I am back for season 2 of The Vow and my armchair analyzations. Hating on Keith Raniere is the engine that drives these recaps. Let’s get going.
“Hello and welcome. I’m Nancy Salzman…” In a video clip Nancy tells us she is the president of Nxivm, the umbrella company for the ESP program. She says that people who use the term cult want to devalue a group by putting unsubstantiated doubt in the minds of unsuspecting, non-critically thinking people. If this happens to you, ask, what is the group doing that’s bad? I love that Nancy presents it like it’s a run-of-the-mill thing one encounters in life: people thinking you’re in a cult.
Metropolitan Detention Center. Brooklyn, New York.
Keith, now locked up, is being interviewed by a producer of this doc. Keith tells the producer “the zeitgeist of this time” is to lock him up for life or to have him killed. The producer’s like, zeitgeist of this time? Don’t you just mean zeitgeist? And how does that relate to your ass being in prison? Keith makes it sound like locking up sexual predators and cult leaders is just a trend or something.
While Keith is blathering, we see some people dancing outside of the detention center. We aren’t told this yet, but they are the remaining faithful. They are dancing for Keith who can see them from way up high, through the window of his prison cell.
Keith continues. People don’t know why he’s a bad guy, they just assume he is. “We create monsters for comfort. It gives us peace,” Keith says, “because we can attribute something to a monster and put it away.” The real question is whether we have the character to “go beyond” our prejudices, emotions and fears to “see what is true.” We do. We do see what is true. That’s why you’re in the MDC, little man. Intro.
That was the only interview segment the producers had with Keith included in The Vow. They did want him to participate in the doc, but they were unable to reach an agreement with him. He kept giving them the run around and they realized he was just playing games. They moved on.
May 2019
We hear voice overs from various newscasters about Keith and Nxivm. Newspaper headlines float across the screen. Sex-cult leader Keith Raniere is accused of brain washing, sex abuse, branding, sex trafficking, racketeering, conspiracy. “If convicted he could spend life in prison,” one newscaster says. We see shots of the lawyers, both prosecuting and defense, walking to court. What is true consent? What version of Keith Raniere is true? This trial is about determining that, says a commentator.
Two Years Earlier. Lake George, New York.
“Nxivm Emergency Meeting” the screen says. We hear applause as Keith comes out to the stage? Platform? There’s a nice chair for him to sit on, whatever it is. He appears relaxed and cheerful. The camera is focused solely on him as he tells his audience that they are of “sufficient position within the organization” to hear about “what’s going on.” With a shrug, he says he can’t tell them any details, but there are multiple investigations of the organization going on in multiple countries.
Keith admits the investigations are a big deal. He laughs as he tells the audience an article from the New York Times will be coming out that had “zero participation from us.” That’s because Nxivm refused to answer any questions from the paper. His smile drops. Looking sad, he says it’s all hearsay.
Keith says he keeps hoping former friends “or whatever” will come to their senses and say it’s ridiculous. There is nothing nefarious *shrug* There is no abuse of power *shrug* He lays awake at night crying with worry over whether he has abused his power by saying this or that. That’s his life *shrug* He admits though, they are “being kicked.”
Keith says it’s probably a coordinated attack by just a few people. Many, Keith. There are many people at this point who have banded together to bring down Nxivm. The question is how do “noble people” handle a situation like this? As if he has any idea. Seagram’s heiress, Keith loyalist and one of Nxivm’s bankrollers, Clare Bronfman, comes out on the stage and asks the audience to keep this information secret. “Is that enough?” Keith asks Clare, in a tone of voice that implies he finds the whole thing a minor annoyance.
Seven Months Later.
Keith has run off to Mexico. “What a coward,” we hear Sarah Edmonson say.
Nayarit, Mexico.
We cut to a man from the Policía Federal Ministerial, a Mexican federal agency that deals with organized crime and corruption. On a purely superficial note, he is very handsome. He looks like a Hollywood actor playing the part of an investigator. He might be. I don’t think an undercover agent would want to appear on camera.
