Rotten Mango - #349: Teen Went On “Truth Telling” TV Show To Win Money, Told 18 Personal Secrets, Then Was Murdered
Episode Date: April 7, 2024Ruth just wanted to tell her boyfriend the truth. It’s not like their relationship sucked - he was just fine? He was kind of smart? But he lacked ambition. He was just a taxi driver… and… well s...he did have another big secret she was hiding from him. It was finally time to come clean. Bryan wasn’t expecting it to hurt this much. It was bad enough to hear the love of his life had betrayed him… but to have it happen so publicly? Bryan looks up and sees rows and rows of people staring at him. He could feel their pity radiating in the air. He glances around - the cameras are all trained on him. Recording his every move and every facial expression. Soon, millions of people will see the most embarrassing moment of Bryan’s life. Bryan, along with Ruth’s parents, found themselves on the reality TV show “Moment of Truth” set. They were sitting there listening to their beloved Ruth share all her deepest, darkest, secrets. The ones she had been hiding from them. And one of them would get her killed. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Badabing, badaboom.
Ruth had a lot on her mind about this whole relationship.
I mean, she was fine with the relationship.
It's fine, she's fine.
Brian, her boyfriend is fine.
But like really, what is fine?
It's not love. It's not passion.
It's just, it's just fine.
Ruth had been thinking about this for a little bit of time.
I mean, she just never got the chance to voice it out loud
because how do you even begin to explain something like this?
She could feel herself almost waiting
for someone better to come along.
I mean, deep down she knew that Brian
is just kind of a placeholder.
He's not who she wants to be with in the long run.
She feels like she could easily find someone
that's better than Brian, but she's just used to Brian
because it's fine.
Ruth is sitting in front of Brian just looking at him
and he looks anxious.
His leg is bouncing up and down. It's like the shakes but he's quiet he's not talking he won't even
look her in the eye he's just waiting for Ruth to say something I mean isn't
that why we're all here anyway didn't you want to tell him something
Ruth starts and she admits you know she didn't she doesn't find him necessarily
that smart okay well that's harsh but she feels like he lacks ambition, and he's just, quote,
he's just a taxi driver.
The truth comes spilling out of Ruth.
I mean, it's a painful ordeal. If you were to see this unfold and witness this whole conversation,
you would cringe from the stress.
It's just so uncomfy. If this is happening inside of a local coffee shop,
I wouldn't even stay to listen.
I would get up and leave because it's such a vulnerable conversation that's so much to take in.
I don't want to be a part of it. But Brian, he can't just get up and walk away.
Ruth is staring at him. But also, so are Ruth's parents.
They're sitting right next to him listening to all of this. They're watching this whole raw conversation go down. So Ruth, boyfriend
and the parents are all sitting together. And Brian looks up and it feels like
everyone is staring at him just waiting for him to react. He can see the first
row of people clearly. No one's moving, they're holding their breath but somehow
he can feel that they feel pity for him. He can almost see it in their body language. The
lights are too bright so he can't see all of their faces, but he can he can feel
it. The second row of people, their faces are less clear, but from the body
language he can also feel that they feel pity for him. He's got a whole audience. He glances around at all of them just sitting in their seats staring
at him and no one wants to meet his eye. Like they physically look away if he
tries to look at them. The only thing staring back at him are the film
cameras. He feels the studio lights and his neck is getting all sweaty. He can feel his cheeks go wet go red a
Hundred something people just witnessed the most embarrassing painful pitiful moment of Brian's life in
Real time his girlfriend telling him that she thinks she can do better than him
Hmm and soon the cameraman are gonna the footage, edit it with some
dramatic sound effects, and they're gonna linger longer on his pain
emphasizing his hurt, his betrayal, and then soon millions across the nation are
gonna watch this very moment. This is the moment of truth. Cue the theme music for
the truth-telling reality TV show that Brian is on, where contestants
win money for sharing their deepest darkest secrets and oftentimes illegal secrets even.
The catch is that the contestant must bring their loved ones on and answer the questions
truthfully in front of them.
Yeah, this was the show right?
Is this still going on?
No, I don't think so. At least not in the US or in Peru. Yeah.
Now, Brian had found himself on stage with his 18-year-old girlfriend Ruth and her parents.
All of them were forced to listen to Ruth's deepest, darkest confessions being exposed on national television.
But some things, they're just,
some things are better left unsaid
because one of her confessions would lead to Ruth's murder
because there are people out there
that cannot handle the truth. We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to
support the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
NNEDV is a non-profit dedicated to serving survivors of relational abuse and ending all relational violence around the world.
This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's
growing team of dedicated researchers and translators and we'd also like to
thank you guys for your continued support as we work on our mission to be
worthy advocates of these causes. As always, full show notes are available by
RottenMangopodcast.com.
Now a super brief disclaimer, we did have our professional Spanish translator on this
case, however they aren't as familiar with the Peruvian dialect, so as with any case
but especially the international ones, please let us know in the comments if anything was
accidentally mistranslated or miscommunicated.
Last thing to note, the media in this case refers to sex work as prostitution
in a few direct quotes that will be said verbatim.
So there's a reason for it, you'll soon find out.
The terminology is not a reflection of the language used
personally by me or the RM team
and will only be stated as indirect quotes.
So with that being said, let's get started. Do you know what a green hat slave is?
Green hat slave. Yes, so there is a word for it in English. It's C-U-C-K-O-L-D, or for my audio
listeners, it's a cuckold. It's typically a man who enjoys watching his partner have intimate
relations with another individual. In China, it's called
a green hat slave because when a partner is cheating on someone, that person is
wearing a green hat. So for example, if a man's wife is cheating on him, it's said
that the man is wearing a green hat. But if you're a green hat slave, that means
you know that your wife is cheating, you know that your husband is cheating, and
you like it. You want more of it. You want them to cheat on you. The more traditional sentiment around
relationships like this is the man, typically it's a man, I think there's
different words for different genders, but typically the man in the
relationship enjoys being humiliated by being forced to watch his wife or his
partner be satisfied by somebody else. it's a very demeaning experience.
One person said,
It is so complicated.
Multiple emotions just layered over one another and it's pulling you in all these different directions.
I felt sick to my stomach with anxiety, but also so excited to know all about the details of what my wife did with that partner later on I would alternate between almost having a panic
attack and then to being insanely excited
Which you know all of it sounds a bit interesting like a bit out there, right?
But statistics show that up to 20% of men in the US fantasize about cheating wives
It's a very popular search term. What 20% of men thinking about their wife cheating on them?
Yeah, fantasize.
And they get excited about that?
Yes, I'm sure that a good majority of that group do not ever act on it, but I guess it
is like a...
Like a passing, intrusive thought?
I think it goes a little bit more than intrusive thought.
I think it was like the types of videos they watch, types of fantasies that they perhaps
have. Okay, okay. They say it's a complex symphony of emotions. they say that there's jealousy, shame,
arousal, inadequacy, gratitude, lust. and so the first step of humiliation is to know that your wife
or your partner is with another man. then the next step would be to see it play out. Watch it, knowing that you're not a part of it,
you're not involved unless they ask you to,
that you can't just join them because you want to,
you just have to sit and watch.
Then the third step would be having others know
what's going on.
Like publicized.
Yes, that is the ultimate humiliation.
Everybody knows that you're a green hat slave
and you almost get off on people looking at you with those eyes of like, oh it's okay it's
gonna, oh I don't really... the pity, the embarrassment. Some people like that. So
for people who enjoy this type of pleasure mixed in with humiliation, I
think it's, I guess it's understandable. I mean, I think many intimate activities
are a thin balance of pleasure and pain.
And I imagine that humiliation falls
into the psychological pain aspect
rather than like physical pain.
And as long as it's between consenting adults,
I think more power to you, it's great.
Do whatever you want.
But what about the people who experience this involuntarily?
Like being cheated on?
So publicly.
And being called a cuck, which is a very demeaning term for most heterosexual men.
They get green hat-slaved without wanting to be.
It happens to them and they're just left with all that humiliation and none of the
pleasure.
Then what happens?
There's a truth-telling reality show called Moment of Truth.
There's actually a lot of versions of Moment of Truth.
There's even Moment of Truth Korea, and I believe most of them are no longer in production,
but it was remade by a ton of different countries, and each version of this reality show has
slightly different rules, but I'm just going to go over the main ones that are pretty consistent
across the board.
This is how the game show works.
There are 21 questions in total
that you, the contestant, will be asked.
The questions are gonna be divided into six different levels.
Each level, one through six,
has a grand monetary prize at the end.
So you get to level two, for example,
and you win $10,000.
Then you finish level three and you win $ thousand dollars like that and technically as long as you
don't lie as long as you don't break any rules you can decide to stop at the end
of any of the levels so for example if you get to level four and you haven't
broken any of the rules there is no rule that forces you to keep going you can
walk away with whatever money that you've already accrued and it's not like
an all-or- nothing type of show.
The money goes up per level and so do the intensity of the questions.
But you don't have to go to level six.
If you go to level six and then you lied, do you lose it all?
You lose it all. At any point if you lie, you lose it all. At any point.
In fact, it's actually unheard of to get to level six.
There's only one person in the entire history of the actually unheard of to get to level six. There's only one person in the
entire history of the show in America that made it to level six. And that whole season could not
be aired because of what she exposed. Her last question for half a million dollars was, do you
believe that your father had intimate relations with a minor? And she answered yes.
And the answer was proven to be correct.
Woah.
Yeah.
So that was level 6.
The money does go up per level and the intensity of the questions naturally also go up.
So the first level, it actually consists mainly
of social dilemma questions.
Would you rather give food to a man without a home or a stray dog?
It reveals a lot about your character, but it can almost be like dinner table conversations
with a group of drunk friends.
It doesn't reveal too many personal details of the contestants' lives, and this is done
intentionally. details of the contestants lives and this is done intentionally it almost tricks the contestant to feeling at ease like oh this isn't that bad I mean I got
this like if it keeps going like this we're gonna have a good time I'm gonna
walk away with a ton of money and it just sucks them in deeper but that is
the whole point of the show they're not supposed to have a good time then as
the levels progress the questions start getting more and more invasive and they're not even just personal questions they're not supposed to have a good time. Then, as the levels progress, the questions start getting more and more invasive, and
they're not even just personal questions, they're really, really specific, shameful
questions that reveal the darkest secrets of the contestants' personal, family life,
work life.
