SNL: The Return Of Chad

Pete Davidson’s had an uneven run on SNL. Indeed, he seems at his best when just playing himself on Weekend Update. It’s worth noting that he did just that this week in playing himself and talking about his real-life struggle with depression. This week marked the return of one of his endearingly dumber characters, however, in Chad the pool boy.

We first met Chad last year when Julia Louis-Dreyfus hosted. Monosyllabic and mostly communicating with a barely pronounced “Okay”, Chad the pool boy is part of an affair with a suburban housewife, played by Dreyfus. Torn apart with conflicting emotions, Dreyfus struggles over her forbidden love for the pool boy. One of the things SNL has been doing well lately is low stakes high emotion like this.

This week Chad is back, and things are escalating for him! Traveling through a portal in his closet, Chad has been chosen to save Etheria as part of a prophecy that he’s their savior. He is the last hope for the survival of their people and must defeat an evil Lord who has entombed them all in ice and snow. If he succeeds, he will also win the favor of the Queen (Cecily Strong). (Sidebar: while Cecily did great, it seemed a waste to have Gal Gadot host and NOT play a mystical Queen, stuck with Chad as her savior.) Will Chad accept the mission and save Etheria? “Okay.” Hope you like sweater weather, people of Etheria.