Nightmare Fuel / The Vow (2020)

• Just how good Keith Raniere is at his manipulative speech. Even knowing what he ultimately used it for, the character of the man going into the series, it's frightening how easy it is for his words to worm into your brain and twist your thoughts around to his perspective. If he's that good in archive footage in a documentary dedicated to explaining exactly how evil he is, what must it have been like meeting him in person? Little wonder so few broke free from his influence, and the ones who did had such a hard time of it.
  • Making it worse is how obvious his manipulation tactics are once you know what you're looking for, and you still fall for them! Even worse, he uses this to gain several completely loyal followers to whom he gives the exact same tools to keep even more members in line and stop them from questioning the NXIVM dogma and character of Keith Raniere.
  • It truly stands out when he works his magic on the Dalai Lama of all people. Raniere isn't even being particularly eloquent or unflappable; he's told that with all the accusations against his organization, the Dalai Lama has to be cautious about his decisions regarding the group. Raniere simply states that as far as he knows, the accusations are all false and there's no facts to back them up, which proves a compelling argument.
• Sarah and Mark coming to understand the full scope and horror of DOS after Sarah had already been recruited and branded. Making matters worse, for some time Sarah can't believe what Mark is alleging: it can't just be about having sex with Keith, since she hasn't been asked to do so. Then she realizes that wasn't why she was recruited for DOS. As one of NXIVM's top sellers, she was recruited into DOS to bring in yet more recruits, ones who Keith would want to have sex with. She was never anything more than a supplier.
• The struggle of Catherine Oxenberg to rescue her daughter from NXIVM. The woman is half Hollywood royalty, half actual royalty, who can call up her mum and casually ask her to ring up Charles^note yes, that Charles, who was "only" the Prince of Wales at the time and ask him if Catherine can get in touch with the Dalai Lama about that group he endorsed that's made her daughter a sex slave. And she still has to demonstrate uncommon perseverance, tenacity, and resourcefulness to even have a shot at taking down NXIVM and getting her daughter back, with every chance of it being a Pyrrhic Victory. And she needed help, resources, and information going back decades to get enough of a case for an FBI task force to assemble. A woman with those connections was still all but helpless against one man and his Cult.
• Even after Raniere is found guilty on all counts, even after all the evidence and testimony about his crimes come out in court, there is still a core of loyal NXIVM members who believe the trial was unfair, Keith is innocent, and nothing illegal or immoral was taking place, and they're determined to fight to "bring the injustice to light" and get Keith Raniere freed. Their utter faith in and devotion to this horrible man is chilling.
• The Season 2 epilogue notes that while NXIVM has suspended all operations since Keith's arrest and trial, it still hasn't shut down completely, though they have turned their curriculum over to the government. Leaving open the possibility that this cult is not down for the count.

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