SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about the episode 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race

It’s the 200^th episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race and what better way to celebrate that than with a ball?!

But before we get to that, we must fully accept that Jax has sashayed away after Anetra sent her home last week. As Marcia points out, Jax has lip synced a total of 5 times so it was a long time coming. However, Jax has proven herself as a formidable lip synce assassin and dancer so I was surprised that she did not slay at the Lip Sync Lalaparuza. She is, in fact, the Simone Biles of lip syncing, as Anetra said.

RuPaul “hello hello hello’s” his way into the Werk Room to let the queens know that it is the 15^th anniversary of Drag Race and as mentioned, this week marks the 200^th episode. Because of that, this week’s mini-challenge had the queens getting into quick drag to make some green screen magic by photobombing iconic moments from Drag Race with iconic queens.

The queen’s quick drag is rough – and we are here for it. I’m particularly enjoying Salina’s plush Everything Everywhere All At Once­-esque hot dog finger gloves. Marcia also gets an honorable mention for her creepy, bald The Hills Have Eyes child pageant look.

Anetra ends up willing the mini-challenge with her photobomb of Willow Pill’s toaster, spaghetti and tub performance from last season. Since last week, Anetra is gaining some major traction after being a bit silent in the past episodes. It’s the quiet once you must look out for.

Ru points out that since the traditional 15^th anniversary gift is crystal, this week’s maxi-challenge will be a “Crystal Ball” with three lewls:

• “Start Your Engines”: The queens will have to update of the classic racing suit like we have never seen it before.
• “My Favorite Ball”: They must take an eleganza look from a past season and make it their own.
• “Crystalized Eleganza”: They must create a lewk from scratch that is dripping with crystals.

The first two lewks can be something they brought with them but the third lewk must be made there. That said, here comes Loosey with her aggressive competitiveness.

Loosey has been waiting for this bal since she has gotten here because she loves to sew her own costumes. In a talking head she stated, “It’s my job to show these people that I am the one to beat!”

Okay, Survivor.

There’s a mad dash to the crystal materials they must use for the third lewk and Sasha notices everyone is choosing silver and white as their main colors but she goes another way – she chooses gold. She said she’s not that much of a sewer (uh oh) but she is confident because she knows her body and fashion. “I hope it’s enough!” she said.

Ru comes back to the Werk Room and she brought a friend along: Carson Kressley. They are ready to do a walk through and chat with all the queens about what they are making.

First up is Spice. Ru and Kressely point out that all of her silohuette have been similar. Ru said that this is an opportunity to switch it up. “Some of your looks have lacked personality,” criticized Kressley.

The last design challenge, Spice was safe and she feels that Ru and Kressley are asking for more. For Spice, that translates to more fabric.

Spice… you in danger, girl.

Ru and Kressley call upon Mistress to join them and true to form, she shades the other queens saying that a lot of their lewks are coming off as “gluttonous and gaudy”.  She said she is going full Texas pageant with lots of embellishments to shape her body.

It has not passed Ru that Mistress’s big personality has had an impact on her relationships with the other queens (which we love). Mistress thinks that some of the queens may be intimidated by her aggressiveness, but at the end of the day this is a competition. She’s here to win.  “One thing they can’t deny is that I keep it real,” she bluntly said.

Next up: Salina. The last design challenge we saw her in the bottom two. This week, she needs redemption. She presents her ideas and Ru and Kressley said she has too much going on.

Ru checks in with her emotions and Salina has a moment because she feels like her confidence has been shook since she walked through the Werk Room. Salina gets emotional and starts to cry. Ru insists that Salina ignore her inner-saboteur and let her emotions flow because that’s what we fall in love with. “Don’t be afraid of it,” Ru said.

At this point, it can go either way. They could be setting up Salina to be in the top with this lewk or in the bottom two again. Let’s hope for the former because Salina is definitely growing on me.

As the queens work on their garments, here comes Mistress stirring the pot. She asks Loosey if she thinks she has a chance to win. Loosey said yes and then Mistress responds, “Because I think the girls are getting really scared this week because you got mad that you didn’t win.”

Of course, they are referring to the “Daytona Winds” week where Loosey said she was “f*ckin’ pissed” that she wasn’t in the top.

The other queens start to stir the pot with Mistress – but it’s all in good teasing fun. Malaysia points out that she “went crazy” that she didn’t win and Loosey makes a good point saying, “Y’all can have literal mental breakdowns…I say once I was pissed I was safe and we have to talk about it the rest of the season.”

Everyone is laughing but Loosey knows that Mistress is joking but also trying to get into her head.

It’s runway day! And everyone is ready… more or less.

There is special moment where we learn more about Anetra and her very traumatizing past with how she was treated by her family. She was kicked out of her house without saying goodbye to her family. She reconciled and reunited with her biological birth dad who ended up taking him in.

