Drag Race is always trying to surprise its contestants and (by extension) us. Double eliminations, surprise returns, and golden chocolate bars are just some of the ways WOW has tried to keep the show fresh and keep the queens’ heartbeats spiking to 140 BPM. Sometimes the gimmicks work (All-Stars 2’s “Revenge of the Queens,” this episode’s fart-sound inserts), and sometimes they don’t (season 11’s six-way lip-sync). But Drag Race’s true magic comes in episodes like tonight: when the show surprises the queens, and the queens surprise them right back.
This week marks the season’s first true acting challenge. The queens star in “The Daytona Winds,” an ’80s soap-opera parody exploring the drama and intrigue of three powerful drag families: the Michaels, the O’Haras, and…
