Catfish: The TV Show (2012–…): Season 7, Episode 24 - Shakinah & Chris - full transcript
After chatting for years with Chris, Shakinah needs to move forward with her love life, but when Nev and co-host Kamie Crawford find out that Chris is a huge pop star, they know Shakinah needs their help in more ways than one.
- Three years ago,
Shakinah starts talking
to this guy Chris.
- He asks,
"Can I have two girlfriends?"
- It's a virtual three-way.
- Wait a second,
someone just texted me back.
"Chris saying he will never do
the show, never come clean."
- What?
- This doesn't feel good.
What's going on?
What?
- Hey, everyone.
We are back with an
all-new episode of "Catfish."
And this week,
we're very lucky.
Back by popular demand
is a cohost you met
not too long ago.
I don't know if you're going
to recognize her, though.
Kamie!
- Oh, hello.
Didn't see you there.
- You look like you're about
to go on stage for "Lion King."
- I am, actually.
- I have a--
- Oh, you want to draw on me?
- Just a little draw.
- Okay, cool.
That's the wrong place.
- I know,
but I'm doing whiskers.
- What?
- 'Cause you look
like a little lioness.
It's cute.
- Actually, it does go with
the rest of the look.
- It kind of goes with it,
right?
- We'll make it work.
- You can make it work.
That's called contour?
- Contour.
- See, we help people on
the show take off their masks,
and you're all about
putting on a mask.
- Sometimes God does make
mistakes and contour fixes it.
[laughter]
I think we're
just about gorgeous.
- All right, let's see
if we got an email here.
Shakinah.
"I feel that he is real,
but is he lying?"
- Probably.
- Yeah, if you have to ask.
- Say yes.
- "Hey, Nev."
- And Kamie.
"My name is Shakinah.
"I'm 31 years old and I live
in Moreno Valley, California.
"I've been talking to this
guy, Chris, for three years.
"He's 29 and he lives
in Tarzana, California."
That's not that far.
And they haven't met
in three years?
"He's a musician and I've been
following his music
for quite some time."
Uh-oh, is he like
a famous musician?
- ♪ I'm too mixed up ♪
- "Around three years ago,
I decided to send him a message
and he responded."
- So she reached out to him.
- Yeah.
- ♪ I'm too mixed up ♪
- "I sent him my number,
and he actually called me.
It was on after that."
- I know what that means.
- "Since then, we've been
talking pretty much
every damn day."
- ♪ Am I in love
or just obsessed ♪
- "We got close superfast.
"I've never been
with someone so loving before.
"But I am embarrassed
to tell you
that there has always been
another woman in the picture."
- What?
- "I know this guy gets
attention from a lot of girls,
"but I can't help but feel like
"he's hiding a lot of stuff
from me.
"I need your help to figure out
if he's serious about me
and finally get him
to meet in person."
- ♪ I'm too many colors ♪
- "Please call me. Shakinah."
Wait a second.
He has another girlfriend?
- Girlfriend, wife,
who knows what?
- There's got to be
something about this.
- There's more.
- Give her a call
and see what she has to say.
[computer chiming]
Hey!
- Oh, hey!
- What's up, Shakinah?
- My curly haired sister.
- This is Kamie, by the way.
- Hi!
- How you doing?
How are things
out in Moreno Valley?
- It's okay. It's hot.
- Are you from there?
- No, my parents moved
from LA to Marino Valley
because it
was too crowded.
- And you live
with your parents?
- Mm-hmm.
- Is it just you,
or do you have siblings?
- I have my son.
- Okay, so tell us a little bit
about this guy,
Chri--was it Chris?
- Mm-hmm.
- Well,
that's actually Chris Brown
I'm talking to.
- What?
- As in Chris Breezy?
- Yes.
- As in, "Your Man Ain't Me"?
As in, "Run It" Chris Brown?
- Yes, yes, that's him.
- How are you so convinced?
- I had to check his voice,
and when I did, I checked when
he was speaking in interviews
and checked the voice
on my phone.
It sounded the same.
- Does he ever video chat?
- Video chat,
he keeps it dark.
- I don't know what to say.
I--I mean--
- This is a lot, Shakinah.
- I'm sorry.
- Forgive me if
I'm trying to process.
It's a lot.
- I'm sorry.
- Have you considered
the possibility
that you're not
talking to Chris Brown?
- No, no.
- You said you messaged him
on Facebook?
- Yeah, I messaged
him on Facebook.
- Like, on his page,
his fan page?
- His page,
his personal page.
- How do you know
it's his page?
- 'Cause it's his daughter's
pictures and him.
- Well, right, but anybody
could make a fake page.
I'm sure there are
probably dozens
if you search
Chris Brown that show up.
- Yeah.
- And I always see
pictures of--
his daughter's
on Instagram.
There's always
pictures of them together.
- What do you make
of his past relationships
that have not
ended well?
- It's just,
people put too much on him.
But I don't think so.
Think he's sweet.
Think he's a nice person.
You see him on TV, it's like,
oh, he thinks he's
God's gift to women.
When you talk
to him, he's like--
he's a little bit
sweethearted.
He's a little bit nicer.
- All right, so look, if you
came down to LA, whoever it is,
if they really do live
in the LA area,
it would be good for
you to be here anyway.
And we'll see what we can do.
- Okay.
- See you in LA.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- Wow, I mean...
- If she's talking
to Chris Brown,
then you are Chris Brown.
- It all sounded so simple
and innocent at first.
- It never is.
- ♪ I should have known it ♪
♪ I've seen it before ♪
- All right, here we go.
- ♪ The same old feeling
I'm a sucker for ♪
- Shakinah.
- Shakinah.
- Shakinah is sh-confused.
- Hopefully we can figure out
who she is talking to.
- I mean...
- This guy could be
talking to lots of girls.
We gotta help Shakinah.
- Poor thing.
- All right.
Let's go break some hearts.
[knocks on door]
- What's up, girl?
- Hey!
- Hey!
- Hi!
- We're here, girl.
- Hi.
- Here to help.
- How's your little rent?
We rented you
this cute little place.
- I like it.
- Wow, this is chic.
- Super cute.
- All right,
let's get down to business.
When was the last time
you were in LA?
- It's been awhile.
- Do you miss living here?
- Sometimes, yeah.
- Maybe you'll get to hang out
with some people.
Go to the club.
- No, I don't club like that.
- [laughing]
- Those days are over?
- Yeah, when you got
a 14-year-old,
a lot of things is over with.
- Oh, my gosh.
Between your son's dad
and Chris,
how many relationships have you
been in in between that time?
- It was just one and he was,
like, 12 years.
- Whoa.
- Yeah.
- So not long after
you had your son,
you were in a 12-year
relationship?
- Yeah, he was
real special to me.
- But it didn't work out?
- No, it didn't.
After Chris
came in the picture,
it helped me
get through that,
that heartbreak.
- Wow, so that explains a lot.
So here you are on the end
of a 12-year relationship,
and you're obviously
looking for something
to kind of help
you feel better about yourself.
And you meet Chris and--
- And he did that.
He made me feel confident
in myself.
A lot of guys had lied to me
and hurted me.
After Chris came in,
it just helped me
feel like a butterfly,
because I felt like I was
in a cocoon for a long time.
I can tell him anything
and he'll, like, cater to that
and no other man
has did that for me.
So it makes me feel like
I'm special to him.
That's who I want
to share my life with.
- All right, so, okay,
let's rewind.
We want to know exactly
how this all started.
- I had looked up his name and
then I say, "Let me add him."
And he added me.
- Like, right away?
- Yeah.
- Just hitting up
my new friend.
- Chris Brown.
- Just felt normal to you.
- Yeah, it felt normal to me.
It just, like, okay,
let me inbox him.
And then every day, we was
texting and calling each other,
and we just start
connecting even more.
It makes me feel like I'm
the person that's just for him.
And then a couple
of months later,
I start falling in love
with him.
- He's making you feel like
you're the only person for him.
- Mm-hmm. Yeah.
- Yet I know that Chris Brown
publicly has a girlfriend.
Does he ever talk about that?
- I never asked about it
because we have
a good connection
and I don't want to ruin it.
- But you know
that he's got a girlfriend.
- Yes.
- You said it in your email.
Does that bother you?
- The girl that bothers me
is Takoya
'cause she's not on TV.
She's a actual person.
- So in addition to
the girlfriend that
he takes pictures with
and goes to events with,
Chris tells you that
he's dating someone else...
- Yeah.
- Named Takoya?
- Yeah, he asked,
"Can I have two girlfriends?"
- What?
- I said fine, okay.
