Catfish: The TV Show (2012–…): Season 0, Episode 0 - Catfish Keeps It 100: The Aftershock - full transcript
- Hey, everyone, Nev and Max
here, bringing you
another brand new special episode as part of
our "Catfish Keeps It 100" centennial celebration.
[kazoo honks]
- To celebrate reaching 100 episodes
of "Catfish: The TV Show,"
we've been doing a deep dive into the "Catfish" archives
and revisiting some of the most hilarious and memorable moments
from the past seven seasons. - Now, in a typical episode,
we usually meet up with the catfish twice,
once when we first meet them in person...
- So the Alexia and all that, that was fake?
- Yeah.
[dramatic music] - What?
- And a second time the following day.
- What the [bleep] were you trying to accomplish
by making fake accounts?
How is that not intentionally messing with me?
- I don't know what you want to hear.
- This is starting to piss me off.
- Everybody tends to remember the first meeting, the reveal.
But some of the biggest revelations
and craziest conflicts actually happen during
our follow-up meetings, when the shock and awe has worn off.
- You're not about to put me back in that place in my life.
- You are a sucker!
- If ugly is what the [bleep] you want,
ugly is what I'll give you.
- So today, we're going to be counting down
the top ten follow-up meetings in "Catfish" history
in a special episode that we're calling
"Catfish: The Aftershock."
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
Whether it's a surprising plot twist
or some unexpected drama,
the best moments come to those who wait.
And the first episode on our countdown today
is an example of just that.
Max and I were contacted by a young mom named Keyonnah
who believed she was in an online relationship
with the rapper, Bow Wow.
- Come on. - [laughs]
Needless to say, we were highly skeptical.
- Under normal circumstances, we would have been able to say
with complete certainty that Keyonnah
was not talking to Bow Wow.
- But then we found out something just as unbelievable.
- He sent over $10,000.
Suddenly, we weren't sure.
- All we really had to go on was a phone number.
So we texted "Bow Wow" to arrange a meeting,
and he eventually agreed to meet us in Atlanta.
- Which is where Bow Wow, apparently, lives.
- It can't be Bow Wow. - It could be Bow Wow.
[both laugh] Okay?
[upbeat music]
- Ugh, like, I-- [stammers]
- How you doing, Keyonnah?
- Oh.
Oh, my God.
- So Bow Wow actually turned out to be a young woman
and self-proclaimed rapper named Dee Pimpin'.
I--she was a rapper. - Recording artist.
- I'm not gay. - I'm kind of embarrassed.
- You're embarrassed? I'm embarrassed.
You're...
- Most people remember that episode because
it was Dee Pimpin', it was this girl,
but what people probably don't remember
is what happened the next day.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- How did you think that this was going to turn out?
- With Keyonnah? - Yeah.
- I sent her a lot of money.
- But you were sure I was just going to, like up,
oh, my God, this person's sending me money,
so I'm just going to date them and talk to them regardless.
I'd rather have seen you than seen the money.
- So where did the $10,000 come from?
♪ ♪
- It came from the music.
- I don't think you make money performing.
Where did you get that $10,000?
- I got a lot of people who care about me.
- How much money do your friends give you at once?
- Depends on how much I ask for.
Like-- - Thousands, or like--
- Yeah. - Do you ever pay people back?
- No.
- You're really taking advantage of people.
- These people are supportive of me.
They helping me out. They know once I get
where I need to be, I'm going to bless all my family.
- How come you don't bless me? - [laughs]
- When are you going to make it big and bless me?
[both laugh]
- It's coming.
- All right, so the next episode on our countdown
comes from season six, and it's another great example
of a story that most people remember for the reveal,
but tend to forget what happened afterwards.
both: Hey!
- Colleen met Tony on Plenty of Fish,
and he quickly charmed her.
- Said he was a delivery driver
for, like, a pizza place.
I'm super in love with him.
- So much so that when he proposed to her
just one month into their online relationship,
she said yes.
You just like, boom? You were like, yeah, I'm in?
- Yeah, I've never felt this way about any other guy.
- But you've also never met him.
Tony admitted before meeting us
that he wasn't the guy in the pictures.
So we didn't really know what to expect when we got there
- Why were you pretending to be this other guy?
- I'm not a stereotypical black guy.
- I mean, why wouldn't you let me be the judge of everything?
- But as far as reveals go,
things ended up going pretty smoothly.
- Still want to marry me?
[soft music]
♪ ♪
- Yes.
- It wasn't until afterward when Jeremy introduced Colleen
to his family that things began to get rocky.
[tense electronic music]
♪ ♪
- I asked Colleen to marry me. - Oh, Lord.
- There's a little more to the story.
Jeremy posted pictures of a white guy.
- Jeremy. - Aw, [bleep].
- What you doing? - Uh...
I felt more comfortable
talking to her when she was under the impression
that I was not black.
- Hmm, I don't even know what to say.
It feel like you took something and stabbed me or something
when you said that.
[tense music]
And then, how you feel about that he black?
- I don't care.
I don't care at all.
- Do you talk about living together?
- Yeah.
- I really don't want to move out of Washington.
- So he's actually leaving to Washington?
♪ ♪
- I might.
Not saying that that's the case.
Possibly.
- Really?
- Please don't ground me.
- When you think about "Catfish,"
and the lies they tell, and the people that are affected,
you generally think of the person they're catfishing.
You don't realize that the lies that they're telling
also involves their family members
and their close friends.
- It's very hard to get into the true emotions
of a situation when you're in that initial confrontation.
There's so much going on.
This is when the real emotions come out.
- I mean, I can't imagine what that was like for Colleen.
When we checked in with her a few months later,
things seemed to be in a good place.
- Hey, there she is. - Colleen, how you doing?
- I'm doing really good.
Me and Jeremy are trying to work it out.
In fact, he's actually right here with me.
- What? - Whoa!
- Oh, my God! - Ay, hey, hey!
There he is. - There he is.
- Look at this guy. - Oh, my God.
You actually went up there. I'm impressed.
Are you just up there temporarily,
or are you like, staying there for a bit?
- Well, I've got an interview at a pizza place.
- And they got to make sure, if you're going to work at
a pizza place, that you're a good guy,
that your track record is clean.
- That's right.
And you don't want to hire someone who's too cheesy.
- [laughs hysterically]
- Or maybe a little saucy. - Or crusty.
- Oh, you definitely don't want someone crusty.
- They got to know that you can deliver.
Coming up, Nev and I experience déjà vu.
- I wasn't trying to hurt you.
I did not mean to hurt you.
- And we get even closer to our number one follow-up meeting...
- Whoa!
- When "Catfish: The Aftershock"
returns right after this.
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
- All right, here we go. - All right, and we're back.
Today, we're counting down the top ten follow-up meetings
in "Catfish" history. - This is the drama
that happens after we answer the big question: "Who?"
- Who? - Who--who is it, who is it?
Oh, it's you, okay. And then,
we get into the how-- - How?
- And the why-- - Why'd you do it?
- Just why did-- I just want to know why.
The next episode on our countdown from season six
is no exception.
A young guy named Dylan contacted me and Max
after receiving an anonymous tip claiming
his online love, Ally, was actually an imposter.
- I'm just like, dumbfounded. - Whoa.
- I don't even know how they got my number.
- Once we started digging, we soon discovered
that whoever Dylan was talking to
had actually catfished people before.
- Ireland. - Yeah.
- We learned that the person Dylan had been talking to
was actually named Mary, and her cousin, Chelsea,
had been the one who texted him the warning.
- With Chelsea's help, we finally arranged
to meet Mary face to face.
[dramatic musical flair]
- Oh, gosh, I just want you to know
I wasn't trying to hurt you.
[tense music]
You are my person, and you know that.
- Have you tried to actually stop it?
- Yeah, I've tried, and I just go back.
It's like my addiction. It's weird to come out,
but it's like, the attention,
and this drive to get that attention,
and you'd pretty much do anything you could
to get that attention.
- That was crazy because that was the first time
we've had a catfish come out and basically just say, like,
"This is what I do. I can't stop.
Addicted to love." - Can't stop, won't stop.
- Yeah, needless to say, very little was resolved
when we first met up with Mary, which left a lot for us
to discuss the following day.
[tense electronic music]
♪ ♪
- How many people do you think you've catfished?
- I mean, I have literally every social media.
Probably hundreds.
[dramatic musical flourish]
I mean, that makes me feel bad that I have to pretend to be
someone to feel like I'm good enough.
- I want to be your friend. I want to be there for you,
and I want to help you get through this,
but the catfishing has to stop.
Just do you. - Mm-hmm.
- There's only so much we can do and talk about
in the short time that we have.
- It always just feels like we're scratching the surface.
- Right. - Ideally, we pick the scab.
- Right. - And then it bleeds.
- Right, gross. - Yeah.
- After a nice long talk, it seemed we'd really
gotten through to Mary.
- Until just a few months later,
when we discover that Mary was back at it again.
- So the catfishing?
- Yeah.
