RuPaul’s Drag Race is back for an 18th season with a fresh cast of fourteen queens ready to snatch our attention and keep us entertained for the next four months. Once again, the new season includes a Seattle queen, Jane Don’t, whose combination of quirky comedy, vintage glamour, and sharp wit make her a serious contender for the crown and title of America’s Next Drag Superstar.
I met Jane Don’t in 2019 at CC Seattle’s after a show at R Place (RIP). I was a Ph.D. student in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington, and Jane was a gorgeously hairy queen. I’d been a bearded queen myself, and admired how she pulled off extraordinary contouring and sickening eye makeup with a full beard. She had just started drag but was already making fabulous hats and gowns. I remember interviewing drag artist (and Stranger contributor) Miss Texas 1988 on a drizzly winter afternoon at the house she shared with Jane in Capitol Hill. While Miss Texas and I sipped tea and chatted about queer theory on their couch, Jane was hard at work styling a wig in the next room. It’s no surprise that Jane Don’t made it to the top of Drag Race Season 18’s first design challenge.
When RuPaul’s Drag Race first aired in 2009, I was a closeted college student in the rural Midwest, but I knew queer magic when I saw it. A decade later, I completed a Ph.D. project on the Seattle drag scene that (in part) analyzed how the popularity of RuPaul’s Drag Race influenced the local drag scene (transforming a subversive queer artform into a trendy commodity), but also how local drag scenes shape Drag Race. (I also noted how the narrow definition of drag on early Drag Race—“cis gay man dresses up as a lady”—resulted in uneven opportunities for queer artists in local scenes, with women, drag kings, trans performers, and experimental artists often receiving token treatment.)
Today, I approach RuPaul and his Drag Race as the complicated figures that they are, but they will forever hold a special place in my gay little heart. Let’s get into this season.
Let There be Light in Dark Times
The usual format for Drag Race introductions is a bright, well-lit entrance for the new cast, but Season 18’s queens walked into a dark and ominous werkroom. Here, the theme for 2026 emerged: queer joy, creativity, and community as a light in These Dark Times. In the Season 18 premiere, Drag Race producers proved that they can make a clear political statement without pulling undue attention away from the talented cast of drag artists. Once the cast was fully assembled, RuPaul entered with her trademark theatrics, prompting the queens to chant “Everybody say LOVE!” until the werkroom lights turned on. It was corny, but after the year we’ve just had, the image of drag artists literally lighting up a dark room was a welcome reset from the gloom and doom of our reality.
More important, though, the decision to bring guest judge Cardi B’s “Glam Squad” directly into the episode during the judges’ deliberations: trans icons Tokyo Stylez and Erika La’ Pearl. Cardi’s premiere look was stupid good (it was giving Emerald City meets Mortal Kombat), and we loved seeing the style team behind it. Referring to Tokyo and Erika as her teachers, Cardi B made a strong public statement on the relationship between her career success and queer artists. With her rival, Nicki Minaj, going full MAGA, seeing Cardi B sitting in solidarity with trans women was a standout moment of the premiere.
Drag Family Drama
In the endlessly self-referential era of Drag Race, it seems like producers push queens to introduce themselves by announcing their relationships to past contestants, tapping into the complex web of drag houses. Season 18 is no different, with the Dion dynasty of Miami taking center stage in Episode One: house mother Athena Dion appears alongside Juicy Love Dion. Their Drag Race connection is Season 16 alumna Morphine Love Dion, who is Athena’s daughter and Juicy’s mother. Juicy would therefore technically be Athena’s drag granddaughter, but Athena insists in a confessional that drag daughter is sufficient. (Side note: the cast jokes that Season 18 is the “granny season” because over half the queens are between the ages of 30 and 40…excuse me while I go lie down and pass away.)
