Last week, Nathan Fielder compared Paramount+ to Nazis as a means to find a solution to aviation safety issues. This week, Fielder suckles on the breasts of a giant lactating mother doll, all in pursuit of the same goal.
Yes, as if this show couldn’t get any more deranged or conjure more disturbing imagery, Fielder shaves himself, wears a diaper, transforms into a baby version of legendary pilot Captain Sully Sullenberger, and explains how the Y2K-era goth band Evanescence saves lives.
We’re serious. All that happened.
In the new episode of HBO’s The Rehearsal, Fielder continues his quest to solve poor communication in the cockpit (the leading cause of plane crashes). To do this, he creates an experiment using one of the oldest debates in science as a framework: Is it nature or nurture that defines a person?
Like many scientists before him, Fielder decides it’s best to use an animal as his first subject instead of a human, admitting to viewers that running so many untested experiments on real-life pilots is probably not a good idea. And so, he starts the rehearsal with a California couple and their cloned puppy, Zeus.
After the couple’s beloved dog Achilles passed away, they fork over more than six figures to replace him. The only problem? Zeus isn’t at all like Achilles, even if his genetics are identical. So, Fielder tries to make Zeus more like Achilles by recreating the dog’s early-life conditions for the new puppy. He succeeds, which means it’s time to take his experiment to the next level.
What comes next is truly unlike anything shown on television before.
According to Fielder, Captain Sully Sullenberger—the aviation hero who saved US Airways Flight 1549 by landing it in the Hudson River—is the only pilot he knows who didn’t fall victim to the pilot/co-pilot communication curse. Unlike others, Captain Sully “invited feedback” from his co-pilot at a critical moment.
To understand Sully on a deeper level, so that he could replicate his attitude for other pilots to learn from, Fielder decides to become him.
“Look, what you’re about to witness is going to seem weird,” Fielder says as he shaves his entire body and puts on a bald cap before continuing: “If a personality transfer could work on a dog, then maybe, just maybe, it could work on a human being.”
Fielder then appears in front of the camera dressed like a baby, literally wearing a diaper, as he slowly walks into a giant nursery constructed to make it look like the comedian is baby-sized. Then, Sully’s mother, in giant puppet form, comes into the room and begins to nurse Fielder.
The image of baby Sully is surreal, grotesque, and admittedly, very Fielder.
Using information gained from Sully’s memoirs, Fielder begins to speed-run through the man’s life, moving from childhood to his adult years flying as a pilot.
After his father’s death, Sully discovers the band Evanescence and becomes particularly attached to their song: “Bring Me To Life.” It’s Evanescence, Fielder believes, which saved everyone onboard flight 1549, teaching the previously reserved pilot to express his emotions and ask for help.
Fielder’s evidence for this theory? In the flight transcripts, Sully takes a 23-second pause before deciding to land in the river, a decision that saved everyone’s lives that day.
Coincidentally, Sully’s pause was the exact same length as the chorus in “Bring Me To Life.”
In the end, maybe what makes a pilot great isn’t their innate capacity for greatness but their willingness to ask others for help. And also, it’s listening to Evanescence.
