#RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 6 Episode 10 Review: Rudemption Lip-Sync Smackdown

The time has come! It’s been 84 years, but the game-within-a-game was revealed to the remaining queens on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 6 Episode 10.

After weeks of speculation, the lip-sync smackdown confirmed the theories burning through the internet. Of course, the queens would need to lip-sync to come back to the competition. Lip-syncing is the essence of Drag Race.

Nine queens entered, but only one would return. This is a Lip Sync For Your Life bloodbath!

The rudemption lip-sync smackdown had a great format to it.

Doing a sudden-death elimination order based on the most recent eliminated queen provided a fair and even set-up. Each queen had to work their way up and put in the effort to make it past the next round.

This tower model is better for this rudemption than the bracket-style in the Lip-Sync For The Crown. It wouldn’t be fair to a queen like Pandora Boxx or Eureka! who made it halfway through the competition to face off against a queen like Serena ChaCha in the first round of a bracket. The early boots needed to survive the rounds too.

It’s not over yet. Just keep winning and redemption will be yours.
RuPaul

My only concern with this twist was that we had to until RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 6 Episode 10. There are only 2-3 episodes left before the finale, so if an earlier queen returned, they wouldn’t have a fair chance to win.

Next time, the twist should return somewhere at Final 6 or Final 7. And, each queen should be aware of the twist as to use it in their campaigning not to be thrown into the smackdown.

For the first lip-sync of “Free Your Mind” by En Vogue, Jiggly Caliente and Serena ChaCha put up a strong battle against each other.

Serena tried to go in the direction of stunts and tricks, which normally would’ve wowed the judges in a typical lip-sync. Where that hit a hurdle was due to the song being a very powerful and sensual song.

Serena, I hope you’re ready to go back to Miami because you’re about to get a New York beatdown.
Jiggly Caliente

Jiggly, on the other hand, matched the vibe perfectly. Her hair flips and slow movement paired well with the song; it seemed like a track she had experience performing in a club.

Jiggly had this number in the bag once her hair flips stole the spotlight from Serena’s flips.

The second lip-sync, “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper, was an utter bloodbath in Silky Nutmeg Ganache’s favor.

Silky came to slay with this number; she didn’t give Jiggly a second to breathe. Her comedic choice of bringing out the drinks from her bra was a funny nod to her entrance on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 6 Episode 1. She mixed those drinks and had a blast!

Jiggly sticking to the lollipop microphone had a cute gag, but she needed more to wow the judges. The lollipop bit only worked for the first few seconds of the song.

Silky’s upbeat dance moves and lip-sync twists easily won her the victory.

The Yara Sofia vs. Silky battle during “Point of No Return” by Expose rightfully fell on Silky’s side.

Granted, Silky’s trick of pulling the water bottle from her bra had already been done in the previous lip sync. However, pouring the water on herself changed things up to be something new.

Yara Sofia: Need help ru-packing?

[Everyone laughs]
Ra’Jah O’Hara: That’s a mess.

Plus, the fringes on the bodysuit worked well with the song and took the attention away from Yara.

Yara tried to match Silky, but the battle was over once she fell on the floor and continuously scratched her crotch. The bit had some laughs, but it moved into excessive when she kept doing it for a quarter of the song.

Silky’s lip-sync against Scarlet Envy to “Song For The Lonely” by Cher was where I figured out the timing of the battles.

How did Silky get all these props? What was the timeline of the lip-syncs?

From my replay, every rudemption lip-sync smackdown happened the following week a queen got eliminated. So, I’d imagine each eliminated queen got the same amount of time to prepare for their songs. Silky clearly used that time to think outside the box and threw every idea out there to stay.

For example, Silky bringing out the flag perfectly fit with the beat of the song. It’s one of those moments where it so effortlessly worked and looked beautiful on the stage.

Scarlet couldn’t compete against Silky’s performance, especially with how she performed the number. Silky dominated this win.

It’s a shame that A’keria C. Davenport didn’t accept the offer to compete. However, it’s understandable why she chose to decline.

A’keria’s journey was her choice to make, so if ending the road after her elimination was right for her, we should support her decision. She didn’t want to return … and that’s that on that.

Still, Silky’s solo performance to “Barbie Girl” by Aqua slayed the house down.

Her turn as the “female” character got very messy, and her movements were all over the place, but the comedy alone made up for it all. The lip sync was hilarious! A’keria would’ve lost against that number due to Silky’s creativity with the idea.

Silky’s lip-sync battle against Jan to “Heartbreaker” by Pat Benatar nearly eliminated her from the smackdown. Seriously, it was that close!

Silky had the movements and flair for the first half of the song, but Jan owned the attitude and energy of the rocker. She gave every bit of anger the judges were looking for from the song.

Even the current queens knew it was a tight race. Jan nearly had this in the bag … until the guitar came out.

Silky’s stunt with the fake guitar was where Jan lost the lip sync. Her playing the fake guitar during the guitar solo was fine, but when she smashed it on stage at the end, the move sealed Jan’s fate.

The smashed guitar was a closer that no queen could compete against.

On the other hand, Pandora Boxx’s lip-sync to “Focus” by Ariana Grande wasn’t a close race. Silky won this lip sync easily.

Pandora looked great and had one of her best outfits throughout RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 6. If this were a runway, she could’ve landed at the top.

Her performance of the song didn’t have the same fire compared to Silky.

Silky matched Ariana’s iconic ponytail and went for it with the dance moves. She lived her Ariana Grande fantasy; the mix of hair flips, reveals, and attitude stole the show for her. And she did it in sneakers too.

The final battle of “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson might be where Silky lost the smackdown. (Curse you, cliffhangers!)

Eureka! owned every second of the lip-sync. She had emotion, moves and channeled the song’s vibe to make it a tough battle for Silky to fight.

Silky tried to go conceptual with a story and an inflatable suit. The problem, however, was that Eureka came out of the gate strong and carried it throughout the entire performance; Silky started slow and took too long to rise.

[In confessional] I am living for all this. So what if another girl is coming back? Bitch, I’ve made it this far. I can keep going, I know that. I’m going to enjoy it. My alcohol has kicked in. Bring it on!
Kylie Sonique Love

Plus, the outfit being stuck on Silky’s leg hurt the power of the reveal. She got too invested with the props and tricks, so much so that the last one hindered her the most.

We’ll have to wait until RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 6 Episode 11 to see who wins the battle. Though, if I had to make a choice, Eureka most likely won the lip-sync. We should prepare ourselves for a Eureka return really soon.

Last Thoughts From The Werk Room:

• Trinity K. Bonet was so pressed and stressed about a queen returning. Granted, she wanted it to be the finals, but if she were in the smackdown, she’d be loving the twist.
  
  
   
• Ra’Jah O’Hara, Kylie Sonique Love, and Ginger Minj were living for the smackdown. Their upbeat viewer commentary made the smackdown extra fun.
  
  
   
• Loved all the pre-battle intros from Carson Kressley. Each segment felt like a video game battle or teasing a fight.

Now, over to you, Drag Race fans!

What did you think of “Rudemption Lip-Sync Smackdown”?

Which lip-sync was your favorite? Which eliminated queen do you think won their lip sync? Who will return: Eureka or Silky?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Justin Carreiro is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.