RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE S14E12 “Moulin Ru”: Bosco’s Got The Golden Ticket & This Season Is Never Ending

In the aftermath of Jasmine Kennedie’s elimination, the remaining seven queens are anxious as hell. The vast majority of them were in the bottom in the last episode and the queen who had made it to the final Bottom Two (after losing two lip syncs against Willow and then Camden) hopes to use this “residual anger” she feels to fuel a win that would get her back on track. Yes, Bosco has a lot to prove in this episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race; she is hungry for her third win but will her controversial and assertive attitude in this time of desperation ruin her overall chances at the crown?

When it’s revealed that this week’s main challenge is a Rusical called “Moulin Ru” (based on the amazing 2001 movie and its 2018 Tony-winning musical adaptation), Bosco has set her sights on the lead role of “Saltine”, a role that Camden also covets as she feels that she needs to do something bold to impress the judges after Michelle Visage had told her in an earlier episode that Camden’s shyness will get in her way in the competition.

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As the queens look over the script and the roles, there is a definitive change from the earlier episodes where queens were pretty diplomatic and amiable as queens stake their claims via opening statements and honestly, guilt trips, in order to take the roles they want. Taking a cue from Daya, who even says in her confessional that compromise is for losers, DeJa and Jorgeous talk about how they were always team players in earlier challenges when it came to choosing roles and that they’re not changing their minds about the roles they want. Jorgeous and Angeria want the role of Talent but Angeria ultimately takes the part of Charisma, though she’s quite annoyed over the situation, especially since her other choice – the Green Fairy – ended up going to Willow. Everything suddenly goes an entire step above however when the role of Saltine comes up because Bosco is very dead-set on playing the role.

Bosco makes her case by saying that Saltine’s sexiness matches her own while Camden makes the point that there’s a real romanticism to Saltine that she would be much better at portraying; Camden makes really good points and Bosco starts to dig in, psychologically. She asks if Camden thinks she could have beat Bosco in the “Swept Away” lip sync from the previous episode, a lip sync that really showcased Bosco’s sex appeal. Camden says that, truthfully, she thinks that she would have beat Bosco, who calls what Camden says a “bold opinion” and “wrong” and her attitude becomes increasingly hardened as  Camden refuses to budge. At one point, we cut to Jorgeous’ confessional where she says she believes Bosco to be rude, and when it seems that trying to intimidate Camden into folding doesn’t work, Bosco tries out flattery, saying that she doesn’t think she’s as versatile as Camden to pull off the last remaining role that nobody else has claimed, Mama Z. Camden sees right through this strategy and the two remain unmovable.

The other queens finally say that time is a-wastin’ and Camden suggests a coin flip, which Bosco doesn’t go for. Instead, Bosco desperately asks for vote from the rest of the queens, which is honestly frustrating to see but also a gift in television tension because it brings more voices into the mix. Angeria votes for Bosco, Jorgeous and DeJa vote for Camden. Willow is next but she hesitates, either because she legitimately doesn’t know who to choose or because, like she’s shown in every other episode this season, she is keeping her cards close to her vest. And like a devilish little troublemaker, Daya votes for Bosco, making it a tie that Willow has to ultimately break – what delicious drama! Thank you for that, Daya.

Willow brings up the fact that Bosco gave a lot of sex in her multiple lip syncs and that seems to seal the deal – Bosco’s sexiness gets her the role of Saltine. Bosco is happy while Camden is disappointed, saying “f*ck all y’all” and telling Bosco that she has to nail the role and if she doesn’t then Camden will be pissed off. The vibe of the room turns sour as Bosco and Camden go to their respective corners and, though she’s happy to get the role, Bosco’s also feeling guilty for essentially railroading Camden, saying that she has a lot of damage control to do.

Angeria and Camden, two queens who’ve been really close throughout the entire season, talk it all out and cheer each other up saying that, though the other may have gotten the role they didn’t want, they’ll surely turn it out. Camden refers to her showstopping lip sync win where she channeled Freddie Mercury and feels energized by this, giving away hints for this episode’s conclusion…

There’s a rehearsal for the choreography with special guest director Leslie Jordan, composer LeLand, and choreographer Miquel Zarate and there’s not much to write home about it besides Camden giving Bosco her flowers for being a talented dancer and also a glimpse at possible struggles from Jorgeous who’s dance choreography skills aren’t as strong as one would expect. But as always, the rehearsal sequence is meant to misdirect expectations while also planting seeds that you reflect on later as hints, along with the pre-challenge makeup sequence where the queens get ready for the main stage while talking about themselves.

