Catfish: The TV Show (2012–…): Season 6, Episode 9 - Kailani & Sam - full transcript

- You think Sam is,
like, literally copying

everything
this guy is doing?

That's really creepy.

That's, like, super creepy.

[phone ringing]
both: Oh!

- Oh, it's Kailani.

- Whoa!

- He's on his way there.

- He might be here.

- Oh, [bleep].

[rapid knocking]
- Kailani!



- This isn't gonna
get me sick or anything?

[upbeat music]

- It's like that and fabric.

♪ ♪

- Yeah, it should show up.

♪ ♪

- Oh, yeah, those are good.

♪ ♪

- I have a gift for you guys.

Do you wanna play with this?

It's a black light.
- That's really funny.

We should use that and
actually see what is going on--

- Oh, my God.
- In these beds.

Hit the lights.



Oh!

What? What?

- No...
[chuckling]

- Look at the phone,
I touched the phone!

- Oh!

- Oh, my God.
Look--

there's a handprint right there.

- That is gross.

- Look at the remote.
- Oh, my God.

- I touched the remote!

- Look at that!
- Ah, come on, you guys.

[laughter]
That's--no way.

- What did you guys
use for that?

- Laundry detergent.

- This was great,
this was really funny.

Okay, we got an email
from someone named Melvin.

- Melvin?

- "Dear, Nev and Max,

"My name is Melvin.

"I'm 27 years old, and live in
Menifee, California.

"I met a guy online named Sam
from Northern California

over a year ago."

- ♪ There's a warning
coming in ♪

- "He was athletic,
and had a very manly voice."

Like your voice.

- What kind of eggs
do you like, Melvin?

- All right, that's not manly
anymore, that is creepy.

"There were clear signs
that something with Sam was off.

"He would never want
to video chat,

- ♪ Open our eyes ♪

- "And he promised
to come visit,

but I got a text saying
he was in a car accident."

- ♪ There's a warning
coming in ♪

- "So I challenged him on it,

and he sent me a photo of
his face covered with bruises."

- ♪ Nowhere to hide ♪

- You can do that in Photoshop.

- Hey, it could be him.

- Wow.

Look who's back
to being Mr. Optimistic.

- "Eventually, I got fed up
and cut him off,

"but that didn't stop Sam
from moving on to my friend,

"Kailani.

They now speak daily
and are in love."

- Wait, Sam is now
in love with Kailani?

- "Sam is a liar,
and nothing is to be trusted."

- ♪ There's a warning
coming in ♪

"Please help. Melvin."

- ♪ Still coming ♪

♪ Nowhere to hide ♪

- Ooh--
- Wow, so Sam

tried to catfish Melvin--
- Well, did to some extent.

- And then Sam
shamelessly just moved on

to one of Melvin's friends
- Yeah.

- And Melvin's, like,
"Hey, this guy is a catfish,

but Kailani is too in love
to listen to him.

- All right, well, let's get
this guy on the phone.

[line thrilling]

- Mel!
- Melvin! Hey!

- Hey, guys.
- We read your email.

The story sounds pretty crazy.

Walk us through
all the key moments.

- One day, this guy slipped into
my DMs with a simple, "Hey."

So I flirted back.

- How old is he?

- He told me he was 19.

- Do the pictures of Sam
look like a 19-year-old?

- I was kind of unsure of that
because he had a full beard.

Everything was kind of,
like, fishy.

And every time we would
Facetime,

his screen would be pitch black.

His excuse was
his camera is broken--

- You knew something was up
at that point.

- Oh, yeah, definitely.

And he started adding my friends
on my friends list,

and started texting my friend,
Kailani.

I call Kailani,
"Hey, why are you texting him?

Like, you know he's fake.

She just said,
"Just someone to talk to."

- Oh, wait,
Kailani is a woman?

- That's what
I was gonna say before.

I was, like, that sounds
like a girl's name.

- Yeah, Kailani is
my female best friend.

- Whoa!

- He's, like, playing both side
of the field, I would say.

- And now Kailani is
in love with Sam,

and they're totally
boyfriend/girlfriend?

- Yes.
That's why I emailed you guys.

I'm pretty sure
she's gonna be heartbroken.

- Let's get Kailani on the line.

- Yeah, let's do that.

All right, here she is.

[line thrilling]

both: Hey!

- So you guys are friends.

Is this awkward that--

that he was kind of talking
to this guy for a bit,

and now you're dating this guy?