Um, it's--it's still going.
- You're hurt, and you're hurting more people.
That never ends well.
[tense music]
- So we have a little bit of a surprise.
So one of the guys that you've
been talking to as Ally, Darien...
- Mm-hmm. - Darien reached out
to the show, so we brought him here.
- I don't understand why you would do that to somebody.
- I know you deserve an apology, and I am sorry.
I did not mean to hurt you like I did.
- This is déjà vu. I-I stood here with Nev
and heard you say the exact same thing.
What's really interesting is that
after Dylan and Mary finally met,
it really did become Mary's story.
Mary was so clearly in need of help,
while Dylan was so chill and understanding.
- Probably, you know, that mop top.
What up, mop top? - Mop top!
It's now blonde.
- Yeah, I tried something different.
- It's like an emotional support animal.
[meowing]
- It does, it does-- it does calm me down.
Just to--just to touch it. - It's nice.
Okay, we made it to number seven on our countdown
and this next episode was unlike anything
we could have ever expected.
We were contacted by this guy, Melvin,
who was certain that his good friend, Kailani,
was being catfished by a guy named Sam.
- Look, we have people write in on behalf
of their friends and family all the time.
So that alone wasn't so strange.
What made this story so different, though,
was the fact that Melvin had actually dated Sam online
before Kailani.
- I guess the big question for me is have you guys
both seen Sam's penis?
- We compared pictures.
- Jeez, your mind always goes straight to sexting.
- Oh, yeah? How turned on
do your phone calls get? - [laughs]
- Were you guys intimate on the phone with each other?
- Yes, we were.
- I don't know what you're talking about, okay?.
You're usually the one being way worse than I am.
- No sexting, no nothing? - I don't do that.
- So you could pick your D out in a line up?
- Yeah.
- Have you sent her some Richard pics?
Touché.
both: Hey! - Nice to meet you.
- Oh, are you? - Don't be nervous.
- It turned out that Kailani had recently divorced,
and was in a real vulnerable place when she met Sam.
- You are ignoring a lot of red flags.
Is it just that you just need him to be who he says he is,
because you've had such a hard year?
- I started, like-- I believed he was real.
- While investigating Sam, we discovered the face
in the photos, was, surprise, surprise,
not the guy Kailani thought she was talking to.
- There he is. - Is that him, that's him!
- That's that picture. - That's the picture.
We found him. - It sucks.
- Yeah, it really does. I want to know who the hell
I've been talking to this whole time.
- What was unexpected, though, was that Sam
then contacted Kailani and told her
he was finally ready to meet.
How you doing? - Scared.
It's because I know I hurt her.
- You really love her? - Yeah.
I never wanted to hurt her.
- Little did we know that
the biggest surprise was yet to come.
[tense electronic music]
- Sam has something he wants to tell you.
- I was not born a male.
Uh...
I'm transitioning.
Uh, I do go by Sam. And I identify as a male.
- This clip is important, because for him,
coming on TV and speaking his truth
is a really big deal. I love that we can--
we can give someone the opportunity to do that.
- Fortunately, Kailani was willing to see past the lies
and still be there for Sam.
- I'm not mad at you.
But I might need some space,
but I do want to be your friend.
- Man, I've got to say, there's something really
satisfying about helping out one of our superfans.
- I'm a fan, oh, my God. - Oh, are you?
- Don't be nervous. - Come on.
- Yeah, unlike some people.
- So who are you again?
- We are the sort of co-hosts of the show.
- Which one of you guys are Nev and Max?
- Are you serious? - [laughs]
[both laugh]
- Coming up after the break, emotions run high.
- Don't sit over there talking to me
any kind of way that you want to talk to me.
- And we get even closer to the number one moment
on our "Catfish: The Aftershock" countdown.
We'll be right back.
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
- Welcome back, everyone, to another special episode
as our "Catfish Keeps It 100"
centennial celebration continues.
- Today, Max and I have been counting down
the top ten follow-up meetings in "Catfish" history.
- The next episode on our countdown aired way back
in season two, and featured Anthony,
a retired Navy vet who had been dating
a guy online named Marq for seven months.
- We uncovered the real guy behind the Marq profile.
both: Whoa.
- That's him. - And his name was Framel.
- All you did was play a whole bunch of mind games with me.
You made me look stupid in front of my family,
and you made me look stupid to my damn self.
[dramatic musical flair]
- Anthony's hard feelings were certainly warranted.
But Max and I hoped things might go
a bit more smoothly the next day.
It turns out, though, Anthony was still pretty raw.
[tense electronic music]
- I just want you to own up to just being a [bleep] up person
about this. - I was a [bleep] up person.
No, you're not about to put me back in that place in my life.
I said I was [bleep] up then. I'm not [bleep] up now.
It is what it is. - Don't sit over there
talking to me any kind of way that you want to talk to me
because I'll tell you, I'm in your house,
and I will still pop you in your [bleep] mouth.
- When it comes to the point where you put your hands on me?
[grunts] Try.
- Own up to it. - And I did.
- We going to get the same [bleep] ass excuses from you.
- I can't [bleep] make you believe it, so what?
- Because you a liar!
- I think we were getting somewhere.
- [laughs] - I really do.
- You can't-- they can't all go smoothly.
I mean like, sometimes you need--
the blow-ups need to happen. - Yes, yes.
Well, that's because that's real.
Anyway, after taking a little breather,
Anthony agreed to come back inside and hear Framel out.
- I guess I can listen to whatever you got to say, man.
- I really care about you.
I don't want you going through life
thinking everybody's going to lie to you.
I dealt with a lot of pain, because...
Me liking guys was...
Really wrong, I guess, for me and my family.
- Well, I accept your apology and I forgive you.
- I have to say, though, that is one of
our more emotional episodes, wouldn't you agree?
- Look, Anthony is a sensitive guy.
- For sure, we've definitely encountered all kinds of people
on this show, and there are certainly some people
who are just more prone to crying.
- There are criers...
- [sniffs]
- And there are laughers.
- [laughs]
- Then there's just stone walls.
Those are the worst. We don't like those.
Because they show no emotion.
[crickets chirp]
Criers. Take a look.
- I'm so sick and tired of you telling me
that I'm [bleep] lying when I'm sitting here crying.
- You can't manipulate it with just by crying.
- I'm not manipulating anything.
- You cry, and then we can't ask you anything else.
- That's not true.
- [exhales]
[upbeat music]
- ♪ I heard the cry ♪
- You all right there?
- ♪ You were sound asleep ♪
♪ I was too scared to look outside ♪
♪ Say that you want me ♪
- Wait, what's wrong?
♪ ♪
- ♪ Say that you want me ♪
♪ ♪
- I just don't want to do this today.
- I will never care for nobody again.
I will never love. I'm just going to end up
closed to myself just to be away from everything,
from everything.
♪ ♪
- [screams]
- [sobs] Oh, man, that montage.
- Pull yourself together, man. Jesus.
We're making a special here. - [sobs]
- I said no crying!
Next up on our "Catfish: The Aftershock" countdown
is a prime example of an episode that's received
so much attention for its surprising reveal
that few people remember what went down the following day.
- In season three, Max and I were contacted by
a woman named Carmen, who believed her cousin, Antwane,
was getting catfished by a guy named "Tony."
- The reason why you [bleep] stupid idiots
can never find who Tony is is because I'm Tony.
[dramatic musical flair]
- What's happening? What's going on?
- Why the [bleep] would you do that?
- Because-- - [bleep],
'cause this [bleep] ain't [bleep] cool!
- You should have never called me a fat-ass Kelly Price.
- I mean, can we just talk about that?
That has become one of our-- - Timeless.
- It's probably one of the trademark lines of our show.
- You should have never called me a fat-ass Kelly Price.
- How you get mad I put that little bitty boo-boo
[bleep] though? That's [bleep] up.
- That's life. Deal with it.
- Don't talk to me ever no more, and I mean that [bleep].
- What voice are you using to talk to him?
- [deep voice] The Tony voice.
- What? - [laughs]
- It still--it still gets me.
[deep voice] The Tony voice.
[both laugh]
That's the scene you're all familiar with,
but here's what went down the following day.
[tense electronic music]
♪ ♪
- What's your story?
- I [bleep] catfish people, and I'm cool with it.
You don't have to be cool with the things that I do.
- I want to know, are you-- you're proud of it?
- Yeah, I'm proud of myself, because I do a damn good job.
[dramatic musical flair]
Why you going to waste your breath
saying anything to me anymore?
- I don't want you to make other people feel like [bleep].
- I make people feel like [bleep] because they want to.
Because they already is [bleep].
- They already-- - They already [bleep].
- Did I want to feel like [bleep]?
- You already [bleep]. You ain't [bleep].
- That--your argument is "You ain't [bleep].
You already [bleep]." - Yeah, like--
- Great.
- I just don't feel like she deserves the couch time.
- Got--got heated.
We're not just hosts. We get--we get in.
- This was probably the first time where I lost my cool.
- And everyone was kind of upset that Nev did it.
