Out Actor, Comedian Kate McKinnon Announces ‘SNL’ Departure

After a full decade on Saturday Night Live, playing countless characters that kept us laughing at home, out actor and comedian Kate McKinnon announced she’ll be leaving the show during the cold open of this weekend’s episode.

She reprised the role of one of her iconic characters, Colleen Rafferty, a woman who continues having paranormal experiences that routinely leave her nude from the waist down, alongside interactions with aliens, ghosts, and a number of other supernatural beings. The skits typically involve Rafferty explaining her experiences to scientists and reenacting the happenings as those listening react in disbelief.

This last sketch was no different. McKinnon explains yet another instance of alien abduction: “I get dumped on board the bottom of the ship, and I see my old pals, the little gray aliens with the big dumb eyes. And it hit me: Colleen, this might be the most stable relationship you’ve ever had.”

But, contrary to previous sketches, her character boards a UFO at the end of the sketch.

“Well, Earth, I love ya. Thanks for letting me stay a while,” McKinnon says as Rafferty, as two aliens peek out behind her and the audience roars with applause. McKinnon follows the sentiment with her final, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night,” clearly a little choked up, as the UFO door shuts behind her.

The Season 47 finale was also the last episode for SNL‘s Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney, and Pete Davidson.

McKinnon won two Emmys and was nominated for nine during her 10 seasons on the show. She is known for her wide array of impressions of men and women politicians, celebs, and public figures—including Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Rudy Giuliani—along with her collection of “everyday” characters, like Rafferty.

Along with the departures, the tributes poured in throughout the weekend, with some wondering what the road ahead looks like for the long-running variety show. Staples like Kenan Thompson and Cecily Strong have yet to announce plans to leave, and SNL still has a new roster of fresh faces. As the show looks ahead toward another transition, viewers and critics alike mourned the loss of the four cast members, with one Hollywood Reporter writer calling McKinnon in particular “entirely irreplaceable.”

“She’s been everything you could want out of an SNL castmember,” Daniel Fienberg writes. “I’m not sure why she came back for that last ‘Gray Adult Pigtails’ sketch, because McKinnon had the perfect sendoff in the cold open as Colleen Rafferty, a perpetual UFO abductee whose coarse experiences never failed to crack up guest hosts.”

It was a great run. Kate McKinnon—Thank you for the laughs, and we can’t wait to see what you do next!

Screenshot courtesy of SNL on YouTube