Catfish: The TV Show (2012–…): Season 7, Episode 4 - Lawrence & Cierra - full transcript
After a number of near-death experiences, Lawrence survived through it all with the assurance of Cierra's online love. But with Cierra blowing Lawrence off whenever they try to meet, Nev and Max must find the truth behind the suspicious profile.
- She actually listened
to a lot of problems I had.
Like, I had like a heart
attack in school.
Cierra, she was, like, the
only one who looked out for me
through them
really tough times.
- What?
- Wait--time out.
There are two Cierra
Facebook profiles.
This is like when the serial
killer leaves something
at the scene to indicate
that they did it.
[dramatic music]
- Well, I'm not--
I'm not implying.
- What are you doing?
- You [bleep] up.
[dramatic musical sting]
- For the past six years,
Max and I have been
traveling the world...
- Whoo!
- Helping people
find out the truth...
- What the [bleep]?
- About their
online relationships.
- I feel so stupid right now.
But in an age where
everyone knows everything
about everybody,
people are getting better and
better at hiding the truth...
both: What?
- Which is why
this time around,
every episode has
double the secrets.
These are all connected
to that phone number.
- What?
- At double the reveal.
- There were some things
she didn't tell you guys.
- That are going to
seriously blow your mind.
What?
This is
"Catfish: The TV show."
For the past six seasons
of the show,
we've been out on the road.
- They know.
- I know.
But what you don't know is
that back here in Los Angeles,
we have this
beautiful headquarters.
Look at this.
This is everywhere we've
been making the show.
There's a storm front
coming in from the south,
pushing a lot of catfish
down to the east,
and creating a
high pressure system
that is generating a lot of
lies and deception up here
in the Midwest.
[laughs]
All right.
- Is this our official desk?
- This is, uh, the set.
- Looks a little makeshift.
- Well--hey.
- Hey!
Can we all keep it down
for a second? Sorry.
We're working.
- Okay, Lawrence.
"This Time I Need to Know."
"Hey guys,
my name is Lawrence.
"I am a 19-year-old
college student,
"and I live in
Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
"About 2 1/2 years ago,
this girl Cierra
"started leaving flirty
messages on my Periscope.
- ♪ I've given so far ahead
of myself ♪
- "Eventually she slid
into my DMs,
"And we started texting
and talking every day.
She lives about three hours
away in Virginia."
[phone ringing]
That's not that far.
- I've definitely traveled
three hours on a "maybe."
- Oh yeah?
- Yeah.
[laughter]
- "Over the years, I developed
strong feelings for her.
"She was always
there to listen
and always gave me
good advice."
- ♪ I've given so far ahead
of myself ♪
- "She helped me through
a lot of hard times.
I don't know what I would've
done without her help."
♪ ♪
"Cierra and I have never met
or video-chatted.
"Every time we try to meet,
she would always send
"a text message apologizing
with some excuse."
- Oh, boy.
"I need to find out if Cierra
is who she says she is
"or if she's hiding
something.
If I'm ever gonna get these
answers, I need your help."
I don't think Lawrence
is gonna get an answer
he's gonna like.
- But he might get an answer.
- He's gonna get an answer.
- All right.
Well, let's see what
this Lawrence guy has to say.
Looks like a handsome fella.
- I'd say he's a catfish.
[line ringing]
both: Yo.
- Hey, what's going on?
- That mop top.
- Yeah, that's what
they call me.
- So you're 19?
- Yeah, I'm 19.
- And you're in college?
What're you studying?
- Psychology.
- What do you think the
psychology of your relationship
with Cierra is?
Have you analyzed that at all?
- Nah, I don't think
I got that deep in it.
[laughs]
- You're a good-looking guy.
You're 19.
You probably don't have much of
a problem getting girls.
Why are you hung up
on this one girl?
- She was really persistent.
And, like, the way she would
come at me was like,
you know,
a lot of flirty ways.
You know, being like 16
turning 17.
I was very attracted to that.
- But more importantly,
you said she was there for you
a lot through a lot of things.
- Yeah, she was there
for me a lot.
She was like my comfort, like,
she kinda helped me, like,
through a lot of things
I went through in my life.
And she always knew
what to say to me
to make everything seem
like it wasn't that bad.
- Do you love Cierra?
Does she love you?
Do you say that?
- Um, "love" to me
is a very deep word.
But yeah, there definitely
is feelings there.
- Do you get the idea that
Cierra is lying about anything?
- I do feel like there's
something that she's hiding,
because the times
we've tried to meet,
she kind of disappeared.
It's like the same pattern.
- So you're ready
to dive into this,
even if it means
getting some answers
that you may not
necessarily like?
- I'm ready.
- You don't sound ready.
- I'm ready!
- Alright.
- We'll see you soon.
- All right.
You guys take care.
- All right.
- I think there's no chance.
- I have to admit, though--
I have to admit,
I still can't help but feel
some sense of optimism.
I think there's
something to this.
I'm gonna hold on to, "There's
a little bit of chance."
- [laughs]
- All right.
I'll meet you at the airport.
- Okay.
- Hi.
- Hey.
- How was the Skype?
- It was good.
He's a good-looking guy.
Look at him.
- Yeah, I get it.
- He's got his hair.
It never even crossed his mind
that she was catfishing him,
which is crazy.
- But he's probably like,
I'm so hot this would
never happen to me.
- Uh, yeah,
he's probably more into her now
because he can't have her.
- Yeah, it's classic.
- All right, I love you.
- I love you. Goodbye.
- ♪ Look alive ♪
♪ I was going down ♪
♪ Little lies ♪
- Off to Maryland.
- ♪ Little lies ♪
- Let's go.
all: Oh.
♪ ♪
- I can't wait for him to show
us the pictures of Cierra.
The probability that there are
two really good-looking people,
it would seem unlikely.
- That's true.
All right. You ready?
- Hey.
- Yo, there he is.
What's up? How're you doing?
- I'm pretty good.
Come on in.
- Okay.
- This is the house?
- Yes, sir.
- Look at this.
- Oh, man.
- Oh, have you ever seen a CD?
- Yeah, I've seen a CD.
- You've seen CDs.
- Yeah, I'm old enough
to see a CD.
[electronic dance music]
♪ ♪
- Come on.
[laughter]
♪ ♪
- All right, get low.
- It's what we do, yeah.
all: Hey.
- All right.
[stops music]
We had some fun.
- All right.
- Cierra--tell us
the whole story.
- Go back and explain
how it all started.
- All right, um...
Periscope was pretty hot
around that time,
so I just was, like,
making a lot of videos.
I got a lot of female
attention on there.
And Cierra popped up
on there one time.
She was just reaching like
a little--a little wilder
than, uh, the rest of them.
- She was, like, throwing out
some real sexual stuff.
- Come on, what was she saying?
- [laughs]
I don't always remember.
- Oh, you remember.
- Walk you around
like a dog with a collar.
[laughter]
That sort of stuff, right?
- [laughs]
Just some things that,
you know,
would get a 17-year-old's
attention, okay?
Started texting pretty much
every night.
- And sending pics?
- She would send me pictures,
but it would be, like,
off Instagram.
- Why Cierra?
What's so great about her?
- A lot of girls wanna hear
about they self, and, uh,
wanna talk about
more, like, them.
She actually listened to
a lot of problems I had.
Around January 2016, I had like
a little mini heart attack
in school.
My heart started fluttering.
Uh, I didn't really
know what it was.
So got taken
to the hospital--
I guess I got a heart murmur,
I have arrhythmia,
I have tachycardia.
- Wow.
- Leaving the hospital,
I get in a car accident.
[tires squealing]
[metal crunches]
Since I hydroplaned, and
a car coming around a corner
full-speed hit my door.
That for me caused
a lot of anxiety,
to a point where I was kinda
just scared to be alive.
I would start to freak out.
I couldn't even be in a car.
Cierra, she was like the only
one who calmed me down.
You know, she was
always there for me.
I would call her and her voice
would just soothe me.
She was just the only one who--
she kinda looked out for me
through them
really tough times.
- So she literally
soothes your heart.
- Yeah.
- How did you then get to
reaching out to us?
- I was kinda just tired of,
like, getting the run-around.
When we first started talking,
she wanted me to be
her prom date.
I was like, you know,
"Yeah, we can do prom."
Three weeks before,
she told me she already
had found a date.
She sent me a picture
of her date and was like,
"You don't gotta worry
about coming anymore."
