RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season 3 episode 5 review: An ode to queer family as the Queens go back to Studio 54

RuPaul’s Drag Race is so much more than a TV show. A bold statement perhaps, but it’s very much, for its millions of fans worldwide, a way of life.

It changes the way we speak, the show’s queens week-on-week dropping new turns of phrase into our lexicons or new catchphrases we’ll likely see, and buy, on a budget t-shirt. It changes the way many of us gather, whether it's weekly viewing parties in gay bars across Brooklyn or queer housemates who gather ritualistically around a streaming link which buffers slower than Alaska talks, each with their own very strong opinions and fierce defences of their favourite queens. It educates us, offering important lessons on queer living, empathy and essential pop cultural references. And, perhaps paramountly, it’s changed the ways so many of us see ourselves represented on screen: the thing that once saw you outcast or bullied ferociously for at school, here being celebrated and venerated on an international level as the most powerful position. There’s not enough fake eyelashes in the world for the number of baby queens born from the back of seeing themselves reflected on this once cult drag reality TV show.

There’s still a ways to go on the representation front, though — RuPaul strongly affirming that those assigned female at birth who are drag queens aren’t welcome on the show, tweeting a while back that Miss Universe is the arena for that. She’s, unequivocally, wrong and the show should be welcome, in my and many people’s opinion, to all genders and interpretations of drag. But while what we’ve got is indeed far from perfect, RuPaul’s Drag Race is still very much a beacon of better days to come for so many queer viewers and budding drag princesses around the world — and lord knows we deserve it.

So when the show, much like this season, isn’t quite what fans are thirsting for it can be incredibly disappointing to watch. But, finally, after weeks of worry for the queens and their mental health, the overhyped drama, and the array of disappointing maxi-challenges and lip-synchs, this week’s Andy Warhol Ball revived the beating heart of what makes Drag Race so special: not the lewks or the shade, but the sisterhood.

While the maxi-challenge was indeed a good one — each queen stepping off a white plastic horse a la Bianca Jagger in a Studio 54 inspired look, or canning it down the runway in a self-inspired soup-tin (deeply niche, but it did proffer Bebe’s “Atchoo” moment which was distilled genius) — it was the sisterly support in the workroom that invigorated this week’s episode with a filter of queer joy.

Trixie, who had locked wigs with Shangela last week, helped her with a bullish sewing machine. Aja taught Bebe how to cut, pin and even stitched her garment for her. Queens were kinder to each other, laughing about game strategy and catfights, so that by the time the runway arrived the queens, and the viewers, could concentrate on the challenge at hand rather than the cracks in the foundation backstage.

This new dynamic proffered a storming first win for both Trixie and Bebe, a decision which will have fans of the two loosening their corsets a little, while Aja and Shangela ended up on the bottom. For the first time it became anyone’s game — seeing Ben De La safe for the first time, with a look of much-welcomed relief at not having to send yet another queen packing.

And while it was sad to see Aja sent away by Bebe, there’s still hope for the eliminated queens who look set to return in next week’s episode (and perhaps, finally, that’ll be the end of the Handmaid's Tale refs).

But while the standard of drag itself didn’t feel much higher than in previous weeks, this episode was finally the life-affirming offering we’ve been waiting for. Because, at its heart, RuPaul’s Drag Race is an homage to the power of queer power, queer family and sisterly love — and that’s what rose to the top this week. As RuPaul warbles through tears, after Roxxxy Andrews’ breakdown post season 5 wig reveal, “as gay people we get to choose our family.” And that’s the point, really. While we live for the drama and love to hate a hateful Queen, really what we’re searching for as Drag Race devotees is unadulterated joy: and there’s nothing in the world that quite delivers this like a happy troupe of Queens full of love for each other, and love for themselves. Halleloo!

RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars season 3 airs in the UK on Comedy Central on Saturday nights at 10pm.