Intro is a lot of fast clips from the previous two episodes, more or less. Some images we haven’t seen, but no big deal. We cut to Clifton Park, suburb of Albany, New York. We are outside a row of townhouses. India says it’s strange to think of who lives in these houses now. As she walks down the street India ponders what her life would be like if she had stayed in college and pursued a career etc. But in some strange way, she says, maybe I needed to know what I learned from the whole experience. Mmm, I say, maybe, maybe not, but life is weird as hell for a lot of us so, just roll with it, India.
In February 2016, India was living in L.A and working as a coach. She had been in DOS for a few months and Nxivm for five years. She traveled to Albany constantly to take more classes. It was while she was there Allison told her about Project: Seduce Keith. India said it put her in a “state of shock.”
The point of it was to push India out of her comfort zone and to grow as a human being or some bullshit jazz like that. That said, she wasn’t worried about actually having to have sex with Keith because his followers were told he was a renunciate. Proof the assignment was complete would be a naked picture of her taken by Keith and then sent to Allison.
We are back at the townhouses in Clifton Park. They’re just run-of-the-mill suburban houses. Their most distinctive features are their lack of any. The overall neighborhood is pretty though. India points out where Keith picked her up to drive her to his place. Keith talked to her about what she wanted and how he could help her.
India hurriedly asked him to take the picture so she could get it over with. She tells us she didn’t feel like she had a choice in the matter and she was nervous and scared. After she undressed, India felt like she was in an altered state. She also felt the whole thing was weird, but it was supposed to be a chance to push against her fears.
After Keith took the picture, he told her he was Allison’s master and therefore, India’s grandmaster. “What the hell does that mean?” India thought. The pic below is more revealing than what we learned in “The Vow.” We weren’t told about all of the women that comprised the “1st line” of masters in “The Vow.”
We cut to various clips of insider footage of Keith kissing his various 1st Line DOS slaves. It’s so obviously sexual. How on earth could anyone really believe this guy was celibate with the way he was acting? I’m not talking about India, I mean the grown ass adults who were over 30 and married. They saw that shit and believed he didn’t have sex?? In the clips Keith is always unshaven and from what people have said, he stunk of B.O. from not showering that much. It’s gross to look at, this repulsive creature, kissing all these women while they look at him with such devotion.
Move to Albany
India tells us she was commanded by Allison to move to Albany. Cult expert Rick Ross tells us all of Keith’s most devoted followers would move to Albany to live near him. It was pivotal to make the ultimate commitment to Nxivm. Catherine tells us because India was 24 years old, she couldn’t prevent her from going. And, Catherine had no influence on India at this point.
India moved in with Allison and in exchange for rent she cooked, cleaned and managed anything Allison needed taken care of. India says she became more integrated into Allison’s life and the Nxivm community. It was all about living a rigorous lifestyle. So-called goals with consequences if she failed. Punishments for fails was the usual crap: cold showers, standing in the snow for 30 minutes, doing planks…
Allison pressured her slaves to show up for the nightly volleyball games Keith liked to have at a gym called The Sports Barn. There was competition among the 1st line masters; whoever got their slaves to show up at volleyball the most frequently indicated who was the most devoted to Keith. India made it a point to show up as much as she could as Allison requested.
Keith started paying more attention to India and they would go for walks together. Long walks because he sometimes would be out walking all night. Keith would talk about philosophical stuff. He and India bonded over both of them being dyslexic. Since the seduction assignment was completed, India thought Keith was going to mentor her in regards to how to build a business and what India’s goals were. India admits it felt good to have Keith’s attention and focus during their get togethers.
Cult expert Rick Ross says Keith used these walks to pry information out of his prey (so to speak) so he could manipulate them. India tells us she really trusted Keith and felt she could share anything with him.
India tells us Allison’s next assignment for her was to send a picture of herself in her underwear to Keith. She was also to diet down to 106 pounds. India was like, what the fuck? I haven’t weighed that since I was 12 years old. Allison instructed her to eat only 500 or less calories a day and to ask permission every time she wanted to eat something. India tells us she was consumed by this task. All day she was hungry and thinking about what she could or could not eat.
