The Rehearsal (2022) s01e05 Episode Script

Who is it?
- Hi!
- Hi, I'm here to see the doctor.
I'm Dr. Farts. Come and have a seat.
Put your head down,
you're ruining my doctor.
Dr. Fart, I'm really sick.
Do you think you could help me?
- Yes, I can help you with my farts.
- With your farts? How does that work?
It will make you still alive.
That makes sense.
The farts aren't working.
I still feel sick.
- Do you think it's cancer?
- Maybe, yeah.
- So, what should I do?
- Eat my poo, it'll make you feel better.
- Your poo?
- Yeah.
- You want me to eat your poo?
- Yeah. Eat the poo!
Eat it!
It's poo.
- Finish it. Eat it all.
- Okay.
It's crunchy.
- I think I'm cured.
- You always eat the poo.
That's it.
- What do you think?
- Yeah.
I think that was pretty disgusting.
- It was his concept.
- Was it?
- Yeah.
- Really?
- You don't believe me?
- No.
All right, where's Adam?
Is he under this chair? No.
Is he under this chair?
- There he is! There he is!
- No, no!
Ever since I turned Adam
back into a six-year-old,
I was determined to take
my duties as a father seriously.
I realized that neither me or Angela
would get anything out of this rehearsal
unless we were both
fully committed to it.
Good, good.
So, I decided there would be
no other rehearsals besides this one.
- I win!
- What?
- You win?
- Yes!
I was all in on my family.
"The Holy Spirit came down
from Heaven in the form of a dove
"and landed on Jesus."
"Then God said, 'This is my son.'"
Back when I first joined the family,
Angela had expressed
strong opinions about Adam's education.
I'm considering a faith-based
homeschooling curriculum.
- What do you think?
If we had, you know,
I was raised Jewish, and I still do
all of the holidays and stuff.
But because Angela
was so passionate about Christianity,
I thought I'd be open
to trying it her way.
"And 100 million stood to attend him.
His clothing was white as snow."
"His hair was like the whitest wool."
Yeah.
But when Adam was three,
my parents drove down
to visit from Vancouver, Canada.
So, I invited them over for a picnic.
So, we're trying
Doing our best so far.
- Experiencing the challenges.
- Okay.
I mean, there's definitely a lot
she's been very generous with,
like, she's very knowledgeable.
I feel like I get clarity and perspective
just from my relationship with God
and learning about God
and what His word says.
- John 1:1.
- John 1:1.
- Romans 8.
- Romans 8.
- Sorry?
- Romans 8.
Romans 8.
And after the meal, they cornered me.
I didn't realize
that you were raising the kid with her.
- Yeah, I am.
- Okay.
I kind of came into it after her.
- Yeah.
I think that
there's nothing wrong
with talking about the things
that you've grown up with,
the traditions you've grown up with
and the values that you've learned also.
At the time, I didn't really understand
why my parents seemed to care
how I raised
a fake child with a fake partner.
But it's kinda her.
this stuff, you know,
So, sometimes you feel
like it's just easier
to go along with things rather than
deal with the tension.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
But my mom's tone made me realize
they had seen this before.
My relationship with Angela
was starting to parallel real
relationships I had had in the past.
Can you go downstairs and make sure
the cookies are taken out of the oven?
- Yes.
- Thanks.
- Right now?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- Make sure to use an oven mitt.
I have a tendency
to let my partner take the reigns
and make the decisions
as a way of avoiding conflict.
- Two more minutes.
And by not asking Angela
to raise Adam with Judaism too,
I was falling into my old habits.
We love you. In Jesus' name. Amen.
- Amen.
- Amen.
But this could be an opportunity
to change those habits,
to practice getting what I wanted
without it turning into a fight.
So, I decided to wait until wintertime,
because I thought discussing
holiday plans
would be a good way
to ease into the conversation.
But it turns out winter
is very expensive to maintain.