These are the types of questions you honestly… you would not admit to anybody.
I would say across the board, most people wouldn't even admit to these questions if they got paid and
If you lie once again, you forfeit all the prize money that you've won so far. It is
psychologically incredibly invasive and
For those reasons very difficult to win but people keep trying
Peru is finally gonna have its own version of the game show
franchise, the moment of truth. The Peruvian version would actually be
called the value of truth, hosted by the human wildfire of a man Beto Ortez. Yeah
okay so that's how a lot of people describe him. He is this influential TV
journalist. They say that he's a monster monster So either you say that someone's a beast with a lot of respect or you say it with a lot of hatred
That's Beto like it's very hard to find him a neutral personality
People don't like him people either love him or they absolutely
despise every fiber of his being
But most people would agree that his casting for the show as the host, pretty on point.
Some people said that he's like a human lie detector.
He can spot bullshit from a mile away.
And that little girl sitting in front of him for the premiere, the very first episode of
The Value of Truth in Peru, does not smell like bullshit at all.
In fact, she smells very normal.
Honestly, even Beto is a little confused.
18 year old Ruth? I mean, I'm sure she's nice, but what the hell is she doing on a show like this?
She looks very normal, average college student. She's got shoulder length, brown hair, and she's smiley, but not overly extroverted or bubbly. Just smiley.
Beidou has seen a lot of people in his career,
and the best way to describe the one sitting in front of him
right now, Ruth, is just with one word.
Average?
She's pretty average.
I mean, the way that he describes it is average.
I mean, pretty, but nothing special.
She's also a college student that works
at one of those customer service call centers. I mean what could she possibly have to hide? Which you know
whatever that's not his problem. He's just the host. That's the reality TV show
producers problem. If they cast the wrong contestant that's on them. Beta waits for
the studio audience to be given the cue to you know zip it because we're about
to start filming. There's about a hundred people in the live audience. The studio lights are beaming down from the top on him and Ruth. On camera,
it's gonna look like this dimly lit atmospheric little set, but in reality there's a lot of lights
that need to be on for it to look that good. It's for the aesthetics, but also in reality shows
the heat of the studio lights. People don't expect it.
It's almost like sitting under the sun.
You're inside the ACs pumping.
Technically you have no reason to be sweating,
but the heat of the lights.
If you've never been in the TV business
it's very uncomfortable.
And that is exactly what they wanna make a game show
contestant feel, uncomfortable.
And they're filming.
Beto looks over at Ruth and suddenly he sees it.
The minute that the cameras turn on,
they start filming a small glimpse of why she was casted.
The minute that they start in action,
she seems to have almost this playful look in her eyes.
Maybe she is hiding something.
Beto looks at the cameras. Today a
Peruvian is 21 questions away from winning 50,000 souls in cash. Will there
be any honest person left in Peru? It's time to find out the value of truth. The
double doors open like Shark Tank open up and an 18 year old girl walks onto the
stage. Good evening. Are you nervous Ruth Thalia?
Yes, a little, but it's normal I imagine to be nervous.
Is there something you want to reveal to your family and loved ones today?
Today?
Um, yes.
Very well.
Are you ready to tell the truth in front of your family, to yourself and all of Peru?
Yes, I'm ready.
Please take a seat.
She sits down on this red leather chair
and this is how it all starts.
Ruth Thalia Seas Sanchez, university student,
studying computer science, call operator at a call center,
18 years old, lives with her parents.
She's looking at her parents
who are sitting directly in front of her.
This is interesting. The show's whole concept is to have the contestant bring in their closest loved ones
and make them sit there and listen to the truth. You're being held hostage by the truth.
Typically, three guests are allowed. Please introduce yourselves.
We have Ruth's mom, Ruth's dad, and Ruth's boyfriend, Brian.
The host also thinks that Brian is nothing special by the way.
I mean he just looks so average. Kind, but again, average.
Typical neighborhood boy trying to make it driving those moto taxis.
Do you know what I'm talking about? They're open. It's not really like a car.
It's like a motorcycle with a carriage in the back.
Just trying to survive. He's got a girlfriend, probably goes out on the weekends to have fun
and then the cycle repeats and pretty much nothing spectacular. That's the rest of his future
and the rest of his life. That's how Beto feels. Brian Romero-Levia. Everyone give Brian an applause.
Thank you for accepting to come and accompany your girlfriend Ruth Thalia in this challenge
that she has chosen to go through. How are you feeling, Brian? You seem nervous.
Your right leg moves on and on
like it's got a mind of its own.
What are you so nervous about?
That she may have cheated on me?
Whoa.
Everybody laughs, including Ruth,
and the host tries to smile and calm Brian's anxiety.
Well, let's not forget, this is all just a game.
Relax and let's take it slowly.
They're just sitting on this long couch in front of Ruth and the host and with that they begin.
Question number one. Have you ever skipped class without your mother knowing?
Ruth glances over at her mom and her mom is biting the inside of her cheek and Ruth's eyes are just going left and right and right
and left and there's a small the inside of her cheek, and Ruth's eyes are just going left and right and right and left,
and there's a small smirk on her face.
Technically, her parents gave up everything for her and her sister to be able to attend university.
They were the first in their family to attend. I mean, the sacrifice there is pretty huge.
But yes, the answer is yes, I have skipped class without my mom knowing.
Ruth is biting her lip, and she's like glancing at her mom and the robotic voice comes on.
There's always a long pause after the contestants answer and the host is not the one telling her if she lied or not.
A robotic voice comes on.
The answer is correct.
It is the truth.
The audience starts clapping and Ruth's mom is smiling but also giving her like a playful
We're gonna talk about this when we get home look, but it's all cute. You know, Ruth is 18
She's an adult the energy is very much she admitted to stealing a cookie from the cookie jar
How many questions are you say 21?
But how many how many is in the level one like four? So level one is six level two five is a pyramid
So six five four three two and then level six is just one question.
Wow.
One question.
It must be really, really crazy question.
Yeah, like did your dad have intimate relations with a minor?
Wow.
Yeah.
Question number two.
Have you ever had a nose job?
Yes.
And the answer is true. 3. Are you satisfied with your appearance? Ruth admits she does try to take care of herself.
She likes to diet, and she doesn't really have the energy or motivation to go to the
gym and work out, so she might not really have the most care about her physical appearance.
But to a degree she
You know she cares a bit the host tries to egg her on when you see yourself in the mirror
What do you see do you see a Chinese girl an Indian girl or an indigenous woman?
Well, I see myself a bit on the dark side
Would you like to be white?
Yes
So are you satisfied with your appearance?
No The answer is true. Meaning she is not satisfied with her appearance. Question number four. Do you
think being pretty achieves more things than being a good person? The camera pans
to Brian. I mean I guess nobody wants to have a superficial partner or girlfriend
who thinks looks are everything right? Ruth looks a little bit more nervous this time. I mean she almost rolls her eyes, but it's not like someone annoying
I'm rolling my eyes. It's just like a I don't really know where to look right now. I'm kind of getting uncomfortable
Yes
The show leaves a long pause
You say the question was do you think looking pretty can get you further than looking being a good person? Yes. Okay I see. And the answer is true.
Ruth keeps biting her lip and even her family is starting to look a little bit
uncomfortable now but I mean everyone starts clapping. It's the way society
is. It's not Ruth, it's society. Question number five.
If you see a person drop $250 on the ground, are you returning it to them or are you pocketing
it?
So the question is, do you return it to them?
Earlier in the episode, Ruth was asked about how she felt about money, if it's a big
priority for her.
And just being honest, she told the host, yeah, it is.
It's one of my biggest worries of life I mean
she has to think about money a lot not because she's obsessed with money or
that she's materialistic but when you don't have something that you need to
survive you're gonna fixate on it it's not like she's money hungry it's just
she just doesn't have a lot of it so yeah it is a huge concern this
conversation does make Brian a little bit uncomfortable and he's nervously touching
his shirt non-stop.
The money question?
Yeah.
Cause I think you know, as maybe a boyfriend you feel the pressure to make money.
Now Ruth's parents, they're both nervous as well.
Her dad is hunched over.
He's smiling, but it's not a real smile.
It looks like he's trying to hide how uncomfortable that question is.
It's very awkward. Even if a lot of people would answer, no, I'm not gonna give it
back to them. It's $250. I'm gonna take the $250. The answer feels wrong. It's
just that's not the answer that you want to say. It's not something that anyone
would want to willingly admit to everybody. But Ruth answers definitively, no, I would not give the money back.
I would take the $250.
The answer is true.
The audience is not clapping.
Usually they clap when the answer is true,
but they're like, wow, I would never,
I would automatically of course give it back to them
because I am much more morally and ethically sound
than this girl on stage
They're more like yikes, but the show must go on. This is just level one and
Question number six Ruth. This is the last one for level one
Once this is complete you have the choice on whether or not you want to advance to level two
Have you ever gone 20 days or longer without showering? Wait, what kind of question is this?
Ruth glances down.
Yes.
The answer is true.
And everyone in the audience starts laughing and starts clapping loudly.
Ruth has just passed level one.
Six questions all answered truthfully and she will now advance to level
two. The questions were simple. I mean funny even. She answers the questions honestly and
with each honest answer she gets one step closer to her big monetary prize and everybody's
happy. She's happy. Her family's happy. The audience is happy. Do you know like how much
was level one? $250. Oh, what's the final price?
Okay, so the final price is $13,500
However, this is in comparison to Peruvian minimum wage
That would be a few years worth of work
So I guess the equivalent in the United States would be
Okay, so the cash prize for America was half a million for winning the whole show.
But okay, wow.
Yeah, so I mean, I know that like maybe in context, because if we put it into USD and
considering the standard of living, it might not sound like enough money to reveal these
types of secrets to the whole nation,
but I'm gonna try to put it into context, you know?
So, everybody's happy about this.
You just won $250.
Everyone's happy.
But happy is not good TV.
You know how a group of crows are called a murder?
