Kate McKinnon Reprises Classic Alien Sketch in Emotional SNL Farewell

In a rare departure from the typical Saturday Night Live cold open, this week's episode kicked off its season finale with departing cast member Kate McKinnon reprising Colleen Rafferty, the chain-smoking alien abductee with a fount of euphemisms for her body parts at the ready. At the end of the episode's "Close Encounters" sketch, McKinnon boarded the alien ship and delivered an emotional goodbye after 10 seasons at SNL that helped to effectively change queer representation there. Aboard the ship, she said her final "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night."

The sketch follows the usual setup that is a Pentagon debrief conducted by incredulous NSA agents played by Aidy Bryant and Mikey Day. Cecily Strong plays her recurring abductee and host Natasha Lyonne plays the other. Those two experience only bliss and love aboard the alien ship while Rafferty endures a gauntlet of odd and questionable tests at the hands of the aliens.

"It was different down in third class. I get on board, and the gray aliens, God bless them, they are already standing in line waiting to bat my knockers around. So I think, What the hell, play the hits, right?" the character says, alluding to her first experience with the aliens.

McKinnon has upped the ante each time she's portrayed Rafferty, beginning with her first portrayal of her in 2015 when she made host Ryan Gosling cry with laughter while trying to keep it together.

This time, however, the sketch ended with Bryant and Day's agents informing the abductees that the aliens would allow the United States government access to their technology if they could keep one of the humans they'd abducted.

"I can read the room. It's me, right?" Rafferty says. "I always kind of felt like an alien on this planet anyway."

In a moment reminiscent of Steven Spielberg's 1978 sci-fi hit Close Encounters of the Third Kind, McKinnon boards the ship. Clearly overcome, she turns around to massive applause from the audience.

"Well, Earth, I love ya. Thanks for letting me stay awhile," McKinnon says.

Rafferty was just one of several memorable characters McKinnon created during her 10-year tenure, including cat shelter volunteer Barbara DeDrew, Russian Weekend Update correspondent Olya Povlatsky, and Debette Goldry, an old-timey Hollywood actress unaware of the terrible treatment actresses endured at the time.

McKinnon is not the only veteran cast member to bid farewell to SNL. Bryant, Pete Davidson, and Kyle Mooney are also leaving. With McKinnon's departure, Punkie Johnson and Bowen Yang are the remaining queer cast members.

Watch McKinnon in her final performance as Rafferty below.