the Wind,” Plane owned every inch of her “Bodysuit” (that reveal of a bodysuit under a bodysuit was extremely Plane) and Sapphira wormed her way into our ears with a Donna Summer-esque disco bop.
Then came the first difficult decision of the night: Mama Ru placed Plane’s performance in third, thus eliminating her from the competition. Were we surprised? Absolutely not, though we do have to wonder how much (if any) of Plane’s fate came down to her being given the least exciting song of the bunch.
This left Nymphia to face off against Sapphira in the final lip sync of the season, set to Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam,” and Nymphia stole the show almost immediately with a bubble tea-inspired reveal featuring actual floating balloons. It was an inspired way to work flying props into her performance without, you know, murdering a bunch of butterflies. And this was only the first of three reveals from Ms. Wind, who eventually stripped down to a jaw-dropping yellow bikini with a matching ponytail. Sapphira’s attempt at an outfit reveal was a little clumsy, but she did rebound with a surprise wig towards the end of the showdown, so points must be given.
At this point, it was entirely up to Mama Ru. Would she prove totally bananas for Nymphia, or was she more in the mood to chase Sapphira? Squirrelfriends, the results are in. The winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16 is… Nymphia Wind!
Did your queen of choice end up with the crown? Weigh in via our poll below, then drop a comment with your full review of the Drag Race Season 16 finale.
I think Sapphira was the overall best queen seasonwise but dang Nymphia Wind pulled out all the stops in her lip sync! She undeniably won the crown with that. Bummer that Sapphira couldn’t do a better lip sync but props to Nymphia and she earned that win!!! Great season and the best top two!!
Big mistake. Sapphira is what’s needed in this crazy world to represent and advocate for the drag community. She has all the beauty, uniqueness, talent, etc. And she is an old soul on top of that. Nymphia is talented but is too immature. The wrong choice for these times IMHO.
COMPLETELY AGREE!! Over the ENTIRE SEASON, Saphirra has been consistently at the top of her game AND she understands the importance of spreading positivity. She was COMPLETELY professional and supportive of the other queens when she did NOT have to be. To think that she worked so hard the entire season only to have it boil down to one MOMENT on a stage…VERY TELLING! Nymphia was good, but I would think that it is more about what happens with the community AS A WHOLE! So much for the representation.
In every poll I’ve seen, people voted for Nymphia Wind to take the crown, and by a landslide.
Change the title of how this article shows up in search. You’re spoiling the winner for everyone!
This is the first season in a few where I wouldn’t mind if either queen won. Yes, Sapphira’s final lipsync was weaker than Nymphia’s, but both could’ve been crowned and it would have been very valid.
And it’s quite obvious they are saving Plane Jane for All Stars.
The producers are obviously so itching to return to Plane Jane vs. Amanda on All Stars you can already pretty much predict half of the next season.
If I never saw Plane Jane again, I would not be upset.
I thought Saphira was better in the solo performance and Nymphia was better in the duo lip synch. I think over all the right Queen won, and this was a very strong season with alot of great Queens. One of the best seasons in a long time actually. I am glad Saphira won Miss Congeniality.
My only gripe is the blatant hypocrisy in people saying that the final lip sync is now the sole determining factor in choosing a winner when those same people were yelling about track records to justify Jinx beating Monet in AS7 when Monet clearly dogwalked Jinx in the final lip sync. That all being said, I think Nymphia is a worthy winner but I don’t think her final lip sync was the marvel that people are making it out to be.
The difference is Jinkx was clearly the winner even before the finale, she dominated AS7, in that case the final lip sync shouldn’t be the deciding factor. Sapphira and Nymphia were much closer, neither of them was an obvious frontrunner so letting the final lip sync decide feels right.
