HEADER BY OLIVIA LAWRENCE

Surely, by now, we should be used to all the twists and turns and gags and goops that come with Broom’s Drag Race? Fourteen years in, the Emmy Award-winning series is still making us Joslyn Fox “gasp!” the house down; whether that’s through the introduction of a jury with a Shangela complex, RuPaul deciding not to eliminate any of the queens or a Willy Wonka-inspired chocolate candy bar with the ability to resurrect a queen’s chances of winning a crown and a few doollahz from the dead. Still, we are gagging. 

On the most recent episode of All Stars 7, which collects some of the fiercest champions from the show’s herstory, RuPaul continued to confuddle viewers as he revealed that the winners of the final maxi-challenge will be awarded three Legendary Legend Stars. Three! Up until this point, each queen had been distributed one star per challenge win, although a minor twist in episode five saw the top two All Stars receive two: one for themselves and another to a queen of their choice. 

Three stars guaranteed that, no matter how many Legendary Legandaric Star Legends or maxi-challenge wins the queens collected throughout the competition, they would secure a pass to the finale’s lip-sync smackdown for the crown. Although All Stars 7 has been hailed, by many, as one of the best seasons in the entire franchise due to the sheer amount of charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent of the eight winners, the new twist was met with polarising reactions on social media. Here, we dive into why the three star twist did and didn’t work. 

Here’s why it worked: 

Look, if a trio of new stars weren’t introduced, then three of the queens heading to the final would’ve been too obvious: Jinkx Monsoon, because she’s obliterating the competition with five challenge wins and four stars; Jaida Essence Hall, who – thanks to Jinkx’s donation – became the first winner of the season to receive three stars; and Trinity the Tuck, who boasts the second amount of wins after the aforementioned internationally tolerated drag queen. With only one more position to be filled, most of the tension would’ve vanished. And we love the tension! Love it!