Josh O’Connor hosted ‘SNL,’ but Ashley Padilla ran away with the episode

If you were watching SNL last night, you saw something magical. No, it wasn’t Josh O’Connor as the episode’s host. It was how Ashley Padilla absolutely ran away with the episode.

There are moments during an episode of SNL when a cast member nails a sketch. And then does it again. And maybe again. There are episodes where a cast member somehow snags way more airtime than anyone else.

Padilla did all of that during O’Connor’s episode. And she did it as a featured player. This might be just her second season on the show, but it’s way past time for Lorne Michaels to promote Padilla to SNL’s main cast. She is the star of the show.

The folks over at LateNighter commemorated Padilla hitting the 100-sketch mark with the “College Class” sketch in record time. When Michaels let Heidi Gardner go after Season 50 and Ego Nwodim departed shortly after that news, I really questioned whether the SNL founder still knew what he was doing. If he saw the season that Padilla was going to have going into Season 51, I guess Michaels still has it.

The flip side of Padilla turning this episode into her own personal showcase is that, if there ever was an episode of SNL when the host was just there to be performed around, O’Connor’s first time as host was the epitome of that kind of episode.

I laughed out loud numerous times during the Wake Up Dead Man’s episode. I can give him credit for his work in “Bachelorette Party Strippers,” but he definitely was not the driving force behind this episode.

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COLD OPEN

Air Force One Cold Open

Is James Austin Johnson the best Donald Trump in SNL history? Absolutely. No doubt. But do we still need to see this character at the top of every episode of SNL? Nope.

The show has found a way to do these political cold opens — Padilla as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt — but it refuses to commit to the bit. Padilla’s the breakout star of Season 51! Unleash her with this portrayal.

• “I’m a married man, I’m obsessed with that woman”: Fine, you can do a little bit of Johnson as Trump, but Padilla’s Leavitt should carry these cold opens.

THE MONOLOGUE

O’Connor didn’t have much to say during his monologue, wrapping things up by 11:40. This one had to be the shortest monologue of Season 51.

It definitely set the record, though, for the most a host has talked about Ratatouille during a cold open. O’Connor addressed rumors that he could star in a live-action remake of the Pixar film, simultaneously knocking down the rumors while also making the pitch that he was the perfect person to play Linguini.