Characters / RuPaul's Drag Race Season 13

WARNING: Contestants are listed in order of elimination and there are unmarked spoilers on this page.

Main (RuPaul, hosts and judges)

RuPaul's Drag Race (USA) seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

Drag Race around the world:

Canada | Chile | Down Under | France | Holland | Italy | Mexico | Philippines | Spain | Thailand | UK | USA

All Stars & Vs. the World

All Stars (USA) | Canada vs. the World | UK vs the World

All names, ages, and locations stated are at the time of filming.

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Kahmora Hall (13th)

Age: 28

From: Chicago, Illinois

"The Mackie doll is finally out of her box."

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• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • Kahmora's make-up is impeccable, but it can take her five hours sometimes to get into face because of how she gets into the smallest details. Played for comedy at first, but when the show gives the queens an hour to paint before the two-look runway mini-challenge, it's shown Kahmora is holding up production because she isn't even dressed when all the other queens are waiting to walk the runway.
  • For the Trains for Days runway she wears an absolutely gorgeous, tight-fitting, dragon-themed gown that the judges and her fellow queens applaud. However, due to the tightness of the skirt and it being a one-piece without a tearaway she is physically incapable of dancing during the proceeding lip sync for her life, and loses against Denali's high-energy voguing routine.
• Bathing Beauty:
  • During press weeks, Kahmora did an interview from the bath. She was in hair and makeup, covered in bubbles, and surrounded by candles living out her rich lady fantasy.
  • She brought back the concept for her video to En Vogue's "Giving Him Something He Can Feel" shown during the Reunion, where Kahmora is seen bathing luxuriously before receiving her man.
• Costume Porn: Prides herself on her collection of dresses from famous fashion designer and costumier Bob Mackie. Fans were sad to see her go knowing that they wouldn't see her other runways.
• Character Development:
  • She reveals in the reunion episode that she's gotten faster at doing makeup. Not by much (at the time), but as she says, "Baby steps!"
  • Her boyfriend has also come to accept her doing drag. In fact, he was confirmed to be the guy (playing her Love Interest, of course) in her reunion lipsync MV.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Kahmora paints a gorgeous face but she is not fast at doing so — in fact she's positively glacial.
• Downer Ending: Her character arc seemed to be her desire to do well in the show to prove to her parents, her boyfriend, and to herself that doing drag is a real career option that she could be successful at. When she is the first eliminated in episode 4 she outright states she felt she failed to do this.
• Drama Queen: Typically takes 5 hours to paint her face, but Drag Race moves at a far quicker pace and she's so flustered and flapped by being hurried that she starts yelping and bleating at her station while trying to get ready — to the annoyance of the other girls.
• Embarrassing Hobby: Acts like drag is this for her; in addition to her parents' disapproval, her boyfriend is also said to not be a fan of drag in general, causing her to only perform maybe a couple times a month and otherwise keep her drag career out of the house and hidden.
• The Fashionista:
  • Is a big fan of retro high fashion, and during her Whatcha Packin? exit talks about one of her first vintage looks was a Bob Mackie gown she found in a thrift store, of all places.
  • She's so concerned with looking good and feminine all the time that she pads and wears a breastplate under the green bodysuit she donned for the RuPaulmark Channel acting challenge, even though it was completely unnecessary since her whole body save for her face was chroma keyed away anyway. During the Reunion she at least got to explain her thought process; she was under the impression a tree-texture would be superimposed over her actual figure in the green bodysuit, not that just her face would be planted on a tree JPEG.
• Flat Character: The judges are concerned that there isn't much to Kahmora beyond looking good, and liken her to a "wire hanger". This sadly leads to her elimination when she is unable to bring the goods for the first acting challenge.
• Graceful Loser: Despite obviously being upset, Kahmora has enough sense and good grace to know that Denali absolutely slayed their lip sync, and applauds her rival queen even before Ru declares the winner.
• Happily Adopted: After the show, Kahmora was adopted into the Iman dynasty by Tamisha herself.
• Impractically Fancy Outfit: Her Trains runway is this; a gorgeous golden gown made to resemble a dragon, the downside being its heavy and restrictive construction.
• Named After Somebody Famous: From model Kimora Lee Simmons, but changed it to "Kahmora" to make it unique.
• One Degree of Separation: She is the drag mother of Soju, and her drag sisters include Jaida Essence Hall, Naysha Lopez, and Dida Ritz.
• Parental Issues: Her parents don't really know she does drag (although they know she "wears women's clothing" sometimes), since Kamhora has been afraid to tell them after they took her coming out as gay so badly.
• Playing a Tree: Gets eliminated for literally playing a tree. While the role was certainly a bit wooden by nature, it did include some references to Tyra Banks that could have made it pop with the proper enthusiasm.
• Popcultural Osmosis Failure: Consistently messes up the famous "I was ROOTING for us!" ('we were ROOTING for you!') line coined by Tyra Banks from America's Next Top Model, instead putting emphasis on "I was rooting for US!", losing the punch of the line. She apparently attempted the line dozens of times and just couldn't grasp how it was supposed to be emphasized.
• Pronouncing My Name for You: Makes it clear that she's "KAH-mora Hall" and not "Kimora", like her namesake (or season 9's Kimora Blac for that matter).
• Retraux: Seen on the show itself, but during Whatcha Packin? after her elimination she explains while she loves fashion, she has a preference to retro fashion designers (like Bob Mackie), and Michelle Visage compliments her on how she was able to showcase retro style in a way that still made it seem fresh and forward-thinking.
• Rich Bitch: Her aesthetic is this but Kahmora herself is too much of a sweetheart to play it straight.
• Shrinking Violet: Gets called out after the acting challenge that she tries too hard to be perfect, and is not willing to let herself go when the challenge calls for it, something she admits to being in her own head about.
• 13 Is Unlucky: Born on Friday the 13th and came in on 13th place on season 13.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Subverted in that she is not eliminated until episode 4, with three episodes to display her talents and backstory. She even quips upon her departure that in spite being first eliminated, she lasted more episodes during her season than any other previously first-eliminated queen.

Joey Jay (12th)

Age: 30

From: Phoenix, Arizona

"Filler queen."

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• Bilingual Bonus: Zigzagged. During the Money Bags runway, Joey carries a purse with binary code on it. Given that she is a software developer by day, viewers tried to decode the message. However, when translated, the code spells out "FU2" and it's ambiguous whether Joey randomly put numbers together or if it's supposed to be an acronym for "Fuck you too"
• Boyish Short Hair: Her signature style has her using her own boy hair for her drag, although normally tinted various colors. After she sports this look four times in a single episode, however, the judges warn her that while they love her hair, she still needs to show them versatility otherwise they will get bored. She dons her boy hair again for the Bag Ball, but she coupled it with two other looks using wigs, which Michelle applauds her for sticking to her aesthetic and still giving the judges what they asked for (although it sadly did not save her from elimination).
• Butch Lesbian: Her drag aesthetic, according to her Meet the Queens interview, even saying that she's more feminine when out of drag. She also likes using her boy hair in drag.
• Camp Gay: Joey is proudly a feminine "gay-as-fuck" guy.
• Captain Obvious: Joey got some good-natured teasing from fans due to branding herself as "a gay-ass bitch," considering the show (and the scene) she's a part of. She's taken this in stride and jokingly proclaims herself the "first" openly gay contestant on the show, which her fellow castmates and Drag Race alumnae also support.
• Catchphrase: "Gay as fuck".
• Character Tic: Joey tends to stand very still when watching lip syncs, with little to no expression.
• The Ditz: Proudly describes herself as "the dumbest bitch you'll ever meet".
• Genre Blindness: For her Mixed Bag runway her look was based on the pun "IV Bag", so in addition to wearing a nurse outfit she also had ivy (the plant) on her costume. Carson asks if she was making a double pun with it being an IV Bag and Poison Ivy, and while perhaps the ivy was intentional, it was not poison ivy so Joey just sits dumbfounded trying to explain that it's ivy and not poison ivy. Finally Carson drops it, but mentions to Joey when someone is trying to pay you a compliment for a reference you didn't intend to make, it's a smart idea just to pretend you meant to do it all along. In Whatcha Packin' Joey comes clean and says it was supposed to be the double pun.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?: Amps up being gay to being a personality trait, as demonstrated in her verse and memes of her being the “first openly gay” queen.
• Hidden Depths: Joey mentions that drag is currently only a side job for her and that she works a day job as a software developer. She also taught ballroom dancing for six years.
• Hospital Hottie: The basis for her 'Mixed Bag' look being based on an IV bag.
• Informed Judaism: Mentions being Jewish in one of the press week videos.
• Medium Awareness: Acknowledges that she's kind of a basic bitch due to her love of Vanessa Carlton and pumpkin spice lattes. She also assesses that she's the type of queen who would get cast as filler and builds a character around being "that filler queen who does better than everyone expected".
• Mr. Fanservice: Her handsome features have not gone unnoticed by the fandom and the other queens, mainly Kandy, who still pines for Joey weeks after Joey leaves the competition.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Proclaims herself confidently to be a lipsync assassin in the first episode, only to ironically lose both lipsyncs she was in. Comments by audiences have given that Joey was genuinely great, but ran into performers that were better, a fate that was bound to happen on a season so packed with excellent lipsyncers.
• Phrase Catcher: Michelle started it off, saying Joey's name in an exaggerated version of her own Joisey accent (“JOW-ee Jay”) though it's soon picked up by Ru.
• Recursive Crossdressing: Portrays all five members of *NSYNC in her reunion music video to "I Want You Back".
• Rummage Sale Reject: Her entrance look includes a red chicken feather bolero, which gets read by Kandy, the judges and even herself due to chicken feathers being rather cheap. Denali also uses the chicken feathers as the sole reason to eliminate Joey when the fresh queens were tasked to vote someone out based purely on first impressions.
• Tempting Fate: With her placement as the second queen eliminated (a spot most fans agree is arguably worse than going home first), her "Filler Queen" quips are certainly prophetic.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: Her entrance look's red chicken feather bolero was obviously never meant to be a performance piece, so when the queens are surprised with an immediate lip sync for their lives in their entrance outfits, Joey ends up shedding a ton of feathers all over the stage as she dances.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Claims that she refers to herself as a "Filler Queen" specifically to make her competitors underestimate her. Appears to drop this strategy after the surprise Entrance Lewk lip sync and subsequent "All Stars"-style queens' vote, realizing how her competition views her could make or break her time on the show.

Tamisha Iman (11th)

Age: 49

From: Atlanta, Georgia

"Holla' at me, I know you know me, holla' at me, I know you know me. Tamisha IS here!"