Yeah, it said that a group of producers, especially reality TV producers, is called a manipulation.
That's what they do. Reality TV producers, they're there to create good TV. Nothing else really matters.
If they can't do it, they lose their job as producers.
The sweet spot for a show like this would be for a contestant to get far enough that secrets are exposed,
their lives are ruined, but not that far where they take home too much money, because then that comes out of the show's pocket.
And picking each contestant is a very big deal.
How do you even know if their secret is even worth the amount of money that they're winning?
Let's say they get to level 5.
Are their secrets even worth the amount of money that the show now has to pay them out
for?
Does the audience even care about them like that?
But also, how do the producers know any of this going into the show?
Like, do they just randomly pick someone off the street
and they're like,
you look like you're hiding a lot of secrets?
Mm-hmm.
This is what they do before the show.
Producers will find out everything
about a potential contestant's life
even before considering them.
They run background checks,
they talk to the family members, friends, old classmates,
they spend a full day with contestants going through their room, watching them, analyzing all the people they talk to the family members, friends, old classmates. They spend a full day with contestants going through their room,
watching them, analyzing all the people they talk to.
But the moment of truth, they go even a step further.
They do something very fascinating.
They conduct polygraph test for casting.
Yeah, that's what I was wondering.
Like, how do they know? Right.
They must. Yes.
So a lot of reality TV shows will actually put you through a very extensive personality test.
Okay, that makes sense.
Yes, to see how, I guess, unstable you are so that they can manipulate you.
When you start reading into it, it makes you really second-guess every reality TV show that you've ever watched in your life.
It's pretty dark,, they do a polygraph
test. They will conduct polygraphs and ask strategic questions based on what they picked
up about that potential contestant. So they already spent a day with them. They did background checks.
They talked to their friends, family, old classmates, and they have an inkling. They're like,
I have a suspicion that this person is stealing from work. I have a suspicion that this person
is doing something illegal, is cheating on their partner,
is doing this.
Their kid is not the,
that's not the dad,
that's not the mom,
like, well, it's gotta be the mom, right?
That's not the dad,
like, you get it.
They pick up on all these things
and they will come up with a formula of questions
to ask during a polygraph.
Now, of course,
most of the contestants are gonna lie the first time.
Are you cheating on your husband?
No.
Are you cheating on your wife?
No.
Are you stealing from your family?
No.
The polygraph will indicate that they are lying.
Does that mean that they can't be a contestant?
Because the whole point of the show is to tell the truth.
But they already lied.
No.
That means they're perfect.
They will jot down this question,
the contestant is lying. So if you're lying about cheating, that means you are having
an affair. So guess what they're going to ask you on stage? Are you having an affair?
Okay. Then a few days later, the contestants are brought back to answer the same exact
questions once more, but this time in front of a live studio audience and multiple studio
cameras that are filming every angle, every micro-facial expression to be enhanced, edited,
and dramatized during post-production, and then finally aired for the whole nation to
see.
The answers given in front of the crowd are then compared to the results of the polygraph
test.
Then later, when the contestant is on the show, not hooked up to a lie detector, they
will compare those and determine if you are lying or not.
Now-
Oh, so they do it three times?
Just twice.
Oh...
Yeah.
Now, what's very interesting is that polygraphs are not that accurate.
They're not even used in the court system as evidence for that very reason,
that they're just not that reliable.
I mean, one way that you could allegedly beat a polygraph is
put a thumbtack in your shoe. Yeahgraph is put a thumbtack in your shoe.
Yeah, you put a thumbtack in your shoe.
And every time that you answer something truthfully or like you want a specific result.
So if you want everything to be perceived as true or false, you step on it so that it's very consistent.
So let's say I'm lying and I say, I did not eat mango.
OK, but I did eat it.
Then I would step on the thumbtack.
So when you're lying, you're stepping on the thumbtack.
And then when you're telling the truth, you step on the thumbtack.
Yes, exactly.
So I say, is your name Stephanie?
I step on the thumbtack and I say, yes, my name is Stephanie because that's the truth.
But then you asked me, did you eat mangoes mango?
And I step on the thumbtack.
Is this real? Is this really you beat you just do that?
We don't know. This is a speculation.
Recently, there were a lot of cops who were arrested for teaching perpetrators how to beat polygraphs.
Wait, but you just shared that.
I don't know if I think that there's better ways.
I think this is just like a very colloquial, what's on Reddit type of way.
But I'm sure that there's maybe much more enhanced ways to beat it,
like in a foolproof plan. I don't think that this is foolproof.
I think this is maybe better than not stepping on a thumbtack.
You know what's actually best is not take a polygraph and get an attorney,
would be the best, but yeah.
Wow, and there's cops trying to teach people. Yes and they
were recently arrested a few of them. It's been a problem apparently. What that means, what makes it
even more interesting is the first time around if someone is cheating on their partner they could
lie and say that they're not and the polygraph could easily easily read it as them telling the
truth but on stage because they don't know their results of the first polygraph could easily easily read it as them telling the truth but on stage because
they don't know their results of the first polygraph and because they believe everyone knows their lies
at this point they just confess to the cheating does that make sense it's like you take a polygraph
but the polygraph the results are not that accurate but when you're on stage, because of the subliminal messaging and the
bias that's been fed to you that they know the truth, so you just tell the truth. Yeah,
you end up telling the truth anyway. So what does that mean? That means they don't know if
you're telling the truth or not. I feel like it's very loose, but naturally the contestants just end
up telling the truth. I mean, I guess that is true.
Like how do you prove that whatever you say is truth or not?
Like it's all just the producers call.
They can say anything is true or false based on what you said.
And you can't even argue like, no, I didn't or yes, I did.
Like nobody will believe you.
No, they won't.
And also polygraphs, even if they're like, well, the polygraph results, well, polygraphs
are not that accurate.
So it just is like a very interesting concept. If you really sit there and think about it.
Yeah, it's very problematic.
Yeah. So Ruth was chosen because the producers knew that she's hiding secrets from her family.
Stuff that would be shocking, get a visceral reaction when they're exposed in front of not just her family
But in front of the whole nation at the same time the producers said the reality is we knew what she was lying about
Deep down we knew that she was lying and we knew that she was hiding stuff
So she was the perfect contestant for the show
It's our job to make sure those secrets get out all the unpleasant uncomfortable details aired for the world to see. that's our job.
i know this is ironic but i'm not really great with my words especially when it comes to describing
what i want. i think i have a really clear picture in my head or even with food i know what taste i'm
looking for and i can almost taste it in my mouth But to describe what that looks like in a tangible way what seasoning I need to add
It's very hard and I can actually be a very indecisive person even when I'm shopping for clothes online
I'll go back and forth between that is so cute too
Do I really want to buy it though and spend money or would this even look good on me or is this like is this?
A version of myself that I wish I was but I would never actually wear this?
It was to the point where I was so indecisive, I started becoming my own pet peeve, so I decided to try something different.
I got a stylus from Stitch Fix. It was really daunting at first, but it ended up not just saving me time, but making me a lot more confident.
I don't know if you guys have noticed, but I've been upping my wardrobe in some of the other videos
Maybe not so much here
But on my other channels and my stylist sent over a couple of pieces that I would have never thought to try and they ended
Up becoming my favorite wardrobe pieces
I was firm believer in color theory that red was not my color
You guys have been telling me red was my color my stylist at stitch fix was like try red
I ended up loving it
Which I don't know what it is about my stylist at Stitch Fix was like, try red. I ended up loving it, which I don't
know what it is about my stylist at Stitch Fix and dresses, but every single dress that
she sends me, I've kept because they're just so well fitted for not just what I like
to see on my body, but just even my body type, so it makes me feel really confident. Here's
what working with a Stitch Fix stylist looks like. All I have to do is describe my size,
style, and budget preferences. Then I can make my orders whenever I want them, there's no subscription required, and my
stylist sends me 5 handpicked pieces plus outfit recommendations and pro styling tips
and I keep what I love and send back the rest. But honestly, I usually end up keeping everything.
The best part about my stylist is that I don't have to be good at describing what I want,
she knows what I need, it's like having an online shopping best friend. Stitch Fix makes the whole process so easy, saves so much time, and helps me feel actually
good about all the clothes that I'm buying and anything I don't like, I just send it back
shipping, returns, and exchanges are always free
style that makes you feel as good as you look, get started today at stitchfix.com
slash rotten that's stitchfix.com slash rotten stitchfix.com slash rotten
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We head into level 2.
Question 7.
Are you embarrassed by your family's manners?
It's…
It's not a great question to ask someone, but I get it, that's the whole point.
Ruth did admit earlier in the show that she wished that she had grown up in better conditions.
Her family definitely was part of the disadvantaged part of Peru, and while her parents felt really
proud of where they came from and how they work so hard in spite of their circumstances,
her mom is a singer, her dad plays the harp in a band.
It sounds like prestigious careers,
but they spend most of their time trying to perform
in the so-called dustier parts of town.
Ruth felt like, yeah, I mean, it would be nicer
if things were easier.
This is just what it is, right?
But the question is, are you embarrassed
by your family's manners?
This seems to be one of the harder questions for Ruth.
She starts rubbing her forehead, she starts sighing, hesitating until she finally says
yes.
After that, the camera turns to her parents who look devastated.
Their smiles disappear and the audience starts boo booing Ruth.
Did she really just say after everything that her parents did for her that she's ashamed of them really for
overcoming their struggles and trying to give her everything that they never had?
Talk about entitled
Ruth tries to explain to them that she's not embarrassed of them or where they came from just certain
Situations made her feel a little bit embarrassed sometimes like how sometimes they would go to a
restaurant and her parents don't know how to behave or they would be too loud
or to the just in those specific moments I mean has nobody ever been
embarrassed of their own parents before it's not like she was embarrassed by
their background or how they didn't have money that's not what she was trying to
say. Ruth's parents were a little bit blindsided by this whole thing.
Not even just the answer to the question, but the show itself.
Ruth did not prepare them for the show because this is the first episode of the show.
They couldn't even watch old episodes to get an idea of what they were walking into.