Anyway, he tells us the FBI had contacted them saying they didn’t know where Keith was in Mexico and asked for help in finding him. Once Keith was located, the investigators, armed with a warrant, knocked on the door of Keith’s villa. A DOS member speaking Spanish asked to see the warrant, but refused to let them in. Guns drawn, the team entered by force.
We hear audio from the arrest. An agent asks a DOS member how many people are inside the house with Keith. The woman denies Keith is there at all. The agents find a room with a locked door but the woman inside, Lauren Salzman, refuses to let them in. Kicking the door in, the agents find Keith hiding in the closet. You know, like a noble person.
We see DOS members Nikki Clyne and Allison Mack outside of the house looking bewildered. Keith can be seen in the background in handcuffs being put in the squad car. We cut back to the investigator who shows us a picture of Keith in the back of the squad car. He looks rumpled and a bit dazed.
Next, we cut to outside the court in Brooklyn where Keith is being arraigned. We see newspaper headlines and soundbites from reporters talking about the case. They talk about Nxivm’s response to Keith’s arrest: They are cooperating with authorities. Justice will prevail. The truth will come out… blah, blah. Keith’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo is talking to reporters: Keith is innocent. There was no criminal conduct. Everyone was a consenting adult… blah, blah.
We cut to inside a house (somewhere in Brooklyn, I guess) and the ex-Nxivm members/whistleblowers are celebrating. It’s Mark Vincente, Toni Natalie, Bonnie Piesse and Catherine Oxenberg. They marvel at how arrogant and unfazed Keith looked in court during his arraignment. Some things never change. They all agree it’s because there is nothing inside him. He’s a soulless shell of a person. They joke Keith is probably enjoying it all, because he imagines he will have his big moment in court like Atticus Finch. Sarah Edmonson Facetimes Mark from Canada (where she lives). She’s worried he might get off. “There’s no way, right?”
We cut to an interview between Megyn Kelly and Keith’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo. He says people are making a big deal about the branding, because it involved women. The women of DOS have been reduced to “poor little dears… When women do it, they’re victims. When men do it, they’re Marines,” he says. I’m not so sure about that, Marc. Are Marines typically told they’re getting a tattoo only to find out they are going to be branded with a cauterizing pen while being held down to a table, stark naked, all while being filmed? I really doubt it. But the point he’s making is all this stuff happened between consenting adults (“consenting” adults being blackmailed, but okay) and is being sensationalized. This is basically the crux of his defense and he’s going to be repeating that a lot.
We cut to Marc Agnifilo in his office. He has agreed to talk to the filmmakers so we can hear his perspective on the case. He thinks the government is dead wrong, they’re overstepping and the case is winnable.
Next we cut to Moira Penza, lead prosecutor, who has also agreed to talk to the filmmakers. She tells us she sees Keith as a crime boss. Nxivm members are indoctrinated from the very start to follow and believe in Keith as a figure to be revered. Because of this power, he was able to give orders and get people to commit crimes on his behalf. “It became clear very quickly who the major players were,” Moira says. She stands by her decision to prosecute all of them.
Mark and Bonnie, still in Brooklyn, get word multiple arrests are coming down. They are able to read the entire indictment online (I think this is it) and the list of defendants (see pic above). Charges range from identity theft to sex trafficking and everything in between. The document of charges is 23 pages long. Now is the time according to the training, Mark says, where Nxivm members should all be showing up to defend Keith. So, where are they? Except for a few stragglers we’ll meet later, where’s the army? I wish an EXSPian with a podcast would have explained that.
We see press is camped out in front of the Brooklyn courthouse. We see Nancy Salzman, co-founder of Nxivm, heading into court with her lawyer. We then cut to Sarah, at home, reading the news about Nancy’s daughter, Lauren. She is shocked to read Lauren’s bail was set at five million. We see Lauren, looking very tense, leaving court with her lawyer. “Were you involved in a sex cult?” a reporter asks her.