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• Backhanded Compliment: Delivers one of these when she feels that she may be up for elimination for the Bag Ball, noting that while she greatly dislikes some of her fellow queens (staring straight at Kandy Muse) she does respect their drag. Kandy and Tina are quick to call her out on it.
• Black Dude Dies First: When the 'Porkchop'-ed queens are told they have to choose who to eliminate in their own group, Tamisha is quick to point out she's the only black queen in the group and not to invoke this trope on her.
• Brutal Honesty: Does not believe in sugarcoating her feelings, and if she feels a certain way about you, she will tell you to your face, as Kandy Muse discovers in the Bag Ball Untucked.
• Bully Hunter: Clocks Kandy's propensity for cattiness and bluster early on — and is completely prepared to shut her down for it.
• The Clan: Has so many drag daughters that she calls her drag family a dynasty.
• Determinator:
  • By default for being a cancer survivor, still physically recovering from treatment, and still not asking for special treatment from the show. There are, of course, certain thing she just can't do anymore but she never makes excuses for those things.
  • As she confirms in Whatcha Packin' with Michelle Visage, although she was originally supposed to be on Season 12, that doesn't mean she had an automatic spot waiting for her in Season 13, and she auditioned again just like any other queen would.
• Doomed Defeatist:
  • While other queens in the "Porkchop Loading Dock" like Denali and Joey believe that not everything is lost and that there surely must be a twist incoming, Tamisha insists that they all have been eliminated for real and they have been gathered just to ferry them all back to the airport.
  • During the RuPaulMark acting challenge, in spite of being one of the safe queens for her Cher-inspired fortune teller machine role, she feels the judges made an unfair call and she should be in the bottom. While it is true it took Ross Matthews several attempts to bring Tamisha out of her shell, all the other queens agree she did a good job and made them laugh.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Reveals in her last episode that, besides being a cancer survivor, she also currently has an ostomy bag, but didn't tell anyone because she didn't want any special treatment.
• Experienced Protagonist: At 49 years old, Tamisha has 30 years of drag experience under her belt, and is a legend in the pageant circuit, holding multiple titles, such as Miss National 1996, Miss Black Universe 2000, and Miss GayUSofA 2005. She's also the founder of the Iman dynasty, having more than 60 living drag daughters, and over 30 others who have passed, as well as her three biological children who she says are older than all of her fellow Porkchop Queens. In particular, she is the mother of the late Tandi Iman Dupree, who all of her fellow castmates (and even Ru and Michelle) know as the drag queen who fell from the ceiling into the splits at the Miss Gay Black America 2001 pageant, having been immortalized online in the "Best Drag Queen Entrance EVER!" viral video.
• Formerly Fit: She's in her late 40's and is still recovering from cancer, meaning she can't quite do all the crazy dance moves she used to. During the first group choreography challenge, she laments the fact she is watching all the younger queens dancing (doing splits, flips, death drops, etc.) and knowing she used to be able to do that too. Ultimately proves to be her downfall, as the judges point out that, despite seeing how hard Tamisha is working, she just isn't capable of performing at the same level as her competitors, leading to her elimination.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: Is the cause of one for Ru and the judges; it's clear Tamisha just isn't at 100% after beating cancer and can't perform at the same level as her competitors, leaving Ru to decide if they take Tamisha's health into account and show her leniency in the judging, or they hold her to the same standard as everyone else. Ultimately, Ru decides to treat Tamisha the same as the other queens, sadly leading to her elimination.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: For the We're Here, We're Sheer, Get Used To It runway of episode 3, she sports a beautiful all-gold pageant gown with a huge bow detail, which has Ru absolutely gagging, declaring it one of the most beautiful to ever walk the Drag Race stage.
• Good Is Not Soft: Is a queen who admits to coming on the show more interested in the sisterhood than the crown, and is willing to step back during group challenges to not steal focus when it's not her time. That being said, when Elliott seems upset she was unanimously voted for elimination, Tamisha attempts to explain it's just the nature of the show and someone had to be eliminated. Elliott quite curtly asks why it couldn't have beeen Tamisha, to which Tamisha responds with the scathing truth: "They didn't vote me, they voted you".
• Graceful Loser: To an incredible degree; she has no regrets about her elimination and makes no excuses, instead being thrilled to be back in the game after beating cancer and already getting ready to be called back for All-Stars. Not only that, but after a major rift between herself and Kandy from the previous episode, Tamisha accepts Kandy's apology for coming for her with a hug and assurance that it's already behind them, showing no resentment at all.
  • Sore Loser: After the show, however, Tamisha has been vocal about the fact she should not have been eliminated, how queens like Kandy are getting preferential treatment, and how she can't wait for her nondisclosure agreement with the show expires so she can finally spill the "real T".
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Her Bag Eleganza look for the ball challenge was well crafted, but was sadly considered gaudy and poorly styled by the judges. Tamisha has the sewing skill to create fully realized garments, and owns beautiful gowns from her pageant days, but her personal taste level this time was called into question.
• My Greatest Second Chance:
  • Was supposed to be cast on season 12, but days after getting the casting call she found out she had colon cancer and had to give up her spot for aggressive radiation treatment and chemotherapy. Season 13 is literally her second chance after having to give up the chance the previous year.
  • In the Werk Room after her elimination, she says she's ready to get healthier and come back for All Stars.
• One Degree of Separation: Played With. In a first for the show, she's advertised as the drag mother of fellow contestant LaLa Ri. However, the situation is more complicated: while Tamisha does consider LaLa her daughter, when their relationship is finally discussed in episode 5, LaLa says she doesn't really think of Tamisha her drag mother, since she didn't do drag professionally until several years after Tamisha put her in drag for the first time.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: Everyone knows how much RuPaul loves twists, yet when Tamisha joins half of the cast in the "Porkchop Loading Dock" she insists that they have all been eliminated for real after just one lip sync. Of course, she's proven wrong.
• The Rival: After the Bag Ball, Tamisha and Kandy enter into a screaming match, and appear to be tense with one another from that point forward. Only lasts for one episode, but does come to a head with Kandy and Tamisha having to lip sync against one another.
• Team Mom: Very motherly to the other queens, her many drag daughters, and her actual children. This actually causes some issue when she's called out for not standing out in group challenges, and how she was purposely holding back to give the other girls their moments.
  • After the show, she's begun adopting her fellow castmates into the Iman Dynasty, starting with Kahmora who Tamisha believes has a great future in the pageant scene and Kahmora says she's proud to now be Kahmora Hall Iman.
• Tuckerization: She took her drag name "Tamisha" from the name of her eldest (biological) daughter.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Invoked in-universe when Ru and the judges fangirl over Tamisha's legendary drag daughter Tandi Iman Dupree mentioned above. Tamisha says with confidence that if Tandi had not died in 2005 she would've definitely become a Ru-Girl.
  • Tamisha was originally supposed to be on season 12 before she was forced to drop out due to her colon cancer diagnosis. Nicky Doll confirmed that she was the back-up queen who was brought on to replace her.

LaLa Ri (10th + Miss Congeniality)

Age: 30

From: Atlanta, Georgia

"Oh, what'cha say, what'cha say? LaLa Ri is here to slay!"

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• Dance Battler: One of the only queens that can rival Denali in the dance department, to the point that the two of them were officially named "lip-sync assassins of the season" by Ru during the Reunion. When LaLa performs, she performs.
• Didn't Think This Through: For her Bag Ball look, Lala was originally making a dress from pink and purple paper bags but changed it to a sloppily designed corset with the bags literally bunged all over the front and back haphazardly once she realized that she didn't have enough. Guest judge Nicole Byers points out that she could have cut the bags in half and doubled her count.
• Epic Fail: Her self-sewn bag look for the Bag Ball is described as such by Ru. She attempted to construct a dress using paper gift bags, but when she realized she did not have enough, destroyed her original look (that Kandy admits was kinda cute) and haphazardly glues them back onto a black corset. The end result is that the bags are crooked, covered in glue, and cockeyed, and the judges pretty much say it's the worst thing that has ever walked the runway.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: By virtue of being one of Tamisha Iman's drag daughters. In Episode 5, however, Tamisha explains LaLa is not really an "Iman", but she still technically considers a daughter.
• Nice Girl: Voted this season's Miss Congeniality.
• One Degree of Separation: In a first for the show, she's the drag daughter of a fellow competitor on the same season as herself, with her drag mother being Tamisha Iman. Well, less drag daughter, and more Tamisha put LaLa in drag for the first time.
• Phrase Catcher: "Do Re Mi, LaLa Ri"
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: In her Meet the Queens video she openly admits she does not know how to sew and that she does not feel ready for the show, despite the fact that she auditioned and was cast for the season. Unsurprisingly, she's in the bottom for the Bag Ball sewing challenge.
• Rummage Sale Reject:
  • Self-invoked when she comments after the daywear/nightwear mini-challenge runway that her looks are just not on the same level financially as her competitors or even past season queens. In an act of solidarity, however, the other queens are quick to point out LaLa knows how to wear anything she puts on, and it never feels like an overly expensive garment is wearing her instead.
  • Gets hit with this hard in the Bag Ball challenge where her runway is considered one of the worst to ever come out of a design challenge. The look eventually "earns" her the first ever Golden Boot Award during the Reunion for worst outfit of the season.
  • Finally leads to her elimination come the improv challenge, when her Bead It runway was read for not only being lackluster compared to her competitors, but had split open on the side.
• Verbal Tic: Peppers her speech liberally with “bitch”, mostly as just a filler word that she's probably not even consciously using. This leads to a very funny moment in one of her confessionals where she does this while saying a quick prayer, and then realizes that she just called God “bitch”.
  LaLa: ... Not bitch. You know you're not a bitch, Lord...
• Wardrobe Malfunction: Her Bead It runway split on the side, with Michelle telling her that not even attempting to hide it caused her to zero in on the damage and distract from the look.
• Whole Costume Reference: Her entrance look is a send-up of Beyoncé's blazer, leotard and mesh mask combo on the first night of her On The Run II tour.
• You're Not My Mother: Despite being heralded as the first mother-daughter duo to compete alongside each other, LaLa has not acknowledged Tamisha as her drag mother. With all the lead up to episode 4 when the two groups of queens reunited, fans were surprised when LaLa's only comments on Tamisha were "I know her from Atlanta". Episode 5 finally sheds light on this, Tamisha did put LaLa in drag for the first time, but after that LaLa didn't consider herself a "professional" drag queen until years later, so she doesn't really consider Tamisha her drag mother.

Elliott With 2 Ts (9th)

Age: 26

From: Las Vegas, Nevada

"I'm the queen you want to see, Elliott with two Ts, OK? Get into it."

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• Accidental Misnaming: During the second episode's Untucked she accidentally calls Tina Burner "Nina". Tina is put off since she works with and has a similar drag aesthetic to Season 11 alumna Nina West, but Elliott insists it was a mistake.
• Adults Dressed as Children: For the Social Media Rusical she portrays "Miss TokTik" (TikTok), a stereotypically grumpy tween Gen Z-er.
• Attention Whore: Proudly states that she wants everyone to look at her in her Meet the Queens video.
• Bad Impressionists: While playing the iconic Rue McClanahan for Snatch Game, she misses all of the key Blanche-isms and fails to embody the prerequisite Southern Belle charm, serving up an utterly one-note, deathly flat performance that ultimately leads to her elimination.
• Boring, but Practical: Her fashion aesthetic is a little underwhelming, such as her entrance look, referred to as "80's Mom Mall Realness", nearly leading to her elimination by the other queens, or her look for the Little Black Dress runway which the judges call out for being too regular and unembellished.
• Dance Battler: She's a trained ballet dancer, and as a matter of fact used to teach dance at Alyssa Edwards' dance studio.
  • During the Condragulations challenge of episode 2, her unexpectedly fierce dancing skills leave some queens shook (Tina, Kandy) after they'd initially written her off as “double eliminated”.
  • Finding herself in the bottom two after the Bossy Rossy challenge, she faces off against one of the provenly fiercest dancers in the competition, LaLa Ri. While both queens serve an excellent performance, Elliott's timing, rhythm, and showmanship is just that bit more polished, coming from her ballet background, and she sends LaLa packing.
• Death or Glory Attack: Is warned that doing Rue McClanahan for the Snatch Game would ultimately be this as The Golden Girls is considered hallowed ground in the gay community. Leads to her elimination after she is proven woefully incapable of delivering on the sultry southern belle charm Blanche's character was renowned for.
• Dresses the Same: Wears a Taxi inspired ensemble similar to Tina Burner during the Yellow Gorgeous runway.
• Forgot About His Powers: Not Elliott herself, but Tina is surprised when Elliott steps up to choreograph their first number, despite mentioning that Elliott is known for her dancing skills in the first episode.
• Friendship Moment: Touchingly in episode 7, she has a mirror chat heart-to-heart with Tina Burner, opening up about her insecurities and acknowledging that the other girls make her feel like an outsider (while also admitting she knows she's awkward). Tina, showing a softer side of her own imposing persona, offers Elliott good advice and welcome comfort.
• Gender-Blender Name: Uses her real name of Elliott.
• Humiliation Conga: Gets (fake) eliminated in the first episode along with six other queens, then ties for being voted for elimination with Utica by those queens completely based on first impressions, and then gets unanimously voted out when the queens have to do a re-vote. At least she isn't actually eliminated, but the other queens are quick to tease her that she's been eliminated three times after being on the show for only around 15 minutes.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: During the first group dance challenge, she decides to stay quiet about her impressive choreography skills. She does this to make it seem like she's not trying to take charge of the other girls, since they were already on edge about her being fake eliminated and added to their group, but also so she could use it to surprise them and the judges with what she could actually turn out.
• In-Series Nickname: Back when the other queens thought Elliott might be a plant sent by Ru, they would call her "The Mole" or "Elliott the Spy", fortunately she has grown out of these nicknames after the other girls realize how silly the idea actually was.
• Innocently Insensitive: Elliott speaks her mind — sometimes a little bluntly, and has been told multiple times by other queens that she needs to learn how to read the room.
• The Mole: Invoked; after being the one "Porkchopped" queen to be brought back to join the queens who won their lip syncs, the cast (in particular Kandy Muse) are convinced Elliott is a spy/mole. Amusingly, after the fact Kandy herself posted on Twitter roasting herself over her paranoia, pointing out the question of "who was Elliott even spying for?" since the queens are constantly being recorded anyway.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Was (fake) eliminated three times before it was revealed she was still in the competition and it was all a ploy to pick someone from the losing queens to join the winning queens group. Still, up until she's off-stage she is made to feel like she really was going home in her entrance look.
• No Social Skills: Gets accused of this by Kandy Muse, who barks that Elliot tries too hard and doesn't know how to read a room when interacting with her competitors. Elliott is taken aback since the insult comes almost out of nowhere.
  • This makes a lot more sense post-show, where it was revealed (and confirmed by Symone) that Elliott had made several racially-insensitive comments towards Kandy and Symone, as well as transphobic comments towards Gottmik.
• Only One Name: Played with. Her name is technically just Elliott, but the rest of it describes how it's spelled.
• Redheaded Step Child: Self-invoked when she is taken from the "Porkchopped" (fake eliminated) queens and placed with the winning queens' group, noting that no one seems eager to open up to her, treating her as an undeserving outsider. Continues to be an issue come Episode 7, with her socially-awkward personality putting the other queens off and making Elliott feel isolated. Episode 8, she name drops this trope again, saying she still feels like an outsider.