- It's a little weird...

I know.

- But are you in love with him?

- I have very strong
feelings for him.

- So that's a yes.

- I guess
the big question for me

is have you guys both seen...

Sam's penis?
[chuckling]

- We compared pictures.

- Really?
- They're not the same.

- Different photos,
or different penises?

- Different penises and body.

- Not the same junk.

- They're getting junk mail.

[chuckling]

- All right, well, look.

Mel, I think you're doing
the right thing...

in helping your friend out.

Kailani, since you're close by,
we can just head over there

and we can talk a lot more
about this in person,

and either introduce you to
the love of your life,

or release you from
the clutches of this catfish.

- Sounds perfect.

- All right, bye, guys!
- Cool.

Thanks, Mel!
Kailani, see you soon.

- All right, let's head out.

- Let's do it.
- Menifee.

- ♪ Ooh, whee! ♪

♪ Mama raised me a hustler ♪

♪ Turn people to customers ♪

♪ Ain't no love
in these streets ♪

- All right, break it down.

What are we doing here?

- Please stop yelling at me.

- [chuckles]
Please.

- We are here in Menifee

with a very unusual story
happening here.

- She's hooked for some reason.

- All right, we're--
here we go.

Boom!

- ♪ Easy come, easy go ♪

[knocking]

- Hello!
- Hey!

- Nice to meet you.
- I'm a fan, oh, my God.

- Oh, are you?
- Don't be nervous.

Hi.

Wow, what a cool place.
- This is nice, look at this.

- I like those kicks.
- Thank you.

- Those are cool.

You know what those are?
- Air Maxes.

- Air Max.

That's what they used to
call me in high school.

On the basketball team.
- No, it's not.

[chuckling]

- It's, like,
all surreal, like...

Oh, my God.
- Are you nervous?

- Yes, I'm so nervous!
- Don't be nervous!

♪ ♪

- How long
have you lived in Menifee?

- I actually just
moved back to California.

both: From?
- Hawaii.

In October.

- Why did you come back?

- Because I got a divorce.

- Whoa!

- You're a divorcée?

- I am. 23 and divorced.

- When did you get married?

- On my 23rd birthday.

- You got married this year?

- Yeah, talk about bull[bleep].

- Who was this guy
that you were married to?

When did you meet?
How long were you together?

- I met him in 2014 in Hawaii.

He got deployed to Australia.

We were gonna get married

when he came back
from deployment.

- ♪ You know that
I've been missing you ♪

- When he was in Australia,

he was with someone else.

You know, like, it--
of course, it hurt,

but I loved him...

So...

I--
I married him anyways.

- ♪ You let me go,
I went within ♪

- After I got married,

I found out things
through his best friend.

- ♪ Try ♪

- He found videos of
his fiancée...

on my ex-husband's phone.

- Your ex-husband's
best friend found out

he was cheating with his girl--

- In July,
I got a message on Facebook

from a girl
who actually lived in Hawaii.

He has been engaged to her.
- What?

- While you were married
to your husband,

he was engaged to someone else?

- Yes. This is--
- Ugh.

- Like, I'm telling you,
it was bull[bleep],

the whole marriage.

I filed for divorce
the next day.

- ♪ Missing you so long ♪

- How long were you
actually married?

- Officially, about--
almost six months.

- Aw, I'm so sorry.

- It's been a very rough year.

- You really got betrayed
by your ex-husband.

- I did.

- And saved by Sam.
- Yeah.

He was amazing.

I was telling him everything.

Before my divorce,

he would stay on the phone
with me while I cried

every night, all night.

- Who breaks
the friend zone first?

- He does.
We were talking one night,

and he told me he loved me...

and I told him I loved him, too.

- But you were in a very--
- I was pretty vulnerable.

- Raw, vulnerable place.

- I was, like,
what the hell am I doing?

I'm gonna work on my marriage,
try to fix it, go to counseling.

I stopped talking to him.

- And then your relationship
with your husband ended.

You started talking again--

- And you were thinking
when you got in touch with him

after you got divorced,
like, okay, like,

I'm finally free to...

- My--and I told him,
"When I come home,

I want to see you."

His excuse was,
"I have too much homework."

He has enough time to [bleep]
call me, but not see me.

- You've now
come right out of one...

emotionally devastating
relationship...

and teed yourself up
for another one.

♪ ♪

- Yeah, I did do that.

♪ ♪

- You are ignoring
a lot of red flags.