We then cut to reporters surrounding Clare Bronfman. The news has reported that she is the heiress to the Seagram’s Liquor Company and her net worth is estimated at about 200 million dollars. Her net worth used to be double that. She and her sister Sara have bankrolled Keith for years and Keith really knew how to blow through money like you wouldn’t believe.
She is utterly surrounded by reporters and is quite calm despite the frenzy. She gives a mildly snotty look and slightly shakes her head when a reporter asks, “Do you have anything to say?”
Next, we hear audio from the bail hearing for Allison Mack. Her mom has agreed to pay the five million dollar fine in case Allison fails to appear. Surrounded by the press, we see Allison leaving court. She is holding onto the arm of one of her lawyers. Her hair is up in a ponytail; she is wearing a jean jacket and a backpack. She looks very young.
The scene cuts back and forth between watching her completely surrounded by press and a clip from a video filmed with Keith during her Nxivm days. In the video, Keith asks her to imagine a scenario where she finds herself rejected by the audience while onstage. “What is the worst that could happen?” he asks. “It feels like I’ll be unloved forever,” Allison says. Keith jokes the scenario is getting worse. Now he can hear some boos and laughter coming from the audience. People are following her and pointing, “Like, bad Allison, right?”
We cut back to present day and we see someone from the press horde fall down. We then hear a woman maniacally laughing, seemingly in response to that. The laughing woman sounds completely unhinged. The whole scene is frenzied and chaotic. We close out with Keith in the video clip telling Allison if she can remove herself from the reactions of others, she will become invincible. Or something like that. That’s the gist.
The screen then shows a newspaper with a pic of Allison with the headline “Sex Cult Vulture.” Yikes.
Nicki Clyne
The next scene is with actress, Nxivm member and Keith loyalist, Nicki Clyne. Seated at a table, in a room somewhere in Brooklyn I guess, she starts off by telling the filmmakers about the day Allison was arrested. Allison was shaking with fear. Nicki had really thought she would be seeing her again later that day so she didn’t even hug her good-bye. Nicki says she feels isolated without Allison and Keith.
Nicki says her involvement with ESP has given her a greater sense of security and fulfillment. Keith helped her learn to trust and love. “It’s important to be part of a community that support and love each other,” she says. Absolutely. No argument here. I just don’t think it should be one headed by a sociopath who acts like a king with a fiefdom. I believe in checks and balances on power. Safer bet. Anyway, she relied on the ESPian community for support and now she doesn’t have it anymore.
Albany, New York
We cut to Nicki going into Keith’s house in Albany. The house is filled with packed up boxes of his stuff. Standing in the kitchen, she tells us Keith had every intention of coming back from Mexico. The government lied calling him a flight risk as an excuse to arrest him. I’m not sure Nicki understands what flight risk means. I guess the government should have taken Keith’s word for it.
Up in his bedroom she sees that old black puffy coat he always wore that I remember seeing in season one. She puts it on and smiles affectionately. Just from her tone of voice, it’s obvious she adores Keith.
We cut back to the room in Brooklyn. Nicki tells us she was in a physical relationship with Keith for many years. She kept it secret she tells us, but she doesn’t say it was at Keith’s behest. Though we all know of course it was. She says a lot of people within the Nxivm community did not know about Keith’s sex partners (I am loathe to call them romantic partners) or that he even had any. Believe it or not, a lot of people thought he was celibate. I learned that from India Oxenberg’s doc series “Seduced.” That just shows you, as India says in her doc, how good Keith was at getting people to keep his secrets. And there were a whole lotta women having sex with Keith while keeping it secret.
Nicki wishes there was a way she could show the world who Keith really is “and how much he has contributed to making this world a better place through everyone he has ever interacted with.” Yeah, she really said that. I don’t know what she feels about Keith today, post-trial. It is likely she was not fully aware of all the shit that went down between Keith and some other members at the time of this scene being filmed. Because no way in hell she would have the chutzpah to say that if she did, right? Because, damn.
