For the first time ever, RuPaul’s Drag Race is taking four queens into the final episode, each with a chance to snatch the crown. Season 9 has been a headline-maker from the start, from the move from Logo to VH1 to Lady Gaga showing up in the season premiere, injury eliminations, attempts to lip-sync while wearing a mask, a wig-under-a-wig reveal … it’s been wild. And now this four-way finale that is going to be a “sudden-death lip-sync smackdown.”

So which of the four finalists — Peppermint, Sasha Velour, Shea Coulee, or Trinity Taylor — should you put your money on? We spoke to Drag Race judge extraordinaire Michelle Visage and asked her to help us evaluate the queens. Visage is in a unique position to do just that. Besides RuPaul, Visage is the only judge who’s been there every single week, tracking the queens as they progress through the show. She’s as plugged into the Drag Race universe as pretty much anyone, not only judging the queens on the show but touring with them as they slay houses down across America after the season is over. You know who knows their stuff? Michelle damn Visage.

So we spoke to Michelle by phone this week to talk Trinity, Pep, Sasha, and Shea. Whose drag deserves to reign supreme?

Decider.com: I want to start with Peppermint. Of the four finalists, she seemed to struggle the most early on. What is it that Peppermint does better than any of these other girls?

Well, what I love about Peppermint is I feel like she’s the most genuine in the sense that she’s been doing this for a long time. She knows who she is and she doesn’t shy away from it. She doesn’t try to pretend to be anybody other than who she is. Not that the other girls do; but, there’s something really genuine and authentic about Peppermint that’s refreshing and beautiful. I think that’s what carried her this far. She’s also a great performer and she’s a great lip-syncer, so that has saved her and got her this far.

That Village People lip sync! Up there for you with one of the top lip syncs in the history of the show?

Well, I mean it was super fun and that’s what it’s meant to be. At this point, there have been so many legendary lip syncs so you could just add that to the list of amazing lip syncs that this show has given us. There were some incredible ones and there have been some really bad ones. And this one was one of the good ones.

So, on to Sasha Velour. Do you feel like Sasha was in Shea’s shadow a little bit this season, being that her two big wins were when she was partnered with Shea?

Not for me. I think Sasha has stood out at being inventive and creative and weird and different and stunningly beautiful. I think that Shea and Sasha are two different entities. Her wins might have been with Shea but they were definitely collaborative.

Was there one moment this season that was the first time that you thought oh Sasha could win this thing?

The only challenge that concerned me ever really was the first one, the Lady Gaga, when she came out and she had everything going on. She had a hat, she had the Basquiat, she had everything going on, and it was like oh no. Is she going to be a queen that just relies on props? Because it was the first time that I got to see her, and you usually bring out all the guns for the first challenge; most girls try to anyway. Not that it wasn’t great, but it was like “eh.” You know? When the rest of [the challenges] she kept stinging me left and right with creative, different, and new looks and ideas and challenges. I think she’s extremely polished. And I think she knows exactly her message. So she’s always been a strong contender for me personally.

Do you think there’s a challenge for a queen who is as intellectual as Sasha is?

It doesn’t matter. Intellect in drag doesn’t matter, meaning you could have the dumbest of the dumb and be as fierce as the smartest of the smart. Intellect plays into Snatch Game and it plays into if you want to be that kind of drag queen. But you don’t need to be smart to be a drag queen.

But do you think it’s a challenge for somebody like Sasha to get her big ideas out there in the compressed time-span of a TV show?

I think she might over-think things. But I think she did a really good job of getting her idea out there. She’s in the final four. And I think that for her … there are different ways of over thinking. There’s over thinking Nina Bo’Nina Brown-wise and then there’s over thinking Sasha Velour-wise. For Sasha to look at it in her own way, she just has too many things going on her head that she has to decide which have more purpose and are more important that I need to execute right now. And I don’t think it has ever gotten in her way so much as … even in the Snatch Game, she ended up being able to turn it into a funny thing. But I think she’s starting to get back to her don’t be so serious sort of thing and I think that helps her.

So, moving on to Shea Coulee, who won four challenges this season, tied for the most challenge wins with Sharon Needles. There’s a sense among some of the fans that if you win four challenges that it’s a lock that you are going to win the season. What is the case for that not being true?

Well, I don’t think anything guarantees the win. I think that our fans are the most passionate fans on the planet for better or for worse. They freeze-frame, they go on Reddit, and they try to make things happen that aren’t going to happen. They try to make things not happen that are going to happen. When, at the end of the day, the fans aren’t RuPaul. [laughs] So you can’t say what RuPaul is going to do, because you don’t know. Nothing is a lock. That’s what I learned in this competition. There are no guarantees, just like there are no guarantees in life, except you gotta pay your taxes and you’re gonna die. [laughs] You know what I mean? So, the people that assume … you know what happens when you assume. So that’s what I have to say to that. Shea’s an amazing competitor, and she killed it this season. She deserves to be in that final four. And if she wins, she’ll deserve that win. But I wouldn’t guarantee anything being a lock.

