Saturday Night Live’s season 41 premiere was filled with plenty of jabs at presidential candidates, references to the pope’s recent U.S. visit, and the expected, yet always unexpected, Miley Cyrus costume changes. The show opened with an interview with Donald Trump and his Slovenian-born wife Melania, discussing topics such as his opinions on women, immigration and his credentials for being president. In the end, I was still trying to decide whether Taran Killam’s wig was more or less laughable than Trump’s actual hair…

Miley entered the stage for her opening monologue dressed as what I can best compare to a synchronized swimmer’s dress and cap adorned with colorful flowers. Before beginning her monologue, Miley joked that she loves hosting SNL because it’s live, so her parents know where she is for a whole 90 minutes, adding that she was on a seven-second delay because when you smoke as much as she does, you’re always on a seven-second delay. Her monologue was sung to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and highlighted some of the summer of 2015’s most viral, but soon to be forgotten, news items, including Josh Duggar, the dentist who shot Cecil the Lion, and even Ariana Grande’s donut-licking scandal.

One of the biggest skits of the night revolved around another presidential candidate: Hillary Clinton, who made an actual appearance in the episode. Instead of being herself, Clinton acted as Val, a bartender who begins conversing with the fake Clinton (humorously portrayed by Kate McKinnon). The two make a variety of witty remarks concerning Clinton’s delayed opposition to the Keystone Pipeline and support for gay marriage, along with her desire for Trump to win the primaries so she can “destroy him and mount his hair in the Oval Office.” The skit concluded with the two women’s rousing rendition of “Lean On Me” as they laughed their way through.

Prior to Weekend Update, Miley performed the first of two songs off of her new album, “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz.” Continuing the Miley Cyrus ensemble guessing game, her new outfit was reminiscent of Rapunzel and Eve combined, with a massive mess of hair on her head and nothing but fauna covering her most precious assets. After singing passionately to Karen and telling her not to be sad, the Weekend Updaters took over, reviewing the past week’s most interesting and absurd news stories. Among other things, the sketch included interviews with an uncharacteristically gangster, Italian-sounding Pope Francis, “relationship expert” Leslie Jones, and the show’s youngest member, 21-year-old Pete Davidson, who very accurately represented young people who may not know, or care, as much as they should about modern politics. To top it all off, his comparison of Donald Trump to Sanjaya, the young contestant on American Idol whom everybody loved to hate, was spot on.

After the show poked more fun at Generation Y through sketches about obnoxious millennials and the brainwashing powers of Taylor Swift’s “squad,” Miley came to the stage once more. Singing “The Twinkle Song” accompanied only by her piano, Miley gave a very passionate and emotional performance, screaming and eventually breaking into tears.

You can watch the episode in full on Hulu (for free!) as well as a recently released special documentary reflecting on 40 years of the show, including interviews with SNL greats like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.