Brooklyn, New York
We see Emily Saul, a journalist for the New York Post, talking on her cell to her editor, as she hurriedly walks on a street outside of the courthouse. She consults her notes, “Grandmaster is one word and it should be capitalized,” she says. Which is funny in a kind of macabre way.
Emily tells us she covers Brooklyn Federal Court for the paper. The Post is known for their attention grabbing headlines. “Nxivm leader liked ‘sex slaves’ thin- but pigged out on junk food” one article says. These are called “Hey, Martha!” headlines, she explains. They’re supposed to get a husband sitting at the breakfast table to call out to his wife, “Hey Martha! You won’t believe what I’m reading in the paper!” The whole case is just filled with “Hey, Marthas,” she tells us.
“The press loves Allison Mack,” Emily says in voice over as we look at pap shots of Allison leaving court. Emily finds Keith more interesting. “Self-proclaimed smartest man in the world,” she says wryly. We see a bunch of headlines from articles she has written about Nxivm as well as some other cases. I have to say, some are so darkly comical, it’s hard to choose which pictures to post.
We cut to Keith’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, who says, the media loves this shit. And because of the media attention, Nxivm/Raniere caught the eye of the government. Now Marc’s gotta spend a week explaining to the jury DOS was not a cult if everyone involved was a consenting adult. Marc thinks the government is using the controversy of the “sex cult” label as leverage.
Prosecutor Moira Penza, on the other hand, feels “it was very important to show that sex was a major part of this.” She doesn’t pretend to know if for Keith it was all about the sex or really, all about the power. It doesn’t matter. “The sexual abuse of women was part of this enterprise,” she says.
Back to Marc. He tells us Keith makes no apologies for having “multiple long-term partners.” Some he has sex with and some he doesn’t but they all know the deal. Marc doesn’t think it’s even possible to say these women didn’t consent.
Consent means informed consent, Moira says. None of the women actually knew what they were signing up for in DOS. And once in, they no longer had the option to refuse demands, because they were essentially blackmailed into complying. You’ll remember all the women had to provide “collateral” before hearing about what the hell DOS even was. No one was informed having sex with Keith was a part of the package for some of them. Not until it was too late to back out.
Marc thinks it’s dangerous to criminalize “decisions adult people are making to be happy.” To rectify this, DOS members will need to testify in court they joined the secret group for good reasons of their own. As he is talking we see pics of the various masters in the group. There are some names that I have never heard mentioned before.
Back to Nicki. She tells us she has the authority to give better insight to DOS, because she helped create it. In a somewhat mocking tone, she says people are obsessed with sex and that was not the focus of the group. They did stuff like go for coffee runs and walks together. The group was about building meaningful relationships amongst the women that were meant to be for the rest of their lives.
Michele
We cut to a different room (probably still in Brooklyn) and a woman sits down at a table to give her interview. This is Michele and though we aren’t told this, she was referred to in season one as “Rachel,” Jane Doe’s master. “People think anyone who’s still around are just brain-washed bitches of Keith’s doing his bidding. How insulting,” she says with an ironic smile.
Michele gives us a mini-bio of her life prior to joining Nxivm. When she was 24, she went through an intense break-up. She felt suicidal at times and had no sense of how to best handle what she was going through. “I became a seeker,” she says. After trying different things, she found Nxivm.
Michele explains she has always strived for excellence, to be the best version of herself. Allison was the one who told her about DOS. It was just for women and Michele felt if Allison was a part of it, it had to be a great group.
Michele understood DOS would be hard-core. In the group she got to find out “what I was made of.” She refers to the activities that went on in DOS as “simulations” that were designed to build discipline, understand commitment and develop character. Allison’s job was not to affirm or coddle, Michele explains, but to push her as hard as necessary. She gave Allison permission to push her this hard, because she was very serious about her personal growth. Interesting Michele uses the word “permission” given that once you joined DOS, compliance to your master was a non-negotiable. That was kind of the whole point. We are not given specific examples of the simulations or exactly what went down that Michele felt was so transformative, beyond saying she was pushed past her fears. What kind of fears? How exactly did Allison push her? Well, whatever happened, “It changed my life,” Michele tells us.
