WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for RuPaul's Drag Race Season 13, Episode 15, "RPDR Reunited," which aired Friday on VH1.
The reunion episode of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 13 marks the second reunion episode the show has done during the pandemic, and this time, the top four are able to celebrate together while the eliminated queens check in virtually from their respective homes. The crew is taking all the precautions to set up a safe reunion and finale while also making it entertaining, and the following article goes in depth about some of the highlights of this unique reunion, so there are plenty of spoilers ahead.
The Music Videos
Since the eliminated queens are not at the theater RuPaul is broadcasting from, they were able to film in advance original music videos to play between their interviews. While some queens --Tamisha Iman, LaLa Ri and Tina Burner -- performed their own original music, the others -- Kahmora Hall, Joey Jay, Elliott With 2 Ts, Denali, Utica and Olivia Lux -- performed to songs by other artists.
The first music video was from Kahmora, who made a sensual video to "Giving Him Something He Can Feel" by En Vogue. Following her was Joey Jay, who performed "I Want You Back" in her usual drag, as well as NSYNC drag. At the end of her video, Lance Bass even made an appearance. Next up was Tamisha, who's original song, "Arrogant," was based on the fight she had with Kandy Muse in Untucked.
LaLa also performed an original song called "Bad Bitch Tip," while Elliott performed to "Hideaway" by Kiesza. Denali, who's known for her skating, performed to Black Pink's "How You Like That" on ice. Tina also made her video about what she's become well known for, which is her red, yellow and orange color palette. Her original song "Turn It & Burn It" featured several of her fiery looks from this season.
The remaining music videos were lip syncs to other artists' music, with Utica performing to Halsey's "You Should Be Sad" while she was tangled in a web. Finally, Olivia performed to Mary J. Blige's "I'm Going Down," thus wrapping up the music videos for the night.
Toot or Boot
"Fashion Photo RuVeiw" has become a popular youtube series where former contestants toot and boot the looks for each week's episode of RuPaul's Drag Race. The reunion featured something similar, where the eliminated queens gave their opinions on some of the most iconic and infamous looks of Season 13.
Starting off the segment was Utica's sleeping bag dress, which she made for the ball challenge, no one could deny this was at a least a toot. Following this was Kahmora's train dress, which was a golden dragon number that everyone loved, even though she went home in this stunning gown. Next was Elliott's fascinator look, which Olivia, Joey and LaLa booted, but Elliott stood by it. Kandy's beast look didn't even get a boot or toot, with Tamisha dodging the question. Shifting to some more positive critiques, Symone's train look was one of the most iconic of the season, earning a shoot from LaLa and a mega toot from Joey.
For Tina, the queens judged her color palette instead of one outfit since she managed to wear red, orange and yellow in most of her looks, and a majority of the queens didn't like it. The season also had several queens wearing shockingly similar pieces, including Kandy and Olivia's wigs, Elliott and Tina's taxi outfits, LaLa, Tina and Elliott's Mardi Gras inspired looks, Denali and Gottmik's crash test dummy costumes and Olivia and Symone's boxing numbers.
Wrapping up the segment was the worst look of the season, LaLa's bag look, which was literally falling apart on the runway. This look landed her in the bottom, but Tamisha, Denali and Olivia praised it for being so iconic and being a winning lip sync outfit. It's also the first ever winner of the Golden Boot, potentially starting a new tradition for RuPaul's Drag Race, but it'll be hard to top this year's winner.
Lip Sync For Charity
While the reunion was virtual for those not in the top four, RuPaul delivered on a performance. Instead of a lip sync for your life, Ru personally chose two lip sync assassins to compete against each other for the charity of their choice. Ru chose Denali, who performed twice in the bottom two, and LaLa, who also performed twice in the bottom. This was a rematch between the queens, as they lip synced against each other during the premiere episode, and LaLa won back then.
Denali performied for National Center for Transgender Equality, and LaLa performed on behalf of National Black Justice Coalition. The song was "Be My Lover" by La Bouche, with each queen recording their performance in separate locations and broadcasting simultaneously. While LaLa won last time, Denali was tonight's winner, earning $10 thousand for her charity, and LaLa was also awarded $5 thousand for hers, ending the night on a positive note about giving back.