Who is it?
- Hi! - Hi, I'm here to see the doctor.
I'm Dr. Farts. Come and have a seat.
Put your head down, you're ruining my doctor.
Dr. Fart, I'm really sick. Do you think you could help me?
- Yes, I can help you with my farts. - With your farts? How does that work?
It will make you still alive.
That makes sense.
The farts aren't working. I still feel sick.
- Do you think it's cancer? - Maybe, yeah.
- So, what should I do? - Eat my poo, it'll make you feel better.
- Your poo? - Yeah.
- You want me to eat your poo? - Yeah. Eat the poo!
Eat it! It's poo.
- Finish it. Eat it all. - Okay.
It's crunchy.
- I think I'm cured. - You always eat the poo.
That's it.
- What do you think? - Yeah.
I think that was pretty disgusting.
- It was his concept. - Was it?
- Yeah. - Really?
- You don't believe me? - No.
All right, where's Adam?
Is he under this chair? No.
Is he under this chair?
- There he is! There he is! - No, no!
Ever since I turned Adam back into a six-year-old,
I was determined to take my duties as a father seriously.
I realized that neither me or Angela would get anything out of this rehearsal
unless we were both fully committed to it.
Good, good.
So, I decided there would be no other rehearsals besides this one.
- I win! - What?
- You win? - Yes!
I was all in on my family.
"The Holy Spirit came down from Heaven in the form of a dove
"and landed on Jesus."
"Then God said, 'This is my son.'"
Back when I first joined the family,
Angela had expressed strong opinions about Adam's education.
I'm considering a faith-based homeschooling curriculum.
- What do you think? - Yeah, sounds good. I…
If we had, you know, like a Monday through Friday…
I was raised Jewish, and I still do all of the holidays and stuff.
But because Angela was so passionate about Christianity,
I thought I'd be open to trying it her way.
"And 100 million stood to attend him. His clothing was white as snow."
"His hair was like the whitest wool."
Yeah.
But when Adam was three, my parents drove down
to visit from Vancouver, Canada. So, I invited them over for a picnic.
So, we're trying to raise him together and…
Doing our best so far.
- Experiencing the challenges. - Okay.
I mean, there's definitely a lot I don't know and I feel like…
she's been very generous with, like, she's very knowledgeable.
I feel like I get clarity and perspective just from my relationship with God
and learning about God and what His word says.
What was the book you suggested? Or…
- John 1:1. - So, certain things…
- John 1:1. - Romans 8.
- Certain things could… - Romans 8.
- Sorry? - Romans 8.
Romans 8.
And after the meal, they cornered me.
I didn't realize that you were raising the kid with her.
- Yeah, I am. - Okay.
I kind of came into it after her.
- Yeah. - So, you know, we're…
I think that there's nothing wrong
with talking about the things that you've grown up with,
the traditions you've grown up with and the values that you've learned also.
At the time, I didn't really understand why my parents seemed to care
how I raised a fake child with a fake partner.
But it's kinda her. She's really into the…
this stuff, you know, and I don't wanna overstep or…
So, sometimes you feel like it's just easier
to go along with things rather than deal with the tension.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
But my mom's tone made me realize they had seen this before.
My relationship with Angela
was starting to parallel real relationships I had had in the past.
Can you go downstairs and make sure the cookies are taken out of the oven?
- Yes. - Thanks.
- Right now? - Yeah.
- Okay. - Make sure to use an oven mitt.
I have a tendency to let my partner take the reigns
and make the decisions as a way of avoiding conflict.
- Two more minutes. - Two… Okay.
And by not asking Angela to raise Adam with Judaism too,
I was falling into my old habits.
We love you. In Jesus' name. Amen.
- Amen. - Amen.
But this could be an opportunity to change those habits,
to practice getting what I wanted without it turning into a fight.
So, I decided to wait until wintertime,
because I thought discussing holiday plans
would be a good way to ease into the conversation.
But it turns out winter is very expensive to maintain.
So, I knew I couldn't put it off much longer.
I guess, since it's winter…
should we talk about our holiday plans at all?