When things fell apart for Nxivm, Michele walked away from the organization. She found a great job working for a restaurant company. No one knew where she came from, “I felt like I had a second chance.” Things were going great until Frank Parlato wrote an article about her for his website the “Frank Report.” In the article, Frank said Michele had invited Nicki to join her at her job for the purpose of recruiting women into a sex cult. Michele was fired immediately. She didn’t see the point in trying to run away from her association with Nxivm anymore since it would always find her anyway. She tells us it’s not DOS that has created hardship in her life, but the public at large seeing it as a sex cult.
We cut to Michele calling Keith. She asks how he is and giving a little sarcastic chuckle, he says, “It’s just like being in prison.” Then he, with some degree of (fake-ass) humility, expresses his thanks for her standing by him “in this struggle.” She tells him it’s a test to see if she is willing to stand up for what she believes. He tells her she is purposeful and principled.
It’s subtle, but the way in which Keith speaks, even as he sits in a jail cell, is with an authoritative tone. Keith tells you what kind of person you are, because he knows. He’s the expert. And while Michele certainly does not come across as a pushover, there is a surrender there on her part for indulging him. There is a surrender on anyone’s part who lets Keith assume the role of being the best judge of their character. It’s a dynamic.
“Know that you are appreciated,” Keith says to her. Michele says she is glad to hear that as it’s important to her. “We’re fighting for you,” she tells him. He says “thank you” and the scene fades out.
Vero
Next we fade into what looks like someone’s living room. We are introduced to a woman named Vero. She starts off by saying Keith’s defenders are harming themselves. If they don’t see him for what he is, it’s because they don’t want to.
We cut to video footage of Keith sitting on his platform/stage thingy. He is smiling at Vero (short for Veronica) who introduces herself to Keith from the audience. She is earnest as she tells Keith “she is ready for the hard work.” Of improving the world, presumably. ESPians believed they were on a mission, if you remember from last season.
Vero gives us a mini-bio of her life prior to joining Nxivm. She was a successful actress before she joined, but she had always been a bit of a “seeker.” This self-descriptor “seeker” comes up so constantly with members still in and out of the organization, I almost wonder if it was part of a mantra they had to repeat on the daily or something. I’m not mocking, but I have heard it a lot. A lot.
We again cut to video footage of Vero, in an audience of people listening to Keith ramble about creating a better world. Her hands are clasped and she is very heartfelt in her expression. Here’s the deal about Vero: You like her right away. So watching this makes me hate Keith more. You may ask, is that even possible? It is! I’m just getting warmed up.
Vero says when she joined ESP/Nxivm, she felt like she had found “everything that I had been looking for.” It was ten years before she was asked to join DOS. Like all the others, she was told it was supposed to be a group of women who were deeply committed to upholding their values. She tells us she did not see the wolf in the lamb’s clothing. The sense of betrayal she feels now is intense and she is still grappling with trying to understand how she allowed herself to take part in it all.
Clifton Park, New York
We cut to Mark Vincente and Keith’s longtime, but now former girlfriend, Karen Unterreiner. They are at her house, talking. One detail to know is she and Keith started dating in college. Keith majored in three different subjects (biology, math and physics) with two minors while at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. I imagine he was motivated by the desire to prove he was the exceptional genius (240 IQ!) he believed himself to be. I have read or heard somewhere—a book or an interview perhaps—it was Karen who was tasked with completing a large chunk of his schoolwork so he could keep up with the workload. He did manage to graduate, but with an underwhelming 2.26 GPA.
Anyway, back to Karen and Mark. She tells him if he hadn’t brought down Keith she doesn’t think she ever would have gotten out of Nxivm. She jokes she’d been manipulated by Keith for so long she would have been 80 years old before she had freed herself.
