<em>The Rehearsal</em> Season 2 Finale: Did Nathan Fielder Really Fly a Boeing 737?

Let’s cut to the chase. There’s no way that Nathan Fielder really flew a Boeing 737 in The Rehearsal season 2 finale, right?! I know I watched him become a certified pilot, attend training courses, and even land a commercial airplane full of actors, but did The Rehearsal trick me somehow? Fielder’s HBO comedy, of course, loves to create fake scenarios that look realistic. We’ve seen him recreate an entire airport, hire extensive body-doubles, and even play out the fantasy of a fake family. Isn’t it possible that Nathan tricked us all?

Well, I’m here to tell you that, as far as we know, Fielder really flew a 737 in the season 2 finale. His goal in season 2, in part, was to use aviation safety to tell a story about humanity’s issues with communication at large. And even though he couldn’t convince Congress to enact any real change in the cockpit to prevent future crashes, he perfectly encapsulated his point by flying a real plane himself to demonstrate that open communication is safer—even for a first-time flyer. Plus, he really landed that damn plane.

After finding Fielder in the FAA database, fans on Reddit tracked down a record of Fielder’s flight—which reportedly took place on February 16, 2025. In fact, the 737 belonging to Avelo Airlines circled San Bernardino three times. The records showed that the first flight also belonged to Nomadic Airlines, which is the same company that Fielder reveals he now works for occasionally to move empty 737s around the world.

And if you don’t believe Reddit, hear it from the man himself:

"It became my primary focus for a while in the early stages of making the show,” Fielder told Vulture after the season 2 finale. “But it was hard because we’d be going and doing other shoots and then I’d be going and doing training. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”

Fielder also commented about fans finding his FAA registry, adding, “I knew the FAA registry was public, so I was like, Well, if I do this, I know people might look into this.” But what else could he do other than hope no one spoiled it? “The show doesn’t live or die based on things being out there in the world or not,” he replied.

At the end of the season 2 finale, Fielder reveals to fans that he still works for Nomadic Airlines from time to time, but that he doesn’t see himself making a full-time gig out of flying. Still, he’s glad that he learned how to fly so that he could better connect with the pilots and the issues that he covered in season 2.

“There’s something that I started to realize… when I was doing it, where it’s like, Wow, this is just time where you are not flying with another person, you’re not learning the skills of interaction, and then suddenly you’re put in an airline plane with passengers and you have to communicate,” Fielder told Vulture about learning how to fly a plane. “That’s another aspect of the way pilots are trained, where the socialization aspect of it is not forefront in that. The building hours all alone is actually, potentially, working against the communication part of flying. It’s like if you sat in your room for several years and then you had to go on a date—how’s that date going to go right away?”

“And the sim is close, but it’s not exact, I’ll tell you that,” he continued. “The sim cannot capture the feeling of If anything goes wrong, I’m going to die.”

The only way for Fielder to learn everything that goes on behind the scenes was to live it out himself—including the life of Sully Sullenberger. But you already know that story.