Me every time I manage to reference something that’s not from an episode of The Simpsons.

How dare Spain have the best Talent Show AND the best concept for a Ball challenge? It’s rude.

It was of course the Ball episode, with the theme being Spain through the centuries, the first being 10th, the second being 20th and the third being the 30th. And I LOVE this concept and I hope the other iterations of the franchise steal it because there’s so many interestings things you could reference.

10th, 10th, 10th Century Across The Boards

I really love a historical reference point on the runway so this category was like catnip for me, and I do think that this was overall the strongest category of the bunch.

Sharonne

I said I’ve been waiting for Sharonne to surprise me on the runway and I think this look did that for me – I love the colours of the coat because they’re those distinct heraldic colours that, I at least, associate quite strongly with the depictions of emperors and rulers from the 10th century. It certainly all has a sumptuousness to it, I do wish the bodysuit she had worn underneath had been a little more fabulous, or better disguised

but I LOVED the makeup which, for whatever reason, reminds me of Mushu from Mulan

I would easily say this is Sharonne’s best look in the competition.

Estrella Xtravanganza

God bless the fact she literally just bought a Templar Knight costume from a store and decided to run with it, like at least Marisa’s was made out of latex, this is just linen; fraying edges and all! And then with the go-to black leather drag boots – you almost have to try so hard to put this little effort in. But hey, at least she had the better ponytail.

Venedita von Dash

Other than the fact that my first reaction to this was an overwhelming sense of itchiness because it strongly triggered my trypophobia, I kind of love it – I think there could be a little more tailoring to her her moon cloak to make it look slightly less like Gia Gunn’s giant handbag that was just some fabric stitched around two hula hoops – and as much as I liked the reveal that the inside of was lined with LED stars

the better reveal to me was the fact she had the weirdly seedy looking moon emoji on her back

it reminds so much of those hyper realistic renditions of The Simpsons.

Diamante Merybrown

I unabashedly think this look was one of the best looks to walk the runway this episode – the shape is so interesting, the patterns are incredibly well managed and it moved SO beautifully! Her inspiration was the Mosque in Cordoba which has the same striped decor and I think she rendered that beautifully. With the outfit having so much volume, I wish she made some sort of hair or more ornate headpiece on, it just looks a bit unfinished and as though she was in the middle of trying the outfit on, but I get that that doesn’t seem to be her style.

Drag Sethlas

This was really cool and I really liked the fact she took the 10th century reference,in this case the fabric being a blown up version of an on old Latin text, and giving it this really cool almost Mugler silhouette . And the little ink pot and quill in her hair was such a neat little touch

I would say it showed how much she thought about the look and then she loudly and proudly announced she had no idea what the Glosas Emilianenses that she bedecked herself in were, but we’ll ignore that.

Marina

The way in which Marina decided to play this ball was both interesting and incredibly baffling – but out of all of her looks this sort of biblical looking version of Lady Gaga’s Vogue cover was my favourite, if only for the wheaten merkin

I do also really love her saying “I’m the bride of the Wheat God!” as though that was something we were all fully aware of as being a common fable but as far I can tell… it is not and basically she had the bride look for the 20th century look and she constructed this whole narrative of the progression of marriage rites through the centuries – which is a neat idea, I just think this look was a little too high concept and she would have been better off, at the very least, using a more recognisably 10th century silhouette, because this look reads very much like something America’s Next Top Model would’ve made the models wear to make them as uncomfortable as possible.

Juriji der Klee

This was a whole moment and my only wish was that she took a little longer before taking the monk robes off to reveal her angelically armoured Joan of Arc look underneath

but I can’t be too mad because this was so good and the extending wings were GREAT

I love that she chose to do Joan of Arc, and to do it in a way that didn’t read as either being a knock off of Zendaya’s Met Gala look or that relied on her being burnt alive as a gag. This was tasteful, respectful and you could tell that Juriji was just really proud to present this look. I shall simply choose not to see the Richie Rich wig.

