After a rocky Season 8, stuffed with awkward product placement and a handful of uninspiring episodes, there’s change afoot on Queer Eye. The Fab 5 has a new member, with Jeremiah Brent substituting for Bobby Berk, the terminally underappreciated interior designer. And the gaggle of gays on the Netflix reality sensation is leaving New Orleans behind for the bright, glitzy lights of Las Vegas.
There are plenty of reasons we keep coming back to Queer Eye; when times are tough, there are few joys like watching these guys uplift those in need. Sometimes you just need a good cry. Season 9, which premieres Dec. 11, delivers an all-time emotional knockout in the standout episode “Mother’s Day Slay.”
The new season’s fifth episode homes in on Jen’ya, a single mother who works tirelessly to help women who’ve experienced sexual or domestic abuse get a new lease on life. Jen’ya tells the camera that she’s experienced all these things, which fuels her further to help others persevere through the hardest times in their lives. Jen’ya has been nominated by her adorable daughter, who just wants her mom to have a perfect Mother’s Day—and then she gets a whole lot more.
Each episode of Queer Eye usually involves a portion of the Fab 5 having special moments with the subject of the week, but “Mother’s Day Slay” gives everyone an emotional breakthrough. When Jonathan reveals what they’ve done to Jen’ya’s hair, she immediately screams in delight, shouting “I love it!” before starting to cry. The instant explosion of self-confidence shines through on Jen’ya’s face. In nine seasons of Queer Eye, it’s easily the fastest rush of joy that’s come through a makeover.
“I feel like I’m 33 and not 73,” Jen’ya says with a radiant smile when Tan puts her in a sexy blue dress. It’s a quietly transformative moment for Jen’ya, who suddenly comes into her power when she sees how the right outfit can transform the way she feels about herself.
Jen’ya said at the beginning of the episode that she struggles to even glance at herself in the mirror, but when Tan finds the right clothes for her, she can’t stop looking at her beauty. Her moments with Antoni (who, as the food guru, often has fewer emotional moments than everyone else) are affecting too. Antoni is aware of Jen’ya’s tricky financial situation and is careful to make something affordable like spaghetti and meatballs, and Jen’ya is clearly moved by Antoni’s gentleness and kindness.
Jeremiah has a touching moment with Jen’ya during the house makeover. We hardly ever see the home in the renovation process, but Jeremiah wants to implement Jen’ya’s love of prayer—when we first see her barebones home, there are numerous prayers taped to the walls. Jeremiah brings Jen’ya in to write a prayer for her daughter on the wall. He’ll paint over it to keep the house looking beautiful, but the idea of integrating something so important to Jen’ya feels refreshingly personal and non-judgemental.
Karamo gets an emotional sit-down with Jen’ya after her makeover, where she says she is “determined to be the generational curse-breaker in my family.” The passion in her voice is stirring, and you really feel that she believes it. You can sense the investment each of the Fab 5 has with Jen’ya, and it proves to be the perfect comfort television, especially during the holiday season.
This all leads to an incredibly touching moment with Jen’ya as she’s introduced to her new home. What she had before was one of the emptier homes the Fab 5 have come across, with nothing on the walls and no proper table for Jen’ya and her daughter to have dinner together. She’s incredibly overwhelmed by the results of her new house, which is appropriately glamorous yet delicately understated.
A lot of times Queer Eye can feel like it’s just papering over cracks in a person’s facade, providing a temporary fix for a larger problem. This episode feels different, like everyone has gone above and beyond to do everything possible in a few short days to set up Jen’ya and her family for lifelong success. That feels a lot more real when Karamo reveals the show has given Jen’ya $10,000, as well as an additional $10k for a college fund for her daughter.
“I’m just feeling a whole lot of goodness,” she tells Jonathan as he helps her put on a new wig. It’s impossible to not feel all that glorious goodness on radiant display in “Mother’s Day Slay.”