So, I knew
I couldn't put it off much longer.
should we talk
about our holiday plans at all?
Yeah. Christmas is really important
to me and there's a lot I want to do,
so we should get started planning sooner
rather than later.
I was just wondering
or how you'd feel about incorporating
some Judaism into Adam's life too.
Okay.
I had flown out
one of my Fielder Method graduates
to help me better understand
this woman I was living with
and navigate
this sensitive conversation.
I just feel like this whole experience
was supposed to be about me,
and now all of a sudden it feels like
it's becoming about you.
But in a real relationship,
your partner might have
different feelings than you, right?
Yeah, but I know that they'd be Christian.
But people change their minds
all the time, right?
Were you always Christian?
Exactly.
There could be no flaws in my approach.
So I constructed an exact replica of our
entire home to get every detail right.
- Hello.
- Come on in.
- This is Angela.
- Hi, there.
- This is Adam.
- Hi.
Hi, Adam.
I had the actress pose
as a new nanny I had hired,
so she'd be able
to secretly observe Angela
and learn everything about her primary.
- Okay.
These are the teas she uses.
This is her handwriting. You see?
Do you find
that it's been healthy for you here?
Making my rehearsal as true as life.
Okay, well, now I feel like you're just
interested in winning an argument
and not actually having
a conversation with me.
- No, no. That's absurd. No, no.
This could be fun.
do different religions in a relationship.
- It's very common.
- Okay.
Sometimes, when you set
your mind on something,
it feels like you have tunnel vision.
And then I don't feel
I have the space to object.
Yeah, you're saying that we're talking,
but this is your project.
It's not like I really have a say.
Did you know that the term "fragrance"
a thousand manmade chemicals?
- Really?
But, yeah, sometimes I actually boil
a pot of like, cloves,
to, like, make the house smell good.
Cloves?
I thought you said clothes.
Smell of fresh clothes. Yeah.
So, obviously it's winter and the holidays
could there be
a path to doing Hanukkah too?
And maybe even beyond that,
- As a faith?
- As a faith, yeah.
I'm pretty much
Jesus is the way,
I'm not trying to get you
to compromise your beliefs.
get a little bit too and then
we do it all together.
We do both, you know,
however we need to.
I, unfortunately,
cannot participate in Judaism.
Because Judaism denies
that Christ came and died for us.
So, I can't deny that.
And I wouldn't raise a child to deny that.
'Cause it's the truth.
I wanted everything
to stay as calm as possible.
Why don't we talk about something else?
Okay.
What's your favorite movie?
I love the movie Apocalypto.
- Have you seen it?
- Yeah.
I think Mel Gibson makes
really good movies.
Yeah, it's a classic.
- Yeah. He's one of my favorite directors.
- Right, right.
I like his camera technique
where he floats.
But things quickly veered off course.
- He riffed it, so, I went with it.
- No.
- What do you mean, no?
- It's not appropriate.
- Do you know sketch comedy?
Yes, I know. I watchKey & Peele,
I know sketch comedy.
Okay. So, you have
to escalate the sketch, right?
- Let me tell you something.
- This is adult subject matter.
- Do you wanna finish the dishes?
- Sure.
- Okay.
Okay, you wanna take these?
Okay. Here, put the jacket on.
I signed him up for swimming lessons
so I'll see you later.
- Okay, awesome. Have a great time.
- Okay. Bye.
- Bye.
- Bye.
As much as we all love Mel Gibson
as a director,
he's not the director of this show.
And in this show, I get to decide
which religion gets featured.
- Jews?
- What?
Judaism, Jews.
What is that?
There you go.
Okay. This is a kippah.
And it's a special hat
that's for Jews only.
You don't get one of these
if you're Christian.
- So, are you Christian or Jew?
- Jew.
Jew. Okay, good.
There you go. So, you get one.
Pretty cool, huh?
I hadn't been to synagogue
in years because it's so boring.
- Shabbat shalom.