Dr. Hassan tells us this is part of the mind control regime to foster obedience. Additionally, India was sleeping little and had to exercise every day. If she complained to Allison about feeling hungry and tired, she would ask, What would it feel like to break the commitment India had made? I would be like, fine. It will feel absolutely fine for me to break this commitment. Where is the nearest McDonald’s because I am out of here. (I’m not dissing India, just making a joke.)
We linger on a sexy glamour shot of India as she tells us the DOS slaves were on a starvation diet with not enough calories to function properly. After a few months of this, India’s hair started to fall out. India talked to a few women like Clare Bronfman and Nancy Salzman about the fact she wasn’t getting her period anymore either. They were like, oh, that happens when you diet. Allison told India she hadn’t had her period for 10 years. Side note: Allison joined Nxivm in 2006 until 2018 so she was in for 12 years. Just fyi.
India tells us while Keith got off on controlling people, the dieting thing was because he had a sexual preference for skinny women. I think he got off on the power to demand women starve themselves, too. Let’s be real.
We then cut to former member Kelly and India taking a walk together so they can talk about India. India wonders what it looked like from the outside in. Kelly says though she didn’t know what was going on, every time she came to Albany she could tell India wasn’t eating and she didn’t look well. Kelly says she wanted to call India’s mom, because being a mother herself, Kelly felt worried. Kelly tells India she sat down with her one day and asked if she was okay, but someone interrupted them to brusquely say India was fine. India says, “Geez…” and looks stunned to hear this.
I am so confused. Kelly is telling India about a conversation she had with India and India is shocked to hear it? India tells her she wasn’t even aware that had even happened. I guess she really was out to lunch. But not literally, because she wasn’t allowed to eat anything.
Kelly says she feels bad for not pushing. Then she gets choked up, because she feels bad for not doing anything to help. India tells Kelly it’s okay. She wonders if she would have even heard or listened to anybody that had tried to intervene anyway.
This segment irked me. India wasn’t the only one in trouble, you know. There is something so, I don’t know, privileged about this clip. Like India was the VIP of the victims.
Still, I’m really struck how the damage from all of this spreads so much further than you might think. The people who were not so sucked in or didn’t feel they were victims still have to process feeling guilt as if there was something they could have done or they should have known. Or like Catherine, who blames herself even though she would never intentionally bring her daughter into something that would hurt her. The victims and the residual victims. They all have to process all these aftermath emotions.
Pyramid of Slaves
Several months after moving to Albany, Allison revealed to India she had other slaves. India had not been aware of the whole pyramid of slavery Keith and Allison had going so this was new information. Allison told India she would get to meet them and they would be her “sisters,” like in a sorority. A super shitty sorority. No keg parties for these ladies, that’s for damn sure.
There were three other women in Allison’s “pod.” One was Dr. Danielle Roberts, an osteopath. She had been recruited into Nxivm by that quack Dr. Porter who created those mind experiments from the last episode. There was also a woman named Michele and another woman named Nicole. India felt bonded with Nicole right away, because she felt like she finally had someone she could talk to about DOS. I guess Danielle and Michele were too far gone to relate to on any level. Michele and Danielle are still very devout, by the way.
We then cut to video footage of Allison blathering about the untapped magnificence of women. A fly gets in the way while she is being filmed and she cracks some jokes. She is very charming in that moment.
Allison Mack
India tells us Allison could be playful and fun or she could be “like a viper” and would berate you. You never knew what you would get. That would be very destabilizing for the people on the receiving end of her unpredictable moods. It keeps the person on edge. She probably learned that from Keith. I read somewhere he was very hot and cold with her and Allison never knew why.
