Review: The Rehearsal, "My Controls" | Season 2, Episode 6
If you're here, you must be fine
Endings, like landings, are a tricky proposition—this is especially true when the scope is as expansive as what Nathan Fielder’s trying to accomplish with the finale of The Rehearsal. When I first opened the screener for “My Controls,” I was initially surprised at the nearly hour-long run time. How could there possibly be this much time left for what initially felt like a pretty straightforward conclusion? As is constantly the case with this show, nothing could prepare me for what unfolds throughout the episode.
As I’ve discussed before, this season—not unlike the first go-round—has become increasingly personal in scope, funneling down into what exactly this all means for Fielder. Upon last week’s conclusion, showing that the U.S. Government was seemingly unconcerned about what Fielder had presented, he decides to take matters into his own hands—quite literally. In an extraordinary bit of foresight or, perhaps, absurd commitment to the bit—although knowing him, it’s likely some combinations of the two—Fielder’s slow-rolling revelation that he’s spent the better part of two years actually learning how to fly a plane sets the stage for the finale. Without anyone to believe in him, he’s going to do it himself.
The implication that Fielder would jump from smaller planes to a 737 felt immediately incredulous, a point well articulated by John Goglia’s appearance and subsequent skepticism. Knowing what we know about the world outside of the show—e.g. Fielder’s still around and there wasn’t a plane crash that he was involved in—immediately defuses a lot of the tension of whether or not we’re going to see chaos unfold. Instead, by eliminating this danger, “My Controls” serves to highlight the journey of how Fielder executes his vision.
Therein lies the magic of this finale. While it’s not as emotionally devastating or morally gray as last season’s triumphantly chaotic conclusion, “My Controls” shifts into another gear entirely: a deep amount of sincerity, something Fielder sought back at the start of the season. I try not to ascribe too much intent to how much of the Fielder performance at the center of the show is “real” or “fake,” mostly because it’s likely some combination of the two. But those lines blur a bit in this episode due to the earnestness with which Fielder attacks his desire to prove his hypothesis correct, making the events between him and Aaron in the cockpit mid-flight so exciting to watch unfold.