Denali Foxx (8th)

Age: 28

From: Chicago, Illinois

"Let me break the ice."

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• Agent Scully: When the queens get to meet psychic Char Margolis for a reading, Denali spends the session giving skeptical and questioning looks
• Awesome, but Impractical: Enters the Werk Room in actual ice skates, paying homage to her figure skating background. Of course she couldn't have known the queens would be immediately called to lip sync in their entrance lewks, making her choice of footwear a severe disadvantage.
• Badass Boast: States that while she may not be the first ice-skater on the show (that being Milk), she's the only one that can do a backflip on skates. Which she proves in a video she released after episode 1.
• Blink-and-You-Miss-It: If you look closely you can see throughout the show the scratch marks Denali left from her skates during her entrance.
• Casual Kink: Has made it no secret that she likes it rough.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Very subtle when on the show given that Denali is focused on the competition but she still has a few quirks. Her makeup tutorial released after her elimination, however, shows this in full force as she goes on several bizarre tangents.
• Color Blind Confusion: Denali is mildly red-green color blind though it only gets brought up when Rosé compares the yellow of her dress to the orange of the floor because they were the same color from Denali's perspective.
• Competition Freak: Has some shades of this and jokingly compares herself to Tonya Harding. By episode 7, the fact that she's gone so many episodes without receiving any kind of critique — positive or negative — starts to take a toll on her.
• Consistent Clothing Style: Being a dancer, Denali's drag style has an emphasis on being easy to move in, with the silhouette of a typical figure-skater's mini-dress being her main go-to style.
• Control Freak: During their first group dance number, Denali demands control of the group choreography in spite of the fact both Rosé and Joey Jay both have experience and want to be involved. When the queens hit the stage she assumes control, and rolls her eyes or complains in Confession whenever one of the other queens chime in. She did, at least, have the respect to accept Tamisha's critiques as the latter has 30+ years of drag expertise under her belt.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Her lip sync against Kahmora in episode 4. Denali had already established herself as a dancing threat by slaying Rosé, and she was against Kahmora who was in a beautiful but limiting outfit. Unsurprisingly, she's immediately declared safe by Ru, who even forgoes the usual "I've made my decision" suspense spiel.
• Dance Battler: Proudly notes that she feels sorry for whoever ends up against her in a lip sync. Showcased during her lip sync in episode one against LaLa Ri, where, despite ultimately losing, Denali still manages to pull off some rather impressive moves while in ice skates, including a cartwheel. Ru even tells her outright that he feels bad for whoever has to lip sync against her. She then vindicates herself by winning two lip syncs in a row. Ru later during the Reunion names her (alongside LaLa) the official lip-sync assassin of the season. As one Redditor put it:
  Her lip syncs feel like wins.
• Doomed Defeatist: During the Social Media: The Rusical challenge when she gets the "Russian Drone" role over her preferred roles (that Utica and Rosé got instead), Denali pouts in confession and states she doesn't even want to do the challenge anymore. Luckily a boost of confidence from Anne Hathaway gives her the drive she needs to turn the role out and wind up in the top three.
• Fanservice with a Smile: For the Fascinating Fascinators runway of episode 9, she dresses as an adorable mid-century Malt Shop hostess — on roller-blades — and expertly glides her way back and forth the runway.
• Fire/Water Juxtaposition: Or to put it in her words: Icy-Spicy.
• Fire/Ice Duo: Invoked by Ru in the reunion when introducing Denali and Tina's segment of asking fan questions to each other. They briefly speculate on doing a show together inspired by Blades of Glory.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: For the Makeover challenge of episode 10, she's tasked with making over Olivia Lux into her own drag-style and persona, while Olivia reciprocates for her. While the tulle outfit she puts Olivia in screams Denali house-style, the makeup is judged as being a little 'meh' and Olivia's impersonation of her falls slightly flat — leading to the pair landing in the bottom 2 and lip syncing against each other, with Denali ultimately sashaying-away.
• Genre Savvy: When she is part of the half of the initial cast to get the "porkchop" after a sudden entrance look lip sync, she is the first to point out there is no way they would just eliminate half the queens in the first episode, and stands firm even when other queens remain worried. She is right, of course, but with a twist from Ru.
• Graceful Loser: Handles her elimination remarkably well given her competitive nature. In the end what makes Denali cry as she packs up is not the fact that she lost but the letters she received from the other queens.
• Hidden Depths: Denali speaks three languages fluently- English, Spanish, and Korean.
• Informed Attribute: Denali's obsession with lamps.
• Irony: A figure skater from Alaska who hates the cold.
• It's All About Me: Shows this attitude often in the show; during the first choreography challenge she demands control over Rosé and Joey, in spite of those two being dancers as well, and during the first group acting challenge she takes the lead role, in spite of a lack of acting skills (landing her in the bottom). For for the Social Media: The Rusical challenge she tries to muscle her way into Rosé's preferred role because she wants to stand out, although in that case she gets shot down as Rosé beats her out in a quick test audition voted for by the other girls.
• Medium Awareness: Denali caught on very quickly to the fact that she was going to be Out of Focus on the show and decided to put a lot of emphasis on producing content as the season aired, such as redoing each of her lip syncs and releasing the video the following day. This has worked to a stellar success, with two videos surpassing one million views (including 100% Pure Love which reached a million in less than a week) and a third video quickly approaching the same mark, thus taking what would have been an overshadowed run on the show and making her one of the most popular queens of the season.
• Minored In Ass Kicking: In addition to being a professional ice dancer, Denali is a 3rd degree black belt in taekwando.
• My Greatest Second Chance: After Ru names her and LaLa the official lip-sync assassins of the season, they go head-to-head one last time to La Bouche's "Be My Lover" in a lip-sync for charity. Denali was beaten by LaLa in the premiere lip-sync smackdown, but this time she manages to edge her out and win.
• Only One Name: Her official drag name is "Denali Foxx" but she just goes by Denali on the show. Denali later explains that this is because she likes the look of queens with just one name but for obvious reasons, finding her on social media would be difficult without the last name.
• Parental Issues: Has said her parents do not support her drag career, since they don't really understand what she does. To them, they assume dressing up in women's clothing is just a sexual kink meant for the bedroom and nothing more.
• Pinball Protagonist: Constantly being safe causes Denali to start having major concerns that she is increasingly Out of Focus and just fading into the background halfway through the season. Reaches a peak in Episode 7's Untucked after she's declared safe again in what she admits is her favorite outfit she brought and the other safe girls are starting to talk over and ignore her.
• Popcultural Osmosis Failure: Gets called out in the first acting challenge for missing the subtext of the line "What. A. Dump!" made famous by the late Bette Davis.
• Recursive Crossdressing: For Snatch Game, she portrays Camp Gay icon Jonathan Van Ness, and perfectly captures his pouting, cheerful mugging and positive affirmations, as well as his penchant for finger-combing and hair-flipping via possibly the glossiest wig ever to grace the Drag Race series.
• Running Gag: Her hatred for Joey Jay's chicken feather bolero. It's the reason she initially votes to eliminate Joey in the "Porkchop Loading Dock", and she reminds the audience that her Trains for Days outfit is made of expensive ostrich, not chicken, feathers.
• Spicy Latina: A Mexican-American queen self-described as "spicy", and is thrilled she gets to show off her roots in the Bag Ball with a Dia de los Muertos inspired sugar skull look.
• Those Two Guys: She and Rosé go out of their way to work together in challenges, as seen on more than one occasion. When the eliminations start on episode 4, Rosé says that she needs her in the competition with her.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: Her issues with her ice skates aside, her entrance lewk is clearly not a dancing outfit, and her top begins to fall apart during the lip sync, repeatedly exposing her chest.

Tina Burner (7th)

Age: 39

From: New York City, New York

"Didn't your parents ever teach you not to play with fire? Now let's turn it and burn it, bitches!"

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• Alpha Bitch: In addition to Kandy, has been told she can come off as arrogant and have an attitude sometimes with the other girls. Her, Kandy, and Gottmik decide to just embrace the fact the other girls seem to take issue with them and name their ongoing clique as "Team Mean Girls".
• Age-Gap Romance: As discussed in episode 8, she used to date Drag Race UK judge Graham Norton, who is seventeen years Tina's senior.
• Big Applesauce: One of four New York City queens on the season, alongside Kandy Muse, Olivia Lux, and Rosé.
• Boring Yet Practical: Technically does well in almost every challenge, but always stays very on-brand for her Tina Burner character and rarely serves up anything that judges don't already expect from her.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Played with; when eliminated she starts walking backwards and begins to say her own name appropriating Vanjie Meteo's famous memetic exit … before she calls herself out and delivers her own exit line instead.
• Butt-Monkey: Constantly gets called out for her awful make-up by the judges, the other queens and the fandom, the most infamous instance being the "Freaky Friday" Flip challenge, when she had to make over Rosé in her signature style, with Rosé's Thousand-Yard Stare upon seeing herself in the mirror quickly reaching memetic status. Rosé even jokingly claimed in the finale that Tina must have confused that week's runway theme with next week's Beast category. Tina herself gamely accepts the jokes, and clearly improved her make-up post show.
• Camp: Her aesthetic seems to be classic camp whenever she can get away with it; her entrance outfit was based on a firefighter's uniform as a nod to her drag name of Burner, and her Trains for Days runway has her wearing an outfit based on a dragged out train conductor with a train track train. Seems if Tina can inject a cheeky Pun into her outfit, she will!
• Consistent Clothing Style: Yellow/Orange/Red outfits; thematic to her "Burner" drag name. In just the first two episodes, 4 out of 5 of her looks all follow this color scheme (not to mention her promo look). When she does a Whole Costume Reference to the Tin-Man for her Lamé You Stay runway, she's lauded for not wearing another Fire Is Red outfit, despite having a blood red bejeweled heart on her chest.^note If she had been part of the We're Here, We're Sheer runway, she had brought a blue outfit inspired by Hades from Hercules, showing she can do more than the stereotypical Fire Is Red color schemes. She actually calls herself out for this in the Bag Ball for which she creates a red dress using a faux leather bean-bag chair with yellow purse handle suspenders, calling it her signature "red and yellow style", and again in the Makeover challenge, wryly noting that she serves range since she wears red, orange, yellow, and sometimes even gold! Finally comes to a head in her elimination episode, the judges even quipping after this season they'll never need to see a combination of yellow, red, and orange ever again.
• Creepy Doll: Her Beast Couture look, as she describes it, is a doll who decided to slice up all of her friends (who are stuffed animals) and make a patchwork suit out of their remains. It really doesn't fit the theme, however, and the judges are left confused and underwhelmed by the look.
• Dresses the Same: Wears a taxi-inspired ensemble similar to Elliott during the Yellow Gorgeous runway.
• Fiery Redhead: From a more natural blond with orange-red ombré to a giant clown-red drag wig, Tina likes using red hair as part of her signature style. Even for looks that don't use her red/yellow preference (such as her Brown Paper Bag look or her Money Bags look from the ball challenge), she will still pair it with a red wig. It's not until episode 8 that she finally switches it up on the Yellow Gorgeous runway and wears black hair to compliment her New York taxi cab inspired dress.
• Fire/Ice Duo: Invoked by Ru in the reunion when introducing Denali and Tina's segment of asking fan questions to each other. They briefly speculate on doing a show together inspired by Blades of Glory.
• Flat Character: Has been stalwart in her attempts to be "on-brand" the entire season, serving her classic Fire Is Red Camp in every challenge. This does not go unnoticed, although not positively, as by episode 11 the judges critique her in that although she has a strong brand it is never elevated so Tina can come off as one-note in spite of technically doing well in the challenges.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: For the Makeover challenge of episode 10, she's tasked with making over Rosé into her own drag-style and persona, while Rosé reciprocates for her. While preparing for the challenge, Tina's drag is critiqued fairly harshly by her partner (Rosé notes that she is not leaving Drag Race dressed as Tina Burner), the other girls, and the judges, with all of them stating that Tina's drag just couldn't look good on anyone. Overall, it's a bit of a roast for Tina, who does manage to dress Rosé in house-style, and for her part Rosé does manage to embody the key wink-wink-nudge-nudge Tina-isms, but ultimately the pair don't reach the standard achieved by the other girls and are deemed simply safe.
• Friendship Moment: Touchingly in episode 7, she has a mirror chat heart-to-heart with Elliott, who opens up to her about her insecurities and acknowledges that the other girls make her feel like an outsider (while also admitting she knows she's awkward). Tina, showing a softer side of her own imposing persona, offers Elliott good advice and welcome comfort.
• Girliness Upgrade: For the Disco-Mentary challenge of episode 6, Tina abandons her campy, comedy stylings and goes full-on glamour in a glittering mini-dress and Farah Fawcett-style wig with her long, shapely legs fully on show. It's the most beautiful she's looked so far and, combined with an excellent performance, ensures she receives well-deserved praise from the judges.
• Hybrid Monster: Her Beast Couture look is a huge teddy-bear suit, designed in a macabre way to look like it's been patch-worked and stapled together from multiple different sources. While the judges appreciate that it isn't red/yellow/orange, it's also so ungainly that she struggles to lip sync properly and is ultimately sent home.
• Hypocrite: Complains during the Makeover challenge that Rosé wants her to wear pink (Rosé's signature color) while arguing she has range since she at least wears red, orange, yellow, and even sometimes gold! Tina has worn one of her "signature colors" almost every runway, while Rosé has used her crutch color far less often.
• I Was Quite a Fashion Victim: Roasts herself over old paparazzi photos from back when she dated Graham Norton, in particular her boyband-bleached and flat ironed hair.
• Informed Attribute: It's frequently brought up that she was once a member of an early 2000s boy band, which is brought up by Ross and herself in confessionals during the song-writing challenge.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Like her friend Nina West, she admits that she looks like a linebacker in a dress. She's also perhaps more of a Straight Gay than her fellow queens, exhibiting less typical queenly campiness and is actually quite laddish out of drag.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Says she took her name from Tina Turner.^note Bob the Drag Queen disputed this after the Meet the Queens videos came out, saying Tina's name is a play on words for the phrase "Burning Tina", slang for smoking crystal meth.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The In-Between of the "Mean Girls" clique with Kandy and Gottmik; Tina can be shady and arrogant at times, but she also often acts as the Team Dad of the queens, like how she was quick to connect with Elliott when the latter admitted to still feeling like an outsider in the group.
• Nonindicative Name: During the Reunion she claims her clique name with Kandy and Gottmik, "Team Mean Girls", was never supposed to be indicative of them being bullies, but moreso poking fun at the movie that they were a campy group of dumb girls who rag on one another.
• One Degree of Separation:
  • She is very close friends with several queens from past seasons, such as Bob the Drag Queen, Bianca Del Rio, Peppermint, and Nina West.
  • She's also Drag Race UK judge Graham Norton's ex-boyfriend.
• Power Trio: Becomes fast friends with Kandy Muse and Gottmik, the latter probably due to how the New York drag scene has become open-minded towards trans queens in recent years, and the former in spite of the fact Tina didn't think she would get along with Kandy.
• Recursive Crossdressing: One of three queens to perform as a cis male for Snatch Game, sweating to the oldies as Camp Gay fitness and diet guru Richard Simmons.
• Self-Deprecation: While she calls Utica out for coming off as two-faced off-camera, she also tries to reassure her that it's alright to come off as a hateful bitch sometimes … using herself as an example.
• Statuesque Stunner: Standing at a stately 6'3", even before the heels, she's the second tallest queen of Season 13, behind the 6'4" Utica.
• Team Dad: The other queens call her the dad of the season and she definitely exhibits something of a "drag-bro" vibe. She's even begun selling "#Dad" necklaces as merch.
• Uncanny Valley Makeup:
  • Hilariously used to mock her signature style during the makeover, where she puts Tina Burner make-up on Rosé's face. Tina's make-up skills by themselves are not "great", but used on Rosé's masculine features (especially her large brow) causes the judges to make the critique that while it's undeniably "Tina", that Tina's style just doesn't look good on anyone.
  • For her Beast Couture runway Tina wears a patchwork outfit seemingly made out of stuffed animals, but pairs it with a doll-like make-up that just doesn't look like it fits with the garment.
• Whole Costume Reference: Her Lamé, You Stay runway is a Rule 63 Tin-Man from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, complete with ax-head clutch and a bejeweled human-heart brooch under her jacket.