- That's messed up.
That she invited you
to her prom,
and then a couple of weeks
before, she tells you,
"Never mind."
- Yeah, that was a kick
in the butt right there.
- So at this point, how are
you feeling towards her?
- I feel like it doesn't
outweigh the things
she did for me, so I just
cannot get over that.
Like, I can't just be like,
"I'm done."
- You follow her
on Instagram, right?
- Yes.
- Let's see what
we're dealing with.
- Here we go.
Cool, she got the nose--
- Septum. Septum.
- Septum.
She's taking lots
of mirror pics.
She's really pretty.
I mean, this feels kinda like--
kinda real.
But you have talked on the
phone with her.
- Yeah.
- And from everything
you could tell,
there's nothing
suspicious about her voice?
- No.
- It seems to match?
- She has, like, a older woman
voice, yeah.
- She does? What do you mean
an older woman?
- Not like older--like, 30.
- "Hello, sonny."
- [laughs]
- Oh, Lawrence.
Not looking good.
- I think it looks good.
Okay, let's do it.
- Nice meeting you guys.
- P-p-p-peace.
[suspenseful music]
- Wow.
I mean, I wasn't expecting...
- It's an emotional story.
Yeah, I mean this guy's
been through a lot.
- Obviously, like, this weird
stranger on the internet
was calming him down
so he wouldn't get
an anxiety attack
and a heart attack.
- Yeah, she literally
may have saved his life.
- Multiple times.
- Yeah.
- But will his life end
when he realizes
that she's not the person
she said she was?
[suspenseful electronic music]
- Look at this giant egg.
- The silver egg.
- Silver egg.
- I was born in one of these.
- You were hatched
from one of these.
[laughs]
Little baby Max,
are you in there?
Are you ready to hatch?
Max.
- [high-pitched yelp]
[laughter]
That's right.
I came out of that.
- So Lawrence has been talking
to Cierra for 2 1/2 years.
They met on Periscope,
then they started texting.
- He has heart problems,
and she was his lifeline
in both communication
and support.
- You don't think
Cierra is Cierra.
- No.
- I think there's
at least a 40% chance.
I want this for him.
- [mimicking] I want.
- [exaggerating] I want this.
Okay, well, here's what
he knows; he sent us an email.
- What does he know?
- Okay.
"Hey guys, I don't have a lot
of information about Cierra.
"She's 19, like me.
"And she lives in Virginia.
"I've had a few numbers
for her,
"but here are the latest ones
she's been hitting me up on.
"I'm putting in some pics
I have of Cierra
from her Instagram,
'cause it's private."
- All right.
- Okay.
- What is the first thing
we're gonna do?
Are we gonna do the numbers
or the pictures?
Numbers or pictures.
- Pictures, pictures.
- All right, so you download
the three pictures.
- All right, let's see,
come on, come on.
No, no.
All right, let's try this one.
- Do we get "girl"?
It just says girl.
Oh, it's everyone with the--
- Flowers in their hair.
- Snapchat.
- All right, third one.
- Uh, no.
- Damn it.
- All right, well, that's good.
She's not some super famous
internet woman.
So, let's start a little graph.
- This is
a dangerous game.
As long as you're prepared to
lose at the end of the episode.
- I'm willing to say that her
pictures not showing up
is a point for Nev.
- Sure.
- Great.
- Let's just do
the phone number.
- All right, let's search one
of these numbers on Facebook.
both: Oh!
- Hah.
- What?
both: What?
- We got a Facebook page.
- Cierra Edwards.
- In Hampton.
This could be her.
- This is another one for Nev.
[laughter]
- She's got a Facebook page.
Look at her, she's beautiful.
We found her.
- Well, but is
he talking to her?
- Right, should we search
the new number?
See what comes up
with her new number?
Maybe she's got
another account.
[suspenseful music]
Clifton [bleep].
- Who's that?
- Okay, so here's someone
with the new number
associated to their
Facebook page.
- Hmm.
- Hmm.
- Well, are they friends
with Cierra?
both: Yes.
- Interesting.
- Wait a minute.
Cierra Miracle.
Time out.
- Wait, it's another account?
- Yes, same girl from--
now it says from Newark.
- Oh, boy.
both: Same pictures.
- She just has
a different last name.
Who is this Cierra Miracle?
- Why are there--
- Hold on a second.
Look at the URL.
"ccmiracle."
Write that down.
- "ccmiraclexoxo."
Go back to
Clifton's Facebook.
What was that one?
Look at that.
"cliffmiraclexoxo."
- All right.
[laughs]
- There are two Cierra
Facebook profiles.
Both of those Cierras
are friends
with this Clifton [bleep].
And even Clifton's
Facebook URL name
is very similar to the
Cierra Miracle Facebook names.
I think Clifton
made this profile,
and he might be the person
Lawrence has been talking to,
which would make
a lot more sense
as to why they haven't met up,
or why they've been
dodging Lawrence.
- Right, there's no question
that the fact that Cierra
hasn't been available
to meet up
suggests that they're
hiding something.
- Can we see their
relationship?
- Oh, yeah.
- The Facebook hack.
Good thinking.
This should show us
mutual friends.
Okay.
Oh!
- Yeah, okay, here we go.
- Look, it says they have
eight mutual friends,
including this one,
Ieshia [bleep].
- Let's send her a message.
All right,
message sent to Ieshia.
All right, let's just quickly--
I wanna know a little bit more
about this Clifton character.
- Why don't we go
down the wall?
- Okay, down the wall.
There's nothing that
we can see on the wall.
We can just see photos posted.
[phone ringing]
- Uh!
- Bah! Ooh, Virginia Beach.
- Who's that?
- Hello.
- Hey, is this Ieshia?
- We're actually
here in Maryland,
trying to help a guy
who's been talking
to a girl named Cierra for
the past, like, 2 1/2 years.
So we wanted to first start
by asking you,
how do you know
Clifton [bleep]?
[foreboding music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- Is Clifton interested
in men or women?
- Okay, and do you know if
Clifton ever maybe created
a fake profile, or took over
one of Cierra's profiles?
♪ ♪
- So wait, so you had an
instance where Clifton
had made
a fake profile of you?
- So you wouldn't be shocked
if Clifton
had a fake profile of Cierra?
- Hey, can we switch over
to FaceTime for a second?
Just so you could see it's us,
and we can see who
we're talking to?
- Hey, okay, cool.
- So this guy Lawrence has
talked to Cierra on the phone
and says that she definitely
has a woman's voice,
but maybe
a slightly older woman.
Can Clifton sound like a woman?
- Does he do that sometimes?
- Mm.
Thank you.
- Bye.
- Whoa, I mean, I would say it
feels like Clifton is the link.
- I mean, all signs point
to this being Clifton.
- This is gonna break
his heart.
- Whoa-ho-ho.
- Good morning.
So what's up?
- Just checking in.
Giving you the update.
- What?
I've been waiting
for this.
- All right, so we did
an investigation,
and Cierra's phone number
came back to someone
named Clifton.
Cierra might be real, but
that doesn't necessarily mean
that that's who Lawrence
is talking to.
Either it turns out
to be Cierra,
and this is like a really
wonderful, happy ending.
Or--I don't know--
it could be this guy, Clifton.
- Or her and Clifton
are in cahoots.
- I've said from the beginning,
this, for some reason,
feels to me like it could be
an episode that works out.
- It sounds like a--
it sounds like
a good sort of theory.
But I don't think
you're there yet.
Whatever it ends up being,
you should be really careful
with how you break
the news to Lawrence,
because of his, like,
heart condition, especially.
Your job,
besides figuring this out,
is to keep Lawrence's
stress, like, uber low.
- All right.
- Unlike my stress level,
which you drive
through the roof.
I'm just kidding, honey.
We miss you so much.
- I miss you guys so much.
I'll let you know what happens.
- All right, I'm gonna keep
brushing my teeth.
- All right, I love you.
- Bye.
- Bye.
[line ringing]
- Hello.
- Lawrence,
we did some research.
We found some things.
You've been warned.
- All right.
- We're coming over, bye.
- How do you think Lawrence
is gonna interpret
this information?
- I don't think
he's our usual hopeful
who'll just focus on the good
and block the bad.
I think that he'll hear us.
- Hey.
- Hey.
- There he is.
- Come on in.
[upbeat music]
- All right.
So look, yesterday
we went through it.