I mean, Melvin said that
Sam was probably a catfish.

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...

because of all
the pictures he sent me.

- I'd like--you know what,
can we see the pictures?

- That's a picture I took
a screenshot from Snapchat

that he sent me.
- If this is bogus--

this is not bad!

I don't know how
he did it because...

He must be using a third-party
Snapchat uploader...

because it came through as if
it was taken live on Snapchat.

- If that is a fake,

then he worked very hard.

- It's a good fake.
- Yeah, okay.

- It's a good fake.

Oh, here are the...

- The abs.
- Precious abs.

- There they are.

- "You have to go through
the worst to get the best."

I mean, I have to say,
his Instagram account is...

pretty well populated.

- That's his butt.

- That's a butt.

- A butt.
It's a nice butt.

- It is a nice butt.

I think we get it.

You're in this relationship.

It means a lot to you.

You don't want to let it go.

He's got perfectly chiseled abs.

We get it.

- Do you believe
that he wants to meet you?

- After we talked earlier,
I kind of told him...

about this.
He was very hesitant.

- Wait, you told him--
- About "Catfish"--

- About the show?
- Yeah.

- So, you--
after we talked to you,

you told Sam that
you had spoken to us.

- And what did he say?

- He was just very hesitant.

He was, like, pulling back.

- I would expect him
to be, like,

"How dare you do that!
We have a--

- "Why don't you believe me?"
- Right.

- Like, "Just because I'm busy
and I can't meet up with you,

doesn't mean you should
just, like, bring me on TV.

- But if he's not
pulling that card,

then maybe we do have
a real chance of just, like,

reaching out to him and
getting him to talk to us.

- Can we call him right now?

- Yeah.
- We've never done this.

[line trilling]

- Hey.

- I'm here with Max and Nev.

- Hey, Sam, this is Nev.

I understand
she told you that we spoke,

so we thought
rather than waste time,

um, snooping around,

we would just kind of get in
touch and see how you felt

about maybe meeting up
with all of us.

If that's something
that you want to do.

- You don't want us involved?

- I'm only asking for
a couple hours.

- I obviously care about you,
and I love you...

and if you love me,
why can't you just give me

a few hours of your day?

♪ ♪

- Okay.
[phone beeps off]

Do you see why I get frustrated?

- Yeah.

- Like, this happens,
like, all the time.

- Right.
- So look.

He already knows we're here.

Judging on the fact that
you've been trying to do this

for months,
and it hasn't happened...

it'd be unlikely if all of
the sudden, he just says, like,

"Great, you know what,
yes, let's meet tomorrow."

In the meantime,

we may as well...

do some research.

Send us everything you have.

His Facebook page,
the pictures....

- Okay.
- All right?

We'll figure this out.

You're gonna get through this.

- Nice to meet you.

♪ ♪

This girl knows--
there's a part of her

that knows...
- Yes, totally!

- Something's up.
She's so desperate...

- Yeah.
- For one thing to work out...

- Right.
- That she will take this guy

that is
the most obvious catfish.

She's really in denial.

- We're gonna get to
the bottom of this.

- All right,
so let's just recap Kailani.

- We find out that her husband
was cheating on her,

and during that period where

she was figuring out
what to do with her marriage,

she leaned heavily on
her friend, Sam.

And as the kids say,
she caught feelings.

- Exactly.
- So...

she's in this position

where she really wants
Sam to be real,

and if Sam turns out
to not be who he says he is,

then all men are scum
and liars and--

and what's the point of
ever falling in love again

if you're just gonna get
hurt like this?

- Right.

All right.

♪ ♪

- Hello.
- Hello.

- [groans]

All right.

♪ ♪

Yeah, warm up.
Gotta get 'em going.

You ready?
- Yeah!

- Okay.
- That was good.

Whoo!
- [chuckles]

All right.

This should be fun.

Okay, email from Kailani.

"In the email
are several photos of Sam,

and a little information about
him, and his phone number."

- Whoa, she knows,
like, his full name.

Samuel Ramirez DeVecchio--

- [correcting] DeVecchio.
- DeVecchio.

And then his Instagram,
sammyhilfigerr.

His mother's name is
Ariel DeVecchio,

and his step-dad's name is
Michael Angelo...

[laughter]

- I mean, possible.

I mean, it's perfect that
we're in an Italian restaurant

right now.
- That is really perfect.

All right,
where do you want to start?

- I want to start
with the pictures.