Utica Queen (6th)

Age: 25

From: Utica, Minnesota

*sneezes* "She's sickening!"

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• Bad Impressionists: In theory, her Bob Ross Rib for Snatch Game should have been a shoe-in for this mellow queen, but she literally gets it all wrong in terms of Bob's manner, accent, tone of voice, look, and behavior in a car-crash performance that sees the other queens quaking with cringe on her behalf and Utica landing in the bottom two.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: During the Porkchopped Queens revote, the reason why the second vote was unanimously in favor of Elliott leaving (with Kahmora and Tamisha changing their vote) was because Utica was the first to notice Kahmora had lost a fingernail, got up to pick it up off the floor, and gave Kahmora her own nail glue to fix it, completely unprompted.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's either this, or Innocently Insensitive depending on your POV, but the queens accuse her of the former come episode 9's Untucked, indicting Utica for being two-faced when the cameras were off. It gets brought up that she told Olivia her Snatch Game was fine at first then said the opposite later, and Rosé points out the time Utica pulled out a binder of reads she didn't use for the Library mini-challenge as an excuse to openly insult her competitors off-screen. Utica seems shaken by these accusations, and says she's just trying to find a balance of her own personality and was using the off-camera time as a chance to be more personable, not realizing she was coming off as shady.
• Black Comedy:
  • Her entrance line, where she mimes being sick and sneezes into her hands. Keep in mind that the season was filmed during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
  • Her Bob Ross for Snatch Game, in which she turned the soothing-voiced artist with a penchant for painting "happy little clouds" into a southern creep who eats paint and wears squirrels for hair. While the judges, her fellow queens, and fans consider the impersonation a huge failure, Utica admits she at least found her performance funny but laments not everyone understands her humor.
  • Her jokes for the Roast were called out for being harsh without actually being funny, with her calling Nina West a whale and Ross Matthews a warthog (via calling him Pumbaa), with the insults being even more mean-spirited in rehearsal where she likened guest judge Loni Love to Dumbo the elephant, and made a quip how it was 'obvious' Michelle Visage was a mom with her body. In spite of being told she wasn't making jokes, just hurtful observations, she claims the judges just didn't get her humor and that she still had a future in roasting after the show (she has realized she was being mean after the fact and apologized, however).
• Can't Take Criticism: Utica might not sass back at the critiques she gets from the judges, but she refuses to listen to them or incorporate any of their advice. Repeatedly she's told that an idea she has won't work, but she'll go with it anyway and predictably land in the bottom. Exemplified during the rehearsal for the Roast challenge, in which she completely ignores Michelle and Loni's critiques that her jokes were either mean-spirited or just plain not funny, instead blaming them for not "understanding" her humor, leading her to bomb in the challenge.
• Cloudcuckoolander: She proudly describes herself as kooky and a little bit spooky. In the Werk Room she even describes her drag aesthetic as a runway model who tripped, fell on her face, and ate a booger.
  • Comes back to bite her in the Bag Ball, where the judges point out that her penchant for presenting her looks in an overly campy and kooky way sometimes detracts from how high-fashion they are, likely costing her the win.
  • Manages to happen again in the Disco-mentary challenge, where she lands herself in the bottom three because the judges find her overly animated facial expressions off-putting for a disco dance number.
  • Nearly gets her eliminated for her head-scratching take on painter Bob Ross, in which she replaces Ross's signature afro with a wig made out of squirrels and eats paint during the challenge.
  • Yet again lands her in the bottom 2 when tasked to design and sell her own soda, in which she creates a soft drink where you lick the can instead of drinking it, and presents a commercial with an uncomfortably long pause in the narration while her character drinks from the udders of a cow for no given reason. The judges surrender to the fact that it's very on-brand for Utica, but that it doesn't make it a good commercial.
• Comedic Sociopath: When most queens send another girl packing, they usually talk about how hard it was or how they never want to be in that position again. After Utica eliminates Elliott, she tells the girls how exciting it was and how much fun she had. Happens again when she eliminates Tina, going from upset to giddy and excited at the prospect of maybe being a Lipsync Assassin, and even the other queens are unnerved by the sudden flip.
• Comical Overreacting: Utica's large, smiley mouth is perfect for mugging, and combined with her relatively relaxed eyes, a good deal of her comedy comes from the cartoonish expressions she makes.
• Comically Missing the Point: Seems to be her biggest hurdle when it comes to her wacky demeanor. While her brand is unmistakably Cloudcuckoolander Utica, she tends to not really have any focus to her weird humor, making the end results confusing and even uncomfortable to watch, as exemplified in the Snatch Game and later on in the Soda Branding challenge, where sucking her product straight from a cow's udder was just too weird to land.
• Country Mouse: From the small town Utica, Minnesota, from which she takes her name.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
  • In the Bag Ball her excellent outfit made out of sleeping bags (a notoriously hard material to work with) made Michelle admit that she was wrong in originally pegging Utica as just a "kooky queen".
  • Her underwhelming lip sync to "Rumors" in the first episode led many to consider Utica as good as doomed when she landed in the bottom with Elliott, a trained dancer. But Utica surprised everybody by putting on a show to gay club anthem "Fascinated" by Company B, using every inch of the stage and sending Elliott home. Then she did it again to send Tina home, somehow managing to make "My Humps" strangely seductive and sexy.
• Determinator: The strawberry fascinator she wore for her entrance look was an homage to the fact she survived being deathly allergic to strawberries as a child, as a reference to her will to survive the show... the judges are perplexed yet amused.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Utica is very happy over how attractive some of her competitors are and says that she's thankful for being the tallest so that she can get good looks at all of them.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Repeatedly during the rehearsal for the Roast challenge, Utica had to stop to explain her jokes to Michelle and Loni Love, even though the first rule of comedy is that it's not funny if you have to explain it. Unfortunately Utica misses that point and just thinks the judges don't "get" her.
• Duality Motif: Utica is a Gemini and loves a duality, so she often wears shirts in the work room that are two different patterns split in half. She's stated that she loves expressing all the sides of her personality.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: She's a (drag) queen from the town of Utica.
• Fan Boy: It goes unmentioned in the show but she is quite an avid fan of Disney:
  • Her look for the beast runway is an homage to Beauty and the Beast.
  • For the Roast she makes jokes based on three Disney films in under one minute, by calling Ross Matthews Pumbaa (The Lion King), suggesting Nina West can speak whale (Finding Nemo), and accusing Loni Love of being triggered by Dumbo.
• Fatal Flaw: As mentioned above, Utica's campy and kooky attitude doesn't always translate well to the challenges.
• Flat Character: Unfortunately for Utica, the judges start to suspect "Kooky" is the only thing she is capable of serving, giving her character no depth after awhile.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: For the Makeover challenge of episode 10, she's tasked with making over Symone into her own drag-style and persona, while Symone reciprocates for her. The pair are initially very sceptical, as Utica quails over the possible backlash and impropriety she fears in impersonating a woman of color. After a reassuring cool-down chat with Ru, Utica steps up her game and styles Symone in a brilliantly freaky Body Horror ensemble complete with skinless-effect tights and poncho of stretch-material suggesting a huge piece of skin. Combined with Symone's brilliantly observed Utica-isms (mugging for the camera, writhing wildly about the runway in her skin-suit), the pair go on to deservedly snatch the win.
• Friendly Rivalry: With Olivia Lux. The two are fast friends, but they get into conflict about who gets the role of Cheryl in the Bossy Rossy challenge, which Olivia ultimately gets. The conflict between them gets worse when Olivia questions why Utica told her she did well in Snatch Game off-camera, but told Denali that she thought she was in trouble. However, when the music plays at the end of Episode 9, you can see the two hug and make up in the back, and it's revealed Utica asked Olivia out on a date in the Episode 12 Untucked.
• Funny Afro: Wears a mock afro made out of stuffed squirrels in order to play Bob Ross for the Snatch Game, thinking a normal afro wig could be seen as "inappropriate". While it is certainly "kooky", it does not really go over well.
• Genius Ditz:
  • Describes herself as the "Sweden of Drag Race" due to her not getting involved in drama which causes Olivia and Elliott to stare at her blankly until they ask her if she meant Switzerland. To be fair to her, Sweden has maintained a position of neutrality in recent major world conflicts too, so she's not technically wrong, though it's likely still a gaffe on her part. The 'genius' part comes into play via her spot-on skills as a seamstress and well-researched runway looks, especially her Yellow Gorgeous ensemble; a period-correct 14th Century gown that clearly involved a good degree of insight on her part.
  • As confusing as her decision to depict Bob Ross with an afro made out of stuffed squirrels was, there was a method to her madness in that Ross actually did keep squirrels as pets.
• Gorgeous Period Dress: For the Yellow Gorgeous runway of episode 8, she sports a period-correct 14th Century-style 'sideless gown' in rich gold, with her hair in the 'rams horns' style so ubiquitously popular amongst the English and French nobility of the era.
• Hypocritical Humor: Ironically, one of her biggest laughes during her failed routine during the Roast challenge was when she tries to call out Loni Love's comedy career, Loni doubled over in laughter before heckling back that Utica's the one bombing on stage!
• In-Series Nickname: Invoked yet Defied; Utica claims that due to her overall neutrality when it comes to drama the other queens call her the "Sweden of Drag" … until Olivia and Elliott point out that first, she probably means Switzerland not Sweden, and second that no one calls her that.
• It Makes Sense in Context: During the Roast challenge, Utica praises Ru then says "Can you stand up please?", leading Ru to flip her off and do...other gestures, while staying seated. To give context, Ru's runway dresses come in two pieces and she always changes into pyjama pants and slippers when she sits at the judges' table, and that's what Utica was poking fun at. It was arguably the only funny part of her set, but only if you're aware of that.
• Keet: Absolutely radiates positive energy, even in her confessionals. She makes Priyanka look almost stoic by comparison.
• Leg Focus: Elliott likens her to a "daddy longlegs" and laments during their lipsync that she can barely keep up with Utica taking long strides all over the stage.
• Minnesota Nice: In her Meet the Queens video she says she's the "Switzerland of drag" in that she is above drama.
• Mood-Swinger: Plays this up in her "Phenomenon" challenge verse, going from cheerful to a guttural growl and then back to cheerful in rapid succession. Her weepily telling the other queens that she thought Tina deserved to stay more than she did before excitedly asking the other queens what they thought plays this much more straight.
• Motor Mouth: Not normally, but for the Social Media: The Rusical challenge, she plays "Lady Tweets" (Twitter), who is a 140 characters or less fast-talker singing a Twitter parody of the famous Patter Song "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" from The Pirates of Penzance. She struggles at first, but manages to pull off a good take in the end.
• Mood Whiplash: After sending home Tina Burner, Utica is nearly in tears saying how she thought Tina should have stayed over her and how she was prepared for her elimination ... only to immediately ask the girls if they liked her lip sync, excited at the prospect that she is the "Lip Sync Assassin" of the season. The juxtaposition between both reactions is quite jarring.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After watching herself in the stand-up comedy episode when it aired, she realized how awful and body-shaming her fat jokes were, and apologized to Michelle and Loni Love on Twitter.
• Once More, with Clarity: Her Phenomon verse includes the line "Farm girl fit for a crown. Lightning striking you down. Strike a pose like that" which at first seems like a nonsequitor given her odd nature and possibly tying into her religious background. However an explanation for the line is finally given at the reunion where an unseen clip from the first episode shows Utica talking about how she was once struck by lightning.
• Out of Focus: Being the "Switzerland of drag" means that she doesn't get into many arguments or confrontations, so compared to many other queens, she gets very little screen-time for the first half of the season. In the Untucked episode for Bossy Rossy: The RuBoot, she begins to explain her struggle with self-doubt and the way she masks it with her kooky persona...and about two sentences in, the conversation abruptly switches to something entirely different.
• Overly Long Gag: When tasked with playing an aged stoner hippie in the first acting challenge, Ru questions Utica on whether she has any real life experience with marijuana. Utica tactfully dodges the question, which grows gracefully less and less tactful with increasingly nonchalant facial expressions leaving Ru in hysterics.
• Phrase Catcher: In a similar vein to Ru's "LaGuardia, Newark, Kennedy", Utica is introduced with "Syracuse, Schenectady, Utica!", all three being cities along the I-90 in upstate New York. Utica, Minnesota was actually named after the one in New York.
• Political Overcorrectness:
  • For Snatch Game she plays artist Bob Ross, but instead of sporting Bob's famous afro, she wears a pseudo-fro made out of squirrel plushies. She solemnly explains that she doesn't want to be accused of cultural appropriation, despite the fact Ru tells her that white people are allowed to have afros too, and the other black queens tell her it was okay because that was his actual hair.
  • During the Freaky Friday Makeover challenge next episode, it gets brought up again while paired with Symone, who wants to put Utica in look inspired by Halle Berry from the movie B.A.P.S., which is very much a Black-American look. Utica is clearly afraid of backlash, even after Ru asserts that if the homage comes from a place of love then (most) people would not be offended. Eventually Utica agrees to put her faith in Symone, earning a shared win (along with Symone in a beautiful Utica-artistic look).
• Recursive Crossdressing: One of three queens to perform as a cis male for the Snatch Game, attempting and failing to perform as the late memetic TV-artist Bob Ross.
• Sad Clown: Admits that she uses her kookiness as a crutch to hide her feelings and anxiety.
• Saying Too Much: Utica is a sweet and pleasant queen, but when given the improv challenge she makes it known she has four years experience working in an improv troupe and has been known to "steal the scenes". Her partners, wanting to outshine her, use this against her and talk her out of the role she actually wanted, since Utica made the bold claim she was a master at improv, and she winds up in the bottom 3 on a challenge she felt very confident going into.
• Statuesque Stunner: At 6'4", she is the tallest Season 13 contestant.
• The Stoner: While she skirts around the question, she does seem to heavily imply she is quite familiar with the use of marijuana.
• Team Switzerland: Self-invoked, refers to herself as the "Switzerland of Drag" because she prefers to stay neutral and not cause drama, although after realizing the other queens may be taking advantage of her in episode 7 is trying to be more assertive.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: A very talented seamstress who makes a lot of her outfits.
• Token Religious Teammate:
  • Is a Seventh-Day Adventist, and while she has no issue with anyone's chosen path of faith she's quick to mention "Jesus is pretty great!" She even mentions she performs for her savior in her song lyrics for "Phenomenon." Eventually gets brought up again during the Soda Branding challenge where she lists one of the ingredients to her product as the "Blood of Christ".
  • Gets discussed more in-depth during Watcha Packin' with Michelle Visage, where she admits the Seventh-Day Adventist faith is not gay-friendly at all, but that her family specifically are still supportive outliers (daisies weeding through the staunch bricks of the religion as she puts it). Utica isn't even vegan or kosher like most Seventh-Day Adventists are, since she grew up on a beef and dairy farm.
• Took a Level in Badass: As a sweet, charitable queen, she's easily bossed about and talked over by more pushy queens, but come episode 8's Social Media: The Rusical challenge, she's had it with being nice and firmly but politely tells the other girls that she will be having the part she wants this time, no questions asked. She also has been consciously attempting to join in with the banter and even throw the occasional read to her competitors.
  • Also applies once she starts getting put in the bottom two, becoming a surprise lip-sync assassin and sending home both Elliott (who is a trained dancer) and Tina (who flattened Elliott and Kahmora in the premiere episode lip sync).
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: For her Bob Ross Snatch Game impersonation, she explains her intention is to present a soft, ASMR voice, but during the challenge itself, she talks in a strangely panting, almost southern drawl. Gottmik immediately points out in confession that the voice isn't reading as Bob Ross's dulcet tones at all. Ironically, Utica's natural speaking voice is already very close to how Bob Ross spoke.
• Whole Costume Reference: For the Freaky Friday runway, her look, courtesy of Symone, was based on Halle Berry's character from the film B.A.P.S..
• You Are Fat:
  • While playing Bob Ross for the Snatch Game she refers to guest judge and former contestant Victoria Parker as a "Happy Porkchop", following up by saying 'but not little' making a dig at her weight.
  • Happens again during the Roast challenge, in which she calls Ross Matthews Pumbaa and makes whale noises at Nina West. For as poorly as her jokes were received in the challenge, her rehearsal was even worse. There she made continuous jabs at Loni Love and Michelle Visage's weight as well, continuing to call them fat even when they try and tell her she's coming off as mean as opposed to funny. After the episode aired, Utica submitted a public apology for the rude jokes on Twitter.