A former DOS member (with her face blurred) named “Jill” tells us Allison always looked “exuberantly happy,” almost like she was on stage performing. We cut to India sitting and talking with former member Tabby about Allison. India says she thinks Allison was most comfortable when she had a role and Keith knew that. So, he gave her a role to perform and “she flew with it.” Tabby nods. She says Allison was unkind to her and was always putting her in her place. India says that was a power play and Allison had told her many times she enjoyed being a master. She tells Tabby Allison would transform and become like a different person. I feel like we are all sitting around gossiping about Allison, but it’s fascinating so, carry on.
Jill tells us in her opinion, Allison struggled with authenticity. And, as a performer, she lost touch with who she was. Keith took full advantage of that. Keith pushed Allison, “the most malleable person,” to “very extreme lengths.” She says Allison turned India and other women into “commodities for Keith.” Jill doesn’t sugarcoat her insights, but they sound on point.
India says she went to Vanguard week in 2016, her first time going since she became a slave in DOS. She tells us it was very clear Allison wanted to please Keith. While India is telling us this, we see footage of a performance Allison gave on tribute night. She is singing a song to Keith and it is fraught with emotion. India recalls thinking the performance was like watching Allison sing a love letter to him.
In the fall of 2016, Allison took her pod of slaves to the Berkshires “to bond,” India tells us. Allison informed them the trip wasn’t just for fun. Allison had the women strip naked so she could take a group photo which she then texted to Keith. India was able to see what he texted back: “All mine? 😈” Nicole saw the text too and got pissed. She wanted to know why Keith was getting the pictures in the first place and was he getting off on them? Wasn’t he supposed to be holy?
Allison told Nicole she was projecting and denied any sexual intent. India says she and the other girls were “kind of paralyzed” while Nicole was getting chewed out. Angry, Allison told the group she was going to punish them “by taking close up shots of their pussies.” I am merely quoting India who is quoting Allison. The girls had to get naked again and line up to get these shots.
India tells us you would like to think you would be brave and would stand up for yourself, but at the time India says, “I couldn’t.” By this point in her indoctrination, there is no way India would see standing up for herself as a positive thing, either. The whole ethos of DOS was total obedience as a means for personal growth. It was submission for success because defiance is a sign of resistance to growth. Everything was flipped.
We linger on a professionally taken glamour shot of India for several beats. It’s kind of an odd juxtaposition with the scene she is describing. I’m sure the team of PR people that were involved in the editing of this doc series were making a point, but I have no idea what it is. Anyway, we continue to linger on it for a couple of silent beats more before we cut.
Allison started to ask for monthly collateral with consequences if any of the women missed their deadline. It was a huge pile up: credit cards, photos, videos, demeaning things said (and recorded) about loved ones and so on. It weighed on India constantly so of course she didn’t want to do anything wrong.
Then Keith started texting her at random times during the day. He would ask why she was being distant or if she was deliberately avoiding him? I imagine she was, Keith. You are disgusting. Then he just started asking her to send him nude photos. He preferred close up shots of her crotch. The first time it happened India was driving in her car and Keith demanded she pull over and do it immediately. He demanded the shot be close up and explicit with India looking happy or else he would tell her to do it over again.
The reason Keith gave India for asking for these photos was to push her out of her comfort zone. I would imagine at this point India felt so trapped she would accept any rationalization she could tell herself as to why it was necessary to do all of this. India says she told herself if she was uncomfortable then she must be doing it right. Under the guise of helping someone to push past their fears—growth happens outside of your comfort zone!—it really can be the perfect bullshit excuse to get someone to act against their better judgement.
Dr. Lalich tells us all the reasons why India and the other women went along with these requests from Keith. In a nutshell, they were conditioned to ignore their gut instincts and to perceive any resistance within themselves as giving in to fear and weakness. Lalich tells us because the Albany Nxivm people were pretty isolated to just being with each other, it’s not like any sane information was coming in from outside that bubble.
India tells us it was during this time that Allison informed her the next thing India needed to do was ask Keith to help her work on her “problems with sex.” “I didn’t think I had any problems with sex,” India says. I love the look on her face when she says this, because it’s a bit indignant like, “What did this bitch just say to me?” By now though, India knew to keep any objections she had to herself.