- Okay.
- I want to prove that

he's not the guy--
- All right.

- In the pictures.
- So...

I'm gonna just grab
all these pictures

while we're in the email here.

All right,
let's start with this one.

- Go! Beard Poppa.

- No, nothing, okay.
- No, no Beard Poppa.

Another picture of him.

That--
- Ugh.

- No, nothing.
- No.

- How about this one?
- All right, here's one.

- Agh!
- No...

Nada.
- Let's see.

What's this one?

both: Whoa!

- That's a rock hard [bleep].
[chuckling]

You know what we're gonna get
when we look this up?

A lot of [bleep].

- No!
- Weird.

- Hand...
It noticed the hand.

It thought it was a finger,

maybe.
[chuckling]

All right, we're done.

- All right, well then I think
we need to get more photos.

- Well, go--let's go
to this Facebook page.

- All right, let's see.

Okay--
- Okay, here he is.

He went to North Salinas High.

Salinas is, like,
Central California.

- Right.

And he's got a real school
tagged here.

- Mm-hmm.
- Which is, you know, unusual.

- Wait! Only 15 friends?

Red flag.
- Definitely.

Not a good sign.

- That's, like, a deep, deep
red.

Crimson red.

- Maybe we should just send
a message to these 15 people?

- Blast! Blast away.
- Okay, all right.

So sending messages to
all of his friends.

- Friends!

- Bo, bo, bo--
- Boom! Boom!

Boom!

- Someone, I'm sure,
will get back to us.

Hopefully at some point soon.

Let's download all these.

- More pictures to search.

- Okay, here's our guy.

- Does that shirt say Salinas?

It does!
- Oh.

- Which is where
he says he's from.

- This guys is real and
may have grown up in Salinas...

Here we go.

Boom! New pic.

- Here we go!

both: Oh!
- We got a victor!

- Emma Leigh...

What is this?

- We got a hit.

Oh, boy.
- It's him!

- Who is he?
Who is this guy?

- Dom.
- Look, look, Dom is tagged.

- Dom.
- Who's Dom?

Oh, oh! Looks like we got
a Twitter account for him.

- Is it him?

both: Yeah!

- Dom!
- Da-dum-Dom!

- Dom!

Domi Hilfiger.

He is Domi Hilfiger,

and the other guy is
sammyhilfigerr on Instagram.

This guy is copying his--
- Yeah.

- There! We got a name!
- Boom!

- Dominic [bleep].

Is that for real?
- Let's look that up.

Let's see.
- Oh!

- Oh, there he is.
- Is that him? That's him!

That's the picture!

We found him!

Look, he's from Salinas.

- Look, he's got over
a thousand friends.

- That's real.
- Yeah.

I think it's pretty clear now

that the guy
in the pictures is Dom,

but he obviously is not
the one talking to Kailani.

- Well, it's obvious to us.

- I'm gonna
just send him a message.

All right.

I just sent
a message to Dominic.

Now let's go back and
do a little phone search.

- All right, this is
the only piece of evidence

we really have for Sam.

Right?
- Yeah.

This is giving us a result.

One match.
- Ah!

It says it's a mobile number
in Salinas,

but I don't know
how we find this guy.

The one thing
we haven't done is looked up

the names of Sam's parents.
- That's true.

Ariel DeVecchio
and Michael Angelo.

- Right.

No results.

Weird. Okay.

So that could just be
a made up name.

- I think this is a dead end.

- So let's go back to his page.

[phone ringing]
- Oh!

- Who is this? Monterey.

- Hello?

- Adriana, hello, hi.

We are calling because

you're one of 15 friends of
Sam DeVecchio on Facebook,

and we were just curious
how you guys know each other.

both: Okay.

- Was he flirting with you?

- Classic.

- Right, well, he--
yeah, he's lying.

Obviously.

All right, well--

we're not sure
exactly who he is,

but we know he's not
the guy he says he is

so just--
you know, be careful,

and if he tries to contact you,

I think you should--

it'd be best
to just ignore him.

- Bye!

- So he's doing this
with lots of girls.

I think Kailani could probably
deal with the reality that

he's not the Abercrombie model
in the pictures,

but if he really loved her

and really cared about her

and was real about everything
he's been saying...

she'd at least have
the validation that, like,

she matters and
she's important to him,

but now, it sounds like...

she's not even
that important to him.

[phone ringing]
- Oh!

Who's this?
- Salinas!

- Who could this be?

- Hello?

