Beaulah: Queens van die Kaap Season 1, episode 10 recap: finale!

This week in Beaulah: Queens van die Kaap Season 1, episode 10, we find out what drag was like in the 1970s and 1980s as Maxine gives veteran queens Sandra Dee and Samantha Fox makeovers for a photoshoot. We meet Manila’s five-year-old son, and there are tears of joy as the Drag Cartel helps Emogan’s boyfriend Jacob to propose to him on the beach. The queens take each other to task about the problem with lateness. And as they prepare for their final, full-cast show of the season, a rocky technical rehearsal promises disaster. New fights erupt backstage, insults are exchanged and noses are put out of joint. But the moment the lights go up on the night, nothing exists but the roar of the crowd, and the queens show up and show out. 

Stream Beaulah: Queens van die Kaap Season 1 on Showmax now. All episodes are now streaming.

1. Veteran queens and battle scars

Maxine puts two veteran drag queens from Hanover Park – Sandra Dee, who started drag in 1969, and 62-year-old Samantha Fox, who started drag at the age of 17 as an original District Six diva – in drag for a glamorous photoshoot. Samantha reveals that she was once almost murdered in Johannesburg when a man he hooked up with found out she wasn’t a “real” woman – an encounter she can laugh about now – and stabbed her multiple times before trying to carry on with sex. Samantha then spotted a brick, and hit him with it so she could escape. She and the attacker wound up in the hospital together. As Maxine says, it’s terrifying to think that that level of violence and entitlement was the norm.

PS: Sandra and Samantha’s decades-long friendship is celebrated in the documentary short film Masquerading: To Hell and Back.

2. Schooled by the children

For the first time, we meet Manila’s five-year-old son Alexandru. As the two chat about Alex starting primary school, Manila asks whether Alex is excited about getting his hair cut and Alex tells him that he isn’t, because he thinks that Manila is going to take his hair, make it into a wig and glue it on his head! It turns out he’s right, that’s exactly what daddy is planning (for sentimental reasons).

In this day and age, gender norms are still being enforced in schools and Alex won’t be allowed to keep his hair long, even though it’s his hair, and that’s how he likes to wear it. On a lighter note, Manila is gobsmacked when Alex pulls him up on how he pronounces the word “probably”, and the kid points out that Manila doesn’t always articulate wel l… all this while respectfully calling his father “sir” throughout their conversation!

3. Backstage chaos, onstage climax

All the queens arrive at the Adam Small Theatre at Stellenbosch University for the technical rehearsal of the show that they were working on during their weekend away. As they’re rehearsing in half drag or just street clothes, there’s a fascinating contrast between that and how they look on the performance night. 

In the meantime, things are rough! Dance numbers have to be re-jigged since BB is at her grandfather’s funeral, people don’t have the choreography down, queens have rehearsed to the wrong music, and everyone is tired and running on fumes so tempers are fraying and the mood backstage is frosty until Kat hauls out pre-mixed drinks together. 

You’d never know, though, on the night. We see breathtaking, moving performances from each queen, solo and in their group numbers, despite Emogan fighting through a twisted ankle and hitting her head during a death drop. And the crowd goes wild as BB leaps from her podium into a jump-split complete with a wig reveal, as one wig flies off her head to reveal another beneath it. Stunt Queen of Cape Town, confirmed. 

Alas, the season ends in drama and a fresh fight. And we get the quote of the season from Ina: “When she shenan once, she’s gonna shenan again (shenanigans). I don’t trust that b*tch.”

3 mini moments to smile at

1. Emogan’s boyfriend Jacob takes him to the beach and he jokes that it looks as if they’re there to “film a porno”. Mind out of the gutter dear, because Jacob has a ring in his bag, and honourable intentions. Happy tears!

2. Madison lights up as she describes her growing friendship with Ina and Manila, and how much they bounce off each other just being silly.

3. Maxine’s shocked Pikachu expression (with her makeup half-done) is hysterical as she asks the queens how they found the drag brunch and she gets a chorus of “Late!” back in response. 

Binge Beaulah: Queens van die Kaap Season 1 on Showmax now.