‘Twas the moment that shocked queens around the world.
During tonight’s Drag Race season 10 finale, Asia O’Hara started off her first lip sync of the night in a colorful butterfly-inspired costume, complete with two giant bra-esque cones over her chest. Pretty soon into the song (Janet Jackson‘s “Nasty”), she started opening up a contraption on her wrist, then one of her chest cones, then the other chest cone, and while she had yet to open up the piece on the other wrist, it was clear that whatever was supposed to be happening was not happening.
Apparently, live butterflies were supposed to fly out, sort of emulating and topping Sasha Velour‘s winning performance last year, when she filled her costume and wig with rose petals that flew out dramatically. This time, the effect would have been even cooler, with a swarm of butterflies filling the stage and probably overtaking her competitor, Kameron Michaels.
That is absolutely not what happened, however, because as Asia explained to EW, the butterflies most likely did not get warm enough while they waited to be let free.
“I used what are called Painted Lady butterflies, and going west across the continental divide, they have to be kept cool—basically in hibernation or asleep—so they don’t stress,” she told the magazine. “They need to warm up to a certain temperature in order to fly away. I, of course, rehearsed it at home several times and it worked, but [the finale was] a different place and a different environment, and I don’t think the contraptions were warm enough to wake the butterflies up. But, as they warmed up in the stage lights during the break, they started to fly away!”
She says that people may not understand that “a lot of research and time and energy went into it, and…