- Yo! Can--
[stammers]

Can we turn this into
a Facetime?

- Great!

- We'll call you in
a few minutes.

- All right, so look.
Why don't we head...

to Kailani--
- Let's do it right now!

So that--
- They can--

- Yes!
- Yeah.

- Yes. Brilliant.

So we'll be at Kailani's--
- Right.

- And they'll talk.
- Yeah.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

[knocking]
- [belches]

♪ ♪

- Hey!
- Hi!

- Hello!
All right.

- How are you feeling today?

- So much better.
- Have you spoken to Sam?

- No, I haven't.

- I mean,
after our call yesterday,

you'd think he would have
had something to say.

- Right.
I texted him,

and he never texted back.

- Well, he's busy.

It's a really busy time--
- He has finals.

- He has his finals.
- [chuckles]

- He's got a lot going on.
- Yeah.

- We have been busy.

- Oh, yeah?
- Oh, yeah.

- We did some investigation.

We should go over
everything we found.

- Okay.
- Why don't we go sit down

over here?
- Yeah.

♪ ♪

- [groans]
- All right.

First thing we did was
we downloaded all these pictures

that you sent, and
we image searched them.

Nothing.

Then we went to
his Facebook page,

and started image searching
these photos...

and we finally got a hit.

♪ ♪

And look what he goes by--
- Domi Hilfiger...

- What does Sam go by?
- sammyhilfigerr

- We went and found
his Facebook page...

from Salinas...

- Which is pretty close
to Monterey.

both: Right.

♪ ♪

- So...

- You think Sam is, like,

literally copying everything
that this guy is doing?

- That looks to be
what's happening.

♪ ♪

- That's really creepy.

That's, like, super creepy.

♪ ♪

- One other thing.

We also reached out to Dom.

He can probably
video chat with us now...

so if you want,
we can call Dom,

the guy in the pictures,

and see if he knows anything
about this imposter.

- Okay.
- All right,

so let's get Dom on.

[line trilling]

- Hey!
- Hey, Dom!

- How're you doing?
- What's up, man?

How are you?
- Good, doing good.

- This is Kailani.

- Hey.
- Hi.

♪ ♪

- So for the last year, Kailani,

and even before that,
her friend, Melvin,

was talking to
this guy named Sam

who's been using your photos
and a lot of information

and sort of details about
your life...

- That's creepy.
[nervous chuckles]

- You don't know anybody
that is,

like, weirdly obsessed with
you?

Or has a big crush
on you forever

that would, like,
want to pretend to be you?

- Actually, I got
a direct message on Instagram

from some obviously
fake profiles,

like, you know, there's fake
usernames,

no pictures on their
page,

and they wanted me to kind
of send, like,

a verification
photo of myself

to prove that the person that
this girl was talking to

wasn't the real me.

It seemed suspicious.
I was trying to tell them,

like, you could
just look at my page.

Obviously, I'm the real me.

I'm not hiding anything.

But they really wanted me
to take a picture of a sign,

I think, with, like,
some kind of name on it, and--

- Do you remember the name?

- I wanna say it was,
like, [bleep].

- That's my last name.
- Oh, really?

- Whoa! That...

could've been...

Sam.
- Well, be on the alert

that someone's using
your pictures.

- Will do.

- Thank you for talking to us.

- Yeah,
I'm sorry about all that.

That's really unfortunate.

I hope that you guys
figure it out,

and good luck with
your guys' investigation.

- All right.
- Thank you.

- Thanks, Dom.
- Thanks, Dom, bye.

- [exhales]

- Okay...

I don't--
I don't know what to say.

- How was it talking
to Dom just now?

I mean, was that--
that was kind of the Facetime

you've been waiting for
for a long time.

Was it weird hearing
someone else's voice

coming out of that face?

- A little bit.
- It sucks.

- Yeah, it really does...

I wanna know who the hell
I've been talking to

this whole time...

like, I don't know
anything at all.

- Let's just finish showing you
kind of everything we found.

Sam's only got 15 friends
on Facebook,

and we messaged everyone.

One of them was this girl.

Adriana from Stockton,
California,

and she called us back.

I said to her--I was like, "Hey,
we're making an episode,

what do you know about Sam?"

- Mm-hmm.
- She said,

"Oh, he hit me up,

"and he was flirting with me,

"and then I went up to Monterey,

"and when I got up there

"he wasn't answering
my phone calls,

"he wasn't answering my text
messages, and finally,

he wrote me and said,
'Oh, sorry, I fell asleep.'"

