All Stars 6’s ‘Game Within A Game’ was a hoot, it just came far too late in the season

After literally two months of teasing, build up and keeping Serena Cha Cha locked waiting in the World of Wonder basement, the long awaited All Stars 6 Game Within A Game finally arrived. And as much as I loved every second of the reverend doctor Silky Nutmeg Ganache pulling out every trick and stunt in the drag book, it all just felt like a momentum killer this late in the season. I’m unsure why the producers chose to leave it all this late, but I find it hard to be particularly enthusiastic about the momentum of the lead up to the top four being slowed exponentially by the return of a queen that’s already left.

All Stars 6 wouldn’t be an All Stars season without a returning queen style twist, and it’s a tradition I’m all for. But this year, they left it too late. We were geared up for the final four song. The momentum was right, the competitiveness was at fever pitch, and this whole twist has just made an excellent season feel like it’s treading water.

First things first, let’s give it up for Silky Nutmeg Ganache

Credit where credit is due, Silky Nutmeg Ganache got her moment. I’m so happy for her. I’ve never been a die hard Silky fan, but I’m so happy for her that she got an episode where she really dominated and made her mark in the RuPaul’s Drag Race history books. The performances Silky gave during the Game Within A Game are all legendary in their own way. They will honestly be cherished by the Drag Race fandom forever, and that’s something she should be so proud of even if she isn’t the returning queen when next week comes around.

But we have to talk about that Barbie Girl lip sync. It was high drag nonsense, camp, whimsical and just joyous. It will be memed and loved for years to come, and that kind of endurance in Drag Race is what serves queens very well in their careers. If nothing else, I’m so happy Silky got to have a week where she could solidify that. I just kind of wish it came earlier in the season.

At this point, we don’t need a queen to come back

Sorry to say it, but there isn’t a queen in this cast who deserved to come back the week before the final four. There just isn’t, and that’s a testament to how good Trinity, Kylie, Ginger and Ra’Jah have been. They are the top four, without question. Anyone else coming back will place fifth. Whether it’s Silky or whether it’s Eureka, neither of them deserve the top four more than the finalists we have, so it just feels like unsatisfying TV.

If this challenge came a few weeks back, it would have felt more correct. Eliminated queens wouldn’t have missed weeks of challenges and the solid nature of the top four wouldn’t have been as concrete.

Thank GOD the lip syncs weren’t to RuPaul songs

If we can be thankful for one All Stars 6 small mercy, it’s that all the lip syncs weren’t to RuPaul songs like they were in All Stars 4. I couldn’t endure that again. This year they had a crumb of budget and we actually got great songs to watch, Heartbreaker by Pat Benatar is one of the greatest songs EVER and I mean, what can be said about Aqua’s Barbie Girl that hasn’t been said already? Just wonderful.

I was a bit disappointed that it was a lip sync smackdown again as the twist. We’ve already had that before and I was hoping for a shake up. I heard someone say they thought the Game Within A Game might be some kind of double Snatch Game thing, which I thought was a great idea. Would love to see that explored in a future season.

This is an A’Keria C. Davenport fan account

The one queen I really wanted to see return was A’Keria, and I was sad she didn’t turn up to fight. But after hearing her speak about her reasons to not partake in the Game Within A Game, my respect for her continued to sky rocket as it has across all of All Stars 6. A’Keria knows the unlikelihood of a returning queen ever becoming a serious threat to winning the season. We all know that. And as fun as it would have been to see her perform because she’s an incredible lip syncer, I loved that she knows like we all know that this twist is just a dramatic diversion that will have no bearing on the season’s outcome.

All in all, despite having a great time with the episode and enjoying all the lip syncs, I find All Stars 6 pulling this so late in the game lacklustre. Just cut to the chase with the top four we deserve, but one thing we can all agree on at least is Silky Nutmeg Ganache supremacy.

Watch the Game Within A Game streaming now with the rest of All Stars 6 on Netflix. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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