We learn that Bosco’s first dance teacher was her grandmother, who had trained to be a Radio City Rockette-type dancer and we also learn that Jorgeous learned how to dance by mimicking the fight choreography in Ang Lee‘s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, along with the confession that she doesn’t like musicals. Focusing on Bosco’s dance background and Jorgeous’ lack of interest in the minutiae of musical theater certainly spells disaster for the two beloved queens.

As the Rusical begins, it’s clear from the beginning who the star of the show is: Lady Camden as Mama Z. Angeria and Daya do wonderful as Charisma and Uniqueness but it’s Camden’s acting chops and incredible dancing technique put the spotlight right onto her. Willow also does a great job as the Green Fairy while DeJa and Jorgeous do just OK in the challenge, with nothing big to write home about (besides the rap that DeJa does in the middle of the “Lady Marmalade”-inspired song.

So, where does that leave Bosco?

Well… Bosco’s performance as Saltine is passable, but she set the bar really goddamn high after acting the way she did to get the role she wanted and, unfortunately, it doesn’t even come close to being an amazing performance. As Michelle points out later, Bosco doesn’t do much to make a character out of Saltine, she just basically paints on her same mug with her same signature Bosco eyebrows and essentially plays herself. There’s plenty of sex appeal but barely any romance in the performance, which is probably thanks to the lack of chemistry between Bosco and her unnamed love interest. Like last week, it’s a tough episode for Bosco.

Mirror, Mirror….?

Joining RuPaul, Michelle Visage, and Ross Mathews on the judging panel is singer/actress Andra Day (The United States vs. Billie Holiday) and the runway category is “Mirror, Mirror” where the majority of the queens’ looks didn’t quite fit the category (DeJa) or they fell short (Willow, Jorgeous). The only looks that stood out in the category were from Lady Camden, Angeria, and Bosco, though it loses a significant amount of points for being a literal corset-and-panty, a look that she has worn multiple times on the main stage. Daya Betty’s KISS-inspired metal look gets a very honorable mention, too.

RuPaul finally asks all of the queens their opinion on who should go home this episode and, while Bosco says Jorgeous due to her being in the Bottom so many times, every other queen says Bosco because of how badly she stumbled after fighting so hard for the part of Saltine. Jorgeous is the one queen to evisersate Bosco with her reasons though by saying that Bosco wanted the part so bad that she ended up denigrating Camden, which Jorgeous didn’t like. It’s so honest but cuts right to the core of the matter. Honestly, an amazing moment from Miss Jorgeous.

In the end, Lady Camden is the winner, earning her second win of the season (which puts her alongside Angeria and Bosco in terms of the most wins so far) and completely vindicating herself because, though she lost the battle with Bosco, she certainly won the war. Angeria, Daya, and DeJa are declared safe, which means that the Bottom Two are Bosco and Jorgeous, which is very correct.

As the music queues up, Bosco looks scared as hell to lip-sync against Jorgeous – not only because of her track record with winning lip syncs, but also because of RuPaul‘s very evident obsession with Jorgeous. The song is “Heartbreak Hotel (Hex Hector Remix) by Whitney Houston and both queens turn it out; Bosco looks like Mackenzie Davis as a piece of art from Heavy Metal magazine as she aggressively dances her way across the stage while little Jorgeous pop and locks it at one point.

It’s close but it’s pretty obvious that Ru is going to choose her fave to shantay and stay in the competition. And after RuPaul declares Jorgeous the winner of the lip sync, the camera angles and edits change drastically and the music becomes ever more intense because, oh yeah right, there’s still a chocolate bar that needs to be opened. And, just as I suspected, Bosco is revealed to be the queen with the Golden Ticket chocolate bar and it is a pretty great moment – Bosco gets to stay another week! Oh my god, it’s another week with nobody going home!

Conclusion: Moulin Ru

Another week and another round of queens staying in the competition. There’s a lot of poo-pooing this ridiculously long season but I’m honestly not that mad about it. I like getting to know more of these queens as the weeks go on, especially now that everyone has at least one win, which makes it more exciting. I must say, that just like last week and the week before, we’ve had ourselves a damn fine episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, but now that the Golden Ticket chocolate bar has been revealed, will momentum die down? Or will the shift in vibes make for some juicy reality TV drama? I cannot wait to find out.

Are you over this super long season of RuPaul’s Drag Race? Let us know in the comments below!

A new episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 14 can be seen every Friday at 8/7c on VH1.

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