It’s everybody’s favourite Drag Race staple: Snatch Game! How did the down under queens fare this season?

This recap contains spoilers for season two, episode four of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, available to watch on TVNZ+ now.

Let’s get it out of the way: This is way better than last year’s Snatch Game, which was so famously bad (and problematic) that it put every queen but one in the bottom, and more or less sounded the death knell of the whole season.

For the uninitiated, Snatch Game is the one challenge that recurs every single season of Drag Race. It’s a parody of classic US talk show Match Game (and its British version Blankety Blank), in which a panel has to guess a contestant’s own answer to questions, but with an added twist: the queens also have to impersonate celebrities, the goal being to make RuPaul laugh. It tests the four qualities that every Drag Race contestant needs: charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent. It’s often the make-or-break challenge of a season – a queen very rarely has bombed in Snatch Game and gone onto win a season, and whoever wins or does well in Snatch Game is immediately declared a leading contender.

This season’s Snatch Game is pretty classic: two great performances, a few good ones, a bad performance by a queen who wasn’t confident, and a truly bizarre one by a queen who was overly confident. It’s not going to be one for the history books, which is better than being so bad it dooms an entire season to ignomity. If there’s one disappointment, it’s that only one queen does a celebrity who is actually from Down Under – I would’ve loved to see a Suzanne Paul, Briscoes Lady or my personal Snatch Game choice, Lynne McGranger (Irene Roberts in Home and Away) on there.

Even better than this week’s Snatch Game, though, is the runway, which is clown-themed (official title: cirque de so-gay). If you suffer from coulrophobia, do not scroll down. You will see clowns, and they will terrify you. This one is an example of a runway that can be taken in so many ways – you can go glam, go comedy, or go completely out there – which is also the best kind of runway. Nobody messes it up, which makes it a bit boring in terms of drama.

Poor performances see Minnie Cooper and Beverly Kills in the bottom lip-syncing to Lady Gaga’s ‘Dance in the Dark’. It’s… really weird. This is Drag Race, so that’s saying something. Beverly Kills decides to go down a dramatic route with her lip-sync, while Minnie Cooper throws out every trick in the bag – she spins on the spot about 50 times, she makes fun of Beverly, she mugs and mugs and mugs. It doesn’t match the song, but it’s damn watchable.

Alas, one queen has to go home, and this week it’s…

ELIMINATED: Minnie Cooper

Yuri puts it best in a talking head: “I actually have no idea what the fuck is going on with Minnie.” Minnie absolutely bombs this episode.

Minnie Cooper’s choice of Ellen in Snatch Game isn’t inherently bad, but she comes with just the one joke (gay) and finishes most of her punchlines with “I’m Ellen”. If you have to remind us of who you’re impersonating, you’re probably not doing a great job. She has no banter with the other contestants, and stands out like a sore thumb. It’s a shame, because her runway is absolutely tremendous and probably could’ve kept her safe.

In saying that, her lip-sync is so goddamned bizarre and manic that it made me long to see her make it the whole way through. Minnie, as the oldest queen to ever compete on Drag Race, proves the role that older queens can have in the Drag Race franchise, and even (or especially) though she clashed with the younger queens, it’s important that this audience sees the fruits of decades of experience.

6. Beverly Kills

Beverly Kills chooses Glow-Up host Val Garland (the DING DONG lady) and makes one fatal mistake: she leaves the ding dongs out until the very end. She also makes other mistakes more generally, like not making any jokes or engaging with the core concept of comedy, but mostly she leaves out the ding dongs. Her runway is probably my least favourite, though that’s due to an unclear concept: a circus lion who is the whipper rather than the whipped. If you have to explain your story, your look probably isn’t the best!

I personally would’ve given Minnie the lip-sync win over Beverly, due to her strange approach to the song, but I am not the host of the show, I am the power-ranker. I worry about this queen’s longevity though. Lip-sync assassins do not win seasons.

5. Molly Poppinz

Molly Poppinz has the worst choice of character: Orville Peck. Orville Peck is the famously masked gay country singer who is not especially camp or funny. Can you think of a joke involving Orville Peck? Probably not. Molly doesn’t quite bomb but fades into the background, which might actually be worse. Runway’s really good, as always, though!

4. Kween Kong

Kween is… fine. Her choice of Real Housewife Nene Leakes isn’t an especially inspired one, and Kween is circling around a personality rather than doing an impersonation. But it’s not bad, at all, and her runway – a play on a bearded queen – is typically great! Surviving Snatch Game is better than not. Moving on.

3. Yuri Guaii

I was not expecting Yuri to do so well, but her choice of Courtney Love lets her laidback energy actually shine. Is it an especially accurate impersonation? Not really! Does she seem comfortable doing it? Absolutely. Is it funny? Yes! The rules of Snatch Game don’t really reward accuracy as much as they do “being funny”, and Yuri leans heavily on the latter.

2. Spanky Jackzon

Spanky Jackzon does Barry Humphries, which means she actually does Dame Edna (see above), but Snatch Game doesn’t let queens do copyrighted characters. It’s a brilliant, spot-on impersonation that you can tell Spanky has probably done in Palmy since the ’90s. If our winner wasn’t so good, Spanky would’ve been a worthy choice, and she continues to solidify her strong run through this competition. Plus, that glamorous runway? Mr. Mime found dead.

WINNER: Hannah Conda

My Hannah Conda do!

Hannah finally cinches the win with her Liza Minnelli. Liza’s been done before on Snatch Game, successfully, and it’s a little bit of a no-no to repeat a character, but Hannah chooses instead to do an older, battier Liza. It’s a clever choice that allows Hannah to riff – she does a brilliant, scatted version of RuPaul’s ‘Sissy That Walk’ – while also paying respect to the icon. She’s a clear highlight of the game and if you combine that with another grand runway (I swear Hannah spent more on her outfits than WoW spent on the actual season), it’s a win for her. I’d be very surprised if she doesn’t make the top four at this stage!

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