He said,
"Won't y'all two talk?"
And then he put me
on three-way with her.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Chris put you on the phone...
- Yeah, he did.
- With his other girlfriend?
- Takoya?
- Yes.
- He, like, merged the call?
- Yes, he did.
- It's a virtual three-way.
- Both of them were talking
at the same time?
- No, she'll talk to me,
and then he'll
come in and start talking.
- Okay.
And how did that go?
- It went okay.
She was pretty nice.
We became friends.
- You guys talk and text
without Chris?
- Yeah.
- Y'all are sister wives.
You're fine with it?
- Yeah, I'm fine with it.
- And has she met him
in person?
- No,
she hasn't met him either.
- Okay, how often
do you and Chris talk?
- Like, all day,
we'll be on the phone.
- Does he tell you about, like,
everything that's going on
in his life,
where he's at,
what he's doing?
- He don't tell me
what he does
at work or anything.
He just tells me he's
stressed out or he's tired.
- Has he ever shown you
his house?
- No.
- Cars?
- No.
- Chains?
- No.
- Has he sent you any pictures
of anything?
- No.
- Never sent you any picture?
- No.
- Any explicit photographs?
- Oh, yeah,
them kind of pictures, yeah.
- [laughing]
- So just dick pics?
- Yeah,
if you say it like that.
- Well,
what else do you call them?
- How many?
- I got three.
- Look at you. She's, like,
proud of her three dick pics.
- [laughing]
- One a year.
- [laughing] Yes.
- And so I assume
you've also reciprocated.
- Yeah, I was a little tipsy.
I have nothing to say
about that one.
- Has he done anything else
to prove to you that it's him?
- Yeah, on my birthday,
I told Chris I'm going out
to a Irish bar in Hollywood
with my cousin.
And we went there and a black
car pulled up and I looked
and I seen a guy with
a black hat and black glasses.
I knew that was him.
When the light changed,
he just drove off.
I was kind of mad.
- How do you know it was him?
- I know his face.
- Did you bring it up?
- I brung it up,
and he started laughing
like it was funny.
I said, "That's not funny.
You know how many
times I wanted to see you?"
- All right.
- [laughing]
- I'm sorry you're speechless.
- Yeah, what else you got
for us?
- That's it.
- You said you guys
talked on the phone.
- Do you have, like, voicemail
or anything like that?
- Yeah, I have a voicemail.
- Let's listen.
- I want to hear
Chris Brown's voicemail.
- Shakinah.
- Yes?
- Babe.
- Yes?
- Girl, you know me.
You're my friend.
That's not Chris Brown.
That sounds like
a 13-year-old boy
or a 20-year-old woman.
- What's it going to take
to convince you
it's not Chris Brown?
- If I find some information
that would take
a different turn.
- I feel like you're going
to need a lot of convincing.
- We'll do some research,
we'll meet back up tomorrow,
we'll let you know
what we find,
and then we'll take it
from there.
- Okay.
- All right, girl. Come here.
- Bring it in.
- We've got a good one, folks.
- Lord have mercy.
- Seriously, her passion
and her connection to this man
is so real.
We need to be her friend
that gives it to her straight.
- I am both baffled and afraid.
We don't know what's going
to come out of this.
This girl has got blinders on.
- All right, guys,
Nev's house.
Let's go find him.
This is Nev's
front door. Ha!
- No solicitors, please.
- Good morning!
- Morning.
- Nice shoes.
- Oh,
these are my house slides.
- I would hope that they stay
in the house.
- They stay in the house.
- [laughing]
- Shall we?
- Let's get to it.
- So?
- So obviously not Chris Brown.
But I will say--
- Now it's obvious?
- It's been obvious
from the start.
- Okay.
- What we're really
dealing with here is,
Shakinah has not had the best
luck with relationships
and was so vulnerable and
so unhappy and so confused...
- Mm-hmm.
- That even the possibility
of it being someone
as outlandish as Chris Brown
was something she was
willing to believe
because she
needed it that badly.
- Yeah, I think it's going
to be very difficult
to convince her
that she's not talking to him.
- All right, here's Shakinah.
"Hey, Nev and Kamie.
"So this is all the info
I have on Chris:
his profile, phone number,
and his email."
- C Breezy?
- Her profile and login if we
want to check out the messages.
- Okay.
- Let's run this phone number.
Oh.
- Oh, Michigan.
- Okay, so this phone number
comes up registered unknown,
and 517 is a central south
Michigan area code.
Interesting.
Is he from Michigan?
- No! Chris Brown
is from Virginia.
I assume that's not him.
[laughing]
- Okay, well the only other
information we have
is the email.
Let's just search the email.
This should show us
if it's registered to any--
No, nothing.
Okay.
- Yikes.
- Let's just get to
the Chris Brown profile
that Shakinah
has been talking to.
You know what?
Maybe we should log in as her
'cause I don't
know if we can see everything.
All right, so here
is the Chris profile.
Oh, boy,
there's not a lot on here.
Friends, they have one
mutual friend, Takoya.
- Who thinks that Chris Brown
is her boyfriend.
- Right.
- These photos are very common.
- Right,
this is obviously fake.
Let's just see who is
interacting with this profile.
So he posted on September 29th.
Norma [bleep] commented
100 emoji eight times.
He uploaded
a new profile picture.
Takoya, his other girlfriend,
said, "Aww, my baby."
- That's cute.
- Takoya showing up a lot.
- Yeah.
And she's friends
with Shakinah.
- Yeah.
- Right?
- For sure.
All right, Takoya,
from North Carolina.
- Oh, her bio.
- Oh.
- "I'm a sweetheart, but I can
be your worst nightmare.
CB's girl. I'm a good girl
with a big heart. Chris."
- Wow, so she's very publicly
Chris Brown's girlfriend.
- Yeah.
- Let's just see if we can
send her a message
from my profile.
- Mm-hmm.
Sent.
All right, let's check out
Chris Brown's
real Instagram.
Here he is.
- Hold up, hold up, hold up.
On the photo,
he got a dog three days ago.
- Wait,
that wasn't on the fake page.
The guy that Shakinah is
talking to isn't even trying to
convince her in any meaningful
way that he is Chris Brown.
- No.
- He could have found a picture
of Chris Brown's dog and been,
like, "Check out my new dog."
And then she would have seen
that and been, like,
"Oh, my God!"
And he avoids talking
about anything
that relates directly
to Chris Brown's real life.
- Yeah.
[phone chimes]
- Oh, okay.
Oh, Takoya wrote back.
But she didn't call,
she messaged back,
because she's not sure
who this is.
- 'Cause if you're willing
to believe you're dating
Chris Brown
but you can't believe
that we are trying
to get in contact with you.
- [sighs]
So let's send a picture.
- That's cute.
- Okay, send photo.
- Is she not going
to believe this?
- She says,
"I can't call right now."
So let's talk to her.
"So how do you know Chris?"
- Start with the basics.
- "He's my boyfriend."
- Okay.
- How do you know
it's really him?
- "Well, we actually talked
over the phone
and I heard his voice."
- I'm, like, stunned.
- Something happens
when you've consumed
and thought about
Chris Brown enough,
your mind actually
starts to see Chris Brown.
"We are actually
trying to help Shakinah."
- I don't think
she's going to like the fact
that you're trying
to connect Shakinah and Chris.
- No, but she knows about them.
- But she doesn't
like the fact
that they could possibly
be connecting.
- "Well me and her
became friends,
"and we've
gotten closer ever since.
Thanks for your help."
So Takoya really likes
Shakinah.
- Mm-hmm.
- Maybe Takoya is Chris.
Let's just for a moment
assume Takoya
makes a fan page
for Chris Brown...
- Mm-hmm.
- Because, maybe,
Takoya likes girls...
- Mm-hmm.
- And she knows a lot of girls
are going to friend
and talk to Chris Brown.
- Mm-hmm.
- So maybe this whole thing
was like a poorly designed
but sort of well-executed plan
for Takoya to get Shakinah
to like her, which she does...
- Mm-hmm.
- And she just hasn't known
how to tell her
that it's been me
the whole time.
She definitely is involved
in this somehow.
- Yeah.
- It's very suspicious
that the catfish is having
two different people
talk to each other.
- All roads
are not leading to--
- Right, no roads
lead to Chris Brown.
Takoya is
our prime suspect.
- So what do you think
Shakinah's reaction
to all this
is going to be?
- I don't know.
I don't know
what she's going to say.
I think we just need to use
a little bit of tough love.
Something's got to give.
- All right.
- Here goes nothing.
- Hey!
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- How are you doing?
