brake alert: Don’t read if you haven’t seen the final episode of “The Rehearsal” titled “Pretend Daddy.”
“I’m starting to feel like I’m solving a puzzle of my own design,” says Nathan Fielder in the series finale for “The Rehearsal.” He delivers his fake son to a Jewish school. Driving right behind him is the child’s real mother, who immediately takes him to take him to his real school.
Nathan wants Feel It’s as if he delivers his son to a Jewish school so that he feels like a “good Jew”, a feeling of insecurity stemming from a problem with his ex-parents, Angela, for whom the whole simulation was created. But Nathan is now the subject of his own rehearsal, raising Adam—performed by dozens of child actors of different ages—on his own. It was once Willy Wonka. Now, it’s Charlie Buckets.
Dropping out of school is the kind of gag we’ve seen all over the HBO series, like Nathan covering his fake house with fake snow to simulate winter, or hiring a fake postman to pick up fake Angela’s mail. Time and time again, Nathan struggles with seemingly simple complex problems with inappropriate and absurd solutions for comedy. But in this episode, discover the sad consequences of blurring the lines between reality and fiction when one of the child actors, 6-year-old Remy, can’t separate Nathan from Dad.
On his last day on set, Remy refuses to change “Adam’s wardrobe”, and cries for not wanting to leave rehearsal. After trying to console the little boy, Nathan had a conversation with his mother who told him, “He’s seeing other kids who have dads…and he’s definitely wondering, ‘Where’s me?'” “
Later, Nathan visits Remy at his real home to hang out, trying to explain to them neatly that they are just friends, and that he is just a “fake dad”.
“I don’t want you to be Nathan,” says Remy, and the little boy may not understand the subtleties of acting.
When Nathan returns to his fake home with his fake son (now played by 9-year-old Liam), he finds it difficult to emotionally commit to the simulator. Perhaps for the first time in the series he breaks the character.
“You know I’m not your real father, right? We’re just acting, you know that, right?” Nathan asks Liam. “Do you have a father?”
“Yes,” Liam said, and Nathan replied, “Do you feel that I am believable as a father?”
Then Liam says, in what is somehow the most heart-wrenching line in the series: “I mean, you’re a great scene partner.”
In this brief moment of grief, it seems that Nathan may finally be out for air, realizing the damage his experience has done to her subjects. But instead, he delves deeper into the delusion, turning Liam into Remy to Adam in order to rehearse for his own rehearsal.
“Probably the best use of my resources at this point is to figure out what I could have done differently,” says Nathan in the voiceover as he analyzes footage of his scenes with Remy as a quarterback player might be studying a movie. He revisits his difficult conversation with Remy, but with the actors. This time, he’s training.
Next, Nathan switches to the full Fielder Method, transforming himself into Remy’s mother in an effort to fully understand the other side of “The Rehearsal.” Instead of participating in the simulation directly, Nathan is in the control room, with Fake Nathan from Episode 4 (Alexander Leiss) filling him up inside the house. A never-ending Russian stage puppet, Nathan once again simulates his conversation with Remy – this time, as his mother.
In a disturbing final scene, Nathan (playing Remy’s mother) explains to Liam (playing Remy) that Les (who plays Nathan) is not his father, but rather a “pretend father”. It is a replica of a previous scene.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have done this show. It’s such a weird thing for a little kid to be a part of. But did you know? Mom isn’t perfect,” says Nathan to Liam, who calls back in fake tears to portray Remy’s exhilaration.
“It’s okay if you’re confused. It’s okay if you feel sad. Because no matter what you’re experiencing, we have each other,” continues Nathan. “And I will always be here for you, because I am your father.”
“Wait, I thought you were my mom,” Liam said in a whisper, character-shattering to remind Nathan of his turn.
“No,” Nathan answered, almost slyly. “I am your father.”
A moment later, Liam, who plays Remy, smiles and goes to hug Nathan, lost in the puzzle of his own design.
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