We did the best we could
to sort of fill in the blanks.
We definitely got somewhere,
and figured out some things.
And--
- All right.
- Let's see if we can make
some sense out of this.
We started with
the phone numbers.
So when we searched
her old number on Facebook,
look what we found.
Cierra Edwards.
So we went to Cierra's profile.
Here are pictures of Cierra.
But this is good because maybe
she's who she says she is.
But then, the other phone
number
that you used
to talk to Cierra
came back to the profile
for someone named Clifton.
- Okay.
- You ever heard of Clifton?
- I never heard of Clifton.
- Has Cierra ever mentioned--
- No Clifton, no.
- We went to Clifton's profile,
and he's a very
outgoing young man.
Sometimes seems to dress
a bit more feminine.
But other times not.
- Okay.
- Does this seem like maybe
that could be the person
you've been talking to?
- I would hope not.
'Cause, yeah,
that'd be crazy.
- Okay.
- Well, we'll keep on going.
- Right--well,
so what we did was
we went to see
Clifton's friends,
and when we searched Cierra in
Clifton's friends,
the profile
came up that we found,
then another
Cierra profile came up.
He's friends with two Cierras.
- And they're the same girl
in the pictures.
- Right, so this is--now our
heads are starting to spin.
- Yeah.
- And look at this.
This Cierra Miracle Facebook
URL is "ccmiraclexoxo."
- Okay.
- But, when you go
to Clifton's Facebook page,
look what his is.
"clifmiraclexoxo."
There's a theme
that goes with that.
- Right. This is like when the
serial killer likes to leave
something at the scene
to indicate that they did it.
- Oh.
[exhales heavily]
- Well, so then there's this
cool thing you can do
where you can take
two profiles from Facebook,
and it'll show you anything
that those two profiles share,
whether it's like friends
or interests or whatever.
So when we did that
with the Cierra profile
and the Clifton profile,
they had eight mutual friends.
But the only mutual friend
it'll show us
is this girl
Ieshia [bleep]
- Oh, yeah,
I've never heard of Ieshia.
I don't think so.
- And we actually
FaceTimed with her.
- Okay.
- She knows Cierra.
She also said she's
friends with Clifton.
And that they're all pretty
good friends still.
Then it got weird
'cause we said,
"Well, what could you
tell us about Clifton?"
And she said, "Well, Clifton's
a little bit
of a troublemaker."
And that some time ago,
Clifton had made
a fake account of her.
[suspenseful music]
And when we asked her if
she thought it was possible
that Clifton might have
a fake account of Cierra,
she said it
wouldn't surprise her.
- Okay.
- Maybe Clifton has, like,
a fake account of her
because he makes
fake accounts of his friends
to mess with them.
I don't know.
- And I would venture to guess
that Clifton was saying those
kind of very forward texts.
- Ugh.
- Nasty.
Right, maybe
they were together.
- That sounds more like him.
- Unless Ieshia is lying.
- Maybe it's Ieshia.
Maybe you're talking to Ieshia.
♪ ♪
Or it's all three of them,
for all we know.
- Right, so this is an
interesting situation.
- Right.
- Let's call--
Let's call your--the--
- The number that's registered
to Cierra off of Facebook.
- Let's just see
who answers.
- Who do you ask for?
- I don't know. Cierra.
- Or Clifton.
- I don't know.
♪ ♪
- You've reached
the voicemail box of 862--
- Hi, uh, this is Nev.
I'm looking for Cierra.
If you get this, please give me
a call back at this number,
and I will explain further.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Well, let's call the
other phone number you used
to talk to Cierra, that links
directly to Clifton profile.
[line ringing]
♪ ♪
- Hi, uh, is this Cierra?
- Hey, um, this is Nev
from the show "Catfish."
Is this, uh, Clifton?
- Is this--is this Clifton?
- Hello.
- Is this Clifton?
- Yeah.
- We're here with Lawrence.
Do you know Lawrence?
- Here's why we're calling.
Lawrence has been talking
to your friend Cierra Edwards
for the past 2 1/2 years.
- You know, you absolu--
That is your friend, right?
Cierra?
- What's confusing to us is
that Lawrence has
two numbers for Cierra.
One seems to be
her real number,
and the one seems
to be this number,
which is obviously
your number.
We're trying to figure out
if he's been talking
to both you and Cierra,
or just you this whole--
- Well, we don't either.
That's why we called
to figure this out.
- Well, I'm not--
I'm not implying.
- Maybe you can't, but--
[stammers]
I'm thinking maybe you
can help by offering
some kind of a
suggestion or a solution
as to why Lawrence would
have your phone number.
That's what's weird to me.
- Okay.
- Oh, man.
- Yeah.
- I mean--
- Well, that's the guy.
That's--
- Well, he's obviously
involved in this.
- [laughs]
- What matters to me is how
much does Cierra know?
Does she care about you?
And can we go and meet her?
We know she lives in Hampton.
We can call Ieshia.
Like, we can find her.
So the sooner we get to Cierra,
the better.
- We need to go
meet her, like, now.
- All right.
- ♪ I think I found ♪
♪ The answer to ♪
♪ My shaking hands ♪
♪ Here to steady you ♪
- Based on the fact that Ieshia
told us that Clifton had made
a fake profile of her, maybe
Clifton has a few fake profiles
of some of his friends,
and uses them to talk to guys.
- ♪ Lie upon lie ♪
♪ I'm just looking to forget
the modern age ♪
- Cierra just texted.
- Oh.
- "So are you gonna tell me
where you're at
and what's going on?"
- Wow.
A lot of attitude, right?
- Yeah.
- Why don't you just say
"Call me,
and I'll tell you
whatever you wanna know."
- "I'm at work all night,
but I'll hit you up tomorrow."
- [blows raspberry]
That's bogus.
- ♪ I think I found
I think I found ♪
♪ I think I found
I think I found it all ♪
- Okay. Made it.
[foreboding music]
No one knows
what's going on anymore.
- Hey, buddy.
- Have you heard anything
since yesterday?
- She texted me, like,
a few minutes ago
before you guys came in,
and said,
"Almost finished with work,
can we meet near my job
in about 30 minutes?"
- Whoa, so she wants
to meet, like, now.
- Now, yeah, yeah.
- Basically.
- So text her back.
- All right.
- "Where should we meet you?"
- All right.
[text swooshes]
- What're you feeling?
- It's--I don't know.
As soon as--I feel like if I
get, like, some sort of answer,
you know, not--oh.
[text swooshes]
- Oh.
- Uh-oh.
- Styron Square South
in Newport News.
- All right, cool.
- Let's go.
- All right.
- This is crazy.
We're rarely in a situation
where we have no idea
who we're going to go see.
- Going in blind.
- Yeah.
- We gotta be ready
for every possible scenario.
- Well, I feel like if--
like it's, like, the guy,
I might as well just walk
back in the car.
Why even waste my time?
- Whoever they are, they
helped you in a time of need.
You know,
when no one else was there.
So even if that's Clifton,
that means something.
- Oh, well, thank you for
doing that for me, all right.
You have a nice
rest of your life.
- Here it is.
- Oh, yeah, this is it.
- All right.
- All right, let's go do it.
[foreboding music]
♪ ♪
- I feel like
this is, like, high noon.
Yeah , right?
- In, like, the town square.
Is it that girl sitting
on that bench?
- No.
- Uh-oh.
Someone just pulled in
in a hurry.
- Where?
- Right here in this Jeep.
- Oh--no, I don't think so.
- Uh-oh.
- Wait, someone's coming.
- Is that--
- Wait a second.
- Something's going on.
- Uh-oh.
- Wait, someone's coming.
- Uh.
- Wait, is that--
Is that her?
Is that--
Wait a second.
It's her.
I don't believe it.
- Hi.
- Hello.
- Hey, uh.
- What?
- Cierra.
- Hi, Cierra.
I'm Max.
This is Lawrence.
- Hey, Lawrence.
- How you doing?
- Hey.
- What?
- Is there anyone else
showing up here too?
Or is it just you?
- It was just me.
- So what--
you guys were texting?
- Yeah.
- And you got a new number?
- Yeah.
- Okay. Time out.
- Was it just you this whole
time talking to Lawrence?
- Yes.
- Clifton?
- Clifton, that's my friend.
- But why is he texting
with Clifton's phone number?
- 'Cause I was using Clifton's
phone to text him
'cause my phone is broke.
