SNL finale: Trump and his allies won't stop believing in ominous cold open

Saturday Night Live kicked off its season finale with one last Trump-flavored cold open, this time moving the action to a late-night diner in Bloomfield, New Jersey. But the mood here was, if nothing else, a little more uncertain than what the show had been serving up previously.

It begins with Trump walking into the diner, taking a seat at a booth alone, and promptly blasting Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” on the jukebox. One by one, his allies walk in to provide status updates: his new lawyer Rudy Giuliani (an eyes-bulging Kate McKinnon) on the latest seemingly insane thing he’s said on Fox News; his former lawyer Michael Cohen (Ben Stiller) lamenting his legal predicament; and his son Don Jr. on his other son, Eric, who’s still trying to parallel park a tricycle outside.

Then, Robert De Niro’s Bob Mueller walks in, but Trump is the only one of the group who can see him. As Cohen, Giuliani, et al. continue to throw out ideas about how to protect Trump by any means necessary, Mueller hovers behind him at a nearby table, listening. Before he exits, Mueller then signals to Trump that he is, indeed, watching him.

As for what comes next? A very long cut to black, with Journey still playing in the background, Sopranos-style. As to what it could mean? In the HBO classic, the abrupt cut signaled ambiguity as to the fate of Tony Soprano. Here, SNL seems to be suggesting it can’t remotely predict what may happen in the political world before it returns in the fall.