Here’s how “Saturday Night Live” handled its 4 cast departures on the season 47 finale

It’s very a while since Saturday Night Live had a big cast shakeup. Slowly but surely, we’ve watched the cast grow to feature a whopping 21 people, a record for the show. Much of this had to do with the pandemic, we imagine. For all the cast members the show has gained, since the 2019-2020 season, only Beck Bennett has departed the show. Well, that all changed this weekend.

This past Saturday saw the landmark sketch show bid farewell to four cast members, including Pete Davidson, Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, and Kyle Mooney. With the exception of maybe Kyle Mooney, none of these are particular surprising. We had been predicting they’d all leave years ago. But alas, their time on the show finally came to an end.

Here’s how the show handled all their respective departures.

Pete Davidson

While the other cast members heavily alluded to their leaving, Davidson is the only one that flat out announced it on the show. His main spotlight moment was during Weekend Update, naturally where he would often shine the most. He quipped that he knew it was time to leave when Lorne gifted him a sock, which is a Harry Potter reference.

But his grand finale was actually cut from the show. He did one of his trademark Eminem parody raps with Lorne (with Pete playing Lorne). But the big surprise is at the end, when the real Eminem shows up. And he also gives shout outs to the other departing cast members. They seriously couldn’t find time to slot this in?

Kate McKinnon

Kate McKinnon’s departing wasn’t flat out said – everyone at home knew it as it leaked on Friday – but it was not well hidden, either. They opened up with her most popular character, her alien invasion character. The sketch ended with her waving goodbye as she returned to their home planet in a trade to help the human race, which is a pretty fitting end to it all. She also had loads of other moments throughout the show, but this was the standout.

Aidy Bryant

Aidy Bryant also wrapped up her long tenure with the show. She also had a few standout moments. Although the one that seemed to standout the most was a Weekend Update bit she did with Bowen Yang, where they commented on all the summer fashion trends. The sketch didn’t seem to have quite the emphasis of it being a big “grand finale,” however Michael Che did call her out as the bit wrapped up.

Kyle Mooney

The fact that Kyle Mooney’s best work gets cut at dress rehearsal has been an ongoing joke for years. You’d think they’d at least give him his due for his last show. But alas, the running joke kept on running as he didn’t have much to do. One thing he did do, however, was have a prominent role in the last sketch alongside Aidy and Kate. So at least he got that.