Stephen Colbert has succeeded where Ridley Scott and a whole pile of money once failed: Luring Jodie Foster back into the Oscar-winning role of FBI agent Clarice Starling. Foster stepped back into Starling’s sensible blazer for a sketch on The Late Show tonight, approaching Colbert’s Lecter in the hopes that he might shed some light on her true quarry: Donald Trump.
And hey, let’s be honest: This is not exactly the funniest piece of material the Late Show writers have ever churned out. (Maybe they were so excited that Foster actually said “Yes” that they weren’t sure what to do with it.) The jokes are all pretty simple—cannibalism, Russian allegations, etc.—and it’s clear that, for all her talents, it’s been a minute since Foster put herself in Starling’s good bag and cheap shoes.
Still, there’s something kind of electric to see Foster back in the part, and the final punchline—i.e., that things are bad enough out here that being slowly devoured by a malevolent cannibal might be a preferable alternative—carries enough dark weight to make the whole thing kind of land.