The Prestige TV Podcast - The Rehearsal’ Season 2, Episode 3: Favorite Episode of TV Ever?

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

Charles Holmes and Jodi Walker kick off the episode with a bold question: Is this their favorite television episode ever (:56)? Plus, the ethics of cloning dogs (5:19), Nathan becomes Sully Sullenberger (20:17), and is this season a culmination for the comedian (33:21)? Finally, the episode's epic needle drops (36:22), and a dip into the listener mailbag (52:57). Email us! [e-mail] Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of ‘The Prestige TV Podcast’ and so much more! Hosts: Charles Holmes and Jodi Walker Producers: Kai Grady and Donnie Beacham Jr. Video Supervision: Chris Thomas Additional Production Support: Justin Sayles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Prestige TV podcast, the only recap show where we promise to bring you back to life. I'm Charles Holmes of the Midnight Boys. Pee-boo! She's Jody Walker. We're obsessed. And we're back to discuss Pilots Code, the third episode of rehearsal season two. Jody, how are you doing? How are you feeling this week?

You know, Charles, it really is not about having what you want. It is about wanting what you've got. And it was a really hard call for me between Cheryl Crow and Evanescence just there. I was so close to screaming. I am a... Wake me up! I am an evanescence little boy. I love that.

It's amazing. So, this episode, do we do... Maybe we cut the banter up top, and we should get into this, because I will just say it up top, spoiler alert. This is one of my favorite TV episodes that Nathan Fielder has ever been a part of. This is one of my favorite TV episodes, period. I'm vibrating.

I just watched it like an hour or two ago. Jody, how are you feeling? I think episode three, we are so back and we were never, it was never over. It was never over. We never left, but here we are so, so back. We were just grinning at each other

before we started recording about what a kick we got out of this episode. I felt like the response that a lot of fans had a slightly stronger response to last week's episode than I did or perhaps we did. I definitely thought it was great. I think clearly people were quite taken away by the Paramount Plus Germany scenes, which were so funny. And then came like into strangely into the world that we live in even more through like some news items. And I loved all that stuff.

I really did. But like I guess I do think there was something in me that was just waiting for this episode, which was so funny. Like I love the serious ones that make you think too. Or like I really classified last week as like the peak of absurdist comedy. And to me this felt like the peak of satire, which a lot of times I think with the Nathan Fielder and especially with the rehearsal, you don't always get to lean as far into the satire because you have to keep that part of your mind alive that's like, this is real or a lot of it's real or some.

But in this episode, I guess at the point as the. which Nathan Fielder puts on a bald cap and dresses as a baby Sully Sullenberger, you get to just kind of like throw your hands up in the air and be like, okay, Nathan Fielder is acting. We get to know that, enjoy it. And then of course, halfway through that part of the episode, he reminds you that this is not a performance for the audience. This is for him to experience the life of Sully Sullenberger as a part of science. but still, like just getting, I think I laughed harder at this episode of the rehearsal than maybe any other. Oh, I totally agree.

I think it was when he puts on the ball cap and I'm just like, please don't say it's a baby. Please don't say it's a baby. And then they reveal it all. I had to, like, I just kept laughing and I couldn't stop. And I think that is the perfect way to segue. Let's break down the episode before we get too far because a lot happens. Pilots Code, directed by Nathan Fielder, written by Fielder, Kerry Kemper, Adam Logg Norton, and Eric Nauter Nicola. Nathan devotes four months to helping a couple named Oneek and Bogdan train their clone dog Zeus to act more like their original dog Achilles,

by building an elaborate rehearsal space that mimics the OG dog's upbringing. After making a small breakthrough with Zeus, Nathan decides to try the experiment on himself by living as pilot Sully Sullenberg. Sully was the head pilot of U.S. Airways Flight 1549, which was successfully landed in the Hudson after the plane was hit by a flock of birds. Nathan uses Sully's book to recreate his life from birth to late adulthood. And similar to Zeus, Nathan, as Sully has a series of breakthroughs, helped along by an iPad and a little band known as Evanescence. We've already got some of our instant reactions out. the way I want to start is Monique

Bogden how are you feeling because I think similar to this season I was like wait how does this connect to pilots so like when you're introduced to them and the clone dogs how are you feeling

Jody okay first of all I would like to rewind slightly and say that all of the words that you just said are the most ridiculous words you've ever said in describing that episode I mean the straight face with which you just talked about the cloned dogs, which actually are real.

Like, that part's naughty. I mean, that's just, that's just pure Monique and Bogdan and their, and their cloned dogs. When Nathan says, I've never kissed a clone before, I'm just like, you're, what's wrong with you? How does he do it? But also, I think I am talking about the clone dog. Like, it's the most normal part of the episode. Because it is the most normal part of the episode. And that's what kind of makes this so brilliant, because I was.

like, wait, there's a kid, because they keep revealing. They're like, they're all, it's what, Zeus, Pisces and I forget the third one's name. These, another Greek, it was like, it is Zeus Apollo Pisces. The, to clone a dog costs $50,000. And I just was like, like I am with every single rehearsal guest. How did you find these people? What is going on? I am so confused.

Like what like how did you feel about our new couple? Oh, I will see they, what they were doing was so wild, but they seemed so normal. Like they were a sweet couple just working through things. Like she clearly got a lot of joy out of the cloning of dogs. And then he got a lot of joy out of her getting joy. It was just they seemed so normal. And I liked the mentions of, you know, they're in a better like place of economic security now. So it's, those things were mentioned because they create the different home environment for the clone dogs that could be affecting their behavior.

But it was like, yeah, they're, they've made more money. They're further along in their lives now. And what are they going to do? Spend $150,000 on cloning dogs. Or I guess they got all three for one. I actually don't know the economic breakdown of the clone dogs. Wait, do you, wait, so you think that it was like a three for one deal. It's like you pay the $50,000.

