No one would have expected a show about drag queens competing for 100,000 dollars, a year supply of Anastasia Beverly Hills makeup, and the title of “America’s Next Drag Superstar” to have ever lasted a whole decade. However, ten main seasons and three seasons of its popular spin-off “All Stars” later, RuPaul’s Drag Race has proved everyone wrong. It has become a raving success, cultural phenomenon, and pinnacle of queer culture in and of itself in the process.

For those who don’t know, Drag Race is a reality competition show made up of 14 drag queens vying for the crown and cash prize in the end. Throughout the season they compete in a series of different challenges that each episode revolves around. They can be anywhere from design challenges where they design and create their own looks, to a comedy challenge where they roast one of the judges on the show. After the main challenge is over they present a look on the runway that corresponds to a theme or style they were asked to bring.  After consideration of each of these factors and how each queen performs throughout the episode, RuPaul, who hosts the competition, then chooses a winner for that challenge out of a top two or three. The bottom two girls from the episode are sent into what is called a “lipsync for your life”, which is a lip sync deathmatch where the two queens who did the worst during that episode compete to stay on the show and knock out the other. At the end of the season, RuPaul crowns the queen who has one of the best track records with the most challenge wins, highest consistent placement and who has displayed the most “Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent” throughout the competition to earn them the title of “America’s Next Drag Superstar.”

After the viral success of Season Nine and crowned queen Sasha Velour, Season Ten was poised to take the show to a new level of recognition and entertainment  And the season did just that. The challenges were harder and more cut throat, like the celebrity impersonation game “The Snatch Game.” The fashion looks seen on the runway were unlike anything that was previously seen, such as Kameron Michael’s “Feathers” look and Aquaria’s “Evil Twins.” As the season went on and queens were eliminated one by one, a top four emerged. The multi-talented fashion queen Aquaria, Asia and Eureka O’Hara, and self proclaimed “muscle queen” and lip-sync assassin Kameron Michaels were all front runners for the crown.

Like Season Nine, the top four were placed in a tournament of lip syncs in which they would compete with each other for the crown and try to make it to the finale, where RuPaul would ultimately crown the winner. In previous seasons, one queen would be eliminated to make it a top three and the crown would go to the queen with the most wins and highest statistics. The finales served primarily as a formality. The difference of seasons nine and ten was that this format would add a new sense of unpredictability and, as many who watch the show would put it, prove to be a “gag-worthy” performance.

After so many seasons of Drag Race, lip syncing has become a marquee for the show as a way for the queens to show the world the true, strong performers they are, and to provide the viewers for more entertainment. The show that was put on was jaw dropping in both good ways and bad. Kameron Michaels was selected to be in the first lip sync, and she chose to face off against Asia O’Hara. Kameron was the lip sync assassin of the season, surviving four lip syncs in a row to make it to the top four, each of them a true performance with her immense dancing skills and ways of captivating an audience. Asia O’Hara was one of the favorites to win the competition as a whole as she proved herself as a seasoned competitor with her two wins and one lip sync prior to the finale. Along with being a motherly figure for most of season ten’s queens it made her a deserving favorite to win. The lip sync matchup was sure to be the most competitive the show had ever seen. Ultimately, Kameron prevailed in the battle. Although, it was not so much a win for Kameron as much as it was a loss for Asia. What would have been an amazing stunt failed miserably. Her outfit, covered in butterflies and comically large breasts had hidden live butterflies she had planned to be released. What originally started as a good lip sync soon became hard to watch as the you saw her face fall as the realization the stunt was not going according to plan. No butterflies flew out in a magical way she had hoped, instead they fell out onto the stage dead. It was a heart wrenching moment to see season ten’s most sensible, most well rounded, and one of the most loved competitors be defeated in a failed stunt that while would have been amazing to see, still would not have made sense along with Janet Jackson’s song “Nasty” they were lip syncing to. Kameron pulled out an energetic but predictable performance that in the face of Asia’s failed stunt guaranteed her the win. With that Kameron moved on to the finale.

With Kameron battling Asia, it left the next round to Eureka who had to lip sync against Aquaria. Aquaria was the statistical front runner to win the crown with 3 challenge wins and no bottom placements meaning she previously she never had to lip sync for her life. Eureka had two challenge wins and a double save in her lip sync that was against Kameron. The ensuing battle was filled with perfectly executed reveals from Eureka. She did back to back to back reveals with a wig reveal, and then an additional two outfit reveals that ended in her in a sparkly bodysuit. Aquaria had reveals of her own but ultimately banked on her choreography and performance skills and an amazing overall performance straight from the straight song “If” by Janet Jackson they were lip syncing to. Eureka and Aquaria pulled an equally impressive performance. The lip sync was going to be a hard one to decide, but RuPaul shocked everyone by not eliminating either of them and setting up the three-way final “Lip-sync for the Crown.”

From the start of the final lip sync, it was Aquaria’s to win. She pulled reveal after reveal captivating the audience and owned the song from start to finish with confetti cannons strapped to her thighs going off in perfectly timed unison with the peaks of the song “Bang Bang” by Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, and Jessie J. Kameron did her usual thing and while it was good, faded into the background behind Aquaria, as well as Eureka, who simply just kicked her legs around.

Ultimately, RuPaul crowned Aquaria, giving the prize to the arguably rightful person to win and concluding the most consequential season of the show. The tenth season of Drag Race was the most climactic season yet and with Season 11 and a fourth season of its spin off, All Stars, coming soon it is easy to expect it to continue on its run as a cultural phenomenon for many years to come.