Ruth's mom, she genuinely thought that the premise of this show was to bring on everyday
average Peruvians and have them talk about their truth,
aka their life story. So she is definitely blindsided. You talk about your struggles
in life, that you face the challenges that you've overcome, and it's almost a heartwarming story
about the human experience and what binds us together. Ruth's mom was actually really excited
and proud that her daughter was given a platform to talk about how they struggled and how they would sell
pineapples at the night market and they would sell watermelons on the street to
make money. Ruth did not warn her about what was gonna happen and now she's
being publicly told in front of the nation that her daughter is embarrassed
of her at restaurants. It was a lot to take in.
Ruth's dad had a little bit of a stronger feeling
about the whole show, okay?
Call it skepticism, I don't know,
but he was begging Ruth not to do it.
It just doesn't make sense.
What kind of TV show is willing to pay you
that amount of money to share a heroic story
about selling fruits at the market to make rent?
That just doesn't make sense.
That's not how TV works.
He even told Ruth, till the very last moment, right before they
stepped on the stage, please don't do this.
Don't do this.
Just don't do it.
Ruth's mom would come up behind him scolding him.
You don't support your own daughter.
How can you say that we have to help her with whatever she wants to achieve?
Both of Ruth's parents showed up for filming, but you can just tell sitting
there Ruth's mom seems a lot more relaxed, least in the beginning excited even and Ruth's dad I
mean his anxiety was practically tangible the host even asked what are
you so nervous about are you worried yes I'm worried what are you so worried
about the things I'm gonna find out about my daughter. I'm worried about if there's
ugly things that I will never be able to forget. Ruth's mom though is sticking by
her side. Well I have a lot of confidence in our daughter since she was a little
girl. I would talk to her and I would teach her and I told her how to behave
and hopefully she listened to all my advice and I am very confident in her. I
don't think that there's anything wrong with her
or anything weird that's gonna come out of this and if that is the case, I'm probably gonna faint.
But now, now is just a lot. It seems like they don't even really know how to react to that question.
Question number eight. Have you ever taken the morning after pill more than once? Yes.
Have you ever taken the morning after pill more than once?
Yes, three times.
And the answer is true. Side note, Peru is a pretty conservative country,
so it's just definitely an uncomfortable question
to ask somebody.
It's not like the US where everyone's like,
okay, yeah, moving on, next question.
There's a lot of stigma attached to that.
There's gonna be a lot of slut shaming that is involved with something like that
Question number nine. Would you forgive your boyfriend if he cheated on you?
This one does not seem to bother Ruth much. She just responds to it straightforwardly. No
The answer is true. I mean, it's not really the most insane question. It doesn't even reveal anything about anyone.
It doesn't answer or reveal if Brian did cheat on her.
It doesn't reveal if she cheated on him.
It's just, would you stay with someone who cheats on you?
Answer is no.
Okay, moving on.
The audience seems very uninterested in this question
compared to the others.
In the others, they would be gasping,
they'd be wooing, they'd be booing,
but this one, they're just like, okay, next.
But Ruth, after responding to this question,
she seems to start getting a little bit uncomfortable.
She keeps kind of shifting in her chair,
adjusting her shirt, kind of sighing nonstop.
Beto the host turns to Ruth
and asks if she wants her own family one day.
Yes, but I think I'd rather adopt than have my own children.
So they fill in with these filler questions?
Yes, they just like to get to know the contestant between the questions.
And I think they're trying to provide more context,
and it's almost like they have these filler questions
that lead up to the actual question.
I'm scared of the pain of giving birth,
and I think it's beautiful to give a new home to a child that's been abandoned
Beto turns to Brian and asks if he wants a family and a child. He says yes, I do
Okay. Well great question number nine. Do you ever feel like your boyfriend does not deserve you?
Ruth glances and she responds very slowly
Yes
The look on Brian's face. I mean, it's what you expect glances and she responds very slowly. Yes.
The look on Brian's face.
I mean, it's what you expect.
He clearly does not look happy to hear her response,
but at the same time, he's trying to look,
trying his best to look like it doesn't affect him
because he's on national television.
He tries to smile, but it's one of those like awkward,
I don't know what to do right now type of smiles.
Like, okay.
Sure. The host asks him, how are you feeling?
I didn't know that she felt like that,
but I'm okay with it, I guess.
I mean, what can I say right now?
Last question before Ruth passes level two.
Question number 11, do you really work at the call center?
Ruth is a university student that works
at one of those customer call centers to help pay the bills.
She can't afford to just be a university student,
so she needs to work on the side to pay for her tuition.
She has been working there for the past eight months,
or at least that's what she told her parents
and her boyfriend.
The answer is no.
Ruth states she does not actually work at the call center.
Her parents look confused because why would she lie about something like that?
And if she doesn't work at the call center, where is she working?
Because clearly she's making enough money to support herself.
And if she works somewhere else, why wouldn't she just tell them where she actually works?
Unless...
The robotic voice comes back on.
The answer is true.
She does not work at the call center.
When you want to find someone in Peru, you go to the media.
About 11,000 women in Peru are reported missing every single year.
The police do not have time for 11,000 women. I mean, not that I think it's even an issue of time,
but more so they honestly just don't care that much anymore. It's said that if you're not wealthy,
influential, or famous in Peru, if you go missing, you will be missed because they're not going to
find you. The only way to try and find someone or some sort of help is through the media.
Get someone to talk about your case.
Spread the word.
That's the only hope.
That's why in front of the TV studios, it's always a very weird mix of people standing
outside.
So on one side, you have these really young people who are typically just fans of whoever
is going to be on set today.
They're waiting, camping out there in hopes of just getting a glimpse, a single glimpse
at their favorite idol, at their favorite celebrity,
and then on the other side, you have a typically older group of people.
They don't care about what celebrity is walking in and out unless they're gonna take one of their missing person posters. It's an incredibly
unique niche energy.
I mean, there are typically parents with missing persons flyers of their children on one side their eyes are bloodshot
They haven't eaten in days
They've been roaming around like zombies just desperately trying to get someone to tell them where their child is
They're in front of these TV studios trying to shove posters into
Fans hands the ones that came here to just catch a glimpse of their celebrity and now there's a crying mom
Handing them a flyer of a missing girl
The parents are canvassing the TV studio looking for any glass window into the building.
They try to smack the poster up so some executive inside can see and take pity on them and want to share their story and help them.
Over there! The security guard! Please, you have to help me. You know someone who works here, right?
Please, my daughter, she would never leave. She would never run away like this like I know something happened please you have to
help me but the security guards they don't because that's what all the
parents say our daughter is missing we're poor we have no money we need help
our daughter would never run away I'm sure it's all true but that doesn't
change the fact that the news stations they cannot run 11,000 of the same stories every single year.
In this story, the parents had gone to bed after watching the World Cup qualifying match between Peru and Argentina.
It was a big night.
When they woke up the next morning, they realized that their daughter had not made it back home, which was weird.
She never really liked to sleep on a bed that's not hers to begin with.
And also, she is the type that always tells her parents if she's sleeping outside.
Like, this is very strange. They try calling her, she's not picking up, they call her friends.
Maybe they all threw a big, huge soccer watch party and then she fell asleep on a friend's
couch after drinking a beer. One friend told the parents,
Oh yeah, I was with her last night. We were walking through the university
campus together and she got a call on her phone about a
guy who wanted to meet up with her so she left and I haven't seen her since.
Nobody has seen her since and the parents are left to repeat the same story that
the news stations hear dozens of times every single hour. Our daughter is
missing, we're poor, we have no money, we need help, our daughter would never run
away. Finally one security guard snaps at the mom, lady what do you
want just submit your form and leave. The guard practically spits in her face and
she's had enough and without thinking she fires back the only the only thing
that they have. Please sir my daughter she was on she was the girl from the moment of truth the show she went viral
She's missing
The guard pauses what?
the girl from the moment of truth
She's missing
Before the mom could even make another plea or take it all back the security guard leaves his post and runs to grab a cameraman
September 14th three days after Ruth disappeared, two months after the viral
premiere of the moment of truth in Peru, Ruth's disappearance made the front
pages all over again.
Could her disappearance have anything to do with what happened on the show?
That was the question all the news networks were asking.
Level three.
Truth is a very tricky thing.
It's like a suitcase.
You know when you go on vacation, you pack up your suitcase, you roll up all your shirts
and you're like, this is the optimal way to pack a suitcase.
And then you fold it all neatly and you get it just right.
Like there's barely enough space for an extra shirt and you zip it up and it's all good.
But then when you're at the hotel, you got to fly back home in a few hours nothing fits you can't shove it
back in it's the same amount of stuff you didn't even buy anything new why
won't it close now all of a sudden there's no way for it to neatly tuck
back in because it's too late what is out is out and there is no going back
that's a really good analogy. Thank you.
Wow.
Question 12.
Would you lend your parents all the money in the bank if they asked you to?
Ruth was always known to be a very frugal girl.
I mean, she would save every last penny of every dollar that she made.
She would not spend any money on anything or anyone.
She was very protective over her funds.
Ruth looks at her
parents and she already told them that she was embarrassed of their manners and now this,
she responds, yes, I would give them all the money I have if they asked. The answer is true.
This is the win that the audience needed. I mean this whole thing was slowly starting to get a little depressing.
But now, oh thank god, the audience starts clapping, cheering, even Ruth looks a little relieved.
But there's still more questions to go.
Then the host, I mean, it's kind of clear what questions are coming up next.
Beto starts asking Ruth about what she thinks of her boyfriend Brian, who's sitting, I don't know, ten feet away from her.
Do you think Brian is a handsome guy?
Uh, yeah.
That doesn't sound very convincing.
Do you think Brian is a smart guy?
Kind of?
Ruth laughs.
More or less.
Do you think Brian has a good heart?
She doesn't skip a beat on this one.
Yes, I do.
The audience starts clapping.
Good.
Question number 13.
Are you with your boyfriend Brian
until someone better comes along?
Ruth looks nervous.
I mean, there's the right answer.
And then the right answer is to say no.
You know, you're in love with Brian
because you love Brian and you would never leave Brian.
And also because she literally knows
what this will do to Brian.
Brian had a stutter that he was hyper sensitive about,
very insecure about it.
