Like in the previous two seasons, the Netflix Original Queer Eye continues to break the boundaries set forth in the original show of the same name and help people of all genders and sexual orientations learn how to live their best lives. This third season featured the Fab Five’s first duo, more women including a lesbian, and the Fab Five opening up about themselves.
The third season also continues the show’s trajectory of becoming increasingly better and as equally wholesome as the previous seasons. The connections the Fab Five made and the lives that were changed this season caused fans to shed a lot of tears. Here are the most drastic of these changes, ranked.
Episode 1: Jody
Jody is a woman who did not view herself as “traditionally feminine” but was also looking to embrace her more feminine side. She enjoys hunting and the outdoors and dressed for such. She works as a prison guard and farms in her personal time, which contributed to her dressing “more masculine.”
When the Fab Five arrived to help her, they taught her that she does not have to label herself as “masculine” or “feminine” and can rather label herself as Jody. Tan France incorporated masculinity and femininity in the clothes he bought for her, and Bobby Berk did the same while redecorating her and her husband’s house. Antoni Porowski took her to high-end restaurants and taught her how to feel more comfortable in more formal settings. By the end of the week, Jody was confident and ready to go on a tenth-anniversary dinner date with her husband.
Episode 3: Deborah and Mary
Deborah and Mary, also known as “Little” and “Shorty,” respectively, are sisters who run the Jones Bar-B-Q, a food stand that features barbecue cuisine and their father’s recipe for barbecue sauce. The two sisters ran the business by themselves with no help. They worked long hours, prepping, cooking, selling, and cleaning the place.
Bobby reorganized and redecorated the kitchen area so that there was more room to move and cook and so that there was also adequate air conditioning. Tan helped them dress comfortably yet professionally and he and Jonathan Van Ness took Deborah to the dentist to put in some realistic-looking fake teeth to boost her confidence. Antoni helped the sisters outsource their barbecue sauce recipe to be bottled by a local company. The sisters, their families, and the Fab Five hosted a grand reopening featuring a new and improved restaurant.
Episode 6: Rob
Rob is a widower and a single father. When the Fab Five came to him, he was understandably still reeling from his wife’s death a couple of years before. He was looking to move himself and his sons out of the house they were living in at the time and into a new place. He did not know how to dress himself or his sons but did get occasional help from his mother-in-law.
Tan taught him easy tricks to dress himself and his boys, while Antoni taught him how to cook kid-friendly healthy meals, and Bobby helped him pack up his old house and move into the new one. Bobby even created a space for mementos of Rob’s wife, including carving the message “Be nice to your brother” in her handwriting in the trunk holding said mementos.
Episode 7: Thomas
Thomas was a twenty-one-year-old living with his sister. He spent all of his time playing video games online and had a diet that consisted of tater tots and veggie patties. His nickname among his peers was “sloth.”
The Fab Five came to help him right on his twenty-first birthday. Karamo Brown helped him with his confidence and taught him how to connect people his age who have similar interests by taking him rock climbing. And later, he and Bobby also introduced him to people in a local anime fan group. Meanwhile, Antoni taught him how to cook easy, healthy meals in order to give Thomas some variety. Bobby also redecorated his room to make the space feel more lived-in, and Tan did what Tan does best and updated his wardrobe.
Episode 4: Robert
Robert is a man who had self-esteem and body image issues and tended to be self-deprecating to the extreme. He was to marry his fiancee and mother of his children, Jamie, by the end of the week. He wanted to look and feel good for his wedding and the Fab Five were enlisted to help him.
Karamo helped teach him mindfulness about his self-deprecating nature, and Antoni helped him learn to cook delicious and healthy meals for himself and his kids. He and Bobby even took him to the gym Orange Fitness to help him start up a fitness routine, which would help with his body image and self-esteem issues. Bobby redecorated the house and helped Robert and Jamie reclaim the master bedroom, which one of their daughters originally used for her own room.
Episode 5: Jess
Jess is a lesbian woman who was kicked out as a teenager upon being outed to her adopted parents. She finally had an apartment to call home, but it did not have the feel of a home and more felt like a temporary living situation. She self-identified as a “lumberjack lesbian” and dressed in a more “masculine” way. She also idolizes Janelle Monae for her ability to combine masculinity and femininity.
Tan helped her embrace her masculine and feminine sides and updated her wardrobe, Jonathan gave her a haircut to remove the treated parts and also to be more fitting of her desired style and her personality. He also taught her how to maintain her natural curls. Karamo helped her by validating her interests, telling her there is no one way to be black. Bobby, who had an extremely similar background to Jess, related his experiences to hers and helped make her apartment feel more homely.
Episode 8: Tony
Tony was an expecting father who was nervous about becoming a father, in spite of already acting as such to his girlfriend Bri’s first daughter Kairi. He also procrastinated to the point that the kitchen was filled with dirty dishes and the house was generally in disarray.
The Fab Five taught Tony how to be organized and how not to procrastinate. Karamo found a teacher who helped Tony learn to take care of a newborn, and Antoni took Tony and Kairi to a cooking class where they could learn to work together in the kitchen. By the end of the week, Tony had taken the initiative to shave his own beard, without Jonathan’s suggestion, and then Tony surprised Bri by proposing to her, which she accepted.
Episode 2: Joey
Joey is an outdoorsman who works as a program director at a children’s camp. Before he received the offer, he lived out of a trailer and only saw his son about once a month, if that often. Upon receiving the offer, he was given a cabin to live out of but he only really used it for storage and for a space for his son to call his own.
When the Fab Five came along, Karamo helped him reconnect with his son, Tan updated his wardrobe so that it was outdoorsy yet clean and stylish. Bobby also redecorated the cabin so that both he and his son could use it. Antoni also helped him prepare a barbecue meal for his coworkers to show his appreciation for them.