Kind of like an IVF situation. Like, you know, yeah, you're a little. more likely maybe to get three dogs. I don't know. I don't know. We didn't get, well, to me, they were also small. They all looked the same size, but then they ultimately chose Zeus, who they described as more of a puppy, like a young dog, so that they could affect him.

So I don't know if that meant the other two dogs were older, in which case that is kind of a dark, an even darker take on like they just keep trying to clone this dog. Also, Zeus was kept by Nathan Fielder Corporation for four months, I think. So were they like picking the dog where they're like, we will miss you the least, even though genetically you are all the same? Oh, they had very strong. Monique had very strong opinions about the dogs you could tell. She was like, none of these dogs are Apollo. And is Apollo the first one? No, Achilles is the first one. Apollo is one of the clones. Also, what's with the naming conventions? What are we doing? That's actually my next question for you, Jody. If you were to clone a dog, what naming conventions? Are you going with like Alvin Simon Theodore?

Are you naming them after the Scooby Gang? Like where are you going? The Spice Girls? Your mind went there so fast. You're ready with so many different ideas. No, I think I'd name them like creepy human names just to freak everybody out even more. What's a creepy human name?

Like when you name a dog, Kevin? Oh, yeah. Kevin or like Emily. Like Kevin and Emily are like fine names, but I'm like, this is more of like a, a human, like, give it more of a, like a puppy sounding name. I think I'd do it to throw people off the scent that these dogs are cloned. But to answer your original question, I mean, my first reaction to the, to the, this episode

was perfect. I did find that there were occasions and this is great. This makes me feel great where it was like, I was getting to where we were going just ahead of it, you know, like 10 seconds ahead, maybe occasionally a couple scenes ahead. And I think that's a person. thing to do mid-season. Like, we don't get a lot of that with the rehearsal or Nathan Fielder, like, kind of knowing what's coming next.

But with the dog stuff, it was like, oh, of course we're doing clones. And I, you know, it makes perfect sense. We're doing the rehearsal. We've already very much been dabbling in clones. Now we're dabbling sort of in like the scientific aspect of clones. Like we might actually start cloning things. But I did also notice a lot within this episode, you know, Nathan Fielder and his writers have such a mastery over the exact language in the most efficient way possible that will make something the funniest one sentence possible. And that was certainly on display here.

But I kept noticing things sounding stupid. Like the way, I mean, I think even the opening line of the episode is I'd been really trying to take the human. mind really seriously. Yes. He's not using really on accident twice there. Like that is very purposeful and the very dumb way with which he was talking about science as we tread further and further out of the depths of kind of what Nathan should do, but maybe what he could do.

I mean, he was literally just saying like science stuff. He was like, apparently this is an actual. science thing that can be done, a science thing. I guess sort of known as an experiment. I don't know. So, you know, my first thought was like, oh, of course we're doing clones. Nathan's going to try to clone something. But in fact, that's not what happened. It just got weirder and weirder and further away from science stuff. I mean, even the thing that I found both funny and heartwarming is that Nathan has this ability to... Basically, I felt bad laughing at the couple

when basically the actors and Monique are having a fake diabetic attack and they're like waiting for Zeus to care and the camera zooms in on the dog taking a shit in the recreated house that they used to have. And I'm like, this is so mean-spirited. But then when Moly,

Neke finally sees the video of Zeus running on the top of the couch. Like, her old dog used to, Achilles, and she's like tearing up. And her husband Bogdan is just like rubbing her back and they're both so happy. And I'm like, it gives you that weird reality show feeling of like when they reveal the new house. I was just like, why is this woman getting so emotional about this little dog running across the top of the couch? You know, Charles, I've been really trying to take the human mind really seriously. And what I'll tell you is, no, I, you know, Charles, you put on a, you put on a good front here on the Ringer podcast network as a real tough, tough guy critic. I can tell, and I know this, of course, in real life, you can tell your sweetheart nature by how dark, dark sided you think some of this stuff is that absolutely doesn't.

not affect me. Like, I didn't think that at all. I don't know. I just, I think, you know, it might be a numbing to the human condition from reality TV or maybe it's an open-mindedness to knowing how things might come around because like even the part you're referencing the fake diabetic attack and hoping that the dog will help her and he doesn't. Ultimately, that comes around by the end of this episode to be Nathan saying that it doesn't mean you're a failure just because you can't get a to react to a diabetic attack after four straight months of trying. It's okay to admit you can't do everything. Jody, are you saying that you're the real hater?

That I'm a soft, honestly, it's probably because I don't watch that much reality TV. So any single time I do watch reality TV. I'm always like, why is everybody so mean? Why are people like, why are the producers treating them like this? They're humans and you're just kind of just like, oh, yeah, give me more. Yeah, I'm both kind of dead inside and open to the great hopefulness of human growth and the potential for growth. All right, Nathan Fielder. That's, yeah, that's the deal, right?

So I really liked Monique and Bogdan and their complete sincerity for the project. Like, they're not embarrassed that they've cloned all these dogs. and they're further seemingly not embarrassed that they are disappointed by the cloning of the dogs. And so they are open to more science stuff, which is hopefully cloning the personality of a dog in the body of a clone dog. Like, you know, what is that if not sweet? The complete lack of shame with which these participants often approach life, I think, is very admirable. And so there's something about that, I guess, that keeps, but I know that people struggle with this with the show. And I think I liked this episode coming when it did because there's been this kind of, I mean, there always has been with Nathan Fielder stuff, but especially last week with the Wings of Love stuff.