- Not surprisingly, Antwane wanted nothing to do
with Carmen after what she did to him.
In fact, it wasn't until we brought them together
two years later that the two cousins finally
spoke again for the first time.
- Look, you doing that [bleep] is off the chain.
But at the end of the day, everybody better like
my cousin, because I still love her, and you my family.
- Right. [both laugh]
- Give me a little of that [bleep].
Ooh. - I'll move out of the way.
- Man, you [bleep].
- I got to admit, three years is a long time
to commit to a practical joke.
- She committed. - She sure did.
- She tripled down. - Yeah.
- After the break, Nev meets his match.
- KJ wants to meet you. You know that.
- Of course I know that.
Are you going to be rude about it?
- And we close in on our number one follow-up meeting.
- So don't go away. "Catfish: The Aftershock"
will return right after this.
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
- Howdy, folks, and welcome back
to "Catfish: The Aftershock."
- We've made it now to number four on our countdown.
The next episode is from way back in season one.
A guy named Rod hit us up because he needed help
navigating a tricky situation.
- Rod had met a trans woman named Ebony
on an LGBTQ dating website, and although he had initially
been hesitant about dating someone who was transgender,
he soon developed feelings for her.
- The problem was that not only did Rod suspect
Ebony might be hiding something from him,
it turned out hehad been using
a fake name and profile all along.
- "In addition to putting the fake picture,
"I told her my name was KJ, and Ebony has never seen
a real picture of me in four years."
Max and I still had a lot of questions.
Do you have any suspicions about her?
- You know, I've been thinking the whole time,
if this is Ebony, and if I get there,
and I see her, and it's not her,
then...
- You realize how hypocritical that is, right?
- [laughs]
- No, I'm serious.
- The obvious logical next step was to simply give Ebony a call
and try to arrange a meet-up.
- She's going to dominate the conversation,
so you're going to gently point her
in a direction, and hope she goes there.
- This might actually be the most nervous
I've ever seen you before a call.
- Hey, it was season one.
I hadn't really done a lot of these.
I wasn't the seasoned pro that I am now.
I'm just telling you, KJ wants to meet you.
You know that. - Of course I know that.
Are you going to be rude about it?
- I'm in-- - I'm not concerned
about what we want. I'm only concerned about
what he wants.
- Well, he wants to meet you immediately.
- Well, bring him here.
- [exhales] Wow.
It's amazing I survived that call,
but we got through it, and, you know, it was game on.
- You just don't look like your pictures at all.
- Them pictures I sent you...
They wasn't my pictures. They was my cousin's pictures.
So, my name Rod.
[dramatic musical flair]
- Excuse me? - It's Rod.
- Your name? - Yeah, it's not KJ.
- Your name is Rod? - Yeah.
- I was actually nervous and just really, really feeling bad
because of something that I wanted to tell you.
I'm not a transgender male.
[tense music]
- I was wrong about giving you the wrong name,
and sending you a wrong--you know, not my right pictures.
So-- - And you kept it up
for four years? - So I'ma apologize to you.
- I don't know. I don't know.
I forgive you. [both giggle]
- You thought it was a happy ending.
You thought it should have
just ended there with everyone happy.
- Well, how do you feel about her being a woman?
- It feels weird, because I don't know why
she wouldn't even, you know, wouldn't tell me
from the get-go that she was a woman.
- So we took Rod to meet with Ebony the following day
to hopefully clear the air, but things quickly took a turn.
[tense electronic music]
♪ ♪
- What I wanted to talk to you about is--was--
I mean-- - Spit it out.
- I'm not trying to say I used you
or I took advantage of you, but you sending me money,
you paying my cell phone bill, those are some of the reasons
why I just continued to talk to you.
- Okay.
Okay.,,
That's a huge slap in the face, because I was genuine.
Yes, I did lie about one small thing,
That was a big thing. - That thing you lied about
wasn't small. - Okay, it wasn't small.
Whatever, shut up. Everything else was real.
The feelings, the everything that I said,
it was all real. What you are saying is
you used me. That one sentence
that you just said, you pissed on everything.
If ugly is what the [bleep] you want,
ugly is what I'll give you.
- Okay, I'm gone.
- Okay.
- Fortunately, Ebony turned out to be
a pretty understanding person.
She found it in her heart to offer her friendship to Rod.
- Before you leave, I want to let you know that
I would still love to be your friend.
[soft music]
Okay? - That's cool.
- You mad at me? - Nah.
- Ah!
Mmm.
- Good luck with everything. - Okay, thank you!
♪ ♪
Stay fabulous! - Always.
- Always. [chuckles]
- I kind of miss Ebony a little bit.
- She's very expressive. - Yeah, bubbly.
- She's got a lot of--very-- leans into her emotions.
- Yeah, if I'm being honest,
I think she would be a great talk show host.
announcer: She's a woman. She's a mom.
And she's fabulous.
- ♪ I don't play by the rules ♪
announcer: Join Ebony as she talks fashion...
- You look nice.
Announcer: Relationships...
- Did I want to fall in love with a man?
No, I did not.
Announcer: Get to know Ebony, and find yourself.
- Who are you? Like, who are you?
- ♪ I don't play by the rules ♪
- Stay fabulous!
- That Ebony, she's a national treasure.
[both laugh]
- Coming up, a classic catfish just can't take a hint.
- It just scares me that you're not grasping that.
- I'm grasping it. - No, you're not.
And we near the number one moment
on our "Catfish: The Aftershock" countdown.
- When our "Catfish Keeps It 100"
celebration continues right after this.
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat electronic music]
- Hey, guys, and welcome back to "Catfish: The Aftershock,"
a special episode where Max and I are counting down
the top ten post-reveal moments in "Catfish" history.
- These are the moments that happen
after the jitters from the initial meeting have worn off
and people lay their cards all out on the table.
- Number five in our countdown is probably one of
the most extreme examples of this.
This episode comes from season six,
and featured a young woman named Ari
who met her boyfriend, Lanum, in an online dating site.
- From the get-go, this was an unusual situation.
We received two emails, one from a guy named Jeffery
who claimed to be Lanum's brother
and was accusing Ari of being a catfish,
and one from Ari saying she heard her boyfriend's brother
had written into the show.
- "My name is Ari, I'm 21, and this is going to sound insane."
Eventually, we got a hold of Ari,
and she turned out to be the real deal.
Can you show us some state ID?
All right, all right, yeah, there it is.
- The old vertical card.
But the more we learned about Lanum,
the more we suspected that he was bogus.
- His brother had passed away.
I asked him what happened. He told me it was,
his brother had died in a car crash.
The next day, I find out that
his brother had died from cancer.
- What?
Well, maybe he died in a car crash
on his way to getting treatment for his cancer.
- He was a goner either way. - He had cancer,
but he did technically die in a car crash.
[both laugh]
Sure enough, we quickly determined
that Lanum was not the guy in the pictures.
- That's-- - Oh, [bleep].
- Bol-own-ya. - He's Italian.
Lanum is baloney! - Whoa.
While we knew Lanum wasn't the guy in the pictures,
I can't say we were prepared for the person
who we'd eventually meet when we got there.
- Who are you? - I'm Marcus.
I'm from Dallas. - How old are you?
- I'm 43.
- You were pretending to be a 25-year-old.
- Right.
- Every girl that's ever been in Ari's place fears
that they're talking to some mid-40-something-year-old man
who's sitting at home in his crusty boxers,
like, typing into the computer.
And you're that guy. We finally met you.
- [exhales] Ouch. - Sorry.
- Jeez, what do you have against boxers?
- [laughs] - You more of a briefs guy?
- After that, you would think Marcus would get the hint
and leave Ari alone, but as you'll see,
that's not exactly what happened.
[tense electronic music]
♪ ♪
- He was even texting me last night.
- [groans] - "I know it's over,
"and it never really began, but in my heart,
it was so real."
- He's playing the victim still.
- Yeah. - And then he said [bleep] you.
- I want to tell him that I don't want
anything to do with you, and to delete the photos,
and to not try to use them against me in any way.
- As far as we were concerned, we were just going there
to meet with Marcus to put an end
to this relationship for good.
Little did we know, Marcus had other plans.
- This is basically your last opportunity to talk to Ari.
[tense music]
- Um, I bought her something that she can have that's hers.
Let me go get it.
♪ ♪
- It's never good when someone gets up
to go into another room to get something.
[laughter]
- [exhales] This guy has balls.
- What is it? - It was a ring.
It was, like, engagement ring.
- [scoffs]
Mmm, I don't want it.
[bleep] you.
- [sighs]
- You don't understand how this is like,
the worst thing you could possibly give her?
- [chuckles]
- Because it hurts her. It makes her feel guilty
for not wanting to be with you.
- No, I mean, it's-- - Yes.
That is the effect on her. - But the course--the course
of our conversation was something--
- Right, but that-- but that was all a lie.
- Not to me, it wasn't. - No, I know,
but for you to think that she might actually want
a ring from you after all of this...