Olivia Lux (5th)

Age: 26

From: New York City, New York

"Lux be a lady tonight!"

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• Action Dress Rip: When all the queens unexpectedly have to lip sync for their lives in the premier, it looked as if Olivia would have a hard time performing in her tight evening dress, but the dress was actually in two pieces and she detached the skirt, leaving her in a bodysuit that freed up her legs.
• Artistic License – History: She describes her Trains for Days runway as "rococo baroque Beethoven", despite Ludwig van Beethoven being more associated with the later classical and romantic eras in music and fashion.
• Beast Man: Olivia's runway is perhaps the most literal take on Beast Couture, and she looks great in her bright blue and yellow, horned fur suit. The judges compliment her choice in terms of going full on beast, as opposed to the 'sexy-beast' look they presumed she'd go with.
• Beginner's Luck: Despite having limited experience in drag (little more than a year), she wins the premiere lip sync against seasoned performer Rosé, and overall does rather well throughout the season, snatching two wins and ending up in a more than respectable fifth place.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Olivia is nice, but that doesn't mean she's not there to play the game. When her and Utica want the same scene-stealing role for the Bossy Rossy improv challenge, Olivia makes sure she gets it quite forcefully. Tina even comments that Olivia is a "Nice Diva" (but still a diva).
• Big Applesauce: One of four New York City queens on the season, alongside Kandy Muse, Rosé, and Tina Burner.
• Boxing Battler: Her Mixed Bag look is a pink and white boxing ensemble.
• Child-Like Voice: Olivia has a rather soft, feminine voice in general, but for the Roast challenge turns it up in an effort to "kill with kindess" with her jokes as opposed to be outright mean, the judges lamenting it was a poor decision since it made Olivia come off as unsure and apologetic instead.
• The Corrupter: Ironically for the queen everyone named as the nicest, Olivia is quick to encourage Utica to act shadily.
• Crazy-Prepared: As mentioned above in Action Dress Rip, her yellow and pink gown for her entrance look turned suprise Lip Sync For Your Life outfit had a tearaway reveal into a leotard. When it came to the Yellow Gorgeous runway, she revealed in Untucked to Elliott and Utica that the gown for this episode was also a reveal into a leotard just in case she had to lip sync in it.
  • Olivia apparently prepared this for all of her gown runways, including the one she put Denali in for the "Freaky Friday" Flip makeover runway. Denali chose not to use the reveal into another leotard because she felt it did not fit the mood of "Shackles (Praise You)" despite the fact that Denali had put Olivia into a tulle ice dancing inspired outfit more suited to dancing for the challenge.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Fancies herself as being good at trivia games but when the Are You Smarter Than The Pit Crew? questions are presented by the gorgeous Crew themselves, Olivia spends most of the mini-challenge just staring wide-eyed at the beefcake on offer, as opposed to being quick on the buzzer.
• Dresses the Same: By sheer bad luck, this seems to be a recurring problem for Olivia:
  • Her Mixed Bag look is a boxer ensemble inspired by the pun "punching bag". Unfortunately, Symone had already worn an almost identical outfit for the Lamé, You Stay runway, only with a different color scheme.
  • The wig she wore for the Bead It runway was nearly identical to the wig Kandy wore in the Ball challenge the episode prior, to the extent that they had to clarify on social media that they were different wigs.
  • Her original concept for the Little Black Dress runway didn't pan out, so Olivia chose to wear just the lining, however she mentions on social media that had it come out the way she had envisioned it, it would have looked like a black version of Denali's We're Here, We're Sheer runway.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Is annoyed that by episode 11 she has two consecutive wins under her belt, yet none of her competitors consider her an actual threat. This isn't helped that the episode in question (and the one immediately preceding it) exposed the fact Olivia's personal branding was a bit weak given her short tenure in drag.
• Elegant Classical Musician:
  • Mentions in her Meet the Queens video that she loves to play the piano.
  • Her Trains for Days runway is a send-up of a Mozartian baroque musician.
• Flat Character: Starts to become in issue starting in the Freaky Friday Makeover challenge and again in the Soda Branding challenge; Olivia has only been doing drag for a little over a year so while she is technically good, she doesn't really have a fully-fleshed out drag character yet like the other queens who have years (and for some, decades) worth of experience developing their brands.
• Formerly Fat: She mentions having reached the threshold of obesity when she was in high school. As part of her weight loss regime, she discovered acting and live performance, which eventually led to her starting doing drag.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: For the Makeover challenge of episode 10, she's tasked with making over Denali into her own drag-style and persona while Denali reciprocates for her. Unfortunately, her makeover is dubbed the weakest of the night, with Denali sporting a generic, Nicole Paige Brooks From Atlanta, Georgia-esque pageant gown and failing to embody any of Olivia's signature house codes — no big bouncy curls, no tiny purse, and most unforgivably, no 1,000-watt smile. Denali ends up looking so unlike herself she's almost unrecognisable, yet not a scratch like Olivia either, landing the pair in the bottom 2, with Olivia ultimately sending Denali home.
• The Gadfly: For a queen everyone names as the nicest in the competition, Olivia has ironically on multiple occasions prompted disputes and drama without involving herself in it.
• Iconic Item: She's featured an impractically small purse as part of her entrance look and her two mini challenge looks in episode 2, with fans comically thinking she has a tiny purse for all of her upcoming runways. The tiny purse comes back four episodes later for the Little Black Dress runway, obviously in black.
• Insistent Terminology: She's a diva, but she's a polite diva.
• It's All About Me: When paired with Utica for the Bossy Rossy improv challenge, she is quick to jump on the role with the most physical comedy, stating she wants to shine and earn her second win, completely overlooking the fact Utica was struggling to come back from the bottom three the previous week (and ironically gets exactly that; Olivia wins the challenge, and Utica is back in the bottom three).
• Joisey: She's originally from New Jersey before moving to Brooklyn, and says in her Meet the Queens video that she and Michelle Visage bonded over being Jersey Girls.
• Naïve Newcomer: Is very open about the fact she's only been doing drag for around a year and a half (she even comments that when casting for Season 12 began, she had only been doing drag for a few weeks at that point). Comes back to haunt her in episode 13, when her competitors list this as the reason she isn't ready for the crown; Olivia came to the show to "explore" (in her own words), whereas everyone else came to compete.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Named herself after Scandal's Olivia Pope.
• Nice Girl: When asked to name the nicest queen of the season, almost all of the other queens say Olivia.
• The Pollyanna: The judges note that due to her 10,000 Gigawatt smile she always seems to be happy, and she even admits it's difficult for her to tone down her natural desire to smile, which lends her a one-note feeling in challenges that require range.
• Second Place Is for Losers: Has a very good showing in her first two episodes (beating a seasoned queen and being in the top two), but when she starts sliding into safe in episodes 4 and 5 she starts showing signs of this, becoming resentful that she is "doing so well" and not getting critiques from the judges for it. Finally earns her first win come episode 6, and a second win episode 7 after muscling Utica out of a scene-stealing role.
• Shout-Out: Her entrance line is a reference to the Guys and Dolls song "Luck Be a Lady Tonight".
• Small Reference Pools: For Snatch Game, she decides to play Instagram vegan lifestyle coach/cook Tabitha Brown, an online personality even Ru has never even heard of before. Compounded by her low-fi, unfunny performance, she lands in the bottom group for the week.
• The Stool Pigeon: Appropriately enough, of the "Obnoxious Olivia" flavor. Mellow as she might be, Olivia surely loves to stir the pot when she can. In episode 6 alone, she spurs Tamisha and Kandy to revisit their fiery argument from the previous Untucked, she teases the "Mean Girls" clique about having to potentially lip sync against one another, and makes Utica repeat aloud a catty comment she made about Tina's wig.

