Dragula: Titans Episode 2 – “Scalpus Wigorata!”

Previously on Dragula: Titans:

It’s a Halloween House Party from Hell! HoSo, Abhora, and Astrud have an “entanglement”; Erika wants to punch everyone in the face; Victoria Elizabeth Black surprises no one by winning; Abhora surprises everyone by losing and getting yeeted off the stage through a trap-door.

Roll credits! Tag yourselves in the title sequence. This week, I’m the goofy little Boulet puppets that appear for like two seconds.

Empaths and Bad Tricks

Back in the boudoir, Erika’s still pissed from last week’s near-extermination. She feels good about coming back but doesn’t think she deserved to be at the bottom. She claims she was only there because the other girls put her there, saying that “Koco is a really charismatic character,” as if this is why Koco wasn’t up for extermination. I was an Erika defender last week, but I’m less than impressed by this.

The ghouls discuss our dearly departed Abhora. Evah was frustrated about Abhora’s “self-defeated” attitude. Let people be insane, Evah! Melissa, Koco, and Kendra all feel like they were the right choice to go and are peeved about how many contestants were defending them. HoSo’s sad that they’re gone for obvious reasons. Astrud’s also sad because she is—according to herself—very sensitive and empathetic. Okay. She says she’d love to see Abhora return.

Luckily for our local empath, Abhora quickly enters the workroom behind the rest of the monsters. The Boulets are starting off the competition with a classic case of “trick or treat”—a treat for Abhora and a trick for everyone else. Abhora’s back and they’re already far too much, which I say with love. As much as I’m a little annoyed at the bait and switch, I’m not mad at seeing the world’s messiest goblin return to the competition. The same can’t be said for Erika, who gripes, “I’ve had some pretty bad tricks in my life, but this is probably the worst one.” Fair!

Victoria Elizabeth Black expresses her displeasure with Abhora’s return (is she threatened?) before the contestants are called to the main stage.

Revenge of the Witch

The Boulets, dressed in their same outfits from last week (at least they’re sickening), announce that this week’s challenge is “Revenge of the Witch,” a throwback to the very first challenge of the entire competition.

Contestants will be required to craft a witch costume that showcases both their originality and their signature drag character. They will also be asked to “create, craft, decorate, or cobble” magic shoes to highlight in a lipsynch performance to a mystery song.

But first, the Fright Feat! Our ghouls will have to play and survive a game of “Burn the Witch.” At first, I’m a little concerned for our favorite burn survivor, Kendra Onixxx, but it turns out that the game is a classic test of “who can eat the spiciest sh*t.” Contestants will be subjected to several rounds of increasingly hot food and whoever can survive the longest without grabbing for the milk gets to cast a curse on another contestant. This week’s curse is the curse of baldness, meaning that whomever the curse is cast upon will have to lose all wigs and headpieces for the floor show. I love this twist and hope we get a new curse every episode.

Miniature set is struck by lightning and then we’re back in the boudoir and ready for the Fright Feat to begin!

Dragula: Hot Ones

HoSo: “I’m worried for a lot of white people here.”

Level 1: Bloody Marys

No one has an issue with this one. If they did, that’d be a little sad.

Level 2: Cayenne-Laced Jalapeños

I don’t really understand what this is but sure! Evah and Koco are already struggling a bit.

Level 3: Moruga Scorpion Peanuts

Okay, I had to look up what these were and they honestly seem delicious. Evah’s dying.

Level 4: Plutonium No. 6 Hot Sauce

Melissa and Kendra struggle. HoSo is unphased.

Level 5: Hellfire Wasabi Habaneros

Yovska and a drooling Koco are the first to tap out. Erika seems completely unbothered.

Level 6: Ghost Chili Pepper Amuse Bouche

This looks sort of delicious? Despite HoSo’s earlier bravado, she and Astrud tap out.

Level 7: Whole Ghost Pepper

I would be out here, I think, and so are Victoria and a puking Melissa.

Level 8: Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate

Only Kendra, Erika, and Abhora are left. Erika’s going strong while Kendra and Abhora are dying.

Level 9: Whole Carolina Reaper Pepper

“F*cked up hot. Like I’m sucking the devil’s d*ck hot.”—Kendra, who taps out.

Erika and Abhora fight their way through Level 10: Pepper X, both puking and then swallowing it before soldiering on to the bonus level, which involves eating a whole plate of everything they’ve already eaten. Abhora tries to mess with Erika’s head but is ultimately unsuccessful.

Erika wins, vomits, and then curses Abhora with baldness. Melissa speaks for all of us when she says that Abhora was kind of a silly choice for the person to receive the curse, but she’s living for the drama. The Boulet’s new minion looks scared.

Work time!

Let’s Make Some Shoes

Unlike last week’s gossip sesh, the ghouls are all hard at work on their outfits.