She tells us it’s hard to look back at this time when she was so submissive and said yes to everything that was demanded of her. But she did believe everything she was doing was ultimately good for her. “I didn’t question it,” says India. So if it had to be sex with Keith then it was going to be sex with Keith.
We cut to India in present day in Albany walking outside the cluster of townhouses where Keith and company lived. She points out the house where Keith had his library/office. India was told to go there, get undressed and wait for him. When he showed up he performed oral sex on her for what “felt like hours” while she “just sort of lied there.” Sounds about as pleasurable as you would expect. India tells us she was relieved he never got aroused, because she was able to tell herself he was really doing all of this for her benefit and not for his own pleasure. These meetings continued for a year. She was unaware he was having sexual encounters with other women, too. “He was just really good at having people keep his secrets,” India tells us.
We cut to India meeting with Dr. Nan Wise who specializes in sex trauma. India tells her the sexual experiences with Keith felt like going to the doctor. Dr. Wise is very sympathetic and tells her none of it was truly consensual. India tells her she would feel lousy during these encounters. When India, more or less, told Keith she wasn’t enjoying their get togethers, he told her it was her problem. India believed him.
India tells Dr. Wise she’d always feel a ball of pain in her chest when she was with Keith. Getting choked up, she tells Dr. Wise she realizes now her body was warning her, but she was ignoring it. It’s awful hearing this and what she had to go through.
We cut to footage of Keith lying on a couch talking on the phone as India tells us in voice over everyone was told Keith was celibate, but really he was sleeping with “all the women in his inner circle.” And then some. Keith was humping every leg he possibly could, pretty much. India says all the women he slept with knew he was not monogamous, but they were required to be.
Rick Ross tells us Keith was a sexual compulsive and he could never get enough. Further, he wanted to see how far he could push it with women and that lead to further escalations in “his torture of women.”
India tells us none of the women in DOS were immune to getting punishment. “It was part of the program,” she says. One of the 1st line slaves, Dani Padilla was paddled by Allison as a punishment and India filmed it. The punishment was because Allison had failed on her diet. Lawyer Moira Penza points out, because this was not true consent there was no safe word or way out of the situation. India tells us Dani was the one Keith really started to “experiment on.” It was bondage and S/M shit.
Dr. Lalich tells us with cults, eventually there is a kind of self-sealing system where compliance becomes automatic and you don’t need to even be told what to do. Everything has become internalized. An example is the cilice Allison would wear when she decided she needed to be punished.
We are told about a young woman named Daniela. Her entire family was in Nxivm and moved to Albany from Mexico. Keith had manipulated her into a sexual relationship. He had her confined to a room for punishment when she said she was interested in someone else. She was kept in the room for two years. India says while she had visited the townhouse Daniela was being confined in many times, she had had no idea she even existed. That’s creepy as fuck and really sad.
We hear audio from a woman who Keith started molesting when she was 12 years old. The doc doesn’t say this, but Pam Cafritz, one of Keith’s harem, lured the girl initially under the guise of being their dog walker. Then it was for tutoring.
We cut to footage of Keith talking about some of the curriculum created for Jness. It was about defining abuse and the age of consent. “Is the person a child? Or is the person adult-like?” Keith asks in regards to age of consent. “Some little children are perfectly happy with it,” Keith says. I hate this motherfucker, I swear to God.
DOS check ins, calorie restrictions, taking classes, doing readiness drills, giving collateral, late night sessions and walks with Keith. India was exhausted. But now she needed to start enrolling slaves herself. India tells us she didn’t want to. Journalist Kaitlin Cangro tells us in 2016, things really started ramping up in DOS. (DOS started in 2014.) Keith had grandiose fantasies that eventually some of the women would be working in government and influencing elections.
India said DOS was growing quickly because of all the pressure there was to enroll more women. Former member “Jill” says slaves and masters were punished if they didn’t enroll new people fast enough. A former member named Debora tells us her ESP coach approached her about it. Former member Kelly was approached too. Debora and Kelly were both told, as was custom, they could not be told anything in detail about DOS without first giving collateral. Kelly wanted to think about it first.
