Three queens from Season 3

The third season of “Drag Race Philippines” is shaping up to be its best one yet. Episode 5, which premiered last week and featured what host Paolo Ballesteros (everyone’s Mama Pao), fellow judges and fans consider the best “Drag Race Philippines” Snatch Game yet—has achieved a rare 9.9 rating on IMDb.com—the highest of all the episodes of all the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” seasons and spin-offs in the world.

Snatch Game, a “Drag Race” fixture and one of the most important events in the competition, is a comedy challenge where contestants do their best celebrity impersonations in a game show setting.

In this season’s Snatch Game, the Filipino queens took us on a hilarious, rip-roaring ride as they morphed into people and characters like Maria Clara, Angel Locsin, Kamatayan, Babae Sa Balete Drive, and yes, Baron Geisler.

But it’s not just Snatch Game. Every episode since the first episode, the show has been killing it, serving up a delicious mix of looks, talent, humor, Pinoy culture, shade and drama. It’s the reason we’ve been counting down to 7 p.m. every Wednesday so we can watch the new episode followed by the behind-the-scenes companion show “Untucked,” as soon as they drop on WOW Presents Plus and HBO Go.

The show has done a phenomenal job with casting this season, giving us a group of queens so fierce, so lovable and so much fun to watch that we wish we could see them on our screens forever.

But alas, it is a competition and part of the journey to crowning the Philippines’ Next Drag Superstar is watching queens, even queens we love, get eliminated.

Here are the first three drag artists who had to sashay away. (We’re not ready to talk about the fourth elimination yet—we’re still crying.)

It’s Versex, babe

Versex entered The Werk Room as a firestorm of style and shade, dropping zingers like “Babe, you’re doing the most” and “Love that for her, not for me, though.”

By the time the first episode ended, many fans of the show were convinced the 25-year-old fashion queen was going to be the villain of the season. But Versex—their name inspired by the brand Versace and a portmanteau of “very” and “sexy”—served us perhaps the fastest character development in “Drag Race” herstory, giving us a full arc in just three episodes.

The softer side of this fierce queen was revealed in the second episode, when, at the start of Episode 2, as the queens worried about the possibility that someone was going home that week, Versex professed their love for their Season 3 sisters in earnest. “Grabe, mahal na mahal ko na kayo, super.”

Later, their fellow Season 3 queen Angel would note that when she thought she was about to be eliminated, it was Versex who was crying the hardest, leading her to ask Versex, “Teh, kapatid kita? (Are you my sister?)”

Viewers were shocked when Versex would turn out to be the first queen to say goodbye in Episode 3. They’re certainly no Porkchop material (that’s the name of the first queen ever to be eliminated on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and has since become the term for the first one to be axed each season). Fans didn’t want to see them go. They were mourning, among other things, the loss of their memorable confessionals.

But Versex has no regrets, saying they wouldn’t do anything differently even if given the chance to do it again. “I don’t think I would change anything … Ang atake niya kasi sa akin is kahit nagkamali ka (even if you made mistakes), I think it builds character and it builds your personality and your decision-making in the near future. I don’t think I’d do anything different. ‘Yung mga mali na nagawa ko gusto ko pa rin siya gawin (The things I did wrong, I’d still want to do them again). Honestly, I was humbled after the first episode.”

Versex, a hairstylist to stars, went into the competition representing Santa Ana, Manila but also bringing with them a confidence that was built in New York, where they had the chance to walk a New York Fashion Week runway in drag.

Their biggest lesson from the show? “To seek help and ask for it. If nahihirapan ka na (if you’re having a hard time), just say it. Prior to doing the show, I was used to doing things on my own… I just feel like I’m a lone wolf.”

That changed just before their elimination. “Naging vocal ako sa girls sa mga hindi ko kaya gawin... If it wasn’t for them, hindi ko ‘yun mababago (I wouldn’t have been able to change that). Now I’m not afraid to ask for help.”

They may have sashayed away but their presence hasn’t really left “Drag Race Philippines”: Versex’s fellow cast members and fans of the show continue to repeat their memorable lines (we love a quotable queen).

But Versex doesn’t have a favorite catchphrase from the show. “Those are just words I use in everyday life. ‘Yung mga paulit-ulit kong sinasabi sa show, favorite words ko talaga sila,” they said.

What does Versex want people to know about them and their drag that they might not have been able to see on the show? “That I’m a queen who thinks and that I’m a fully realized queen. Everything you see is intentional… I’ve tried so many looks and so many performances and I’ve reached a point in my life, in my drag career, where I’m simplifying and streamlining them. I just want them to know I’m the queen who thinks, period.”

And what do they want to say to their fans? “I don’t want to call them fans. Maybe supporters. Thank you. Maraming salamat na sinasakyan niyo ‘yung kag*gahan ko even though it’s not that serious… Everything is fleeting and I’m so proud of everything I did in the show. Thank you for seeing something in me.”

They added, “I’m gonna make sure na hanggang dulo maririnig niyo ‘yung pangalan ko and makikita niyo ‘yung impluwensya ko sa girls (that until the end you’re going to hear my name and see my influence on the girls).”

Love that for them… and for us.