No, Wings of Voice. Based on the Wings of Voice competition show, which, you know, you can go on Reddit. and find people talking about going on this weird competition show at the time that it actually happened. It is real. And also with like a character like Jeff from last week who is just so unbelievable, I do feel us slipping into the sort of white lotusification of the rehearsal where it's like, I got to crack it. I got to know what's real and I got to know what's acting and there's no way Jeff is real or

there's no or or you know these people are coached or whatever i find it pretty easy to just lean into some of it's real a lot of it's real of course it is scripted it is structured and ordered to be like this by very smart writers and i'm really happy with the final product i mean not only am happy about the final product i almost feel like with each successive thing we get from fielder were almost getting a more mature or more considered piece of art inside of the satire inside of the absurdity because there are moments in this season where Nathan locates something about his subject where he locates that Monique and Bogden at the time that they had Achilles there was this tension about her wanting to have kids and him not being ready to have

them and then the actors who are playing them are role playing it and and it's like cringe, but they flash back to Monique actually saying all of these things. And I'm just like, that was, I'm not as dead as inside as you. So I was a little bit like, oh, my God. Did you get a little misty? Did you get a little bit like, oh, my God, this is why she keeps clothing the dog.

That was her first child. And when it ends in this heartwarming place, I'm like, there just is this tinge of maybe Nathan being softer, like growing a little bit softer and more. even where he ends this episode, we're going to get into like the big, the bigness of sully and everything that comes after it. He keeps ending these episodes in a way where I'm just like,

it's not all acid. And I used to feel like he was a little bit more acidic. I think there's a lot of room to roll around in the rehearsal that there was not necessarily that room, you know, in Nathan for you, which is a different construct. And I think the thing that keeps me from feeling like, oh, this is, this is like hard to watch or dark with, for example, Monique and Bogdan, is that in time,

and honestly, in a very short, efficient amount of time, I do think you get to see them as real whole people. Yeah. And not as caricatures of themselves. Like you said, you know, just getting like that very small moment of her vulnerable, vulnerably saying, I wanted to have kids. He wasn't ready. I knew I needed to wait for him to be ready because I didn't want to do this by myself, but I did want a dog.

Like I knew that I could, I knew that I could sort of satiate this feeling with the dog. And it, and it seems like she really did. And of course, we don't know every single thing about them. And then there are other characters like, say, Jeff, who from last week and a little bit from this week who are maybe not portrayed in their entirety, but the bit that you get is enough to make you say, okay, maybe you don't have to see all sides of all people. Maybe this is, maybe this can be a character. Now that, now that you brought up Jeff, Jeff makes a brief, a brief appearance in this episode. And I want, we finally realize why he was, uh, kicked off all the

apps, rightfully so. Did Jeff make Nathan? I want to be very clear. That is not the only reason that Jeff was kicked off all the apps. That's what he thinks the reason is. That is the closest he can get to imagining is having something in his bio. No. This absolutely, absolutely not.

There was so, there is so much more happening. I just, I want to say that. No, you think that is fair? I'm glad you've reiterated that. This episode is brought to you by Borris Head. What if we told you the taste of deep fried turkey is now available at your local deli? Well, Borishead just did that. Bursting with flavor, perfectly seasoned with that indulgent taste that usually means

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And this summer, Prime originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book-to-screen favorites you've already read twice. Off-campus, L. Every year after, The Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. one of my one of the funniest things Nathan has ever done was there was an

episode where famously Nathan breaks on Nathan for you when he's talking to the uh to like the grandpa who's talking about like drinking his grandson's pee and you can like see like Nathan being like wait what and there's a moment in this where I'm like I think Jeff made Nathan break because he's like

wait what what did you just say and I was just like oh no like it's an amazing thing to just like not putting the second episode to just drop very quickly in the third. I'm like, once again, you brought up a great point last episode where reality show is heavily, heavily produced. The producers are the true magicians of it. And that was a really quick moment where I'm like, this wouldn't have hit hard as hard in episode two, but in episode three, just revealing a little bit more of who Jeff is

as a person and then the end of the episode revealing that maybe the backbone and we can maybe transition into Sully of this season seems to be like Nathan realizing that pilots do not have as many outlets as you might think to be their true selves to speak honestly about what they're going through and almost maybe him using Jeff as a stand in to be like, Like, how does this person get to be this person? Well, and that like the extreme of Jeff, compared to all those pilots that we see at the end who seem, you know, in that moment at least with whoever's interviewing them, vulnerable, forthcoming, capable of considering what might have gotten them kicked off of five different dating apps. Like, we're seeing a spectrum of different people. And at least being told by what Nathan is discovering with science stuff, that they're all

experiencing the same thing, that there aren't enough outlets for them because of the way that this occupation has been sort of constructed, or at least that's how they feel and that there is some part of this career path and this occupation that encourages compartmentalizing to maybe an unhealthy degree. And that that encouragement of compartmentalizing, which probably benefits you a lot in certain flight situations, in very specific flight situations also could cause great harm. And that and that that can happen to Jeff and that maybe that could even happen to Meredith from last week. Like that that is allegedly sort of part of the of the makeup of a pilot is yeah, something that Nathan has come.

to the conclusion at at some point and has decided to roll out to us in this episode of the rehearsal via dog cloning quick pivot to uncanny valley Sully Sullenberg. The, because you were talking about kind of being a little bit ahead maybe in this episode of knowing where it was going when you were watching this. When was the moment you realized the like when we see the book of. Sully and we realize that Nathan is going to do something. When did you realize I'm like, oh, he's going full goof mode. He's finally doing the thing. So I would say the thing I realized even earlier was that at some point in the dog cloning, when Nathan says something about this

will tie back to pilots, basically, I was like, he's going to clone Sully. Before the book had come before anything. We all know there's one great pilot. Like there is a famous pilot who navigated what would have been a mass casualty event. I didn't know about any of the communication in the cockpit. I did not know about his connection to the original V1 iPod. Didn't know any of that, but I know Captain Sully. And so even before it had been mentioned, I was like, we're doing cloning for Sully.