But the point of that is that

he was talking to
some other girl,

giving her
the same sort of story

while he's talking to you.

- Wow.

I don't even know
what to say back to that.

- What was alarming to me

was not that he wasn't
the guy in the pictures,

I already knew that,

but what bugs me is that, like,
he's confessing his love to you,

he's essentially saying

he's going to
be there when you

break up with your husband

and meanwhile, he's also
talking to other girls.

- It is really [bleep] up.

- ♪ You're holding too tight ♪

♪ Onto things
that you can't keep ♪

- It's just one person
lying to me every day

to another person that's been
lying to me every day.

You know, but yet they both
said that they loved me.

My husband
never apologized to me,

let alone did he tell me
why he did anything.

- He never apologized to you?
- No.

So...

I would really appreciate
an apology from him.

Like, I'm gonna cry.

- ♪ Why, why, why, why? ♪

♪ ♪

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- [exhales]
So...

I think we should call

Sam

and let him know that
you now are aware of the fact

that Dom is the real person
in the photos,

and if he really does
care about you,

this would be his only
and last opportunity

to actually show you that.

- Okay.
- All right,

let's see how this goes.

- You have reached
the voicemail box of

8-3-1 [bleep].

- Hey, Sam, it's Nev again.

Some things have changed,
and we'd love to talk again,

and give you an opportunity
to maybe meet up with us,

and explain some things.

Just, uh, try to get back to us.

Thanks.

- Jeez.

Did he already
ditch that number?

Well, look...

We will...

await his response.

That's really the only thing
we could do at this point.

- Okay.

- All right.

[melancholy music]

♪ ♪

Okay. Give me a hug.

You'll be okay.

All right, bye.
- Bye.

♪ ♪

- What really sucks
is that this guy knew

what she was going through.
- Yeah.

- He knew that she was
going through this tough time

with her husband, and--

and yet he was doing
the same thing to her.

- Yeah.
- How do you explain that?

- It's messed up.
- It's cruel.

♪ ♪

- Today was not a great day
for Kailani....

as hard as she was trying,
I think, to hold in her...

sadness and disappointment,

you could totally see it
on her face.

[sighs]
This is sort of...

the part of the job
that I kind of hate.

Hopefully, we'll find
some positive

resolution to this.
See if

Sam gets back to us.

Either way,
we're gonna track this--

we're gonna track this guy down.

♪ ♪

- Let's go check in on Kailani.

See how she's doing.

♪ ♪

[phone ringing]
both: Oh!

- What?
- We're getting--

What--where's the phone?

- Oh, it's Kailani.

Hello?

- On his way to where?

- Jesus.
- Uh...

Okay, well,
we are just leaving the hotel

so we'll just
get over there quickly.

- No, no, no.
We'll be there soon.

- Okay.
- Bye. Whoa!

All the sudden, he's Ubering?
- That's weird, that's weird.

- We better get there fast.

- Yeah, I mean,
he's on his way there.

- If he gets there before us,
we could be in big trouble.

I wish we had a siren!
- I know,

we need a catfish siren.
- Put it up on the roof.

♪ ♪

All right,
we got here pretty quick.

♪ ♪

[rapid knocking]

Kailani, is he here?

- No...
- Okay.

Good.
- Oh, my God, you scared me.

- We thought maybe
he would get here before us.

- Okay, so--
- How're you doing?

- Oh, my God,
like, I'm really nervous.

- So what--
what did he say?

- He said, "I'm on my way.

"I'm taking an Uber
to come see you.

I'm driving to
your house right now."

- An Uber from where?

- He didn't tell me
where he was coming from.

- Just "I'm in an Uber"?

- He's, like, "I'm in an Uber."

- Okay, wait,
so hold on a second.

Let's sit down and go over this.

Were you, like, what?
- Yeah.

I mean, I was shocked.

I told him I talked to Dominic--
- Whoa.

- He was just, like, "Okay."

Like, he didn't care.

- He wasn't trying to explain,

or say I really have feelings
for you, or anything like that?

- No, just that he wants to
see me, and he's on his way.

- Well, that's alarming.

If he was being a dick
and being aggressive

and wasn't apologizing, just,
like, "I'm on my way to see you.

I know where you live."

Like, that's not good.
- It's a little creepy.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- We don't know anything
about this guy.

- Right.
- Seriously, this is scary.