Yeah. Christmas is really important to me and there's a lot I want to do,
so we should get started planning sooner rather than later.
Yeah, and…
I was just wondering if maybe we should…
or how you'd feel about incorporating some Judaism into Adam's life too.
Okay.
I had flown out one of my Fielder Method graduates
to help me better understand this woman I was living with
and navigate this sensitive conversation.
I just feel like this whole experience was supposed to be about me,
and now all of a sudden it feels like it's becoming about you.
But in a real relationship,
your partner might have different feelings than you, right?
Yeah, but I know that they'd be Christian.
But people change their minds all the time, right?
Were you always Christian?
Exactly.
There could be no flaws in my approach.
So I constructed an exact replica of our entire home to get every detail right.
- Hello. - Come on in.
- This is Angela. - Hi, there.
- This is Adam. - Hi.
How are you… Hi, Adam.
I had the actress pose as a new nanny I had hired,
so she'd be able to secretly observe Angela
and learn everything about her primary.
Nathan and I are not…
- We were never… - Okay.
These are the teas she uses. This is her handwriting. You see?
Do you find that it's been healthy for you here?
Making my rehearsal as true as life.
Okay, well, now I feel like you're just interested in winning an argument
and not actually having a conversation with me.
- No, no. That's absurd. No, no. - So…
This could be fun. There's a lot of couples that…
do different religions in a relationship.
- It's very common. - Okay.
Sometimes, when you set your mind on something,
it feels like you have tunnel vision.
And then I don't feel I have the space to object.
We're just… We're doing… This is what we're… We're just talking.
Yeah, you're saying that we're talking, but this is your project.
It's not like I really have a say.
I mean, you…
Did you know that the term "fragrance"
can contain over 1000 nat… a thousand manmade chemicals?
- Really? - It's really… Forever chemicals.
But, yeah, sometimes I actually boil a pot of like, cloves,
to, like, make the house smell good.
Cloves? I thought you said clothes.
Smell of fresh clothes. Yeah.
So, obviously it's winter and the holidays are… coming up and…
It's like Christmas time, and as…
someone who is a Jew, and…
could there be a path to doing Hanukkah too?
And maybe even beyond that, raising Adam with Jewish… Judaism too.
- As a faith? - As a faith, yeah.
I'm pretty much like a no on the faith part 'cause…
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. So…
I'm not trying to get you to compromise your beliefs.
I'm just… all I'm doing is saying, well, is there… Can I…
get a little bit too and then we do it all together.
We do both, you know, however we need to.
I, unfortunately, cannot participate in Judaism.
Because Judaism denies that Christ came and died for us.
So, I can't deny that. And I wouldn't raise a child to deny that.
'Cause it's the truth.
I wanted everything to stay as calm as possible.
Why don't we talk about something else?
Okay.
What's your favorite movie?
I love the movie Apocalypto.
- Have you seen it? - Yeah.
I think Mel Gibson makes really good movies.
Yeah, it's a classic.
- Yeah. He's one of my favorite directors. - Right, right.
I like his camera technique where he floats.
He's a little…
I think he just said, like…
bad stuff about Jews and…
But things quickly veered off course.
You joked about eating feces…
- He riffed it, so, I went with it. - …with a child.
- No. - What do you mean, no?
- It's not appropriate. - Do you know sketch comedy?
Yes, I know. I watchKey & Peele, I know sketch comedy.
Okay. So, you have to escalate the sketch, right?
- Let me tell you something. - So, if you start with fart…
- This is adult subject matter. - Do you wanna finish the dishes?
- Sure. - Okay.
Okay, you wanna take these? Okay. Here, put the jacket on.
I signed him up for swimming lessons so I'll see you later.
- Okay, awesome. Have a great time. - Okay. Bye.
- Bye. - Bye.
As much as we all love Mel Gibson as a director,
he's not the director of this show.
And in this show, I get to decide which religion gets featured.
What do you know about…
- Jews? - What?
Judaism, Jews.
What is that?
There you go.
Okay. This is a kippah.
And it's a special hat that's for Jews only.
You don't get one of these if you're Christian.
- So, are you Christian or Jew? - Jew.
