Scarlett Johansson Hosts the 'SNL' 50th Season Finale with Mike Myers and (the Final?) Joke Swap

Cold Open — James Austin Johnson returns with his Trump impression, as he recounts his trip to Saudi Arabia, and he’s joined by his bromance partner, the Saudi Crown Prince. It’s a fairly typical Trump sketch — JAJ is really good at this, but I still feel a little gaggy whenever we have to sit through Trump. That said, I really do appreciate this impression so much more than Baldwin’s. JAJ even sits in the audience to break the fourth wall for a moment. I won’t miss these cold opens this summer, but also don’t hate them. (Score: 6 out of 10)

Scarlett Johannson Monologue — A sweet full-cast singing monologue in which they do an SNL version of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.” Billy Joel does not appear, and they joke that Sarah Sherman is leaving (Sarah Sherman is not leaving). (Score: 6 out of 10)

Channel 4 News — Emil Wakim has been in all three sketches so far! ScarJo from the nightly news fills in on the morning news, and she gives her grim nightly news (murder suicides, missing girls, etc.) some morning show puns to the dismay of Kenan’s morning show anchor (basically, it’s a Kenan reaction sketch). (Score: 5 out of 10)

Please Don’t Destroy — The Please Don’t Destroy guys, who have not been around much this season, get a “vacation” where they fly first class with Scarlett Johannson to … the Newark Airport. There’s a rap. Bad Bunny is the only air traffic controller, and it’s his first day. It’s funny because it’s terrifying! (Score: 6.5 out of 10)

Couples at a Bar — OK, well, this is not feeling like a big Season 50 finale show. Two couples at a bar fight over a table, but the two men (Marcello and Bad Bunny) are speaking in Spanish about how crazy their girlfriends are, but the girlfriends don’t understand the language (and when they try to speak Spanish, it’s just a bunch of random nonsense). (Watch Here) (Score: 4.5 out of 10)

Bowen’s Still Straight — A sequel sketch in which ScarJo — despite being married to Colin — develops a crush on Bowen Yang, who is still secretly straight and having sex with half the female cast (and Emily Ratajkowski). Now, this is more like it. For lack of a better option, this is the season finale Mat sketch of the week. (Score: 6.5 out of 10)

Mike Myers Elevator Ride — Myers makes a finale appearance, here getting stuck in an elevator with … Kanye West, played by Kenan. Funnier in theory than in practice, but decent all the same. (Score: 5.5 out of 10)

Weekend Update — Jost and Che deliver a string of groaners, befitting the finale, before Miss Eggy makes her return to make jokes about airplane food. She’s a delight. They do indeed do a joke swap, and they do indeed bring out Scarlett Johannson, who watches Che apologize for that Costco joke and talk about how much he loves Colin. If it is indeed their last show, it’s a good one (except that joke about Steve Kerr’s son, yikes!), and I really thought I could sense that Colin and Che were a little emotional. But maybe that’s just me. (Also, Che makes Jost repeatedly beg Lorne Michaels to retire so he could take over). (Score: 7.5 out of 10)

Intimacy Coordinators — Kenan and ScarJo play intimacy coordinators for a love scene between two women, but Kenan’s character doesn’t understand how women have sex. It’s short, fittingly funny, and kind of goes nowhere. (Watch Here) (Score: 4 out of 10)

TV Junket — During a junket, Danny — the guy — gets asked a bunch of softball questions, but the women in the cast all get asked humiliating, invasive questions. Accurate (but not that funny). (Watch Here) (Score: 3.5 out of 10)

Victorian Ladies at Lunch — The final sketch of the season has Victorian ladies eating disgusting food and getting it all over themselves while the cast members and ScarJo try (mostly unsuccessfully) not to break. Dumb, but an amusing send-off. (Score: 5.5 out of 10)

For what it’s worth, the goodbyes were cut off, but from what we saw, there was no announcements about cast members leaving, which is not that unusual, as departures are often announced over the summer.

Average Score: 5.4 — I’d call it a fairly mediocre episode, but there was a lot of good energy. But there was also nothing revelatory here, either, about season 51. I suppose that gives the rest of us something about which to speculate for the next four months. So long, SNL (and probably Jost and Che).