Special Agent MacGruber has found himself on the wrong side of the law.
In a Saturday Night Live episode teeming with the satirization of and jokes about the trove of Jeffrey Epstein emails released this week (20,000 pages to be specific), Glen Powell‘s hosting debut featured the return of alum Will Forte reprising his classic recurring character in three separate mini sketches.
In the first go-around, MacGruber and the team (Powell and Chloe Fineman, mullets donned) race against the clock to defuse a bomb planted at an FBI black site; as Powell deduces, it’s likely an attempt to stop his planned leak of the unredacted Epstein files he’s in possession of.
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“Talk about explosive. For far too long, the rich and powerful have lived by a different set of rules than the rest of us, but it’s time for a reckoning, ’cause no one — and I mean no one — is above the law. Let’s take a look at these bottom-feeders,” MacGruber proclaims before perusing the list, only to find his name featured.
Moving fast, he goes to shred it amid Powell and Fineman’s protestations, claiming that doing so will actually make it easier to hide from those looking to destroy its contents. (“I’m breaking it up into tiny little pieces, which we can hide in various garbage cans that only we know about,” he assures.)
In the second redux shown later in the episode, the trio are once again working to stop an explosion, this time at a deep state facility, whereupon Powell pulls out another copy of the list, citing MacGruber’s advice to always duplicate evidence. Once again trying to cover his tracks, MacGruber demands Powell hand over the “radical left-wing hoax list,” embarking on a rant threatening him if he chooses not to.
Hurriedly redacting his name, MacGruber then attempts to write in his fellow agents’ names in his place as it becomes even clearer he’s on the list. At this point, he straps the list onto the bomb, later banging it against the walls when it fails to explode in order to beget a “new beginning.”
In the third and final MacGruber sketch, the theme song declares, “It’s pretty clear by now MacGruber’s on the Epstein list.”
While at an abandoned monastery (a bomb is set to explode in 30 seconds this time), MacGruber attempts to confess to clear his conscience, but Powell and Fineman are already well aware of his being on the list.
He clarifies that he’s “all over it, like, every third page I’m not on.”
In classic MacGruber fashion, it all ends with an explosion. The popular character, created in 2007 as a parody of the ’80s-era series MacGyver, has launched an SNL dynasty of sorts, leading to a film offshoot and 2021 streaming series.
Watch the full clips below: