Can Comedy Change The World? The Rehearsal's Nathan Fielder Suggests That It Won't Happen Until We Relinquish Control

This nonfiction contains spoilers for The Rehearsal Season 2 finale.

The 2nd play of HBO’s The Rehearsal begins with a simple, but chaotic question fixed the circumstances: Can you alteration the satellite with a drama show? The circumstances, by the way, are that prima Nathan Fielder is trying to get to the halfway of what causes level crashes successful bid to halt them from occurring. But with the play finale present retired connected HBO and Max, it’s wide that the reply Fielder is trying to explicit is that, yes, you tin marque alteration done comedy. The lone happening is… Fielder doesn’t. Or astatine slightest helium won’t, until helium relinquishes power of the show, the situation, and his ain life. And much specifically, accepts his imaginable autism diagnosis.

There’s a batch to unpack here, and successful the finale successful particular. Fielder’s premise is that level crashes are caused astatine slightest successful portion by a deficiency of connection betwixt pilots and co-pilots. As helium and viewers observe implicit the people of the season, the duo flying rider planes usually conscionable for the archetypal clip soon earlier taking off, seldom talking earlier they’re abruptly flying a ample metallic tube, with the lives of a 100 oregon much radical successful their hands. And due to the fact that of the disparity successful fertile betwixt pilots and co-pilots, Fielder posits that level crashes hap due to the fact that co-pilots often don’t consciousness comfy speaking up erstwhile they spot thing going wrong.

The twists and turns arsenic Fielder has explored this premise person been wholly disconnected the wall, including a fake singing contention titled Wings of Voice (that has stirred up a just magnitude of contention successful the existent world), and an full occurrence wherever helium lived done the beingness of Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, including dressing up arsenic a babe and drinking beverage from an tremendous puppet of Sully’s mother. But what happens successful the finale, “My Controls,” is much achromatic knuckle terrifying than thing Tom Cruise does successful the Mission: Impossible series.

What Fielder reveals successful the finale is that 2 years anterior to the commencement of The Rehearsal, Season 2, helium started lessons to go a licensed commercialized hose pilot. The extremity is that successful bid to beryllium his premise, helium himself indispensable beryllium acceptable to alert a commercialized airline, alternatively than conscionable observing the process. It’s an hold of what happened successful the archetypal play of the series, wherever Fielder subbed retired the antheral subordinate of a mates helium was observing and started to unrecorded a beingness with a fake woman and fake kid (which besides caused a just magnitude of real-world controversy).

While your mileage whitethorn alteration astir however good Season 1 was executed, the underlying contented Fielder was intelligibly dealing with was the information that helium got divorced successful 2014, and inactive hadn’t rather recovered. In Season 2? While there’s nary decision here, Fielder is, similar the level helium ends up flying, circling astir the thought that helium whitethorn beryllium a idiosyncratic with autism.

It’s thing that is brought up successful the season’s 5th episode, “Washington,” erstwhile Fielder notes that the archetypal play of the amusement resonated with viewers connected the spectrum due to the fact that they, too, often request to rehearse beingness events successful bid to consciousness comfy erstwhile those events hap for real. And adjacent earlier that, fans of Fielder person been drawn to his attack connected erstwhile shows similar Nathan For You due to the fact that helium often exhibits “masking,” wherever those connected the spectrum suppress their neurodivergent traits truthful arsenic to amended acceptable successful with what nine expects of them. As a not insignificant broadside note, Fielder researched Asperger’s Syndrome erstwhile processing his quality for Nathan For You, though astatine the clip denied that either helium oregon his quality were connected the spectrum.

The highly roundabout crushed Fielder introduces this thought is that helium wants to lobby Congress astir a method he’s developed to get pilots and co-pilots talking, but is turned down. So helium approaches CARD (Center for Autism & Related Disorders) astir donating to them successful bid to get connected their board, truthful helium tin lobby a subordinate of the Transportation committee who is besides supportive of autism research. Like antecedently mentioned: roundabout. But what Nathan discovers portion doing a mock autism quiz is that helium can’t rather place expressions radical are making, seemingly indicating that possibly determination is much to his Asperger’s probe and recognition with those connected the spectrum than a character. Unless it is simply a character, of course… Given the fuzzy quality of world astir The Rehearsal, it’s hard to archer however overmuch Fielder is pretending for effect.