Hi.
- How are you?
- All right,
let's sit down over here.
So.
- So.
I want to know what's--
what you guys got.
- Are you sure?
- I'm not sure where to start.
- Yeah, I'm positive.
I'm positive.
- Okay.
- All right,
so let's get into this.
We had his phone number--
and this is the only
number he's ever had?
- Yeah.
- So we looked up
his phone number.
It came back unknown,
but it turns out 517
is an area code
in Michigan.
- Hm, wow.
- Do you know anybody
in Michigan?
No family, friends?
Never lived there?
- No, I do not.
No.
- Chris Brown
is not from Michigan.
Why would he have
a cell phone from there?
- I don't even know
about that part.
- I think you're
doing more work
trying to convince
yourself that he is Chris Brown
than this guy is doing
to try to convince you
that he's Chris Brown.
- Yeah.
- All right,
so the next thing we did was,
we went to the real
Chris Brown's Instagram,
and look at this.
He got a puppy
a couple of days ago.
Did he mention
getting a new dog?
- No.
- That's crazy,
'cause if you looked
at Chris Brown's Instagram,
you'd see he had a puppy.
You'd think he would
have mentioned, like,
"Hey, just got a new dog."
- "Want to see?"
- Right, he's not even
really trying that hard.
- I think that
at this point,
the fact that you don't
want to be hurt again,
you're gonna have to start
coming to the realization
that the real Chris Brown
is not the person
that you're talking to.
- This is a whole lot.
- Yeah.
- This is a lot.
- I just want to make sure that
this experience is about you...
- Yeah.
- Because, sure, we can
help you figure out Chris.
But what we really want to do
is help you kind of understand
that your participation
in this relationship
has really only
been you fooling yourself,
because this guy hasn't even
been doing a good job
convincing you
he's Chris Brown.
Are you prepared to kind of
start to begin to accept
that it's not Chris Brown?
- That's a lot to take in.
I still love him a lot but...
- Sure.
- That--that made me think,
like, hard.
This is scary.
Who am I really talking to,
a crazy person?
So I need to know.
I really need to know.
I have to get that closure.
- So that leads me to Takoya.
What's the deal with her?
- She's a good person.
And she's easy to talk to.
So that's why
we became friends.
- Well, so here's what
we were thinking,
trying to come up with
an explanation for all this.
Let's just say for a minute
Takoya liked girls
and she has a fake page
for Chris Brown
because she's a big
Chris Brown fan.
- Oh, she is.
- And she knows a lot of women
are going to reach out.
You reach out,
she falls in love with you.
You fall in love with Chris,
and she says,
"Let me introduce her
to Takoya.
I'll tell her
that's my other girlfriend."
And then you and Takoya start
talking and become friends.
So now she actually gets
to talk to you as Chris
and she gets
to talk to you as Takoya.
- But you know what?
He put me on three-way
with her.
- You said both of them were
not talking at the same time.
So as crazy as this sounds,
maybe Takoya changes her voice
a little bit and pretends
to have you on a three-way
when it's really just
her holding a sock up.
- It is possible.
- It just feels
like it's Takoya.
And she's in love with you.
- She's...oh, she's...
- How would you feel if this
was who you were actually--
- I would be upset.
And she's sending him
private pictures.
- That's true,
I forgot.
- Really? You serious?
Like, that's my privacy.
- Yeah.
- And I don't do that
with nobody.
- Yeah, as a woman,
that would be
my--my biggest fear
and concern too.
- When you talk to somebody
for a long time,
you don't think that.
You just, okay,
I'm in love with this person.
I'm happy.
You know, nobody
can't tell me nothing.
I'm, like, lost.
- Well, the only thing
we haven't done is...
talk to Chris.
So...
- Yeah.
- If you're open to it,
that would be the next thing
is us trying to contact him
and see what we can find out.
- I don't--I don't mind.
I don't mind at all.
- All right,
I'm going to call him.
[line ringing]
- "You have reached
the voicemail box of"--
[beep]
- Yo, C Breezy, it's your boy
Nev from "Catfish."
Got a beautiful young lady here
who would love to meet you.
Give me a call back
when you get this.
I look forward
to hearing from you.
Thanks.
How are you feeling
about all of this?
- Stressed.
[phone dings]
- What? Wait a second.
Someone just texted me back.
Not Chris, but same area code.
They said,
"This is a friend of Chris.
"I just saw your number
on Chris' phone.
Chris saying he will never do
the show, never come clean."
- What?
- Someone just texted me back.
Not Chris, but same area code.
They said,
"This is a friend of Chris.
"I just saw your number
on Chris' phone.
Chris saying he will never do
the show, never come clean."
- What?
- Come clean about what?
- "Never do the show,
never come clean."
So what are you doing?
- Sounds like Chris
is saying hell no,
I don't want anything
to do with this.
I don't want to come cl--
[cell phone whoops]
He says,
"I'm sitting next to Chris
now, so I can't talk.
"Chris is talking about
your message.
"He's trying to ghost you.
You need to come to
Lansing, Michigan, ASAP."
What?
- This is weird.
- This sounds like
the beginning
of every horror movie ever.
- Yes, it does.
- Like, "Oh,
just come with me. Trust me."
- No.
- "I'm not a serial killer."
- Wait a second.
- I'm sorry, I'm spaced out.
- This is a little crazy.
"How do we know"...
- You're not a murderer?
- "When we get there"--
- He'll show up.
- Right.
Who is this friend,
this mystery source,
who seems to want to help,
but...
Now he says,
"You just have to trust me.
"Text me when you're in Lansing
and I'll meet you.
I can help
explain everything."
- Bro, no.
- Sheesh.
- I--I think we got to go.
I think--
what choice do we have?
Someone's trying to help us.
It sounds like there
is something going on.
We now know
they're in Michigan.
We got to go.
So I say we pack our bags,
we get on a flight tomorrow
morning, we'll fly to Michigan,
we'll text whoever this is
when we get there.
Ready to do this?
- Yeah.
- And you understand
that the fact that we're going
to Michigan to meet someone
who has to come clean
means it's
probably not Chris.
You're ready for that?
You're ready to let go
of the fantasy and, like--
- Yes.
- Find out the truth?
- Yeah, I really am.
I'm serious.
I need to know.
- All right, we'll go on
a little adventure.
It is starting to feel like
Michigan Impossible.
- [laughing]
- Let's go.
All right.
- It's about to get real.
- Bye, you guys.
- See you tomorrow.
- Wow, I'm not sure what it is.
- I don't know what it is,
but it's a lot.
- I still think
Takoya is a suspect.
But this situation is nuts,
the fact that a friend
with Chris reached out.
- This whole thing is insane.
- Bonkers.
- ♪ Isn't it obvious? ♪
♪ My love for us lasts ♪
- Here we go.
Is this your first flight?
- Yes.
- What are you thinking?
- I'm just scared.
- ♪ How free is your mind? ♪
♪ Are your eyes wide open? ♪
♪ How far do you want to go? ♪
- We made it.
- We have no idea
who we're about to meet.
I guess we're going
to see what happens.
- Not surprisingly, I haven't
heard anything back
from our source.
- Are you kidding?
- Well, we left it very vague,
right?
I'm going to text now.
- Please.
- We're here, and we're ready.
- And we've traveled
far and wide.
- "We are here in Lansing."
[cell phone whoops]
- This is literally
like having a prison informant
giving us
snitch information.
- Could be Chris like you said.
Could be the same person.
Now he's just
posing as a friend.
Whoa, address.
"We are ready."
- We?
- Okay, we got an address.
"We will head over there soon."
- We literally have no idea
who we're going to be meeting.
Is it a guy? Is it a girl?
Is it--you know?
Is--it could be anybody.
- All right,
let's check in with our girl.
Hey.
- Hello.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
- How are you?
- I'm all right.
- Had a lot on your mind?
- Yeah.
- Well, we just texted
with the mystery friend.
"Hey, we're here
in Lansing and ready to meet."
They sent and address.
It's, like, ten minutes away.
I said,
"We'll head over there soon."
- I'm nervous as hell.
- Are you nervous because
you're meeting a guy
that you've been talking to
that you really like,
or is it more that
you're nervous
because there's
a very good chance
that we don't even
really know who he is?
Could be a guy.
Could be a girl.
- Um, I'm meeting a guy
that I fell in love with.
That's what I'm nervous about.
- All right then.
Here we go.
- This is hard.
Person I've been talking
to for three years.
- That's a long time.
- Yeah.
- Okay, it's coming up
right on this road here,
one of these houses coming up.
Here, this is it, I think.
