Nathan Fielder spent an entire season of television trying to out-maneuver the chaos of real life, but by the time we got to The Rehearsal Episode 6, the walls didn't just close in—they basically dissolved. It’s titled "Pretend," which is funny because it’s the most honest hour of TV I’ve seen in years. If you’ve been following the show, you know it started with a guy trying to help a man confess a lie about his master's degree. Simple enough, right? Wrong. By the finale, Nathan is deep in the woods of rural Oregon, raising a rotating cast of child actors and wondering if he’s actually ruined a real kid’s life.
It’s uncomfortable. Like, genuinely hard to watch at points.
What actually went down in the finale
The core of The Rehearsal Episode 6 centers on Remy, one of the child actors playing Nathan’s son, Adam. This is where the "experiment" stops being a quirky HBO comedy and starts feeling like a psychological case study. Remy is a six-year-old boy who doesn’t have a father in his real life. He spends weeks on a set where Nathan Fielder is "Daddy." When the cameras stop rolling and the contract ends, Remy doesn't want to leave. He’s confused. He thinks Nathan is actually his father.
Nathan tries to fix it. That’s his whole thing. He thinks if he can just "rehearse" the explanation, he can mitigate the emotional damage he’s caused. He brings Remy back to the house—now stripped of its set dressing—to explain that he’s just an actor. He even shows Remy the different "Adams" (the other child actors) to prove it's all a game. But Remy just looks at him and says, "I don't want you to be Nathan. I want you to be Daddy." It’s a gut-punch.
Nathan's reaction is to spiral into a meta-rehearsal. He hires another child actor to play Remy, so he can practice being the "Nathan" who has to explain to the "Remy" why they aren't family. He even goes so far as to play the mother's role himself to see the situation from her perspective. It’s layers upon layers of artifice used to hunt for a single shred of genuine human connection.
The shifting perspective of "Adam"
The show used a loophole in Oregon labor laws to film 24/7 by swapping kids every few hours. This meant "Adam" aged from a toddler to a teenager in the span of a few weeks. By the finale, the "teen" Adam (played by an actor named Liam) is long gone, and we’re back to the younger versions.
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The brilliance of The Rehearsal Episode 6 lies in how it handles the fallout of the Amber and Remy situation. Nathan’s co-parent, Angela, is gone. She left because Nathan's obsession with "the process" became too much, and because she felt her religious values were being mocked. Without her, Nathan is a "single parent" in a house that is literally a replica of a real home. He’s playing house in a vacuum.
Most people watch this and wonder: is this ethical? Honestly, the show wants you to ask that. It’s not a mistake that the episode feels exploitative. Nathan is showing us the cost of total control. He wanted to perfect life, but life is mostly the stuff you can’t control—like a kid’s feelings.
The Rehearsal Episode 6 and the "Nathan" persona
Is the Nathan we see on screen the "real" Nathan? Probably not entirely. But in The Rehearsal Episode 6, the mask slips more than ever. Throughout the series, he’s been this robotic, calculated figure. But when he sits on the floor with Remy, trying to explain that he’s not his dad, he looks genuinely terrified.
He realizes that by trying to prepare for every possible outcome, he created an outcome he never saw coming: real love from a stranger’s child.
He tries to "re-do" the scene. He plays the mom. He has a child actor play him. He's trying to find the "correct" way to be a person. It’s a loop. A cycle. It's also why the ending of the episode—and the season—is so polarizing. Nathan stands in the replica house, looking at the "fake" child, and says, "I'm your dad." He chooses the lie. Or maybe he’s finally admitting that for him, the rehearsal is his life.
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Why the ending still sparks debate
- The Ethics of Child Acting: Many viewers felt the use of Remy was a bridge too far. The show documented a child’s real confusion for entertainment.
- The Meta-Narrative: Some argue the whole thing was scripted from the start, including Remy's reaction. But the emotion on the mother's face suggests otherwise.
- The "Nathan" Character: Is Nathan Fielder a genius or a villain? The finale suggests he might be both, or neither—just a guy who is profoundly lonely.
Breaking down the "Pretend" logic
In The Rehearsal Episode 6, the concept of "The Fielder Method" comes full circle. Remember the acting class episode? Nathan taught students to inhabit the lives of others by stalking them (basically). In the finale, he becomes the ultimate student of his own method. He inhabits the life of a father so thoroughly that he forgets it was supposed to be a lesson for someone else.
He actually mentions at one point that the "rehearsal" was supposed to be for Angela, but she's gone. He’s just doing it for himself now. He’s paying for a life because he doesn’t know how to live a real one. It’s a staggering admission of social dysfunction.
If you look closely at the set design in this episode, the house looks more lived-in than it did at the start. There are toys everywhere. There’s mess. It’s as if the "fake" world became more real as the "real" world (the production) became more chaotic.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Creators
If you're a fan of the show or a creator looking at how Fielder pulls this off, there are a few things to take away from the finale. It’s not just about the "cringe" factor; it’s about the architecture of storytelling.
1. Lean into the Uncomfortable
Most shows would have cut away when Remy started crying for his "daddy." Fielder stayed. If you're creating content, the moments where you feel like you should stop are often where the most truth lives.
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2. Acknowledge Your Own Influence
Nathan doesn't pretend he’s a fly on the wall. He acknowledges that his presence, his money, and his cameras change the environment. In The Rehearsal Episode 6, the show is about the show. This transparency builds a weird kind of trust with the audience, even when the creator is being "deceptive."
3. The Power of the "Re-Do"
The finale teaches us that you can practice a conversation 1,000 times, but the 1,001st time—when it's real—will still surprise you. Preparation is a shield, but sometimes the shield is what's keeping you from actually connecting with people.
What to watch next
If you finished The Rehearsal Episode 6 and feel like your brain is melting, you aren't alone. You should probably go back and watch Nathan for You, specifically the "Finding Frances" finale. It's the spiritual predecessor to this episode. It deals with the same themes: old age, lost love, and the blurred lines between performance and reality.
Also, look into the work of Errol Morris, particularly The Thin Blue Line. Fielder uses a lot of the same cinematic language—slow-motion recreations, dramatic lighting—to interrogate the nature of truth.
The Rehearsal Episode 6 didn't give us a clean ending because there isn't one. Nathan is still in that house, in a way. We’re all still in our own rehearsals, trying to figure out what to say before the "real" moment happens, not realizing that the rehearsal was the moment all along.
To dive deeper into the production side, check out interviews with the show's crew regarding the construction of the "Alligator" bar and the Oregon house. The technical effort to create a 1:1 replica of reality is just as insane as the psychological experiment itself. Understanding the sheer scale of the set helps explain why the actors—and Nathan—eventually lost their grip on what was fake.