- But Clifton is your friend...
- Yeah.
- And you actually have been
texting from his phone?
- Yes.
- Because, you know,
we've found a few
Facebook pages for you.
- Why do you have two--
- I have two Facebook accounts.
- Right, you do.
- One is old.
And then I have a new one.
I do hair.
So one was more
for my professional--
- Is there anything
that we don't know?
That maybe you're married
or you have kids or, I don't--
- I don't have kids.
I'm not married.
- Here's the big question.
Were you corresponding
with Lawrence
during a traumatic
time in his life?
[foreboding music]
- Yes.
- It's her.
It's been her the whole time.
- It's you, it's you, it's you.
You were right.
- Look at this.
[laughter]
Yeah!
What a lovely young lady.
We're done--all right,
you guys enjoy yourselves.
- Yeah, we don't
have anything--
[stammers]
We vetted this.
- Lawrence, can you talk?
[laughter]
- Yeah.
- Do you have anything to say?
- I think I could talk.
- Catfish got your tongue?
It's all you, Lawrence.
[laughter]
- I was so nervous.
I did not know what to expect.
- For what?
- I didn't know what to expect.
Are you nervous?
It looked like you
was a little nervous.
- Huh? No, 'cause--
- You was nervous?
- No, no, no, 'cause I'm--
- Ah, you was nervous.
- Was I nervous?
Nah.
- It looked like you
was a little nervous.
- It just turned--it's just
the way it turned out.
Mm-hmm.
- Mm-hmm.
- [sighs]
Yeah.
- I'm glad it's you.
- It is.
- Mm-hmm.
- Okay, kids.
- How's it going?
- You hungry?
You wanna get out of the cold?
- We're getting along, right?
both: Yeah.
- Should we all just go get
lunch and like--
- [laughs]
- Yeah.
- Hang out a little bit?
- Yeah.
- Like a group date.
- Yeah.
- How does he compare
to what you imagined?
- He looks just the same.
- So wait, so one thing
that I don't understand
is when we spoke to Clifton,
why didn't he just say,
"Cierra uses my phone sometimes
to talk to Lawrence"?
- Because he thought I was
really catfishing somebody.
- My ear was bleeding
a little bit, actually,
from that phone call.
- Nine out of ten times,
that guy is the catfish.
- Oh.
- Okay, you can get
whatever you want.
- That's right.
Who's gonna order the catfish?
[foreboding music]
Hey guys, wait
for our lovely guests.
- Aw, I'm so happy.
- Yeah, me too.
- It worked out.
It never works out.
- How're you feeling?
- Ugh.
- You in, like,
a little bit of shock?
- Yeah.
A huge, huge, huge shock.
I'm just trying to see how I,
like, feel and stuff like that.
So I'm thinking about a lot of
different things at once, so--
- All right.
Well, let's enjoy--
- [sighs]
- Just, you know, take it easy.
♪ ♪
- I don't know
what his problem is.
- No, he's 19.
He's playing it cool, I think.
- I know he's, like,
freaking out.
[foreboding music]
- I don't know
what his problem is.
- No, he's 19.
He's playing it cool, I think.
- No, I don't think he's
playing it cool.
I think he's super nervous.
- Well, he's trying to.
- No, he--
I know he is,
like, freaking out.
- Hey.
- Hey, you're back.
Hey, so wait, so hold on.
Real talk.
What do you think of Lawrence?
- He is fine.
[laughs]
- So, okay, good.
- He is fine.
He is everything I thought--
- Then what took you
so long to--
- Have a seat.
We're just catching up.
- All right, catch up.Yeah.
- All right.
- Well, this is a real treat.
It is not every day
that we have two people
who are who
they said they were.
[ominous music]
- So, what're you guys
gonna do tonight?
Saturday night.
- Saturday night.
- You don't have plans, do you?
- Now that we know it's you,
you guys can make some plans.
Right? I mean, I hope you're
both down to hang, right?
- Mm-hmm.
[texts swooping]
- Wait, so we gotta figure out
something fun to do.
[text swoops]
- [laughs]
- What's up?
- Nothing.
- Oh, okay.
Real talk for a second.
It's gonna require some effort
to see each other.
I mean, you don't have to see
each other all the time.
But you know,
college are coming up.
Thanksgiving--you know,
things coming up.
You know, breaks are coming up.
Do you think one of you, or--
would be interested in trying
to meet up again
sometime soon?
- I would definitely
be interested.
- Okay, great.
- All right, if you guys
don't see each other,
Uncle Nev and Uncle Max
are gonna be really unhappy.
- We're gonna be bummed.
- Yeah.
'Cause it's in your hands,
I mean,
you needed us to bring
you together.
You shouldn't need us
to keep you together.
- Yeah, definitely.
- I can tell Cierra
doesn't mess around.
- It's not Cierra
I'm worried about.
- [laughs]
- Oh, yeah.
- All right.
I'm over this lunch.
- You didn't like it?
- No.
- You don't like anything.
You are picky.
- Sorry, guys.
- It was good.
No, it was good.
- This corn--terrible.
- Could've had nothing.
- Hmm?
- Or perhaps--
[cell phone rings]
- Oh.
- What the heck?
- Is that Clifton?
- Oh, uh-oh.
- Oh, excuse me.
- Ugh.
- Tsk.
- I mean, I don't know.
I didn't--
It just wasn't
what I would think.
- Are we [bleep] this up?
- What would you think?
- No.
I would think he would be
more so interested in me
'cause I was interested in him.
- Do you feel like
he's not showing the in?
- I mean, it's just
a little--I don't know.
- Yeah, kind of.
[foreboding music]
♪ ♪
- Mystery call.
- Yeah.
- Are you good?
- Yeah.
- Are we being annoying?
- Nah. It's, uh--nah.
- Well, what's up?
Are you--are you feeling it?
- Uh, it's not--
it's a little situation.
Basically...
I'm engaged.
- Come on.
- Yeah.
- What the [bleep]
are you talking about?
- Yeah.
It's--
- How could you not tell us?
Wait, so you have a girlfriend?
- Fiancé, yeah.
- Legit fiancé?
- Yeah.
- Well, how long
have you been engaged?
- Not too long.
Like a couple of months.
- And you bought her
a ring and everything?
- Yeah.
- What're you doing?
- I thought it would, like--
like, meeting her would, like,
change--I don't know--the way,
like-- the way I feel, like,
I would just be feeling her,
but, like, I can't.
Like, I'm actually, like, I
guess, in love with my fiancé.
- So meeting Cierra only
confirmed for you
that you really want
this other girl?
- Yeah.
- She needs to know what's up.
Because she thinks
you're acting kind of cold,
and that you're not into her,
which isn't really
what's going on here.
- All right, I mean, it still
can--I don't know--
work out in different ways--
- No, don't try and--
- Not like that, but, like--
- You can't.
You [bleep] up.
- Yeah.
- As not fun and uncomfortable
as it is gonna be,
I think you gotta
just be straight-up.
- Yeah.
- Jeez, man.
You ready?
- Eh.
- Oh, jeez.
- [sighs]
[suspenseful music]
- [sighs]
- Mm, mm.
- I think, Max, we should
let them chat for a minute.
- Okay.
- Let's give them some room.
- Hey.
- Hey.
- [laughs]
- How're you doing?
- Great, I'm fine.
- You sure?
- Yeah, I'm fine.
- Okay, so here's
what's going on
and why he's acting weird.
Lawrence is engaged.
- What?
How did he not tell us
about this until now?
- I don't know.
- How're you feeling?
You good?
- I'm fine, I'm fine, mm-hmm.
- So, I'm about to get serious
right now.
- I was waiting for that.
- Uh, all right,
so basically, like...
[ambient music]
Mm.
- [laughs]
Can you talk?
- No, I can't, it's stuck.
Uh.
- Don't be stuck.
- All right, you ready?
You good?
- Yeah, I'm fine.
- Okay.[sniffs]
So don't be mad at me,
or nothing like that.
Basically, like,
I am technically, like,
engaged, or whatever.
- Okay.
- That's it.
- What was the point?
- So I can, like, meet you,
and, like, I guess, like, see
what I wanted or whatever,
like, so yeah.
- Okay, so now
that you met me...
Why do you have to see me?
To my face, sit down,
eat lunch--
- I didn't know how I would
feel until I'm here.
And it's like, seeing you
physically is just different.
So--
- But you didn't talk to me.