- It just scares me that you're not grasping that.
- I'm grasping it. - No, you're not.
I mean, usually when you whip out an engagement ring,
it's because you have a pretty good feeling
she's going to say yes, right? - Yeah.
- When you proposed to Laura, you were confident
what the answer was going to be, right?
- Well, she was pregnant. It was sort of in the bag.
- [laughs] - So to say.
- Coming up, one of the most outrageous plot twists
we've ever captured.
- Sucker, you are a sucker. - And we finally reveal
the number one moment on our countdown.
- So stay tuned for more "Catfish: The Aftershock"
right after this.
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
- Hey, everybody, welcome back
to "Catfish: The Aftershock,"
a special episode where Max and I are counting down
the top ten follow-up meetings in "Catfish" history
as part of our "Catfish Keeps It 100" celebration.
- All right, we've made it all the way to the number two
on our countdown, and this one is a real doozy.
I actually wasn't there for this episode,
but I've seen it so many times, I might as well have been.
- Instead of Max, I was joined by...
[distorted vocal sample] recording artist and actor
Machine Gun Kelly. We had received an email
from a young woman named Hundra who had struck up
a romantic relationship on Facebook
with another woman named Emily.
- But it appeared that coming on the show
and revealing her feelings for Emily
might lead to serious personal consequences.
- "My family is from Haiti." - Oh.
"We come from a very strict way of life."
- "I have not told my family that I am dating women,
and run the risk of them disowning me."
Jeez.
- I still want to do it for myself,
and other Haitian kids around, because I know, like,
being gay is not something
that we're supposed to think about.
- Still, Hundra felt the chance to finally meet Emily
was worth the risk.
- Now, when MGK-- - MGK is Machine Gun Kelly.
[distorted vocal sample]
- When MGK and I searched the phone numbers,
they quickly led us to a woman named Geralyn,
and a surprising discovery.
- Yes, nice, nice. - We got a match.
A Geralyn, Philadelphia, 21, lesbian.
- Yeah, oh, dude. - Looks like she might have...
- Someone other than her girlfriend.
- Oh, who is she with?
That looks like it could be-- - Dude, dude, dude.
Doesn't that look like Emily, too?
- Oh, that looks like it could be the girl.
Here we go, look, look. - That is her, dude.
- The guys managed to get in touch with the girl
in the pictures, Melanie, who helped them
arrange a meeting with Geralyn.
Geralyn, this is Hundra. - How you doing?
- Go ahead.
- Well, first and foremost, you're not Emily.
- I'm not. - For Hundra,
this is the first time she's ever really pursued a woman.
You knew that. - Yup.
- But I thought that was a turn-on, though,
for gay girls to try to convert a straight girl
into being straight, so wouldn't that be something
you would have wanted under your belt?
Like, I converted not just a regular black girl
but a Haitian girl into becoming gay.
- Something definitely felt off at that first meeting
between Hundra and Geralyn, but it wasn't until
the next day that we found out why.
[upbeat electronic music]
- Uh, I'm going to be honest with you guys.
- Now she's going to be honest. [laughter]
All right, what, what's up?
[tense music]
- I don't know Hundra.
- You don't know Hundra? - No.
Me and Melanie only dated because she asked us to.
- Wait, Melanie knew Hundra? - Yeah.
- So Melanie knows that this is all fake, too?
- Okay, so hold on, so you and Melanie
are for real ex-girlfriends? - Yeah.
- Okay, and a couple-- - That's true.
- A month ago, Hundra contacted you guys.
Why would you risk your reputation
just to help some girl you don't know?
- If Melanie wanted to help her, then I love her,
so I'm going to help. - Why are we here?
- I could be with my daughter on Father's Day right now.
I'm pretty [bleep] mad. [bleep] idiot.
Let's go get Hundra. I'm about to go crazy
on this little woman, man.
- I like MGK's energy.
- It was all like, a plot just to get on TV.
- We were upset. We'd been lied to.
And so we called up Hundra and Melanie,
and we had them come meet us with Geralyn,
and that's kind of when all hell broke loose.
- It's over, yo. - What's over?
- This whole thing is over.
- What do you mean?
- She spilled the beans. Y'all playing us.
Hundra, you want to tell us something?
[tense music]
- But it was still something that needed to be done.
Like, as far as me coming out. - So that was it?
- When you're in a culture that hates
what you have to become, it's not that easy.
So yeah, in a way, the world should give a [bleep].
- Your crusade to liberate Haitian women
across the nation is, like, beautiful,
and like, there are very real ways that one could do that,
and this is the worst way to do it.
This is incredibly selfish. - You don't look like a hero.
[dramatic music]
- Okay, well, this is done. - Yeah, thank you.
♪ ♪
- Sucker, you are a sucker.
- You're a coward, man.
- MGK. [distorted vocal sample]
- How come you never-- - I don't--
- Get into it like that? - I don't emote like that.
I don't--I don't-- I don't emote like that.
- Where's my Max GK? - [laughs]
[distorted vocal sample]
- Coming up, the moment you've all been waiting for.
- This time, number one episode on our countdown
is actually next, and you don't want to miss it.
So stay tuned, we'll be right back.
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
- What's up, everybody, and welcome back.
The moment of truth is finally here.
We've reached the number one "Aftershock" moment
in "Catfish" history.
- This episode aired in season six, and it's one of a kind.
A woman named Robin met a guy named Wayne
in a Facebook group chat,
and, eventually, she fell in love.
But when she finally got tired of putting up
with his sketchy behavior,
she decided to call the professionals.
- Then, after that, she called us.
- That's right.
Okay, so you started talking to this guy,
and then what happened?
- We used to talk every day. We used to text every day.
All of a sudden, he just disappeared.
And here come these private calls.
- So for most of the relationship,
he's been a private caller. - Yes.
- So that means you don't have his number.
- No.
- For once, Max and I thought
we may have figured the mystery out right off the bat.
- Okay, so his name is Wayne. He's very mysterious.
She could be in love with Batman.
- Is Robin talking to Batman? - [laughs]
- Robin! [both laugh hysterically]
Oh, my God. It is, it has to be.
This is probably the first time we ever thought
that we had just-- we had cracked the case.
- We've cracked a joke. - That's true.
Unfortunately for Robin, it took us no time at all
to prove that the guy in the photo
was not the person she'd been talking to.
We're going to catch this guy.
That's him. - Oh, that's him.
Okay, so we know it's not the guy in the pictures.
We managed to get a hold of Wayne,
and convinced him to meet us.
But as soon as we rolled into his neighborhood,
we began to get the feeling that things were not
going to go as expected.
- How you doing? - What's up?
- What's your name? - Wayne.
- You're Wayne? - Yeah.
- And who's been talking to her for the last three years?
- Yeah. - So what's with the weird
cell phone business, and the fake picture?
I don't get it. - Yeah, I mean,
it was more or less like, I wanted to know that
she was who she said she is.
Like, I wanted to know that she was real.
- But that doesn't explain-- - That doesn't explain--
- The whole cell phone communication thing.
- Well, the cell phone communication thing was,
I've always, like, been in relationships and stuff.
You know what I mean?
Like, when I first met her, I was married.
You know what I mean, so-- - You were married?
- Yeah, I was married. See, I left that marriage,
and was dealing with someone else.
- Okay.
- So...
- But are you in a situation now where you could really...
- Be in a relationship? Yeah.
- Okay, and how do you feel about Robin?
- I mean, I love her. It's been three years, man.
We've been talking a long time, you know what I'm saying?
So...
- Everything you're saying sounds good.
I think you've got to show her. Take her out to dinner tonight.
Don't screw it up.
- Nothing unlimited breadsticks can't solve, right?
- [laughs]
- So, here it is. - And this is a good one.
- The legitimate number one moment
on our "Aftershock" countdown, dinner with Robin and Wayne.
[tense electronic music]
♪ ♪
- I'm sorry for the way it played out
with, you know, you getting hurt.
Completely-- - We need to start over.
Deal? - Deal.
We cool? Cool.
But...
I mean, there's--there's certain stipulations and things
that I got going on, you know what I mean,
as far as like, I ain't never just been
solid committed to one girl.
I like to have more than one girlfriend at a time.
You know what I mean?
Me and you.
And somebody else.
- Okay. - This is part of who I am.
I'm a very sexual guy. Like, I'm a man.
- Okay, that is not my cup of tea.
So it's not going to happen.
[whimsical musical flair]
- Do you remember the next day when we heard that
Wayne wanted two girlfriends?
- We'd all sleep in the same bed.
We all one family.
- This guy has got balls.
He knows what he wants, and he's asking for it.
But he definitely was no Batman.
- Well, and obviously, Robin was not down
to be his side chick. - If anything,
Wayne was just a joker.
[both laugh]
- That's me, it's still me.
- Thanks so much for joining us for
another "Catfish Keeps it 100" special episode
as part of our celebration marking 100 episodes
of "Catfish: The TV Show."
- But don't worry. This party isn't over yet.
