The Bribe story
Martin Zeller, a newly appointed and highly moralistic fire marshal, approaches Puck, the sleazy owner of "The Naked Experience", a strip club where his daughter Hiley anonymously to Puck and orders him to shut down the club. When he returns home, Hiley mentions that, due to budget cuts at her school, her college scholarship is getting revoked. In an effort to get enough money to send his daughter to college, Martin ignores his morals and returns to Puck, who bribes him with a dangerous offer. Directed by: Ramón Menéndez. Story by: Scott Nimerfro.
20 total · 2 choice · 7 major · 11 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| father and daughter | choice | The story turns on Martin Zeller compromising on his moral principles to get the money he needed to pay his daughter Hiley's college tuition. |
| parental love | choice | Martin Zeller wanted only the best for his daughter, Hiley. When Hiley's college scholarship was revoked through no fault of her own, Martin set aside his moral principles to get the money to pay her tuition. |
| bribery | major | Puck, the owner of a seedy strip club, bought off the fire inspector Martin Zeller to the sum of $60,000. Martin had at first refused the bribe, but set aside his moral objections when he learned that his daughter was in dire need of money. |
| compromising one's ethical principles vs. great need | major | Martin Zeller, a seemingly incorruptible fire marshal, reluctantly accepted a $60,000 bribe from the fire code violating owner of a seedy strip club, because Martin needed the money to pay his daughter's tuition. |
| coping with the death of a child | major | Martin Zeller was devastated when confronted with news that his daughter perished in a nightclub fire that Martin himself orchestrated. |
| female attraction to bad men | major | Hiley eloped to get married with the chauvanistic nightclub manager, Bill, who had taken and circulated nude photos of her. |
| remorse | major | Martin Zeller orchestrated the arson of what he mistaken though to be an empty strip club. When he learned that he had in fact cause the deaths of numerous people, including his own daughter, he was so filled with remorse that he shot himself dead. |
| suicide | major | Martin Zeller's story arc ended tragically with him blown his brains outs. |
| what if I killed someone by accident | major | By orchestrating the arson of Puck's nightclub, Martin accidentally killed a lot of people as well as his own daughter. Devastated, Martin then shot himself dead. |
| animal cruelty | minor | Bic was shown giggling as he tormenting an ant with a magnifying glass. |