Jew. Okay, good. There you go. So, you get one.
Pretty cool, huh?
I hadn't been to synagogue in years because it's so boring.
- Shabbat shalom. - Shabbat shalom.
But I couldn't help but feel excited
to reconnect with my faith through the eyes of my son.
- Do Jews speak English? - Yeah, I'm Jewish. I speak English.
But Adam had a lot of questions,
and I found myself unable to provide him with clear answers.
- Why do the women not wear hats? - I don't know, actually.
What are they saying?
I think they're saying…
So, I decided the next step would be getting him a Jewish tutor,
since that's what I would do in real life.
- I have a question. - Yeah.
Was Jesus the first Jew?
Jesus? No, no. The first Jew, his name was Abraham.
Hey.
Okay, lean your head over.
I also needed to make sure that Adam had his story straight
if Angela asked him any questions.
So, each day before we got home, I quizzed him about what happened.
So, what did do you learn at swimming today?
I learned to do a backstroke.
Okay, so, you were looking up. So, what color was the ceiling?
It was white.
- And was there a lifeguard at the pool? - Yeah.
- And what was his name? - His name was Bob.
- Hi. - Hi.
- You're all wet. - It was really fun.
And my teacher was Ukrainian and he had a blue swimsuit.
Really?
- The lifeguard's whistle was red. - Okay. Good.
Yeah, so, I think he should go to his room maybe now.
I think he's had a…
- Okay. - He's a little tired, maybe.
- Would he like a towel? - Yeah, yeah. I should get him.
Just they get so wet in the water, the kids.
For the first time in a while, it felt like there was harmony in our home.
Okay, what do you want on there?
- I like that one. - I want the spaceship one.
Okay, hang it up.
We were both able to get what we wanted out of raising this child.
We're going to feed the chickens.
Okay. This way.
"Under King Antiochus, many Jews were afraid for their lives."
"So, they were forced to follow the King's orders."
"This group was called the Maccabees."
- Can you say "hanukkiah"? Let me hear. - Hanukkiah.
That's right. Look how smart you are.
All right. Would it be okay if we use the bathroom really quick?
- Yeah. Sure. - Okay. Come on.
But when we started using Miriam's shower after every class…
Is that a good temperature?
…she began asking questions.
- What happened to you? - It was just a little…
The shower accidentally turned on, and then I slipped.
It's okay, I mean, it's okay. It's…
The woman I'm…
parenting Adam with, she doesn't want him to be Jewish.
And so I'm kind of having to do it in secret a little bit.
I gathered that from the questions that he asked me.
You know, he asked me "Did the Jews kill Jesus?"
I talked to her about wanting to like compromise
and be like, well, maybe we could do both?
And she thinks Judaism is kind of an affront to Christianity.
- And so she doesn't want to do… and… - I wouldn't stand for that, man.
Miriam was making me feel like a bad Jew.
For centuries and centuries, the Christian people were terrified of the Jews
because their religion was older and, you know, the real thing.
And that's why they tried to kill us for so many thousands of years.
So, for me, that wouldn't be okay, you know?
You have to stand up to that. You're 38 years old.
- You're not a kid. You know? - Yeah.
And I was realizing that being a Jewish father
was more complicated than I thought.
I heard your part.
I want to hear what she has to say about her stand.
You wanna talk to her?
I could bring in some of that knowledge that I told you to study about.
Miriam wanted to talk to Angela about how we were raising Adam.
And I thought that could maybe be a good idea.
Do you need to rehearse at all?
I like to shoot from the hip.
Miriam knows more about religion than me.
Maybe she could win her over.
- This is my friend Miriam. - Hi, Miriam.
- Hi, nice to meet you, Angela. - Nice to meet you. Pleasure.
So, you're very conflicted about Judaism being part of Adam's life.
So, can you tell me why, or what…
I wouldn't describe the way that I'm feeling as conflicted.
I might use a different word. I might use…
- I'm just against it. As a faith. - Okay.
Judaism denies that Christ has returned yet.
What about the values of Judaism and the values of Christianity?
- Do they conflict with each other too? - Same values. Same values.
