(Screenshot from “SNL” YouTube)
Kate McKinnon said her final goodbye after 10 seasons of “Saturday Night Live” May 14 during the show’s season finale, which was hosted by Natasha Lyonne.
For the cold open sketch, McKinnon reprised fan-favorite character Colleen Rafferty, a woman who finds herself being abducted by aliens quite often. Rafferty goes into striking detail about the “little gray aliens with big dumb eyes” she has encountered once again. At the end of the segment, an emotional Rafferty steps onto a UFO to stay with the aliens for good.
“Well, Earth, I love you,” McKinnon said. “Thanks for letting me stay a while. Live from New York, it’s Saturday night.”
McKinnon made her “SNL” debut in 2012, performing in hundreds of sketches in a span of 10 years. During her time on the show, she was nominated for nine Emmy Awards, including eight consecutive nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series from 2014-2021, winning back-to-back in 2016 and 2017. Her most notable characters include impressions of Justin Bieber, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton. McKinnon received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Clinton in the cold opening of the show that aired after the 2016 election.
McKinnon proudly served as the popular sketch-comedy show’s first openly gay woman. She brought greater visibility to the LGBTQ community through satirical shorts, while still voicing her opinions on harsh topics such as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill.
McKinnon was one of four cast members to announce their departure on Saturday, including Pete Davidson, Kyle Mooney and Aidy Bryant.
Bryant performed one of her final sketches alongside Bowen Yang, an openly gay cast member that joined SNL in 2018. The duo performed during Weekend Update, describing their predictions for this summer’s hottest trends. Yang gives a heartwarming nod to Bryant’s time on the show and ends the segment with a kiss on the cheek as she says her goodbyes.
