Warning: This review of episode 5 of The Rehearsal will contain spoilers.

How dramatic do we need a comedy show like The Rehearsal to be? To take it one step further beyond episode 5, what happens when a comedy show, or a comedian, suddenly takes things seriously? This week’s installment is easily the least humorous of season 2, but it shows Nathan Fielder’s genuine efforts to affect real change. Remember in episode 1, when Fielder first approached former NTSB member John Goglia, and his voiceover narration said that he would need to work extra hard to get someone to trust a comedian, working on a comedy show, seriously?

This week sees Nathan taking this concept to the extreme by trying to make an appearance before the Congressional Aviation Subcommittee to show his observations on ways to improve airline safety. But first, of course, he has to rehearse. As with all things concerning The Rehearsal, it’s hard to tell just how sincere Fielder is being with his “testimonial” to the subcommittee avatars. Surely, at his heart, he has to know that Congress won’t make feasible changes, no matter how much research he’s done or how much money he’s put towards the show (HBO’s money, he clarifies).

We’ve seen Nathan try to change himself fundamentally throughout this show, but episode 5 sees him truly wrestling with how he’s viewed, when he studies previous comedians who have testified before Congress. He notices that, to start, they put the audience at ease by opening with a joke. When his bus masturbation joke goes over badly, as expected, he tries to work over the actors by saying, in no uncertain terms, that they’re supposed to laugh when they hear something funny. This provides the biggest unscripted laughs of episode 5, especially once Nathan confronts one of the actors to ask why he didn’t laugh and the actor reveals that he doesn’t even know Fielder’s name. Of course, the audience over-corrects and laughs too much at Fielder’s joke, prompting him to temper their reactions a little more realistically.

The Rehearsal is all about Fielder exerting his control over others to comedic effect, and this sequence shows that, no matter how hard he tries, and how many rehearsals he can do, there’s simply not enough accounting for genuine human reactions. This leads Nathan to “discover” that, after the show’s first season, he was embraced by the autistic community because of his realistic depiction of how autistic people think and feel about impending social interactions. There’s another fascinating development here, as Nathan meets a doctor with the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (“CARD”), and she reveals that she’s a fan of the show. This may be the first instance of Nathan encountering someone within the show who presumably knows it’s all for laughs, and knows Fielder’s tricks.

Maybe it’s just because of the generally crappy state of the world in 2025, and seeing how certain sects of the United States government view autistic people, but seeing Fielder embrace his status as a “thought leader” (he not-so-subtly elbows to the doctor to get her agreement) for autism was genuinely heartwarming. Does it hamper things a bit when Nathan essentially uses his relationship with CARD to get his feet in the door with a member of Congress? To some, this development may sound some ethical alarms, but I believe that Fielder is genuine in his commitment to the community.

It all leads up to the climax of episode 5, when Nathan snags a meeting with congressman Steve Cohen, the ranking member of the Aviation Subcommittee, and a supporter of autistic causes, in Washington, DC. There are some unanticipated comedic bits here, like Cohen’s seemingly superficial interest in learning anything about autism (note he’s not familiar with the term “masking”), or his immediate disdain for Fielder and his argument the moment that Nathan finishes his presentation. No follow-up questions, just a simple “good to see ya!” and a swift exit. We’ve known since the start of season 2 of The Rehearsal that, based on recent aviation news, Fielder’s methods were likely to be unsuccessful in eliciting change in the industry. What episode 5 supposes is that, perhaps there were other parts of the world where Fielder could more readily affect change.