In contrast with final yr’s Saturday Night time Reside Christmas present, when the extraordinarily contagious Omicron coronavirus variant necessitated a lowered forged and crew, this yr’s managed to keep away from any main disruptions. However one piece of reports, launched mere hours earlier than final night time’s airing, delivered an sudden flip: The present could be Cecily Robust’s final.

Rumors about Robust’s exit started swirling when her fellow forged members Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant (each of whom began with Robust in 2012) departed SNL in Could. Robust stayed, however her remaining season on SNL didn’t precisely quantity to a full one. Starting in October, she missed the primary three episodes whereas showing within the one-woman present The Seek for Indicators of Clever Life within the Universe; she returned on the finish of the month for the Halloween episode.

After 11 seasons on SNL and with out anybody else to share the farewell highlight with, Robust bought an emotional goodbye akin to Kristen Wiig’s in 2012. Final night time’s remaining sketch unfolded in a Radio Shack—an apt analogy for the as soon as ubiquitous SNL. The shop’s boss (performed by Kenan Thompson) delivered a shifting speech about Robust’s final day, saying, “Actually, I don’t suppose Radio Shack may’ve survived this lengthy with out Cecily.” The surroundings ultimately pulled again to disclose SNL’s important stage, and the host, Austin Butler, joined Robust to sing “Blue Christmas” (Butler performed the a part of Elvis, his main function in Baz Luhrmann’s current movie of the identical identify). The second grew extra poignant because the forged slowly joined them onstage, standing collectively arm in arm.

In contrast to it has with previous departures, SNL didn’t restrict Robust’s adieu to that remaining scene; her abilities have been unfold all through the episode. She appeared in plenty of sketches, together with as certainly one of her most well-known characters: the slurring miscreant Cathy Anne, who’s usually informed wild tales to Michael Che on the “Weekend Replace” desk. She stated goodbye final night time, sharing how all the crimes to which she’d confessed to Che through the years had lastly landed her in jail. Robust developed that story right into a metaphor about leaving the present. “I bought pals on the within,” she stated, whereas an image of McKinnon and Bryant in orange jumpsuits appeared. “They appear to be doing okay.”

Be they delinquent characters resembling Cathy Anne or her spot-on impressions of Decide Jeanine Pirro and the Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, Robust all the time performed these personas with slightly little bit of acid. The place different veterans resembling McKinnon and Thompson constructed a gleeful jest into their character work, Robust dug for deeper, grittier stuff. Her curiosity produced a lot: She was constantly wonderful, a useful trait for a present that wavers a lot from one week to the subsequent. In current seasons, Robust additionally rose to the forefront as certainly one of SNL’s loudest political voices as regards to abortion. Showing first as Goober the Clown and extra just lately as Tammy the Trucker, she defended girls’s proper to decide on. On a present that always tries to stroll the center of the political aisle, her clear, resounding criticism felt notable and welcome.

The Christmas present turned out to be a brilliant spot within the season’s ongoing seek for steadier footing. In one of many funnier moments of the night time, Butler helped spoof It’s a Great Life in a pretaped bit. The sketch exploded the trope of traditional film protagonists who notice the error of their methods by witnessing heat scenes in folks’s properties. The premise flipped that perspective, zooming in on the household Butler stared at and tracing their horrified response to the “pervert lurking in our window.”

Robust’s absence leaves Thompson because the one of many few remaining members of the “previous guard.” Because the longest-running forged member, with 20 seasons below his belt, Thompson has expertise that, in contrast with the remainder of the forged’s, is staggering. Outdoors of the “Weekend Replace” stalwarts Che and Colin Jost, most of the present forged members joined in 2018 or after. That’s lots of still-developing expertise to helm such an iconic ship.

Initially of final season, SNL had the most important forged it had ever seen. Now it has maybe the most recent. With this newest departure, the long run continues to really feel unsteady. Robust wasn’t the one pinning every little thing into place this season, however alongside Thompson, she added a sure gravitas. As he stated within the Radio Shack scene, “Each time she got here to work, she had a brand new character or a brand new accent or a brand new impression that may simply blow you away. She had an influence and a pleasure to her efficiency that made you keep in mind why you liked working at Radio Shack within the first place.”