Jake Gyllenhaal & Sabrina Carpenter SNL Recap

And with that, Saturday Night Live Season 49 is over. After a strong year with amazing hosts like Ayo Edebiri, Emma Stone, and Ryan Gosling, actor and former scary-rabbit hallucinator Jake Gyllenhaal took the stage on Saturday to close out the season with a fantastic finale.  

Saturday’s episode marks the third time Gyllenhaal has hosted the show, the other two being in 2022, and 2007, but it marks the debut of musical guest Sabrina Carpenter, whose highly caffeinated pop hit “Espresso” is currently stuck in all our heads.  

See below for some highlights from the episode, and if you missed the live show, stream the whole episode on Peacock! 

Monologue 

Though he bemoans being just only one episode away from hosting the premiere of the 50th season of SNL, Gyllenhaal is nonetheless honored to bring Season 49 to “the end of the road” with a soulful R&B song.  

Fast Fashion Ad  

According to this commercial for Xiemu, a fast fashion company with suspiciously low prices, you can get a t-shirt (with minimal lead) for only $3. How are the clothes so cheap? Don’t worry about it.  

Dad Has a Cookie 

A man’s visit to meet his girlfriend’s parents goes awry when the father asks him to keep a deathly important secret: he had a cookie before dinner.  

Beautiful Girls 

He’s working late, ‘cause he’s a singer. In this musical sketch, Gyllenhaal plays Billy Harper, the host of a musical revue with beautiful showgirls. But tonight, much to the chagrin of the audience, he’s here to show off his “beautiful boys,” each dressed in ill-fitting slacks.  

NYPD Press Conference 

In response to a recent increase in random attacks in New York, an NYPD sergeant urges the city to stop punching character actors. How do you know if you’re a character actor? According to the sergeant, your IMDb page has over 100 entries, but all your characters just have a first name.  

Weekend Update 

This Saturday’s Weekend Update featured jokes about the biggest stories of the week as well as a visit from Marcello Hernández Kenan Thompson as a pair of cicadas excited to emerge this summer. Another highlight is the return of the twice-a-season tradition, Joke Swap, where Colin and Michael write jokes for one another and spare no punches. 

Canceling a Flight  

A painfully relatable six minutes for anyone who’s ever been shuffled around a customer service line, this sketch features Gyllenhaal as a frustrated traveler dealing with increasingly unhelpful representatives.  

Snake Eyes 

In a biker bar late at night, things get heated when a man (Jake Gyllenhaal) flirts with Lexi (Sarah Sherman) because she’s the tough biker Snake Eyes’ girl. But when Snake Eyes (James Austin Johnson) finally arrives, he’s a bit less intimidating than expected. 

Sabrina Carpenter “Espresso” 

Sipping an espresso martini at a set designed like a bar, Sabrina effortlessly shrugs off two dancing suiters as she sings her breakout hit single “Espresso.” The high-charting disco-influenced song might just be in a prime position to stake its claim as the song of the summer — and if you’ve been on the internet this past month, you’ve no doubt seen people quoting the song’s lyrics, which are just as clever as they are delightfully off-kilter.  

To see every sketch and performance from the new episode of SNL, stream the entire Jake Gyllenhaal episode.  

Want to know who's on SNL? Find more information about the SNL Cast! Stream every episode of Saturday Night Live on Peacock.    

That’s it for Season 49, but be sure to keep a lookout for all the excitement to come with next year’s historic 50th season!