- Shabbat shalom.
But I couldn't help but feel excited
to reconnect with my faith
through the eyes of my son.
- Do Jews speak English?
- Yeah, I'm Jewish. I speak English.
But Adam had a lot of questions,
and I found myself unable
to provide him with clear answers.
- Why do the women not wear hats?
- I don't know, actually.
What are they saying?
So, I decided the next step
would be getting him a Jewish tutor,
since that's
what I would do in real life.
- I have a question.
- Yeah.
Was Jesus the first Jew?
Jesus? No, no.
The first Jew, his name was Abraham.
Hey.
Okay, lean your head over.
I also needed to make sure
that Adam had his story straight
if Angela asked him any questions.
So, each day before we got home,
I quizzed him about what happened.
So, what did do you learn
at swimming today?
I learned to do a backstroke.
Okay, so, you were looking up.
So, what color was the ceiling?
It was white.
- And was there a lifeguard at the pool?
- Yeah.
- And what was his name?
- His name was Bob.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- You're all wet.
- It was really fun.
And my teacher was Ukrainian
and he had a blue swimsuit.
Really?
- The lifeguard's whistle was red.
- Okay. Good.
Yeah, so, I think he should go
to his room maybe now.
- Okay.
- He's a little tired, maybe.
- Would he like a towel?
- Yeah, yeah. I should get him.
Just they get so wet
in the water, the kids.
For the first time in a while, it felt
like there was harmony in our home.
Okay, what do you want on there?
- I like that one.
- I want the spaceship one.
Okay, hang it up.
We were both able to get what we
wanted out of raising this child.
We're going to feed the chickens.
Okay. This way.
"Under King Antiochus,
many Jews were afraid for their lives."
"So, they were forced
to follow the King's orders."
"This group was called the Maccabees."
- Can you say "hanukkiah"? Let me hear.
- Hanukkiah.
That's right. Look how smart you are.
All right. Would it be okay
if we use the bathroom really quick?
- Yeah. Sure.
- Okay. Come on.
But when we started using
Is that a good temperature?
- What happened to you?
The shower accidentally turned on,
and then I slipped.
parenting Adam with,
she doesn't want him to be Jewish.
And so I'm kind of having
to do it in secret a little bit.
I gathered that from the questions
that he asked me.
You know, he asked me
"Did the Jews kill Jesus?"
I talked to her
about wanting to like compromise
and be like, well,
maybe we could do both?
And she thinks Judaism
is kind of an affront to Christianity.
- I wouldn't stand for that, man.
Miriam was making me feel
like a bad Jew.
For centuries and centuries, the Christian
people were terrified of the Jews
because their religion was older
and, you know, the real thing.
And that's why they tried to kill us
for so many thousands of years.
So, for me,
that wouldn't be okay, you know?
You have to stand up to that.
You're 38 years old.
- You're not a kid. You know?
- Yeah.
And I was realizing
that being a Jewish father
was more complicated than I thought.
I heard your part.
I want to hear
what she has to say about her stand.
You wanna talk to her?
I could bring in some of that knowledge
that I told you to study about.
Miriam wanted to talk to Angela
about how we were raising Adam.
And I thought
that could maybe be a good idea.
Do you need to rehearse at all?
I like to shoot from the hip.
Miriam knows more
about religion than me.
Maybe she could win her over.
- This is my friend Miriam.
- Hi, Miriam.
- Hi, nice to meet you, Angela.
- Nice to meet you. Pleasure.
So, you're very conflicted
about Judaism being part of Adam's life.
I wouldn't describe
the way that I'm feeling as conflicted.
I might use a different word.
- I'm just against it. As a faith.
- Okay.
Judaism denies
that Christ has returned yet.
What about the values of Judaism
and the values of Christianity?
- Do they conflict with each other too?
- Same values. Same values.
- Yeah, so what's the deal?
- Yes. Yes.
- What's the deal here?
- Yeah, what's the deal?
