Part Two exposes NXIVM’s sex cult horror house — and Keith Raniere’s brainwashed advocates

HBO’s vow He spent nine hours detailing the horrific abuses Keith Raniere committed through his NXIVM sexual cult, as well as the efforts of key members—notably Marc Vicente, Bonnie Pesset, Sarah Edmondson, and Anthony “Nebe” Ames—to escape the organization and bring it to light on the crimes. There was plenty of horror in that drawn-out 2020 non-fiction issue, which Raniere highlighted for persuading women to mark their pubic areas with his initials. However, those who can’t get enough of the misery of a predator will discover a whole new set of atrocities committed by a manipulative self-help guru in vow part two, a six-part follow-up (October 17, HBO) that revisits his trial through a variety of publications, reveals no more than that of NXIVM co-founder and “conservative” Nancy Salzman, who is at length involved in the production. Prepare to be shocked, disgusted and angry all over again.

vow part twoThe main main line is the trial of Raniere and Salzman and her daughter Lauren and Smallville Actress Alison Mack has been filed by Assistant District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Moira Penza on a raft of charges that included racketeering, conspiracy to extortion, sex trafficking, attempted sex trafficking, conspiracy to trade sex, conspiracy to forced labor, and conspiracy to wire fraud. Despite the best efforts of defense attorney Marc Agnefello (whose commentary here becomes less confident as sentencing approaches), those crimes earned Raniere a 120-year prison sentence.

The real hook for Jihane Njeim’s documentaries — which she directed, unlike her predecessor, without her partner/husband Karim Amer — is Salzman’s commentary, in which she attempts to justify her motives, investigate the manipulation she and Lauren suffered at the hands of Reanier, and grapples with her guilt in this endeavor. lateral. Far from being blamed for creating and operating Raniere’s systems of coercion and abuse, Salzman is unabashed in her role on NXIVM, defending herself as someone who strives to improve students’ lives while also grappling with the idea that, in the end, Raniere created it to satisfy his own crazy desires.

The basic impression left by him vow part two is that Raniere did not only torture, torture, and psychologically mutilate those in his orbit; He has gone one step further by turning his victims into perpetrators. Whether it was regarding Salzmans or Mack, Raniere used his “methodology” to overcome people’s fears, shortcomings, and fears, shattering them and then rebuilding them again in his perverted image. All teaching was based on perversion, turning things upside down so that individuals are constantly told – in their emotional reactions and verbal reactions to situations – that they are to blame, and that they can only correct themselves (in ways big and small) by doing what Raniere ordered. For all his talk of morals, morals, responsibility, and trust, he only cared about twisting people into knots and making himself the only wise (and always flawless) who could save them from their failures.

As before, Najim’s storytelling is at once comprehensive and distracting, multiplying the moments in a way that simultaneously enhances vital points and makes the actions a little repetitive. It uses a familiar set of official hardware, and combines archival video clips, expressive graphics (for phone recordings), and animated court-animated sequences accompanied by an audio reissue of the testimony. In addition, there is a large collection of original interviews, not only with Salzman but also with him New York Post Reporter Emily Saul and members of “The NXIVM Five,” a group of Raniere’s lieutenants who believe – even when his crimes are exposed to the world – that he is under attack, and that they must fight for his acquittal. Meanwhile, NXIVM worked with Tourette’s syndrome, which Mark Elliott claimed was miraculously successful and Isabella Constantino suggests it was less complicated, but briefly, the idea that the costume only caused harm.

vow part twoRaniere’s main contribution is to generate varying degrees of sympathy for those like the Salzmans and Mack, if only because Noujem’s docuseries make it clear that Raniere forced every woman in his orbit to give in – including creating DOS, a secret sorority in which the brand is promoted business and sex. Abuse and abuse occurred (all facilitated by requiring the participants, known as “slaves”, to hand over cursed “guarantees” to their “masters”, so that they could be permanently blackmailed). The director does not justify these women for their crimes against their friends and colleagues, but explains Raniere’s essential role in organizing everything at the micro and macro level – how the decisions he made and the orders he gave were designed, implicitly or explicitly, to give him dominance over his followers, whom he could then exploit to exercise sex. PQ: The director doesn’t justify these women for their crimes against their friends and colleagues, but she does explain Raniere’s essential role in organizing everything on a micro and macro level…

Speaking of which: there is a lot of ugliness in vow part two It is so difficult to detail. Njeim reveals – as proven in court – that Raniere planned a sex dungeon for his pupils in DOS (filled with “Good Boy Wireless Vibrating Remote Puppy Plug”, which stunned Salzman); He forced a young Mexican victim, Daniela, who joined NXIVM at age 16, to have an abortion, then told her it would be beneficial for her weight; Daniela was locked in a barren room for two years; Victim left Pam Kafritz, who was dying of cancer, lying in her faeces for hours while he ate breakfast; Perhaps worst of all, he raped (and took pornographic pictures) of Daniela’s younger sister Camilla when she was 15, eventually arranging her to become abusive herself. This, along with all the other audacity — brainwashing, sleeping with multiple sisters (once, almost at the same time), trafficking women for sex — turns the material into an in-depth portrait of evil.

With Raniere behind bars for the rest of his life, the NXIVM saga appears to be coming to an end. But in his last paragraphs, vow part two He conveys that his legacy lives on in the scars (literal and figurative) of those who survived the cult, and in loyal supporters such as Eliot and Michelle Hatchett and Battlestar Galactica Actress Nikki Klein, who insists on defending his case. In the faces of these individuals, Najim’s documentary series proves that Raniere’s atrocious crimes were only possible because he initially deceived many into believing that he was a kind and benevolent God who could do no wrong and must be obeyed at all costs. Far from releasing his charges, he has imprisoned them in mental cages – and if vow part two Is any indication, not everyone is free yet.

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