When Brian was just eight years old,
his mom's new boyfriend pushed him down a flight of stairs.
And ever since then, he had a slight stutter
which likely happened more so from the emotional trauma of being pushed down the stairs rather than the physical injuries that he likely would have sustained I don't think that he sustained any physical injuries
which that is something that can very much happen by the way mental and emotional distress from traumatic events can
disrupt the normal functioning of the brain and impact the regions that are responsible for speech production.
And it was just always something that Brian felt like people were looking down on him for.
Even when they weren't, he felt like people were looking down on him.
So the right answer to that question is no. I love Brian because Brian is perfect and Brian is good enough for me.
But the true answer, the answer that she needs to say to get to the next level and not have wasted all of this, not have done all of this for nothing is,
Yes, I'm with Brian until someone better comes along.
Brian looks honestly speechless.
He doesn't even look shocked. It's like when you know something is true, but to hear it said out loud adds another layer of trauma, that's what this looks like.
And what's the reason?
Who would be better that comes along?
The host asks Ruth what her ideal man is.
I mean, I'm fine with Brian, but I think I would like someone who's in a better financial
situation.
She said that she just really wants someone who's very ambitious and Brian just really
isn't that.
Brian looks really betrayed by this.
He thought that they bonded through sharing
the same experiences growing up.
Ruth had to go help her parents
sell pineapples at the market.
Brian had to help his mom sell pre-made breakfast plates.
His mom would be in the dirt floor kitchen,
literally the floor of the kitchen was dirt,
and she'd be cooking up these breakfast plates
that they would shove into these flimsy to-go containers
and try to sell them to workers throughout the town.
That's how he grew up, and his prized possessions as a kid were his old soccer posters
that he taped onto his childhood bedroom walls.
They're like peeling off the walls because they're that old, but those are his prized possessions.
It's not like he wants to be a taxi driver.
It's the only job that he can get right now.
He's just trying to do his best.
So yeah, the answer, it sucked.
It cut deep.
The whole time, Brian's face looks really stoic.
He doesn't have a lot of expression on his face.
Just he looks indifferent.
Just wow.
But when the camera zooms out and it pans down on his leg. His leg is shaking uncontrollably.
Beto turns and his eyes fall on Brian. Brian are you in love with Ruth? Yes.
It shows. Yes I am in love. How do you feel about such harsh answers today?
I don't know what to say. Evidently the answer hurt you right? Ruth that was a
cruel cruel answer. Ruth looks uncomfortable. I wasn't trying to make him feel bad. I don't want to excuse myself either but
the host turns back to Ruth. Is Brian your first ever boyfriend?
No, but he is the first man I've ever fallen in love with.
Do you think love sees gender? Should a woman only love a man and vice versa?
Now to give you some extra context here for where we're headed, Peru is a very conservative country. There is a heavy
emphasis on masculine head-of-the-house roles, the patriarchy lives strong, and I
mean yeah Peru is conservative but I would say just like everywhere else in
this world everywhere has conservative parts of their country so I'm sure
everyone can relate but in Peru gay marriage is not legal it's not even
recognized as a union.
But Ruth, like any normal honest being, tells the host that she thinks anyone can love anybody.
The audience kind of reacts like she's saying some very controversial things, like some people are
like, yeah, some people are like, boo, Beto turns to Ruth. Question 14. Do you have sexual fantasies
about women? Ruth's dad looks like he is is he's in pain. He looks like he's
in agony. Like someone lit the entire couch on fire and he's tied to the flaming couch forced to
sit on open flames. That's what his face looks like right now. He looks like he's just hunched
over in pain. Ruth glances at him and responds, yes, she responds that she considers herself bisexual, that she even kissed a girl once when she was younger and that she's had these attractions since she was maybe 14.
Her parents are practically in physical pain at this point. Her mom is rubbing her eyebrows like she's got this giant migraine.
Ruth looks over at her parents who just look exhausted, destroyed, over it. Question number 15.
Do you think you can maintain your current life
and relationships without resorting to lying anymore?
Ruth glances at her family.
No.
Because at this point, she has revealed so much.
Honestly too much.
What more does she have to reveal?
What more can she say?
I mean really, how can she go back to her life? And also a lot of netizens think
Is there anything worse that she can admit to than being bisexual?
I'm laughing because that's crazy, but that's how a lot of people in the audience felt. What could be worse than that?
She admitted to kissing a girl. What could be worse than that?
This was the right hotel, right? I mean, no chance anyone would notice a random cab
that's just sitting parked outside waiting for her, right? I mean, who would notice, right, even at
the hotel? The taxi pulls up directly in front of the hotel lobby and this is the moment she's going
to walk out of the hotel and lives are going to change just a little bit longer to see her beautiful
face again and a girl with brunette hair
Exits the lobby exits the hotel. Her eyes are scanning the parking lot. She's clearly looking for someone the door of the taxi flies open
This is the moment seeing her again
But wait
It's not her
Ruth's father runs out of the taxi and walks over slowly.
He's almost embarrassed that he jumped to conclusions so quickly.
This is not his missing daughter Ruth.
He glares at the taxi driver standing behind this random girl.
This driver told him that he knew where his missing daughter was.
All it would take would be the most expensive cab ride to reunite him with Ruth.
$250 to get him to the hotel that Ruth is staying at.
That's what he told Ruth's dad.
What?
And it was all a lie.
That's what it was.
It was a scam, it was a lie.
This was not Ruth.
The girl doesn't even look
to be the taxi driver's daughter either.
It looks like she's just caught up
in something a lot darker.
Wait, that's it?
It was a scam?
Just a scam.
The taxi driver let me just drive you there and pay me the money and left.
Yeah. Ruth's dad looks at this strange girl that's not Ruth and just tells her,
go home. Just go home. Whatever it is, your parents are going to forgive you.
She looks like a runaway. So just go home.
And with that, Ruth's dad breaks down and bursts into tears.
But some people find his story a little bit interesting. He never mentioned the taxi driver's
name, never mentioned, reported what hotel it was and what happened to the girl afterwards.
How did he get home? Did the taxi driver take him home? It was just a strange story.
The authorities get another tip about Ruth's disappearance soon after. A minor states that
he lives in the same neighborhood as Ruth and Brian,
and he tells the police another very interesting story.
He tells the cops that on the evening of September 11th, the last day that Ruth was seen,
he was paid 50 soles, around $13, to be a lookout at the bus stop.
The last thing the boys saw was Ruth being shoved into the back of a moto taxi by two shadowy figures. Level four. The questions, like I said, are on a
pyramid skill. So level four now just has three questions. Just three more
questions and that's it to get to level five. At this point, if she passes level level four she's gonna win $5,000. That's like the equivalent of someone winning like
$60,000 in the US. It's a lot of money. Question one of three for level four.
Do you think your parents would be proud of you if they knew what you did for a
living? No. Ruth tries to explain. It's not like I do
anything illegal but I don't work at the call center and it's just I'm embarrassed about it
and I just I came onto the show to tell the truth about my life to my parents and to everybody but
also to escape what I do for a living so no the answer is no they would not be proud. But no, the answer is no, they would not be proud.
Question 2 of 3 for level 4.
Do you work at a nightclub?
Ruth.
Ruth hesitates, she looks at her parents, and they already know the answer before she even says it.
Their heads are hanging, their eyes are closed in disappointment.
Just to give you some extra context, nightclubs in Peru are a little bit different.
So from my understanding, and please correct me if I'm mistaken, but from my understanding,
there are nightclubs in tourist areas in Peru that are very similar to what you would expect
nightclubs in the US to be like.
Just clubs.
But most other nightclubs are known to be places in which one could solicit sex work,
whereas maybe we might not make that connection
here in the US.
And side note, sex work is completely legal in Peru.
Ruth's mom bends down and puts her head in her hands.
She looks heartbroken.
Her father says he's so conflicted.
He doesn't want her to answer.
He doesn't want her to continue playing this game,
but at the same time, he knows that she should.
She should at least reveal it
because how else would he ever know the truth
about his daughter?
It's like, do you wanna know, do you not wanna know?
That's the dilemma.
Brian, on the other hand,
he doesn't even wanna hear anything anymore,
but Ruth has to answer.
The question was asked, and once the question is asked,
you either lie, which means you lose all your money,
or you don't answer, which means you lose all your money, or you tell the truth and you walk away with what you've won so
far. Yes, I work at a nightclub. Ruth's mom has her head in her hands. She doesn't
even want to make eye contact with her own daughter. She's hiding her face. She
can't even look up and look at the cameras. She just wants to sink and
disappear into the couch. Ruth tries to explain, and I don't know if it makes it any better,
she tries to explain that she's just one of the 30 dancers at the club
and she gets paid around $50 per dance and she only performs on stage maybe
one or three times a night? That's it!
And yeah, she's not wearing a ton of clothes at the club, but really nothing is showing.
Like, none of her private- she's not completely nude while she's dancing.
Ruth's family are speechless. Nothing is showing, like none of her private, she's not completely nude while she's dancing.
Ruth's family are speechless.
They have nothing more to say right now. For the past eight months, they thought she was working at a call center. It feels like she's living a double life. What can they say?
But there's still one more question left. Question number three of three for level four.
Ruth's mom is practically begging her to stop at this point. Nothing more she can say is gonna help this situation. It's only gonna get worse
from here. Brian, he seems stunned. Like he can't even put together complete
sentences even if he tried. It was a lot. If she answers the next question
truthfully, she will walk away with $5,300, which is about 13 months of work
for the average Peruvian. To try and put that into a clear comparison that would be someone in the US winning around
$62,000 if you look at the national average salary
Beto turns to Brian Brian. What do you say to Ruth stop or continue? I
Don't want to hear anymore. You don't want to hear anymore
Ruth chooses to continue. One
last question to secure $5,300. She's already come so far. Question number
three of three for level four. Once the question comes out of Beato's mouth,
everyone goes silent. It's like holding their breath. I mean they know what the
answer is gonna be because of course they do. They're not gonna ask a question
like this unless the answer is very clear. Ruth stares out into the crowd but
also at her parents and her boyfriend. Her mom is bent over as if she has a raging stomach cramp like
a stomach ulcer that came out of nowhere. She is literally hunched over. It is an impossible situation.