Sully's coming. I briefly believed that that he was going to get Captain Sully. I mean, I don't know. That seemed within the realm of possibility that like that something was going to, I, I don't think that I. No, I didn't catch on until he put the bald cap on because I have in my notes, why is Nathan shaving his chest? I was not there yet. When he started, when he started shaving himself and putting on the ball cap, I'm like,

oh, is he going to be an old man? And then when he was like, he was a baby, I was like, oh, no. And then when you see how large the room is and what I would just describe as a huge marionette of a mother figure that is so creepy and cursed, I was just like, I am buckled into everything that happens when they basically, lift him up in the air to put him in the crib and then at the changing station and then when he takes a shit

and it culminates in what might be the funniest thing I've seen all year and might be the funniest thing I've seen in a lifetime is Nathan Fielder breastfeeding from a fake from a fake puppy I was like what the fuck is happening right now? I found a new way to laugh

I experienced a laugh. I had never heard come out of my body while watching Nathan Fielder be waterboarded by the breast milk of an I'm going to say 18 to 20 foot tall mom puppet. Because I will say a lot of times when I'm watching the rehearsal, I'm like, I'm doing that thing where I'm like, this is so funny. Like in my head, I'm thinking this is so funny and I'm not laughing. It is funny. I'm not laughing. I was losing it. hysterical.

At the waterboarding, the breast milk boarding scene. Because, and I mean, part of it is the physical comedy of him just like spitting out. They're like, totally choking on this milk.

It's a fake breast. And it's like, you have to think about when they were in the writer's room being like, all right, it's going to be this huge fucking puppet. It's going to be a fake breast.

We're going to have Nathan as a big breast. baby who's incredibly small in this fake in this fake puppet's hands. And then we need to make sure that the breast milk is coming out like a hose. So we can sell the fact that to your point, he's being waterboarded by breast. I'm like for this to land, they had to keep upping the ante to the point where you're just like, what am I witnessing right now? And like the part that makes me like choke with laughter is in while he is choking is obviously the physical.

comedy of it is very funny and like I don't know you could see such things happening on jackass back in the day like maybe they would have found themselves in such an occasion to be doing something like this but then it's like you're saying when you're thinking of you do even in that quick moment find yourself thinking or myself thinking what was happening in the writer's room to make this happen like how is this happening how did he think about this and then and then the further edge of in that moment you're watching nate. Nathan Fielder. Like you are, and yet, you're watching Nathan Fielder written by Nathan Fielder. You're watching an actor physically choke on milk. And he's written for himself to do that.

He's chosen to do it. And even if he wants to stop, he can't stop. He's like, there, there were just so many layers to what was happening there with the top most obvious layer just being like the most ridiculous thing possible. I mean, not only that, it's in the first. season of the rehearsal, I feel like it was more reality-based in terms of like the recreations, the amazing things that he would do is like, okay, I'm going to show you how many child actors I can get. I'm going to show you that I can completely recreate this bar, this room, this apartment. And now he's taking it one step further where he's like, I'm recreating what I think this Texas man's upbringing was like.

And it's not like he's just hiring old people to play the mother and father. He's making them super huge. I found it so funny. It's just a little thing when his mother, his fake mother is closing the door. She has like these weird appendage. And she's struggling. And to your point, you're thinking of the writer's room. I was like, how do you get to the, no, we need to make Nathan look life size accurate.

So we need everybody to be on stilts. and have fake hands and also his little sister is going to have the creepiest mask possible. There's just so many layers. I mean, even this is not even part of this. When they recreated what it was like to live in San Francisco in, like around like the San Jose air, pumped the San Jose air. Pumping the dog.

It took it 300 miles to L.A. Did you notice the, I was like, you got like, they put the Jared from Subway. Oh, yeah. Poster on. on the bus as the two fake San Francisco tech pros are just like, oh damn, Steve Jobs died. Oh, yeah, too bad about Steve Jobs, huh? I was like, oh, this is such a written show.

Like, you can tell in its construction, not only from a structural standpoint, but the punchlines, I don't know if I felt that as much in season one. And I love it in season two where I'm just like, oh, this is really tight and well-built. Well, on a level of science stuff, we are sort of dealing with a day. different thing. In season one, Nathan was introducing this idea of rehearsals. If you rehearse something enough, then you can get it right. You can predict every outcome and you can make it go the way that is what you deem the best. And just through very intense rehearsing and then obviously the humor comes in with the wild sets and the way you do everything perfectly and the actors and

the Nathan Fielder method and everything. This actually is different. This is replication. This is cloning. It's not rehearsing. It is attempting to break new ground. It's not anticipating something that you can practice enough times to get it right. It is attempting discovery.

It is trying to see what you can do with a clone dog. Can you affect nurture in the same way that you, affect nature and then can you backtrack it and understand how a pilot was nurtured into the excellent pilot who would listen to their first officer by replicating their upbringing with giant puppets and actors on stilts and masturbating in cockpits with a robot next to you. Wait, can we talk about Robot Carol? Because that was the moment where I was just like, what does I have it here?