But I think the show should always take the final performance and the track record into account and end the discussion entirely
Jinx had 4 wins. Monet had 3 wins. Sapphira had 4 wins. Nymphia had 3 wins (and 1 of those wins was part of a 4-way girl group where Megami wrote Nymphia’s entire verse). So to say that Sapphira and Nymphia’s track records were closer is literally incorrect. Sapphira was clearly the front-runner, with the actual cast expecting, wanting & supporting a Sapphira win. I actually don’t mind that Nymphia won… but I can’t stand the hypocrisy from the fans. Be consistent. It’s great that Nymphia won and we’ve been long overdue an east asian winner. But if Jinx won for having the far superior track record despite bombing the final lipsync, fans can at least acknowledge that Sapphira was denied the same even though she has an identical track record and supposedly didnt do as well in the final lipsync as Nymphia… instead of jumping through hoops to justify it.
Actually Jinkx had 3 wins and Monet had 1, if we’re talking top 2 placements which are more important in the All stars format Jinkx gad 5 nd Moet had 3 but it’s not just about track record. Jinkx was on another level in AS7. The consensus for almost the entire season was that Jinkx was going to win. She was the frontrunner, pretty much everyone agreed it was her season to lose. The finalists for this season were not
But I do agree that I want consistency, I just want it from the show. There should either be no final lip sync for the crown or the show should state for every season that it is not necessarily the deciding factor.
Honestly thought Sapphira won the season , but I also thought Nymphia won the final lip sync. You just never know whether that matters based on previous winner decisions. I think Nymphia’s vulnerability in the last episode and then her words about being the first East Asian winner plus that final lip sync sealed the deal. Sapphira and Plane will be invited to an all star if they want to do that.
TAKE THE WINNER OUT OF THE ARTICLE HEADLINE YOU TWITS. YOU JUST SPOILED THE EPISODE FOR ME WHILE I WAS SCROLLING THROUGH NEWS HEADLINES AND I WOULD DELETE THIS WEBSITE FROM THE INTERNET IF I COULD. WERE YOU BORN YESTERDAY? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE????
Calm down, Karen. Don’t want things spoiled for you, even accidentally, stay off the internet until you’ve seen the episode in question. It’s not anybody else’s fault you were scrolling through news headlines and had things spoiled for you.
Maybe stay off the internet until you’ve had a chance to watch Karen 🤣🤣🤣🤣
A win by any one of the three finalists would have been justified since the ladies were neck and neck throughout the entire season. Having said that, a win by an East Asian queen was a longtime coming and this is the first time since Aquaria that a fashion queen has won. So, i’m happy with the result.
There wasn’t a reunion episode this season where the queens get to answer questions about the show and each other. The lip sync showdown was great, but I did like watching the reunion shows in the past and was disappointed that there wasn’t one.
The reunion was sort of last week along with the LipSync Lalaparuza Smackdown. I guess it’s their way of changing things up a little.
I had Nymphia as the winner since the first episode – RU isn’t going to miss an opportunity to expand his brand in Taiwan…..Nymphia brings more $$ to the brand then PJ or SC (at this point in time)…..
It was a pretty good season overall and all 3 finalists should do well with their own brand going forward (if they play their cards right!)
What is plane’s brand? I genuinely don’t know.
Would be really nice if you guys could hide the winner for at least a day! Not everyone can watch live so the least you can do is hide the winners name instead of putting it in the blurb headline. Cmon already!!
I was really pulling for Sapphira especially after he disco inspired number put her in 1st (imo) but she didnt bring anything new to the last lip sync. The 1st reveal was clunky and the wig reveal looked limp (especially when you consider Nymphia also revealed to a better looking pony tail.. honestly I thought Sapphira made her pony tail out of the same sad unit Plane used in the book challenge. Nymphia just kept bringing it.. from reveal to reveal to reveal… new, entertaining and fresh! She deserved it.
I thought Sapphira was a shoe in to win from the start. Then they recapped everything the queens had done all season and I realized just how much Nymphia had brought it as well. Though Sapphira always had poise and grace so I may have been judging Nymphia on her more immature moments in the werkroom and confessionals. And I did think it was kind of odd that Sapphira got Miss Congeniality. Usually like you said that’s reserved for queens who are already out of the competition which kind of makes me wonder if the decision to give it to Nymphia had already been made. At the end of the day Nymphia still more than deserved her win but if any season deserved a double crowing it was definitely this one.