Victoria explains that she’s inspired by necromancers and says “I’m actually blind in one eye.” I’m not sure if I’m being an idiot here, but I’m unclear whether she’s referring to herself or her character. Regardless, the eye is highlighted in her costume. For her shoes, she says, “I took some bones I had just lying around because I have many just lying around,” which she’ll be tying together with twine.

Some additional highlights:

• Evah’s shoes are made of the fake practice skin used by tattoo artists, which is clever, though I don’t love the way they look.
• Kendra’s doing “voodoo witch for rich white ladies.”
• Both Yovska and Erika are going with candy witches, which I’m skeptical about.
• Abhora tells Yovska that “Erika should’ve casted the spell of balding on you because that would’ve helped you out.” It’s true; Yovska’s wig is dreadful. I’m worried about my favorite gremlin.
• Koco’s doing an albino alligator-inspired look, which is cool, but I’m concerned about the fact that she’s using another shiny white fabric that she isn’t confident working with.
• There’s a shot of some sick cake/mouth shoes of unknown ownership.

There’s a cackle-off that Victoria definitely wins and then it’s time for the floor show!

Swirling and Twirling

The Boulet Brothers appear in their loosely Giger-inspired outfits to introduce us to our guest judges. First up is Bonnie Aarons, who apparently plays the nun in those movies about the scary nun. Not a fan, but love the energy she’s bringing and she looks stunning. Next up is Dragula fav and Jawbreaker director, Darren Stein, who’s looking extra cute in a little drag get-up of his own!

The floor show begins with a montage of creepy silhouettes, before jarringly and hilariously transitioning into performances to Kelly’s “Shoes.” Let’s check out how each of our ghouls did. Since the Boulets tend to highlight the best of each performance during the Floor Show, I’ll be taking the clips shown in judging into account as well.

Melissa BeFierce

Melissa’s in another facial prosthetic this week, this time a nod to The Witches, which I’m not crazy about. Her flower-witch is fun and her shoes are cute, but the look isn’t screaming, “Melissa.” That being said, she gives a typically energetic and engaging performance.

Filth:

Horror:

Glamour:

Abhora

We find out that Abhora is the owner of the sick frosting shoes! They look fantastic and I’m so happy to see their signature painterly makeup back in top form. The lipsynch shown in the Floor Show is great, but in judging it’s revealed that they struggled to stay upright. While this is, like their makeup, signature Abhora, it’s not a great sign about their growth. Still, they give probably my favorite look of the night.

Filth:

Horror:

Glamour:

Evah Destruction

The judges are gagged over this one, but it didn’t work as well for me. I loved the concept of the shoes, but thought the final product was kind of ugly (and not in a good way.) And while Evah gave one of the better performances of the night for sure, it wasn’t as much of a stand-out as her performance from last week. Overall, a solid night for Evah but she didn’t shine as bright for me as she did for the judges.

Filth:

Horror:

Glamour:

Erika Klash

I also couldn’t get on board with the judges with this one. Erika’s candy witch looked basic as hell to me. I get that she glued all those pieces of candy to her outfit herself (the image of which seemed to give Little Boulet a small erotic thrill), but I’m not exactly sure why we’re supposed to be impressed by that? Thankfully for Erika, she saved herself with a committed, filthy performance that involved eating mealworms, gagging herself with a sickle, and then drinking her vomit. Okay, work!

Filth:

Horror:

Glamour:

Astrud Aurelia

Astrud’s look is fun. I really enjoy her hoofed shoes and her headdress. I’m still struggling to find her drag character, though. Every other ghoul seems to have a fully-realized point of view but, while Astrud’s certainly a skilled craftsperson, I’m not sure her artistic vision is fully refined. Her performance is committed but self-conscious.

Filth:

Horror:

Glamour:

Kendra Onixxx

I didn’t have an issue with Kendra’s look (though it didn’t wow me either) and her performance was as captivating as expected but, girl…What happened with those shoes?! A couple of feathers glued to some purple pumps. Give us nothing!

Filth:

Horror:

Glamour:

Yovka

I have the world’s biggest soft spot for Yovska and was pulling for them to go far, but this look was not it. Nothing about it read “Yovska” for me, the wig was as terrible as it seemed in the boudoir, and the outfit itself felt uncharacteristically sloppy and ill-conceived. While their shoes were great, their stilted performance didn’t help the overall effect. Not a good night for them.

Filth:

Horror:

Glamour:

HoSo Terra Toma

I love, love, loved HoSo’s look tonight. Their feline witch was spooky, gross, and whimsical, which is a hard combo to pull off! Sometimes HoSo’s color palette and interest in rough textures can create a muddied effect in her looks, but this one shone through crystal clear.  Her dead rat shoes were fantastic and her performance was spot-on. My pick for the win.

