S13 E16: Grand Finale

Phoenix

Phoenix

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Well this wasn’t too bad. Maybe last week set the bar extremely low but Ru was present and seemed to be having fun. Lots of cool looks and the right winner.

I think Work Bitch is not a good lipsync song and so it was difficult to determine who won that because it was rather stilted. Gimme More was better but I thought Gotmik did good.

Symone mopped Till the World Ends, that dress and hair were perfection. Kandi with those bangs really didn’t do herself any favors.

The tribute to Chi Chi was sweet.

So yeah not bad ending to an uneven season.
 
I still find it bizarre they didn't engineer a Gottmik vs Symone finale, which is surely the GRRANNNNNDE finale everyone wanted, but then I guess they'd pre-ordained Symone as the winner and needed an obvious result in the finale.

I do think Kandy deserved to be in the finale- Rosé's lipsync was really boring and that terrible jumpsuit was just awful. Glad we got one good reveal (Symone's wig) but the lipsyncs on the whole were slightly disappointing- the way they edited basically 2/3 of Til The World Ends showed that much at least.

Having said all of this, I enjoyed it, and we got the right winner this time.
 
It was a bit damp rather than a flooded basement and despite Rosé being limited in what she could do due to injury I still think she outperformed Kandy in the same way Symone did, they are just more polished performance nuances which elevates them.

Actually same for Gotmik but to a lesser extent, their both just a bit sloppier and one note in their lip syncs.

Glad of the winner though, deserved x
 
I too was convinced this was going to be engineered to have Gottmik in the final lipsync (and have her win really).
But there was no competition there, Symone won that lipsync hands down. And with Mik out of the way there could really be only one winner. And rightly so.
 
I enjoyed that episode! Ru actually seemed to be in a good mood, and it went along at a nice clip. The Bette Midler section followed by the tribute to Chi Chi was really lovely.

Gottmik just isn't much of a lip syncer, ultimately. She would have been a very worthy winner, but the final gave me even more of an uneasy sense than usual that she clearly benefited from having a *lot* more money than most queens. Her parents were quite obviously LOADED for a start :D

Symone was the heart and soul of the season and her victory feels correct. Kandy acquitted herself well in the end, I thought both her lip-syncs were strong. Poor Rose clearly knew the game was up - I'm surprised she couldn't come up with a more creative way to compensate for the ankle.
 
Rupaul was less robotic and letting it hang out a bit indeed. And it made for a better watch.
 
Agree with most that has been said; I expected a really boring finale but it turned out better.

Really thought Gottmik had it in the bag but then when they put her with Symone I almost started to fear a Kandy victory (which would have been a blast :D).

Symone looked absolutely regal in her outfits... BUT don’t know what she’s done to her face. And same thing with Rosé. Both looked bloated, I hate it when the queens get fillers and implants. Rosé’s make up also looked terrible throughout the whole show, and her lip sync wig made her look like she had no forehead.

Loved the Chi Chi segment, and love Jaida, she looked great.

Now as for the Miss Congeniality :zombie: ... and speaking of; Latrice and Cucu looked terrible!
 
That came off so much better than I expected! They did the best they could last year at the time, but this really felt as close as possible to a normal finale.

Loved the opening ball. Symone's black and white look! Gottmik's finale look! Aaaaah.

Jaida and Heidi are both wonderful and it was nice seeing them have their moment on an actual stage. LaLa is a great choice for Miss Congeniality, and quite unexpected somehow despite her being the best choice when you consider things. There really wasn't a Heidi this year, as in a super endearing personality to anchor the entire season, but LaLa is lovely and funny and deserved a moment of recognition.

In terms of the lip syncs, Kandy was definitely better than Rosé, though I do feel bad for her on account of the injury. Symone beat Gottmik for sure, but I was surprised at the improvement in quality of Gottmik's lip sync versus what she did at the beginning of the season. It was a lot less one sided than I expected.

I liked seeing Kandy in the final two - she's gotten attacked left and right on social media for ages, but especially since the final four was revealed, so this was a bit of an FU moment to them. She'll probably still get hate for daring to beat Rosé, but anyway.

Gottmik is an obvious choice for future All Stars winner and feels like a genuinely big name for it. Rosé is bound to end up on it too.

Symone is an AMAZING winner and has been the star of the season since the first episode. Top five winner for me. :love:

Aah, and then Chi Chi tribute was super touching.
 