When we was alone,
you wouldn't say nothing.
I said what's up?
I could understand
there's nerves
or whatever, okay.
But I don't see the point
for you to come
all the way out here to see me,
making me think,
"You're pretty.
"I'm coming to see you.
I wanna see if
you're real or not."
What was the point of that?
For you to tell me
you have a [bleep] fiancé?
♪ ♪
It's just pointless.
Pointless. A waste of time.
- Hey, guys.
Sorry to interrupt.
We're just as shocked
as you are.
I feel bad that we
brought you into this.
- Yeah.
- I'm mad as hell.
Like, that's embarrassing.
- Yes, and some--
- If I was dating somebody,
and I've made the decision
to get on my knee as a man,
and propose to her,
it's no doubt in my mind
that that is
the one for me.
It's no doubt.
It's no reason to meet
another chick,
'cause she don't
even matter.
If you're having questions
in your mind,
that's something that you have
to think to yourself.
Now, are you wasting her time?
- Yeah, I understand.
- Okay, Lawrence has some
figuring out to do.
- I agree.
- Unless there's anything left
to say on your part.
- No, I'm good.
- Alright.
- Bye, guys.
[soulful music]
♪ ♪
- Sorry.
- Yeah.
- We really didn't know.
- Messed up.
- He put himself in this
position, but--
- He sure did.
- He sure did.
- He sure did.
It was nice meeting you.
Yes.
Thank you.
- Good luck.
- Yes.
- All right, Cierra.
- Bye.
- You can sit in the back now.
- Put him in the back!
♪ ♪
- I'm sure this girl that
you're engaged to is great,
but, like, you're not ready
to be married.
- I really shouldn't be.
- You don't have enough
figured out yet.
- Yeah, no, I realized that.
I didn't realize that till now.
Like, that was, like, crazy.
♪ ♪
- You came, you saw,
you [bleep] that one up, huh?
- ♪ But I'll stick
through it ♪
[line ringing]
- Hey, Lawrence.
- How's it going, mop top?
- [vocalizes]
- It's going good.
Got a little longer too.
- Yeah.
- How have you been handling
the situation
that you found
yourself in?
- You know,
it ended pretty bad.
I reached out a little.
And I was, like,
trying to, like,
basically explain to her
everything, you know.
- You kind of burned her.
- Don't make me feel
bad about it.
- But what's your
status right now?
Are you still engaged?
- Um, no.
- You broke off the engagement?
- I broke it off.
- Wow.
- You guys taught me actually
a lot, you have no idea.
I've learned...
- All right, well, good.
- Glad we could help out.
- Thank you.
Appreciate it.
- All right, Lawrence.
- See you guys.
[line ringing]
- Hi.
- What's up?
How're you doing?
- I'm fine.
- Are you feeling any better
now than you were that day?
- Yes, but, I mean,
it still kind of sucks
because, like,
we don't talk anymore.
- You think there's a chance
that you could still
just be friends?
- No.
- Whoa.
- It's pretty definite.
- Yeah.
- I don't know if you heard,
but Lawrence broke it off
with his fiancé.
- Are you serious?
- Yes.
- He tried to have his cake
and eat it too.
And he went home cakeless.
- Right.
It blew up in his face.
Yeah.
- Well, so that's it.
- Wipe your hands clean.
- Mm-hmm.
- And the future
is bright for you, Cierra.
- Very bright.
[laughs]
- All right.
- All right.
- See you.
- Bye.
1034
00:41:19.
to a lot of problems I had.
Like, I had like a heart
attack in school.
Cierra, she was, like, the
only one who looked out for me
through them
really tough times.
- What?
- Wait--time out.
There are two Cierra
Facebook profiles.
This is like when the serial
killer leaves something
at the scene to indicate
that they did it.
[dramatic music]
- Well, I'm not--
I'm not implying.
- What are you doing?
- You [bleep] up.
[dramatic musical sting]
- For the past six years,
Max and I have been
traveling the world...
- Whoo!
- Helping people
find out the truth...
- What the [bleep]?
- About their
online relationships.
- I feel so stupid right now.
But in an age where
everyone knows everything
about everybody,
people are getting better and
better at hiding the truth...
both: What?
- Which is why
this time around,
every episode has
double the secrets.
These are all connected
to that phone number.
- What?
- At double the reveal.
- There were some things
she didn't tell you guys.
- That are going to
seriously blow your mind.
What?
This is
"Catfish: The TV show."
For the past six seasons
of the show,
we've been out on the road.
- They know.
- I know.
But what you don't know is
that back here in Los Angeles,
we have this
beautiful headquarters.
Look at this.
This is everywhere we've
been making the show.
There's a storm front
coming in from the south,
pushing a lot of catfish
down to the east,
and creating a
high pressure system
that is generating a lot of
lies and deception up here
in the Midwest.
[laughs]
All right.
- Is this our official desk?
- This is, uh, the set.
- Looks a little makeshift.
- Well--hey.
- Hey!
Can we all keep it down
for a second? Sorry.
We're working.
- Okay, Lawrence.
"This Time I Need to Know."
"Hey guys,
my name is Lawrence.
"I am a 19-year-old
college student,
"and I live in
Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
"About 2 1/2 years ago,
this girl Cierra
"started leaving flirty
messages on my Periscope.
- ♪ I've given so far ahead
of myself ♪
- "Eventually she slid
into my DMs,
"And we started texting
and talking every day.
She lives about three hours
away in Virginia."
[phone ringing]
That's not that far.
- I've definitely traveled
three hours on a "maybe."
- Oh yeah?
- Yeah.
[laughter]
- "Over the years, I developed
strong feelings for her.
"She was always
there to listen
and always gave me
good advice."
- ♪ I've given so far ahead
of myself ♪
- "She helped me through
a lot of hard times.
I don't know what I would've
done without her help."
♪ ♪
"Cierra and I have never met
or video-chatted.
"Every time we try to meet,
she would always send
"a text message apologizing
with some excuse."
- Oh, boy.
"I need to find out if Cierra
is who she says she is
"or if she's hiding
something.
If I'm ever gonna get these
answers, I need your help."
I don't think Lawrence
is gonna get an answer
he's gonna like.
- But he might get an answer.
- He's gonna get an answer.
- All right.
Well, let's see what
this Lawrence guy has to say.
Looks like a handsome fella.
- I'd say he's a catfish.
[line ringing]
both: Yo.
- Hey, what's going on?
- That mop top.
- Yeah, that's what
they call me.
- So you're 19?
- Yeah, I'm 19.
- And you're in college?
What're you studying?
- Psychology.
- What do you think the
psychology of your relationship
with Cierra is?
Have you analyzed that at all?
- Nah, I don't think
I got that deep in it.
[laughs]
- You're a good-looking guy.
You're 19.
You probably don't have much of
a problem getting girls.
Why are you hung up
on this one girl?
- She was really persistent.
And, like, the way she would
come at me was like,
you know,
a lot of flirty ways.
You know, being like 16
turning 17.
I was very attracted to that.
- But more importantly,
you said she was there for you
a lot through a lot of things.
- Yeah, she was there
for me a lot.
She was like my comfort, like,
she kinda helped me, like,
through a lot of things
I went through in my life.
And she always knew
what to say to me
to make everything seem
like it wasn't that bad.
- Do you love Cierra?
Does she love you?
Do you say that?
- Um, "love" to me
is a very deep word.
But yeah, there definitely
is feelings there.
- Do you get the idea that
Cierra is lying about anything?
- I do feel like there's
something that she's hiding,
because the times
we've tried to meet,
she kind of disappeared.
It's like the same pattern.
- So you're ready
to dive into this,
even if it means
getting some answers
that you may not
necessarily like?
- I'm ready.
- You don't sound ready.
- I'm ready!
- Alright.
- We'll see you soon.
- All right.
You guys take care.
- All right.
- I think there's no chance.
- I have to admit, though--
I have to admit,
I still can't help but feel
some sense of optimism.
I think there's
something to this.
I'm gonna hold on to, "There's
a little bit of chance."
- [laughs]
- All right.
I'll meet you at the airport.
- Okay.
- Hi.
- Hey.
- How was the Skype?
- It was good.
He's a good-looking guy.
Look at him.
- Yeah, I get it.
- He's got his hair.
It never even crossed his mind
that she was catfishing him,
which is crazy.
- But he's probably like,
I'm so hot this would
never happen to me.