Filth:

Horror:

Glamour:

Victoria Elizabeth Black

For some reason, Mother Black’s witch looks always fall a little flat for me. I can tell her witch character is very important to her, which I respect, but there’s a sameness to all the looks that I struggle with. Maybe it’s the stringy hair or the horror based on markers of age or the attention to detail that sometimes fails to shine through in the full effect. No matter, it’s well-crafted and perfectly serviceable, but not my cup of tea. And, after her stellar performance last week, it’s a little disappointing to see a more lackluster lipsynch from our frontrunner.

Filth:

Horror:

Glamour:

Koco Caine

This look wasn’t popular and I saw people saying this morning that it should’ve been at the bottom, but I was into it! Yes, I wasn’t crazy about seeing her in another slightly messy shiny white look, but the overall effect worked for me. I particularly loved the tarot hat and the pretty, butch makeup. The boots were less exciting to me, but I was more impressed with them than the ones that were just regular shoes with sh*t glued on them. Her performance is one of the strongest of the night, effectively combining her cold, charismatic stage presence with confidently deployed moves.

Filth:

Horror:

Glamour:

Judgment

The Boulets cackle together, ousting Victoria as the best cackle title holder. Big Boulet says she was a little disappointed, which I agree with. For a challenge as simple as this one, I was hoping for looks that blew me away, but that’s not what we got this week.

Little Boulet says, “There’s like two covens here: one who are playing for real and one who are just kind of playing.” I wonder who falls into which category this week, though I have my own ideas about that.

The Boulets also mention how much they hate it when people who don’t know how to vogue try to vogue—cut to clips of Erika and Astrud. Yikes. But, also, warranted.

For positives, they mention Koco’s stage presence, HoSo’s look, and Evah and Kendra’s performances. They’re less crazy about Melissa’s comedy-queen turn. “Just give us dark beauty,” says Dracmorda. Yes!

Koco, Erika, Abhora, and Astrud are safe. HoSo, Evah, and Victoria are high. Kendra, Yovska, and Melissa are low. I’m largely in agreement, though I might’ve put Abhora at the top over Evah and I think Melissa was placed at the bottom largely to make a point.

Bonnie Aarons tells Kendra she loves her head, to which Kendra replies, “I get that a lot.” Our girl may be struggling with her looks, but she is making a strong case for the most quotable queen in the competition.

Darren Stein makes two film comparisons that I can’t get behind, comparing Evah’s shoes to Hellraiser and saying that HoSo’s shoes were “like something out of a David Cronenberg movie.” I love her rat shoes but no.

In the end, Evah edges out HoSo for the win, which I’m sad about even though Evah made me into a fan in the first episode. After getting scolded about not losing her drag identity, Melissa is announced as safe, leaving Kendra and Yovksa in the bottom two. I’m a little disappointed that the voting was only part of the first episode, but I suppose the bottom two would’ve been the same no matter what.

Back at the cauldron, there’s some more cringey Astrud/HoSo/Abhora drama that I’m rapidly losing interest in. Kendra and Yovska get into it and, unlike in the first episode, this time it seems for real. Koco joins in and Yovska snaps at her in an uncharacteristically serious way. It looks like the stress of the competition is getting to the tiny toilet Teletubby.

After Abhora stirs the sh*t about HoSo voting for Yovska last week, the contestants are brought back to the main stage for the extermination. It’s Yovska! Though I love her and I’m sad to see her go, this was deserved. Fingers crossed someone f*cks up next week’s Fright Feat, though, because I’ll miss her.

As Yovska’s picture appears on the wall, the shady-ass editors add in a little flushing sound.

Episode Superlatives

Most likely to win: Still Victoria, though Abhora’s return makes her a serious contender.

My pick to win: Team BeFierce all the way, baby!

Most improved: Koco

Best looks: Abhora and HoSo’s floor show looks

Messiest (pejorative): Astrud, Abhora, and HoSo

Messiest (complimentary): Kendra

Best lines:

• “I could’ve kept going but I thought it’d be better if Erika and Abhora worked things out by throwing up on each other.” – Kendra
• “On today’s episode of crafting sh*t I don’t know how to make…” – Koco
• “Alright b*tches, y’all ready to dig through these ditches and burn through these motherf*cking witches?!”
• “I’ve been cobbling shoes since season 2.” – Kendra
• “Honestly, I think the bald curse works out in my favor because my wigs are sh*t anyway.” – Abhora
• Koco’s demure witch giggle

That’s it for episode 2! Not quite as wild as last week, but a solid showing nonetheless. As always, I’d love to hear from fellow Dragula fans. Sound off in the comments if you think I’m an idiot or a genius. Just remember: recapping is art and art is subjective.