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Season 2 of Scientology and the Aftermath may still be months away, but Leah Remini returned to A&E this weekend for a hour and a half Scientology special. Whereas other episodes of Aftermath have focused on stories from former church members, “Merchants of Fear” dives into the specific ways Scientology has attacked its most vocal critics not affiliated with the church. The resulting episode stands as a disturbing and powerful tribute to the importance of investigative journalism.
There’s a sort of meta quality of “Merchants of Fear” that other episodes of Aftermath lack. The show’s ninth episode starts with Remini and her co-host and former Scientology senior executive Mike Rinder explaining why the church hates its critics — known as Suppressive Persons — so much. As they explain the church’s long history of abusing these people as told through how Scientology brutally disavowed itself from L. Ron Hubbard’s wife, Mary Sue Hubbard, there’s a lurking sense of unease. Both Remini and Rinder have certainly been added to the church’s list of SPs, and there’s no telling exactly what that may entail for them.
However, “Merchants of Fear” transcends from just another explanation of this organization to a shocking documentary when Remini and Rinder sit down with various journalists who have worked to expose the church over the years. It’s one thing to hear former Scientologists explain the ethics of digging through a critic’s trash and reconstructing their personal documents. It’s quite another to see a shocked journalist learn in real time that the church had been intimately stalking her for days. That’s the horror Janet Reitman, contributor to Rolling Stone and author of Inside Scientology, experiences as she learns in real time that members of the church were surveying her trip to Clearwater, Fla. Rinder, who was responsible for tracking Reitman during this time, tells her in no uncertain terms everything the church knew about her. It’s clear that this revelation shakes the composed Reitman, and it’s not hard to see why.
The episode also explores the various ways investigating Scientology has affected the church’s response. Mark Ebner, a New York Times bestseller who was one of the first people to investigate the religion for Spy Magazine, explains why he intentionally started his scathing article by listing all of the terrible things he’s done in his life. It was a tactic used to take power away from church members looking to discredit him. Ebner was also a consultant for South Park’s widely praised “Trapped in the Closet”, which is one of the first times Scientology was mocked on a viral level. In his interview Ebner notes that satire is one of the few ways journalists are able to take power away from the organization.
As with every episode of Aftermath, there are odd revelations about the church casually sprinkled in. For example, Rinder explains that members of the church still use newspapers to clean windows because of a set of instructions L. Ron Hubbard once wrote. Remini and Rinder also explain why so many journalists have been investigated in the same noisy, intrusive way. According to the pair, there is a guide in Scientology for how members should treat intrusive journalists. Many of the bizarre stories revealed in this episode fall in line with these outlined rules.
Much like with other episodes of Aftermath, the power of “Merchants of Fear” comes from quantity. There are just so many detailed stories about members of Scientology targeting journalists in incredibly specific ways. However, the episode also stands as a testament to the power of the press, especially in the closed circuit of communication that exists in Scientology. “Merchants of Fear” unveils Scientology’s skepticism of mainstream news and the ways it uses its own biased press outlets to preach the “truth.” Over and over, the episode makes the case that Scientology sees the press as an enemy — a sentiment that feels especially ominous in today’s world.