What was your favorite Shea moment from the season?

I think it was Blac Chyna.

Yeah, that was pretty fantastic. For Trinity Taylor, what is Trinity doing that previous pageant girls weren’t able to do on the show?

Well, Trinity had kind of the same trajectory as Roxxxy Andrews [from season 5], in the sense that we had both pageant girls, and they both found their voice on the show. And I think Trinity is known as a bitchy pageant girl, but one that didn’t think she was funny, just like Roxxy didn’t think she was funny. And Roxxy ended up being really funny. Except in the Roast. You know Trinity, when I was pushing her, when she was doing the Sister Mary Koont role that she did for the sitcom challenge, she broke out of her shell, and she was really funny. And even Stanky the Starfish made me go Oh My God, this is FUNNY! So that was when I sort of turned a corner and looked at Trinity as more than simply a pageant queen. By the way, pageant queens I love. But I love it even more when they could take the piss out of their own self. And Trinity can do that.

So, of the final four, I’m just going to list a few attributes and you tell me who you think was the best at it. So, of the final four, who do you think was the funniest?

The final four? Probably, Trinity.

Which is so unexpected! It’s fantastic.

So unexpected! And she’s snarky and shady which makes me laugh.

Yeah, she was the shadiest by far backstage.

Yeah, she’s fucking funny.

Do you think that plays into it a lot with the fans? This is something that you and Ru don’t necessarily see when you’re judging, but so much of what happens backstage plays into what the fans like about these queens, particularly queens who can be really fun and shady backstage. Is it interesting to see that emerge when the show airs?

Oh God, yes! Understand that Ru is in the workroom with them, but I’m not, so I don’t see anything except the challenges that get presented on the main stage. I don’t know if these people are going to be liked by the fans. I don’t know if they’re going to be hated. I don’t know if they’re the villain. I don’t know if they’re Miss Congeniality, I honestly don’t know. I only know what I’m judging on the main stage, and fans forget that. So they’ll attack the shit out of me, and I don’t know this person! All I know is this thing that I’m judging is not good; or it’s really good! So, yeah, when I watch it, it makes sense because I go Oh okay, now I see. Because I’m seeing them the same way that the fans are seeing them. But it’s not until the show airs that I know what the queen is about. Because nine time out of ten, if not, ten times out of ten, I don’t do shows with the new girls until the season airs.

Who do you think has the best fashion of the final four?

My pick, would be Sasha. Just because I like her style. It’s artsy and art nouveau, with vintage mixed in. You know, it’s her own style, and I like that. Although, I do live for Trinity. Her pageant fashion, I live for that.

Who of the final four do you think is the most dynamic performer on a stage?

They’re all incredible. All four of them. They all bring something different to the game. Trinity is high energy, high power, passion, entertainer of the year type thing. Peppermint is old school drag. She’s been lip syncing her ass off for a hundred years, and she’s amazing. Shea is Chicago like no joke. And Sasha is really intense performance art. So, you can’t compare them. You can’t. I think all four bring something amazing.

One last thing that I wanted to go into: After the reunion last week, a little bit about Valentina and the reaction that she got from the queens and the whole thing with the mask. What was your take on, first of all, the whole situation with the mask, and do you think Valentina was just ill prepared or a little overconfident? And do you think she’s owning up to it now or do you think that’s why the queens are having a problem with her?

Well, we obviously don’t know everything that happens because we’re not with them 24 hours a day. But obviously, by the reaction of all the queens — and not just one — there’s way more to it than we know. That’s my takeaway from the reunion, and my god that was the best episode ever!

Yeah, it was great!

Yeah, so there was a lot more than what we know about. The girls know stuff that we don’t know, and that’s obvious. With the Valentina mask thing, I mean my reaction was honest, you saw that on the screen, where I said “She’s gonna take that off right?” And I think she was confident in thinking I look great, they’re not going to send me home, obviously. And she is gorgeous, I can’t fault her on that. But at the end of the day, this is a competition. And at the lip sync, you don’t know the words you go home. There’s nothing to save you. And if you listen to our podcast, you heard Ru and I say time and time again that there’s so much more to drag than a look. It’s actually very little about the look. The look gets you by. But what you bring to it with the look is everything. The attitude, the confidence, and [Valentina] had the confidence, but she didn’t have the lyrics. And that was necessary. And as far as the reunion goes, I’m seeing what you’re seeing and …

Jaw on the floor right?

It was drama! I have no idea what was going, on but obviously more shit happened than we know about. And that’s all I could say because I don’t know.

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