There is something that he says that is so funny. He's reading the book and he's highlighting. And then he gets to a point where Sully says, flying could be a sensual experience. And he recreates teenage Sully flying with teenage Carol, this woman that he has a crush on. And at one moment, he's just like, okay, it's time for the thing that we,

talked about. And I was like, what the fuck is happening? Well, this is when he says, well, he says, the problem was I was too uncomfortable to actually get aroused with a professional actress beside me. And then he tells her to get out, basically. And then he says in voiceover. After all, this wasn't a performance for you, the viewer. It was an experience for me. And then dressed up as like a 1950s teen in a tiny plane. He has a tiny plane. He has. now been joined by Robot Carol, he pulls out the MacBook, presumably to watch porn, get aroused, and have a completely sully-like experience. And like these are the things that aren't real that I love. You know, like this is where he lets, you know, he pulls back

the curtain on purpose to say, yeah, this isn't a real fucking science experiment. Nothing. nothing's happening here. I am pretending to be the teenage version of a good pilot who has navigated what could have been a mass casualty air crash event by watching porn on a MacBook in a fake plane with a robot Carol whose head is going like this the whole time he's presumably or at least narratively getting hard. Like this is satire.

This is not, this is not real. This is not a rehearsal. This is not the Nath, this is not the Fielder method. This is Nathan Fielder being like a freak amongst 18 foot puppets. And doing it on purpose. And it was hilarious. I mean, speaking of that, do you think that this is kind of a culmination for Nathan Fielder where it's like, we saw him act in the,

We've seen Nathan for you. We've seen the rehearsal. We've seen so much of him. And this was the first, this was the episode where I felt it most acutely, where I'm like, this is not only a creator at the peak of his powers. This is someone who's doing so much where he's like,

he's playing Big Sully as a baby, teenager all through, like all through this, but he's also playing the Nathan Fielder rehearsal character. But then he's also, like, there's just all of these layers where I'm like, this performance must have been so, hard to pull off because I started losing track of to your point.

Wait, what? Not even what's real and what's not? What, what Nathan are we getting right now? What version of him? Does that make any sense? Oh, totally. I mean, I think like it keeps,

I keep going back to sort of the theme of last week's episode of sincerity. And that since, or as Nathan thinks, that sincerity only benefits the people who are able to perform it better than others. And when you see him in this role where he is acting allegedly in order to experience something, not in order to give a good performance, but of course, he is also the creator and writer of this show who needs to give a good performance. And like we'll never know if Nathan could have acted Sully better, you know, like if he could have given the perform that, you know, Tom Hanks as Sully performance of a lifetime.

Or if like doing it sort of badly in a for some reason receding hairline wig even when he's 16 is part of it. And how much has he chosen for that to be part of it? like how much has he calculated, how much funnier this will make it. And that does all really happen right at once in that plane scene that we're talking about. Because in that moment, you also, you know, audibly hear him go from teenage Texan Sully Sullenberger to, okay, now it's time for you to do that thing we talked about. And it's like monotone Nathan to real life, Carol, who's, you know, who knows what she thinks she's doing. Like we can't even get into the carol actress of it all.

Who knows what's happening? And then he's just by himself masturbating in a plane so that he can start to understand what it is like for pilots to compartmentalize while in the cockpit. And then how that affects them outside of the cockpit. I mean, that part, if we had ended on that part, it still would have been a perfect episode. But when we're talking about the show being so written, and intentional ending on the punchline of he's recreating moments that are not really in the book, but he's reading in between the lines of there's this reveal as he's highlighting that Sully keeps referencing having to get through things or his life getting tough, but he never dives deeper into it.

And then there's the reveal of the iPod. and there's the reveal that in the transcript when the plane gets hit by the flock of birds there's a 23 minute pause 23 seconds 23 seconds not minutes 23 second pause and the 23 second pause and the 23 second pause is the exact amount of time that the hook of evanescence's bring me to life is which is a band that sully brings up the most often in his book what were your thoughts on that part? Because I was like, I'm in, I'm seated.

I knew that the punchline was going to be worth it. The neat, I mean, you don't, this isn't really a show about needle drops. The needle drop, in that you've already gotten, it's like, it's not just like in the writer's room, they were like, what's a 23 second chorus that would be funniest? he actually talks about evanescence in the book. Like there are two artists that noted Captain Sully Sullenberger talks about and maybe others, but talks about in his autobiography memoir, one is Cheryl Crow, who he for some reason directs related, he relates directly to his father who died before Cheryl Crow ever put out

this song. But the feeling of it, he. he associates with his father and he really likes evanescence and i i mean i know that like the punch line is and the and the just like unbelievable 23 second silence is the is the length of the evanescence chorus reveal is so funny i actually i feel like embarrassed saying this because it's like i am aware that this is a scenario that nathan fielder as show Nathan has completely imagined because he's realized that if pilots are too open about their emotionality, it might get reported back, you know, to the FAA.

Yeah. Yeah. And then the FAA might take away like their medical clearance and then they're grounded for life. And so within this book, Sully Sullenberger basically keeps saying that, and I know that he has a different first name, but that is his name is Sully Sallensberg. Berger, that he keeps saying he found ways to cope. And at this point, Nathan decides he's got to figure out what those ways are. And he notices that around 2002, Sully starts talking about iPods within his life and that it's very clear that he got an iPod. I found the recreations, Nathan's imagined recreations of him seeing the commercial for an iPod while he's lonely in his hotel room. stumbling upon the iPod kiosk.

And what is the kid, the kid tells him, he's like, Sully's like, it fits a thousand songs. I can't even name five songs. And the kid selling the iPods is like, well, maybe you should increase your dosage, man. No medicine more powerful than music. He buys the iPod. He goes home. He gets on his laptop.

He starts downloading music. Little peek behind the fourth wall for me. Charles, you know this. I'm currently doing some reporting on old technology. I was quite moved by the iPod stuff. Really? It was like, I know it's not real. I know he made this up, but there's some part of it that's real.

