Okay! Walton Goggins‘s first ever SNL host! I think it went pretty damn well, all things considered. After talking about his greasy, receding hairline, he leaned heavy into the sentimentality for his opening monologue — fitting considering it was the night before Mother’s Day; I’d be doing the same thing if I had the chance to host! Goggins is the kind of guy you just want to see winning, and this episode did a good job of letting him drive.

The sketches that worked

• Hello and thank you to Cecily Strong‘s Jeanine Pirro spitting wine and liquor into Colin Jost‘s open mouth in the Trump Mother’s Day Cold Open. So gross.
• Whhyyyyy did “Tiny Baby Shoe” make me laugh so hard? Plus, Sam Rockwell cameo = Yes. Great to see Jane Wickline in her element outside of Weekend Update, which is the only place we’ve really seen her vibe this season.
• No complaints about “The Second Amendment” — this is another type of role James Austin Johnson does very well. I feel like Goggins’s delivery of “guns.” is gonna be in my head for a while.
• “Service Dogs” was a huge win. So, so funny. The dog checking its watch? Hilarious.

The sketches that didn’t

• I did not care for “Mother’s Day Brunch” — for some reason just didn’t sit right with me and felt off despite some good deliveries.
• I could tell Bowen and Ego were having a lot of fun with this one, and it was working for the first half, but “Deathly Dinner” slowed down so dramatically after its initial peak that I have no choice but to drop it here in the “didn’t work” category.
• “Boss’s Bathroom” = not for me.

The musical GUEST

Why is SNL still bringing Arcade Fire back? So over it.

Final thoughts

We stan a Walton Goggins event, and this one was fun to watch. There were a few flubs and a few duds, but more than a few laughs, and this was good episode overall. There are rumors circulating about Heidi Gardner’s future at the show, and this episode was just more proof of how devastating it’d be to lose her! She is so often the glue.

My rating: 3.5/5