Who is that?
- I don't know.
- Who is that?
Strange.
No one's ever waiting for us
in the driveway.
- Exactly.
- My heart is racing
out of control by the way.
- All right?
- Yeah.
- All right.
Let's see
what we're dealing with.
- Go on.
Oh, boy.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- I'm Nev.
- Tricoci.
- Are you the friend
we've been...
- Yes.
- Texting who's been
helping us find out
what's going on?
- Yes.
Chris, he's inside
the house right now.
- But not Chris Chris.
- Everything's going to get
explained once you meet.
- But the person Shakinah's
been talking to is in there.
- Yes.
- Do they know you're--
we organized this?
- Yes. You guys can follow me.
- Okay.
- Before we do this, Shakinah,
I just really
want you to know...
- Yeah.
- I love you, Chris love you,
um...
He love you more than any
other girl he ever talk to.
He is really into you.
And I hope that
you all go easy on him.
[door creaking]
- What is going on?
- Why did she say,
"I love you"?
- That--
- "Chris loves you."
That's weird, right?
You've never talked to her,right?
- No, no, no, no.
- I'm so confused.
- I don't know what's going on.
- Be gentle on him?
- Is she the catfish?
Can't tell if the door is--
it's opening?
- Door keeps opening
and closing.
So whatever happens--
- I'm going to say
what I have to say.
- This doesn't feel good.
Hello?
- I don't know.
- He really coming out?
- What's going on?
What?
- I'm so confused.
- What is going on?
- Hello?
- What?
- Someone else.
- Hi.
- This is Chris.
- Wow.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- How are you doing?
- Good.
- Is that your name or is--
- No.
- No, okay.
- What is your name?
- Johneesha.
- Johneesha.
But you've been Chris
this whole time?
- Yeah.
- And maybe you a little bit?
- No.
- No.
- I have been involved.
Um, Shakinah,
you know me as Betty.
- Who is that?
- Chris' friend.
- Okay.
- Why would you lie?
Why would you do that?
Why would you put somebody
else's face on Facebook?
- I mean, when you first
inboxed me--
when we first started talking,
it was just a joke.
Like, I wasn't, like, really
trying to do all that.
- I was in a relationship
with you, talking to you.
That's different.
- Yeah.
- Hold on a second.
How long have you had
the profile?
- A lot of years.
I started when I was, like,
probably, in tenth grade.
- And how old are you now?
- I'm 22.
- Okay, so it's been awhile.
- Well how many people
are you talking to
the same way that you
were talking to Shakinah?
- Not that many.
- For as long as her?
- Probably longer.
- Longer?
- Wow.
- And in a romantic way?
- I mean...
sometimes, yeah.
- And do they think
you're Chris Brown?
- Yeah, some--some of them do.
- So the entire time you've
been talking to Shakinah,
you've also been talking
to other people,
Takoya
and a few others at least?
- Mm-hmm.
- You were
collecting photos from her,
explicit photos.
Were you collecting photos
from other people?
- No.
- [deep exhale]
- But you realize
that that's not okay.
- Umm, I can't--it's just--
I can't explain it.
I'm sorry.
- I just have a hard time
believing you.
I mean, you stand there
and not
show any kind of emotion.
And you've known about this.
You've even participated.
At some point did you ever tell
her, like, you've got to stop?
- Um.
- This isn't cool?
- When I found out she was
doing it, I was, you know,
telling her its wrong,
you shouldn't do this stuff
like that but, you know,
I didn't want to end
our friendship because of it.
- Right.
Are you attracted to
or interested in Shakinah?
Because she really was
in a relationship with "Chris."
- Yeah.
- This is the moment
where you spill the tea
and give us everything so that
we can understand
the situation.
- I'm sorry for hurting you
and lying to you
over the years
about who I was.
Like, as--I was, like,
as a kid, I got bullied a lot,
so it kind of took down
my self-esteem.
So, basically, it covered up,
like, the hurt parts of it.
- I feel--I feel like
there's more to this.
I mean, there's a lot
of people who are insecure.
There's a lot of people
who get bullied.
I was bullied
my whole childhood,
but I didn't necessarily
grow up to create fake pages
and lead relationships on
with people for three years.
- Yeah.
- I've been through a lot.
And you know that.
You should have told the truth.
I would have felt better.
You know,
instead of being lied to.
- ♪ I've been moving on ♪
♪ Never make it past
the front lawn ♪
♪ Guess I'm not that strong ♪
♪ I should have fallen
out of love with you by now ♪
- [sobbing]
I'm tired
of people lying to me.
I'm tired of being hurt.
- ♪ Should have forgotten
what I felt for you by now ♪
- Even though she's
apologizing, I'm just not
getting the feeling
that she truly understands.
- She don't.
She don't get it.
- I don't think she gets
how [bleep]ed up this is,
because if she did, she would
be just as emotional as you,
if not more.
- ♪ I should have
fallen out of love... ♪
- Let's take a minute.
And then maybe
we'll talk some more?
- Okay.
- Do you think
it's okay for me to just
go talk to Shakinah
real quick?
'Cause I'm not going to be here
later, so I just want
to be able to, you know...
- Yeah, you can walk
over there with me
and say something.
- I just really want to, um,
tell you how sorry I am.
You know, I hate to see you cry
and stuff like this and
I know it was wrong for us to,
like, you know, do stuff
like this to you and
you deserve a lot better
than this because you are
a very good person.
- ♪ You, my only vice,
left to my own devices ♪
I'm sorry.
- ♪ Guess I'm just too weak ♪
- This is hurtful.
- ♪ Forgotten what I felt
for you by now ♪
- That was, uh,
difficult for sure.
You all right?
I think what she needs and what
you need is to both really
have an open,
honest conversation, all right?
- Okay.
- Now let's go in.
- Oh, boy.
Let's do this.
- Hey.
- Hi.
- Come in?
- Yes, you can come in.
- All right.
How is everyone feeling?
A little--
- Okay.
- I feel better.
- You mentioned briefly
that you were bullied
when you were younger and I
just feel like that obviously
has a lot to do
with how we got here,
so I want to understand
that a little bit better.
- I was getting bullied
in third grade every day
'cause I was kind of, like,
bigger than the other kids,
so basically
just calling me names,
fat, ugly.
- Then at some point,
you discover catfishing.
Why do it so much
and for so long?
- I guess getting the attention
that I, like, I never had.
- There were a few times
that Shakinah
talked to you
on the phone.
- It was me.
- Do you change your voice?
- Some--somewhat.
When, like--
when I was--like,
when I first started, like,
I really didn't
know how to really do it.
- What would you say is
the longest relationship
that you've been in
using this profile?
- About, like--probably,
like, seven years?
- Seven years?
- Mm-hmm.
- That must be exhausting,
and whether you realize it
or not, like, you care
about these people a lot
but you know
you're hurting them,
and that probably
makes you feel bad.
- Yeah.
- You've got a lot of emotions
and feelings inside of you.
Here's a very safe place
to try telling Shakinah
how you feel.
- I mean, I wrote a letter.
- Great, that's a--
if you want to read that,
that would be great.
- "Dear Shakinah, I just wanted
you to know how I felt.
"What we had is real.
I loved you with all my heart.
"The connection we have
with each other was real,
"and you trusted me
with all your problems,
"opened up to me,
and we helped each other out.
"I am willing to give you
your space if you need it
and I am praying that we stay
in touch with each other."
That's it.
- We can, if you
need somebody to talk to,
if you feel down or whatever.
Um, my phone is always open,
so don't feel like
you alone in this.
And you been through
a lot so...
I understand.
Trust me. I do.
It's going to take a while,
but we can be friends.
I will give you a hug.
Want a hug? Come on.
Everything be okay.
It'll be all right.
- All right,
so this is a big turning point
hopefully, for you.
- Mm-hmm.
- It's clear, I think,
to all of us
that you're not
a mean person.
You probably already
punished yourself
more than any of us
could punish you.
But first thing
you need to do--
- Tell the other people
and delete the Facebook.
- Yes.
Shakinah, you got to stop
living in the clouds.
You've been distracting
yourself with this
for three years,
and it's time to move on
and meet someone amazing
because you deserve that.
All right.
We're going to walk us out.
- [groans]
Okay.
- All right, good luck.
- Bye.
- Okay, that's that.
You going to be okay?
- Yeah.
- Gonna get yourself
a real man?
- Yes!
- Maybe DMX this time.
- No.
- [laughing]
the longer Safari
makes him wait.
- She was like, "Would you
be down for a threesome?"
I was like, "Oh, yeah."
- Wow.
