Matt Damon returns to ‘SNL,’ brings Brett Kavanaugh with him

We’ve almost reached the end of Season 51 of SNL. We still have to wait — checks Matt Damon’s notes — nine weeks until The Odyssey hits theaters, but Damon returned to host SNL for his third time this weekend.

Despite this being only Damon’s third time hosting the show, I don’t think there was ever any doubt whether he’d nail the episode. You know you’re part of SNL’s in-crowd when you can pop up during the cold open as a character you’ve previously cameoed as, a move Damon proved when he brought his Brett Kavanaugh portrayal back.

I appreciate a host like Damon. He’s not going to blow the roof off an episode like Ryan Gosling. And he’s not going to turn in a technical clinic like Adam Driver. But he’s going to bring a gravitas that gives the entire episode the feeling that everything is OK.

I usually write these SNL reviews during the show’s commercial breaks and musical performances, but Noah Kahan is a musical guest who gets my full attention. Kind of hard to believe that his first time on the show was in December 2023 when Emma Stone hosted.

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COLD OPEN

Kavanaugh Hegseth Patel Bar Cold Open

Has SNL shelved James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump? After spending the majority of this season either kicking off cold opens with Trump or having Johnson’s take on him pop into a cold open and break the fourth wall, SNL has now gone back-to-back episodes without Johnson as Trump.

It seems that the show has instead landed on Colin Jost’s Pete Hegseth as the anchor for its political cold opens. (Does SNL do non-political cold opens anymore?) Jost has fully embraced being out from behind the Weekend Update desk ... even if I worry that his take on the secretary of defense veers too far in the “hey, this guy is fun!” vibe that SNL once applied to George W. Bush.

Jost’s Hegseth was joined by an SNL cameo of the past and an SNL cameo of the present, with Damon popping up during the cold open as Kavanaugh and Aziz Ansari returning after launching his portrayal of Kash Patel last weekend.

• “Does this bar take Kash?” Is Ansari’s Patel basically just Tom Haverford but older?
• “Brother, everything’s a secret when you’re blacked out”: SNL broke the news that the Supreme Court is gonna let Trump “do a third term.”

THE MONOLOGUE

Despite being around “for like 30 years,” this is only Damon’s third time hosting SNL. (He did get a Five-Timers jacket when Kristen Wiig last hosted.) Yeah, Damon was making a joke here, but it is kind of wild that someone like him hasn’t hosted more. Ben Affleck is in the Five-Timers Club.