Sully did start talking about music in his book. I don't know what it really meant to him. But I'll say within my reporting, the iPod has come up a lot as like, I mean, more so for teenagers than 52-year-old pilots as a real source of freedom to a lot of kids being able to like carry around their music and disassociate and medicate with with music in a new way and have access to music they'd never had access to before and there was just like there was something and I know Nathan's making it up I know that I know that but is he though is he could he be right. I didn't, I can't, I can't remember exactly what point it was, but I was like, oh, Sully Sullenberger's

going to sue Nathan Fielder. Is Sully Sullenberger still alive? He's alive. He's alive? He's alive. I remember when he endorsed Biden, so I knew he was alive then. I thought this man was dead. I was just like, well, of course, anybody would want to be on the rehearsal. This is a great, this is like a great send off to a great. Of course anyone would want to be on the rehearsal. Charles, that is like the last thing in the world I would want is to be my real self on the rehearsal or represented on the rehearsal by a clean-shaven Nathan Fielder. Jody, Jody, Jody, Jody.

I think the next career that Nathan Fielder should do is podcasting. Because everybody know podcasting is just as important as airlines and pilots with just as much. I can't, you know, I can't go to a therapist and tell, and tell her or he or they about my struggles podcasting. Bill Simmons is going to take away my medical claim. I do keep having this thought as Nathan Fielder continues to just sort of like, you know, work his way closer and closer to like pilots should just go to therapy. Is that like, if he zoomed out and wasn't doing this really specific thing, he's maybe just trying to solve. toxic masculinity in this like really specific way. Yes.

I would not be surprised if he just met Jeff and was just like, I'm solving this for humanity. I'm just going to solve it. Just give me an HBO level budget and I got it. I got to crack this. I did have the thought, Sully might sue Nathan Fielder for this representation. If Sully's listening, which I know he probably is, I found it, I found it lovely. I found it a lovely representation of, of his relationship with his giant mother,

of his attachment to music. And I really, and then, I mean, but of course, like, it's like, yeah, all the music stuff is, I mean, it's not completely made up. It does, it does come some from the book. But the final reveal that the sort of mysterious 23 second silence in the transcript of the flight when they already know that it's going into the Hudson is the exact length of the chorus of evanescence. And it's like as soon as you hear Nathan say it, you know it's one of those split second, you know before it happens and it makes it even better needle drop.

It's in the paper. Wake me up. Wake me up. It is going in the pantheon of needle drops. HBO needle drops, TV show needle drops. Because it is a song that if you were alive in the late 2000s, you heard so much. And it has gone through the cycle of being like amazing and dope to cheesy back to like, oh, Evan. I mean, if you're in the armed forces, I will say this.

Shout out my father, rest of peace. He was very into evanescence at this point. And I was just like, if you want to email us at prestige TV at Spotify.com, if you are a person in the armed forces who was really in seven essence when it first dropped, please let me know because I was just like, it's so funny that instead of like going to therapy, imagining fake Sully being like, you know what I need? Some just depressing rock music. But then what does fake Sully do at the very end? Ooh. walks into that therapist office. Are you saying evanescence is the road to healing, to finding a therapist?

I'm saying that Nathan Fielder said that. What is Jody? Let's really quick, I'm putting it on the spot. What is our we have to save an entire plane and landed in the Hudson safely song? Charles, you're the music guy. What's that, what's, I'm trying to, I'm trying to think of other really great key changes. Uh, I will say Genuine's differences. Justin Timberlake's Lovestone.

Pretty much Cisco's Unleashed the Dragon. Oh. Sorry. I have a lot of just like, if I needed to save a bunch of people, I do have the songs that I'm immediately going to. Yeah. I mean, I think where we ultimately get to with the evanescence, he says, maybe every captain needs to find their own evanescence. Whatever form that takes. What is your evidence?

I don't know because it's not just about a song. It's like about whatever your releases. And for Sully, whatever ultimately makes you understand that you don't have to be perfect, which is what he says, the lead singer of Evan essence said that this song was about, is about not having to be perfect. and that you not being perfect doesn't mean that you failed, and it definitely doesn't mean that you're a failure just because you can't get a dog to react to a diabetic attack

after four straight months of trying. Wait, what is the Evan essence song about? I'm looking this up now. We're Googling this, because I always thought it was like a witchcraft-crafty song about like actually bringing somebody back to life after like the darkness overtakes them. But is that not actually what it's about? I mean, this is coming from Nathan said that they said,

the lyrics to their hit song, Bring Me to Life were described by the songwriter as a cry for help. It was about no longer hiding your true self as imperfect as it may be. Wake me up! That's not coming through to you? Here's the thing. I'm on Wikipedia right now. We all love a Wikipedia dump. Lerote Bring Me to Life at age 19 after then equate...

acquaintance who later became her husband asked her if she was happy. Lee was in an abusive relationship and in turmoil and was shocked the person saw through her facade and she felt she was completely outwardly acting normal. I felt like he could just see straight into my soul that inspired the whole song. So I mean, Sully listened to bring me to life and was probably like, this is the first time I'm seeing in art or like my soul reflected. And when he has to save the souls on that U.S. Airways flight, he goes to the 23 seconds that it's the most important. That's fucking beautiful.

I didn't realize, I'm a music critic and I didn't realize that shit. Wow, I'm about to start. I told you. I told you that it was meaningful and that you were soft. Don't, all right, here's the thing. I have a whole image. It's okay. We're not on ring reverse, Charles.

We're over here on prestige TV. It's okay. Is this a safe, are you saying this is a safe space? This is a safe space. This is your evanescence. This is your road to therapy. Next stop. There.