We cut to video from 2006. Keith is saying he has been with Karen for 30 years. He wonders why he is able to maintain long term relationships with multiple women. Some have left, he admits, but why do some stay? The camera pans to Pam Cafritz (who you may remember as another of Keith’s girlfriends) and then to Karen as she says, “There’s a certain type who stays.” Keith asks, why does she stay? There is intensity in Karen’s voice when she answers he is “the ideal human being and what I want to be. What I want my life to be.” The camera pans to Keith and his expression doesn’t change with her reply. He is obviously used to hearing stuff like this.
Karen shares a mini-bio with Mark about her past with Keith. She was 18 and her father had died only the week before they first met. She feels her vulnerability was what made him notice her. Things got intense between them very quickly. Karen says that her self-esteem was quite low at this time and Keith took advantage of it. He encouraged her to believe that, without him, she wasn’t strong enough to stand on her own.
Karen met Keith’s mom, whom she describes as very eccentric. Keith had told her his mom was manipulative. She would make herself sick to punish him. Later, Keith would accuse Karen (and the rest of his girlfriends) of doing the same. He would make himself sick to get out of situations where he was being questioned too closely by the women as well. Karen refers to herself and the other girlfriends as “we.” She and the women who lived with him in their house in Albany were like a collective acting as one. Barbara Bouchey talked about dealing with them in season one.
She casually points to a bookshelf. “His mom’s up in that orange thing, up above,” she tells Mark. Fascinated, Mark asks to take a look. “This is Cuddles the cat,” Karen says, taking out a cardboard box from the container. “And this is Vera. Vera Raniere,” she says, showing Mark the plain tin canister that holds her ashes. The official cremation certificate is glued to the side. “What the fuck,” Mark says, incredulous. Karen says her ashes have been sitting on top of the shelf for 20 years or so and she had forgotten about them. There’s some dark humor in Vera’s ashes being so casually stored along with the ashes of Cuddles the cat, but, for whatever reason, it just struck me as sad.
Talk turns to Nancy Salzman and Karen says Nancy must have had some awareness of things that were going down with DOS. Mark is like, didn’t she know about everything? Karen isn’t sure. Nancy was never consistent about revealing what she knew. “Oh, it’s just some girls doing some things,” is how she described it to Karen. She thinks Nancy was not one to question Keith about much. He was her mentor and Nancy looked up to him as “almost a god, in some ways.”
We cut to Brooklyn and the press camped out in front of the courthouse. There has been some updates on the case. The defendants are being represented as a united group. They have a shit ton of lawyers, too. Prosecutor Moira Penza says loyalty amongst the inner circle of criminal organizations is nothing new. It’s possible they will never break with Keith.
Video Footage Filmed in 2006
Keith and Nancy are having a philosophical discussion about perception. She sits on the floor of his living room with Keith above her on the couch. She looks at him adoringly as he blathers about a mirror and a red cloth or some bullshit. He blathers some more about perception being subjective and what is perceived by individuals “is very much like a color off of the wall.” I have no fucking clue what the hell he means by that. Talking to whoever is holding the camera he asks, “You understand?” The camera person, who sounds like a woman, mumbles an unsure sound of agreement. “It doesn’t exist,” Keith concludes. There are ways to talk about perception being subjective, but comparing it to a color on a wall doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s Keith talking, so 🙄
Nancy tells Keith he has an amazing ability to explain things to people. Keith says, “Well, my ability as a teacher can only be judged by what my students become.” Nancy hopes to be an example of a successful student. Sounding quite emotional, she says she is very grateful to him. She continues to gaze at him adoringly and shakes her head in wonder. She is just knocked out.
I’ve seen this episode a number of times now and every time I see this scene I just don’t entirely buy it. Nobody looks at anyone with this level of adoration with genuine sincerity. Nancy had known Keith for how many years at this point? Like seven, eight years or something? You know he treated her like shit. I can’t really put it into words, but I feel like the choice was: face up to what Keith really is and walk away or push it down and deny what you’re really feeling. Like, push it way down. Overcompensation almost. I could be way off base, but at some point, I think she willingly chose to just ignore what she knew he actually was. She was in too deep.
Anyway, Keith is just lying there, taking her devotion in. A small smile or is it a smirk? appears on his face. He seems amused by how snowed Nancy seems to be. Jesus, what a dynamic. I’d rather jump off a cliff.
