Did Nathan Fielder Fly The Plane? ‘The Rehearsal' S2 Finale, Explained

Forbes

2 days ago

Nathan Fielder appears to fly a plane in the season 2 finale of HBO's 'The Rehearsal'
HBO's The Rehearsal season 2 finale has sparked debate, as viewers were left wondering how much of the series had been staged, or deceptively edited.
Nathan Fielder's comedy has always walked a fine line between truth and performance. In the finale of The Rehearsal's second season, Fielder appears to fly a plane full of passengers, and lands safely.
Viewers weren't sure what to make of the stunt. Did Nathan really fly that plane? Were the passengers actually on board?
Was the truth behind the flight really the point?
Given the premise of the show and hints dropped by Fielder during the finale, it seems that the truth lay somewhere in the middle, with the ambiguity being the point.
Yes, and no. Fielder has always been interested in the performance that people instinctively adopt for the camera, and uses his intensely awkward persona to break that facade.
His work often explores the phenomenon of people working together toward a delusional goal, and the shared hesitance to voice the obvious.
Previously, Fielder has discussed being inspired by the 2008 financial crisis, rooted in "these personal moments between people where someone senses something's wrong, but they don't want to speak up."
His breakout series, Nathan For You, saw Fielder successfully convince real people to undertake ludicrous business proposals.
In season one of The Rehearsal, Fielder still leaned on the eccentric individuals that his process uncovered, but the focus was more on himself, or rather, his persona.
Season 2 is even more focused on Fielder, with the distinction between persona and personality all the blurrier.
Season 2 of The Rehearsal sees Fielder explore his fixation with plane crashes, which he believes are often caused by miscommunication between co-pilots and their captains.
Fielder comes to the conclusion that the hierarchy in the cockpit, combined with the professional consequences of speaking out, often leads to tragedy.
Fielder reckons that these crashes can be avoided if pilots could be encouraged to speak their minds, and embarks on an increasingly bizarre series of training exercises and rehearsals to try and enter the minds of pilots.
Fielder's talent for finding eccentrics and oddballs is still there—he meets a couple who cloned their dog multiple times, and a man who attempts to sell a hilariously dilapidated plane, assuring Fielder that broken dials and knobs will not affect his safety in the slightest.
Fielder, however, is the main character of this series, and some of the most surreal moments come from his self-imposed experiments (a scene where a diaper-wearing Fielder is breastfed by a gigantic, motherly puppet has to be seen to be believed).
The series walks a fine line between truth and fiction, but the finale reveals that Fielder has spent two years training for his pilot license, and is now qualified to fly a 737.
Fielder is then shown flying the plane with a visibly nervous co-pilot, who Fielder encourages to speak his mind. Fielder appears to successfully land the plane, with 150 people on board.
However, not all is as it seems, as Fielder deliberately mentions the art of pulling off a 'magic trick' during the finale, hinting at some sort of deception.
Judging from the footage, which was also shot outside of the plane, Fielder does appear to have flown the 737. On Reddit, fans of the show even tracked down the flight, which appears to have taken place on Feb 16 of this year.
However, it appears that the plane was not actually full of passengers, and that Fielder's co-pilot was the only individual on board.
Scenes of the passengers entering the plane, and applauding Fielder's landing seem to have been edited alongside the real flight, the 'magic trick' that Fielder told his audience he was going to pull off.
Despite Fielder's meta-comedy, it appears he was attempting to make a serious point, not just about airline safety, but the persona that people put on when in positions of responsibility and authority.
In a final twist, Fielder appeared on CNN to discuss his findings from the show, and cheekily pointed out that the power dynamic between Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown mirrored the imbalance in the cockpit.
'You're Wolf Blitzer, right?' Fielder said. 'So you're like, your name is first on the thing. So I'm sure, Pamela, at times you might not want to say, 'Oh, Wolf wants to do something. I don't think it's a good idea.' You might not want to express that, always.'
Both hosts appeared disarmed by Fielder's comment, and stammered a defense, with Brown politely insisting that Blitzer doesn't have an 'ego' and that she feels free to speak up.
However, Brown did admit that Fielder had a point.
Clearly, Nathan Fielder's talent for disarming people on camera, even media-savvy news hosts, is as sharp as ever.