- Uh, yeah,
he's probably more into her now
because he can't have her.
- Yeah, it's classic.
- All right, I love you.
- I love you. Goodbye.
- ♪ Look alive ♪
♪ I was going down ♪
♪ Little lies ♪
- Off to Maryland.
- ♪ Little lies ♪
- Let's go.
all: Oh.
♪ ♪
- I can't wait for him to show
us the pictures of Cierra.
The probability that there are
two really good-looking people,
it would seem unlikely.
- That's true.
All right. You ready?
- Hey.
- Yo, there he is.
What's up? How're you doing?
- I'm pretty good.
Come on in.
- Okay.
- This is the house?
- Yes, sir.
- Look at this.
- Oh, man.
- Oh, have you ever seen a CD?
- Yeah, I've seen a CD.
- You've seen CDs.
- Yeah, I'm old enough
to see a CD.
[electronic dance music]
♪ ♪
- Come on.
[laughter]
♪ ♪
- All right, get low.
- It's what we do, yeah.
all: Hey.
- All right.
[stops music]
We had some fun.
- All right.
- Cierra--tell us
the whole story.
- Go back and explain
how it all started.
- All right, um...
Periscope was pretty hot
around that time,
so I just was, like,
making a lot of videos.
I got a lot of female
attention on there.
And Cierra popped up
on there one time.
She was just reaching like
a little--a little wilder
than, uh, the rest of them.
- She was, like, throwing out
some real sexual stuff.
- Come on, what was she saying?
- [laughs]
I don't always remember.
- Oh, you remember.
- Walk you around
like a dog with a collar.
[laughter]
That sort of stuff, right?
- [laughs]
Just some things that,
you know,
would get a 17-year-old's
attention, okay?
Started texting pretty much
every night.
- And sending pics?
- She would send me pictures,
but it would be, like,
off Instagram.
- Why Cierra?
What's so great about her?
- A lot of girls wanna hear
about they self, and, uh,
wanna talk about
more, like, them.
She actually listened to
a lot of problems I had.
Around January 2016, I had like
a little mini heart attack
in school.
My heart started fluttering.
Uh, I didn't really
know what it was.
So got taken
to the hospital--
I guess I got a heart murmur,
I have arrhythmia,
I have tachycardia.
- Wow.
- Leaving the hospital,
I get in a car accident.
[tires squealing]
[metal crunches]
Since I hydroplaned, and
a car coming around a corner
full-speed hit my door.
That for me caused
a lot of anxiety,
to a point where I was kinda
just scared to be alive.
I would start to freak out.
I couldn't even be in a car.
Cierra, she was like the only
one who calmed me down.
You know, she was
always there for me.
I would call her and her voice
would just soothe me.
She was just the only one who--
she kinda looked out for me
through them
really tough times.
- So she literally
soothes your heart.
- Yeah.
- How did you then get to
reaching out to us?
- I was kinda just tired of,
like, getting the run-around.
When we first started talking,
she wanted me to be
her prom date.
I was like, you know,
"Yeah, we can do prom."
Three weeks before,
she told me she already
had found a date.
She sent me a picture
of her date and was like,
"You don't gotta worry
about coming anymore."
- That's messed up.
That she invited you
to her prom,
and then a couple of weeks
before, she tells you,
"Never mind."
- Yeah, that was a kick
in the butt right there.
- So at this point, how are
you feeling towards her?
- I feel like it doesn't
outweigh the things
she did for me, so I just
cannot get over that.
Like, I can't just be like,
"I'm done."
- You follow her
on Instagram, right?
- Yes.
- Let's see what
we're dealing with.
- Here we go.
Cool, she got the nose--
- Septum. Septum.
- Septum.
She's taking lots
of mirror pics.
She's really pretty.
I mean, this feels kinda like--
kinda real.
But you have talked on the
phone with her.
- Yeah.
- And from everything
you could tell,
there's nothing
suspicious about her voice?
- No.
- It seems to match?
- She has, like, a older woman
voice, yeah.
- She does? What do you mean
an older woman?
- Not like older--like, 30.
- "Hello, sonny."
- [laughs]
- Oh, Lawrence.
Not looking good.
- I think it looks good.
Okay, let's do it.
- Nice meeting you guys.
- P-p-p-peace.
[suspenseful music]
- Wow.
I mean, I wasn't expecting...
- It's an emotional story.
Yeah, I mean this guy's
been through a lot.
- Obviously, like, this weird
stranger on the internet
was calming him down
so he wouldn't get
an anxiety attack
and a heart attack.
- Yeah, she literally
may have saved his life.
- Multiple times.
- Yeah.
- But will his life end
when he realizes
that she's not the person
she said she was?
[suspenseful electronic music]
- Look at this giant egg.
- The silver egg.
- Silver egg.
- I was born in one of these.
- You were hatched
from one of these.
[laughs]
Little baby Max,
are you in there?
Are you ready to hatch?
Max.
- [high-pitched yelp]
[laughter]
That's right.
I came out of that.
- So Lawrence has been talking
to Cierra for 2 1/2 years.
They met on Periscope,
then they started texting.
- He has heart problems,
and she was his lifeline
in both communication
and support.
- You don't think
Cierra is Cierra.
- No.
- I think there's
at least a 40% chance.
I want this for him.
- [mimicking] I want.
- [exaggerating] I want this.
Okay, well, here's what
he knows; he sent us an email.
- What does he know?
- Okay.
"Hey guys, I don't have a lot
of information about Cierra.
"She's 19, like me.
"And she lives in Virginia.
"I've had a few numbers
for her,
"but here are the latest ones
she's been hitting me up on.
"I'm putting in some pics
I have of Cierra
from her Instagram,
'cause it's private."
- All right.
- Okay.
- What is the first thing
we're gonna do?
Are we gonna do the numbers
or the pictures?
Numbers or pictures.
- Pictures, pictures.
- All right, so you download
the three pictures.
- All right, let's see,
come on, come on.
No, no.
All right, let's try this one.
- Do we get "girl"?
It just says girl.
Oh, it's everyone with the--
- Flowers in their hair.
- Snapchat.
- All right, third one.
- Uh, no.
- Damn it.
- All right, well, that's good.
She's not some super famous
internet woman.
So, let's start a little graph.
- This is
a dangerous game.
As long as you're prepared to
lose at the end of the episode.
- I'm willing to say that her
pictures not showing up
is a point for Nev.
- Sure.
- Great.
- Let's just do
the phone number.
- All right, let's search one
of these numbers on Facebook.
both: Oh!
- Hah.
- What?
both: What?
- We got a Facebook page.
- Cierra Edwards.
- In Hampton.
This could be her.
- This is another one for Nev.
[laughter]
- She's got a Facebook page.
Look at her, she's beautiful.
We found her.
- Well, but is
he talking to her?
- Right, should we search
the new number?
See what comes up
with her new number?
Maybe she's got
another account.
[suspenseful music]
Clifton [bleep].
- Who's that?
- Okay, so here's someone
with the new number
associated to their
Facebook page.
- Hmm.
- Hmm.
- Well, are they friends
with Cierra?
both: Yes.
- Interesting.
- Wait a minute.
Cierra Miracle.
Time out.
- Wait, it's another account?
- Yes, same girl from--
now it says from Newark.
- Oh, boy.
both: Same pictures.
- She just has
a different last name.
Who is this Cierra Miracle?
- Why are there--
- Hold on a second.
Look at the URL.
"ccmiracle."
Write that down.
- "ccmiraclexoxo."
Go back to
Clifton's Facebook.
What was that one?
Look at that.
"cliffmiraclexoxo."
- All right.
[laughs]
- There are two Cierra
Facebook profiles.
Both of those Cierras
are friends
with this Clifton [bleep].
And even Clifton's
Facebook URL name
is very similar to the
Cierra Miracle Facebook names.
I think Clifton
made this profile,
and he might be the person
Lawrence has been talking to,
which would make
a lot more sense
as to why they haven't met up,
or why they've been
dodging Lawrence.
- Right, there's no question
that the fact that Cierra
hasn't been available
to meet up
suggests that they're
hiding something.
- Can we see their
relationship?
- Oh, yeah.
- The Facebook hack.
Good thinking.
This should show us
mutual friends.
Okay.
Oh!
- Yeah, okay, here we go.
- Look, it says they have
eight mutual friends,
including this one,
Ieshia [bleep].
- Let's send her a message.
All right,
message sent to Ieshia.