- Yeah, so what's the deal? - Yes. Yes.
- What's the deal here? - Yeah, what's the deal?
Why are you so persistent about this one point?
Jesus Christ. That's the deal. He is the deal.
- He is the chief cornerstone. - You know what? Forget about it.
- Forget about it. - Forget about what?
About all of it. I don't do well with anti-Semites.
So, that's it.
I'm done with this.
You know? I think that's the end of the discussion.
She's saying she's understanding, but then she's insisting that…
I have no hate towards anyone. I love Jesus Christ and I won't deny Him.
That's it.
And maybe one day you'll understand
that the world does not revolve around Jesus Christ.
Nathan likes to start fights.
There was peace in the household until he came with this.
Who does it look like likes to start fights, based on this…
And he likes to manipulate people.
- What do you think? - You know that during the Middle Ages…
It's hard for him to be honest.
You don't have to talk about Jesus constantly.
Nathan has a problem with lying. He lies a lot.
He does.
I found myself needing a place to go from time to time, away from the house.
My replica bar set had been sitting empty for months.
So, I recently obtained an Oregon State special events liquor license
and built an 82-foot enclosed walkway leading to the outside world.
For legal reasons, I couldn't use the name Alligator Lounge,
but I came up with a new name that was even cooler.
The sign was enough to attract a few locals
who had no idea this bar was actually just a set in a warehouse.
I figured since it was here, I might as well use it.
And it was cool to own my own bar that HBO paid for.
I'm the Nate from Nate's Lizard Lounge. Yeah.
It was also a way of keeping some of my acting students employed
in between roles.
I had been reviewing the footage from the 16 cameras I'd installed in our home
because I was having an increasingly difficult time
interpreting Angela's behavior.
We were having more disagreements,
which was a good challenge for a rehearsal.
You ate feces.
- You ate the child's feces. - I did…
- Angela, it was a chocolate bar. - I don't care.
But sometimes I couldn't tell if we were arguing as co-parents
or if she was actually mad at me.
Are you aware that eating poo is actually a satanic ritual?
- I… No. - Like…
Maybe you should make a list for me of all the things that are satanic,
so that I know when I'm doing something, how to avoid them.
I'm gonna bring home oranges from the grocery store and you're gonna be like,
"That's satanic."
I had assumed she was just really engaged with this parenting rehearsal.
But when I started reviewing the footage from when I was out of town,
it painted a different story.
From the moment I left, Angela had completely abandoned the notion
that she was rehearsing for her future life as a mother.
Usually your other house is in Vancouver?
No. My dad is in Vancouver for his job. I live in Los Angeles.
- But your real name's Josh. - Joshua, yeah.
- You live in LA? - Yes.
- Awsome! So you came here for this? - Yes.
There were no homeschool lessons, no gardening,
and the fake orders she was supposed to package up
to simulate the future success of her home business ceased to go out,
leaving the fake mailman with nothing to pick up.
All the effort I had put into maintaining this delicate reality,
had gone out the window.
So, what was Angela actually doing here?
I'm just so confused. You won't let me have the experience I want.
But… I can't even tell if you're invested in this yourself.
I'm as invested as I can be. But this is all sort of absurd, right?
Swapping out the kids through the window,
aging them three years at a time.
It won't work if you don't try. You have to want it to work.
Are you mad that I have been caught up in my work
and haven't been prioritizing our family life? Because if so…
What family life? You know we're not your real family, right?
This is your work. All of this.
I was starting to lose track of which version of myself
I was supposed to be in these rehearsals.
But I wanted to know what Angela was hoping to get from all this.
So, is this silly?
Or is it something that I should take seriously?
It's silly and serious.
It's complicated. Life can be more than one thing, right?
Life's complicated, and… Why are you even here?
- What's the real reason? Honestly? - Okay, well, why are you here?
Why are you doing this? Are you really trying to help me?
Or am I the silly part that you talk about? Is my life the joke?
Do you sit here with your friends at the end of the day laughing at me?
No, you're not the joke. Not at all.
No one's the joke. The situations are funny, but interesting too.
Shut up.
