Curtain Call
The Season 1 Finale of AJ And The Queen begins with Robert reminiscing over his time in the Miss Drag USA contest. As he sits with AJ, who tells him he needs to win the pageant, Briana returns to the house and apologises to Louis, offering up a doughnut as a peace offering. As she sits eyeing the 100 dollar bills on the table, she snatches them up and quickly leaves as she learns that Robert is on his way to Dallas. Meanwhile, Lady Danger is released from prison thanks to overcrowding and she immediately tracks down Damien in New Orleans and gets a cab there. Louis arrives to see Patrick but unfortunately learns that he’s seeing someone else, breaking his heart in the process. On his way out the door, he also takes his jeans leaving them both naked in the room. At the pageant, AJ and Robert prepare for the gig while he cracks a potentially foreshadowed joke about adopting her. After showing her a picture of Pop Pop, AJ and the other contestants line up while Damien indulges and buys a load of fast food. As he finalizes his plans to leave the country, he suddenly realizes that he really cares about Robert as he chokes on his food and has flashes to his times with the drag star. Leaving him a voicemail, Damien tells him he has his money, while AJ doubts the validity of his statement as he overhears the voicemail. Out in the RV, Louis arrives and indulges in eating pizza with the others, before night turns to day and Danielle, Robert’s biggest competition, arrives. AJ however, decides to pay off some of the fans to switch them over to support Robert. While she does, the queens work together to try and thwart the duo from disrupting the status quo. It’s here we see Lady Danger arriving in Dallas and immediately breaking into Robert’s RV, sabotaging Robert and hanging all the destroyed wigs outside. As Robert sees the devastation outside his RV, he confronts the protestors and speaks his mind before learning that it was actually Lady Danger who sabotaged her, not them. Realizing that his dreams of winning the competition are over, he speaks to the other drags who offer him up a brand new wig. As AJ leaves the room, Damien arrives and drops off the bag of $100,000 for him. AJ however, knocks him out as the duo scramble out the door and head off together to Pop Pop’s while Louis takes Ruby’s place in the contest. Louis does well too, singing a song about Joy while Robert (still dressed as Ruby) and AJ make it to the farm. With a wig on, AJ tells Robert to stay in the RV while she heads out alone. Leaving her backpack behind, AJ wanders down to the farm while Robert fights back tears and reverses the RV up the road, watching from afar. Back at the pageant, Cocoa Butter, in place of Ruby, comes close to winning but Danielle is the unsurprising victor. However, as Damien watches from the sidelines, Lady Danger steals the crown and hurries away. Back at the farm, Robert notices something suspicious thanks to AJ’s backpack contents and hurries back to find AJ. It turns out her Mother was the one who wrote the postcards addressed from Pop Pop. As Robert catches up with AJ and tells her he will always be here for her, a police car arrives with Briana, who immediately rushes over to AJ and hugs her, apologizing as the little girl’s aggression subsides. As the season ends, Robert announces that this is their story now, and leaves plenty of unanswered questions hanging over this one. With no pay-off to the Damien and Lady Danger angle (which has always been the weak-link here) and plenty of question marks over whether this one will return for a second season or not, AJ And The Queen has its fair share of issues along with the high points. Some of the jokes have genuinely been really funny and throughout the season there’s been a good injection of humour mixed with poignant moments toward the end to keep this one emotional and engaging. Last episode arguably typified this the best though, with AJ and Robert hugging it out as their journey neared its conclusion. If this is renewed for a second season though…what next? The comment earlier in the episode about Robert adopting AJ felt like a bit of a hint over where this one will be going next and perhaps the drag act may even become a duet, with AJ heading out and joining her in pursuing Robert’s dreams of opening a club. For now though there’s loads of scope for this one to progress forward and I’m willing to forgive some of the loose ends given this one could be renewed for a second season. Given the immense popularity of RuPaul I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the case and while I feel the episodes are a tad too long, there’s enough here to make for an enjoyable 10 episode season nonetheless.
