I watched Aftermath Finale last night. I tend to watch these things from two perspectives. Through the eyes of someone who was deeply in all-things-scientology and, best I can, how the general audience will view it. Neither perspective is more important than the other to me. I lived through it and I now live in the real world.
From a personal view I found it very moving and thought-provoking. There are abuses within the scientology culture and they are covered up and dealt with internally which is always a dangerous position for any group to take. Mike said something near the beginning of the show which really resonated with me. He said (not his exact words, I am paraphrasing here) that scientology has a bubble universe around it. That it is paramount to protect the inner bubble of scientology but not serve the genuine well-being of the individual. Anyone that is seen to be, or is, a liability to the organisation has to be dealt with internally. A lid has to be put over events no matter what. This is very in alignment with my own scientology experience.
During the show the subject of covering up suicides came up. That was hard for me to watch. I was involved in this God awful practice. Protect the group at all costs in an area of life that is extremely fragile. The inner bubble protection racket is strong around suicides. People literally disappear from the group and no one in the group ever finds out that person has suicided. How crazy is that? How evil is that? How dark! I can't think of one other group that would not tell its members of the "unfortunate death" of one of its members and offer some sort of respect and remembrance for the deceased person, their family/friends. Besides the practice being completely inhumane, it is also dangerous. Why? If scientology, a group that claims all things decent, blah, blah, blah, can virtually nullify the existence of a member of its group because that person took their own life in a way that may reflect badly on scientology, what else it is capable of? If scientology can set about to lie and deceive the family of a member of scientology that has suicided, a family that is possibly at its most vulnerable (with shock and usually powerful grief) then it is a system that needs to be dismantled. No decent society should tolerate this type of dark conduct. It is wild stuff when you really step back and recognise how seriously fucked up scientolgy behaves.
From the general audience perspective, which I tend to feel Aftermath is mainly aimed it, I have the pleasure of saying the show has worked. It doesn't matter about all details of story content (though the brave souls that spoke on this show deserve a round of applause. It takes guts to do what they all did.) Scientology, the entity, comes up looking like a big bully, that lies. Which is the truth, it is. Scientology has been thrown into the light, a place it has never wanted to be, a place Hubbard never intended the group to find itself. Mum and Dad Citizen are talking in their living rooms, in the tea rooms at work, to people like me even. After the first series ran and it eventually aired on TV here in New Zealand some people in my life started discussing things with me in ways that were meaningful for all of us. We are still talking. It is very refreshing.
So, the lights are on and the dialogue is happening. The producers and participants of Scientology The Aftermath should be proud. I am proud of them. And grateful.