He knows your address
because you've sent him--

- He sent me letters...
- Right.

- And things in the mail.
- Right.

- You wanna go outside?
- Yeah.

♪ ♪

- It's just frightening that
he knows where you live.

[suspenseful music]

- I'm just gonna look and see if
anyone's coming down the street.

♪ ♪

It's been a few minutes.

♪ ♪

- Oh! Wait, here's an Uber,
guys.

- Is that an Uber?

- That is an Uber.

It's stopping.

♪ ♪

I think this is him, guys.

♪ ♪

Someone's getting out.

♪ ♪

Sam?

- I think this is him.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

Sam?
- Yeah.

♪ ♪

- Do you know this person?

- No.

- Who are you?

- I'm Sam.
- Yeah. Okay.

♪ ♪

- And where are you from?

- Monterey.
- You are from Monterey?

- Yeah.
- Okay.

- How old are you?

- I'm 19.

- So that stuff was true.
- Yeah.

- Did you go to school with Dom?
- No.

- Do you know him?
- Yeah, I've been around him

through mutual friends.

- But you've never
actually met him?

- Nah.

- And how long have you been
pretending to be him?

- Pretty much just a year.

- Just a year?
- Yeah.

- So what
that you told me is true?

- Pretty much, basically,
everything just...

I'm not the person
in the pictures.

- Why don't you kind of
just tell us

your side of this.

And just kind of take us back,

and kind of
explain how this happened.

How you guys met?
- How you started the profile?

- I mean...

this isn't an excuse, but, like,

in high school,
I got made fun of a lot

because I have
feminine features.

So I wanted to know, like,

if I was different,

more manly looking
and everything,

like, how would people
accept me differently.

- What was your intention
with Kailani?

- Uh...

I never actually thought
it would get that far.

- You knew what
she was going through

with a guy who had
lied to her and led her on,

and deceived her and
sort of put her through hell.

- Yeah.
- And while, yes,

you were there and supportive,

you knew that eventually

she would find out and it would
only hurt her even more.

- And that's why, like,
I couldn't really tell her,

you know, like, I didn't...

I didn't know how to tell you.

On top of everything else
that she's been going through.

- You've been leading me on
this whole time?

- No, I actually got

really strong feelings for you.

- What about Adriana?

You got real feelings
for her also?

- Adriana wasn't anything

compared to how
I talk to Kailani.

- What about Melvin?

- I was just sort of, like,
testing, I guess, the waters.

But...

I don't--
I don't do that.

- Have you ever had
a relationship with a man?

- No.

I never meant to hurt you

because I really do
care about you.

I really do.

I do love you.

- It's really hard for me
to believe that

when you were telling Adriana

that you cared
about her as well.

- But I cared about her
as, like, a friend.

Like, I don't even
know her that long.

- I mean, you don't even
know her in person either.

- Yeah.

But, like, I don't have
feelings for her like that.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- I'm gonna

go inside with Kailani
for a second.

Chat. Sort of check in.

Give you a second,
also, to, like--

'cause I know this is a lot.So...

let's just take two seconds.

Sort of reset.

Do you wanna stay out here
to hang for a second?

- Sure, yeah, yeah.
- All right. We'll be--

Just give us a minute.

♪ ♪

Do you wanna sit here?
- Yeah.

♪ ♪

- All right.

It's a little confusing.

He's been...

telling these lies,

avoiding this issue
for so long now,

he's just not comfortable
saying what's true.

- He knew what
I was going through, but yet,

he couldn't just tell me.
- Right.

- But when I called him
going through my divorce,

he continued to make me
believe that that was him.

- That's messed up
that he kept lying.

♪ ♪

- How're you doing?
- Scared.

It's 'cause I know I hurt her.

♪ ♪

[sniffles]
- You really love her?

- Yeah.

I never wanted to hurt her.

Even though I knew
what I was doing was wrong.

And, like...
[sniffles]

[exhales]

♪ ♪

- So I think the best thing
to do now is to

go our separate ways,
process this,

and then meet up tomorrow.
Is that cool?

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- Good to meet you.
Appreciate it.

- Nice to meet you, too.

[exhales]

♪ ♪

[line trilling]

- Hey, Sam, how're you doing?

- Text us where you're at,
and we'll head over there.

- Looks like the park
is up here on the right.

- Is that him?

- Uh...
- Yeah, that's Sam.

♪ ♪

Are you ready?

♪ ♪

- Sam.
- What's up?