Are you my little sister that I'm just like, here, eat this rock? Yeah, I would take any pebble that you gave me. And our producers would then punish you with a toy plant. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy the things that are happening in this episode. I kind of like final thoughts. I guess I was, I got to the end of this episode. And to me, for some reason,

these like last week we kind of talked about vignettes like last week almost felt a little bit like a nathan for you episode where there were sort of three distinct vignettes this obvious this this episode is obviously cleaved in half by dog cloning and then the recreation of sully selenberger's life via a series of puppets and yet they they did feel quite connected to me. me. And it did, it did all come back around and it just made me be like, it reminded me of like when you design a living room, you have to either start with the couch or the rug. You got to start in one of those big places and move out from there. And I just would love to know where, because this, this one is so much more guided by like evidently guided by Nathan's hand. then by what the real people are doing and how you construct that into something. In this episode, I found myself wondering so hard, like, where did they start? Did they start with knowing they wanted to recreate Sully Sullenberger and then have the clone

idea? Did they start with the dog clones and then think, how do we apply? Like, did they meet some real people who had cloned their dogs and they were like, we got to get this in there? And then how many threads were there that they didn't pull? Yeah. you know there's some wild stuff on the cutting room floor. I mean, part of me was even thinking in terms of that.

When Nathan was figuring out the idea for this, was it not just as simple as like, hey, maybe I read Malcolm Gladwell or I read some articles? Was it like maybe he did go down the cloning route? He did go down a couple of different areas because something that was illuminating was when we go through the montage of all of the pilots at the end, and Nathan reveals, Nathan has been doing this for decades at this point, years and years and years. And him revealing that pilots as like just a group were the most receptive to these questions.

They kept in contact. One of them even says, it's like you're my therapist. Do you think that part that might have been the moment where like a light bulb goes off in Nathan's head where he's just like, oh, there's something, they're like, there's something about this job and these people in my research of, like, producers reaching out to them and talking to them, that he's like, all right, this is a rich vein. Because this was the first episode where I'm like, oh, as it, you know it, when you're a

journalist where you're like, you just start talking to people and you're just like, oh, no, this is actually the heart of it. This is what I need to devote weeks or months of my life to. Yeah. I mean, I think like when I'm writing a big piece, it feels like a puzzle where I have a lot of different pieces that I know are good that are connected in some way. And then there's one thing usually that finally locks it all in to be like the full picture. I, Charles, to be honest, couldn't begin to presume what that is

within this puzzle. Maybe at the end of episode six, we might sort of know like where this idea truly started if it if it wasn't the Malcolm Gladwell chapter like if it was something within Nathan Fielder's reporting and interviews but I mean that was pretty cool that was cool to see those interviews with the pilots and like we saw a few that we that we saw in the Wings of Voice episode yeah um actually doing their initial interviews and yeah I mean it's really we'd have to do a bit of um this isn't in Sully Sullenberger's book. but I'm going to go ahead and presume it as reality to know if, like, that is where Nathan kind of locked in on this idea once he really talked to pilots.

Maybe. Maybe that's his iPod. The playoffs are here and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul predicts. Follow all the playoff dishes, swishes, wishes, wishes, and misses. Predict the spread, the total points, and even the game winner. Sign up for Fandual Predicts. Dicked it from the couch.

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The podcast code? The podcast code. Hell yeah. For when people email us at prestige TV at Spotify.com to answer our many, many questions and also refute some of our answers. Yes. Tim Milan emailed us with the subject subway trash talk. And he said the misconception that subways are dangerous are caraganda.

Most subway deaths are suicides. In 2024, in New York City, there were eight murders on the subway and 237 deaths from traffic violence. Cars. Cars kill over a million people per year globally. Cars kill 500 children per day globally. Please do not contribute to caraganda. To which I say, Tim, I did not realize that I was. And I apologize if I was part of the problem. That is very spicy. Tim, he was coming at your neck. As a subway supporter myself, Tim, I, always been on your side. I don't know about Jody. Okay. Now, I believe that this is in response to last week saying that airplanes are the safest form of travel, which is something that I said,

which is not part of Carraganda. The whole point of flights are the safest form of travel is that it is technically much safer than cars. You are much less likely to die in a plane than to die by car. I didn't see the intense way that subways were going to come into this, but here you have it. And maybe here you have season three of the rehearsal. Pro Subway, like a Subway season? I would, I would love a subway season. And maybe the inclusion of Jared from Subway in this episode was just a little Easter egg, a verbal Easter egg, not the inclusion of Jared, who we are done with. So, hey, Tim, shout out to you. Like, no. car again to here on Prestige TV.

What's our, what's our next email, Joe? Charles, you mentioned last week that you thought that the laptop sling from, well, both seasons would be a great Halloween costume for you out in L.A. to impress the ladies. And Reagan Parks said, I laughed when I heard y'all mention dressing as Nathan Fielder for Halloween because I did that the year of season one and it did not go well. Maybe in clubs in L.A., Thank you, Reagan, for knowing where Charles hangs out.

Oh, man. It'll go over better. But trick-or-treating with my kids in Austin, I was met with many questions, including why do you have to work while trick-or-treating? That's such a dark take on the current state of the world. And then confused looks when I explained why I had the computer desk. Yes, I ordered the same one Nathan uses. I was dedicated to a bad idea.

I love that phrasing. Dedicated to a bad idea. Whoa, not a bad idea at all. I think the costume looked great. Reagan sent us a photo. It was a very nice photo. I think your costume was awesome. It just seems like you live in a place where they don't actually support prestige TV like you do.

Okay. And as far as being in the LA clubs, guys, I'm not a degenerate, okay? Give any response to that? I don't. I'm not a degenerate. I'm not in these clubs. I'm being a good boy now. You're on these streets.

But I will say, I will say, I have a whole theory on Halloween costumes now. I'm back to basics. After last Halloween and after how great my costume went over last Halloween, I'm totally bringing it back to basics. Are you going to tell the people what it was? Is this Charles Lour that I don't know? I was a man called, as my friends called me, Bronco Brown. I was a classic cowboy.

