Nathan put out an ad on Craigslist for a trivia teacher who needs to rehearse a particular scenario. Kor, a 50-year-old teacher and trivia lover, responded to the ad. He needs to rehearse the scenario so that he can be seen as an equal by his friends. Years ago, Kor told his trivia teammates he had a master’s degree so they wouldn’t see him as inferior. Now, one of his friends keeps sending him jobs that require a master’s degree, and Kor is running out of excuses.
Nathan quickly reveals to Kor that their entire conversation up to this point has already happened for Nathan dozens of times. He rehearsed it in a recreation of Kor’s home with an actor playing Kor.
Nathan is going to help Kor prepare for the mystery friend he’s worried will have a violent reaction to his confession.
Nathan plans a day trip to Kor to try and get him to open up. They go skeet shooting and swimming. Nathan has already rehearsed these activities, so he knows that Kor will be bad at them. He even arranged beforehand for their guns to be loaded with blanks, so they can bond over how bad they both are at shooting. ..
Nathan hires an actress to portray Tricia, but the doppelgänger first needs to meet her and study her.
Nathan creates his own blog, “Thrifty Boy,” and hires Tricia to write an article for him. She accepts, but she doesn’t know she’s interviewing an actress.
Kor comes up with a plan to confess to Tricia. He insists he has to confess to her publicly in case she freaks out, so he invites her to a trivia event. ..
Nathan creates a perfect replica of the bar where the trivia event is going to take place. Kor and the actress start rehearsing there, but Kor gets too distracted when he doesn’t know the fake trivia answers. ..
Nathan comes up with a plan to keep Kor from getting too distracted during his real confession. He gets the trivia answers from the bar manager and uses casual walks with Kor to casually mention the answers in conversation.
After several rehearsals, the night arrives. Kor orders a drink for Tricia, like rehearsed. She complains about her day, as expected. But Kor sticks to his script and cheers her up pretty well. Next, it’s time for trivia.
Nathan planned to have Kor confess his love for him during trivia night, but when the opportunity presents itself, Kor stalls for several minutes.
He tells Tricia that he felt inferior in the trivia group and that he wanted to keep lying to her. He tells her their friendship means a great deal and that he doesn’t want to continue lying to her. She tells him he’s brave for telling her.
Kor continued to talk to Tricia for an hour about things he had never told her. ..
Nathan tells an actor playing Kor about telling him the trivia answers. He apologizes, but the actor reacts poorly, saying he’s ruined the whole thing for him. “You’re an awful, awful person.”
Nathan responds to Kor’s compliment by saying that he thinks the guy is “cool.” We don’t see how Nathan’s interaction with Kor plays out, if it ever does. The episode ends with Nathan sitting in the fake bar, talking to the bartender actress. ..
The Episode Review
When I entered the space, I felt like I was in another place. It was hard to focus on where I was because it felt like the space and the people in it were interchangeable. ..
The Rehearsal is a strange concept for a reality show/docu-comedy that allows people to rehearse key events in their lives by setting up elaborate models (complete with actors) in which to practice future possible scenarios.
The premier episode of “Kor Skeet” was consistently funny and surprisingly touching. Fielder’s approach to hosting the show- though fairly straightforward in theory- is unpredictable. Though every minute detail is rehearsed, no one can ever truly guess what’s going to happen- not viewers, not Kor… and probably not even Fielder. ..
The Rehearsal is an absurdist comedy and insightful social experiment that is hard to pin down. ..