- Whoa.
- My heart is [bleep] going.
- Who is this?
- [bleep] my life, bro.
Y'all are [bleep] kidding.
980
00:41:34.
Shakinah starts talking
to this guy Chris.
- He asks,
"Can I have two girlfriends?"
- It's a virtual three-way.
- Wait a second,
someone just texted me back.
"Chris saying he will never do
the show, never come clean."
- What?
- This doesn't feel good.
What's going on?
What?
- Hey, everyone.
We are back with an
all-new episode of "Catfish."
And this week,
we're very lucky.
Back by popular demand
is a cohost you met
not too long ago.
I don't know if you're going
to recognize her, though.
Kamie!
- Oh, hello.
Didn't see you there.
- You look like you're about
to go on stage for "Lion King."
- I am, actually.
- I have a--
- Oh, you want to draw on me?
- Just a little draw.
- Okay, cool.
That's the wrong place.
- I know,
but I'm doing whiskers.
- What?
- 'Cause you look
like a little lioness.
It's cute.
- Actually, it does go with
the rest of the look.
- It kind of goes with it,
right?
- We'll make it work.
- You can make it work.
That's called contour?
- Contour.
- See, we help people on
the show take off their masks,
and you're all about
putting on a mask.
- Sometimes God does make
mistakes and contour fixes it.
[laughter]
I think we're
just about gorgeous.
- All right, let's see
if we got an email here.
Shakinah.
"I feel that he is real,
but is he lying?"
- Probably.
- Yeah, if you have to ask.
- Say yes.
- "Hey, Nev."
- And Kamie.
"My name is Shakinah.
"I'm 31 years old and I live
in Moreno Valley, California.
"I've been talking to this
guy, Chris, for three years.
"He's 29 and he lives
in Tarzana, California."
That's not that far.
And they haven't met
in three years?
"He's a musician and I've been
following his music
for quite some time."
Uh-oh, is he like
a famous musician?
- ♪ I'm too mixed up ♪
- "Around three years ago,
I decided to send him a message
and he responded."
- So she reached out to him.
- Yeah.
- ♪ I'm too mixed up ♪
- "I sent him my number,
and he actually called me.
It was on after that."
- I know what that means.
- "Since then, we've been
talking pretty much
every damn day."
- ♪ Am I in love
or just obsessed ♪
- "We got close superfast.
"I've never been
with someone so loving before.
"But I am embarrassed
to tell you
that there has always been
another woman in the picture."
- What?
- "I know this guy gets
attention from a lot of girls,
"but I can't help but feel like
"he's hiding a lot of stuff
from me.
"I need your help to figure out
if he's serious about me
and finally get him
to meet in person."
- ♪ I'm too many colors ♪
- "Please call me. Shakinah."
Wait a second.
He has another girlfriend?
- Girlfriend, wife,
who knows what?
- There's got to be
something about this.
- There's more.
- Give her a call
and see what she has to say.
[computer chiming]
Hey!
- Oh, hey!
- What's up, Shakinah?
- My curly haired sister.
- This is Kamie, by the way.
- Hi!
- How you doing?
How are things
out in Moreno Valley?
- It's okay. It's hot.
- Are you from there?
- No, my parents moved
from LA to Marino Valley
because it
was too crowded.
- And you live
with your parents?
- Mm-hmm.
- Is it just you,
or do you have siblings?
- I have my son.
- Okay, so tell us a little bit
about this guy,
Chri--was it Chris?
- Mm-hmm.
- Well,
that's actually Chris Brown
I'm talking to.
- What?
- As in Chris Breezy?
- Yes.
- As in, "Your Man Ain't Me"?
As in, "Run It" Chris Brown?
- Yes, yes, that's him.
- How are you so convinced?
- I had to check his voice,
and when I did, I checked when
he was speaking in interviews
and checked the voice
on my phone.
It sounded the same.
- Does he ever video chat?
- Video chat,
he keeps it dark.
- I don't know what to say.
I--I mean--
- This is a lot, Shakinah.
- I'm sorry.
- Forgive me if
I'm trying to process.
It's a lot.
- I'm sorry.
- Have you considered
the possibility
that you're not
talking to Chris Brown?
- No, no.
- You said you messaged him
on Facebook?
- Yeah, I messaged
him on Facebook.
- Like, on his page,
his fan page?
- His page,
his personal page.
- How do you know
it's his page?
- 'Cause it's his daughter's
pictures and him.
- Well, right, but anybody
could make a fake page.
I'm sure there are
probably dozens
if you search
Chris Brown that show up.
- Yeah.
- And I always see
pictures of--
his daughter's
on Instagram.
There's always
pictures of them together.
- What do you make
of his past relationships
that have not
ended well?
- It's just,
people put too much on him.
But I don't think so.
Think he's sweet.
Think he's a nice person.
You see him on TV, it's like,
oh, he thinks he's
God's gift to women.
When you talk
to him, he's like--
he's a little bit
sweethearted.
He's a little bit nicer.
- All right, so look, if you
came down to LA, whoever it is,
if they really do live
in the LA area,
it would be good for
you to be here anyway.
And we'll see what we can do.
- Okay.
- See you in LA.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- Wow, I mean...
- If she's talking
to Chris Brown,
then you are Chris Brown.
- It all sounded so simple
and innocent at first.
- It never is.
- ♪ I should have known it ♪
♪ I've seen it before ♪
- All right, here we go.
- ♪ The same old feeling
I'm a sucker for ♪
- Shakinah.
- Shakinah.
- Shakinah is sh-confused.
- Hopefully we can figure out
who she is talking to.
- I mean...
- This guy could be
talking to lots of girls.
We gotta help Shakinah.
- Poor thing.
- All right.
Let's go break some hearts.
[knocks on door]
- What's up, girl?
- Hey!
- Hey!
- Hi!
- We're here, girl.
- Hi.
- Here to help.
- How's your little rent?
We rented you
this cute little place.
- I like it.
- Wow, this is chic.
- Super cute.
- All right,
let's get down to business.
When was the last time
you were in LA?
- It's been awhile.
- Do you miss living here?
- Sometimes, yeah.
- Maybe you'll get to hang out
with some people.
Go to the club.
- No, I don't club like that.
- [laughing]
- Those days are over?
- Yeah, when you got
a 14-year-old,
a lot of things is over with.
- Oh, my gosh.
Between your son's dad
and Chris,
how many relationships have you
been in in between that time?
- It was just one and he was,
like, 12 years.
- Whoa.
- Yeah.
- So not long after
you had your son,
you were in a 12-year
relationship?
- Yeah, he was
real special to me.
- But it didn't work out?
- No, it didn't.
After Chris
came in the picture,
it helped me
get through that,
that heartbreak.
- Wow, so that explains a lot.
So here you are on the end
of a 12-year relationship,
and you're obviously
looking for something
to kind of help
you feel better about yourself.
And you meet Chris and--
- And he did that.
He made me feel confident
in myself.
A lot of guys had lied to me
and hurted me.
After Chris came in,
it just helped me
feel like a butterfly,
because I felt like I was
in a cocoon for a long time.
I can tell him anything
and he'll, like, cater to that
and no other man
has did that for me.
So it makes me feel like
I'm special to him.
That's who I want
to share my life with.
- All right, so, okay,
let's rewind.
We want to know exactly
how this all started.
- I had looked up his name and
then I say, "Let me add him."
And he added me.
- Like, right away?
- Yeah.
- Just hitting up
my new friend.
- Chris Brown.
- Just felt normal to you.
- Yeah, it felt normal to me.
It just, like, okay,
let me inbox him.
And then every day, we was
texting and calling each other,
and we just start
connecting even more.
It makes me feel like I'm
the person that's just for him.
And then a couple
of months later,
I start falling in love
with him.
- He's making you feel like
you're the only person for him.
- Mm-hmm. Yeah.
- Yet I know that Chris Brown
publicly has a girlfriend.
Does he ever talk about that?
- I never asked about it
because we have
a good connection
and I don't want to ruin it.
- But you know
that he's got a girlfriend.
- Yes.
- You said it in your email.
Does that bother you?
- The girl that bothers me
is Takoya
'cause she's not on TV.
She's a actual person.
- So in addition to
the girlfriend that
he takes pictures with
and goes to events with,
Chris tells you that
he's dating someone else...
- Yeah.
- Named Takoya?
- Yeah, he asked,
"Can I have two girlfriends?"
- What?
- I said fine, okay.
He said,
"Won't y'all two talk?"
And then he put me
on three-way with her.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Chris put you on the phone...
- Yeah, he did.
- With his other girlfriend?
