RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 episode 11: Recap and more details explored

RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 episode 11, released on Friday, March 15, has sent one more queen packing this week. In the previous episode, viewers saw the contestants compete in a writing contest, where everyone penned and performed their verses to the song, Power.

In a twist, the previous episode witnessed no eliminations, while Sapphira Cristál was announced the winner.

Now, episode 11 saw the return of the remaining 7 queens to compete in yet another challenge. This time, however, it was all about teamwork. Comedian and actor Joel Kim Booster of the Fire Island and Unplugging fame graced the Emmy-winning competition series as a guest judge with Michelle Visage and Ross Mathews joining RuPaul on the panel.

---

What happened on RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 episode 11?

The Mini-challenge

The queens played the game of Spill the Tea in the mini-challenge, which entailed RuPaul asking simple questions about the contestants. The group voted following each question and the one to receive the majority votes won $100 every round. Though many queens won cash prizes during the task, Sapphira was announced to be the winner of the mini-challenge.

---

The Maxi-challenge

The main challenge of RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 episode 11, titled Corporate Queens, featured the contestants taking on the role of instructors to deliver employee seminars on drag awareness. The remaining 7 split up into groups, with Q and Plane Jane joining hands in one team, Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige and Dawn making for the second team, and the trio Nymphia Wind, Sapphira, and Morphine forming the final team.

In the werk room, the contestants began brainstorming ideas for their presentations, when RuPaul invited Joel Kim Booster to deliver words of encouragement for the participants. Finally, Plane Jane and Q presented their employee seminar on Drag Herstory, which amassed a healthy dosage of laughter from the audience and judges.

Dawn and Mhi’ya’s presentation was around ‘how to protect yourself from drag queens’ and the final team presented ‘how to identify you’re a drag queen.’ It was eventually announced the contestants would be critiqued individually.

---

The Runway segment

Last week, the runway theme was ‘True Colors.’ This time, their runway looks paid tribute to the queer generation lost to the AIDS epidemic in the 80s. The subject hit home for queen Q as she publicly disclosed her HIV-positive diagnosis on national television.

During a heart-to-heart with Plana Jane on the matter, Q revealed on RuPaul's Drag Race season 16:

“When I first got my diagnosis I felt like really lost and I felt, like, super alone. I tested positive when I was 24. I was mostly scared about how I was going to be treated by family and people around me who don't understand it because it is so stigmatized. You know, people have said really awful and nasty things to me and almost de-humanizing me."

---

Who was eliminated on RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 episode 11?

Following much deliberation among the judges, their critiques, and without the Rate-A-Queen, Morphine and Mhi’ya landed in the bottom two spots. In the end, RuPaul announced it would be Mhi’ya’s turn to sashay away from the competition.

The 6 remaining queens who will return next week are Sapphira Cristál, Q, Plane Jane, Nymphia Wind, Morphine, and Dawn.

---

RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 will return with episode 12 on Friday, March 22 at 8 pm ET on MTV.