The great thing about an ensemble comedy solid comes partly from its fluidity. As enjoyable because it should be to peacock within the highlight, holding everybody’s consideration, it’s simply as vital to know when to step again. Not each Saturday Night time Reside host reveals that data, however a few of the stronger ones clearly decide up on the dynamic and thrive in sketches the place their contributions fall nearer to that of a supporting participant. Final night time, Jenna Ortega, a first-time host and the star of Netflix’s brooding Wednesday, folded neatly into the solid, serving to ship a refreshingly impish episode reminiscent at occasions of traditional SNL.

Ortega did seize the highlight in a number of sketches, such because the game-show bit “College vs. College,” wherein she performed a mutant at an X-Males-inspired academy who confronted off with extra conventional high-school college students. However a few of final night time’s greatest payoffs got here when Ortega did her scene work so effectively that, like a promising new solid member, she blended in seamlessly and let others shine.

In yet one more wonderful pre-taped sketch, “Waffle Home,” she served because the framing machine, taking part in a young person in a CW-esque high-school drama. Though the sketch appeared to deal with the breakup dialog she insisted on having together with her boyfriend (Marcello Hernandez) within the restaurant’s parking zone, the actual battle unfolded behind them. The premise exploited stereotypes about Waffle Home’s clientele in a wordless tableau writ massive. With the assistance of cautious enhancing, Ortega carried out earnestly, fading into the background and permitting the encompassing mayhem to land extra spiritedly.

Later, taking part in a lady possessed by a demon, Ortega appeared to be the first focus in “Exorcism.” That’s, till Mrs. Shaw (Ego Nwodim), an aged neighbor disturbed by the ritual, determined to intercede with the intention to get again to sleep. Ortega may have distracted from Nwodim, however she as a substitute made room for Mrs. Shaw’s eccentricity. When Ortega started to levitate, Mrs. Shaw uttered the scene-stealing line of the night time: “Sit yo ass down, child, earlier than I activate the ceiling fan.”

The bit, following intently on the heels of Nwodim’s viral “Lisa From Temecula” second and final week’s sketch “Mama’s Funeral,”  referred to as again to SNL’s heyday, when hit characters had been typically the spine of the present. This season, we haven’t seen a lot in the way in which of recurring characters exterior the “Weekend Replace” desk, however Nwodim has amassed a stockpile of memorable characters in simply the previous few episodes. Extra, please.

The episode achieved a type of uncommon pleasure for a season that has spent a great deal of time figuring issues out. A part of that sentiment got here from Ortega’s youthful presence, which SNL leaned into reasonably than away from. When Billie Eilish hosted an episode at 19 final season, the present tended to position her in sketches that aged her—both barely or considerably—with the intention to play up the distinction. So, too, with Jack Harlow. As a substitute, Ortega explored a wealth of colourful teenage characters that rounded out the gloomier work she’s develop into identified for this yr. Ortega’s subtle dedication to each scene—her professionalism and maturity—helped the episode obtain its fresh-faced vivacity.

That lightheartedness culminated within the five-to-one sketch, a waggish premise about lounge singers turned business jingle makers. Ortega performed a lawyer (her one grownup function of the night time) tasked with discovering a strategy to make her agency’s cellphone quantity extra memorable to potential purchasers—one thing like Cellino & Barnes’ once-ubiquitous providing. Enter an idiosyncratic duo referred to as Soul Sales space (Andrew Dismukes and James Austin Johnson), plucked from the native watering gap, Lucciano’s.

A cross between the characters the Culps and the Gibbs brothers, Soul Sales space delivered three funk-driven choices, none of which made the agency’s convoluted quantity straightforward to recollect however which brought about Chloe Fineman (starring as a fellow lawyer) to interrupt. One other colleague, Mitchell (Bowen Yang), stored vociferously insisting that Soul Sales space make the jingle “extra Luche” to mirror that ineffable Lucciano’s high quality, and almost brought about Ortega to interrupt as effectively. Her stumble, temporary because it was, delightfully interrupted the construction that her simple character lent the scene.

All through the episode, Ortega’s instincts felt nearer to these of a veteran host than a first-timer. She gamely jumped into roles each main and lesser, discovering the magic that makes for nice collaborative comedy. In that manner, she match proper in.