- Takoya?
- Yes.
- He, like, merged the call?
- Yes, he did.
- It's a virtual three-way.
- Both of them were talking
at the same time?
- No, she'll talk to me,
and then he'll
come in and start talking.
- Okay.
And how did that go?
- It went okay.
She was pretty nice.
We became friends.
- You guys talk and text
without Chris?
- Yeah.
- Y'all are sister wives.
You're fine with it?
- Yeah, I'm fine with it.
- And has she met him
in person?
- No,
she hasn't met him either.
- Okay, how often
do you and Chris talk?
- Like, all day,
we'll be on the phone.
- Does he tell you about, like,
everything that's going on
in his life,
where he's at,
what he's doing?
- He don't tell me
what he does
at work or anything.
He just tells me he's
stressed out or he's tired.
- Has he ever shown you
his house?
- No.
- Cars?
- No.
- Chains?
- No.
- Has he sent you any pictures
of anything?
- No.
- Never sent you any picture?
- No.
- Any explicit photographs?
- Oh, yeah,
them kind of pictures, yeah.
- [laughing]
- So just dick pics?
- Yeah,
if you say it like that.
- Well,
what else do you call them?
- How many?
- I got three.
- Look at you. She's, like,
proud of her three dick pics.
- [laughing]
- One a year.
- [laughing] Yes.
- And so I assume
you've also reciprocated.
- Yeah, I was a little tipsy.
I have nothing to say
about that one.
- Has he done anything else
to prove to you that it's him?
- Yeah, on my birthday,
I told Chris I'm going out
to a Irish bar in Hollywood
with my cousin.
And we went there and a black
car pulled up and I looked
and I seen a guy with
a black hat and black glasses.
I knew that was him.
When the light changed,
he just drove off.
I was kind of mad.
- How do you know it was him?
- I know his face.
- Did you bring it up?
- I brung it up,
and he started laughing
like it was funny.
I said, "That's not funny.
You know how many
times I wanted to see you?"
- All right.
- [laughing]
- I'm sorry you're speechless.
- Yeah, what else you got
for us?
- That's it.
- You said you guys
talked on the phone.
- Do you have, like, voicemail
or anything like that?
- Yeah, I have a voicemail.
- Let's listen.
- I want to hear
Chris Brown's voicemail.
- Shakinah.
- Yes?
- Babe.
- Yes?
- Girl, you know me.
You're my friend.
That's not Chris Brown.
That sounds like
a 13-year-old boy
or a 20-year-old woman.
- What's it going to take
to convince you
it's not Chris Brown?
- If I find some information
that would take
a different turn.
- I feel like you're going
to need a lot of convincing.
- We'll do some research,
we'll meet back up tomorrow,
we'll let you know
what we find,
and then we'll take it
from there.
- Okay.
- All right, girl. Come here.
- Bring it in.
- We've got a good one, folks.
- Lord have mercy.
- Seriously, her passion
and her connection to this man
is so real.
We need to be her friend
that gives it to her straight.
- I am both baffled and afraid.
We don't know what's going
to come out of this.
This girl has got blinders on.
- All right, guys,
Nev's house.
Let's go find him.
This is Nev's
front door. Ha!
- No solicitors, please.
- Good morning!
- Morning.
- Nice shoes.
- Oh,
these are my house slides.
- I would hope that they stay
in the house.
- They stay in the house.
- [laughing]
- Shall we?
- Let's get to it.
- So?
- So obviously not Chris Brown.
But I will say--
- Now it's obvious?
- It's been obvious
from the start.
- Okay.
- What we're really
dealing with here is,
Shakinah has not had the best
luck with relationships
and was so vulnerable and
so unhappy and so confused...
- Mm-hmm.
- That even the possibility
of it being someone
as outlandish as Chris Brown
was something she was
willing to believe
because she
needed it that badly.
- Yeah, I think it's going
to be very difficult
to convince her
that she's not talking to him.
- All right, here's Shakinah.
"Hey, Nev and Kamie.
"So this is all the info
I have on Chris:
his profile, phone number,
and his email."
- C Breezy?
- Her profile and login if we
want to check out the messages.
- Okay.
- Let's run this phone number.
Oh.
- Oh, Michigan.
- Okay, so this phone number
comes up registered unknown,
and 517 is a central south
Michigan area code.
Interesting.
Is he from Michigan?
- No! Chris Brown
is from Virginia.
I assume that's not him.
[laughing]
- Okay, well the only other
information we have
is the email.
Let's just search the email.
This should show us
if it's registered to any--
No, nothing.
Okay.
- Yikes.
- Let's just get to
the Chris Brown profile
that Shakinah
has been talking to.
You know what?
Maybe we should log in as her
'cause I don't
know if we can see everything.
All right, so here
is the Chris profile.
Oh, boy,
there's not a lot on here.
Friends, they have one
mutual friend, Takoya.
- Who thinks that Chris Brown
is her boyfriend.
- Right.
- These photos are very common.
- Right,
this is obviously fake.
Let's just see who is
interacting with this profile.
So he posted on September 29th.
Norma [bleep] commented
100 emoji eight times.
He uploaded
a new profile picture.
Takoya, his other girlfriend,
said, "Aww, my baby."
- That's cute.
- Takoya showing up a lot.
- Yeah.
And she's friends
with Shakinah.
- Yeah.
- Right?
- For sure.
All right, Takoya,
from North Carolina.
- Oh, her bio.
- Oh.
- "I'm a sweetheart, but I can
be your worst nightmare.
CB's girl. I'm a good girl
with a big heart. Chris."
- Wow, so she's very publicly
Chris Brown's girlfriend.
- Yeah.
- Let's just see if we can
send her a message
from my profile.
- Mm-hmm.
Sent.
All right, let's check out
Chris Brown's
real Instagram.
Here he is.
- Hold up, hold up, hold up.
On the photo,
he got a dog three days ago.
- Wait,
that wasn't on the fake page.
The guy that Shakinah is
talking to isn't even trying to
convince her in any meaningful
way that he is Chris Brown.
- No.
- He could have found a picture
of Chris Brown's dog and been,
like, "Check out my new dog."
And then she would have seen
that and been, like,
"Oh, my God!"
And he avoids talking
about anything
that relates directly
to Chris Brown's real life.
- Yeah.
[phone chimes]
- Oh, okay.
Oh, Takoya wrote back.
But she didn't call,
she messaged back,
because she's not sure
who this is.
- 'Cause if you're willing
to believe you're dating
Chris Brown
but you can't believe
that we are trying
to get in contact with you.
- [sighs]
So let's send a picture.
- That's cute.
- Okay, send photo.
- Is she not going
to believe this?
- She says,
"I can't call right now."
So let's talk to her.
"So how do you know Chris?"
- Start with the basics.
- "He's my boyfriend."
- Okay.
- How do you know
it's really him?
- "Well, we actually talked
over the phone
and I heard his voice."
- I'm, like, stunned.
- Something happens
when you've consumed
and thought about
Chris Brown enough,
your mind actually
starts to see Chris Brown.
"We are actually
trying to help Shakinah."
- I don't think
she's going to like the fact
that you're trying
to connect Shakinah and Chris.
- No, but she knows about them.
- But she doesn't
like the fact
that they could possibly
be connecting.
- "Well me and her
became friends,
"and we've
gotten closer ever since.
Thanks for your help."
So Takoya really likes
Shakinah.
- Mm-hmm.
- Maybe Takoya is Chris.
Let's just for a moment
assume Takoya
makes a fan page
for Chris Brown...
- Mm-hmm.
- Because, maybe,
Takoya likes girls...
- Mm-hmm.
- And she knows a lot of girls
are going to friend
and talk to Chris Brown.
- Mm-hmm.
- So maybe this whole thing
was like a poorly designed
but sort of well-executed plan
for Takoya to get Shakinah
to like her, which she does...
- Mm-hmm.
- And she just hasn't known
how to tell her
that it's been me
the whole time.
She definitely is involved
in this somehow.
- Yeah.
- It's very suspicious
that the catfish is having
two different people
talk to each other.
- All roads
are not leading to--
- Right, no roads
lead to Chris Brown.
Takoya is
our prime suspect.
- So what do you think
Shakinah's reaction
to all this
is going to be?
- I don't know.
I don't know
what she's going to say.
I think we just need to use
a little bit of tough love.
Something's got to give.
- All right.
- Here goes nothing.
- Hey!
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- How are you doing?
Hi.
- How are you?
- All right,
let's sit down over here.
So.
- So.
I want to know what's--
what you guys got.
- Are you sure?
