Nathan eats faecal matter during a rehearsal for a play, and his girlfriend finds it disturbing. Nathan doesn’t see the big deal because it’s not “real.” ..
Nathan and Angela’s relationship is increasingly strained, with Nathan’s mother seeing more issues when she and Nathan’s father come to visit. ..
Nathan’s parents are Jewish, and Angela is Christian. Nathan’s mother berates Nathan for not raising Adam to be Jewish, and Nathan wonders why someone would care so much about something that’s not real. Nathan’s mother reveals that she sees his bowing to Angela as fitting into a harmful pattern from his past relationships. ..
Nathan decides to push the issue with Angela and raise it with a fake Angela in a rehearsal. But like in the rehearsal, Angela is not receptive. She won’t raise a child to “deny Jesus.”
Nathan’s presence has been causing some cracks in Angela’s facade. We see it when Nathan hires a fake Angela as a nanny, and she asks the real Angela if she feels it’s been healthy for her in the rehearsal.
Angela hesitates, trying to get a response. “Mm… " I’m guessing that’s a ’no.’ ..
Angela is a big fan of Mel Gibson’s film, “Apocalypto.” When Nathan asks her in casual conversation what her favorite movie is, Angela thinks nothing of responding, “Apocalypto.” She’s, in fact, a huge fan of Mel Gibson and when Nathan responds that he’s said “bad stuff about Jews,” Angela’s face goes through a hundred different expressions- all some variation of annoyed. ..
Nathan’s deceit with Angela leads to a confrontation between the two.
Miriam confronts Angela about not letting Nathan have a say in their child’s faith. Nathan doesn’t contribute to the conversation other than occasional repetitions. But Angela still holds that Jesus is the only way, leaving no room for Judaism. Miriam stands up then, saying she can’t reason with an anti-Semite. ..
Angela then turns on Nathan, claiming that they had peace until he decided to start a fight. Suddenly switching topics, as if everything about this experience has been building up to this in Angela’s mind, she blurts out that Nathan can’t be honest. “He lies a lot,” she says to Miriam. ..
Nathan’s discovery of his mother’s abandonment leads him to explore his feelings about abandonment in a more personal way.
He wants to confront her, but is having trouble rehearsing the encounter. This is getting harder for him, however. He’s starting to lose track of which version of himself he’s supposed to be.
Fake Angela tells Nathan that she’s here because she’s bored and wants to see what he’s like. She starts to get angry with him, telling him to shut up and be a man. This escalates into her telling him to feel something. But Nathan doesn’t have the capacity to feel.
“Never will” is a phrase that can be used to emphasize a point or to make someone feel confident. It is also used as a warning.
Nathan pauses, as if truly affected by this (but mostly likely acting). “Okay.”
Angela’s refusal to rehearse with Nathan during their first rehearsal leads to tension and conflict between the two. Nathan tries to manage the situation by asking her why she doesn’t want to participate, but Angela instead uses it as an opportunity to control his experience.
Angela, a young woman, wanted to have a child at age 0-18. But she’s not sure if the experiment is worth continuing. Maybe it’s time to end the experiment.
Nathan packs his things and tells Adam that his mom left. The two of them are still a family.
“It was time to stand up for my own values,” he says. “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 prepare for it.” ..
This “winter,” he and Adam celebrate Hanukkah with Miriam. It feels like an idyllic ending to the episode, until we cut to a conversation between Nathan and Miriam.
Nathan pressures Miriam to support Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He tells her he must use his platform to share how beautiful Israel is. Miriam is noncommittal in her responses–much the same as she was with Angela.
The Episode Review
Nathan is feeling like he’s making progress, but his advances this episode are only superficial. He’s only done what others have pressured him to do in regard to his compliant nature–while still maintaining control of the larger scenario.
Nathan may be more stringent when it comes to sticking to the rehearsal’s guidelines, but Angela also notices his disregard for the real meaning that artificial things can hold for her. There was also Thomas, on the other hand, who in the previous episode found Nathan’s lying to real people disconcerting.
Nathan has repeatedly been upset with others not taking rehearsals seriously. But for most others, like Angela and Thomas, reality can’t be so easily separated from fiction. Maybe Nathan needs to realize that his rehearsals are populated by real people. Their identity is not simply actor or subject or a version of reality–and that includes himself. ..
Nathan’s rehearsals for “real life” seem to be more about escape than reality. When is “real life” and when are they just an escape?
There are many interesting dynamics to explore in the finale, leaving me with high expectations for what will happen. I think Fielder will deliver. ..