Audio Recording From 2014
Keith is talking to someone about Nancy. Keith says initially Nancy was “replaceable.” He claims he could have partnered with Tony Robbins or people like that, but he didn’t think they were “appropriate.” Oh, please. Tony Robbins has been in the “motivational speaker” biz since he was 17 years old. He had already become successful in the self-help market before Keith got in the game. Anyway, Keith says people like Tony Robbins would not have been a good fit with him “personality-wise and things like that.”
Keith describes Nancy as a good student who practiced what she learned from him diligently. There is going to be more detail about “the tech” of ESP and how it was developed in a later episode. I want to mention it now though, because of how Keith is talking about it in this audio recording. He makes it sound like he was the creator of the entire ESP curriculum. He wasn’t. He created the concepts of ESP, but Nancy helped him make it a workable program. He couldn’t have done it without her.
What she learned from Keith was how to teach it to ESP members in a salesman type way that was easy to understand. I guess? I’m not even clear what Keith taught Nancy exactly. Though in some video clips we see Nancy conducting ESP classes in the same way that Keith does. In some cases, she repeats what he says word for word. We will hear from Nancy in later episodes, details about how Nxivm was created and stuff that will give more insight to this whole relationship between Keith, Nancy and the company.
We see some more clips of Nancy and ESP people bowing to her and saying, “Thank you, Prefect.” Prefect was her official title and Keith’s was Vanguard, you may recall. We see people like Allison Mack thank her for being their leader and Nancy looking emotional and touched by their praise. “So, now, Nancy’s not replaceable,” we hear Keith say in voice-over. The scene closes out with Nancy in voice-over saying the upside to personal secrets coming out is freedom, the downside is punishment. Sounds ominous!
We cut back to the Brooklyn Courthouse. News has come in Nancy has pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy. This is an important crack in what was a united front of defendants.
We cut to Marc, Keith’s lawyer, heading out to the Metropolitan Detention Center. He says he thinks Nancy is a sweet and smart person. He’s sad she has turned.
In voice-over we hear Keith talking to Marc, weighing in on this latest development. Keith says it’s understandable Nancy has given in to various influences. He doesn’t sound angry. He is trying to convey an attitude of compassion, but the condescension is there. You can hear it through the bullshit. The way he talks in general, even to his lawyer Marc, is like he is still on stage in Albany giving a lecture to an audience.
Nancy doesn’t understand what she has done, Keith explains to Marc. She doesn’t realize by pleading guilty, she has “separated the community.” He likens her situation to a lamb being surrounded by wolves. His tone of voice is like, *little regretful sigh* “Oh, well. What can you do? She’s weak and now she has ruined it for everyone.”
Outside of the detention center, Marc tells the filmmakers Keith is really grieving. His world is coming to an end. Marc told Keith he doesn’t know if others will turn also.
Back to outside the courthouse. We see Lauren Salzman walking into court flanked by her lawyers. There is a look on her face of, I would say, resigned acceptance. We hear she has pleaded guilty to two counts of racketeering conspiracy and racketeering. We hear a reporter say there is a possibility she will be testifying at the trial. Next, we hear “Allison Mack cracked.” She, too, has pleaded guilty and is facing a maximum of forty years.
There is word Clare Bronfman might be pleading guilty, also. We hear voice overs and see newspaper headlines that Keith is all by himself now. All of the defendants, except him, have pleaded guilty. We hear prosecutor Moira Penza say once Nancy pled, it changed the entire dynamic of the group.
Ugh, this episode felt like it was never going to end! But finally. We close with Nancy, sounding incredulous, as she describes her house being raided, being arrested and ending up in a jail cell. We see her feet with an ankle monitor on as she says, basically, the world has a perception of her that isn’t really who she is.
Next episode clips show that Nancy will be the focus. It ends with her saying, in the same incredulous tone, “I spent 20 years trying to make the world a better place and this is where I ended up.”
Recapulet 
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