Gottmik (3rd=)

Age: 23

From: Los Angeles, California

"Time to crash the cis-tem!"

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• The Ace: One of the few queens in the franchise to have won both the Ball and the Snatch Game in the same season. She makes it to the top 4 with no bottom two placements, and to the surprise of everyone (including herself), she gets continuous high placements in the comedy and acting challenges. Whenever she slips up in a challenge, her runways keep her from the bottom since they are universally praised by the judges and singled out by RuPaul as the ones he would most like to wear.
• Alpha Bitch: Self-proclaimed when she helps label her clique with Kandy Muse and Tina Burner as "Team Mean Girls," but arguably an Informed Attribute since Gottmik is mostly quiet and affable to the other queens. Gottmik does win the reading challenge, though it should be noted the harshest reads were aimed at the other members of Team Mean Girls.
• Ambiguous Gender: Complains that growing up there were no transgender role models for her, and even with the rare positive trans man celebrity like Chaz Bono that they did not want to be that masculine post-transition. She complains that society still tends to see trans people as "Barbie or Ken", as in, them wanting to be very feminine if a trans woman, and very masculine if a trans man, and that it took her a long time to come to terms that she enjoys being a more feminine man post-op.
• Bee Afraid: Got chased by a bee during the Bag Ball Untucked, panickedly screaming "I hate outdoors!" while Kandy and Tina watched in amusement.
  • Alternatively, Gottmik’s freak out was a calculated stunt to lighten the mood after the Kandy’s blowout in untucked…
• Catchphrase: According to her fellow contestants, she uses the word "gorge" (as in, "gorgeous") a lot.
• Coat Full of Contraband: Combined with Sexy Coat Flashing for the Haute Pocket runway, where Gottmik opens a large trench coat to reveal a skimpy outfit literally made from watches she's trying to hawk to the judges. Michelle personally applauds the look as something they have never seen on the runway before, which after 13 seasons is quite a feat!
• Deadpan Snarker: While she doesn’t get the same screen time as Rose or Kandy, Gottmik’s confessionals tend to be both hilarious and incisive.
• Didn't Think This Through: For the first performance challenge she decides to write lyrics proudly waving her status as a transgender man to the judges … only to realize in rehearsal that she had not told any of her competitors this fact. Luckily, they are all quick to accept her.
• Distinguishing Mark: As the show's first transgender man, she has scars on her chest from when she had her top surgery. She has no shame about this, however, and says she is very proud to show off her chest in drag.
• Famous for Being Famous: She plays trope-codifier Paris Hilton for the Snatch Game and absolutely nails her character and mannerisms (Gottmik actually knows and has worked with Paris), such as switching from Paris' regular voice to her Dumb Blonde baby voice when Ru tells her the cameras are rolling. It works fantastically and gets her her second win.
• The Fashionista: Self-described, her aesthetic is inspired by high-fashion designers and the art of Picasso.
• Fat and Skinny: Paired with Kandy Muse for the Makeover challenge, with Gottmik being one of the smallest queens paired with the largest queen this season. They discuss this at length how they had the hardest challenge since every other pairing were close enough to each other's sizes where they could 'shop each other's racks', whereas Kandy had to tailor one of her bodysuits in half and Gottmik had to essentially sew her two original makeover outfits together to fit Kandy.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: For the Makeover challenge of episode 10, she's tasked with making over Kandy into her own drag-style and persona while Kandy reciprocates for her — a big task, as she and Kandy could not be more different in body-size, which they both point out, with her being positively petite and Kandy being tall and generously curvaceous. Despite initial fears over how on earth Kandy is going to loan her wardrobe (at one point, Kandy hilariously bemoans that she can't even squeeze into one of her gloves), Mik does a great job of making Kandy over, complete with her signature clown-white foundation, black Joker-esque lip, and a sewn-from-scratch outfit (with nipples pasties, of course) that scream "Gottmik". For her part, Kandy notes she's even shaved her ass in prep for a revealing look, and the pair receive high praise for their efforts.
• Happily Adopted: While chatting with Ru, she mentions having two sisters but also that she was adopted. Ru speculates, given her very fair skin, black hair and pale blue eyes, that she might have Irish heritage.
• Innocently Insensitive: As mentioned under Pronoun Trouble, although she is a transgender man she prefers how most cis male drag queens use pronouns; "she" in drag and "he" out of drag, and calling her "he" in drag just makes her feel like her femme drag isn't reading feminine.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The Nice of the "Mean Girls" clique with Kandy and Tina; while she claims she can be shady and mean, this is really more of an Informed Attribute, Gottmik really never seems to come for anyone and her genuinely doing well in the competition means she never comes off as arrogant.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Mik plays a Russian hacker during the Rusical but keeps going in and out of the accent while singing.
• Order Versus Chaos: Especially notable among the Mean Girls clique. During the infamous fight in untucked between Kandy and Tamisha, Gottmik took the most active role in defusing the situation. When Denali loses the part to Rosé for the Rusical, Gottmik stealthily steers the conversation with guest Anne Hathaway to reinvigorate Denali.
• Power Trio: Forms an early alliance with Kandy Muse and Tina Burner, the three being fast friends and looking out for one another in spite of their different backgrounds and aesthetics.
• Pronoun Trouble: Discusses with Olivia Lux as a transgender man who does femme drag what pronouns Gottmik prefers. Gottmik declares she does not want to be treated differently than any of the cis men in the competition, and says she uses she/her pronouns when in drag and he/him pronouns when not in drag.
• Shrinking Violet: While comfortable with her career and in her own skin, she was not completely prepared mentally to be thrust into revealing her status as a transgender man, especially outside of her control through the lyrics of her song. This causes her to noticeably lose confidence for the rest of the episode, and even comments herself about the levels of gender dysphoria she didn't even think she was capable of feeling.
• Signature Style: A face based in white, grayscale contour, very dramatic and overdrawn black eye liner with very smokey, brightly colored eye shadow, and a pointed, Joker-esque lip.
• Spell My Name With An S: Her name is NOT Gotmilk. And if you're Tracy Martel hosting The Pit Stop, it's not "Gotmeek" either.
• Stripperific: She walks the Little Black Dress runway essentially in the nude, with only two doll-sized black "dresses" to cover her nether regions, one in the front and one in the back. It's her way of presenting and being proud of the body she gained via HRT and gender-affirming surgery.
• The Social Expert: Despite Gottmik’s simultaneously glamorous and cartoonish drag persona, she demonstrates social acuity throughout the competition. Many people note the ease with which she volleys with the judges during critiques, and some of her standout moments include defusing Kandy’s meltdown in Untucked by campily reacting to a bee that appeared on set, and steering a conversation with Anne Hathaway to help snap Denali out of a defeatist funk.
• Uncanny Valley Makeup: While Gottmik is more than willing to give softer, more realistically feminine looks to show range, her preferred aesthetic is a lot more avant-garde with heavy application of clown white and a Joker-esque black lip.
• Verbal Tic: Mik has a very superlative way of speaking, not to mention a heavy LA vocal fry. When addressing other queens Mik usually tacks on several terms of endearment like "How are you, my gorgeous angel baby of life?"
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: During Untucked for episode 6 she gets a video message from her parents, who make the conscious effort to refer to her as "Kade". Gottmik says just hearing her parents acknowledge her chosen name makes her happy to know she has their support.
• Whole Costume Reference:
  • Her Body Bag look is inspired by The Autopsy of Jane Doe.
  • Hilariously, she names the "wanna buy a sundial?" guy from Hercules as the inspiration for her Haute Pocket runway.
  • Times two for 101 Dalmatians. Her executive realness is inspired by Cruella De Vil and her finale look by a Dalmatian puppy.
  • Her Black & White look for the finale ball was based on a Rule 63 version of Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies, only with white pearls instead of pins and complete with the Lament Configuration as a purse.
  • Her subsequent Red All Over look references both Keith Haring's works and Kansai Yamamoto's iconic wide-legged suit worn by David Bowie.

Rosé (3rd=)

Age: 31

From: New York City, New York

"Feast your eyes on a bonnie lass."

