‘Saturday Night Live’ Highlights: Charli XCX Pulls Double Duty and Brings Back Domingo

“Saturday Night Live” has pulled out all the stops recruiting hosts for their 50th season, but the show is typically at its best when its cast gets to shine. For this reason, Charli XCX‘s turn commanding the Studio 8H stage proved to be one of the best stints yet this year. Rather than chew the scenery, XCX blended in perfectly to each sketch, allowing the main players to flex their skills, but still earning plenty of laughs along the way. Her musical performances gave her more than enough opportunity to claim the (flashing) spotlight as well.

The night kicked off with a political cold open that satirized the Oval Office meeting that took place between presidents Trump (James Austin Johnson) and Biden (Dana Carvey) last week and had a lot more punch to it than any of the sketches featured in last week’s episode following the election. Not only do they lampoon Trump’s seeming distaste with the trappings of the White House, also spend plenty of time skewering the “dynamic, free-thinking, animal-killing, sexually-criminal, medically-crazy” cabinet he’s currently putting together. “SNL 50” also provided a bright light in all this craziness by unveiling their new Matt Gaetz impersonator, Sarah Sherman, whose demented take is the perfect match to the potential future Attorney General. Alec Baldwin also joined the cast once again, this time playing RFK Jr., though his impersonation skewed a little bit too much towards his Trump.

Also returning was fan favorite Domingo, played by Marcello Hernadez. Recreating the viral sketch from Ariana Grande’s episode, XCX was joined by Sherman, Ego Nwodim, and Heidi Gardner for a rendition of Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go!” that proved pretty steamy in its own right.

Weekend Update managed to pack a punch this week, joining the cold open in tearing down Trump and his cabinet picks, while also capturing the absurd nature of the times we’re currently living in. Bowen Yang also showed up to play Tiger King and current convict Joe Exotic, whose plea for a pardon from Trump was followed up with an offer to serve as the head of the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

While it may not look great for current cast, perhaps the best bit of the night was yet another new Digital Short from Andy Samberg. In a catchy music video, Samberg plays an overly attentive neighbor with a penchant for calling the cops on anyone who gets near his lawn or even his garbage can. XCX joins in as his wife mid-song for a duet that highlights both her pitch-perfect musical and comedic timing.

Last night’s episode was such an embarrassment of riches that even the final sketch, often thought of as a throwaway spot for the most offbeat routines to make it to air, was a total winner. Following a friend group as they’re leaving a performance of “Shrek: The Musical,” things soon turn complicated when its revealed that nearly everyone has been scoring with Shrek.

“Saturday Night Live” returns December 7 with host Paul Mescal and musical guest Shaboozey.