Clearly seeing her parents in that amount of pain, why would she keep going? She wants to just not
answer. Of course she doesn't.
But she's already come this far and not answering is also an answer.
If she doesn't answer, people know what her answer is.
So she might as well answer with her own mouth and at least get the money
that can be something to prove for this whole nightmare.
Yeah, I mean the moment that they asked this question,
everybody already know the story, right? Like why that they asked this question, everybody already know the story, right?
Like why would they ask this question unless...
She looks at her parents, then back at Brian, then back at her parents.
Just one word, that's all that is standing between Ruth and 5 grand.
Just one more yes or no, and she will be guaranteed to win the level 4 prize.
I mean, of course she can still continue to play level five
for more than triple the amount.
So she could get over 10,000.
The comparison would be like $200,000 in the US
if she were to complete level five.
But it's just about this one question.
So she answers.
So this is, what I'm getting now,
it's like, it's not really a truth telling show.
It's literally you agree to air your darkest secret
For money basically. Yeah, so they already know what's true
So they're just like here's a list of your darkest secret every time you're unveiled more. I'm gonna give you more money exactly
Yeah, they're not paying for truth. Yeah, they already know we already know the truth. Yeah
for truth. Yeah, they already know, we already know the truth. Yeah. Wow. And it's like, I think they're just paying to watch your whole life fall apart, question by question, really. Yeah.
They ask the question and she responds, yes. Everyone is just kind of gasping in shock and
disbelief. I mean, it's the type of confession that makes you go, what? Is this for real right now? A woman's voice interrupts the commotion and
it is the loudspeaker that announces the results. The answer is, and the audience
goes even more quiet, holding their breath, anticipating the answer. The answer
is true. And the audience is basically buffering in disbelief.
They're at a complete lack for words.
They look at Ruth's loved ones on stage hoping that they're gonna be the ones to break the
silence.
Her mother can't even make eye contact with her.
Her father is fighting back tears and Brian, her boyfriend?
Brian his eyes are glazed over like he's disassociating.
A producer called him a zombie.
That his face was registering nothing in that moment,
because they too are at a loss for words.
It is Ruth that eventually breaks the silence.
It was just twice, we needed money,
we were in a bad situation and it won't happen again.
It's never gonna happen again.
Beidou gives her a chance to explain, so she elaborates.
I mean, the whole money thing,
but there were also no options
and it's not like she enjoyed it. She mentions how she was bedridden with guilt for three days. She couldn't bring herself to get out of bed
She didn't eat for three days
More silence. Beidou tries to ease the tension
You have now passed the fourth level and have five grand in your pocket, but it has cost you so much
Wait, so we still we don't know the end question yet?
You will soon.
You've already taken off your mask in front of the mirror, in front of your parents, in front of the whole country.
Still, your parents are suffering. You must make a decision.
Ruth has two options now.
She can either walk away with the five grand or continue to answer the last three questions in hopes for doubling the reward.
Before she answers, Beidou continues and asks the family what do they want her to do
Brian is bouncing his leg trying to avoid the questions
the attention, I mean everything
her father says it's up to her to make the choice
her mother says, I want to leave love, I want you to leave
then from the crowd, one brave audience member heckles
and the rest join.
Go home, leave, don't do it, don't continue.
No way.
The crowd is letting their disapproval be known,
literally booing Ruth off the stage.
She has no choice but to say that she's gonna stop now.
Three questions short of tripling her cash prize.
The game comes to an abrupt end.
For the audience to tell her to stop? That is wow. Ruth will be walking away with $5,300.
And again, that's about 13 months of work. She earned almost a little over a year of work in
just a few hours. It should be a moment to celebrate
Confetti does get released from the ceiling and technically she should be celebrating because she won
But instead her parents and her boyfriend, they just stay seated on the couch. They don't even get up
She walks over and gets on her knees
grabs her mother's hands and says
Forgive me. I kneel before you because you're my mother because you're the person who brought me into this world with much pain
And you've always stood behind me the same with you dad. I'll never find someone like you guys. I love you mom
Please I love you. Please forgive me
Ruth is on her knees her mom brings her up and hugs her but her eyes stay open
Ruth's episode will air in a month
It will kill it will surpass all previous ratings Ruth's picture of her in a month. It will kill. It will surpass all previous ratings.
Ruth's picture of her smiling and holding her giant oversized $5,000 check from the
show will be on the cover of every single major newspaper and magazine, with everybody
wondering, was it worth it?
Two months later, a body would be found at the bottom of a well. The next time Ruth is on the news, she will be 16 feet down, covered in
concrete and rocks. Murdered. After the show airs, just two months after the taping of the show,
I mean nothing would be the same in the Saez Sanchez family. I mean nothing. The family went
through so many cycles. They would feel bad for their daughter Ruth. They felt like she had gone
through so much and then she had to do it all on her own.
And she didn't feel comfortable talking to them. I mean I'm sure to a degree the parents felt like
it was their fault. Had they had more money maybe she wouldn't even have done that in the first place.
Then they would turn to anger. I mean but like why why couldn't she just get a normal job like
everybody else that came from families like theirs? Why would she need to do that? And then why go on
national television and ambush us?
You knew what kind of questions they were gonna ask
and you still asked us to go on this show?
Why would you completely blindside us?
The parents were confused.
They didn't even know how to process
this type of information.
Ruth's dad, especially, had a hard time adjusting.
I mean, that's his baby girl.
And he just knows way too much about her now.
It's not that he doesn't want to treat her the same way, it just...
it just... he just didn't know what to say to her. He just needed some time.
There were a lot of arguments on why Ruth even did the show to begin with and Ruth would just
tell her parents for the money. Other time Ruth's mom would stare at her and she would just have
these tears in her eyes. What happened
to you? Why have you done this? I mean who even are you? She would walk over and start
wiping her mom's tears and giving her pats on the face and little kisses on the cheek.
No mommy, forget it all. Those are all things I said for the TV but mommy you know the truth
in your conscious. Yes or no mommy, you know the truth I'm gonna go to class. Okay
But why would you do this then what what if what have you done to us?
I did this so that we could win mommy we could win money and
What are you what are the people gonna say our family relatives everyone in the country that's gonna see it. What about that?
I don't care mommy. I don't care. It doesn't matter to me
How else was she supposed to earn that type of money in that type of time?
She wanted to open up a salon so that she could take care of her family and make sure that her parents don't need to
Worry about money this show was gonna move her closer to her dream. I mean rapidly fine
Maybe she's gonna be the laughing stock of the nation for a while, but at least she would have some sort of future
That's what she thought that's what she reasoned with herself. That's what she told her parents and
then the episode aired. The show Value of Truth became the number one show in all
of Peru for 15 weeks straight. The ratings were through the roof. The
viewership was, I mean, unseen before. Like this was crazy. The show became a
national conversation. Newspapers, other shows, talk shows,
were talking about the value of truth,
they were reacting to it.
All the major newspapers, they had the same photo of Ruth
smacked on the front covers of everything.
Her face was everywhere.
And Ruth thought she could handle it.
She could handle the attention,
she could handle the hate and the opinions.
She would just wait for it to die down
and then try to open up her salon.
That was her initial plan
But nothing ever goes according to plan
Even if Ruth were to open up a salon
She doesn't even know if customers would come now because her reputation was pretty much set in stone
She was known for a few things now and
Ruth started becoming very depressed and having these negative thoughts her dad said the entire neighborhood that we live in I
Mean, it's just a hellhole of gossip
Ruth couldn't even leave the house without people coming up to her giving her their opinions on what she did and about her last question
Other times they would just stare point and even take pictures of her with their phone
Like she's not a normal human being like she's a petting zoo animal
But nothing was as bad as the guys that would, yeah, come up to her.
Anyway, Ruth would try and stay in her house isolated from the world.
I mean, she's trying to escape all the people talking about her, but it's kind of hard because sometimes they would just call the house.
Ruth's relatives, some of them they haven't even spoken to in years.
They were now calling Ruth and her parents to tell them how ashamed they were that they are part of the family and that they are embarrassed of Ruth and she is the biggest shame of their
bloodline. And in front of her parents, you know, Ruth tried to stay very strong. She tried to have
this whole screw them all attitude about it. I don't care what they say about me. I won money
and my life is going to get better once this blows over and they're going to get nothing out of it.
money and my life is gonna get better once this blows over and they're gonna get nothing out of it but with her sister Ava Ruth was a bit more honest
she would lay there on the bed staring at the wall what have I done what did I
do why did I do that and now mom and dad are in the eye of the storm and I just
don't understand why I did any of that some people gave her advice just lean
into it milk the situation for all it's worth. I mean, what else can you do?
So soon after her video, after her episode aired,
Ruth did a few quick interviews.
She told the journalist to a degree,
she feels that she was liberated by the show, you know?
But what about Brian?
Everyone wants to know about Brian.
How are you and Brian?
Well, the truth is we don't even talk to each other anymore
because when I call him, he doesn't answer.
But I'm also having a hard time
and he should understand that.
I'm not the only one to blame here.
He is also to blame and he knows it.
But I would rather just leave it at that.
I don't wanna have any more problems with him
or his family.
She's trying to keep all this upbeat energy
for the audience, but you can just tell in these interviews,
she looks mentally drained and exhausted.
Three days after Ruth goes missing, the case blows up on national mainstream media networks.
Ruth's family were all hopeful. They're all talking about Ruth, right?
The news stations are, the people are, which meant her case is getting attention
and if someone knew something or someone saw her, it would be reported.
The more eyes eyes the better
Ruth's mom remembers thinking yes, I'm gonna find my daughter now
I'm gonna find my daughter and she expected the news anchors to talk about Ruth's role as the first
contestant of one of the most popular TV shows on air currently something along the lines of the girl from the show the value
Of truth is missing
but instead news anchors all stared into the camera
and said, the prostitute from the value of truth
is missing.
What?
I do wanna clarify very quickly
that I wanted to change the word to sex worker
since I know that the term is not appropriate.