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• Always Second Best: Rosé makes it to the top 4 with no bottom two placements and three challenge wins, a feat accomplished by the likes of Tyra Sanchez, Violet Chachki, Bianca del Rio, and Aquaria. However, she is also the only queen in the top four from the Porkchopped group and was bested in challenges throughout the season, including the Ball and the Snatch Game, both of which she lost against Gottmik. The judges, particularly Michelle, praise her, noting that she's practically good at everything, but at the same time, she lost a grand total of three lip-syncs during her run, that is all of them.
• The Alcoholic: Makes no secret of the fact that she's a huge lush, and even her drag-name is wine-inspired.
• All Gays Love Theater: Having felt slightly sidelined, misunderstood and overlooked for much of the competition so far, episode 8's Social Media: The Rusical, in which she took one of the lead roles, gives her a chance to show off what she does best — her excellent musical theatre skills — in a slick, jubilant performance that nails her her first win of the competition.
• Big Applesauce: One of four New York City queens on the season, alongside Kandy Muse, Olivia Lux, and Tina Burner, though she's originally from Greenock in Scotland.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Out of drag, Rosé has a nice pair of big, bushy eyebrows and a sloping 'Neanderthal'-like brow, which gets discussed during the Makeover challenge while Tina and Rosé do each other's makeup.
• Bilingual Bonus: Possibly unintentional, but her Lady look features the word "osé" on her butt. It spells her name when paired with the "R"-shaped purse, but it's also French for "racy".
• Break the Haughty: Is considered one of the legendary queens of New York and has been on other reality shows like The Voice and America's Got Talent (both of which she is quick to point out), but she ends up losing the surprise entrance look lip sync and be up for elimination within minutes of entering the Werk Room, and not only that, loses to a queen who's only been doing drag for a little more than a year and was in a pageant recently that Rosé was a judge for.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Delivers a line in her "Phenomenon" verse, and later her Mixed Bag runway voiceover, in her childhood Scottish accent, the latter due to being dressed as an anthropomorphic bagpipe at the time. She brings back a stronger version of this Scottish accent while playing Mary Queen of Scots for the Snatch Game.
• Character Development: By the eleventh episode Rosé has learned that her penchant for huge ruffled clothing is not flattering.
• Color Motif: Sports pink in (so far) her Promo, Entrance, "Phenomenon" challenge and Confessionals looks in keeping with her name; "Rosé" = 'pink' in French, most commonly encountered in the wine-section. Unlike Tina's preference to red and yellow however, Rosé brings pink to her looks with a lot more restraint.
• Cool Big Bro: In the finale, she receives a video-message from her family, which features her mum, dad, sister, and most memorably her older brother who, due to his wackily supportive hijinks on camera, was immediately dubbed “Brosé” by her fans.
• Flat Character: The one issue brought up about Rosé by the judges. They acknowledge that she can practically do anything, but struggle to describe her personality as anything more than "professional".
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: For the Makeover challenge of episode 10, she's tasked with making over Tina Burner into her own drag-style and persona, while Tina reciprocates for her. She does a good job, with the judges noting (slightly harshly, perhaps) that Tina looks much prettier than usual in Rosé's signature pink, and due to the fact that Tina isn't sporting her own signature "raccoon eyes." The pair don't place high, but are ultimately deemed safe.
• Hero-Worshipper: To her idol, Barbra Streisand.
• Heroic Second Wind: Rosé has a shaky start in the competition, first by losing the premiere lip sync to Olivia, a far greener queen, then missing out challenge wins to Denali and Gottmik. However, once she scores her first win all the way in episode 8 by besting Denali and Gottmik in the Rusical, Rosé becomes a force to be reckoned with, making it to the top 4 with three challenge wins and no bottom 2 placements.
• Hot as Hell: Her Beast Couture runway is a beautifully constructed, bright red satanic ensemble, with her hair styled into devil horns and wire-like talons projecting a good couple of feet from her fingers.
• Hunk: Rosé definitely qualifies as this out of drag, with masculine features and a strong, square jawline. While being made over by Tina, he also wryly acknowledges his manly “Neanderthal brow”.
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: While Tamisha mentions how making friends and gaining sisters is the most important thing for her being on the show, Rosé is quick to say while "sisters" are nice, she is there to win and not make friends.
  Rosé: Athletes don't go to the Olympics to make friendship bracelets.
• Informed Attribute: Rosé describes herself as a "clown" and a "hot mess" but generally comes across as polished and put-together on the show — by the judges and the other queens. Manages to let down her guard in the latter half of the season, earning praise from the judges who finally see Rosé as funny, sometimes messy, but no less professional.
• Lady Drunk: The basis of her winning Soda Branding commercial, and a wry nod to her love of wine; She bursts out of bed, mascara smeared everywhere and looking like ten shades of shit, but luckily she has a can of patented 'Roséaid' on standby, which she swigs with gusto, reviving her (briefly) so she can get back on the booze.
• Meaningful Name: Rosé loves wine and the color pink.
• One Degree of Separation: She's part of the band Stephanie's Child with Jan Sport from Season 12, her drag niece alongside Lemon from Canada season 1. Her drag sister is Brita Filter, also from season 12.
• Power Trio: Off the show, Rosé is in a singing group named 'Stephanie's Child' along with season 12's Jan and another queen named Lagoona Bloo.
• Proper Lady: Is how the other queens and judges view her, much to her annoyance. She argues she's normally "that bitch who lost her shoes and only has one fingernail left at the end of the night", but in the competition she's coming off as poised and reserved and just isn't standing out, either positively or negatively.
• Retraux: States that she loves 80's fashion, as exemplified by her Trains for Days runway, which includes a structured power-suit and fe-mullet hairstyle, or her Money Bags runway inspired by the 1988 film Big Business.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Despite her "This is a competition" demeanor, Rosé gives a heartwarming pep talk to Denali before the latter has to lip sync.
• Signature Move: Has two, her twirl and her box step both of which are guaranteed to show up in any dance she does.
• The Stoic: Not the type to get too emotional to the point that the judges tell her she seems standoffish
• Those Two Guys: Rosé and Denali will go out of their way to work together in challenges, as seen on more than one occasion.
• Toothy Issue: Enters the werk room with one of her teeth blacked out for comedic effect. When she realizes she's alone in the room, however, she quickly wipes off the black tooth and forgoes the joke.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Wine — so much so that she used to review wines in a video series just to have a reason to drink it. Even incorporates this into her runway walk, which she describes as pretending droplets of wine are cascading down her arms before she flicks them off her fingertips … and possibly licking her arms on occasion.
• The Unintelligible: Plays this up during Snatch Game while impersonating Mary of Scotland with a Scottish accent so broad that the American queens making up the rest of the panel strain to, or just plain can't understand her (to Brits, she's more intelligible, though still comically exaggerated, of course.)
• Unlocking the Talent: It takes this seasoned queen at least 8 episodes to properly break out of her shell, and in the early stages of the competition, she admits she's having trouble just letting go in the challenges, and her personal reservations are causing her to not connect with the judges. The Social Media: The Rusical challenge of episode 8 finally allows her to cut loose and show us what she can do, and with her musical theatre background combined with her great singing voice, she snatches her first win.
• Whole Costume Reference:
  • Her Money Bags look was based on Bette Midler from Big Business, however this fact actually works against her when the judges point out it was just a direct reference, and did not feel embellished enough for a drag queen.
  • Redeems herself for the Yellow Gorgeous runway, in which she presents a Rule 63 Homage to Jim Carrey as the titular character in The Mask, turning the iconic yellow zoot suit into a three-piece dress, and her entire face done in green.
  • Her Black & White look in the finale is a dragged-up take on fellow Brit Audrey Hepburn's iconic outfit from My Fair Lady.

Kandy Muse (2nd)

Age: 25

From: The Bronx, New York

"From the hood to Hollywood!"

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• Alpha Bitch: Loud, aggressive, and likes to be in control; she, Gottmik, and Tina Burner actually decide to embrace the other girls' opinions that they are arrogant and name their clique "Team Mean Girls".
• Ascended Meme: Her reveal video has her recreating her famous "Sitting Alone in VIP" photo. The meme gets an in-depth discussion in episode 8 while the queens get ready in the mirror.
• Big Applesauce: One of four New York City queens on the season, alongside Olivia Lux, Rosé, and Tina Burner.
• Brutal Honesty: Is not afraid to speak her mind, as evidenced after the first acting challenge when she walks back into the Werk Room during Untucked and quite pointedly tells Elliott that she should have been in the bottom instead of LaLa or Denali. While not everyone disagrees, most everyone is shocked Kandy just puts it out there so matter of factly.
• The Bully: Takes exception to Elliott from the get-go, at first convinced Elliott is some sort of spy or mole, and then when it finally clicks that she isn't, Kandy just goes for Elliott at every opportunity — often out of the blue — seemingly trying to quash Elliott's confidence in order to bolster her own. However, after the show, it was revealed that Kandy's ire towards Elliott was due to her apparently making racially insensitive comments towards her and Symone, as well as transphobic comments toward Gottmik.
• Can't Take Criticism: While boisterous and not afraid to share her unsolicited opinion about her competitors, Kandy does not take well when someone points out her own flaws. After Tamisha pointed out that Kandy can come off as arrogant and unlikable, Kandy starts screaming at the top of her lungs, demanding exact times when said arrogance occurred, accusing the other girls of talking behind her back, before stomping out of the Werk Room before she felt the need to do something she would regret towards Tamisha.
• Character Tic: Her go-to sexy pose is to turn her head slightly away from the camera, look up through her eyelashes, and gently bite down on her index fingers. According to the other queens' impressions of her, she does this a lot.
• Cool Boat: She says she wants to buy a boat in case she wins the $100,000 prize... just because she thinks that having a boat is cool.
• Dark and Troubled Past: When Kandy was in high school, three bullies jumped her in gym class and brutally broke her arm just for being gay, causing her to have to have surgery and leaving a long scar behind. She explains this is part of the reason she is so quick to get angry and defend herself, citing the Tamisha incident again as an example.
• Darkhorse Victory: Kandy had just one win (the Roast challenge) and three bottom placements throughout the season, the worst of the final four's track records, but Kandy still hung on until the final two.
• Determinator: In episode 13, still stinging from criticism of her runway look plus the acting challenge, Kandy has a panic attack in Untucked from all the pressure catching up to her. The set medic is pretty worried for her, and so are the other queens, but come lipsync time, Kandy is able to shake it off enough to send Olivia Lux home.
• Distracted by the Sexy: When all 13 queens finally converge for the first time, she becomes distracted by how cute some of them are out of drag. Upon learning that some of the ones she finds particularly cute are also single she literally gives chase (causing Joey Jay to run away) and claims if she doesn't win the crown, she at least wants to win a man.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Appeared as a background dancer for Dahlia's dance in the Season 12 finale.
• Every Scar Has a Story: Has a several inch long scar on her arm, which she gets asked about in the make-up mirror during episode 11. Turns out it was from a horrific attack she suffered in high school where three of her classmates broke her arm for being gay, requiring her to have surgery.
• Fat and Skinny: When Kandy and Gottmik are paired for the Makeover challenge of episode 10 (where they make each other over in each other's style), Kandy is the Fat to Gottmik's Skinny, which creates a challenge for the pair in terms of altering their outfits to fit each other's body type. Kandy even brings this up when making a case for why she and Gottmik shouldn't be in the bottom:
  Kandy: Me and Gottmik had the hardest challenge of this entire group. 'Cause I'm big, she's little, and yet we still made it work.
• Flat Character:
  • Kandy is loud and gregarious and quickly gets the judges to fall in love with her for her banjee attitude, however by episode 6 the judges have come to realize "hood" is the only thing Kandy knows how to serve, and challenge her to try and give them more facets of her personality, as they are getting bored.
  • Subverted in the next episode: Kandy applies these critiques for the improv challenge, playing a radically different but not less funny character, and coupled with a gorgeous runway, she makes the week's top 3.
  • Comes back around full circle in episode 13, when the judges tell her everything she does is hilarious because she's Kandy ... but that the only thing she delivered is Kandy, and that they just wish they could have gotten some nuance or range out of her.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: For the Makeover challenge of episode 10, she's tasked with making over Gottmik into her own drag-style and persona while Gottmik reciprocates for her — a task she's initially very intimidated by, given their polar-opposite body types. Despite this, she helps Gottmik embody everything 'Kandy' via a fun, banjee girl outfit and a quick crash-course in gang-signs and runway swagger. The pair receive high praise for their efforts.
• Genre Savvy: Nominates herself to go first for the Nice Girls Roast, knowing that taking on the opening act allows her to set the bar for the other queens to reach and get first dibs on the easier jokes to make about the Miss Congeniality queens. She ultimately wins the challenge.
• Glass Cannon: Loves to dish out blunt critiques and uninvited advice, but is prone to a huffy meltdown if a more eloquent queen claps back at her.
• Good Bad Girl: Invoked. Says her go-to drag is "everything, but ho".
• Hairstyle Malfunction: While her wig stayed on, during the Social Media Rusical as "Rev. Dr. Mrs. Linked (all-the-way) In" (LinkedIn) her black bob wig flew over her face several times during her performance. The judges basically say they can't really tell if she was lip-synching since they couldn't see her lips through the hair.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Says that growing up in the hood has her use this as an automatic response to pushback, explaining why she was so quick to lash out at Tamisha in Untucked when she was called out as arrogant. She also admits it is something she does want to work on. True to her word, she never quite flies off the handle like that again, except for one clapback at Denali on the main stage in episode 10, and even then, they quickly make peace in Untucked.
• Heroic BSoD: When she realizes she's going to be in the bottom right before the final four, Kandy suffers a panic attack in Untucked, having to be treated by medical staff due to a spike in her pulse and blood pressure.
• History Repeats:
  • Long-time viewers will be sadly familiar with the Kandy/Elliott dynamic, and the whole "boisterous big-girl identifies, targets and picks on more vulnerable, quirky girl due to her own insecurities" riff common to the series — as seen with Roxxxy/Jinkx, Darienne Lake/BenDeLaCreme, Silky/Yvie, Brita/Aiden Zane, etc. After the show aired, it was revealed that Elliott had made several insensitive comments toward Kandy, Symone and Gottmik, which were edited out; once again demonstrating production's willingness to throw the season's 'villian' under the bus to serve the narrative.
  • Kandy is a New York queen who has a middling performance throughout the season, only winning the Roast and ending up in the bottom multiple times, but who manages to reach the top two on her lip-sync strength alone — just like Peppermint in Season 9.
• Hypocrite:
  • Kandy says she considers Symone her biggest competition, and Tamisha responds that to say such a thing is disrespectful to all the other queens, which Kandy blows off. But later, when Tamisha says "There are some queens here I don't like but I respect everyone's drag," Kandy instantly felt attacked and jumped down her throat, even though it was no worse than her own passive-aggressive comment earlier.
  • In confessional, Kandy breathlessly tells us that she can't understand a word Rosé is saying while portraying Mary of Scotland, due to her using an exaggerated "Irish" (she means Scottish) accent. The irony being that in her telling, Kandy herself is so utterly garbled that it's her who needs subtitles.
• Ice-Cream Koan: Invoked after Rosé uses the expression that she's "turned over a new leaf", Kandy not understanding its intended meaning of "feeling renewed" since, as she points out, if you turn over a leaf it's still the same leaf!
• Ironic Echo: For the Henny, I Shrunk the Drag Queens! challenge, Kandy grabbed the villain role because it was in line with her own personality already, taking it away from Symone who wanted to show the judges range. Come the critiques, and the judges outright say their issue was Kandy picked a role that was already too much like herself, and she should have picked another role to show range (although they suggested Olivia's role, since she too picked a role already too much like herself).
• Jerkass Has a Point: During the Makeover challenge, after Denali says Kandy should go home because her makeover look had flames and thus read "too Tina Burner", Kandy argues that her and Gottmik had the hardest challenge this week, noting their drastically different body types and the fact that they couldn't "shop each other's racks" like the others. She goes on to note that they looked great when other teams didn't, that Tina Burner does not own red and yellow and has not served any look similar to Kandy's style the entire season. The judges agree with all of Kandy's points and applaud her for "popping off".
• Large Ham: When asked to describe herself in her Meet the Queens video, her answer is "loud".
• Last-Second Chance: Kandy is the first queen in Drag Race herstory to be told to sashay away, but then have Ru immediately change her mind and call her back to the competition, literally as she was walking away down the runway having just said her goodbyes.
• Little Green Men: Sort of the basis of her Beast Couture runway, where she sports a bright green rubber alien suit, with one of The Greys weirdly just....draped around her shoulders. The judges are utterly confused, but a good showing in the previous Soda Branding maxi-challenge saves her bacon.
• Motor Mouth: One of the most notorious examples Drag Race ever had; Kandy can not turn that mouth off. Her confessionals alone feel like they eat up half the season. She makes Cynthia Lee Fontaine look about as animated as Pearl.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The Mean of the "Mean Girls" clique with Gottmik and Tina Burner; Kandy has self-admitted anger issues and often gives pushback against any perceived slight, as well as a tendency to yell to get her point across even if no one else has raised their voices.
• No Indoor Voice: One word the other New York queens use to describe her is "Loud". Evidenced heavily in episode 5's Untucked where a disagreement with Tamisha leaves Kandy screaming at the top of her lungs, and Elliott afterwards even mentions how Kandy likes to talk over people to be the only opinion in the room.
• One Degree of Separation: She's part of the DollHaus (former Haus of Aja), being the drag daughter of Aja and the drag sister of Dahlia Sin. However...
  • You're Not My Father: Kandy starts throwing shade at Aja almost immediately, saying that the reason the Haus of Aja disbanded was because Aja was jealous of her, and that she's here to prove she's the better queen, making it clear she no longer considers them family.^note Aja and Kandy both later explained on social media that despite the shade on Kandy's part, they are cool and that Aja actually disbanded the Haus because they wanted to step away from drag.
• Power Trio: Forms an unlikely alliance with Gottmik and Tina Burner, the two even helping Kandy sew a train to what was previously intended to be her finale look, just to have an appropriate Trains for Days runway look.
• Recursive Crossdressing: Portrays makeup mogul Patrick Starrr for the Snatch Game; however, she doesn't make much of an attempt to imitate Patrick beyond the look and his Catchphrase. Her usual outlandish antics amuse the judges enough to save her from being in the bottom three.
• The Rival: After episode 5's Bag Ball, Tamisha and Kandy entered into a screaming match, and appear to be tense with one another from that point forward. Only lasts for one episode, but does come to a head with Kandy and Tamisha having to lip sync against one another, with Kandy in tears at having had to send Tamisha home.
• Rousing Speech: Gives one to LaLa when the latter looked about to give up, reminding her that even if the judges weren't seeing what she was bringing, there were still nine other queens in the Werk Room who were living for her.
• Rummage Sale Reject:
  • Her self-admitted flaw, she has talent and charisma, but her runway looks are often unpolished or lacking. When she didn't have a suitable look for the Trains for Days runway, she co-opts Tina and Gottmik to help her sew a long piece of a fabric to an outfit that was supposed to be her finale look. Said look was red lingerie and a corset, which the judges point out was one of the weakest looks that week. Seems to finally break this trend come her Bead It runway which landed her in the top and was applauded by the judges.
  • Played straight back with a vengeance with her Haute Pocket look: the combination of the stylist's self-admitted weird artistic vision, an ill fitting of the garment and a badly styled and haphazardly spray-dyed wig results in what the judges call one of the worst runways of all time.
• Running Gag: Her finding Joey attractive. After Joey's elimination, Kandy talks about how sad it was to see her future husband sashay and that she'll just have to sleep with him after the show. In episode 8 she even daydreams about all the Season 13 queens living in a Big Brother-type house together, admittedly just so she could have access to Joey again. Just when you think the joke has died, Kandy brings it up again in episode 13, daydreaming about Joey in reaction to Rosé's "butch" wig.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Gets called out by Tamisha, Rosé, and Elliott for coming off as arrogant as opposed to simply confident sometimes. Some of them, of course, say it nicer than others.
• The Unintelligible: Her rubbery expressions, thick lisp and at-times garbled speech prompt Ross to note that he has no idea what she's saying at times.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: While the show always tries to throw around twists and turns to keep the queens on their toes, when Elliott is (fake) eliminated and brought back to join the group, Kandy is convinced Elliott has to be some sort of mole/spy. While adding a mole to the cast is something some reality shows do, there was really no reason to think Elliott was a spy since the queens are constantly recorded anyway, and the show never needed any help to have the queens start drama with one another. Kandy, herself, mocks her paranoid line of thinking on Twitter after the episode aired.