Like, the opportunity to raise your kids in a rehearsal…
Just shut up!
You're a liar. Because if this were real,
you would have some sort of emotion instead of standing there like a rock.
Do you want to feel something?
Do you want to feel something real?
Yeah.
That's sad.
You never will.
No matter how hard you try…
you never will.
Okay.
Maybe we can try a… just a nicer version…
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we can do that.
- That was really good. - Okay.
- How're you doing? - I'm doing very well, thank you.
- How are you? - Good.
Good.
I was looking at some of the footage from when I was away out of town.
I guess it seems like maybe that when I'm not around,
that you don't care so much about the reality of the experience,
yet when I'm here, you're very controlling about what I can experience… in it.
- Does that make sense? - It definitely does.
I navigated through a lot of situations that,
were difficult and uncertain, and I wasn't given a lot of direction.
I could have been a collaborator with you on this.
More so than… than you've let me.
Angela, a collaborator? This whole thing is you.
- This is your ideal house. - I'm talking about psychological.
This is how you wanted to raise the children. This is everything.
But I've never done this before.
- Yeah, and neither have I. - No direction.
- Neither have I. - No direction.
And we figured it out. And I feel like… we still make mistakes, but…
we're doing okay.
So, originally, I wanted the whole thing. I wanted zero to eighteen.
- Yeah, we can still do that. - Yeah, but, it's like…
Kind of almost like I don't know… I don't see an end in sight.
I don't know when we're gonna get to the 18-year-old. I don't know.
And I think it's a good time to bring closure to it.
Yeah. I think it's a good time.
Okay.
I… I feel incredibly blessed to have been chosen for this.
And… thank you for all the work you put in to tailor this to my experience.
It's in… they did a really excellent job
down to the details. So, thank you.
- Thank you so much. It's very special. - Yeah, thank you.
- You're welcome. - Thank you.
Thank you for being a part of it.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Yeah, definitely. - Okay.
I'll take my tea.
Thanks.
Thank you!
Thanks for this experience.
- Okay. - I really appreciate it.
- Yeah. - Daddy!
The woman who this rehearsal was designed for was now gone.
So, what was this urge inside of me to carry on?
Hey, buddy! Can I talk to you about something?
What?
Your mommy's decided to leave the family, okay?
- Why? - I don't know.
But, hey! It has nothing to do with you, okay?
- Yeah. - You still got me, right?
Who am I?
Daddy.
Maybe doing this alone is what I needed.
To sink or swim on my own terms.
It was time to stand up for my own values.
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 rehearse for it.
So… she's gone.
- What? - Yeah.
Congratulations, my dear! What's gonna happen to Adam?
- I got Adam. - You got Adam.
- Yeah, he sticks with me. - She just left Adam behind?
- Yeah. - Awesome.
- Yeah. Pretty good? - Yes!
- Come on in. - We're gonna make another Jew.
And hold it as we say the blessing.
Israel warned those civilians that there was gonna be a bombing.
They had time to get out if they wanted to.
So, the AP right away blamed Israel for everything.
Media is biased for the Palestinians against the Israelis.
- Okay. - And that's how they present the news.
What's your opinion about Israel?
It's kind of a hot button issue right now, isn't it?
- What? - Israel.
You have a platform, you should support Israel.
That's part of being Jewish… is supporting Israel.
So, I should say, like… like my opinion, or…
Well, what do you think about the Palestinian issue?
Well…
I mean, I… I… I…
I guess I support…
I mean it's tricky 'cause, you know,
I know there's a lot of people with strong opinions about it…
You have a platform, you should talk about how beautiful Israel is,
how important it is in the whole Middle East.
- How we are a light to the nations. - Yeah.
How in Israel was invented all kinds of medical advances
that help all the people of all the world,
and some of them don't even know that they were invented there.
And then that, the Intel and the microchips and the computers
and the medical advances and all kinds of things,
that we are ohr la'goyim, a light to the nations.
These doughnuts are delicious.
- In Hebrew, we call them sufganiyot. - Sufganiyot, right.
They're not exactly sufganiyot
because the sufganiyot are not sugar coated.
These are just jelly doughnuts.