Main cast: Terry O’Quinn (Inspector Martin Zeller), Kimberly Williams (Hiley Zeller), Benicio Del Toro (Bill), Hal Williams (Nick Ciola), Max Grodénchik (Bic), Esai Morales (Puck), and John Kassir (The Crypt Keeper)
Director: Ramón Menéndez
The Bribe is essentially a morality tale about honesty and integrity, and it begins with the Crypt Keeper running for President. What, too meta for America in 2018? The music of this episode is by a group called Pray for Rain. Lots of symbolism there.
The whole thing starts with a stripper dancing and eventually taking her top off, but that’s all the excitement to be had here. The venue is a naughty strip club The Naked Experience, one owned by the bad boy Puck. So far, Puck has gotten away by neglecting the local safety laws, but the previous fire inspector Nick Ciola had retired, and the new one, Martin Zeller, is determined to shut the place down. It’s personal – his daughter Hiley used to be in a relationship with Puck, and he was not amused, to say the least. His relationship with Hiley is a bit rocky, because for some reason he can’t communicate with her anymore. He wants her to be all respectable and educated, but she’d rather hang out with people like Puck.
Still, when her daughter loses her college scholarship due to budget cuts, and Puck offers a bribe large enough for him to cover her tuition fees, Martin feels his resolution to be this moral and upstanding fellow waver. He can take that money… no one will know, right? Especially if he absolves himself by removing evidence of his crime, say, by arranging for The Naked Experience to be burned down by a deranged arsonist?
The “twist” of this episode can be seen coming from a mile away. In fact, you can probably guess what it is just by reading the previous two paragraphs, and trust me, I didn’t give away anything that can be considered a huge spoiler. There is another spoiler which puts Martin in a more sympathetic light, but that man ends up screwing things up big time all by himself anyway, so it’s not like he’s a victim here.
At any rate, there is nothing spooky, interesting, or memorable about The Bribe. It’s just an episode that exists solely to fill up a slot. Esai Morales is hot, but he doesn’t really get much screen time here, so eh, whatever.
