Caemeron Crain
The following recap contains spoilers for The Rehearsal S2E5, “Washington” (written by Nathan Fielder & Carrie Kemper & Adam Locke-Norton & Eric Notarnicola and directed by Nathan Fielder)
The Rehearsal S2E5 begins where last week’s episode left off, with Nathan preparing to speak to Congress. Although John Goglia sits to Fielder’s side, it is quickly revealed that this is a rehearsal, with actors playing the members of the aviation subcommittee. I’d guessed as much last week, but couldn’t be sure. If only I’d spotted Anna Lamadrid, who played Fake Angela in Season 1…
Regardless, the rehearsal doesn’t exactly go well, as Goglia repeatedly advises Nathan to use different language. Maybe don’t tell members of Congress that current practices are “terrible” and that people are going to die if they don’t do something to change them; it’s just not the way you talk to these kind of muckety-mucks.
Fielder tries to take that point, but also worries about being taken seriously given that he is a comedian. So, he gets the idea to watch other comedians who have testified to Congress, and notices that they tend to lead off with a joke. Attempting this in his rehearsal, though, he notices that no one laughs, so he makes sure that the actors involved know that it is OK for them to laugh. The next time through, they all laugh in an exaggerated fashion, which leads Fielder to tell them they don’t have to laugh. It’s one of many times The Rehearsal has played with how Fielder doesn’t seem to understand his own power as the show’s director.
Further, it turns out that this rehearsal is for an event that may not occur. Fielder had asked WBD lobbyists to reach out to Rep. Sam Graves, the Chair of the House Transportation Committee, in order to arrange a meeting, but has now learned that Graves has declined to meet with him. Could this be because he googled Nathan Fielder to find out who he was?
Nathan proceeds to google himself and notes how he has made a fool of himself at every available opportunity. It’s as though he can’t help it, even when he’s a guest on a late-night talk show.
At this point, I feel the need to note that I have always taken Nathan Fielder in The Rehearsal to be a character named Nathan Fielder played by Nathan Fielder. That would be far too clunky to note every time I mention him, and I usually feel comfortable neglecting the distinction, particularly since the line is often not clear. But, as S2E5 becomes an episode about autism, I feel like it’s important to attend to it.
While googling himself, Nathan notices a number of articles about The Rehearsal and its representation of autism/neurodivergence. He claims that this was never his intent and feigns ignorance about autism in a way that I can’t imagine was true with regard to the real-life Nathan Fielder coming into this episode.
Fielder notes that Rep. Steve Cohen, who is a member of the House Subcommittee on Aviation, is also a member of the Autism Caucus, and wonders if he can use his apparent credibility when it comes to autism to get his foot in the door with Cohen.
First, though, Nathan visits with Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders in order to learn more about autism. She tells him how neurodivergent individuals often struggle to read social cues, and that one thing they do at the Center is to rehearse social interactions in a way that resembles The Rehearsal.
She then takes him through a test that involves reading people’s eyes, and the running joke of the scene is clearly playing on the idea that Nathan does not know that he is autistic, or is in denial about it. And, again, I can’t claim to know for sure where things stand with regard to the real-life Nathan Fielder when it comes to this. There doesn’t seem to be any publicly available confirmation that he’s on the spectrum, and I hesitate to lean too hard on an armchair diagnosis.
Regardless, Nathan shows Dr. Granpeesheh what he’s been up to with The Rehearsal Season 2, and she lights up at the partial recreation of the Houston airport. Although Fielder is hesitant to involve children in The Rehearsal again, they ultimately agree to use the model airport to help autistic children practice airport stuff, and Nathan gets a spot on the board for the Center for Autism and Related Disorders.
Fielder effectively parleys his new position into a meeting with Rep. Cohen. He tells us in voiceover that he has decided not to rehearse for it because he definitely does not need to do that. He likes to do it. It’s a fun, helpful tool. But he insists he can function perfectly well without it.
In the meeting, Nathan is even more awkward than usual and ends up reading his points instead of having a more extemporaneous conversation with Rep. Cohen. Still, he does manage to present his idea in a more polished form than we’ve previously seen on The Rehearsal.
Picking up on his thoughts about the power of acting from S2E4, Fielder suggests giving each pilot and co-pilot a short set of instructions prior to each flight. The co-pilot will be cast in the role of First Officer Blunt, while the pilot will be cast as Captain Allears. The two will be asked to introduce themselves to each other as such before they get into the cockpit, and, as he shows Cohen footage of a rehearsal of this, Nathan notes that the silliness of it seems to help the pilots build rapport. Further, in a simulated flight scenario, we can see the pilots pulling on their character assignments to break tension and avert disaster.
Rep. Cohen is clearly unconvinced because the idea is absurd, but the limited data that Fielder has collected indicates that something along these lines might really help in terms of fostering communication in the cockpit.
I’ll be curious to see where this goes in the Season 2 finale. Certainly we won’t get Congress solving all of our problems, but maybe Fielder will somehow manage to break through? And I expect we’ll get to see the winner of Wings of Voice.
See you next week.