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I think Ru really likes Gotmik. The interview with her was the most animated I’ve ever seen him. She really grew on me over the last few episodes, her confidence is endearing.

I thought Rosé looked terrible for most of the runways. Her make up was flat and I don’t know what she does to her body but she looked so bulky.
 
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RaspberrySwirl said:
Latrice and Cucu looked terrible!
Click to expand...
Cucu looks totally different, I would never recognise her without her name on screen :shock:

nA4niAC.jpg
 
I think she’d look much better with a better style.
 
That velour thing Rosé chose to wear thinking it would be somehow impressive/in any way appealing... 🥴

RuPaul PERFORMING? When was the last time she did that on the show? Has she ever?

Symone vs Gottmik was the highlight - the last lipsync was underwhelming. Correct winner of course.
 
I really enjoyed that episode - much more than last week's overblown shitfest.

Shocked they didn't engineer Gottmik and Symone in two different finals. Maybe they ACTUALLY did it randomly... :o Normally they have the first person spun 'CHOOSE' their opponent which reeks of the pairs being pre-decided. (Of course with no studio audience they may well have spun it until the right pairing came up, but like I said, thought they'd have tried to to get Gottmik/Symone to the final).

I thought Rosé/Kandy was completely underwhelming but I do think Kandy probably edged it slightly. Symone/Gottmik was much stronger and it was obvious whoever won that was winning the crown.

Lala was a bit of a meh choice - assumed it would be Olivia, but if it wasn't gonna be Tamisha then I wasn't there for anyone winning it. :D
 
I have to say all four of them had great looks for the finale IMO. I totally bought into the 'friendship' theme of the final episode. Made me feel a bit warm and fuzzy.
 
Cynthia Lee Fontaine....girl. You DID NOT need to do all of that to your face.
 
The lip-synchs were kinda all lame.

Lala winning Miss Congeniality just speaks for how poor the talent pool was.
 
Firstly, Rosé's brother.

Gotmik's first and final runways were jaw dropping peaks. Symone held the middle and her Season 5 flashback 3rd also a moment.

Mik's interview with Ru also a great capture: "rude" and the cheek of some of Ru's comments about support. A fascinating window.

The main flaw of the lip syncs (I was very happy with the #choices and had my fingers crossed for World Ends as the climax) was how they were shot and cut up. You'd think at least the final one wouldn't be edited down.

I was so overjoyed at Symone's hairsplosion that I watched it 6 times.

I really liked the staging, so really it was only the clunky camera angles during the lip syncs that cut me off. I thought someone had revealed on my Instagram feed that Rosé had won, so I had no suspense until she wrongfully lost against Kandy. Early in the episode, because of her enunciation (which I've never actually struggled with before) I thought Kandy was saying "here I am, still a mess" until I quickly checked the subtitles (I have them constantly on for Netflix).

Oh and I was really impressed with Rosé switching off the robot to teach Ru how to say Ellie Diamond. That was a classic.
 
I thought the final was a bit slight- I did enjoy it and I think the right queen won, not just on the night but across the season. I wouldn't have hated a Gottmik win at all, and would have been surprised but OK with a Rosé win, but I'm glad it was Symone. That opening outfit was OMG. And I thought Gottmik's Queen of Hearts and Rosé's medieval queen were also incredible. But the lipsyncs overall were such a letdown. They were shot badly and nothing of note really happened. Symone ended up winning by default more than anything. Also I know I'm not the biggest Britney fan but what a horrible choice of final songs. Particularly the last one. They just weren't dramatic enough to give the queens anything to do. If you have to do Britney, what about Toxic or Slave 4 U or Baby One More Time or something. Even Lucky although I think that was done before. Anyway - OK show, good result.
 
Work Bitch was used in a lip-sync before too. Is this the first repeat?! 🥴
 
Yeah it was, this is all I could find of it though:

 
Stronger, Nasty and Shackles (Praise You) have all been used as lip-sync songs twice
 
Ok Britney’s Stronger was used in Seasons 1 & 9
And Mary Mary’s Shackles (Praise you) was used in seasons 1 & 13 - that’s the one I was thinking about!
And Pussycat Dolls When I grow up was used in Seasons 5 & 13

there’s 11 more too if you count various combinations of main series and All Stars or international franchises and Ru songs (which I didn’t count)
 
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And yet apparently we get mainstream audience apeing nonsense like Wham and Elton John.
 
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