Anetra is grateful for all that she has been given but she ends the conversation with “I do wish I had my mom.”

While the queens beat their faces, they do a retrospective of their favorite moments from Drag Race of season past including the fight between Mimi Imfurst and Shangela as well as Bianca Del Rio as Judge Judy in “Snatch Game” and Ongina revealing that she was living with HIV. And as Luxx points out, anything that Alyssa Edwards did was memorable.

It’s runway time and Ru is looking absolutely sickening in Annie Oakley leather fetish wear. She introduces judges Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley and special guest judge Julia Garner.

After Ru performs “Cake & Candy” with sexy male chefs, the queens take the runway. Here is how they fared with each category.

“Start Your Engines”

• Mistress: Her lewk is very well-made but is essentially a replica of the original.
• Spice: She did well. It’s very “Spice” and is actually cute.
• Luxx: Loved her motorcross interpretation of Ru’s pink jumpsuit
• Marcia: Her makeup is improving each week and I’m living for the pastels on this racer lewk
• Salina: It’s giving late ‘90s hip hop baggy jumpsuit
• Malaysia: It fits her too a tea and is wildly feminine and minimal
• Loosey: It’s giving Pricness Peach
  Sasha: It’s giving “Hot Import Nights”
• Anetra: The neon green is actually sexy (Michelle is gonna hate it). And shout out to the Filipino flag patch on her outfit.

“My Favorite Ball”

• Mistress: She chooses the “Ball Ball” from season 12 and is giving Lee Bowery beach ball facekini realness.
• Marcia: She chooses the “Bag Ball” from season 12 and it just looks like a cute milkmaid. Nothing terrible, but nothing to gag over.
• Malaysia: Choosing the “Hair Ball” from season 3 and it’s quite glamorous in a Cruella De Vil way.
• Spice: Another “Ball Ball” lewk She is covered in fuzzy pompoms and it just looks… basic.
• Salina: With “The Money Ball” from season 3, Salina makes an outfit from money and food stamps with her face in it. It’s made to look like a palm tree, but it just kinda looks like a mess.
• Loosey: Yet another “Ball Ball” moment. She uses doggy poo bags but not in the best way.
• Luxx: Another “Hair Ball” look – probably the best of the bunch. It’s giving Mugler meets season 13 winner Symone.
  Sasha: She uses her inspiration of the “Bag Ball” in the best way possible: by dressing up like a rhinestoned bag of weekd.
• Anetra: She’s the only one that opted for the “Sugar Ball” from season 5. IT’s not really working.

“Crystalized Eleganza”

• Mistress: She looks absolutely stunning in this crystalline creation. She is pageant ready.
• Spice: She looks like she’s waiting in line to get into the club.
• Marcia: She said she looks like a “dreamy stripper”. I was getting an background player in Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette.
• Malaysia: It’s a beautiful gown… and for someone who doesn’t know how to sew, it looks really good.
• Salina: She went simple with satin here. The only problem is we see that she struggled with this fabric. We knew what she was going for, but the execution fell short.
• Loosey: She goes for a small-town pageant girl. It’s nicely made but again, nothing special here.
• Luxx: She looks like a fairy from a production of Midsummer’s Night Dream
• Sasha: It’s giving Queen Sasha from the islands. It’s gorge.
• Anetra: If you weren’t gagging at this, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. It was giving Schiaparelli bone dress but in the context of elevated drag.

Marcia, Malaysia, and Luxx are announced as safe. Which leaves Salina, Spice, and Loosey in the bottom and Mistress, Sasha, and Anetra on the top.

Salina gets it kind of rough. As Visage said, “You always get so close… and your personality is what I am love with but I also want to be in love with your drag.”

Spice gets commended on fighting the urge to prance and she gets some not the greatest critiques on all her lewks. Meanwhile, Loosey seems safe because the judges were pretty fine with everything but they weren’t vibing with her “Bag Ball” lewk.

Mistress continues to get praised for her evolving drag during the competition while the judges gushed over all of Sasha’s lewks – and we have a special moment to learn more about Sasha and her rise as an icon in the House of Colby.

Then there’s Anetra – who probably had the most gorgeous gown on that runway. The judges love it all… but in jest, Visage calls her out on her resting bitch face – because she also suffers from the condition. It’s all in good fun.

It is ru-vealed that Sasha is the winner for the week and Salina and Spice are in the bottom. This is the second time for the both of them and Salina is in tears during her confessional. They lip sync to Lil Nas X’s “That’s What I Want” and it feels like Salina is relying more on an emotional performance rather than booty bumpin’ moves. Meanwhile, Spice resorts to her silly Spice ways.

In the end, Ru tells Salina she is safe to slay another day and Spice is told to sashay away. Actually, she ends up doing her signature trot off the runway.