All The Clues That Confirm ‘The Rehearsal’ Finale Will Bamboozle Us All

After five often hilarious and always baffling episodes of Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal, the finale of the genre incongruent season streams this Sunday.

At the time of writing, The Rehearsal has received widespread critical acclaim with a 93 percent fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes and 9/10 on IMDb. Throughout the series, we’ve been tickled pink by Fielder’s reality-bending ‘rehearsals’ designed to recreate real life as closely as possible. The long-running rehearsal involves alternative medicine type Angela, simulating life as a mum, with Fielder eventually joining to co-parent. Now Fielder is undergoing the parenting simulation alone in a life-size dollhouse and fans aren’t really sure what to expect from the finale (titled ‘Pretend Daddy’).

However, I strongly predict that the last laugh will be had by Fielder himself at the expense of us, his audience. Looking at the first five episodes and his previous show Nathan For You, here are the clues that confirm The Rehearsal finale will bamboozle us all.

— Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Rehearsal and Nathan For You. —

Nathan Needs To Be Alone

Prior to The Rehearsal, Fielder produced four seasons of docu-reality comedy Nathan For You. If you haven’t seen Nathan For You stop what you’re doing and go watch it right now. It’s incredible.

In each episode, a perpetually awkward Fielder convinces small businesses to try whacky solutions to their common business problems. In short, alligators are brought into electronic stores, rebates are hard to get, and poo-flavoured yoghurt is had by all (as if that hasn’t convinced you to watch it). Like The Rehearsal, Fielder plays a hammed-up version of himself, amplifying the awkwardness to give us ‘Nathan The Character’.

In a brilliant video essay, YouTuber Nerdwriter explains how Fielder operates in Nathan For You, specifically how he undresses people. By convincing participants to lie and deceive under the guise of upholding the status quo, Fielder manages to place people into their own reality with their own understanding of what’s happening. Often, he sets up two people living in clashing realities to have an interaction that is as ludicrous as it is funny. Some of his participants, such as the business owners, are brought into his inner circle, only to learn they were being deceived the whole time. Through these deceptions, we see who these people really are and they share an honesty that Nathan the character never does.

The final deception however, is always on the audience. We were along for the ride, seeing the whole process only to learn Fielder has his own mysterious motives that we were not privy to. Fielder achieves this by playing up his awkwardness, his struggle to properly relate to people, and his ever-failing love life that it turns out was driving his antics the whole time.

We have seen this behaviour in The Rehearsal via Nathan’s hostile takeover of Angela’s parenting simulation which has seen him now trying his hand at being a single dad. Although we can see how he got there, we are not sure as to why. While hilarious, it reminds the audience that we are more than viewers. We are sheep in his herd following around this lonely shepherd. Come Sunday, Nathan will remind us of that once more.

Nathan As A Villain

Like any doco-comedy maker, Fielder has received his share of criticism. Like Sacha Baron Cohen or Andrew Callaghan, Nathan has been accused of pointing a camera at oddballs and seeing what whacky stuff they will do. Many of the business owners on Nathan For You have publicly stated they regret going on the show, as have participants on The Rehearsal. Fielder is aware of this which is why he has worked potential criticism into every episode of The Rehearsal.

For example, in episode four when Nathan is rehearsing a conversation between himself and the anti-semitic Angela, the actress portraying his co-parent berates Fielder for his exploitation of her. However, in the real conversation, Angela does not fly off the handle, does not smash a lamp, and instead leaves amicably with a handshake farewell.

It is almost as if Fielder is analysing his behaviour that was criticised in Nathan For You. He is doing increasingly devious things, airing details about people’s personal lives with their bedrooms full of plush toys and disused mattresses. Yet, we are still tuning in. Often with our fingers over our eyes, but tuning in nonetheless. 

Nathan is ready to criticise his behaviour, but will it be our enabling that becomes the centre of attention during the finale? 

So What We Can Predict?

Unlike his previous series, The Rehearsal has a narrative with places, people, and ideas returning throughout the first five episodes. Personally, I think Nathan is reminding us of some of these motifs for a good reason; they will play a part in the finale. Let’s look at the biggest recurring themes so far and my predictions for each:

The Rented Farmhouse

The farmhouse for Angela’s parenting simulation is a strange place where winter can come in an instant and vegetables grow overnight. Much like Fielder, it exists in its own weird world. 

Prediction: The farmhouse is likely the setting for “Pretend Daddy” and like Fielder, it will reveal a secret.

The Recreated Alligator Lounge (AKA Nate’s Lizard Lounge)

An impressively recreated set of a real Brooklyn bar, across five episodes The Alligator Lounge goes from a set — a place for Nathan to think — to a real bar where unsuspecting customers pay for drinks. This set has grown in realism to the point where it is a real bar.

Prediction: The Alligator Lounge has become a real bar in order to set up another piece of the rehearsal that will enter reality. 

The Actors

Just like the impressive sets, The Rehearsal is full of actors who get into the roles of the real people they are playing, often via deceptive methods that are essentially stalking. The actors in these rehearsals have provided some touching moments, often pointing out Nathan’s flaws. Angela’s actor points out that Nathan is pretty high and mighty for a guy who is making her the butt of the joke and episode one’s “fake Kor” berates Nathan for ruining the sanctity of a trivia night.

Prediction: An actor will provide Fielder with the revelation that drives the finale.

The Switches

One of the funniest recurring jokes in The Rehearsal has been the switching of child actors during the parenting rehearsals. Due to child labour laws, infants and children can only work limited hours a day. To keep the parenting rehearsal running smoothly Fielder employs a series of ‘seamless’ switches which take place via windows, in car parks, and most hilariously in a playground slide. 

Prediction: Nathan will at one point be switched to an actor playing his younger self.

Perhaps the biggest clue that we are in for a hell of a finale is…

Nathan Does Big Finales

By the end, Nathan For You was known for a big spectacle finale. In series three Fielder pretends to be a regular man walking a tightrope between two buildings for charity in order to turn them into a humanitarian hero. The series four finale takes it even further with a double episode about an old Bill Gates impersonator looking for his lost love.

It’s been five years since then, giving Fielder plenty of time to give us something that will really wow us. Considering the more serious shift in tone between the two series, it leads me to my final prediction; there is no way we can adequately prepare for what we may not only be about to witness — we just have to be a part of it.

You can tune into The Rehearsal on Binge at 9;30pm this Sunday.