I had a fake gun. I had a fake cigar, okay? You know, I had the whole thing, it's Bronco Brown. I would have come into a party. Everyone loved it. And I was just like, oh, I realized sometimes maybe we get a little too conceptual. The conceptual Halloween costumes are for the real sickos. Those are for the parties where I'm like, this is for the people with taste.

When I'm just hitting three or four in a day and I don't know all these people, keep it simple. Keep it the cowboys, the pirates, maybe a skeleton. You know? Also props. Props are very important. I was just going to say, you did that whole thing for prop comedy. That's what you were, that's what you were up to. I had so many props. And that's the other thing that I realized because there were moments where it would be like, I lost my props. Men, women were stealing my fucking props going around with them, shooting the guns, taking the fake cigar. I'm like, guys, guys, guys, guys, guys. Props are important to comedy as Nathan Fielder has taught us. Please return them. But props are also an opportunity to sort of, you know, reach out to the public a little bit. And it does feel like, like in middle school when you're like, oh my God, can I wear your hat? And you like take, you know, take a guy's hat, maybe get your hat taken.

It's like, yeah, you got a couple props. Then you have a couple of ways to introduce conversation. You get, wait, what were you for Halloween? I didn't dress up this year. How dare you call me out on Maine like that. Jody. I don't know what I was doing. What?

All right, well, I will give the people a sneak peek. What are you thinking about? What are you thinking about this? Maybe the first chair. Maybe a pilot. Ooh, maybe a captain. Captain. I'm reclaiming captain.

Captain Jody. And that brings us to our next email. We did get a lot of feedback from pilots, kind of, you know, talking about the way that pilots are represented in this show. and there does seem to be some reality to it to the sort of archetypes that we're getting. We had a captain who preferred to stay anonymous reach out to say, I've been a captain for thousands of hours before I started my current airline. And yes, there very much is a code switch from first officer to captain, she's saying.

As a captain, you set the tone of the cockpit. I always try to keep mine open, calm, and friendly. It's very rare in the normal day to day to have to exercise Captain Authority. But I have had to on occasion, always with regard to my first officer. Despite the first officer, and she says, though I prefer co-captain. And thank you so much for not using the much hated term co-pilot. You learn something every day. We also have used that term.

So she's being very kind to us. My bad. My bad to all my pilot self. Well, it's used within the show. Despite the first officer, chameleon traits we have to embody in the right seat, most pilots are what some lovingly call type A. Command does come naturally. And the chameleon in the right seat is the struggle. We didn't get to that cockpit without fighting a lot of battles.

For some of us, cough, cough, women minorities cough, often a few bonus skirmishes. Fun story, when you're at a new airline, the captains fill out a review sheet while you are still on probation. While I was at my regional job, a captain with whom I had excellent rapport wrote on mine under, how will this pilot perform as a captain? She thinks she already is one. I kept that one in my scrapbook. That's really enlightening. Very enlightening.

I mean, we shout out to all the pilots who emailed us. They are very communicative. they are you are brave for your service and for being so honest and it does like trying to avoid having conversations in the pilot room with their with their first officer as we saw i mean yes but they're on their laptops through this email what i mean what i'm seeing is jody i'm not kidding i think you might have a future as a pilot i think podcasting is you know you've seen enough right no you're going to be a pilot podcaster you're going to be podcasting from the cockman Well, I have been looking to revolutionize the airline safety industry.

This is my first step. This is my couch. I chose the couch or rug. I chose to start here. And we're going to see what comes next. Do you think Nathan Fielder can make it easier for the women pilots out there, the minority pilots out there? Do you think that this show can raise awareness that, hey, if you are, if you're the captain of this old thing, watch what you're saying. Don't be a creep. Be a great person.

I mean, you know, I think some of that messaging is getting a little hidden behind the prosthetics and the realistically operating puppet breasts. Yeah. But I believe I said in the last episode sort of inspired by the Meridae's storyline and how her sort of gift as. Nathan was observing it to be able to navigate these challenging situations without kind of like stirring up someone getting mad at you. That's a very gendered skill. Like that is something that girls learn and that they learn more and more as women about how. I mean, it's basically like how to keep yourself safe by not upsetting anyone. And it really made me have the thought last week like, okay, why are we focusing?

on what we are now understand as kind of like the chameleon co-captain, why are we not focusing on what this emailer said is the more innateness to the captain to have this sort of authority and how they can navigate authority in a better way. And this episode, vis-a-vis cloning, we did start to do that. We, you know, that's what Nathan's doing. He's turning his eye to the captain to the innate captain nature. And I literally, I literally could not imagine what he's going to do next. I mean, I think that's the perfect place to end it. And just like this episode, Chodey, you have woken me up from the darkness inside,

okay? Wake me up. Wake me up in, but you know what? Who else we need to wake up inside? Everybody behind the scenes who was probably like, damn, y'all went long on that episode. So shout out to Justin Sales. Shout out to CT. Shout out to Donnie.

Without them, this podcast would not be possible. Thank you all for listening. Make sure you email us. Like, honestly, if I'm a, if you guys are pilots out there, send us what your evanescence is. Send us your song. Like, please, if I guarantee you, if you are a pilot, just send us what. How you cope. How you cope.

It could be a song. It could be an album. We will read it here live. The email is prestige here. as Spotify.com. It's not actually live. I'm lying. We're recording this. We're not recording this.

It's the radio. It's the, but yo, thank you, Jody. You are the best captain. A. Co-captain could ever have. We will see y'all next week.

Oh, we are done. Thank you, Jody. Relax and let Ralph's delivery handle your grocery shopping this week. We start with only the freshest items, then review. your list and carefully choose each one. Then we pack it all up and deliver it in as little as 30 minutes so you can feel confident it's what you ordered. Fresh groceries, your way,

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