Be sure to tune in when "Catfish: The TV Show"
returns with another brand new "Catfish" special.
- See ya. - Bye.
another brand new special episode as part of
our "Catfish Keeps It 100" centennial celebration.
[kazoo honks]
- To celebrate reaching 100 episodes
of "Catfish: The TV Show,"
we've been doing a deep dive into the "Catfish" archives
and revisiting some of the most hilarious and memorable moments
from the past seven seasons. - Now, in a typical episode,
we usually meet up with the catfish twice,
once when we first meet them in person...
- So the Alexia and all that, that was fake?
- Yeah.
[dramatic music] - What?
- And a second time the following day.
- What the [bleep] were you trying to accomplish
by making fake accounts?
How is that not intentionally messing with me?
- I don't know what you want to hear.
- This is starting to piss me off.
- Everybody tends to remember the first meeting, the reveal.
But some of the biggest revelations
and craziest conflicts actually happen during
our follow-up meetings, when the shock and awe has worn off.
- You're not about to put me back in that place in my life.
- You are a sucker!
- If ugly is what the [bleep] you want,
ugly is what I'll give you.
- So today, we're going to be counting down
the top ten follow-up meetings in "Catfish" history
in a special episode that we're calling
"Catfish: The Aftershock."
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
Whether it's a surprising plot twist
or some unexpected drama,
the best moments come to those who wait.
And the first episode on our countdown today
is an example of just that.
Max and I were contacted by a young mom named Keyonnah
who believed she was in an online relationship
with the rapper, Bow Wow.
- Come on. - [laughs]
Needless to say, we were highly skeptical.
- Under normal circumstances, we would have been able to say
with complete certainty that Keyonnah
was not talking to Bow Wow.
- But then we found out something just as unbelievable.
- He sent over $10,000.
Suddenly, we weren't sure.
- All we really had to go on was a phone number.
So we texted "Bow Wow" to arrange a meeting,
and he eventually agreed to meet us in Atlanta.
- Which is where Bow Wow, apparently, lives.
- It can't be Bow Wow. - It could be Bow Wow.
[both laugh] Okay?
[upbeat music]
- Ugh, like, I-- [stammers]
- How you doing, Keyonnah?
- Oh.
Oh, my God.
- So Bow Wow actually turned out to be a young woman
and self-proclaimed rapper named Dee Pimpin'.
I--she was a rapper. - Recording artist.
- I'm not gay. - I'm kind of embarrassed.
- You're embarrassed? I'm embarrassed.
You're...
- Most people remember that episode because
it was Dee Pimpin', it was this girl,
but what people probably don't remember
is what happened the next day.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- How did you think that this was going to turn out?
- With Keyonnah? - Yeah.
- I sent her a lot of money.
- But you were sure I was just going to, like up,
oh, my God, this person's sending me money,
so I'm just going to date them and talk to them regardless.
I'd rather have seen you than seen the money.
- So where did the $10,000 come from?
♪ ♪
- It came from the music.
- I don't think you make money performing.
Where did you get that $10,000?
- I got a lot of people who care about me.
- How much money do your friends give you at once?
- Depends on how much I ask for.
Like-- - Thousands, or like--
- Yeah. - Do you ever pay people back?
- No.
- You're really taking advantage of people.
- These people are supportive of me.
They helping me out. They know once I get
where I need to be, I'm going to bless all my family.
- How come you don't bless me? - [laughs]
- When are you going to make it big and bless me?
[both laugh]
- It's coming.
- All right, so the next episode on our countdown
comes from season six, and it's another great example
of a story that most people remember for the reveal,
but tend to forget what happened afterwards.
both: Hey!
- Colleen met Tony on Plenty of Fish,
and he quickly charmed her.
- Said he was a delivery driver
for, like, a pizza place.
I'm super in love with him.
- So much so that when he proposed to her
just one month into their online relationship,
she said yes.
You just like, boom? You were like, yeah, I'm in?
- Yeah, I've never felt this way about any other guy.
- But you've also never met him.
Tony admitted before meeting us
that he wasn't the guy in the pictures.
So we didn't really know what to expect when we got there
- Why were you pretending to be this other guy?
- I'm not a stereotypical black guy.
- I mean, why wouldn't you let me be the judge of everything?
- But as far as reveals go,
things ended up going pretty smoothly.
- Still want to marry me?
[soft music]
♪ ♪
- Yes.
- It wasn't until afterward when Jeremy introduced Colleen
to his family that things began to get rocky.
[tense electronic music]
♪ ♪
- I asked Colleen to marry me. - Oh, Lord.
- There's a little more to the story.
Jeremy posted pictures of a white guy.
- Jeremy. - Aw, [bleep].
- What you doing? - Uh...
I felt more comfortable
talking to her when she was under the impression
that I was not black.
- Hmm, I don't even know what to say.
It feel like you took something and stabbed me or something
when you said that.
[tense music]
And then, how you feel about that he black?
- I don't care.
I don't care at all.
- Do you talk about living together?
- Yeah.
- I really don't want to move out of Washington.
- So he's actually leaving to Washington?
♪ ♪
- I might.
Not saying that that's the case.
Possibly.
- Really?
- Please don't ground me.
- When you think about "Catfish,"
and the lies they tell, and the people that are affected,
you generally think of the person they're catfishing.
You don't realize that the lies that they're telling
also involves their family members
and their close friends.
- It's very hard to get into the true emotions
of a situation when you're in that initial confrontation.
There's so much going on.
This is when the real emotions come out.
- I mean, I can't imagine what that was like for Colleen.
When we checked in with her a few months later,
things seemed to be in a good place.
- Hey, there she is. - Colleen, how you doing?
- I'm doing really good.
Me and Jeremy are trying to work it out.
In fact, he's actually right here with me.
- What? - Whoa!
- Oh, my God! - Ay, hey, hey!
There he is. - There he is.
- Look at this guy. - Oh, my God.
You actually went up there. I'm impressed.
Are you just up there temporarily,
or are you like, staying there for a bit?
- Well, I've got an interview at a pizza place.
- And they got to make sure, if you're going to work at
a pizza place, that you're a good guy,
that your track record is clean.
- That's right.
And you don't want to hire someone who's too cheesy.
- [laughs hysterically]
- Or maybe a little saucy. - Or crusty.
- Oh, you definitely don't want someone crusty.
- They got to know that you can deliver.
Coming up, Nev and I experience déjà vu.
- I wasn't trying to hurt you.
I did not mean to hurt you.
- And we get even closer to our number one follow-up meeting...
- Whoa!
- When "Catfish: The Aftershock"
returns right after this.
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
- All right, here we go. - All right, and we're back.
Today, we're counting down the top ten follow-up meetings
in "Catfish" history. - This is the drama
that happens after we answer the big question: "Who?"
- Who? - Who--who is it, who is it?
Oh, it's you, okay. And then,
we get into the how-- - How?
- And the why-- - Why'd you do it?
- Just why did-- I just want to know why.
The next episode on our countdown from season six
is no exception.
A young guy named Dylan contacted me and Max
after receiving an anonymous tip claiming
his online love, Ally, was actually an imposter.
- I'm just like, dumbfounded. - Whoa.
- I don't even know how they got my number.
- Once we started digging, we soon discovered
that whoever Dylan was talking to
had actually catfished people before.
- Ireland. - Yeah.
- We learned that the person Dylan had been talking to
was actually named Mary, and her cousin, Chelsea,
had been the one who texted him the warning.
- With Chelsea's help, we finally arranged
to meet Mary face to face.
[dramatic musical flair]
- Oh, gosh, I just want you to know
I wasn't trying to hurt you.
[tense music]
You are my person, and you know that.
- Have you tried to actually stop it?
- Yeah, I've tried, and I just go back.
It's like my addiction. It's weird to come out,
but it's like, the attention,
and this drive to get that attention,
and you'd pretty much do anything you could
to get that attention.
- That was crazy because that was the first time
we've had a catfish come out and basically just say, like,
"This is what I do. I can't stop.
Addicted to love." - Can't stop, won't stop.
- Yeah, needless to say, very little was resolved
when we first met up with Mary, which left a lot for us
to discuss the following day.
[tense electronic music]
♪ ♪
- How many people do you think you've catfished?
- I mean, I have literally every social media.
Probably hundreds.
[dramatic musical flourish]
I mean, that makes me feel bad that I have to pretend to be
someone to feel like I'm good enough.
- I want to be your friend. I want to be there for you,
and I want to help you get through this,
but the catfishing has to stop.
Just do you. - Mm-hmm.
- There's only so much we can do and talk about
in the short time that we have.
- It always just feels like we're scratching the surface.
- Right. - Ideally, we pick the scab.
- Right. - And then it bleeds.
- Right, gross. - Yeah.
- After a nice long talk, it seemed we'd really
gotten through to Mary.
- Until just a few months later,
when we discover that Mary was back at it again.
- So the catfishing?
- Yeah.
Um, it's--it's still going.
- You're hurt, and you're hurting more people.
That never ends well.