- I'm not sure where to start.
- Yeah, I'm positive.
I'm positive.
- Okay.
- All right,
so let's get into this.
We had his phone number--
and this is the only
number he's ever had?
- Yeah.
- So we looked up
his phone number.
It came back unknown,
but it turns out 517
is an area code
in Michigan.
- Hm, wow.
- Do you know anybody
in Michigan?
No family, friends?
Never lived there?
- No, I do not.
No.
- Chris Brown
is not from Michigan.
Why would he have
a cell phone from there?
- I don't even know
about that part.
- I think you're
doing more work
trying to convince
yourself that he is Chris Brown
than this guy is doing
to try to convince you
that he's Chris Brown.
- Yeah.
- All right,
so the next thing we did was,
we went to the real
Chris Brown's Instagram,
and look at this.
He got a puppy
a couple of days ago.
Did he mention
getting a new dog?
- No.
- That's crazy,
'cause if you looked
at Chris Brown's Instagram,
you'd see he had a puppy.
You'd think he would
have mentioned, like,
"Hey, just got a new dog."
- "Want to see?"
- Right, he's not even
really trying that hard.
- I think that
at this point,
the fact that you don't
want to be hurt again,
you're gonna have to start
coming to the realization
that the real Chris Brown
is not the person
that you're talking to.
- This is a whole lot.
- Yeah.
- This is a lot.
- I just want to make sure that
this experience is about you...
- Yeah.
- Because, sure, we can
help you figure out Chris.
But what we really want to do
is help you kind of understand
that your participation
in this relationship
has really only
been you fooling yourself,
because this guy hasn't even
been doing a good job
convincing you
he's Chris Brown.
Are you prepared to kind of
start to begin to accept
that it's not Chris Brown?
- That's a lot to take in.
I still love him a lot but...
- Sure.
- That--that made me think,
like, hard.
This is scary.
Who am I really talking to,
a crazy person?
So I need to know.
I really need to know.
I have to get that closure.
- So that leads me to Takoya.
What's the deal with her?
- She's a good person.
And she's easy to talk to.
So that's why
we became friends.
- Well, so here's what
we were thinking,
trying to come up with
an explanation for all this.
Let's just say for a minute
Takoya liked girls
and she has a fake page
for Chris Brown
because she's a big
Chris Brown fan.
- Oh, she is.
- And she knows a lot of women
are going to reach out.
You reach out,
she falls in love with you.
You fall in love with Chris,
and she says,
"Let me introduce her
to Takoya.
I'll tell her
that's my other girlfriend."
And then you and Takoya start
talking and become friends.
So now she actually gets
to talk to you as Chris
and she gets
to talk to you as Takoya.
- But you know what?
He put me on three-way
with her.
- You said both of them were
not talking at the same time.
So as crazy as this sounds,
maybe Takoya changes her voice
a little bit and pretends
to have you on a three-way
when it's really just
her holding a sock up.
- It is possible.
- It just feels
like it's Takoya.
And she's in love with you.
- She's...oh, she's...
- How would you feel if this
was who you were actually--
- I would be upset.
And she's sending him
private pictures.
- That's true,
I forgot.
- Really? You serious?
Like, that's my privacy.
- Yeah.
- And I don't do that
with nobody.
- Yeah, as a woman,
that would be
my--my biggest fear
and concern too.
- When you talk to somebody
for a long time,
you don't think that.
You just, okay,
I'm in love with this person.
I'm happy.
You know, nobody
can't tell me nothing.
I'm, like, lost.
- Well, the only thing
we haven't done is...
talk to Chris.
So...
- Yeah.
- If you're open to it,
that would be the next thing
is us trying to contact him
and see what we can find out.
- I don't--I don't mind.
I don't mind at all.
- All right,
I'm going to call him.
[line ringing]
- "You have reached
the voicemail box of"--
[beep]
- Yo, C Breezy, it's your boy
Nev from "Catfish."
Got a beautiful young lady here
who would love to meet you.
Give me a call back
when you get this.
I look forward
to hearing from you.
Thanks.
How are you feeling
about all of this?
- Stressed.
[phone dings]
- What? Wait a second.
Someone just texted me back.
Not Chris, but same area code.
They said,
"This is a friend of Chris.
"I just saw your number
on Chris' phone.
Chris saying he will never do
the show, never come clean."
- What?
- Someone just texted me back.
Not Chris, but same area code.
They said,
"This is a friend of Chris.
"I just saw your number
on Chris' phone.
Chris saying he will never do
the show, never come clean."
- What?
- Come clean about what?
- "Never do the show,
never come clean."
So what are you doing?
- Sounds like Chris
is saying hell no,
I don't want anything
to do with this.
I don't want to come cl--
[cell phone whoops]
He says,
"I'm sitting next to Chris
now, so I can't talk.
"Chris is talking about
your message.
"He's trying to ghost you.
You need to come to
Lansing, Michigan, ASAP."
What?
- This is weird.
- This sounds like
the beginning
of every horror movie ever.
- Yes, it does.
- Like, "Oh,
just come with me. Trust me."
- No.
- "I'm not a serial killer."
- Wait a second.
- I'm sorry, I'm spaced out.
- This is a little crazy.
"How do we know"...
- You're not a murderer?
- "When we get there"--
- He'll show up.
- Right.
Who is this friend,
this mystery source,
who seems to want to help,
but...
Now he says,
"You just have to trust me.
"Text me when you're in Lansing
and I'll meet you.
I can help
explain everything."
- Bro, no.
- Sheesh.
- I--I think we got to go.
I think--
what choice do we have?
Someone's trying to help us.
It sounds like there
is something going on.
We now know
they're in Michigan.
We got to go.
So I say we pack our bags,
we get on a flight tomorrow
morning, we'll fly to Michigan,
we'll text whoever this is
when we get there.
Ready to do this?
- Yeah.
- And you understand
that the fact that we're going
to Michigan to meet someone
who has to come clean
means it's
probably not Chris.
You're ready for that?
You're ready to let go
of the fantasy and, like--
- Yes.
- Find out the truth?
- Yeah, I really am.
I'm serious.
I need to know.
- All right, we'll go on
a little adventure.
It is starting to feel like
Michigan Impossible.
- [laughing]
- Let's go.
All right.
- It's about to get real.
- Bye, you guys.
- See you tomorrow.
- Wow, I'm not sure what it is.
- I don't know what it is,
but it's a lot.
- I still think
Takoya is a suspect.
But this situation is nuts,
the fact that a friend
with Chris reached out.
- This whole thing is insane.
- Bonkers.
- ♪ Isn't it obvious? ♪
♪ My love for us lasts ♪
- Here we go.
Is this your first flight?
- Yes.
- What are you thinking?
- I'm just scared.
- ♪ How free is your mind? ♪
♪ Are your eyes wide open? ♪
♪ How far do you want to go? ♪
- We made it.
- We have no idea
who we're about to meet.
I guess we're going
to see what happens.
- Not surprisingly, I haven't
heard anything back
from our source.
- Are you kidding?
- Well, we left it very vague,
right?
I'm going to text now.
- Please.
- We're here, and we're ready.
- And we've traveled
far and wide.
- "We are here in Lansing."
[cell phone whoops]
- This is literally
like having a prison informant
giving us
snitch information.
- Could be Chris like you said.
Could be the same person.
Now he's just
posing as a friend.
Whoa, address.
"We are ready."
- We?
- Okay, we got an address.
"We will head over there soon."
- We literally have no idea
who we're going to be meeting.
Is it a guy? Is it a girl?
Is it--you know?
Is--it could be anybody.
- All right,
let's check in with our girl.
Hey.
- Hello.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
- How are you?
- I'm all right.
- Had a lot on your mind?
- Yeah.
- Well, we just texted
with the mystery friend.
"Hey, we're here
in Lansing and ready to meet."
They sent and address.
It's, like, ten minutes away.
I said,
"We'll head over there soon."
- I'm nervous as hell.
- Are you nervous because
you're meeting a guy
that you've been talking to
that you really like,
or is it more that
you're nervous
because there's
a very good chance
that we don't even
really know who he is?
Could be a guy.
Could be a girl.
- Um, I'm meeting a guy
that I fell in love with.
That's what I'm nervous about.
- All right then.
Here we go.
- This is hard.
Person I've been talking
to for three years.
- That's a long time.
- Yeah.
- Okay, it's coming up
right on this road here,
one of these houses coming up.
Here, this is it, I think.
Who is that?
- I don't know.
- Who is that?
Strange.
No one's ever waiting for us
in the driveway.
- Exactly.
- My heart is racing
out of control by the way.