The Roaring 20th Century

This was a really interesting category and a couple of the queens went with quite brave and controversial choices, and I really respect Drag Race Espana for letting them do it and I think that’s what makes this iteration of the franchise to special.

Sharonne

I like this, money printed clothing is a little passé at this point but I do really love the volume and shape of the the coat she was wearing, which did lead to another bodysuit reveal but this one felt like it had actually been fully decorated

and I really, REALLY loved this green eye look she had on – I think it’s the most beautiful she’s looked on the runway

green is hard to do but she just has the perfect skintone for it – if I ever wear green eyeshadow I look like someone spliced together the DNA of an axolotl and a frog to create a new horrifying amphibian.

Estrella Xtravaganza

So this caused quite a stir on Twitter and Reddit – and I can see why the initially reaction to seeing such an obvious example of fascism depicted on the runway would provoke a negative reaction but it quickly became apparent that the people kicking up a fuss were, very largely, not Spanish and don’t quite have the context of just *how* recent Spain was under the rule of a fascist government, and a way of coping with that and delegitimizing a movement that still has proponents is through queering and infantilising its propaganda.
And she could have easily played this look like Baga Chipz’s Butch Queen look on …Vs The World (apologies for reminding you of this look)

but I like that Estrella kept it very femme which made it seem a lot less like Franco cosplay and worked well with her presentation of mincing about and being afraid of her own gun

And she was doing Franco because A LOT of people seemed convinced she was doing Hitler because, at least in my experience, when discussing World War 2 and the rise of fascism in Europe, Spain barely gets a mention, it’s all Germany and Italy. So I hope this look taught some people something new.

Venedita von Dash

This was essentially a continuation of the Estrella’s look, with hers being a reference to Carmen Polo, the wife of Franco whose fondness for a pearl necklace [non-smutty] became her sort of trademark, hence Venedita magicianing a string of pearls from under her skirt.
And I really loved the bedazzled “Franco is Dead” on her back like a sign on a car reading “Just Married”

it was a very well put together look, and more importantly a perfectly executed statement.

Diamante Merybrown

Someone was going to have to do Gaudi for this runway and with Sharonne having all ready done a Gaudi look in the first episode (that I didn’t really like tbh) I was glad to get a different reference point with Diamante going for the Casa Batllo and its iridescent tiling as well the tradition of bedecking the facade of the building in roses on St’ George’s Day. I’m not sure the looks quite came together – I like the holographic corset top and I like the rose print dress but the two are very much fighting one another to the death. But I really loved this wig and I appreciate the effort to give a more fashionable, standard femme look, which I don’t think the judges gave her enough credit for.

Drag Sethlas

I was surprised we didn’t get more tech-inspired looks for this runway, which I think is a large contribution as to why Sethlas won the episode – her looks really stood out amongst everyone else’s which will always help in a Ball challenge. But regardless, this was a great look even if it is mostly just a Matrix print bodysuit and a slightly too wobbly display of dead Ipods – I loved the plastic wiring wig which still managed to look like hair because of the way she styled the hairline. And I liked that her makeup, while still very dramatic, it felt different because of the amount of colour she used in it – often in the past it’s just blurred into a bit of a dark smudge whereas as this has real definition and contrast.

Marina

So the concept for this bride was that she was slightly free in that she was now no longer obligated to marry The Non-specific God of Wheat which again, is a cool idea, I’m just not sure why she added the gimmick of chewing gum and sticking it in her hair

She could have just worn the Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen wig and gone with the slightly punkier, non-conventional bride look because the dress was GREAT and it would’ve been perfect but as usual, Marina does have to gild the conceptual lily.

Juriji der Klee

After the serve of a Joan of Arc look, I was at first a little disappointed by this because this is literally just a dress I own – granted she accessorised it well and it was a fully put together look. But much like her Joan of Arc look, there was a reveal as reference to the more sexually free films that came to Spain after Franco’s death

however the English translations did make it sound like she was saying that she and her grandmother used to watch porn together which… would certainly be a story.