Why are you so persistent
about this one point?
Jesus Christ.
That's the deal. He is the deal.
- He is the chief cornerstone.
- You know what? Forget about it.
- Forget about it.
- Forget about what?
About all of it.
I don't do well with anti-Semites.
So, that's it.
I'm done with this.
You know?
I think that's the end of the discussion.
She's saying she's understanding,
I have no hate towards anyone.
I love Jesus Christ and I won't deny Him.
That's it.
And maybe one day you'll understand
that the world does not revolve
around Jesus Christ.
Nathan likes to start fights.
There was peace in the household
until he came with this.
Who does it look like likes
And he likes to manipulate people.
- What do you think?
It's hard for him to be honest.
You don't have to talk
about Jesus constantly.
Nathan has a problem with lying.
He lies a lot.
He does.
I found myself needing a place to go
from time to time, away from the house.
My replica bar set
had been sitting empty for months.
So, I recently obtained an Oregon State
special events liquor license
and built an 82-foot enclosed walkway
leading to the outside world.
For legal reasons, I couldn't use
the name Alligator Lounge,
but I came up with a new name
that was even cooler.
The sign was enough
to attract a few locals
who had no idea this bar
was actually just a set in a warehouse.
I figured since it was here,
I might as well use it.
And it was cool to own
my own bar that HBO paid for.
I'm the Nate
from Nate's Lizard Lounge. Yeah.
It was also a way of keeping
some of my acting students employed
in between roles.
I had been reviewing the footage from
the 16 cameras I'd installed in our home
because I was having
an increasingly difficult time
interpreting Angela's behavior.
We were having more disagreements,
which was a good challenge
for a rehearsal.
You ate feces.
- You ate the child's feces.
- Angela, it was a chocolate bar.
- I don't care.
But sometimes I couldn't tell
if we were arguing as co-parents
or if she was actually mad at me.
Are you aware that eating poo
is actually a satanic ritual?
Maybe you should make a list for me
of all the things that are satanic,
so that I know when I'm doing something,
how to avoid them.
I'm gonna bring home oranges from the
grocery store and you're gonna be like,
"That's satanic."
I had assumed she was just really
engaged with this parenting rehearsal.
But when I started reviewing
the footage from when I was out of town,
it painted a different story.
From the moment I left, Angela
had completely abandoned the notion
that she was rehearsing
for her future life as a mother.
Usually your other house
is in Vancouver?
No. My dad is in Vancouver for his job.
I live in Los Angeles.
- But your real name's Josh.
- Joshua, yeah.
- You live in LA?
- Yes.
- Awsome! So you came here for this?
- Yes.
There were no homeschool lessons,
no gardening,
and the fake orders
she was supposed to package up
to simulate the future success
of her home business ceased to go out,
leaving the fake mailman
with nothing to pick up.
All the effort I had put into
maintaining this delicate reality,
had gone out the window.
So, what was Angela
actually doing here?
I'm just so confused. You won't
let me have the experience I want.
if you're invested in this yourself.
I'm as invested as I can be.
But this is all sort of absurd, right?
Swapping out the kids
through the window,
aging them three years at a time.
It won't work if you don't try.
You have to want it to work.
Are you mad that I have been
caught up in my work
and haven't been prioritizing
What family life? You know
we're not your real family, right?
This is your work. All of this.
I was starting to lose track
of which version of myself
I was supposed to be
in these rehearsals.
But I wanted to know what Angela
was hoping to get from all this.
So, is this silly?
Or is it something
that I should take seriously?
It's silly and serious.
It's complicated.
Life can be more than one thing, right?
Why are you even here?
- What's the real reason? Honestly?
- Okay, well, why are you here?
Why are you doing this?
Are you really trying to help me?
Or am I the silly part
that you talk about? Is my life the joke?
Do you sit here with your friends
at the end of the day laughing at me?
No, you're not the joke.
Not at all.