[tense music]
- So we have a little bit of a surprise.
So one of the guys that you've
been talking to as Ally, Darien...
- Mm-hmm. - Darien reached out
to the show, so we brought him here.
- I don't understand why you would do that to somebody.
- I know you deserve an apology, and I am sorry.
I did not mean to hurt you like I did.
- This is déjà vu. I-I stood here with Nev
and heard you say the exact same thing.
What's really interesting is that
after Dylan and Mary finally met,
it really did become Mary's story.
Mary was so clearly in need of help,
while Dylan was so chill and understanding.
- Probably, you know, that mop top.
What up, mop top? - Mop top!
It's now blonde.
- Yeah, I tried something different.
- It's like an emotional support animal.
[meowing]
- It does, it does-- it does calm me down.
Just to--just to touch it. - It's nice.
Okay, we made it to number seven on our countdown
and this next episode was unlike anything
we could have ever expected.
We were contacted by this guy, Melvin,
who was certain that his good friend, Kailani,
was being catfished by a guy named Sam.
- Look, we have people write in on behalf
of their friends and family all the time.
So that alone wasn't so strange.
What made this story so different, though,
was the fact that Melvin had actually dated Sam online
before Kailani.
- I guess the big question for me is have you guys
both seen Sam's penis?
- We compared pictures.
- Jeez, your mind always goes straight to sexting.
- Oh, yeah? How turned on
do your phone calls get? - [laughs]
- Were you guys intimate on the phone with each other?
- Yes, we were.
- I don't know what you're talking about, okay?.
You're usually the one being way worse than I am.
- No sexting, no nothing? - I don't do that.
- So you could pick your D out in a line up?
- Yeah.
- Have you sent her some Richard pics?
Touché.
both: Hey! - Nice to meet you.
- Oh, are you? - Don't be nervous.
- It turned out that Kailani had recently divorced,
and was in a real vulnerable place when she met Sam.
- You are ignoring a lot of red flags.
Is it just that you just need him to be who he says he is,
because you've had such a hard year?
- I started, like-- I believed he was real.
- While investigating Sam, we discovered the face
in the photos, was, surprise, surprise,
not the guy Kailani thought she was talking to.
- There he is. - Is that him, that's him!
- That's that picture. - That's the picture.
We found him. - It sucks.
- Yeah, it really does. I want to know who the hell
I've been talking to this whole time.
- What was unexpected, though, was that Sam
then contacted Kailani and told her
he was finally ready to meet.
How you doing? - Scared.
It's because I know I hurt her.
- You really love her? - Yeah.
I never wanted to hurt her.
- Little did we know that
the biggest surprise was yet to come.
[tense electronic music]
- Sam has something he wants to tell you.
- I was not born a male.
Uh...
I'm transitioning.
Uh, I do go by Sam. And I identify as a male.
- This clip is important, because for him,
coming on TV and speaking his truth
is a really big deal. I love that we can--
we can give someone the opportunity to do that.
- Fortunately, Kailani was willing to see past the lies
and still be there for Sam.
- I'm not mad at you.
But I might need some space,
but I do want to be your friend.
- Man, I've got to say, there's something really
satisfying about helping out one of our superfans.
- I'm a fan, oh, my God. - Oh, are you?
- Don't be nervous. - Come on.
- Yeah, unlike some people.
- So who are you again?
- We are the sort of co-hosts of the show.
- Which one of you guys are Nev and Max?
- Are you serious? - [laughs]
[both laugh]
- Coming up after the break, emotions run high.
- Don't sit over there talking to me
any kind of way that you want to talk to me.
- And we get even closer to the number one moment
on our "Catfish: The Aftershock" countdown.
We'll be right back.
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
- Welcome back, everyone, to another special episode
as our "Catfish Keeps It 100"
centennial celebration continues.
- Today, Max and I have been counting down
the top ten follow-up meetings in "Catfish" history.
- The next episode on our countdown aired way back
in season two, and featured Anthony,
a retired Navy vet who had been dating
a guy online named Marq for seven months.
- We uncovered the real guy behind the Marq profile.
both: Whoa.
- That's him. - And his name was Framel.
- All you did was play a whole bunch of mind games with me.
You made me look stupid in front of my family,
and you made me look stupid to my damn self.
[dramatic musical flair]
- Anthony's hard feelings were certainly warranted.
But Max and I hoped things might go
a bit more smoothly the next day.
It turns out, though, Anthony was still pretty raw.
[tense electronic music]
- I just want you to own up to just being a [bleep] up person
about this. - I was a [bleep] up person.
No, you're not about to put me back in that place in my life.
I said I was [bleep] up then. I'm not [bleep] up now.
It is what it is. - Don't sit over there
talking to me any kind of way that you want to talk to me
because I'll tell you, I'm in your house,
and I will still pop you in your [bleep] mouth.
- When it comes to the point where you put your hands on me?
[grunts] Try.
- Own up to it. - And I did.
- We going to get the same [bleep] ass excuses from you.
- I can't [bleep] make you believe it, so what?
- Because you a liar!
- I think we were getting somewhere.
- [laughs] - I really do.
- You can't-- they can't all go smoothly.
I mean like, sometimes you need--
the blow-ups need to happen. - Yes, yes.
Well, that's because that's real.
Anyway, after taking a little breather,
Anthony agreed to come back inside and hear Framel out.
- I guess I can listen to whatever you got to say, man.
- I really care about you.
I don't want you going through life
thinking everybody's going to lie to you.
I dealt with a lot of pain, because...
Me liking guys was...
Really wrong, I guess, for me and my family.
- Well, I accept your apology and I forgive you.
- I have to say, though, that is one of
our more emotional episodes, wouldn't you agree?
- Look, Anthony is a sensitive guy.
- For sure, we've definitely encountered all kinds of people
on this show, and there are certainly some people
who are just more prone to crying.
- There are criers...
- [sniffs]
- And there are laughers.
- [laughs]
- Then there's just stone walls.
Those are the worst. We don't like those.
Because they show no emotion.
[crickets chirp]
Criers. Take a look.
- I'm so sick and tired of you telling me
that I'm [bleep] lying when I'm sitting here crying.
- You can't manipulate it with just by crying.
- I'm not manipulating anything.
- You cry, and then we can't ask you anything else.
- That's not true.
- [exhales]
[upbeat music]
- ♪ I heard the cry ♪
- You all right there?
- ♪ You were sound asleep ♪
♪ I was too scared to look outside ♪
♪ Say that you want me ♪
- Wait, what's wrong?
♪ ♪
- ♪ Say that you want me ♪
♪ ♪
- I just don't want to do this today.
- I will never care for nobody again.
I will never love. I'm just going to end up
closed to myself just to be away from everything,
from everything.
♪ ♪
- [screams]
- [sobs] Oh, man, that montage.
- Pull yourself together, man. Jesus.
We're making a special here. - [sobs]
- I said no crying!
Next up on our "Catfish: The Aftershock" countdown
is a prime example of an episode that's received
so much attention for its surprising reveal
that few people remember what went down the following day.
- In season three, Max and I were contacted by
a woman named Carmen, who believed her cousin, Antwane,
was getting catfished by a guy named "Tony."
- The reason why you [bleep] stupid idiots
can never find who Tony is is because I'm Tony.
[dramatic musical flair]
- What's happening? What's going on?
- Why the [bleep] would you do that?
- Because-- - [bleep],
'cause this [bleep] ain't [bleep] cool!
- You should have never called me a fat-ass Kelly Price.
- I mean, can we just talk about that?
That has become one of our-- - Timeless.
- It's probably one of the trademark lines of our show.
- You should have never called me a fat-ass Kelly Price.
- How you get mad I put that little bitty boo-boo
[bleep] though? That's [bleep] up.
- That's life. Deal with it.
- Don't talk to me ever no more, and I mean that [bleep].
- What voice are you using to talk to him?
- [deep voice] The Tony voice.
- What? - [laughs]
- It still--it still gets me.
[deep voice] The Tony voice.
[both laugh]
That's the scene you're all familiar with,
but here's what went down the following day.
[tense electronic music]
♪ ♪
- What's your story?
- I [bleep] catfish people, and I'm cool with it.
You don't have to be cool with the things that I do.
- I want to know, are you-- you're proud of it?
- Yeah, I'm proud of myself, because I do a damn good job.
[dramatic musical flair]
Why you going to waste your breath
saying anything to me anymore?
- I don't want you to make other people feel like [bleep].
- I make people feel like [bleep] because they want to.
Because they already is [bleep].
- They already-- - They already [bleep].
- Did I want to feel like [bleep]?
- You already [bleep]. You ain't [bleep].
- That--your argument is "You ain't [bleep].
You already [bleep]." - Yeah, like--
- Great.
- I just don't feel like she deserves the couch time.
- Got--got heated.
We're not just hosts. We get--we get in.
- This was probably the first time where I lost my cool.
- And everyone was kind of upset that Nev did it.
- Not surprisingly, Antwane wanted nothing to do
with Carmen after what she did to him.
