‘The Rehearsal’ Season 2 Ending Explained: Does Nathan Fielder Really Have Autism?

The Rehearsal Season 2 started out as Nathan Fielder‘s quest to use his HBO resources to solve the serious problem of aviation disasters. In the end, the project might have actually changed how the Canadian comic thinks about himself.

In last week’s episode, Fielder wanted to find a cause that could make him look serious in the eyes of a congressman with oversight on aviation. When he realized that many neurodivergent people identify with him and the concept of The Rehearsal, Fields teams up with CARD (Center for Autism & Related Disorders) in the hopes that it will give him the legitimacy needed to book a meeting with a real politician. However, during his meeting with CARD’s Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh, Fielder seemingly struggles with a test designed to assess autism.

We don’t know how much of this is an act and how much of this is Fielder documenting his truth. The Rehearsal Season 2 finale goes deeper into this mystery in a fitting way.

**Spoilers for The Rehearsal Season 2 Episode 6, now streaming on MAX**

The Rehearsal Season 2 opens with the absurd reveal that Nathan Fielder has been secretly training to be a pilot for years. The grand finale of this season — and this experiment — is for Fielder to implement his theories in practice. Fielder and an Alaskan Airlines co-pilot named Aaron will fly a 737 full of hired actors from The Rehearsal. (Fielder, per usual, has found and taken advantage of all the legal loopholes that should otherwise prevent him from flying a commercial aircraft.)

However, there’s one part of his accreditation as a pilot that has Fielder stuck. In order to fly, pilots have to fill out a health form. If they have any sort of “mental health” issue, be it depression, anxiety, or neurodivergence, they are banned from flying. Lying on this form is illegal, but it happens. Fielder shows us reddit threads where pilots discuss the reasons they would never disclose an autism diagnosis, as it would ground them.

Fielder goes to a doctor and undergoes an FMRI, which would be able to pinpoint the neural activity associated with anxiety, depression, or even autism. However, he’s got a tight timeline to pull his wild flight off. His results haven’t come in, so he operates on what he knows. He says he doesn’t have any mental health issues that would impede his ability to pilot.

Fielder and Aaron eventually pull off their wild flight, bringing the passengers home safe and sound. A post-script reveals that Fielder has continued to fly planes in his spare time. He even works with a company that moves aircraft all over the world. He circles back to his FMRI diagnosis. He knows what it says, but pointedly doesn’t reveal it to us. Instead, he just assures us that he’s “okay.”

So does Nathan Fielder have autism? Here’s what the ending of The Rehearsal Season 2 means…

Photo: HBO

The Rehearsal Season 2 Ending Explained: Does Nathan Fielder Have Autism?

The Rehearsal Season 2 Episode 5 naturally set off a debate about how much Fielder was acting vs. really reacting to Dr. Granpeeshah’s autism test. Fielder only fuels this discourse by taking a definitive medical test, but not revealing the outcome.

There are, as we see it, two options here.

If Fielder does have autism, he may not want to disclose that for a variety of personal reasons. His discomfort with being considered neurodivergent in Episode 5 might be real. Moreover, he seems to have a real passion for aviation. Confirming his autism diagnosis on an HBO show would undoubtedly ground him for the rest of his life. Clearly it doesn’t actually affect his ability to fly, so it’s fine. He is, as he tells us, “okay.”

The other option is that Fielder’s onscreen persona is obviously an act. (I mean, all onscreen personas are acts, when you think about it.) He may not want to drop the mask and reveal his true self. He might also not want the autistic community to feel exploited by his comedy. He might just want separation between his life and his art. If this is true, he is “okay” and can fly because there are no medical concerns. The entire narrative of The Rehearsal was a fiction.

My personal take is that Fielder loves to play with our grasp on reality. He likes to use comedy to question our own assumptions about the world we live in. Whether he has autism or not, is really not the point. (And it’s kind of not our business?) What’s important is that Fielder explored what it means to have your work unwittingly resound with the autistic community. He gave autistic children an opportunity to use “Nathan’s Airport” to rehearse real life airport experiences. He explored the vital importance of open communication. He highlighted reasons why some people struggle to connect with others and why others maybe don’t. He produced another profound season of comedy television that somehow made me laugh as hard as it made me think.

All we need to know is Nathan Fielder is okay.