Inde Navarrette, the breakout star of Obsession, hosted the latest Saturday Night Live, delivering what is being called the best episode of the season so far. The Halloween-themed show featured a much-improved cold open centered on Donald Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, and a mix of sketches that ranged from strong to cringeworthy.
Trump Cold Open Steals the Show
The episode opened at a Halloween amusement park, where visitors encountered the confusing “Halloween guy” David S Pumpkins (Tom Hanks) and his skeleton pals (Mikey Day and Bobby Moynihan). The sketch initially seemed like a copy-and-paste of previous Pumpkins bits until Trump jumped in to “pause SNL skit yet again,” mocking the audience for missing a third Pumpkins scene.
Trump acknowledged Hanks by complimenting his “great ass,” adding, “That’s something I’ve been doing lately, admiring men’s asses … they’re calling it gay dementia.” The sketch also featured rapper Nicki Minaj (Saidah Belo-Osagie) and former press secretary Katie Zacharia (Veronika Slowikowska), whose attempt at the “Live from New York…” sign-off fell flat, forcing Hanks and co to finish it.
Navarrette’s Hosting Debut
Navarrette made her hosting debut, assuring the audience she’s nothing like her Obsession character even as she slipped into psycho speech patterns. She joked about her upcoming Marvel role, saying, “Every morning I put on my little whore outfit and I hit the gym.” The cast showcased Halloween costumes, with Marcello Hernández as a sexy TSA agent, Kam Patterson as Elizabeth Holmes, Jeremy Culhane as Wolverine, and Grace Reiter and Slowikowska as a mechanical bird and an angry Kelly Clarkson.
The first sketch, a Ghosts of the Queen Mary tour, featured Sarah Sherman as a wealthy heiress and Hernández and Navarrette as annoying child siblings, but it crossed the line from intentionally annoying to just annoying. A Delta Airlines commercial introduced “Delta Disruptive,” a plane section for crazy people, and a game show sketch had Kelly (Belo-Osagie) uninterested in three bachelors, with Ashley Padilla stealing the scene as the exasperated host.
Highlights and Low Points
The Inventor’s Wife short saw Navarrette as a widow discovering her husband’s robot helper PD 44, which turns out to stand for Penis Destroyer 44. A telenovela sketch had Navarrette and Hernández working a Sprite product placement into their scene, with improv claiming only perverts drink Sprite. Weekend Update featured Pennywise the Clown (Ben Marshall) discussing Gen Z wellness parties and Drunk Uncle (Moynihan) celebrating the Milwaukee Brewers’ first championship, joined by players Christian Yelich and Brice Turang and manager Pat Murphy.
Navarrette stumbled in a Paw Patrol sketch, nearly breaking character, and a sketch with Padilla as a professor hit by a dropped tray of plates ended in a series of farts, showcasing Padilla’s ability to milk pathos from slapstick. Musical guest Gracie Abrams performed her second song of the night, followed by a clip of Patrick Stewart from 1994.
Despite Navarrette being “noticeably green at times,” she was the best host of the season so far, and the episode was the best since the show returned to air. With a streamer hosting next week, it remains to be seen if the show can keep up the momentum.
