Who Won the Season 16 'RuPaul's Drag Race' LipSync LaLaPaRuZa Smackdown?

After 14 brutal weeks of hot gluing, death dropping and giving mama kudos for saying that, for spilling, Season 16 of RuPaul's Drag Race is finally one week away from crowning its victor. But before next week's battle between Sapphira Cristal, Nymphia Wind and Plane Jane for the title of America's Next Drag Superstar begins, there's time for a reunion.

This week on Episode 15, Mama Ru brought back her eliminated queens, only instead of the typical nostalgic chat and shade-throwing that we usually get in the penultimate episode, Ru opted to keep the competitive energy flowing. Rather than a reunion, the 11 eliminated queens competed in a LipSync LaLaPaRuZa Smackdown for $50,000 and the title of Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses (yes, the Drag Race multiverse really has descended deep enough into madness that we're all speaking gibberish).

Season 16's reunion brings together two popular formats added to the franchise in recent years. A whole episode of lip sync battles was added to the challenge lineup in Season 14 when the cast failed abysmally at the Snatch Game and Ru forced all seven losers to face off in a series of lip sync battles (which ultimately led to Jasmine Kennedie's exit). In All Stars 7, the four queens with the worst records competed for the title of Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses and $50,000 in a trio of lip sync battles in the finale (with Raja winning). In All Stars 8, all the eliminated queens returned for the Fame Games rather than a reunion (a talent show won by Lala Ri). Season 16 is sort of combining all three of these challenges into one massive lip sync episode.

Before we get to the winners and losers, here's a quick summary of the slightly convoluted rules:

Round One consists of five match ups. The first four are head-to-head with one queen being selected at random. She selects her competitor from the other queens who have not yet lip synced, and that queen in turn selects the song to battle to. The loser is eliminated.
The final lip sync of Round One is a three-way lip sync with the winner heading directly to Round Three. One of the three queens is selected at random and she gets to pick the song.
Round Two is two head-to-head match ups in the same format as Round One.
Round Three begins with one of the remaining three queens being selected randomly, she then selects her opponent, who selects the song. The third queen moves directly to the Final Round.
Round Four is a battle between the winner of Round Three and the only remaining competitor to a song pre-selected by RuPaul.

It will make more sense once we get into the nitty gritty, I swear. Here's everything that happened in RuPaul's Drag Race Season 16 Episode 15:

Who was eliminated in RuPaul's Drag Race Season 16 Episode 15?

Round One

Dawn

There are lip sync assassins and then there are queens who are decidedly not that. Dawn knew coming in that she would not be winning the LaLaPaRuZa Smackdown and so opted to just have a good time with it. When her ball was drawn first, she chose to lip sync against her bestie Amanda Tori Meating, basically ensuring Amanda would move on to Round Two. Amanda selected "Damaged" by Danity Kane and proceeded to easily eliminate Dawn.

Q

Another of the season's weakest lip syncers, Q was drawn second. She chose to lip sync against Megami, who the cast as a whole perceived as an easy target. However, Megami selected "What About" by Janet Jackson from the roster of songs. It was certainly not suited to Q, who was eliminated, moving Megami on to Round Two.

Geneva Karr

Morphine Love Dion was drawn third and chose to lip sync against Geneva Karr, a bold move given that Geneva won several lip syncs this season while remaining competitors had not. Geneva picked "Million Dollar Baby" by Ava Max as her song, but Morphine, THE lip sync assassin of the season, pulled off the win nonetheless.

Hershii LiqCour-Jete

With only five queens left on stage, Mirage chose to lip sync against Hershii LiqCour-Jete, afraid that Plasma would pick a less danceable song. Hershii selected "Alone 2.0" by Kim Petras and Nicki Minaj, which played into Mirage's strengths and sent her onto Round Two.

Plasma & Xunami Muse

Plasma, Xunami Muse and Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige remained as the trio in the final battle of Round One. Despite some stiff competition from Plasma, Mhi'ya, another assassin, took home the win, eliminating both of her competitors to "Milkshake" by Kelis, a song she chose. Mhi'ya then moved directly to Round Three.

Round Two

Amanda Tori Meating

Round Two opened with Amanda Tori Meating's ball being selected, giving her the choice to lip synce against Mirage, Morphine or Megami. Amanda took what seemed to be the easiest choice in Megami, but the New York queen's Cher impersonation to "The Shoop Shoop Song" led to a surprising upset.

Mirage

That left Morphine and Mirage to duke it out for the last spot in the final three. Morphine selected "This Time I Know It's For Real" by Donna Summer and was able to narrowly send her Vegas sister back to the Werk Room.

Round Three

Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige

In Round Three Megami was presented with the choice of two lip sync assassins to battle with to "We Got the Beat" by The Go-Gos, the only song remaining in the lineup. She decided on a re-match against Mhi'ya, and delivered some much-needed character work in contrast to Mhi'ya's endless run of joyless flips. The GAG of the season.

Final Round

Megami

In the finals, Megami faced off against Morphine to "Gonna Make You Sweat" by C+C Music Factory. Despite trying to win by going the humor route, Megami ultimately fell short to Morphine who danced her (BBL'd) ass off.