But things travel to a caput successful the finale erstwhile Fielder has to officially registry for his pilot’s license, and successful bid to bash so, helium needs to disclose “any and each conditions you whitethorn have,” arsenic Fielder explains. That includes anxiety, truthful Fielder heads to the Medical Imaging Center of Socal to get officially checked out… And successful the process of signing up for an fMRI, helium discovers the trial doesn’t conscionable scan the encephalon for signs of anxiety, it tin besides trial for – you guessed it – autism.

To chopped to the pursuit here, Fielder gets the scan… But yet barrels up with getting his pilot’s licence anyway. And the achromatic knuckle infinitesimal mentioned earlier? He loads an airliner with actors and proceeds to alert it astir for respective hours himself. Of course, arsenic a viewer, you cognize that if Fielder had crashed an airplane afloat of actors, this would person been large news. But watching the enactment is simply a breathless, harrowing sequence, peculiarly fixed that we’ve seen Fielder passim the occurrence screw up his formation grooming aggregate times, whiz done the last grooming successful lone a simulator, and during the formation a camera unit keeps flying dangerously adjacent to the plane.

Fielder lands the 737 successfully, but that isn’t the decision of the show. Despite however jaw-dropping the full series is, to the constituent that Fielder starts it by wholly breaking quality to guarantee the viewing assemblage “there’s truly thing to interest about,” this amusement isn’t astir preventing level crashes. Not really. It’s astir whether Fielder himself tin relinquish his ain power of the concern he’s in, aka his life. During the fake finale of Wings of Voice, arsenic the “winner” of the “show” performs a screen of Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life,” Fielder stares astatine a voicemail he’s gotten from Dr. Jordan’s office. Rather than get the trial results of the fMRI, Fielder deletes the message.

From there, we observe that Fielder has been moving successful his spare clip for Nomadic, a institution that relocates bare 737s. He’s been to overseas subject bases, flown implicit the Amazon successful the mediate of the night, and spent hours implicit the Atlantic successful different bare airplanes.

“They lone fto the smartest and champion radical alert a level of this size, and it feels bully to cognize that,” Fielder says successful his closing narration. “No 1 is allowed successful the cockpit if there’s thing incorrect with them. So if you’re here, you indispensable beryllium fine.”

What the amusement ends connected is not Fielder triumphantly lobbying Congress to alteration proscription law, nor truly changing anything, different than done the generous acquisition HBO made to CARD connected Fielder’s behalf. But the constituent Fielder makes successful the amusement stands, that what helium is attempting to bash done his comedy, and successful The Rehearsal successful general, is foster communication. That tin beryllium done a aviator and a co-pilot to forestall level crashes by acting retired a script that separates them from their regular selves. It tin beryllium done a archetypal serviceman named Colin, who is bashful astir dating, yet getting to buss his crush Emma, albeit done the lens of a country Fielder has created. An indispensable relation successful immoderate benignant of drama is trust, relinquishing a conception of that power successful bid to let your partner, whether that beryllium different person, a radical of people, oregon adjacent your assemblage successful the lawsuit of stand-up, to summation a portion of that power arsenic well. To stock responsibility.

Through his ain example, Fielder seems to beryllium implying that we besides request to pass with ourselves. By avoiding a imaginable autism diagnosis, and alternatively flying virtually solo, Fielder is refusing to relinquish power of his ain beingness to idiosyncratic else. That could beryllium doctors. It could beryllium sharing his existent aforesaid with the audience, which helium does lone briefly. Whatever it is, Fielder doesn’t afloat uncover due to the fact that that’s the full drama spot he’s been playing for decades now. Instead, helium stays the course, flying consecutive and ne'er looking back. It’s wide from that last code that helium knows he’s not emotionally fine, helium needs to look adjacent the imaginable of his issues, to fto spell of the controls for a moment. He won’t beryllium capable to marque existent alteration successful his ain life, fto unsocial alteration the satellite done comedy, if helium doesn’t spot a co-pilot, immoderate co-pilot astatine all. And until helium does, it’s each lone a rehearsal.