However, I thought it took away the gravity
of how inconsiderate and dismissive the news networks were in regards of Ruth's disappearance
so for that reason I have kept it verbatim
the news anchors did not refer to Ruth as Ruth or Ruth the college student or Ruth the daughter and sister
but Ruth the prostitute from the value of truth
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Rocketmoney.com slash rotten. Some netizens believe that had she not been asked the very last question, the question that helped her win $5,300,
had she not been asked that, she would be alive right now. She would not be dead.
Some netizens wonder, is it the producers fault then? Because they're the ones that come up with these questions,
they pushed it that far. Are they not to blame? Others argued, no they're not, she's the one to
blame because if it wasn't the truth then they wouldn't have asked. After Ruth's
body was found, the last question from that episode was played on repeat on every major
news network, TV station, over and over again. Last question. Have you ever accepted money in exchange for sex?
What? Yes. That was it? That was it. The camera turns to Brian and the narrative
and the story was made. The headlines would run. The nation's green hat slave.
What? So they focus on the boyfriend.
They focus on both. I think that Ruth honestly probably had it harder than Brian, but...
Yeah, but Brian was also calling that.
Yeah.
Wow.
Even his defense attorney would use that word a lot.
What's the word?
Cuckold. A cuck. Green hat slave.
What? I mean, what?
Yeah. So life gets really hard for Brian after the show airs.
And to be fair, it was kind of unfair what happened to him on the show.
He was just there to support his girlfriend, but he was ultimately publicly humiliated.
Some Peruvians would state that something unforgivable happened to Brian.
He was turned into a green hat slave in front of millions of people. Peru has a very strong
patriarchal masculinity prioritized culture to be a public green hat slave was in their eyes.
Wait, my question is, how is he a green hat slave? When is he part of the the the no so how is that is he consider
that he got cheated on so okay I think the difference here and I think the
reason that people called him a green hat slave is and I was looking into it
and tell me how Jeff Bezos comes up into this right so basically when people use
that term as a dis,
I don't wanna say derogatory, but like a dis,
they call someone a green hat slave.
Sometimes it's, there's no proof that it even happened.
It's just a type of energy they say someone carries.
For example, after Jeff Bezos was engaged
to his new fiance, Lauren Sanchez, there is a picture of him and him and Lauren Sanchez on his mega yacht, Jeff Bezos' mega yacht.
And her ex-husband, who happens to be an NFL player, is also on the boat shirtless and they're both looking at him.
And they say that even though Jeff Bezos is one of the richest men in the world, he always had this nerdy tech energy that people imagine him to be a green hat slave.
So that became a huge meme. And because throughout the whole episode, Ruth was saying things like she doesn't necessarily think that he's smart.
She thinks that she deserves better than him. And he's there just supporting her the whole time.
A lot of people felt like it was a green hat slave.
So the whole message together makes him...
Okay, yeah, it wasn't just he was blindsided and cheated on, but I think it was just throughout the episode, all these little things were stacking up.
And yeah, I mean, once you're considered that it's almost free game for anyone else to disrespect you and make fun of you.
I mean, what are you going to do? You're a green hat slave. That's not me saying that. That's what a lot of people were thinking.
Brian was walking home one day. This is after it airs. He sees a group of high school boys
just loitering on the side of the road. He's maneuvering so he can just walk past them.
But as they're passing each other, as he's passing the group, he catches one of their eyes
and he can almost see the moment that it registers in the high school boys brain. At first he looks up
Eyes are blank meets Brian's eyes and it's like a light bulb moment goes off
His eyes get bigger and he's got a little spark in them. His face starts moving his mouth opens up guys
It's the fucking green hat slave
The rest of his friends turn they're uninterested at first
But when they see Brian's face,
they light up and they start bullying him, taunting him.
He has to run and hide in a nearby store to get away.
Another time Brian was caught off guard by a journalist who was waiting for him at his
front door.
How do you feel, Brian?
Tell us about what you feel after the episode has aired.
Brian won't even look at the camera.
Embarrassed?
Embarrassed with my friends and my family? I started finding out everything she had done to me. How can
I feel? You're a man, how would you feel? Yes, yes, I can imagine, and I will try to
put myself in your place, but they say that when you love someone, you can forgive everything,
right? Depends on what they did, what they've done to you. The things that were shared that
day by her, I cannot forgive. When news was initially circulating that Ruth was missing,
the first person on everybody's radar was obviously Brian.
Reporters chased him down asking him questions.
What were you doing the night that Ruth went missing?
Answer the question, what were you doing?
I can't remember, I was drunk that night.
The reporter looks at him and blinks.
If you were me, would you believe yourself?
Like I said, I don't remember that day.
I was drunk.
But your conscience is clean.
Yeah.
Everyone knew Ruth's parents hated Brian.
They always felt like Ruth could do better.
This is even before the show.
And I'm sure most parents feel that about their kids, but really it wasn't even just
that.
There was something about Brian that really irked them.
Ruth's mom said, I don't know why, but I hated that kid. There was something about Brian that really irked them. Ruth's mom said, I don't know why but I hated that kid
There was something unsettling every time you talked to Brian. He would talk crouched down staring at the floor
He couldn't even look you in the eye, but it didn't feel like it was necessarily because he was so shy
it just felt like it was just weird and
They hated him more now because now they thought he's responsible for Ruth's disappearance.
A few days before Ruth vanished, Brian showed up at their house one night drunk.
Ruth did not come to the door, but Ava did, her sister, because her sister's trying to talk to him, calm him down, like,
please just leave us alone, like what's done is done, what more is there to say?
He's drunk, he's slurring his words, he's standing at the front door.
You know what, Ava? Your sister told me that she was gonna give me money,
but she hasn't given me anything.
That's enough, Brian, you're drunk.
Go home, we'll talk tomorrow,
and I will try to get you whatever money you were promised.
But Brian just stands there not moving,
and he smirks at her.
He leans in closer to Ruth's sister and says,
"'Revenge is sweet.'"
Ruth's family didn't even find out from the police
that their daughter's body had been found.
I mean, I guess at that point,
they didn't even have confirmation that it was their daughter.
And I think maybe the family could hope and pray
that it wasn't Ruth,
but the odds are not really in their favor.
A body had been found on Brian's uncle's property,
16 feet deep inside of a well.
From the top viewpoint, you could gather
that this was a girl, a young woman,
but the rest of her body was covered in concrete and rocks.
It was hard to identify her from the top.
They would need to go in and retrieve her body.
So yes, there was a chance that it wasn't Ruth,
but who else could it be?
Ruth's dad and sister, Ava, they rushed to the property,
and when they get there and park the car,
it's just cameras everywhere, all pointed at them.
The reporters are all there.
Ruth's dad said the newspapers were desperate, the radio stations were desperate, and I was
desperate.
It was just all desperation.
They were desperate for a story and I was desperate for my daughter.
They waited an hour.
The reporters were just with them until the police told them that the body did indeed belong
to Ruth. Their daughter was dead. Ruth's dad and Ruth's sister Ava, they just fold into each other.
Reporters keep asking questions and shoving mics in their faces to capture the very first words out
of their mouths when they figure out the news. But what can he even say? There's nothing to be said.
They were silent and just sobbing in each other's arms
and the cameras are zooming in on them.
There was never a question of if anybody else did it.
It was clear from the get-go that Brian was responsible.
So Brian is arrested and eventually he is brought
to the scene of the crime.
He's brought to the well.
Ruth's dad is calm.
He just wants to see the young man.
Just ask him why. This is his daughter's ex-boyfriend. To's dad is calm. He just wants to see the young man. Just ask him why.
This is his daughter's ex-boyfriend.
To a degree, yeah, they hate him.
But to a degree, they trusted that he would never hurt her.
The police warn Ruth's dad, you gotta keep your cool.
Of course, I promise.
I mean, I just want to ask him a question.
That's it.
He approaches Brian.
The officers are standing around them, surrounding them, making sure that nothing happens.
What's faster, a police officer's arm or a rock?
Ruth's dad went with the rock.
He pulls it out of his pocket
and goes to slam it down on Brian's head,
but he was shoved backwards by a police officer
and he lost his only shot.
Watching all of this, Ava Ruth's sister
just drops to her knees crying,
screaming Ruth's name over and over again.
Meanwhile, Ruth's mom was at home
and she has no idea what's going on.
I mean, on some random isolated property
outside of town, they found a body.
She doesn't even know this news.
It's unclear if she even knew what her husband
and her daughter were doing.
Perhaps they didn't even tell her so that they wouldn't worry her unless they were confirmed that this
was Ruth. But a reporter named Maribel and a cameraman show up at Ruth's family's door.
The door swings open and Maribel drops her head and offers her condolences. Ruth's mom is a little
bit confused and Maribel thinks, oh maybe she didn't hear me. Maybe I needed to say it louder.
She repeats her condolences for her dead daughter but Ruth's mom, she's
just staring at her confused like what is this lady talking about right now?
Maribel realizes that Ruth's mom did not know that Ruth had been found.
Maribel felt herself choking up. She's a TV reporter. she never had to tell. All she could manage to say was, ma'am, they found a girl.
Ruth's mom ran up inside the house up to the second floor and slammed the door shut, and
she locked herself in the room and all she could hear from the outside, the reporter
could hear, was the most gut wrenching, emotionally disturbing wails coming from inside the room.
Maribel's cameraman caught it and it was aired for weeks.
Just the cries of a mom who lost her daughter.
Ruth's mom knew it was Brian from the moment that Ruth didn't come home that night.
I mean the very next day with no proof, she went to Brian's because she was so sure it was Brian.
She knocked on his door. She was sobbing, crying, screaming. All the neighbors start walking out of their homes to investigate, like, what is this
noise? And in front of them, on the dirty street, in front of Brian, who is just staring at her
with indifference on his face, like she's just some sort of stranger that he has no connection to,
Ruth's mom felt so desperate that she dropped to her knees, just pouring tears pouring out of her eyes now that she thinks about it she said she was kneeling to Brian like he
was some sort of God and she was praying to him and she begged him Brian please
give me back my give me back my Ruth please Brian let her beg for a moment
before stating very bluntly Ruth I haven't talked to her in a very long time.
And he turns on his heel and just walks off.
And now, now she knew she was right.
She obviously did not want to be right.