In fact, it wasn't until we brought them together
two years later that the two cousins finally
spoke again for the first time.
- Look, you doing that [bleep] is off the chain.
But at the end of the day, everybody better like
my cousin, because I still love her, and you my family.
- Right. [both laugh]
- Give me a little of that [bleep].
Ooh. - I'll move out of the way.
- Man, you [bleep].
- I got to admit, three years is a long time
to commit to a practical joke.
- She committed. - She sure did.
- She tripled down. - Yeah.
- After the break, Nev meets his match.
- KJ wants to meet you. You know that.
- Of course I know that.
Are you going to be rude about it?
- And we close in on our number one follow-up meeting.
- So don't go away. "Catfish: The Aftershock"
will return right after this.
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
- Howdy, folks, and welcome back
to "Catfish: The Aftershock."
- We've made it now to number four on our countdown.
The next episode is from way back in season one.
A guy named Rod hit us up because he needed help
navigating a tricky situation.
- Rod had met a trans woman named Ebony
on an LGBTQ dating website, and although he had initially
been hesitant about dating someone who was transgender,
he soon developed feelings for her.
- The problem was that not only did Rod suspect
Ebony might be hiding something from him,
it turned out hehad been using
a fake name and profile all along.
- "In addition to putting the fake picture,
"I told her my name was KJ, and Ebony has never seen
a real picture of me in four years."
Max and I still had a lot of questions.
Do you have any suspicions about her?
- You know, I've been thinking the whole time,
if this is Ebony, and if I get there,
and I see her, and it's not her,
then...
- You realize how hypocritical that is, right?
- [laughs]
- No, I'm serious.
- The obvious logical next step was to simply give Ebony a call
and try to arrange a meet-up.
- She's going to dominate the conversation,
so you're going to gently point her
in a direction, and hope she goes there.
- This might actually be the most nervous
I've ever seen you before a call.
- Hey, it was season one.
I hadn't really done a lot of these.
I wasn't the seasoned pro that I am now.
I'm just telling you, KJ wants to meet you.
You know that. - Of course I know that.
Are you going to be rude about it?
- I'm in-- - I'm not concerned
about what we want. I'm only concerned about
what he wants.
- Well, he wants to meet you immediately.
- Well, bring him here.
- [exhales] Wow.
It's amazing I survived that call,
but we got through it, and, you know, it was game on.
- You just don't look like your pictures at all.
- Them pictures I sent you...
They wasn't my pictures. They was my cousin's pictures.
So, my name Rod.
[dramatic musical flair]
- Excuse me? - It's Rod.
- Your name? - Yeah, it's not KJ.
- Your name is Rod? - Yeah.
- I was actually nervous and just really, really feeling bad
because of something that I wanted to tell you.
I'm not a transgender male.
[tense music]
- I was wrong about giving you the wrong name,
and sending you a wrong--you know, not my right pictures.
So-- - And you kept it up
for four years? - So I'ma apologize to you.
- I don't know. I don't know.
I forgive you. [both giggle]
- You thought it was a happy ending.
You thought it should have
just ended there with everyone happy.
- Well, how do you feel about her being a woman?
- It feels weird, because I don't know why
she wouldn't even, you know, wouldn't tell me
from the get-go that she was a woman.
- So we took Rod to meet with Ebony the following day
to hopefully clear the air, but things quickly took a turn.
[tense electronic music]
♪ ♪
- What I wanted to talk to you about is--was--
I mean-- - Spit it out.
- I'm not trying to say I used you
or I took advantage of you, but you sending me money,
you paying my cell phone bill, those are some of the reasons
why I just continued to talk to you.
- Okay.
Okay.,,
That's a huge slap in the face, because I was genuine.
Yes, I did lie about one small thing,
That was a big thing. - That thing you lied about
wasn't small. - Okay, it wasn't small.
Whatever, shut up. Everything else was real.
The feelings, the everything that I said,
it was all real. What you are saying is
you used me. That one sentence
that you just said, you pissed on everything.
If ugly is what the [bleep] you want,
ugly is what I'll give you.
- Okay, I'm gone.
- Okay.
- Fortunately, Ebony turned out to be
a pretty understanding person.
She found it in her heart to offer her friendship to Rod.
- Before you leave, I want to let you know that
I would still love to be your friend.
[soft music]
Okay? - That's cool.
- You mad at me? - Nah.
- Ah!
Mmm.
- Good luck with everything. - Okay, thank you!
♪ ♪
Stay fabulous! - Always.
- Always. [chuckles]
- I kind of miss Ebony a little bit.
- She's very expressive. - Yeah, bubbly.
- She's got a lot of--very-- leans into her emotions.
- Yeah, if I'm being honest,
I think she would be a great talk show host.
announcer: She's a woman. She's a mom.
And she's fabulous.
- ♪ I don't play by the rules ♪
announcer: Join Ebony as she talks fashion...
- You look nice.
Announcer: Relationships...
- Did I want to fall in love with a man?
No, I did not.
Announcer: Get to know Ebony, and find yourself.
- Who are you? Like, who are you?
- ♪ I don't play by the rules ♪
- Stay fabulous!
- That Ebony, she's a national treasure.
[both laugh]
- Coming up, a classic catfish just can't take a hint.
- It just scares me that you're not grasping that.
- I'm grasping it. - No, you're not.
And we near the number one moment
on our "Catfish: The Aftershock" countdown.
- When our "Catfish Keeps It 100"
celebration continues right after this.
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat electronic music]
- Hey, guys, and welcome back to "Catfish: The Aftershock,"
a special episode where Max and I are counting down
the top ten post-reveal moments in "Catfish" history.
- These are the moments that happen
after the jitters from the initial meeting have worn off
and people lay their cards all out on the table.
- Number five in our countdown is probably one of
the most extreme examples of this.
This episode comes from season six,
and featured a young woman named Ari
who met her boyfriend, Lanum, in an online dating site.
- From the get-go, this was an unusual situation.
We received two emails, one from a guy named Jeffery
who claimed to be Lanum's brother
and was accusing Ari of being a catfish,
and one from Ari saying she heard her boyfriend's brother
had written into the show.
- "My name is Ari, I'm 21, and this is going to sound insane."
Eventually, we got a hold of Ari,
and she turned out to be the real deal.
Can you show us some state ID?
All right, all right, yeah, there it is.
- The old vertical card.
But the more we learned about Lanum,
the more we suspected that he was bogus.
- His brother had passed away.
I asked him what happened. He told me it was,
his brother had died in a car crash.
The next day, I find out that
his brother had died from cancer.
- What?
Well, maybe he died in a car crash
on his way to getting treatment for his cancer.
- He was a goner either way. - He had cancer,
but he did technically die in a car crash.
[both laugh]
Sure enough, we quickly determined
that Lanum was not the guy in the pictures.
- That's-- - Oh, [bleep].
- Bol-own-ya. - He's Italian.
Lanum is baloney! - Whoa.
While we knew Lanum wasn't the guy in the pictures,
I can't say we were prepared for the person
who we'd eventually meet when we got there.
- Who are you? - I'm Marcus.
I'm from Dallas. - How old are you?
- I'm 43.
- You were pretending to be a 25-year-old.
- Right.
- Every girl that's ever been in Ari's place fears
that they're talking to some mid-40-something-year-old man
who's sitting at home in his crusty boxers,
like, typing into the computer.
And you're that guy. We finally met you.
- [exhales] Ouch. - Sorry.
- Jeez, what do you have against boxers?
- [laughs] - You more of a briefs guy?
- After that, you would think Marcus would get the hint
and leave Ari alone, but as you'll see,
that's not exactly what happened.
[tense electronic music]
♪ ♪
- He was even texting me last night.
- [groans] - "I know it's over,
"and it never really began, but in my heart,
it was so real."
- He's playing the victim still.
- Yeah. - And then he said [bleep] you.
- I want to tell him that I don't want
anything to do with you, and to delete the photos,
and to not try to use them against me in any way.
- As far as we were concerned, we were just going there
to meet with Marcus to put an end
to this relationship for good.
Little did we know, Marcus had other plans.
- This is basically your last opportunity to talk to Ari.
[tense music]
- Um, I bought her something that she can have that's hers.
Let me go get it.
♪ ♪
- It's never good when someone gets up
to go into another room to get something.
[laughter]
- [exhales] This guy has balls.
- What is it? - It was a ring.
It was, like, engagement ring.
- [scoffs]
Mmm, I don't want it.
[bleep] you.
- [sighs]
- You don't understand how this is like,
the worst thing you could possibly give her?
- [chuckles]
- Because it hurts her. It makes her feel guilty
for not wanting to be with you.
- No, I mean, it's-- - Yes.
That is the effect on her. - But the course--the course
of our conversation was something--
- Right, but that-- but that was all a lie.
- Not to me, it wasn't. - No, I know,
but for you to think that she might actually want
a ring from you after all of this...
- It just scares me that you're not grasping that.
- I'm grasping it. - No, you're not.