We cut to India talking with Debora who ultimately turned down the offer. India wants to know why she was able to say no. Debora is very likable. She’s seems like a no bullshit kind of person. She tells India her coach wouldn’t look her in the eye when she was talking about it. The opposite behavior of a strong confident person. She also saw a text her coach was sending to someone saying, “I love you, my master” and she found that creepy. Her gut instinct told her it was a bad scene. India tells her she is trying to get better at listening to her gut.
It is obviously very important we, the audience know India did not want to recruit people into DOS. She angrily tells us every time she had an objection to anything at all she was told to get an EM so she could get over any negative reaction she had. Eventually India had three slaves under her who had given her collateral as well. One gave an extremely explicit video India sent on to Allison who then sent it to Keith. “Now I feel horrible that I lied to them,” says India.
India says because she didn’t like being a master she would only ask her slaves (whom she refused to call slaves) to journal as their assignments. Allison would tell India she was being too soft. Eventually India was told to give one of her slaves “the seduction assignment.” Lawyer Moira Penza tells us the line of victim and victimizer gets blurred in a situation like DOS.
Through this segment India is all “I didn’t want to…” “I never wanted to…” “I put it off so I wouldn’t have to…” “I didn’t like it when…” “I was even more uncomfortable when…” We get it, we get it. This gets tiresome since this type of justifying comes from India whenever she has to talk about the things she did to other people while in DOS. It’s like a lot of this doc, heavy handed and too strategic.
India told her family she wouldn’t be coming home for Christmas, which was out of the ordinary, so Catherine was worried. We see a video clip of a very tired and gaunt looking India wishing her family back in LA a Merry Christmas. Her eyes are so vacant in this clip. She is just gone. It’s disturbing.
India tells us in 2017, Allison told her there would be a ceremony that would involve getting a mark on their bodies representing a permanent commitment to DOS. The 1st line masters had already done it. So it was the 2nd line’s turn to be branded.
The Brand
Former member Jill tells us it was to serve as a reminder your relationship with your master was the most important one in your life. Cult expert Rick Ross tells us because of the environment the women were in, as well as because of the indoctrination, doing such a thing seemed logical.
India tells us she was told it would be a bonding experience and the brand would be a symbol for fire, water, earth and sky. Jill tells us she was told the brand would be the size of a quarter. She also thought it would take just a few seconds to get. Ugh, Allison showed the women videos of people getting tattooed using a cauterizing pen. India thought it looked terrible, but she didn’t connect it would be happening to her.
Dr. Danielle Roberts was tasked with doing the job and she practiced on oranges. The day of the ceremony the women were instructed to strip down in Allison’s bedroom and one by one lie on a table to get the brand. India went first. Michele held her feet and Nicole held her arms down so India wouldn’t convulse during the procedure. Allison read from a ceremony script.
India said the smell of burning flesh filled the entire townhouse. Initially India didn’t feel the pain but when the pen would reach areas close to her bone, the pain was shocking in its intensity. India felt like she was “out of her body” and she could tell the brand was going to be larger than she was originally told. India and the other women had to chant, “Feel the pain, feel the love.” The whole procedure took about 30 minutes.
When Keith saw India’s brand he was pleased with it and liked touching it. India says at the time she felt positive about it. It represented “something challenging” she had done with women she loved. But then, she says, Allison told her it was time for India’s slaves to get branded.
We then cut to Catherine who tells us in April of 2017, she received a phone call “from somebody who had defected from Nxivm.” Those that watched “The Vow” know this was Bonnie Piesse, Mark Vicente’s wife. Bonnie told Catherine India was in “grave danger.” End
Next episode: Final episode “Exposed” Catherine decides to go public to save India. Nxivm is going to be investigated like the mob. Lawyers speculate if India will be charged for her involvement in illegal activities.
Recapulet 
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