Walton Goggins Hosts an 'SNL' Episode We Weren't Quite Expecting

Cold Open — They teased bringing out the SNL moms again, but it was only to set up the crushing realization that it would be another Trump cold open. Fortunately, while James Austin Johnson’s Trump did shut down the idea of having Da Bears celebrate the Pope, they did bring back Cecily Strong to play Jeanine Pirro (still perfect) and spit alcohol into Colin Jost’s mouth (as Pete Hegseth). (Score: 6.5 out of 10)

Walton Goggins Monologue — Goggins is great. After commenting on all the headlines that questioned why we find a greasy guy with a receding hairline sexy, he tearfully brought his mom out to dance. It was very sweet. (Score: 6.5 out of 10)

The Second Amendment — Turns out, there was an irresistibly cool guy named Matt who — after the Continental Congress wrote the First Amendment — came up with the idea for the Second. “Have guns.” (Score: 6 out of 10)

Tiny Baby Shoe — In a pretape, Jane Wickline finds a tiny baby shoe, and it inspires a song, and while I won’t ruin it for you, it does involve Walton Goggins and Sam Rockwell. A+ cameo. (Score: 7.5 out of 10)

Mother’s Day Brunch — Walton Goggins plays a waiter during a Mother’s Day Brunch who flirts with the moms. Like, really, really flirts, much to the dismay of the sons. (Score: 5.5 out of 10)

Service Dogs — A group of 20 service dogs try to sit through a bad play, but keep getting bored and leaving and checking out their watches to the annoyance of the actors. Not the best. (Watch Here) (Score: 3.5 out of 10)

Weekend Update — Jost and Che, in what is potentially their penultimate episode as “Update” anchors, kind of bomb with a bunch of not terribly funny and obvious political (and Pope) jokes. It is hard to come up with Pope jokes after the entire Internet has gone through them all, but still. The back half jokes are marginally better. Marcello Hernandez’s Movie Guy guesses the plots of the summer blockbusters he hasn’t seen (watch here), and a guy who just walked into a spider web (Mikey Day) is here to discuss … tariffs. Finally, Heidi Gardner appears as the Mom who has only read about NYC on Facebook. Erm. (Watch Here) (Score: 5 out of 10)

Deathly Diner — A theme restaurant where the servers haven’t quite worked out the theme, except to repeat that the meal “might be your last” over and over. Skip. (Watch Here) (Score: 2 out of 10)

Boss’s Bathroom — In a short film, an employee comes over to this boss’s house where he’s invited to be a partner, but after going into the boss’s bathroom, he can’t stop imagining his boss and the boss’s wife pooping. What is going on here?! I don’t know how to score this one. It’s really dumb, but it’s also inexplicably the Mat sketch of the week. (Score, uh, 5 out of 10)

Average Score: 5.3. Goggins was game, but after a decent start, the episode fell apart even before the back half began. I imagine it will be thought of as disappointing, if only because I suspect a lot of people were expecting/hoping for a sketch on the election of the Pope and maybe even an Aimee Lou Wood appearance (or even a mention) given the rumors, but I suppose that’s a lot to ask.