Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers from Episode 6 of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 10. Proceed with caution.
The latest episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race found Blair St. Clair being eliminated after her group failed to put on the best Drag Con panel in the main challenge. But before she sashayed away, she shared a heartbreaking story from her past, revealing that her first sexual experience was being raped at a college party.
FANDOM caught up with the 22-year-old the morning after her elimination to find out how she felt about revealing something so painful and emotional on television.
“I had finally allowed myself to feel really vulnerable and that had been a fear of mine –to relive vulnerability,” Blair said. “And it was a healthy way of feeling vulnerable and I was very thankful for that. I was just feeling very, very blessed, very grateful for having the experiences that I’ve had.”
The queen added that she also felt “a little bit of shame and guilt” over not making it to the end because she thought it was a reflection of her self-worth. But over time, she learned that wasn’t the case — just one of many lessons she’s learned over the past year.
Blair was willing to share some of that knowledge, offering advice to other people who may be struggling after experiencing sexual assault, or just dealing with pain in general. The young queen said her best tip is to simply love, accept love, and give it back in return.
“Life’s truly about love and it’s taken me quite a long time to learn that and to realize that,” Blair told FANDOM. “That all we have in life is ourselves and once you kind of begin loving yourself and accept that and start sharing love and kindness and positivity in the world, that’s when we start seeing a change.
No matter what kind of trauma you experienced or whatever kind of emotions or past you’ve had, the way to capitalize on living the best life is to start spreading as much love as possible.”
But now that the Broadway baby has left the building, only eight queens remain. And so, it’s time for our weekly power rankings based on the entire season to determine which of the contestants is most likely to make it to the end and which may be next to sashay away.
8. The Vixen
“There’s always something just a little unpolished about her looks,” RuPaul finally said about The Vixen last night, echoing our critiques of the Chicago queen from the past five weeks. When the focus is on Vixen, it always seems to be about her feuds or aggressive attitude. But the fact that there’s almost always something a little off about her runway looks is always brushed under the rug. But now Ru said it, and perhaps next week we can seal the deal.
7. Aquaria
Aquaria knows how to serve a look, but as Asia pointed out this week, her communication skills could use a little work. The Drag Con challenge required a lot of personality and if her team hadn’t been declared safe this week, she would have very much ended up in the bottom. Next week is Snatch Game and it will be quite a twist if the young queen is able to channel a character and make us laugh.
6. Kameron Michaels
Kameron may be quiet, but she knows how to bring the energy when it matters most. Every time there’s a challenge that she seems destined to fail, she rises to the occasion. When she had to bring the laughs in the improv-heavy Bossy Rossy challenge, she actually managed to be more entertaining than comedy queen Monét. And she also brought enough heart to her role in the Drag Con panel to help her team secure a win. She’s going to have to surprise us once more if she wants to make it through Snatch Game next week, but she keeps proving that she’s got more in her than we’re giving her credit for.
5. Monét X Change
Monét almost won the entire challenge this week and it was nice to see her back in the game. But she still has that pesky record of being in the bottom two for the past two weeks in a row. She needs to do a little more work to remind us all why she seemed like such a strong contender at the start of the season, but as one of the best queens in the New York drag scene, she has what it takes to pull it off.
4. Monique Heart
Monique’s personality has her dishing out quotable moments in the style of Alyssa Edwards, and that’s about the biggest compliment I can give a queen. But she has been serving looks that are just as entertaining. She returns to the workroom after each challenge feeling robbed of being in the top, and she’s not wrong. But although she may not be getting the credit she deserves, she’s not getting many bad critiques either. So perhaps her day will come? We can only hope.
3. Asia O’Hara
Asia may not have been on the winning team this week, but RuPaul specifically called her out after declaring her group was safe to let her know she did great work. And that’s because she came out on the Hat’s Impressive runway looking like a dang dandelion. Indeed, it was a lampshade from Ikea, but she turned it out! This seasoned queen may have some flaws but it doesn’t look like they’re going to stop her from going all the way.
2. Miz Cracker
Miz Cracker may have been in the bottom for the first time this week, but that doesn’t negate the fact that she’s nearly won almost every challenge before that. Although she was most concerned that she was critiqued for not being funny — when comedy is her bread and butter as a drag queen — she will get another chance to prove herself during Snatch Game. And as long as she doesn’t get in her head about this week’s stumble, that’s a challenge she’s sure to shine in. And just like Mayhem last week, Cracker is Blair St. Clair’s pick for who deserves to win, saying “she has exactly what the show is looking for: charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent.”
1. Eureka
As the only queen this season to win two challenges — not to mention two in a row — Eureka is officially the contestant to beat from a statistics standpoint. She’s got a huge personality and knows how to “proportionize” to turn out a killer look. For some reason, she seems to have a lot of haters online and the other queens are always annoyed by her. But Monét declared this week that she likes her and thinks it’s actually the other girls that are the problem. And as a Eureka fan, I’m going to agree. Hate her if you want, but it’s not going to affect her journey to the top three.