Drag Race season 18 queens clash over stunts, stress, and squabbles

Editor's note: This article contains spoilers for episode 4, "Red Carpet Mash-Ups," of RuPaul's Drag Race season 18.

Mama Ru dares the queens to compete in another design challenge on RuPaul's Drag Race season 18 episode 4, this time being paired up and having to reference two different red carpet looks from celebrities. To many — and perhaps even most — of the girlies, a sewing challenge executed as duos is a beautiful framing of a terrifying nightmare. And so it goes!

Most of the werk room portion of the episode focuses on Briar Blush's interpersonal relationships with the other queens. Between Mia Starr mourning Mandy Mango's elimination and Athena Love Dion establishing some boundaries regarding Juicy Love Dion (her very own drag daughter), Briar is feeling very attacked by her season 18 sisters. The edit then reveals yet another point of contention in the werk room: Mia jokingly insinuates that Briar must've been at fault for a relationship of hers that ended.

Things are very tense, to say the least, as the queens get their looks together for this design challenge, in which they will receive critiques from Ru, Michelle Visage, rotating judge Law Roach, and guest judge Annaleigh Ashford. The first queens to receive notes are Juicy and Briar as a pair… And that's precisely when the real mess begins.

"I got your shoes because you were wearing a version of the Rihanna shoe. I give you credit for that," Law Roach tells Briar. "Everything else, I hate." And I oop!

Law adds, "You look like a WWE wrestler. I hated it. I just wanted you to jump off the ropes and just do a drop kick on somebody. Probably her [points at Juicy Love Dion], because, you know, you're competing against her."

"That face, daughter… The beat is divine," Law remarks. "The outfit… is not so much."

Instead of having any reaction — positive, negative, or even neutral — Briar just stares at Law, which looks and feels weird, and even sort of unnerving.

"Don't look at me like that, girl," Law tells Briar, with a laugh. "OK, look at me like that, girl."

But as RuPaul is about to declare which queen won between Briar and Juicy, Briar suddenly faints and collapses onto the floor. "Are you okay?" Juicy asks.

"She's going down," Michelle observes. RuPaul shouts out for an on-set medic to examine Briar.

The entire scene is quite shocking, and something we hadn't seen in many years on Drag Race.

While Juicy tries to take care of Briar and Discord Addams comes over to help, everyone else in the room is stunned… For different reasons, of course.

"That better be real," Mia Starr notes.

"It's not. It's a show," Vita VonTesse Starr replies. Then, in a confessional, Vita adds: "Convenient timing. As soon as Law Roach says something about her looking like a WWE wrestler… [Gestures as fainting.]"

"So, your breathing is fine. Can we have her off the stage?" the production medic announces. "We're going to take all the vitals."

Athena Dion chimes in during a confessional, "It's intense up there. I mean, you're stressing out, you're about to be judged by all the judges… Every ingredient for the perfect recipe for a collapse, 100 percent. But who knows what the truth is?"

Myki Meeks offers a counterpoint in her own confessional: "There is no way she pretended to faint. That is not like her, and she wouldn't do that."

Briar returns to the stage after being cleared by the medic, and Mama Ru asks if she feels OK to continue in the competition. "Absolutely," Briar replies. "I can't squabble this opportunity."

"'Squabble' is not the right word for this context," Myki says in a confessional, laughing. "I think she meant 'squander.'"

Kenya Pleaser also laughs about it, "'I won't squabble this opportunity…' You won't what?! It sounds like a Kendrick Lamar song, 'Squabble Up.' Like, what, bitch?!"

Briar and Kenya are the bottom 2 queens of the week, and they lip sync for their lives to "Lights Camera Action" by Kylie Minogue.

It's no shade to Briar, who just went through a lot on that stage. But it is, without a doubt, a clean sweep for Kenya Pleaser. She devours that lip sync with dance moves, comedy bits, iconic facial expressions, and even does a backbend.

In the end, Mama Ru tells Kenya to stay, and asks Briar to sashay away.

It is an unfortunate end to Briar's journey in season 18. She had been a lovable "villain" (or, I'd argue, more of an antagonist to certain queens, but not a full-out villain) for the most part, but the speculation over whether this was caused by stress or simply a stunt made things much murkier than expected.

The show must go on, and episode 5 previews tease that Rate-A-Queen is coming back! We can't wait to see how this turns out.

RuPaul's Drag Race season 18 airs new episodes every Friday on MTV.