A rare Halloween episode came through tonight as SNL got on track with the best show of the season. Host Inde Navarrette was charming, and musical performer Gracie Abrams was amazing in her two numbers.
Fans got to see several fun cameos: Tom Hanks as David S. Pumpkins, three members of the World Series champion Milwaukee Brewers, and most satisfying: Bobby Moynihan, who always delivers the funny.
Cold Open: Scary Halloween
Grace Reiter and Jeremy Culhane are a couple on a Fright Night Ride, guided by (who else?) Kenan Thompson. It’s clear in teh setup that we’ll eventually see David S. Pumpkins, SNL’s greatest Halloween character. We do, with skeleton dancers Mikey Day and Moynihan flanking the all-time host.
But just as we think this sketch might got according to formula, in comes the real Great Pumpkin, Donald Trump.
While it’s become annoying when James Austin Johnson’s Trump interrupts a cold open in recent seasons, this incident worked wonderfully for several reasons.
First, JAJ had many good lines as he riffs as Trump while the sketch is frozen in the background. For example:
“Texas is turning purple, just like my hand.”
Other reasons to love this: HEY! We get the first major spotlight for new cast member Saidah Belo-Osagie, who pops in as Nicki Minaj, who has been floated as the next possible White House Press Secretary (yes, really).
Special mention of Jeremy Culhane, who is hilariously outraged that Reiter was complaining about being scared.
The LFNY line is ping ponged around, but ends up being delivered by Tom Hanks, Bobby Moynihan, and Mikey Day.
Monologue: Inde Navarrette
Host Inde Navarrette shared that she’s been working out hard in her “little whore outfit” to get in shape for her Marvel movie, in a clear shot at Episode 3 host Shane Gillis. It wasn’t much of a joke, but most fans will love that SNL addressed that “controversy” so quickly.
Marcello Hernandez joined Navarrette at home base in his Halloween costume: as “sexy TSA agent,” a quick bit that was especially good. Also appearing were Reiter and Veronika as Kelly Clarkson and the bird she insists on buying. Overall, this was a quick-hit monologue with high energy.
Sketch: Scary Cruise
JAJ as a tour guide on a spooky cruise, guiding Ben Marshall, Kenan Thompson, and Ashley Padilla. JAJ conjures ghost Sarah Sherman, a 1930s movie star who hid her jewels on the ship. Her message is interrupted by Hernandez and Navarrette, two annoying Depression-era kids begging the tourists to go swimming.
Mikey Day appears as the dead father showing off his “swimming costume.”
Navarrette is very enthusiastic here, and is a hit with her eye-crossing abilities. It’s obvious she liked this sketch premise a lot, and her performance, along with the always-dependable Hernandez and Sherman, makes it work fine. Well-written: every cast member gets enough to do here, even Padilla and Thompson as a bickering couple.
Pretape: Delta Disruptive
Ashley Padilla as a Delta representative explaining a new initiative from the airline to accommodate unruly passengers. She explains that this new section is monitored by the “toughest, gayest, ex-Spirit Airlines employees” possible.
Navarrette, Sherman, and Padilla are the tentpoles of this not-so-absurdist sketch, which continues a string of good pretape commercials we’ve seen throughout Season 52 so far.
Sketch: Uninterested Woman Game Show
Saidah Belo-Osagie is the female contestant on a dating game show hosted by Padilla. The bachelors on the show are played by Navarrette, Wickline, and Sherman.
Special mention to the makeup and special effects department: the facial hair (Navarrette and Wickline) and forearms (hilariously applied to Sherman).
Padilla perfectly displays her ability to play exasperation.
Short Film: The Inventor’s Wife (Midnight Matinee)
In this Dan Bulla short film, Navarrette appears as a woman eulogizing his husband, a dedicated inventor. After the eulogy, we see her go back to her home, which is filled with gadgets her husband built for her comfort. When she goes into his workshop she finds a box with a letter marked for her attention, with a robot inside (PD-44 or “Petey”).
“It’s just me and you, buddy,” she says to Petey.
We jump to six years into the future and the wife is sifting through profiles on a dating website. She has s first date and seems to be bonding well with the man (played by Ben Marshall). That’s when Ben finds out that PD-44 stands for “Penis Destroyer.” After his penis is shot off and sent to the moon(!), Inde finally realizes that her dead husband actually loved her.
For production, directing, makeup, pacing, and performances, this was the best pretape of the season.
Sketch: El Corazón Que No Siente
In one of the strongest sketches of the season, we get a farcical situation set during the taping of a Mexican daytime TV show: El Corazón Que No Siente.
Kenan appears as the director of El Corazón Que No Siente, a Mexican soap opera. Navarrette and Hernandez are lovers doing a scene. Day and Padilla appear as representatives of a soda company who bought product placement on the show, to promote a new flavor: Sprite Cherry Lime Habanero.
Some lines:
“It’s bad, but they paid for this.”
“The Sprite has made me hit a woman!”
Music Performances by Gracie Abrams
If anyone has a more pure and beautiful voice than Gracie Abrams, I’m open to suggestions. Her performances are driven by her angelic voice that has just enough of a raspy delivery to make her irresistible.
Speaking of angels: Abrams appears with wings on her costume in her first number, titled Hit the Wall. Her two numbers share a Romeo and Juliette theme, which was clever.
In contrast to other performers who try a little too hard to be shocking, or too sexy, or too loud, Abrams is somehow just perfect: not understated, but sort of understated. She glows as a charming singer with a mesmerizing stage presence. If she was in Studio 8H to sing in every episode, I would never complain.
Weekend Update
Leadoff jokes from Colin Jost focused on Trump’s obsession with John Husted’s ass. But jokes about the Israeli election by Che fell flat. Very flat.
Pennywise the Clown played by Marshall
Jost performed a “Hear Me Out” segment defending the tight friendship between Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew, which was short enough to stay a little funny.
The jokes about Jost being racist need to be shelved forever.
Moynihan came back as Drunk Uncle, to discuss the championship by the Milwaukee Brewers.
Appearance by Brice Turang, (Pete Davidson lookalike) Christian Yelich, and Pat Murphy.
Time: 13 minutes
Paw Patrol: Special Victims Unit
Culhane, Hernandez, Reiter, Slowikowska, Thompson are led by Navarrette as part of the Paw Patrol Special Victims Unit investigating a murder. We see Kam Patterson appear in a quick cameo.
JAJ comes in as the villain, just in time as Navarrette starts to break up during the sketch, which had quite a few tongue-twisting pieces of dialogue.
Sketch: Denise Goes to Dinner
Padilla’s character “Denise” drives this restaurant sketch that also includes Navarrette, Marshall, Sherman, Day, and Andrew Dismukes. A group of work friends are out to dinner, with “Denise” as the oddball who can’t believe she was even invited. After Day drops a plate of food on Padilla’s head, she does her best to make sure she still looks cool and relaxed, even as her hair is caked with food.
The sketch goes off the rails quickly, and runs out of steam, with the climax a series of gross farts and sharts by Denise at the dinner table. Not highbrow, and not particularly funny either.
The show ended with many of the cast members dressed as other cast members in character: Tommy Brennan as Sarah Squirm, and Mikey Day as Ashley Padilla’s bad haircut gal, and Marcello as Inde Navarrette.
