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The road to “America’s Next Drag Superstar” is filled with plenty of twists, turns, and twirls. That’s especially true for one contestant, who, according to some viewers, shouldn’t have even been the bottom during episode 3 of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars 5. Here’s how one judge’s comment caused some serious controversy in the RuPaul’s Drag Race fan community. 

[This article contains spoilers from the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars 5. Read at your own risk, squirrel friends!]

Carson Kressley, Michelle Visage, RuPaul Charles, and Ross Matthews
Carson Kressley, Michelle Visage, RuPaul Charles, and Ross Matthews | VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

Shea Couleé is a contestant on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars 5’

She’s Shea Couleé and she didn’t come to play, she came to slay… again. Although this contestant didn’t snatch the crown for RuPaul’s Drag Race season 9, she turned for season 5 of the spinoff series RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars. 

There, she quickly became a frontrunner and fan-favorite, winning the second lipsync of the series and earning $20,000. For the first episode, she even pole danced her way through the All-Star Variety Show.

The third episode of this series, however, didn’t go as well for this contestant, when she and her teammates landed in the bottom for their 5-star hotel makeover. 

This performer landed herself in the bottom three of this series

After performing in the maxi challenge, the contestants brought it to the runway with their best “ruveal” looks. Shea Couleé gave the judges the story of the caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, complete with neon colors and working wings. 

Still, for some of the judges, this look was what landed Miss Couleé in the bottom three, along with India Ferrah and Mariah Balenciaga. Ross Matthews, in particular, had some controversial thoughts on this runway look. He called her runway “a little crafty.” Naturally, fans of this drag performer took to social media, sharing their outrage at the critique. 

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Fans reacted to the critiques on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars 5’

Since the premiere of this episode, some fans took to social media, sharing their thoughts on the “three looks in one” and the inevitable elimination of Mariah Balenciaga. With Shea Couleé being in the bottom, fans on Twitter shared their thoughts on her critiques. Primarily, that includes Ross Matthews saying Shea Couleé runway was “crafty.”

“It was definitely nice. A better critique would’ve been that it wasn’t three different looks. Also, the makeup on the episode seemed more fitting for the ok than this one,” one Twitter user wrote.

“I think it got the crafty critique because there was so much going on, the eyes just didn’t quite know where to look. I don’t think it’s crafty, but I understand how Ross got there. I think it all just needed some editing,” another Twitter user said.

“Did Ross really tell Shea Couleé that her runway was ‘a little crafty,’ are you kidding? She literally went from caterpillar to butterfly with functional wings. That was so… beautiful,” another Twitter user said. New episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars 5 premiere on a weekly basis on VH1.