Saturday Night Live heads into Week 2 of Season 52 with Dakota Johnson returning for her third hosting appearance, joined by first-time musical guest Turnstile. Johnson’s latest film, Verity, arrives in theaters October 2, one day before she steps back onto the Studio 8H stage.
Last weekend’s Jalen Brunson premiere offered the first clues about how this season’s cast hierarchy might shake out, with several newer performers getting substantial opportunities—and at least one established star barely registering. Week 2 gives us our first chance to find out which of those developments were opening-night anomalies and which might actually tell us something about the season ahead.
Here are five storylines we’ll be tracking Saturday night:
Cracking the Dakota Code
Dakota Johnson is an unusual SNL host in that the thing that makes her funny can also make her tricky to write for. Her dry delivery and almost aggressively low-key presence aren’t necessarily a natural fit for sketches that depend on everyone pushing the energy higher and higher.
Her Season 49 appearance offered perhaps the clearest example yet of how to make that work. In Please Don’t Destroy’s “Roast,” Johnson traded increasingly personal insults with Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy, with her apparent lack of enthusiasm becoming part of the joke. The guys could scramble and escalate around her; Johnson barely had to raise her pulse.
It felt less like SNL asking Johnson to adapt to the show than the show adapting to Johnson—and that may be the key again Saturday.
By hosting stint No. 3, there’s enough tape to know what Johnson does well. The question is whether SNL can build an entire episode around it.
Jeremy’s Year 2 Leap?
Jeremy Culhane finished his rookie season looking increasingly comfortable. He opened his second looking like someone SNL intends to use—a lot.
Culhane led the entire cast in screen time during the season premiere, logging a career-high 9 minutes and 35 seconds across the episode. That included substantial roles in “North High” and a return trip to “Weekend Update” as Tucker Carlson. Saturday Night Network viewers subsequently voted him the episode’s MVP.
It’s hard not to see at least a potential parallel with Ashley Padilla. After a promising rookie season, Padilla exploded in Year 2, eventually becoming Season 51’s most-used performer. Culhane enters his sophomore year with a different comic toolkit, but the early trajectory suddenly looks familiar.
One monster premiere doesn’t establish a new cast hierarchy. Two big weeks in a row, though? That starts looking less like an anomaly and more like a plan.
The Marcello Minute?
Near the other end of last week’s screen-time ledger was a surprising name.
Marcello Hernández enters Season 52 as one of SNL’s most recognizable current cast members, fresh off hosting the ESPYs and presenting at the Emmys. Then came the premiere, where one of the show’s most visible stars had an unusually quiet night.
One light episode doesn’t make a trend—even SNL’s busiest performers occasionally disappear for a week. But Johnson’s return adds an odd statistical wrinkle: Hernández finished last among the cast in screen time the last time she hosted.
There’s no reason to think Dakota Johnson is Hernández kryptonite. In fact, their contrasting energies could make for a pretty effective pairing: Hernández operating at full speed opposite a character who refuses to give him the reaction he wants.
Still, after an unusually quiet premiere—and with that strange Johnson stat hanging around—it’ll be interesting to see how long we have to wait Saturday night for some Marcello.
Saidah’s Turn?
Season 52’s premiere gave much of SNL’s newer generation of women something to do.
Ashley Padilla’s entrance as Natalie Harp earned one of the cold open’s biggest reactions, while “Dream Academy” gave Veronika Slowikowska, Grace Reiter, and Jane Wickline a shared showcase alongside KATSEYE. For Reiter in particular, it was an encouraging first night.
That left Saidah Belo-Osagie as the newcomer we still know the least about.
Belo-Osagie made only a brief appearance in the aired “Dream Academy” sketch, while another role in “Yung Rell Entourage” was cut after dress rehearsal. That means we enter Week 2 still waiting for our first real look at what she brings to the cast.
There’s certainly no requirement that a rookie produce a signature character two episodes into her SNL career. But a substantial sketch role—or perhaps a trip to the “Weekend Update” desk—could give Belo-Osagie something more valuable this early: a chance to introduce herself.
A Swift Surprise?
Dakota Johnson arrives at Studio 8H this week with a newly minted connection to one of the biggest potential cameos SNL could possibly land.
Johnson stars alongside Colin Farrell in Taylor Swift’s new “Patient Zero” music video, which premiered earlier this week at the MTV Video Music Awards. Days later, Johnson is hosting SNL. You can probably see where this is going.
Swift wouldn’t exactly be entering unfamiliar territory. In October 2023, she made an unannounced appearance at SNL simply to introduce musical guest Ice Spice—proof that getting Swift into 8H doesn’t necessarily require a performance, a hosting gig, or even much screen time.
A monologue walk-on or quick appearance playing off “Patient Zero” would be more than enough to produce one of the night’s loudest reactions.
There’s no indication yet that Swift is headed to 30 Rock. But when an SNL host arrives four days after appearing in a brand-new Taylor Swift video, cameo watch is officially on notice.
This weekend’s Saturday Night Live airs Saturday, October 3 at 11:30 p.m. ET / 8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.
Join us at LateNighter.com immediately after for the Saturday Night Network’s live after-show, where SNL experts and superfans share their hot takes on the night’s best and worst moments.
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