Ari Callahan has no idea how to talk to boys -- or how to talk to anyone for that matter. Enter Zac, the cute new guy in town who won't stop texting her. But is his interest real, or does he have a hidden agenda?
...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The Transcript (Segment 9)
Broadcast: THE TRUTH FILES
Episode Title: The Mermaid Hypothesis
Air Date: June 28, 2020
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT OF TELEVISION BROADCAST
HOST: Last summer, in the days leading up to the SirenSong IPO, a video went viral. We won't replay the video on this broadcast out of deference to its subject, Ariel Callahan. As we heard from the Callahan family earlier, the video was recorded and leaked by members of The Disruption movement. It contained a thirty-second clip of Ari singing Part of Your World, her favorite songfrom Disney's The Little Mermaid. From all appearances, the video was captured without her knowledge or permission. It went on to rack up over 100 million views, and it continues to be shared across the internet to this day. Our Truth Files investigators have confirmed the identity of the young man who recorded the original footage. He joins us tonight, via satellite. Zac? Are you there? Can you hear me?
PIERCE: Yes. I'm here.
HOST: Thank you for joining us tonight. As a reminder for our viewers, Zac is the grandson of Benedict Pierce, and he traveled to Seabreeze Point last summer under his grandfather's supervision. Is that correct, Zac?
PIERCE: Right.
HOST: And is it true that you were the one who recorded the now-notorious video of Ariel Callahan singing?
PIERCE: Yes. I took it. I'm not proud of it. If I could take it back, I would. I never intended for Ari to get hurt. Somehow, I got in way over my head.
HOST: Literally. You nearly drowned, the night the video went public. Isn't that right?
PIERCE: Yeah. Almost. Near-death experience. That was pretty much a wake-up call for me, that night.
HOST: Can you walk us through what happened, Zac? What led you to leak the video? And what were you doing swimming in the ocean in the middle of a storm?
PIERCE: I went in the water after Ari. I was trying to rescue her. Not that I'm a hero or anything, but—wait. Can we clear something up first? I just want to set the record straight. I wasn't the one who leaked the video.
HOST: You just told us—
PIERCE: I recorded it. I didn't broadcast it. Not that I'm innocent in all this, but there's a difference. I was planning to get Ari's permission before I showed it to anyone else.
HOST: Who leaked it, Zac?
PIERCE: My grandfather. I didn't even know he had it. I was just as surprised as everyone else when I saw it getting shared all over the place that night. It all went down really fast.
HOST: Tell us what happened.
PIERCE: The IPO was scheduled to take place in a couple days. We were having a Disruption meeting to talk about some last-minute ideas to derail it, and I invited Ari to the meeting. I was hoping my grandfather could convince her to help—that she would let us use the video voluntarily. But then we got raided, and the whole thing got shot to hell.