Her reaction to finding out her daughter was killed
was played on almost every news station,
except one channel.
They decided to stick to their regularly scheduled programming
rather than switch to breaking news.
They wanted to air their regular scheduled show,
another episode of Value of Truth.
After Brian's arrest, he immediately confessed
to killing Ruth.
He said, my name is Brian Levia, I'm 20 years old.
On the night of September 11th,
at approximately 11 p.m., I called Ruth that night. She went missing
I asked her to hang out we were gonna meet near the bridge and at first things were really awkward
We barely talked but we thought maybe this was a way of rekindling the affection that we did once have for each other
And put this all past us
You know one could argue that nobody else would know what that they're going through right now besides each other
You know, one could argue that nobody else would know what they're going through right now besides each other. She gets into his Moto Taxi, they drive to his house, they park on the street, and they just sit outside on the street on the Moto Taxi drinking a cheap bottle of three dollar wine.
And then they head upstairs to Brian's room, and Brian claims that they had sex.
Afterwards, though, it's like a switch flipped, Ruth starts screaming at him out of nowhere. She's very upset and she tells him,
I don't know what I'm doing talking to a poor
Moto taxi driver like you.
Brian said that he snapped.
All the looks, the smirks, the comments,
texts from his friends that he received after the show aired,
all of them were flooding into his mind
and it was all because of her.
Brian said, and that's when I grabbed her by the throat
for 30 seconds, I held her like that,
I thought she passed out, I listened to her heart
and I didn't hear anything. I grabbed her and I shook her and I heard nothing. I got
scared. I didn't know what to do at this point. So he picked up her limp body, carried her into the
bathroom, put her in the bathtub, and then went downstairs to the living room where there was a party for his mom's birthday.
And he got drunk while upstairs Ruth's body was in the bathtub.
He said later his uncle came to move Ruth's body into the well on his property.
During the trial, Brian's attorney would argue that his client Brian snapped under
the pressure of national humiliation.
The crime can be traced all the way back directly to the show.
That episode could not have existed without Brian.
That's the truth.
The program had impact so long as you had a cuckold sitting up there.
You can call him Brian or change him to a new man, Juan Pedro, whoever.
They just needed a man to be the laughing stock, the green hat slave, a cuckold.
They need a victim for Ruth's lies.
But when Ruth's parents did not agree with this sentiment,
Brian and his uncle decided to see if they could press charges against Ruth's parents for throwing a rock at Brian when they found Ruth's
body in the well.
What? Yeah.
When you think that they can't go lower, they do go lower. And it runs in the family. It's a bit of a side note, but before the trial, Ruth's mom was beaten by Brian's dad.
He attacked her with so much vengeance that I would not be surprised if you told me that he wanted to kill her.
It was a lot. Her eyes were swollen shut because he was pounding her in the face.
Ava, Ruth's sister, asked, do they just want to kill our whole family at this point? What is wrong with them?
During the trial, Brian would also argue that he was not a green hat slave, that he and
Ruth were not even dating at this point when the show was being filmed, which some netizens
genuinely believe.
Others think that he is so upset at the idea of being a green hat slave.
Like, this is what's bothering him when he's on trial for murder.
Like this is what he wants to clarify. Like hold on on i need to use my time to tell you about this he said that he and ruth broke up
a while back but because she wanted to be on this show really badly she felt like she needed a
boyfriend storyline to make the producers want to air her story she's like the questions have
nothing to do with you but i just think that that's the only way i'll get casted she asked
him to pretend to still be her boyfriend act like like they never broke up, and go on the show with her.
In return, she will give him a percentage
of whatever she wins in the prize money.
He said that he agreed,
having no idea what kinds of questions were gonna be asked.
He said it was a total ambush,
and Ruth knew that she was gonna expose
these types of questions and secrets
and had no concern for how that would make him appear
as her, quote, boyfriend. He also even claimed that the producers of the show knew that he
wasn't even Ruth's current boyfriend anymore they knew that she had broken up
with him but they didn't care as long as it was good TV so it was all fake
that's what Brian claims he also claims that the show has the most responsibility
for Ruth's murder yeah yeah he stated people need to see the host of the show
for who he is. They need to understand his manipulative and frivolous attitude
in the face of the harm that he has caused in our lives. One of the producers,
David Nvoa, he admitted that he felt really bad for Ruth's death. He said that
he was the one that conducted the polygraph initially and he spent a lot
of time trying to pick out the questions to ask Ruth that would make for the best TV.
He said the last question, the one about sex work, I mean he knew what that would do to her family.
He said, I knew it was going to be a surprise to her loved ones and a very shameful moment for all of them.
But to the producers, it was a celebration. They nailed the viewership.
It was a good day at work. It was a job well done.
Their ratings, I mean it was skyrocketing. They were popping champagne in the offices.
At one point he was asked if Ruth would still be alive had she never appeared on the show and he said of course.
But then he pauses for a second and says well, I don't know if she would be alive.
Maybe she would have died some other way.
Well, I don't know if she would be alive. Maybe she would have died some other way
The host Beto one of the most famous journalists in the country was called to testify during
Brian's trial where he basically said what he would publicly later state I have huge condolences for the family our doors are open for them and the investigators
But the media have tried to turn the show into the origin of the crime and that is something we reject
Because there is no relation between one event and the other
We have seen how they are trying to shift the blame from the murderer to the origin of the crime and that is something we reject because there is no relation between one event and the other. We have seen how they are trying to shift the blame from the murderer to the TV program. The murderer is Brian and his
uncle. Those who are saying it's from the TV show are just doing the murderer's a
favor. That is not the motive. That is not the crime of passion by a teenage
lover and even then the nature of their relationship is unknown. We will not be
intimidated by everyone trying to tear us down in the show." Beto announced that he will be helping the family pay for any legal fees that they may
counter during the trial. Brian's whole defense hinges on the fact that he wants society to feel
pity for him to understand where he was coming from and why he had to kill Ruth because he snapped.
But at the same time, Brian has no remorse. Before the trial, Brian underwent
a psychological test and the specialist found that he was incredibly cynical and sensitive
when it comes to human life. He is indifferent to other people's pains. He lies. He has
no remorse. He covers up all of his wrongdoings. He might be minimizing them. And that's how
he gets away with it. Even when describing Ruth's murder, the murder of Ruth, he describes
his actions in a very indirect way. That the producers did this, Ruth did this,
society did this, and he's just the weapon that was used. As if he had no
choice in any of this. February 27th 2014, the court declared Brian and his uncle
Reddy guilty for the murder of Ruth Talia. They were both sentenced to life
in prison,
but technically in Peru, a life sentence is 35 years.
That's as long as a sentence you can get.
Interestingly enough, the court did not believe
a single word of Brian's confession.
Yeah.
I mean, they do believe undoubtedly that he killed Ruth,
but they do not believe that they were meeting up
for intimate relations and Ruth triggered him by being mean
and that he just choked her for 30 seconds.
It can take someone anywhere between a few minutes to sometimes even up to 20 minutes
of strangling someone to actually have them die.
I mean one may become unconscious but not dead from that.
So they believe it's premeditated, it was planned from the get-go, and the motive for
murder was not that he snapped due to the public humiliation he suffered
He straight-up wanted revenge and he wanted all the winnings from the show
There was evidence that he tried to obtain Ruth's bank security codes
Now the two of them him and his uncle will be in prison together and Brian was ordered by the state to
Compensate Ruth's family up to the tune of $200,000 though. I don't think that they're gonna get any of that.
When the news networks reported Ruth's disappearance
but called her the sex worker from that one show,
Ruth's mom said, they killed me in my heart.
Ruth's dad said when his daughter went missing,
I felt like I was floating.
There were moments where I couldn't tell if I was asleep
or if I was awake.
And both of them would have these really hard conversations of how much guilt that they have. If they had prevented her
from going on the show would things have been different? Would Brian still have so
much hatred for Ruth or would they have naturally broken up and moved on from
each other? They just know that their daughter's life is worth way more than
$5,300. So why? I mean could they have done something? Ruth's mom said,
nobody understands my immense pain. It's just too immense. When I die, that's when
I will stop suffering. She visits Ruth's gravestone once a week to wash it and to
pray and every day she wakes up to Ruth's picture that's hanging in their
room. It's an altar and she talks to Ruth. She'll say things like, good morning dear,
take care of your siblings dear. I'm on my way out, I'm sick so please help me feel better.
Your grandma's also sick.
She tells Ruth every little thing that happens in her day
and she thought that this would help
with the healing process of grieving her daughter
but she realized at one point, it wasn't healing.
She was not accepting Ruth's death.
She said sometimes she would expect Ruth to talk back
and she would find Ruth to talk back
and she would find herself getting frustrated
and crying in front of the photograph and screaming
Why won't you speak to me? Just talk to me.
Why won't you talk to me?
But then she'll realize she can't because she's in a photograph.
So for a while Ruth's mom even stopped singing.
She just couldn't bring herself to sing.
I mean, how could you sing? Singing feels like such a happy activity. You're having a good day,
you're running errands, you sing in the car, you're in the shower after a good night's rest in the morning, you sing.
How could she do that? How can she sing when her daughter is dead?
But one day Ava, her other daughter, came up to her and said, Ruth must be crying in heaven, mom.
What do you mean? Why would Ruth be sad in heaven?
Because this is not what she would have wanted she would have wanted you to sing
and Ruth's mom is now singing again and that is the story of Ruth Talia what are
your thoughts have you ever seen an episode of moment of truth I mean I
think that feels like a social experiment that is when humans went way
too far yeah it sounds like a black mirror episode yes for like the sake of entertainment
and the fact that it was hard i was watching clips of moment of truth it's hard to watch it like i
understand the appeal of reality tv sometimes you want to see people doing goofy things and maybe to a degree even embarrassing themselves for mass entertainment.
But that was like a level of it just felt sadistic. I don't know what i'm getting out of it.
It's like I don't even want to watch it. I'm just oh
You know, it's very primal. Yeah
What are your thoughts? Have you seen an episode and are you glad it's no longer around?
Please leave your thoughts in the comments and please be safe.
I will see you guys on Wednesday for the next episode.
Bye.