A paranoid and exhausted Mike Pence (Beck Bennett) opened this week’s Saturday Night Live in full crisis control mode over the latest developments in the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry scandal.

Rather than “seeing the new Judy Garland movie with mother”, as he should be doing, he finds himself strategizing with fellow embattled Trump cronies Rudy Giuliani (Kate McKinnon), attorney general William Barr (Aidy Bryant), and secretary of state Mike Pompeo (Matthew Broderick), the latter of whom is supposed to be testifying before Congress, but who pulled a Ferris Bueller and ditched it.

Giuliani suggests closing ranks, while Pompeo floats fleeing to friendlier shores: “There’s a whole list of countries that would love to have us. North Korea … Saudi Arabia … end of list.” After a couple quick appearances from the likes of Ben Carson, Stephen Miller (a literal serpent), and the confused president of Finland, things wrap up with another lazy Ferris Bueller callback and a pointless Joker reference. Everyone seems happy to be done with the sketch, which, given the muted material, is understandable.

Fleabag star and creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, fresh off sweeping the Emmys, is the night’s host. Known for her show’s depiction of unremitting humiliation, she admits that delivering the night’s opening monologue is “most embarrassing thing [she’s] ever done”.

She talks about the crossover between her fiction and her real life, admitting: “I’m not a sex addict because I wrote Fleabag, but I did write Killing Eve because I’m a psychopath.” She then segues to the “horn storm” caused by the actor Andrew Scott’s portrayal of “Hot Priest” on Fleabag’s most recent season, how the sexual conversation is currently expanding for women and receding for straight men (“If you’re looking up anything other than a woman in her 30s in the missionary position you’re a pervert. Burn him.”), and the way we ignore our genitals for the vast majority of our lives.

After a forgettable entry in the recurring What’s Wrong with This Picture gameshow sketches, we’re treated to the latest “UK reality sensation that the US is obsessing over”, Love Island, in which “the hottest people from the worst towns immediately couple up with someone based on nothing”.

The main thrust of the humor comes from the array of trashy UK and southern Irish accents on display. To that end, Cecily Strong, playing an over-the-hill Liverpool bimbo, and freshman featured player Chloe Fineman, portraying a woman from “a part of Ireland where the soil is bones”, are the clear stand-outs.

Next, the hosts of a midday news show – two white co-anchors, two black co-anchors and a black weatherman – turn the day’s rundown of stories, including a string of gas station robberies, a white-collar Ponzi scheme and a bison mauling – into a thoroughly hilarious battle-of-the-races by keeping score of the ethnicities of the perpetrators/victims (they skip over one crime committed by a Latino man). Like the cold open, it too wraps up with a reference the new Joker movie, but this one actually lands.

The War in Words plays out the correspondence between a second world war fighter pilot on the European front and Lydia, his “darling wife” back home. His lengthy, detailed letters receive curt, confusing and increasingly horrifying responses from his deranged spouse (including a film reel that shows her palling around with Hitler and the casual revelation of both his parents deaths). As with the previous entry in this series from last season (Waller-Bridge stepping in for fellow Brit Claire Foy), it’s an ample heaping of ratcheting insanity and hilarious derangement.

Taylor Swift is the night’s musical guest. She performs the title track off her new album, Lover.

Weekend Update hosts Colin Jost and Michel Che review the recently disclosed reports of Trump asking for an alligator-filed moat around his proposed border wall, which leads Che to ask: “Are we sure it’s OK to make fun of this guy?” before comparing him to Lenny from Of Mice and Men.

Jost brings on their first guest, “Elizabeth Warren”. Celebrating her latest fundraising windfall from individual donors, she has a message to top Dem donors, some of whom have gone on record threatening to support Trump if she wins the nomination. She tells them “the same thing my grandson told me when we went to see Avengers: Infinity War – this ain’t for you”.

Next, a trade representative from the Chinese government shows up to trash-talk America in response the ratcheting trade war: “We can get along without the latest movie starring The Rock, but good luck living without iPhones!” It’s a solid showcase for new featured player Bowen Yang, although his high-energy performance quickly grows grating.

Royal Romance is a BBC documentary looking back at a controversial 70s romance between a member of the royal family and and American Jimmy Jay Robinson, AKA Thunderstick. A “standup comedian, street poet and blaxploitation star”, Robinson is clearly based on cult icon Rudy Ray Moore. Interesting that the show would use this sketch in this episode, given next month sees Eddy Murphy hosting. No matter, as Keenan nails the archetype to perfection, turning in the performance of the night in the sketch of the night.

Bringing things to a close, Kaylee, Crystal & Janetta sees Waller-Bridge try her hand at playing a redneck barfly. She gives it her all, but her choice of accent leaves her barely comprehensible.

Thus concludes a surprisingly middle-of-the-road entry for Saturday Night Live.