While Drag Race audiences have long seen drag mothers, daughters, and sisters featured on the show, Season 18 is the first time we see a drag mother and her daughter in direct competition with one another—and producers are already squeezing as much juice as they can from that storyline. For the “Reclaim, Renew, Rejoice” design challenge, Juicy instinctively looked to mother Athena for guidance on using a sewing machine, but Athena pointedly chose to focus on her own piece rather than dropping everything to thread Juicy’s needle. Juicy fell into the bottom three with her rough-hewn look, but it was obvious she wouldn’t be going home—the story arc opportunities are too rich. We are guaranteed to see a mother-daughter lipsync battle between Athena and Juicy before Season 18 wraps.
Jane Don’t Did That
Our hometown hero, Jane Don’t, managed to snag a lot of screentime in Episode One. Entering the werkroom in vintage glam and a bright orange wig, she invited an inevitable comparison to the legendary Jinkx Monsoon–with her fellow queens even asking Jane if she was Jinkx’s drag daughter (she is not).
After Seattle’s recent run of demons (Bosco), aliens (Irene), and elves (Arrietty), Jane’s entrance felt like a return to form in how Seattle drag is portrayed on Drag Race: the comedic genius, vintage glam, and winning edits of Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme. But the main design challenge was a reminder that Bosco and Irene are Jane’s drag sisters: she made a well-tailored suit out of floral-patterned shower curtains.
Seattle also brought the drama in Episode One. Jane laid claim to the first mainstage confessional of Season 18, tearfully opening up about her fraught relationship with her father in front of the judges–a promising moment given RuPaul’s love for Emmy-award-winning family trauma. Jane Don’t didn’t secure the first win, but she got our attention.
From “Screamography” to the “Drag Race Vault”
After nearly two decades on the air, RuPaul’s Drag Race has become a masterclass in remixing itself. Bob the Drag Queen, Raja Gemini, and Kim Chi made guest appearances in comedic cutaways, and choreographer Jamal Sims returned for the sixth? seventh? time to direct the “screamography” photoshoot mini-challenge–-an homage to the “hairography” and “chiffonography” of old-school Drag Race. Episode One standout Kenya Pleaser of South Carolina, known for her skillful Lizzo impersonation outside of Drag Race, cinched the first mini-challenge win of the season with her “primal screamography,” posing mid-scream alongside masked Pit Crew members. (Thank you, Kenya, for reminding us that screaming into the darkness feels good and looks even better.)
The main challenge was another return to classic Drag Race: designing with unconventional materials. The queens looted the “Drag Race Vault,” which contained well-known artifacts in the Drag Race mediaverse: sponges, tarps, and even Ornacia. Next, the queens were tasked with constructing a couture garment for the mainstage to the theme of “Reclaim, Renew, Rejoice.” Mini-challenge winner Kenya lamented the situation, wishing for the talent show format of recent season premieres. Kenya’s piecemeal outfit and questionable wigline landed her in the bottom two alongside Mandy Mango, a Philadelphia nurse specializing in HIV and sexual health with an overwhelming floral look that needed pruning. But it’s the premiere, so the bottom two were saved from elimination, giving both Kenya and Mandy another week in the werkroom.
Alongside Jane Don’t, the top queens of the week were Vita VonTesse Starr from Alabama, with her exquisite black-and-white gown crafted from umbrellas, and Nini Coco of Denver, whose geometric orange paper look showed her engineering prowess and elegant style. During her introduction, Nini confessed to quitting her day job as a mechanical engineer to compete on RuPaul’s Get-Rich-Quick Race *ahem* RuPaul’s Drag Race. It may be the pinnacle of the drag industrial complex, but it is truly beautiful to see queer people using their skill, creativity, and personality to create wearable art.
After Nini and Vita were declared the top two of the week, they lip-synced-for-the-win to Cardi B’s “Enough.” The winner of the lip-sync should have been Cardi B herself (I live for seeing guest judges lip-sync along to their own songs). Nini Coco snatched the first win of season 18—along with a $5000 prize.
See you next week!
New episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 18 will air on MTV every Friday at 8PM PST.