No one's the joke. The situations
are funny, but interesting too.
Shut up.
Like, the opportunity to raise
Just shut up!
You're a liar.
Because if this were real,
you would have some sort of emotion
instead of standing there like a rock.
Do you want to feel something?
Do you want to feel something real?
Yeah.
That's sad.
You never will.
you never will.
Okay.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we can do that.
- That was really good.
- Okay.
- How're you doing?
- I'm doing very well, thank you.
- How are you?
- Good.
Good.
I was looking at some of the footage
from when I was away out of town.
I guess it seems like maybe
that when I'm not around,
that you don't care so much about
the reality of the experience,
yet when I'm here, you're very controlling
- Does that make sense?
- It definitely does.
I navigated through
a lot of situations that,
were difficult and uncertain,
and I wasn't given a lot of direction.
I could have been
a collaborator with you on this.
Angela, a collaborator?
This whole thing is you.
- This is your ideal house.
- I'm talking about psychological.
This is how you wanted
to raise the children. This is everything.
But I've never done this before.
- Yeah, and neither have I.
- No direction.
- Neither have I.
- No direction.
we're doing okay.
So, originally, I wanted the whole thing.
I wanted zero to eighteen.
- Yeah, we can still do that.
I don't see an end in sight.
I don't know when we're gonna get
to the 18-year-old. I don't know.
And I think it's a good time
to bring closure to it.
Yeah. I think it's a good time.
Okay.
to have been chosen for this.
in to tailor this to my experience.
down to the details. So, thank you.
- Thank you so much. It's very special.
- Yeah, thank you.
- You're welcome.
- Thank you.
Thank you for being a part of it.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, definitely.
- Okay.
I'll take my tea.
Thanks.
Thank you!
Thanks for this experience.
- Okay.
- I really appreciate it.
- Yeah.
- Daddy!
The woman who this rehearsal
was designed for was now gone.
So, what was this urge
inside of me to carry on?
Hey, buddy!
Can I talk to you about something?
What?
Your mommy's decided
to leave the family, okay?
- Why?
- I don't know.
But, hey!
It has nothing to do with you, okay?
- Yeah.
- You still got me, right?
Who am I?
Who am I?
Daddy.
Maybe doing this alone
is what I needed.
To sink or swim on my own terms.
It was time to stand up
for my own values.
And the values
of those who came before me.
We don't always get
to choose what happens in life,
but we do get to decide
if we rehearse for it.
- What?
- Yeah.
Congratulations, my dear!
What's gonna happen to Adam?
- I got Adam.
- You got Adam.
- Yeah, he sticks with me.
- She just left Adam behind?
- Yeah.
- Awesome.
- Yeah. Pretty good?
- Yes!
- Come on in.
- We're gonna make another Jew.
And hold it as we say the blessing.
Israel warned those civilians
that there was gonna be a bombing.
They had time
to get out if they wanted to.
So, the AP right away blamed Israel
for everything.
Media is biased for the Palestinians
against the Israelis.
- Okay.
- And that's how they present the news.
What's your opinion about Israel?
It's kind of a hot button issue
right now, isn't it?
- What?
- Israel.
You have a platform,
you should support Israel.
is supporting Israel.
Well, what do you think
about the Palestinian issue?
I mean it's tricky 'cause, you know,
I know there's a lot of people
You have a platform, you should talk
about how beautiful Israel is,
how important it is
in the whole Middle East.
- How we are a light to the nations.
- Yeah.
How in Israel was invented
all kinds of medical advances
that help all the people
of all the world,
and some of them don't even know
that they were invented there.
And then that, the Intel
and the microchips and the computers
and the medical advances
and all kinds of things,
that we are ohr la'goyim,
a light to the nations.
These doughnuts are delicious.
- In Hebrew, we call them sufganiyot.
- Sufganiyot, right.
They're not exactly sufganiyot
because the sufganiyot
are not sugar coated.
These are just jelly doughnuts.