All right, let's just quickly--
I wanna know a little bit more
about this Clifton character.
- Why don't we go
down the wall?
- Okay, down the wall.
There's nothing that
we can see on the wall.
We can just see photos posted.
[phone ringing]
- Uh!
- Bah! Ooh, Virginia Beach.
- Who's that?
- Hello.
- Hey, is this Ieshia?
- We're actually
here in Maryland,
trying to help a guy
who's been talking
to a girl named Cierra for
the past, like, 2 1/2 years.
So we wanted to first start
by asking you,
how do you know
Clifton [bleep]?
[foreboding music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- Is Clifton interested
in men or women?
- Okay, and do you know if
Clifton ever maybe created
a fake profile, or took over
one of Cierra's profiles?
♪ ♪
- So wait, so you had an
instance where Clifton
had made
a fake profile of you?
- So you wouldn't be shocked
if Clifton
had a fake profile of Cierra?
- Hey, can we switch over
to FaceTime for a second?
Just so you could see it's us,
and we can see who
we're talking to?
- Hey, okay, cool.
- So this guy Lawrence has
talked to Cierra on the phone
and says that she definitely
has a woman's voice,
but maybe
a slightly older woman.
Can Clifton sound like a woman?
- Does he do that sometimes?
- Mm.
Thank you.
- Bye.
- Whoa, I mean, I would say it
feels like Clifton is the link.
- I mean, all signs point
to this being Clifton.
- This is gonna break
his heart.
- Whoa-ho-ho.
- Good morning.
So what's up?
- Just checking in.
Giving you the update.
- What?
I've been waiting
for this.
- All right, so we did
an investigation,
and Cierra's phone number
came back to someone
named Clifton.
Cierra might be real, but
that doesn't necessarily mean
that that's who Lawrence
is talking to.
Either it turns out
to be Cierra,
and this is like a really
wonderful, happy ending.
Or--I don't know--
it could be this guy, Clifton.
- Or her and Clifton
are in cahoots.
- I've said from the beginning,
this, for some reason,
feels to me like it could be
an episode that works out.
- It sounds like a--
it sounds like
a good sort of theory.
But I don't think
you're there yet.
Whatever it ends up being,
you should be really careful
with how you break
the news to Lawrence,
because of his, like,
heart condition, especially.
Your job,
besides figuring this out,
is to keep Lawrence's
stress, like, uber low.
- All right.
- Unlike my stress level,
which you drive
through the roof.
I'm just kidding, honey.
We miss you so much.
- I miss you guys so much.
I'll let you know what happens.
- All right, I'm gonna keep
brushing my teeth.
- All right, I love you.
- Bye.
- Bye.
[line ringing]
- Hello.
- Lawrence,
we did some research.
We found some things.
You've been warned.
- All right.
- We're coming over, bye.
- How do you think Lawrence
is gonna interpret
this information?
- I don't think
he's our usual hopeful
who'll just focus on the good
and block the bad.
I think that he'll hear us.
- Hey.
- Hey.
- There he is.
- Come on in.
[upbeat music]
- All right.
So look, yesterday
we went through it.
We did the best we could
to sort of fill in the blanks.
We definitely got somewhere,
and figured out some things.
And--
- All right.
- Let's see if we can make
some sense out of this.
We started with
the phone numbers.
So when we searched
her old number on Facebook,
look what we found.
Cierra Edwards.
So we went to Cierra's profile.
Here are pictures of Cierra.
But this is good because maybe
she's who she says she is.
But then, the other phone
number
that you used
to talk to Cierra
came back to the profile
for someone named Clifton.
- Okay.
- You ever heard of Clifton?
- I never heard of Clifton.
- Has Cierra ever mentioned--
- No Clifton, no.
- We went to Clifton's profile,
and he's a very
outgoing young man.
Sometimes seems to dress
a bit more feminine.
But other times not.
- Okay.
- Does this seem like maybe
that could be the person
you've been talking to?
- I would hope not.
'Cause, yeah,
that'd be crazy.
- Okay.
- Well, we'll keep on going.
- Right--well,
so what we did was
we went to see
Clifton's friends,
and when we searched Cierra in
Clifton's friends,
the profile
came up that we found,
then another
Cierra profile came up.
He's friends with two Cierras.
- And they're the same girl
in the pictures.
- Right, so this is--now our
heads are starting to spin.
- Yeah.
- And look at this.
This Cierra Miracle Facebook
URL is "ccmiraclexoxo."
- Okay.
- But, when you go
to Clifton's Facebook page,
look what his is.
"clifmiraclexoxo."
There's a theme
that goes with that.
- Right. This is like when the
serial killer likes to leave
something at the scene
to indicate that they did it.
- Oh.
[exhales heavily]
- Well, so then there's this
cool thing you can do
where you can take
two profiles from Facebook,
and it'll show you anything
that those two profiles share,
whether it's like friends
or interests or whatever.
So when we did that
with the Cierra profile
and the Clifton profile,
they had eight mutual friends.
But the only mutual friend
it'll show us
is this girl
Ieshia [bleep]
- Oh, yeah,
I've never heard of Ieshia.
I don't think so.
- And we actually
FaceTimed with her.
- Okay.
- She knows Cierra.
She also said she's
friends with Clifton.
And that they're all pretty
good friends still.
Then it got weird
'cause we said,
"Well, what could you
tell us about Clifton?"
And she said, "Well, Clifton's
a little bit
of a troublemaker."
And that some time ago,
Clifton had made
a fake account of her.
[suspenseful music]
And when we asked her if
she thought it was possible
that Clifton might have
a fake account of Cierra,
she said it
wouldn't surprise her.
- Okay.
- Maybe Clifton has, like,
a fake account of her
because he makes
fake accounts of his friends
to mess with them.
I don't know.
- And I would venture to guess
that Clifton was saying those
kind of very forward texts.
- Ugh.
- Nasty.
Right, maybe
they were together.
- That sounds more like him.
- Unless Ieshia is lying.
- Maybe it's Ieshia.
Maybe you're talking to Ieshia.
♪ ♪
Or it's all three of them,
for all we know.
- Right, so this is an
interesting situation.
- Right.
- Let's call--
Let's call your--the--
- The number that's registered
to Cierra off of Facebook.
- Let's just see
who answers.
- Who do you ask for?
- I don't know. Cierra.
- Or Clifton.
- I don't know.
♪ ♪
- You've reached
the voicemail box of 862--
- Hi, uh, this is Nev.
I'm looking for Cierra.
If you get this, please give me
a call back at this number,
and I will explain further.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Well, let's call the
other phone number you used
to talk to Cierra, that links
directly to Clifton profile.
[line ringing]
♪ ♪
- Hi, uh, is this Cierra?
- Hey, um, this is Nev
from the show "Catfish."
Is this, uh, Clifton?
- Is this--is this Clifton?
- Hello.
- Is this Clifton?
- Yeah.
- We're here with Lawrence.
Do you know Lawrence?
- Here's why we're calling.
Lawrence has been talking
to your friend Cierra Edwards
for the past 2 1/2 years.
- You know, you absolu--
That is your friend, right?
Cierra?
- What's confusing to us is
that Lawrence has
two numbers for Cierra.
One seems to be
her real number,
and the one seems
to be this number,
which is obviously
your number.
We're trying to figure out
if he's been talking
to both you and Cierra,
or just you this whole--
- Well, we don't either.
That's why we called
to figure this out.
- Well, I'm not--
I'm not implying.
- Maybe you can't, but--
[stammers]
I'm thinking maybe you
can help by offering
some kind of a
suggestion or a solution
as to why Lawrence would
have your phone number.
That's what's weird to me.
- Okay.
- Oh, man.
- Yeah.
- I mean--
- Well, that's the guy.
That's--
- Well, he's obviously
involved in this.
- [laughs]
- What matters to me is how
much does Cierra know?
Does she care about you?
And can we go and meet her?
We know she lives in Hampton.
We can call Ieshia.
Like, we can find her.
So the sooner we get to Cierra,
the better.
- We need to go
meet her, like, now.
- All right.
- ♪ I think I found ♪
♪ The answer to ♪
♪ My shaking hands ♪
♪ Here to steady you ♪
- Based on the fact that Ieshia
told us that Clifton had made
a fake profile of her, maybe
Clifton has a few fake profiles
of some of his friends,
and uses them to talk to guys.
