Yes! The procedure is called something like "making you like an alien weeping willow" (ie, dependent) and Emilio didn't realize that his hands would be mutilated so his fingers were doubled in length and fell uselessly from his wrists like alien weeping wilow fronds. I actually liked that.

I feel like if you want to lean into the "tragic misunderstanding caused by radically alien cultures and physiology" aspect, you then kind of spoil it if you go "and also they imprison, starve and rape him a lot."

Like. Presumably they do not think he is consenting to that that?