The glam ‘aswang’

In the first episode, on the main stage, judge Kaladkaren said, “Napakaganda mo naman, Yudipota.”

Mama Pao replied, “Mapapa-Yudipota ka talaga.”

From the get go, the 27-year-old “glamorous aswang” from Bacolod City was making jaws drop with her beauty, her looks, her brand of alternative drag. “I love to be outside the box, I love to scare, I love to gag,” she said.

But in the fourth episode, she made jaws drop for a different reason: when she walked out of the show mid-lip sync, a lip sync that was her final chance to impress Mama Pao so she could be saved from elimination.

“We all have seen she made the decision herself,” Mama Pao said.

In her last moments on the show, as seen on “Untucked,” Yudipota said, “All my life, I have not been choosing myself first. Sabi ko, this time, I’m going to choose myself … I feel like I’m at peace, in a way.”

During a Zoom roundtable after the episode came out, Yudipota told journalists, “I stand by my decision.”

She added that leaving the show was her way of choosing her peace. “A crown will not give me my success. Peace is more important to me than beating myself up and feeling bad about myself on the show.”

She said the competition was like “a pressure cooker,” with all the girls wanting to win.

Viewers were gagging for her looks but Yudipota said, “I don’t really think I served that much on the show, since I feel like it was incomplete.”

Of the ones we got to see in the episodes, it was the entrance look—an otherworldly wearable sculpture made from

recycled materials—that was her favorite. “I feel like that was the most prepared look, and that was the heaviest look? That was almost 20 kilos. So I was like, I’m ready to serve this look to the children.”

She impressed the judges with the sexy manananggal-inspired outfit that she created for the Sustaina-Ball challenge, and she was also happy that she got to wear her mini skirt-suit by John Galliano for Christian Dior’s 1997 Fall/Winter collection—the most expensive garment in her closet.

But, she said, “I did not present my best looks yet, so y’all have to stream and wait for the looks. And you know, maybe catch me on the socials as well, since I will be posting most of my looks there. So that is the thing I regret, that I didn’t [get to show them] on the show.”

Fans fell in love with Yudipota, who they’ve nicknamed Yudi, for more than just her looks. They love her too for her poise, her calm but powerful presence, her deadpan humor (her confessionals are hilarious—love those eye rolls) and her unmatched comprehension skills, leading them to declare her the Patron Saint of Comprehension.

Of course, they were sad to see her leave the show. Yudipota said, “I just want to say thank you so much… This sounds so corny, but you guys are all the reason why I joined the race, and you guys have been the reason why I kept going… I just want to say thank you to everybody, and I think they already know how appreciative I am to them.”

Annyeong, J Quinn

It may have been the episode that sent them home, but J Quinn is still happy that they got to be part of the best Snatch Game in “Drag Race Philippines” herstory.

“It’s very rewarding. A lot of girls, when they enter the competition, they’re afraid of Snatch Game. So even though I went home in that episode, I’m still very proud,” the 25-year-old “A-Pop drag idol” said.

For the challenge, J Quinn chose to impersonate Confucius—in keeping with their brand of drag which they describe as “very East Asian-centric.”

“My drag is very deep-rooted in the different cultures I grew up with. My dad is part-Japanese but we were adopted into a very Chinese-centric family. That is what my drag consists of. Growing up, loving anime and then later on loving K-pop, it just added more flavor to the mix … It’s not just, ‘I’m a fan of this,’ ‘I’m a fan of that.’ It has a very deep meaning for me because I grew up in that situation.”

They had two other characters in mind for Snatch Game: Filipino actress Carmi Martin or Marie Kondo. Had they impersonated the Japanese professional organizer, they planned on taking off their clothes and folding them—neatly, of course, as Kondo is wont to do. J Quinn said, “Good thing I didn’t do Marie Kondo, because there would have been two naked b*tches in Snatch Game.”

The “Drag Race” experience was “overstimulating,” said J Quinn. “As a neurodivergent girlie, I was stimulated from episode 1 to episode 5.”

What has being on “Drag Race Philippines” taught them? “My biggest lesson watching everything unfold is not to yap so much. Don’t talk when it’s not needed, like girl, shut up, tone it down a little.”

J Quinn, who has been performing at Nectar for years, and who’s also a wig stylist known for doing hair for their fellow queens, has a message for their fans: “A very deep and sincere thank you. Thank you for coping with everything that has been shown… There’s been a lot of my bad side that has been shown, but it’s only a glimpse of my life. Thank you for still choosing to stay with me and supporting the type of drag I want to show people.. Thank you for still talking with me, bantering with me online… I’m grateful.”

They may have clashed with some queens on the show, but they said, “After the show, we are a very tight-knit cast, we are all friends, we update each other on the group chat… We work with each other a lot, we have the viewing parties, we go out to eat. We’re a very tight group.”

When asked what they’re proudest of when it comes to their run on “Drag Race Philippines,” J Quinn said, “Me just showcasing the type of drag I want to show the world. All of my inspirations came from very different [aspects of] East Asian pop culture. That is my proudest moment, just showing the brand on a bigger platform.”

She added, “I hope they remember the very on-brand runways… I hope they remember the verse I wrote for ‘Dapat Pakak.’ What I don’t want them to remember is me yapping. Remember the runways, remember me being cute.”