Symone (winner)

Age: 25

From: Los Angeles, California

"Don't let the smooth taste fool ya, baby!"

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• The Ace: Quickly establishes herself as a force to be reckoned with early in the season, winning the first two challenges (including being on the winning half of the Entrance Lewk lip syncs), and by episode 4 is told her innovative runway looks (particularly her inspired use of a doo rag as a train in the Trains for Days runway) will by copied by big name celebrities on the red carpet.
  • Broken Ace: Despite dominating the first half of the season, she starts slipping later on with two bottom 2 placements. She has a big wobble in episode 8's Social Media: The Rusical challenge, and a wave of unconfidence over shaky song lyrics almost leads to her elimination. Her performance in the Nice Girls Roast leaves her even more shaken.
• An Aesop: The entirety of episode 9 was a conscious effort on her behalf to bring attention to the plight of the black community; her Snatch Game was American abolitionist and political activist Harriet Tubman, who Symone explains is a historical figure in dire need of better acknowledgment, and her runway look for Fascinating Fascinators featured the message "Say their names" across the back of her fascinator along with rhinestoned gunshot wounds on her back in honor of the Black Lives Matter Movement.
• Anime Hair: Her Meet the Queens look features an over-the-top braided wig embedded with doorknocker earrings.
• Beehive Hairdo: Wears a gigantic braided version in the finale lipsync against Kandy, and it was her ace in the hole, as this beehive hid streamers!
• Boxing Battler: Dresses as such, in gold and red, for her Lamé, You Stay runway.
• Broken Tears: Has this reaction after failing the Roast challenge and nearly being eliminated; Symone has done very well in the season with 4 challenge wins, but she has also lip-synched twice, and breaks down when she realizes if she slips up that her legacy could be as the queen who slayed until she ran out of steam.
• Catchphrase: "The Ebony Enchantress" in reference to herself. Might also count as an In-Series Nickname save for the fact most of the time it's Symone referring to herself as such, as opposed to anyone else.
• Chewing the Scenery:
  • Her hilariously over-the-top performance and spot-on comic timing as an evil CEO in the RuPaulmark challenge scores Symone her second win.
  • Comes up again during the Soda Commercial challenge, in which Symone delivers every line on-brand on the first take, with directors Ross and Carson giving her nothing but praise and seeming to ask her to do extra takes just to eat up time.
• Dance Battler: She's not referred to as a lip sync assassin anymore than she's referred to as the Ebony Enchantress, but Symone wins a staggering six lip syncs in a single season, more than any other queen in the franchise.
  • It should be noted that her opponents include Olivia Lux, Utica, Kandy Muse, and Gottmik, all formidable lip syncers in their own right.
• Don't Explain the Joke: During the rehearsal for the Roast challenge, she stops her set several times to explain to Michelle and Loni her choices, like her introduction being a reference to Hocus Pocus, or explaining a read to Kandy about the "Alone in VIP" meme. They try and tell her she has to exude her normal sassy confidence and shorten her roasts to give it punch … and while she does manage to stay in character for her routine in the actual challenge, the jokes are still too long and don't land, causing her to end up in the bottom.
• The Fashionista: She doesn't belong to the same house as Gigi Goode for nothing! Symone's runways are universally praised as unique, bold, polished.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: For the Makeover challenge of episode 10, she's tasked with making over Utica into her own drag-style and persona, while Utica reciprocates for her. The pair are initially very sceptical, as Utica quails over the possible backlash and impropriety she fears in impersonating a woman of colour. After a reassuring cool-down chat with Ru, Utica gets over her fears and Symone does an excellent job of not only coaching Utica in her own strutting mannerisms and sassy side-eye, but also dresses her in a sleek B.A.P.S.-inspired outfit and wig that lend Utica a completely different vibe to her usual limb-flailing weirdness. The pair go on to deservedly snatch the win.
• Genre Savvy: Symone knows what Ru likes, referencing his idol (Diana Ross) in one runway and then a wig Ru wore herself in the next episode.
• Homage: Throughout her fashion Symone liked to include elements of Black-American culture; such as her Trains for Days look featuring a trained do-rag, her final four look featuring cornrows, or her finale Black & White ball look featuring a gang handkerchief-inspired print on her gown. Symone even mentions how she wanted to show black culture was beautiful and not a joke.
• In the Back: Her Fascinating Fascinators look is an all-white gown with two red, bleeding gunshout wounds on the back, as an homage to the Black Lives Matter movement. Despite being called safe for the overall challenge, this look earns a special commendation from Ru.
• It's a Small World, After All: For the Henny, I Shrunk the Drag Queens! challenge the runway theme happened to be Haute Pocket, and Symone's runway perfectly fit both the challenge and theme by being a dress that made Symone look like she was in a giant jean pocket.
• One Degree of Separation: She is close friends with Gigi Goode, whom she introduced to the House of Avalon queer art collective;^note Gigi herself is not a member of the House of Avalon but she lived with them during the 2020 coronavirus quarantine. several of Symone's wigs for the season are in fact Gigi's creations, from the doorknocker earring embellished promo look wig to the beaded braids she wore for the Bead It runway.
• Only One Name: Just, Symone.
• Out-of-Character Moment: An uncharacteristic confidence crash almost leads to her elimination in the Social Media: The Rusical challenge. While Symone is not a singer nor a dancer, she knows how to deliver attitude and shine in any challenge, which should have made her role as "Miss Instaglam" (Instagram) an easy assignment. However, she fumbles badly on the vocals and loses all her swagger trying to perform them in the challenge, the judges even saying her delivery seemed more like a timid apology instead of her normal sass and nerve.
• The Perfectionist: Views drag as the one thing she's good at, so the thought of being anything less than perfect at it moves her to tears.
• Phrase Catcher: “Symone, Symon-yay”.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: During Snatch Game when asked in-character as Harriet Tubman who should play her in a movie, with Ru suggesting Jenifer Lewis, Symone goes off about white people appropriating roles meant for persons-of-color, confusing Lewis with Jennifer Lawrence.
• Pretentious Pronunciation: Something of a penchant of hers in comedy challenges, where she'll often deliberately put an Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable to great comic effect.
  • Is applauded by the judges during the first acting challenge for having the chops to know how and when to add these, in particular the hilarious way she pronounces "Factory" in-character as "FecTree" when playing a diva-ish, sneering CEO.
  • In the Bossy Rossy After Dark challenge, she plays a character insistently named "DeBORah".
  • Her delivery for the Soda Branding challenge is pure bob-and-weave Sassy Black Woman — “Is yo blurrrd shuga low?” — with a brilliant, momentary flash of Danger Deadpan — "seriously, I had 4 heart attacks on the way over here" — that has Carson and Ross in absolute stitches. She goes on to very deservedly win the week.
• Race Lift: As mentioned above; invoked when she thought Ru was suggesting that Jennifer Lawrence should play Harriet Tubman in a biopic film, with Symone sharing her righteous indignation over Hollywood giving roles meant for people-of-color to white actors … until Ru clarifies she said Jenifer Lewis, not Lawrence.
• Renaissance Woman: Thoroughly proven by the mid-point in the competition; Symone serves fierce looks, slays in dancing challenges, is brilliantly funny and well-timed in acting/comedy challenges and is also a sweet, good-natured queen who stays out of any shitty drama.
• Sassy Black Woman: Her go-to persona in acting challenges, which is very much like her normal personality up to eleven. Olivia dubs this as Symone using her "FEC-tree" voice, as a Call-Back to when she first pulled this out when portraying a sassy CEO for the RuPaulmark challenge.
• Shout-Out: While she doesn't say she identified as a Goth herself, for her Haute Pocket runway her giant denim pocket look was dedicated to the goth kids she hung out with as school, who accepted her as the black, gay kid.
• Shrinking Violet: Has mentioned that the Symone character is her way of feeling confident and that she's actually quite shy.
• Signature Move: Symone has a way of moving that is difficult to describe, though perhaps “relaxed sassy” works best. She has a model walk but with a slightly slinky quality to the way she moves and often keeps her bent wrist close to her chest. This is always matched with an expression of relax-eyed, arched-eyebrowed confidence.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: After her brother was arrested, Symone became determined to make her mother proud of her, no matter what.
• Whole Costume Reference:
  • It goes unmentioned in the episode itself, but Symone's Polaroid dress in the season premiere (and the lack of any accessories) is an homage to a dress Gisele Bundchen wore for Esquire in 2004.
  • For the Makeover challenge, she brought looks based on Halle Berry and Natalie Desselle's characters from the movie B.A.P.S.. Due to Covid restrictions, the queens would be making over each other and vice-versa, but she still puts Utica in the Halle Berry look, calling attention to a movie that codified a lot of Black-American fashion.