www.silverguide.site –

Saturday Night Live returns for its final run of season 51 episodes with a press conference held by “the man, the myth, the liability” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost). He angrily “dogwalks” the dweeby members of the press pool over questions about his mistaking a Pulp Fiction quote for a real verse from the Bible, the actual cost of the war with Iran, and the number of American bases that have been hit (“More bases than you’ve ever hit, virgin”), before turning the podium over to the “almost certainly fired” director of the FBI, Kash Patel (Aziz Ansari).

The bulging-eyed Patel gives a useless update on the recent assassination attempt on Trump (“Another one!”) before bragging about how he’s “a trailblazer: the first Indian person to suck at their job.” He denies allegations about his alleged alcoholism – though not before Hegseth jumps in, thinking the question is directed at him – to make it clear that he has not only never “been drunk or hungover on the job”, but also “never used tax-payer dollars to take a private jet to fly him and his girlfriend to three different Buffalo Wild Wings locations across the country to see if they could tell the difference”.

Ansari is too perfect a choice to play Patel to complain about a celebrity outsider taking a juicy role from the show’s actual cast (it’s not like they really have anyone who could play him anyway). The rampant (alleged) boozing going on in Trump’s cabinet could have served for more than one joke here, but at least the show gave it some attention.

The same is true of last week’s White House Correspondent’s Dinner attack, which you would think would make up the meat of this cold open. Then again, given how gung-ho Trump has been at siccing his FCC cronies on anyone who mocks him – including Jimmy Kimmel, whose jokes about Melania Trump becoming a widow had nothing to do with the incident – it’s not hard to see why SNL mostly steered clear.

Olivia Rodrigo, pulling double duty tonight, takes the stage for her monologue. Although she has been the musical guest and appeared in sketches previously, this marks her debut as host. Taking the standard route of kid actors-turned-young adult celebs, Rodrigo looks back at her childhood work, rolling an Old Navy commercial she appeared in as a tot and reminiscing about her time on the Disney Channel alongside Jake Paul (“He’d say, one day I really want to beat up old guys on Netflix”). It’s just filler to get to the musical segment of the monologue, in which she performs a new version of her breakout hit Driver’s License, this time about the interminable experience of getting Real ID from the DMV.

Edge of Destiny is an 80s soap opera. Rodrigo and Chloe Fineman play rival socialites dueling over the heart of one of their sons. Their fight turns deadly when Rodrigo’s character slaps Fineman’s, sending her falling down her mansion’s seemingly endless stairs. The same fate befalls Rodrigo’s fiance, the family lawyer, the butler, another couple, a small dog, and eventually Rodrigo herself. The central sight gag revolves around the cast flopping about on the floor while the crew moves the set around them. Not funny at all, but the live visual effect is impressively disorienting.

Next up is a new Dan Bulla short. It’s a music video from Rodrigo that starts out as an ode to her perfect bedroom before things take a sci-fi turn when she reveals “the only problem is, I’m in a zoo on the bug people planet.” As with the previous sketch, the laughs are scarce – although James Austin Johnson’s shirtless mating partner reject is worth a chuckle – but the effects and animation are solid.

On Shop TV, the sassy southern hosts (Mikey Day, Ashley Padilla) welcome Rodrigo’s bubbly baker, hawking her famous lava cake and reusable tin. Unfortunately, the cake resembles an anus, or “fudge hole”, as she calls it. Things get grosser once Day’s character reluctantly sticks his finger into said fudge hole to get at the peanut butter filling inside. It’s been a hot minute since one of these sketches has appeared on the show – last time around, Day was paired up with Heidi Gardner – and this one definitely ups the ante with its scatological visual gag.

At a mutual friend’s birthday party, Rodrigo’s newly single guest asks her tablemate (Tommy Brennan) to pretend to be her date when she runs into her ex-boyfriend (Ben Marshall). Her ex tries the same strategy with his tablemate (Padilla), an older, insane woman who is way, way too gung-ho about the ruse. She ends up smearing his face and body with potatoes, ripping his clothes off, and loudly proclaiming, “We are to be wed! At midnight! Under the clock tower!” Another great showcase for Padilla’s physical comedy.

Debbie Harry pops up to introduce Rodrigo for her first performance of the night. Unfortunately, Rodrigo’s fans in the audience don’t seem to realize they’re in the presence of music royalty, as Harry’s surprise appearance is met with zero reaction.

On Weekend Update, Michael Che introduces the first guests, feuding influencers/bloggers/podcasters Alix Earle (Veronika Slowikowska) and Alex Cooper (Fineman). The two blonde dingbats – physically and vocally indistinguishable – break down their confusing beef in incomprehensible “gay man’s terms” before summing it up as “worse than 9/11”. The show seems to anticipate most of its audience (including yours truly) having zero idea who these people are.

Later, Che brings cast member Kam Patterson to the desk to discuss the recent breakup of rapper Megan Thee Stallion and NBA player Klay Thompson. Patterson claims he’s upset about the split, but his mile-wide smile tells a different story. Finally, he admits the truth, proclaiming, “Who would cheat on Meg Thee Stallion? Who even is this guy … to me, he’s not clay, he’s dirt,” before shooting his shot with the beautiful rapper. As Patterson himself admits during his time, he’s not used often on the show, but he’s finding his voice with each new appearance.

Next, Rodrigo plays a woman caught sneaking home after a night out by her suspicious fiance(Marcello Hernández). They move into a rendition of the 2003 Isley Brothers soap opera R&B single Busted. They are continually joined by a growing cast of characters, including a weird looking dog, a robber, the robber’s wife, the robber’s mistress, and their angry landlord. Dated and not nearly as ridiculous as the thing it’s parodying.

Rodrigo performs her second set, this time introduced by actor and recent host Connor Storrie. The crowd goes nuts for him, unlike Harry (shameful). Then, Rodrigo and Slowikowska play two friends taking an Uber on their way to the club. They excitedly ask their older driver (Andrew Dismukes) to play some music. He happily obliges, before loudly busting into an ad-libbed song – and heavy patois – to a Jamaican dance hall beat. The atmosphere immediately changes, with none of them knowing how to react. The driver eventually accepts his fate: “I just realized I’m one of the most talented Rasta MCs on earth … I can’t escape my destiny.” Possibly the best Dismukes has ever been on the show.

The episode concludes with an ad for Safeguard, “the first home security system designed to produce crime scene footage guaranteed to go viral.” When an alarm goes off, Safeguard dispatches Tik Tokers to the scene ask intruders hot button questions such as “Gay son or thot daughter?” and “What’s the craziest place you ever got your back blown out?” Includes solid digs at insufferable new media and pathetic attention seeking personalities like Barstool Sports (the episode’s second barb at them), Subway Takes, Chicken Shop Date, crowd work comedians, Corey Booker, and influencers in general: “I couldn’t believe how fast the Tik Toker got there. I was like, aren’t they busy? But here’s what I didn’t realize: no.”

A roundly solid episode, all things considered. Rodrigo made for an adequate host, but the night was elevated by a handful of standout sketches, as well as show-stealing turns from Dismukes and Padilla, far and away the MVP of the season. Look for individual moments from this one to rank high on season-end best of lists.