RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 Episode 9 Recap - Nine remaining queens work on a Betsy Johnson collection 

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 Episode 9 aired on February 28, 2025. The episode featured Betsy Johnson joining the judging panel along with RuPaul Charles, Michelle Visage, and Carson Kressley.

After last week's episode, this time, the competition featured 9 remaining queens who were asked for yet another creative design challenge. Their inspiration is Betsy, in front of whom they will have to present as well.

The RuPaul's Drag Race episode started with RuPaul announcing a mini-challenge first. She opened the library for the task called 'Reading is Fundamental.' Ultimately, Suzie was selected as the best one among them all.

During this round, the group shared their opinions about Kori. Jewels made fun and said that Kori's pronouns are they/them because her size reflects a group of people. After this round was over, the maxi challenge was set up.

The queens were asked to create a look that could be inspired by Betsey's collections. These were Punk Grunge Flappers, Prenup, and Betsey's prom.

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RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 Episode 9 Recap - The queens make an original Betsey Johnson-inspired outfit

Suzie was the one who won the mini-challenge on RuPaul's Drag Race. This gave her an edge over the other participants in choosing the collection she would be working on. Her pick was Punk Grunge Flappers. Lydia and Jewelz also chose the same category. The other queens were soon segregated based on the other two collections.

During the ideas phase, Lexi felt like she was behind everyone as this has happened before. Her brain wasn't coming up with a solid idea, and this was overwhelming her. However, Sam came through for her and helped her get sorted.

Later in the RuPaul's Drag Race episode, Ru and Betsey came along to guide and inspire the queens who are working on the three collections. Kori was targeted again by Ru, saying that she needed to do something new with her work and should not make another silhouette yet again.

As for Jewelz, she has a variety of ideas, but Betsy told her to calm down and make what her heart truly feels confident in. To the Prenup group, Betsy revealed that she was inspired by inclusivity. Turns out that the designer was the first one to have trans models on the runway.

After the runway was done on RuPaul's Drag Race, Betsey named Jewelz her top contestant. Before this, she had run into a problem with how her velvet fabric had a different direction in the front versus the back. This gives it two different colors.

But the queen decided to sell it as best she could on the runway with all the furs attached to the dress that Betsey was truly impressed. She claimed that it was exactly how she wanted her Flapper collection to look.

Kori was once again at the bottom with Lydia and Onya as the judges did not like the looks they presented. Kori was making a simple gown for her look but at the last minute, decided to cut it up and go for the same "str*pper" look that she has been called out for multiple times on the show.

At the end of the episode, she got into a lip sync battle with Lydia on the song 'Kiss Me Deadly.' The two kissed in the middle of the stage as Ru broke them apart and decided to send Kori home.

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RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 episodes are released weekly on Saturdays at 8 PM Eastern Time on MTV.