having a skeleton in the closet theme

A character thinks about a dark and old, possibly incriminating, secret they are keeping from everyone else, or at least from the general public.

43 total · 8 choice · 24 major · 11 minor

StoryLevelMotivation
ahp6x30 choice The now successful singer Crystal shot Tony in cold blood to ensure her sordid past didn't come back to bite her.
ahp7x08 choice Central to the story was Frank's dark secret: that he was a retired hitman.
blackmirror4x03 choice Rob and Mia had lived with the fact that they covered up a hit-and-run death for 15 years.
columbo1971e5x05 choice The villain of the story Santini was concealing that he was a former Nazi SS prison guard.
columbo1971e6x01 choice The villain of the story Ward Fowler was hiding that he was a deserted in the Korean War.
ds95x16 choice Julian was hiding that his DNA was illegally resequenced to enhance him both cognitively and physically
play: The Wild Duck (1884) choice the Ekdal home is full of lies that people tell in order to get along. Gregers' father may have impregnated his servant Gina then married her off to Hjalmar to legitimize the child, and Hjalmar's father has been disgraced and imprisoned for a crime the elder Werle committed.
tftc1989e4x09 choice The fixture of the community Sheriff Joe Garrett had a dark secret: He was once a notorious street racer, and, moreover, never faced justice over having killed a teenager while behind the wheel.
ahp3x14 major Eddie was haunted by the fact that he'd behaved in a cowardly manner during his time fighting in the Korean War.
ahp3x30 major Norman's life was turned upside down when a man out of his past threatened to reveal Norman's role in a second degree murder to the police.