[distant barking]

- What's up?

both: All right.
- Out with it.

- What's up?
- All right, well,

I just want to start off
by saying, uh...

I'm really nervous, but...

My name is Sam,

uh, but...

my birth name is Samantha.

Uh, I'm going through
the process

to turn into a male...

but my family doesn't know...

'cause they wouldn't accept it.

Everybody sort of knew
that I was always

more

manly than a female should be.

Ever since I was little,

I'd rather be playing sports
than wearing makeup,

and doing
all this other girly stuff.

My mom, she wanted me
to be really girly.

She would say,
"I have a daughter, not a son."

And I didn't tell Kailani
'cause I,

like, sort of wanted

to protect myself.

♪ ♪

- That's a big thing to say--
- Yeah.

- And we appreciate
you saying it.

- Thank you for being open
and sharing that.

- I did create the profile,
like, to test waters and stuff.

Um...

I just wanted to know if that
was something I really wanted--

to be a male,

and then Kailani came around,
and

she made me feel accepted.

That I could be me
even though she didn't know

who I actually was.

I never really meant
to hurt her or anything.

She wasn't an experiment.

Like, she was not.

At all.

My feelings for her are strong,
and they're real.

- Is this the first person
you've been in love with?

- Yeah.

So...

♪ ♪

- I think Kailani needs to know.

If you want, we can
head over there, all of us,

and do that.

- Yeah.

- You wanna jump in our car?
- Yeah, you can ride with us.

♪ ♪

- I'm just scared how Kailani
is going to take it.

- All right, here we are.

♪ ♪

- I'm just really nervous.

- We got your back.

- All right.

Game time.

♪ ♪

[knocking]

- Hey.
- Hi. Come in.

- Okay.

Here we are.

- Sam has something
he wants to tell you.

♪ ♪

- I was not born

a male.

I'm transitioning...

but I do go by Sam,

and I identify as a male.

I was not comfortable at all

to tell you yesterday.

- I don't know what to say.
I mean...

- I have never lied
like this in my life.

It bothered me every day.

- I'm just, like, upset that
you let it get to the point

where we have feelings
for each other.

You should've just been yourself
because I would've accepted you

for you either way.

- I know.

- It's easy to say, like,

you could've just
been honest with me,

but it's not like
Sam is open about this

with even his family--I mean,
this is all new for him.

He's just now beginning
to get comfortable

revealing that.

- I just didn't...

[exhales]
know how to tell you.

- I'm not mad...

at you.

I don't want you not in my life,

but I might need some space,

but I do want to be your friend.

- That was my biggest fear.

Losing you.

- On a fundamental level,
you guys really

helped each other through
a bad marriage,

transitioning.

That is kind of what's
most important here

from the outside.

- Well, I'm glad
I was able to help you,

and I appreciate,
more than anything,

you being there.

- All right, so look.

I think
you've now aired this out.

You've said
what you needed to say.

- And that's a good place
to leave it for now.

- We had a lot of
questions answered.

I feel a lot better
about everything.

- How do you feel, Sam?

- I'm just glad I told her.

Thanks to you guys.

that's the only way
I know I could do it.

- All right.
Good luck with everything.

- You can text me.

- ♪ This is burning me inside ♪

♪ I know ♪

♪ 'Cause I finally feel alive ♪

[line trilling]

- Kailani!
- Hey!

- Hey.
- How is everything?

- Everything's good.

- Are you talking to Sam at all?

- Not really.

I'm glad that I got to see
who he was,

it's just--
I want to move forward.

- Have you met anybody?

- I have a boyfriend!

He works for UPS.

- Does he handle you with care?
[chuckling]

- Yeah, he does.
- Good!

- Are you already
married to him?

- [chuckles]
I'm in no rush.

- So you just stick to ground.

[laughter]

No priority or overnight.

All right, well, look.
It's nice to hear from you.

Happy that you're doing well.

- Thank you.
- Bye!

[line trilling]

- Yo!
- Sam!

- What's been going on
since we saw you last?

- I've just been focusing on me.

I want to take EMT paramedic
classes for sure.

- Wow!

- I have been slowly coming out
to some friends.

That was
a really big step for me.

- Congratulations.

- I'm excited for the future.
[chuckles]

- Maybe next time we speak,

it'll be because
you're resuscitating me

in the back of an ambulance.
[all chuckling]

- Definitely will
totally save your guys' lives.

- Good luck, Sam.
- Bye!

1130
00:40:36.