- All right?
- Yeah.
- All right.
Let's see
what we're dealing with.
- Go on.
Oh, boy.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- I'm Nev.
- Tricoci.
- Are you the friend
we've been...
- Yes.
- Texting who's been
helping us find out
what's going on?
- Yes.
Chris, he's inside
the house right now.
- But not Chris Chris.
- Everything's going to get
explained once you meet.
- But the person Shakinah's
been talking to is in there.
- Yes.
- Do they know you're--
we organized this?
- Yes. You guys can follow me.
- Okay.
- Before we do this, Shakinah,
I just really
want you to know...
- Yeah.
- I love you, Chris love you,
um...
He love you more than any
other girl he ever talk to.
He is really into you.
And I hope that
you all go easy on him.
[door creaking]
- What is going on?
- Why did she say,
"I love you"?
- That--
- "Chris loves you."
That's weird, right?
You've never talked to her,right?
- No, no, no, no.
- I'm so confused.
- I don't know what's going on.
- Be gentle on him?
- Is she the catfish?
Can't tell if the door is--
it's opening?
- Door keeps opening
and closing.
So whatever happens--
- I'm going to say
what I have to say.
- This doesn't feel good.
Hello?
- I don't know.
- He really coming out?
- What's going on?
What?
- I'm so confused.
- What is going on?
- Hello?
- What?
- Someone else.
- Hi.
- This is Chris.
- Wow.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- How are you doing?
- Good.
- Is that your name or is--
- No.
- No, okay.
- What is your name?
- Johneesha.
- Johneesha.
But you've been Chris
this whole time?
- Yeah.
- And maybe you a little bit?
- No.
- No.
- I have been involved.
Um, Shakinah,
you know me as Betty.
- Who is that?
- Chris' friend.
- Okay.
- Why would you lie?
Why would you do that?
Why would you put somebody
else's face on Facebook?
- I mean, when you first
inboxed me--
when we first started talking,
it was just a joke.
Like, I wasn't, like, really
trying to do all that.
- I was in a relationship
with you, talking to you.
That's different.
- Yeah.
- Hold on a second.
How long have you had
the profile?
- A lot of years.
I started when I was, like,
probably, in tenth grade.
- And how old are you now?
- I'm 22.
- Okay, so it's been awhile.
- Well how many people
are you talking to
the same way that you
were talking to Shakinah?
- Not that many.
- For as long as her?
- Probably longer.
- Longer?
- Wow.
- And in a romantic way?
- I mean...
sometimes, yeah.
- And do they think
you're Chris Brown?
- Yeah, some--some of them do.
- So the entire time you've
been talking to Shakinah,
you've also been talking
to other people,
Takoya
and a few others at least?
- Mm-hmm.
- You were
collecting photos from her,
explicit photos.
Were you collecting photos
from other people?
- No.
- [deep exhale]
- But you realize
that that's not okay.
- Umm, I can't--it's just--
I can't explain it.
I'm sorry.
- I just have a hard time
believing you.
I mean, you stand there
and not
show any kind of emotion.
And you've known about this.
You've even participated.
At some point did you ever tell
her, like, you've got to stop?
- Um.
- This isn't cool?
- When I found out she was
doing it, I was, you know,
telling her its wrong,
you shouldn't do this stuff
like that but, you know,
I didn't want to end
our friendship because of it.
- Right.
Are you attracted to
or interested in Shakinah?
Because she really was
in a relationship with "Chris."
- Yeah.
- This is the moment
where you spill the tea
and give us everything so that
we can understand
the situation.
- I'm sorry for hurting you
and lying to you
over the years
about who I was.
Like, as--I was, like,
as a kid, I got bullied a lot,
so it kind of took down
my self-esteem.
So, basically, it covered up,
like, the hurt parts of it.
- I feel--I feel like
there's more to this.
I mean, there's a lot
of people who are insecure.
There's a lot of people
who get bullied.
I was bullied
my whole childhood,
but I didn't necessarily
grow up to create fake pages
and lead relationships on
with people for three years.
- Yeah.
- I've been through a lot.
And you know that.
You should have told the truth.
I would have felt better.
You know,
instead of being lied to.
- ♪ I've been moving on ♪
♪ Never make it past
the front lawn ♪
♪ Guess I'm not that strong ♪
♪ I should have fallen
out of love with you by now ♪
- [sobbing]
I'm tired
of people lying to me.
I'm tired of being hurt.
- ♪ Should have forgotten
what I felt for you by now ♪
- Even though she's
apologizing, I'm just not
getting the feeling
that she truly understands.
- She don't.
She don't get it.
- I don't think she gets
how [bleep]ed up this is,
because if she did, she would
be just as emotional as you,
if not more.
- ♪ I should have
fallen out of love... ♪
- Let's take a minute.
And then maybe
we'll talk some more?
- Okay.
- Do you think
it's okay for me to just
go talk to Shakinah
real quick?
'Cause I'm not going to be here
later, so I just want
to be able to, you know...
- Yeah, you can walk
over there with me
and say something.
- I just really want to, um,
tell you how sorry I am.
You know, I hate to see you cry
and stuff like this and
I know it was wrong for us to,
like, you know, do stuff
like this to you and
you deserve a lot better
than this because you are
a very good person.
- ♪ You, my only vice,
left to my own devices ♪
I'm sorry.
- ♪ Guess I'm just too weak ♪
- This is hurtful.
- ♪ Forgotten what I felt
for you by now ♪
- That was, uh,
difficult for sure.
You all right?
I think what she needs and what
you need is to both really
have an open,
honest conversation, all right?
- Okay.
- Now let's go in.
- Oh, boy.
Let's do this.
- Hey.
- Hi.
- Come in?
- Yes, you can come in.
- All right.
How is everyone feeling?
A little--
- Okay.
- I feel better.
- You mentioned briefly
that you were bullied
when you were younger and I
just feel like that obviously
has a lot to do
with how we got here,
so I want to understand
that a little bit better.
- I was getting bullied
in third grade every day
'cause I was kind of, like,
bigger than the other kids,
so basically
just calling me names,
fat, ugly.
- Then at some point,
you discover catfishing.
Why do it so much
and for so long?
- I guess getting the attention
that I, like, I never had.
- There were a few times
that Shakinah
talked to you
on the phone.
- It was me.
- Do you change your voice?
- Some--somewhat.
When, like--
when I was--like,
when I first started, like,
I really didn't
know how to really do it.
- What would you say is
the longest relationship
that you've been in
using this profile?
- About, like--probably,
like, seven years?
- Seven years?
- Mm-hmm.
- That must be exhausting,
and whether you realize it
or not, like, you care
about these people a lot
but you know
you're hurting them,
and that probably
makes you feel bad.
- Yeah.
- You've got a lot of emotions
and feelings inside of you.
Here's a very safe place
to try telling Shakinah
how you feel.
- I mean, I wrote a letter.
- Great, that's a--
if you want to read that,
that would be great.
- "Dear Shakinah, I just wanted
you to know how I felt.
"What we had is real.
I loved you with all my heart.
"The connection we have
with each other was real,
"and you trusted me
with all your problems,
"opened up to me,
and we helped each other out.
"I am willing to give you
your space if you need it
and I am praying that we stay
in touch with each other."
That's it.
- We can, if you
need somebody to talk to,
if you feel down or whatever.
Um, my phone is always open,
so don't feel like
you alone in this.
And you been through
a lot so...
I understand.
Trust me. I do.
It's going to take a while,
but we can be friends.
I will give you a hug.
Want a hug? Come on.
Everything be okay.
It'll be all right.
- All right,
so this is a big turning point
hopefully, for you.
- Mm-hmm.
- It's clear, I think,
to all of us
that you're not
a mean person.
You probably already
punished yourself
more than any of us
could punish you.
But first thing
you need to do--
- Tell the other people
and delete the Facebook.
- Yes.
Shakinah, you got to stop
living in the clouds.
You've been distracting
yourself with this
for three years,
and it's time to move on
and meet someone amazing
because you deserve that.
All right.
We're going to walk us out.
- [groans]
Okay.
- All right, good luck.
- Bye.
- Okay, that's that.
You going to be okay?
- Yeah.
- Gonna get yourself
a real man?
- Yes!
- Maybe DMX this time.
- No.
- [laughing]
the longer Safari
makes him wait.
- She was like, "Would you
be down for a threesome?"
I was like, "Oh, yeah."
- Wow.
- Whoa.
- My heart is [bleep] going.
- Who is this?
- [bleep] my life, bro.
Y'all are [bleep] kidding.
980
00:41:34.