What is the Meaning of 253.55 on ‘Inside Man’?

Inside Man, a new drama mini series about a murderer and former criminologist named Jefferson Grieff (played by a very charismatic Stanley Tucci) who solves mysteries and cases people bring him while sitting on death row, arrived Friday as yet another killer addition to Netflix’s already large library of material surrounding serial killers. Yet the best and most interesting case Jefferson solves focuses on a specific number amount: 253.55

Viewers are first introduced to Jefferson (or Mr. Grieff, as he is called, ironically) and his methods when Senator Kriener arrives to ask for his help. But after he leaves, it becomes the most confusing puzzle for audiences, as well as his friend and physical recorder (he has photographic memory) Dillon (Atkins Estimond), who doesn’t understand what it is.

According to the senator, for the last three months, he’s been receiving payments from an unknown source at different times. The amount is always the same: $253.55 (“never more, never less”). The payments occur seemingly two to three days following every time Senator Kriener has sex with his wife, which is about once a week. Who is the payment coming from and why?

What is the Meaning of 253.55 on Inside Man?

Although Grieff refuses to take the case (it doesn’t meet his criteria), he seems to have a guess almost immediately: it appears to relate to the sexual assault accusations that came to light only three months ago about Senator Kriener when he was in college. Two women spoke out about it but a third victim, Selina Cadiz, chose not to. Currently, Cadiz works in his office. Senator Kriener denies the allegations, as they came out 30 years after what happened and frankly, “why would Selina come to work in [his] office if she thought [he] was a rapist?”

Grieff’s theory is that since learning of the accusations, Mrs. Kriener, the senator’s wife, has become extremely grossed out by the prospect of having sex with him (“it’s probably making her sick”). As a result, every time she does, she goes to a therapist and must make sure to pay them after. However, she’s not sending the money through the regular account “because her husband would see it, and she’s not ready to have that conversation.” No, the therapist is being paid secretly by someone else through another hidden bank account: Ms. Cadiz. Now, this is where it gets a little weird, and Grieff admits he doesn’t fully understand this part: for some reason, Ms. Cadiz continues to keep secretly making the payments every single time she receives a text message from Mrs. Kriener. Now in her fifties, Cadiz most likely expands the size of the text message, so instead of seeing “pay therapist,” she reads “pay the rapist $253.55.”

Still, according to Dillon, this creates another problem, as the therapist is never paid. So when a reminder goes out about paying the therapist, Senator Kriener receives yet another payment of $253.55.

Does this sound plausible enough to be the real reason behind the payments? We’re not sure, but we’ll leave it up to you to decide just how likely this explanation is. And why this amount? Presumably, that’s how much the therapist charges. Not too expensive, all things considered!