Future? I Hardly Know Her!

So this look had to be an depiction of what they thought Spanish fashion would be in the 30th century, which they did have to make out of some plastic, fabric or metal materials that they were given. Naturally there was talk about not being able to sew, except this time just about EVERYONE could not sew, and it will show.

Sharonne

Given her lack of sewing experience, I think this is actually pretty impressive – sure the actual dress is mostly just glued cardboard that looks slightly like something that would be worn if you were being forced to marry The Unspecific Wheat God, but the one armed bolero jacket is super cute and really well constructed – and as far as I’m aware, she did make it herself! I was a little surprised that she was only safe, they should have just still critiqued her instead of making her go sit backstage like the Kandy Muse meme

it is a very lonely industry.

Estrella Xtravaganza

So Estrella had an absolute NIGHTMARE this episode – mostly because Supremme strolled through the Werk Room for her mid-sewing walkabout and sent the fear of God into Estrella about her plans to make silver chaps – and then sadly warned her against doing the comedically large cloche knockers

but Estrella was hellbent on giving herself tit guns, which I don’t blame her for, it’s a good futuristic comedy staple and would give her something to do on the runway – unfortunately the tit guns looked like a mince pie tin that you crimped shut because you were bored and slightly anxious about what your grandmother might say now that she’s had two sherries

in terms of concept to execution, this is absolutely a cataclysmic failure on the same level of Lala Ri and the bag dress. HOWEVER – she did (mostly) sew a pair of pants that somehow (mostly) managed to survive the lipsync. And I did like her extremely budget Chromatica makeup and accessories

it reminds me of that person on Instagram who dresses their cat in the looks from Drag Race but everything is made out of paper.

Venedita von Dash

I’ll be honest, I don’t love this, to me it doesn’t look much like anything and is just kind of messy – there’s not one thing that really pulls focus but I appreciate the idea and the fact she went with plantlife really set her apart from the rest of the queens. And I did like her makeup and the weird plastic things she had turned into earrings – so there were things to like, just the dress brought back memories of the infamous tumour dress from Project Runway

too many lumps and none of them in the right places.

Diamante Merybrown

So Diamante is one of the few queens that prior to the season actually took some sewing classes and the other queens, clearly feeling self-conscious about their own sewing abilities, really began acting like she was a master seamstress and spent A LONG time talking about how she had managed to make a whole dress – completely ignoring that said dress was literally just a sleeveless shift dress. And ultimately I think the dress did her a disservice because it just didn’t fit with the look – she looked like a girl who was going out to a club and got trapped in a tin can. And I think had she gone more of a horror route, because there was a certain Silent Hill quality to the outfit, she would have been significantly better off.

Drag Sethlas

She ATE this category – the concept of having all forms of bodily communication removed or obscured was so clever and imaginative – and feels like a plot lifted straight from Doctor Who. And I really loved the alien makeup, she looked just like Jaylah from Star Trek Beyond, to the point where she must have done cosplay as her before because it’s so accurate

the whole thing was just very cool and well executed – and she thoroughly deserved the win purely for being the only person to give a real WOW moment outside of a look they had prepared.

Marina

This is so funny to me purely because Marina absolutely thought that throwing down her bouquet to reveal that her outfit reads as “FUCK OFF” was a moment

and it really, REALLY was not.
Also her saying “I have alien makeup on” and then it literally just being a sort of cartoonish 1930s eye was VERY funny to me

especially when you have Drag Sethlas next to her looking like an extra from a Star Trek movie. God bless her, she was VERY lucky to be spared the bottom 2 because I think it should have been her and Estrella in all honesty.

Juriji der Klee

This was super cute – the proportions of the boob guns are VERY janky, but the outfit is still very well executed with the sort of cheerleader skirt and then the green boots matching the gun – I really liked this and I really enjoyed her whole vibe on the runway, it’s fun and silly, which again, stood out against everyone else going a little depressing in regards to the 30th century.