Caemeron Crain
The following recap contains spoilers for The Rehearsal S2E3, “Pilot’s Code” (written by Nathan Fielder & Carrie Kemper & Adam Locke-Norton & Eric Notarnicola and directed by Nathan Fielder)
The Rehearsal S2E3, “Pilot’s Code,” features two plots that are thematically tied together. First, Nathan meets with a couple whose dog, Achilles, died, which led them to have the dog cloned. It’s an expensive process, and it’s left Monique and Bogden mildly disappointed. Their new dogs look just like their old one, but none of the three seem to have the personality of their progenitor.
The reason seems pretty obvious: while the clones have the same DNA as Achilles, the circumstances of their development have been markedly different. It’s that old line about nature versus nurture. Achilles grew up when the couple was living in San Jose and was less financially secure than they are now. Monique wanted to have a child, but Bogden wasn’t ready to do that. They also had two cats at the time, whom Achilles would mimic.
So, of course, Nathan proceeds to recreate everything about the circumstances in which Achilles was raised, to see if putting one of the clones, Zeus, into those circumstances will lead him to develop the personality that Achilles had. Fielder not only makes a replica of the couple’s old San Jose apartment and hires actors to play the younger versions of Monique and Bogden, he also transports air from San Jose to LA to try to hit every detail.
At first, the experiment doesn’t seem to be working, but when Zeus mimics the cats in the apartment by walking across the back of the couch, Monique and Bogden tear up at his resemblance to Achilles. So, Nathan decides the thing is a success and moves on to what he really cares about—experimenting on human beings.
If it worked to craft the personality of a dog by recreating the upbringing and life of another dog, maybe taking a pilot through the life of an exemplary pilot could have the same effect. Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger famously landed a plane on the Hudson River in 2009, averting disaster. But further, if we look at the cockpit log, Sully asked his co-pilot for ideas and seemed open to feedback in a way that other pilots often aren’t.
Nathan knows his idea is weird, so he makes himself the first test subject, going through Sully’s life based on his memoir, Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters.
The sequence contains some delightfully absurd moments, like when Fielder dresses as a baby and interacts with a gigantic puppet that serves as his mother, but its point comes into focus as we get to Sully’s adult life. Nathan notes how often, in his book, Sully writes that he found ways to “cope” or “deal with” problems, without ever offering any details as to how.
Consulting with other pilots involved with The Rehearsal, Nathan learns that there is a general fear about admitting to any mental health problems or expressing negative feelings because it’s possible that this could lead to having one’s license revoked by the FAA. Fielder imagines Sully considering therapy but avoiding it, and he imagines another pilot offering Sully drugs, which he declines. But then he notes how, after the invention of the iPod, Sully started listening to popular music.
In his memoir, Sully describes his father by referencing a lyric from Sheryl Crow’s “Soak Up the Sun,” even though the song was released long after his father’s death. But Nathan’s focus quickly becomes the extent to which Sully enjoys Evanescence—the musical artist that is mentioned the most in his book—and, in particular, their song “Bring Me to Life.”
There is something deeply funny about suggesting that Evanescence helped Sully learn to be comfortable with his feelings and open to being vulnerable, but I would never deny the power of music.
The culmination of all of this actually made me tear up a little bit for reasons I can’t quite explain. Nathan notes 23 seconds of silence from Sully in the cockpit recording from Flight 1549, as things have begun to go wrong. People are trying to talk to him, but he says nothing for 23 seconds—the exact length of the chorus of “Bring Me to Life.”
Did Sully briefly jam to Evanescence before he landed that plane in the Hudson River? I don’t know, but his iPod was found in the flooded cockpit, and if things went just like they did for Fake Sully (Nathan Fielder), I don’t have any harsh words for him.