I mean, usually when you whip out an engagement ring,
it's because you have a pretty good feeling
she's going to say yes, right? - Yeah.
- When you proposed to Laura, you were confident
what the answer was going to be, right?
- Well, she was pregnant. It was sort of in the bag.
- [laughs] - So to say.
- Coming up, one of the most outrageous plot twists
we've ever captured.
- Sucker, you are a sucker. - And we finally reveal
the number one moment on our countdown.
- So stay tuned for more "Catfish: The Aftershock"
right after this.
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
- Hey, everybody, welcome back
to "Catfish: The Aftershock,"
a special episode where Max and I are counting down
the top ten follow-up meetings in "Catfish" history
as part of our "Catfish Keeps It 100" celebration.
- All right, we've made it all the way to the number two
on our countdown, and this one is a real doozy.
I actually wasn't there for this episode,
but I've seen it so many times, I might as well have been.
- Instead of Max, I was joined by...
[distorted vocal sample] recording artist and actor
Machine Gun Kelly. We had received an email
from a young woman named Hundra who had struck up
a romantic relationship on Facebook
with another woman named Emily.
- But it appeared that coming on the show
and revealing her feelings for Emily
might lead to serious personal consequences.
- "My family is from Haiti." - Oh.
"We come from a very strict way of life."
- "I have not told my family that I am dating women,
and run the risk of them disowning me."
Jeez.
- I still want to do it for myself,
and other Haitian kids around, because I know, like,
being gay is not something
that we're supposed to think about.
- Still, Hundra felt the chance to finally meet Emily
was worth the risk.
- Now, when MGK-- - MGK is Machine Gun Kelly.
[distorted vocal sample]
- When MGK and I searched the phone numbers,
they quickly led us to a woman named Geralyn,
and a surprising discovery.
- Yes, nice, nice. - We got a match.
A Geralyn, Philadelphia, 21, lesbian.
- Yeah, oh, dude. - Looks like she might have...
- Someone other than her girlfriend.
- Oh, who is she with?
That looks like it could be-- - Dude, dude, dude.
Doesn't that look like Emily, too?
- Oh, that looks like it could be the girl.
Here we go, look, look. - That is her, dude.
- The guys managed to get in touch with the girl
in the pictures, Melanie, who helped them
arrange a meeting with Geralyn.
Geralyn, this is Hundra. - How you doing?
- Go ahead.
- Well, first and foremost, you're not Emily.
- I'm not. - For Hundra,
this is the first time she's ever really pursued a woman.
You knew that. - Yup.
- But I thought that was a turn-on, though,
for gay girls to try to convert a straight girl
into being straight, so wouldn't that be something
you would have wanted under your belt?
Like, I converted not just a regular black girl
but a Haitian girl into becoming gay.
- Something definitely felt off at that first meeting
between Hundra and Geralyn, but it wasn't until
the next day that we found out why.
[upbeat electronic music]
- Uh, I'm going to be honest with you guys.
- Now she's going to be honest. [laughter]
All right, what, what's up?
[tense music]
- I don't know Hundra.
- You don't know Hundra? - No.
Me and Melanie only dated because she asked us to.
- Wait, Melanie knew Hundra? - Yeah.
- So Melanie knows that this is all fake, too?
- Okay, so hold on, so you and Melanie
are for real ex-girlfriends? - Yeah.
- Okay, and a couple-- - That's true.
- A month ago, Hundra contacted you guys.
Why would you risk your reputation
just to help some girl you don't know?
- If Melanie wanted to help her, then I love her,
so I'm going to help. - Why are we here?
- I could be with my daughter on Father's Day right now.
I'm pretty [bleep] mad. [bleep] idiot.
Let's go get Hundra. I'm about to go crazy
on this little woman, man.
- I like MGK's energy.
- It was all like, a plot just to get on TV.
- We were upset. We'd been lied to.
And so we called up Hundra and Melanie,
and we had them come meet us with Geralyn,
and that's kind of when all hell broke loose.
- It's over, yo. - What's over?
- This whole thing is over.
- What do you mean?
- She spilled the beans. Y'all playing us.
Hundra, you want to tell us something?
[tense music]
- But it was still something that needed to be done.
Like, as far as me coming out. - So that was it?
- When you're in a culture that hates
what you have to become, it's not that easy.
So yeah, in a way, the world should give a [bleep].
- Your crusade to liberate Haitian women
across the nation is, like, beautiful,
and like, there are very real ways that one could do that,
and this is the worst way to do it.
This is incredibly selfish. - You don't look like a hero.
[dramatic music]
- Okay, well, this is done. - Yeah, thank you.
♪ ♪
- Sucker, you are a sucker.
- You're a coward, man.
- MGK. [distorted vocal sample]
- How come you never-- - I don't--
- Get into it like that? - I don't emote like that.
I don't--I don't-- I don't emote like that.
- Where's my Max GK? - [laughs]
[distorted vocal sample]
- Coming up, the moment you've all been waiting for.
- This time, number one episode on our countdown
is actually next, and you don't want to miss it.
So stay tuned, we'll be right back.
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
- What's up, everybody, and welcome back.
The moment of truth is finally here.
We've reached the number one "Aftershock" moment
in "Catfish" history.
- This episode aired in season six, and it's one of a kind.
A woman named Robin met a guy named Wayne
in a Facebook group chat,
and, eventually, she fell in love.
But when she finally got tired of putting up
with his sketchy behavior,
she decided to call the professionals.
- Then, after that, she called us.
- That's right.
Okay, so you started talking to this guy,
and then what happened?
- We used to talk every day. We used to text every day.
All of a sudden, he just disappeared.
And here come these private calls.
- So for most of the relationship,
he's been a private caller. - Yes.
- So that means you don't have his number.
- No.
- For once, Max and I thought
we may have figured the mystery out right off the bat.
- Okay, so his name is Wayne. He's very mysterious.
She could be in love with Batman.
- Is Robin talking to Batman? - [laughs]
- Robin! [both laugh hysterically]
Oh, my God. It is, it has to be.
This is probably the first time we ever thought
that we had just-- we had cracked the case.
- We've cracked a joke. - That's true.
Unfortunately for Robin, it took us no time at all
to prove that the guy in the photo
was not the person she'd been talking to.
We're going to catch this guy.
That's him. - Oh, that's him.
Okay, so we know it's not the guy in the pictures.
We managed to get a hold of Wayne,
and convinced him to meet us.
But as soon as we rolled into his neighborhood,
we began to get the feeling that things were not
going to go as expected.
- How you doing? - What's up?
- What's your name? - Wayne.
- You're Wayne? - Yeah.
- And who's been talking to her for the last three years?
- Yeah. - So what's with the weird
cell phone business, and the fake picture?
I don't get it. - Yeah, I mean,
it was more or less like, I wanted to know that
she was who she said she is.
Like, I wanted to know that she was real.
- But that doesn't explain-- - That doesn't explain--
- The whole cell phone communication thing.
- Well, the cell phone communication thing was,
I've always, like, been in relationships and stuff.
You know what I mean?
Like, when I first met her, I was married.
You know what I mean, so-- - You were married?
- Yeah, I was married. See, I left that marriage,
and was dealing with someone else.
- Okay.
- So...
- But are you in a situation now where you could really...
- Be in a relationship? Yeah.
- Okay, and how do you feel about Robin?
- I mean, I love her. It's been three years, man.
We've been talking a long time, you know what I'm saying?
So...
- Everything you're saying sounds good.
I think you've got to show her. Take her out to dinner tonight.
Don't screw it up.
- Nothing unlimited breadsticks can't solve, right?
- [laughs]
- So, here it is. - And this is a good one.
- The legitimate number one moment
on our "Aftershock" countdown, dinner with Robin and Wayne.
[tense electronic music]
♪ ♪
- I'm sorry for the way it played out
with, you know, you getting hurt.
Completely-- - We need to start over.
Deal? - Deal.
We cool? Cool.
But...
I mean, there's--there's certain stipulations and things
that I got going on, you know what I mean,
as far as like, I ain't never just been
solid committed to one girl.
I like to have more than one girlfriend at a time.
You know what I mean?
Me and you.
And somebody else.
- Okay. - This is part of who I am.
I'm a very sexual guy. Like, I'm a man.
- Okay, that is not my cup of tea.
So it's not going to happen.
[whimsical musical flair]
- Do you remember the next day when we heard that
Wayne wanted two girlfriends?
- We'd all sleep in the same bed.
We all one family.
- This guy has got balls.
He knows what he wants, and he's asking for it.
But he definitely was no Batman.
- Well, and obviously, Robin was not down
to be his side chick. - If anything,
Wayne was just a joker.
[both laugh]
- That's me, it's still me.
- Thanks so much for joining us for
another "Catfish Keeps it 100" special episode
as part of our celebration marking 100 episodes
of "Catfish: The TV Show."
- But don't worry. This party isn't over yet.
Be sure to tune in when "Catfish: The TV Show"
returns with another brand new "Catfish" special.
- See ya. - Bye.