Drag Race Planted a Mole in Its Own Cast — and Put Her in the Press Release

Fans called it. The running theory among Drag Race fans was that Down Under vs the World had never actually cast Raven as a competitor at all. She kept insisting otherwise. PinkNews reported that the other contestants refused to accept she was really in the running. Episode two proved the sceptics right.

Michelle Visage gathered the cast to brief them on a Kylie Minogue challenge and told them a very special guest judge was already in the room. The queens looked around excitedly, expecting Minogue herself, in Entertainment Weekly's description of the scene. Then Visage named Raven, who stepped out of the contestant lineup and walked to the front.

Visage then explained, in the wording PinkNews carries: “Raven is not – I repeat, is not – a contestant. I asked Raven to be my mole to get to know you all as quickly as possible. And now, that assignment has come to an end.”

The con extended to the press

What makes this more than a fun twist is how far outside the werk room it ran. As Entertainment Weekly reported, an official press release dated 23 June named Raven among the queens returning to compete and put her in the group promo portrait alongside the rest of the cast. The outlet said plainly that it had been duped too.

Raven addressed the assignment in a confessional of her own. “I was gonna compete just like anyone else. I went through it, mentally, but I think I did show you that I am that bitch. And I'll always be that bitch,” she said in a confessional, as Attitude printed it. EW's version of the quote drops the line about going through it mentally. Raven — a season two veteran who won an Emmy for the makeup work she does on RuPaul, per EW — also spoke about Nicole Paige Brooks, who competed alongside her on the American season two. “The biggest surprise was reconnecting with Nicole Paige Brooks. I was really hard with Nicole in season two. But I've changed, and I do really, genuinely like Nicole.”

Nicole was not amused

Nicole Paige Brooks did not hide how she felt about it. “I'm not happy,” she said in a confessional carried by EW. “Yeah, I'm not excited about this now that she's revealed as a f---ing judge. What was all that bonding? Was it all fake again?” EW also has a blunter line from her on learning the news: “Are you f---ing kidding me?”

The Kylie challenge

Raven then took a seat on the panel — EW notes she presided alongside Visage, and Attitude fills in the rest: a girl-group maxi challenge with a Forever Kylie runway, judged with Rhys Nicholson and Down Under season four winner Lazy Susan. Art Simone won the episode.

Attitude also reports who went home first: Nicole Paige Brooks. Star Observer has the mechanics: Art Simone and Flor went head to head on Kylie Minogue's “What Do I Have to Do,” Art took the win, and Art then chose to send Nicole home rather than Coco Jumbo. Star Observer described it as heartbreaking to watch Nicole realise what was coming.

The mole theory finally paid off

Drag Race fans have floated this theory before. EW notes they landed on the same idea back on All Stars 3, convinced that returning season one winner BeBe Zahara Benet had been planted as RuPaul's spy — a theory that went nowhere, since BeBe simply competed and finished third.

This time the show actually did it, and put a non-contestant in its own cast announcement. Star Observer's verdict was that it was a masterful move by production. From where we sit, it is that and also a reminder that a franchise this old stays interesting by being willing to lie to absolutely everybody, including the people writing about it.

EW says it has approached World of Wonder for comment. We have not.

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