In the fourth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 11, six more all stars entered the competition to fight it out in Bracket 2. The returning queens in this portion of the tournament are: April Carrión (Season 6), Aura Mayari (Season 15), Crystal Methyd (Season 12), Salina EsTitties (Season 15), Silky Nutmeg Ganache (Season 11, All Stars 6, Canada vs. the World 2), and Vivacious (Season 6).
For first challenge in Bracket 2, the all stars paired up to write, sing, and perform queen-on-queen duets at the Sha-Blammy Awards. Broadway star Reneé Rapp served as guest judge alongside series stars RuPaul Charles, Michelle Visage, and Jamal Sims. Read on for our recap of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 11, Episode 4, titled “Duets: It Takes Two,” which began streaming Friday, May 22 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 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).
“Break the mold, break the spell. Mother has arrived to give ’em hell.” — Vivacious
Back on the Main Stage, each of the queens expressed what drove them to re-enter the race for a crown. Crystal made it to the finale in her original season, but returned to show how much she’s grown. Salina understands that her personality pushed her forward in the competition and now she needs to bring a more complete drag package. Though Vivacious hasn’t competed in 13 years, her Ornacia creation has been a returning meme season after season and this time she promises more confidence that will keep her around much longer. Drag Race came early on in April’s career so she returned to show how far she’s come since that debut. Because Aura was surrounded by big personalities on her season, her goal this time was to show her own full potential after strengthening her confidence. As the only queen that has already been back before, Silky knows she has nothing to prove and simply just wants the crown to place on top of her story.
Among the six queens there were a number of prior relationships with alliance potential: Aura and Salina from Season 15, Vivacious and April from Season 6, and Aura and Silky from Chicago. Salina made her first verbal commitment to April while they discussed a “Tres Leches” alliance between them and Crystal as the three Latin queens in the group, but Crystal was hesitant to make promises to anyone and preferred to play the game as a “kayak kinda girl” that competed on her own.
“Now I’m gonna dog-walk you bitches. You poodle-, chihuahua-, bulldog-looking bitches!” — April Carrión
For their first opportunity to earn tournament points, the queens were paired up to fully realize duet performances Grammys style. In order to decide the pairs, the girls first listened to the three track options to determine individual preferences. Vivacious was the only one to step forward for the rap-based “HBF,” Aura was drawn to the theatrical “Hoes Before Bros,” and the other four were all looking to hop on the R&B ballad “Dreamin’ of Me.” Instead of fighting over her first choice, Crystal was the first to pivot and opted to join Aura in order to capitalize on the promise of a high quality singer and dancer as her partner. Eventually Silky decided that as the queen that’s been on All Stars before, she’d step aside to do the rap song with Vivacious, leaving April and Salina with the ballad.
Aside from wanting to prove to the others why she’s back for the fourth time, Silky was happy to be paired with Vivacious because of the sisterhood and “encouraging messages” she sent her when getting cyber-bullied during her original season. For that reason, they felt good about their chemistry and energy during their brainstorm sesh. In another part of the Werk Room, Aura and Crystal bridged the gap of their very different styles of drag by going for the “low-hanging fruit, literally” of “dick and balls” in their lyrical content. Salina and April shared their vision of being two Latinas fighting over a man as a “sexy bombshell” (April) vs. a “hood rat” (Salina), but they didn’t match in Salina’s hope to make it a singing showcase. Once all the queens hit the recording stage with Michelle and composer Markaholic, it was frustrating for Salina and the other girls that originally wanted to be on the ballad to hear that April struggles with pitch so much that all she could muster into the mic was what they described as “supposed to be singing.”
Later on as they prepared to take the stage, Aura reignited alliance talk by approaching some of the girls with promises. She vowed to give her MVQ point to her partner Crystal, but when Crystal didn’t reciprocate Aura went to Salina with the same promise. The alliance with Aura was also Salina’s second alliance after the “Tres Leches” one with April. Publicly, both April and Crystal said they want to give their point to the strongest in the challenge but would have to rethink that if that queen already won the three points in the challenge.
“I feel my mommy in this moment… even though my titties are showin’ I know she loves it!” — Salina EsTitties
Following their duet performances and walking in the “You Butter Ask Somebody” category on the runway, the judges delivered critiques to all six queens. Reneé recognized the “strength” that Vivacious exudes as a performer, but Jamal and Ru noticed nerves and stiffness. Her partner Silky earned higher praise for stealing the show and a high drag runway outfit, even if Ru wasn’t ready to call it “crown worthy.” The judges appreciated April’s ability as a dancer and her verse despite not being a “singer singer.” Jamal called Salina’s gown “gorgeous” and “perfect” while Michelle and Ru both called out “the lightness” that she brought to the stage now compared to her original season. Ru was the first to acknowledge how strong Aura is as a singer before all the judges gave her flowers for matching Crystal’s energy throughout. The “humor and high-fashion silhouette” of Crystal’s runway look paired how strong of a performance she put on was “wonderful to see.”
Based on their full package for the Bracket 2 debut challenge and the overall “purpose and objective” they displayed, Ru selected the pair of Aura and Crystal as the top two of the week to receive two tournament points. In the Lip Sync for Your Legacy head-to-head to “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” by Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer, Crystal won, earned $10,000 and the coveted third point, and became the early point leader in the bracket. Aura remained a happy second place with her two points while the bottom four prepared to deliver their MVQ points at the top of the next episode.
