Heading into the fifth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 11, Crystal Methyd had just claimed the front-runner position in Bracket 2 with a challenge and Lip Sync for Your Legacy win over her duet partner Aura Mayari. The four other queens in the bracket — April Carrión, Salina EsTitties, Silky Nutmeg Ganache, and Vivacious — were left with the selfless decision of which of their sisters would receive their one Most Valuable Queen point. With a handful of alliances still in the brewing stage, point allocation and confidence going into the next challenge felt more important than ever.
For their second challenge, the all stars had to write, direct, and produce their own DIY videos with the goal, as always, of making the judges laugh. Actress Gina Gershon served as guest judge alongside series stars RuPaul Charles, Michelle Visage, and Carson Kressley. Read on for our recap of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 11, Episode 4, titled “How-To Videos,” which began streaming Friday, May 29 at 12 a.m. PT on Paramount+.
In the preliminary rounds, the 18 queens of All Stars 11 were divided into three brackets of six to compete in three challenges where only two from each would advance to the semifinals. Earning enough points to advance from Bracket 1 was A’Keria C. Davenport (Season 11, All Stars 6) and Dawn (Season 16).
“I don’t do a lot of teaching; that’s why I don’t wanna have daughters.” — April Carrión
Having not earned any points in the first challenge, Silky opened the discussion on MVQ points with an acknowledgment that the other girls might see her as a threat but that she hopes it doesn’t prevent them from giving her a point. Fortunately the pair structure of the challenge afforded all the queens an easy path to point selection, meaning Silky and Vivacious swapped points and April and Salina did, too. While that gave Silky the point she was looking for, it did nothing to dispel or solidify any of the alliances that had begun to brew earlier in the week, leaving all the girls wondering how much trust they can continue to put in their sisters.
For their second opportunity to earn points, the girls got to work independently in the creation of a how-to video on a subject matter of their choosing. Ru stressed that the judges would be looking for “short and sweet” clips that are both “fun and informative.” It was a creative objective that appealed to queens like Salina and Silky that regularly produce their own video and social content online, but was more nerve-wracking for the girls like Aura and April that are less confident in the comedy space.
“My how-to video is telling you how to not be a dummy bitch when a man is using you.” — Silky Nutmeg Ganache
Ru offered the queens some additional face time with him by stopping by the Werk Room to hear about their ideas for the challenge. During his time with Vivacious, he urged her to “loosen up and have some fun,” admitting to having watched some of the footage of Michelle directing her through the recording session and being concerned with how long it took to get a good take. When Aura opened up about not being a comedy girl, Ru advised her to “stop judging you” so that “the funny will come out.” Silky wasn’t nervous about her ability to do well in the challenge, and yet both she and Ru were a bit worried about her capacity to “condense” all of her many strengths into the tight and cohesive package that the challenge requires.
On set, the queens were in charge of directing the Pit Crew actors through the planned scenes and coordinating the camera angles, sounds, and scene cuts. Vivacious made sure the guys were “lickin’ [their] lips and makin’ moaning sounds,” April smashed plantains with her breast plate, and Salina positioned her puppet Lil’ Chalupe while covered head-to-toe in green-screen spandex.
Because the girls weren’t on set during the filming of any other video, they were unsure where their effort would stand against the rest of the group, making the alliances more important than ever. After making a two-person deal with Aura, Salina was then caught going over to Crystal with the “Tres Leches” alliance offer that she had already made with April. With the door now open to any and all alliances, additional feelers were put out between Aura and Vivacious as well as April and Silky.
“Get those nuts in my face!” — Crystal Methyd
The how-to videos were screened in front of the judges after each of the queens walked the runway in the “Barn This Way” category showcasing looks inspired by life on the farm. Michelle thought that April’s video could have been funnier, but Carson appreciated her “friendly tone” and called her runway look “architectural” in the best way. The judges thought Aura had a “fun idea” for the zombie apocalypse video, but it didn’t amount to as many laugh out loud moments as they expected. Both Michelle and Carson were reminded of Pee-wee’s Playhouse in Crystal’s video and Ru called it “subversive and funny and really stupid.” Gina was “obsessed” with Salina and her puppet while Ru admitted to being “programmed to laugh” at fart jokes. Michelle and Gina thought Silky’s video successfully “started out crazy and then spiraled out into something even crazier.” There was a concern that Vivacious unintentionally came across “unbothered” both in her video and on the runway.
Despite the judges loving everything Salina accomplished with her video and the Lil’ Chalupe character, they selected Crystal and Silky as the top two of the week to receive two additional points. Following their face off to “Hazy Shades of Winter” by The Bangles, Silky managed to earn the coveted third point by doing what lip-sync assassins do best. Silky’s win raised her point total to four, just under Crystal’s five that maintained her frontrunner status. Vivacious, April, Aura, and Salina were left to prepare for the MVQ ceremony where they’d hand out one point to the queen of their choice at the start of Episode 6.
