Ryan Gosling easily delivers the best ‘SNL’ of the season

My hopes were high for Ryan Gosling’s return to SNL.

I didn’t expect him to lock in the best episode of the season by 12:10 a.m., though.

The Project Hail Mary star easily ran away with this episode, delivering hit after hit as the night went along. There are some weeks when I struggle to pick a sketch or two as the best of the episode. For Gosling’s episode, I had to draw the line at two sketches. The wild thing is that every sketch in this episode could’ve been named as an episode’s best.

This was Gosling’s fourth time hosting SNL. If Lorne Michaels brought him back in a few weekends to join the show’s Five-Timers Club, I would be 100 percent fine with that. There are more technically precise SNL hosts (hello, Adam Driver), but Gosling might be the most joyous SNL host we currently have in the mix.

I love that he breaks. I don’t care that he breaks. Whether it was with Kate McKinnon or Cecily Strong in previous seasons or Sarah Sherman and Ashley Padilla in this episode, I love that there’s something so infectiously joyous and fun about his presence that the cast just can’t help but to crack.

There are some weekends when staying up late and writing The Cold Open feels like a slog. (I’m sorry, Finn Wolfhard.) But I can’t wait to watch every sketch from Gosling’s episode again. This episode is a reminder of why I write this newsletter. And it’s hopefully a reminder of why you all watch SNL.

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COLD OPEN

Hegseth Iran Presser Cold Open

OK, good news and bad news when it comes to the cold open.

The good news? SNL gave us a break from James Austin Johnson’s take on Donald Trump this weekend. All my apologies to Johnson. He’s pretty much the best there is when it comes to portraying Trump. But there’s so much Trump in the rest of our lives. We needed a break. SNL needed a break.

The bad news? It was still a political cold open. Colin Jost loves playing Pete Hegseth. I honestly think it’s his favorite thing to do over the course of his very lengthy time with the show. I really thought we’d see McKinnon return so SNL could start a Gosling-hosted episode with a “Close Encounter” sketch again.

• A “Heg” stand: Seriously, Jost loves doing this character.
• “Been reassigned under the bus”: Looks like the final score for portraying Kristi Noem is two appearances for Padilla, one appearance for Tina Fey.

THE MONOLOGUE

Hey, did you know that Harry Styles is hosting SNL next weekend? Gosling knows.

He knows all too well.

To prep for next weekend, Styles was in the front row of SNL’s audience during Gosling’s monologue ... which made it super awkward when it was time for the Project Hail Mary star to sing “Sign of the Times.”