- ♪ Lie upon lie ♪
♪ I'm just looking to forget
the modern age ♪
- Cierra just texted.
- Oh.
- "So are you gonna tell me
where you're at
and what's going on?"
- Wow.
A lot of attitude, right?
- Yeah.
- Why don't you just say
"Call me,
and I'll tell you
whatever you wanna know."
- "I'm at work all night,
but I'll hit you up tomorrow."
- [blows raspberry]
That's bogus.
- ♪ I think I found
I think I found ♪
♪ I think I found
I think I found it all ♪
- Okay. Made it.
[foreboding music]
No one knows
what's going on anymore.
- Hey, buddy.
- Have you heard anything
since yesterday?
- She texted me, like,
a few minutes ago
before you guys came in,
and said,
"Almost finished with work,
can we meet near my job
in about 30 minutes?"
- Whoa, so she wants
to meet, like, now.
- Now, yeah, yeah.
- Basically.
- So text her back.
- All right.
- "Where should we meet you?"
- All right.
[text swooshes]
- What're you feeling?
- It's--I don't know.
As soon as--I feel like if I
get, like, some sort of answer,
you know, not--oh.
[text swooshes]
- Oh.
- Uh-oh.
- Styron Square South
in Newport News.
- All right, cool.
- Let's go.
- All right.
- This is crazy.
We're rarely in a situation
where we have no idea
who we're going to go see.
- Going in blind.
- Yeah.
- We gotta be ready
for every possible scenario.
- Well, I feel like if--
like it's, like, the guy,
I might as well just walk
back in the car.
Why even waste my time?
- Whoever they are, they
helped you in a time of need.
You know,
when no one else was there.
So even if that's Clifton,
that means something.
- Oh, well, thank you for
doing that for me, all right.
You have a nice
rest of your life.
- Here it is.
- Oh, yeah, this is it.
- All right.
- All right, let's go do it.
[foreboding music]
♪ ♪
- I feel like
this is, like, high noon.
Yeah , right?
- In, like, the town square.
Is it that girl sitting
on that bench?
- No.
- Uh-oh.
Someone just pulled in
in a hurry.
- Where?
- Right here in this Jeep.
- Oh--no, I don't think so.
- Uh-oh.
- Wait, someone's coming.
- Is that--
- Wait a second.
- Something's going on.
- Uh-oh.
- Wait, someone's coming.
- Uh.
- Wait, is that--
Is that her?
Is that--
Wait a second.
It's her.
I don't believe it.
- Hi.
- Hello.
- Hey, uh.
- What?
- Cierra.
- Hi, Cierra.
I'm Max.
This is Lawrence.
- Hey, Lawrence.
- How you doing?
- Hey.
- What?
- Is there anyone else
showing up here too?
Or is it just you?
- It was just me.
- So what--
you guys were texting?
- Yeah.
- And you got a new number?
- Yeah.
- Okay. Time out.
- Was it just you this whole
time talking to Lawrence?
- Yes.
- Clifton?
- Clifton, that's my friend.
- But why is he texting
with Clifton's phone number?
- 'Cause I was using Clifton's
phone to text him
'cause my phone is broke.
- But Clifton is your friend...
- Yeah.
- And you actually have been
texting from his phone?
- Yes.
- Because, you know,
we've found a few
Facebook pages for you.
- Why do you have two--
- I have two Facebook accounts.
- Right, you do.
- One is old.
And then I have a new one.
I do hair.
So one was more
for my professional--
- Is there anything
that we don't know?
That maybe you're married
or you have kids or, I don't--
- I don't have kids.
I'm not married.
- Here's the big question.
Were you corresponding
with Lawrence
during a traumatic
time in his life?
[foreboding music]
- Yes.
- It's her.
It's been her the whole time.
- It's you, it's you, it's you.
You were right.
- Look at this.
[laughter]
Yeah!
What a lovely young lady.
We're done--all right,
you guys enjoy yourselves.
- Yeah, we don't
have anything--
[stammers]
We vetted this.
- Lawrence, can you talk?
[laughter]
- Yeah.
- Do you have anything to say?
- I think I could talk.
- Catfish got your tongue?
It's all you, Lawrence.
[laughter]
- I was so nervous.
I did not know what to expect.
- For what?
- I didn't know what to expect.
Are you nervous?
It looked like you
was a little nervous.
- Huh? No, 'cause--
- You was nervous?
- No, no, no, 'cause I'm--
- Ah, you was nervous.
- Was I nervous?
Nah.
- It looked like you
was a little nervous.
- It just turned--it's just
the way it turned out.
Mm-hmm.
- Mm-hmm.
- [sighs]
Yeah.
- I'm glad it's you.
- It is.
- Mm-hmm.
- Okay, kids.
- How's it going?
- You hungry?
You wanna get out of the cold?
- We're getting along, right?
both: Yeah.
- Should we all just go get
lunch and like--
- [laughs]
- Yeah.
- Hang out a little bit?
- Yeah.
- Like a group date.
- Yeah.
- How does he compare
to what you imagined?
- He looks just the same.
- So wait, so one thing
that I don't understand
is when we spoke to Clifton,
why didn't he just say,
"Cierra uses my phone sometimes
to talk to Lawrence"?
- Because he thought I was
really catfishing somebody.
- My ear was bleeding
a little bit, actually,
from that phone call.
- Nine out of ten times,
that guy is the catfish.
- Oh.
- Okay, you can get
whatever you want.
- That's right.
Who's gonna order the catfish?
[foreboding music]
Hey guys, wait
for our lovely guests.
- Aw, I'm so happy.
- Yeah, me too.
- It worked out.
It never works out.
- How're you feeling?
- Ugh.
- You in, like,
a little bit of shock?
- Yeah.
A huge, huge, huge shock.
I'm just trying to see how I,
like, feel and stuff like that.
So I'm thinking about a lot of
different things at once, so--
- All right.
Well, let's enjoy--
- [sighs]
- Just, you know, take it easy.
♪ ♪
- I don't know
what his problem is.
- No, he's 19.
He's playing it cool, I think.
- I know he's, like,
freaking out.
[foreboding music]
- I don't know
what his problem is.
- No, he's 19.
He's playing it cool, I think.
- No, I don't think he's
playing it cool.
I think he's super nervous.
- Well, he's trying to.
- No, he--
I know he is,
like, freaking out.
- Hey.
- Hey, you're back.
Hey, so wait, so hold on.
Real talk.
What do you think of Lawrence?
- He is fine.
[laughs]
- So, okay, good.
- He is fine.
He is everything I thought--
- Then what took you
so long to--
- Have a seat.
We're just catching up.
- All right, catch up.Yeah.
- All right.
- Well, this is a real treat.
It is not every day
that we have two people
who are who
they said they were.
[ominous music]
- So, what're you guys
gonna do tonight?
Saturday night.
- Saturday night.
- You don't have plans, do you?
- Now that we know it's you,
you guys can make some plans.
Right? I mean, I hope you're
both down to hang, right?
- Mm-hmm.
[texts swooping]
- Wait, so we gotta figure out
something fun to do.
[text swoops]
- [laughs]
- What's up?
- Nothing.
- Oh, okay.
Real talk for a second.
It's gonna require some effort
to see each other.
I mean, you don't have to see
each other all the time.
But you know,
college are coming up.
Thanksgiving--you know,
things coming up.
You know, breaks are coming up.
Do you think one of you, or--
would be interested in trying
to meet up again
sometime soon?
- I would definitely
be interested.
- Okay, great.
- All right, if you guys
don't see each other,
Uncle Nev and Uncle Max
are gonna be really unhappy.
- We're gonna be bummed.
- Yeah.
'Cause it's in your hands,
I mean,
you needed us to bring
you together.
You shouldn't need us
to keep you together.
- Yeah, definitely.
- I can tell Cierra
doesn't mess around.
- It's not Cierra
I'm worried about.
- [laughs]
- Oh, yeah.
- All right.
I'm over this lunch.
- You didn't like it?
- No.
- You don't like anything.
You are picky.
- Sorry, guys.
- It was good.
No, it was good.
- This corn--terrible.
- Could've had nothing.
- Hmm?
- Or perhaps--
[cell phone rings]
- Oh.
- What the heck?
- Is that Clifton?
- Oh, uh-oh.
- Oh, excuse me.
- Ugh.
- Tsk.
- I mean, I don't know.
I didn't--
It just wasn't
what I would think.
- Are we [bleep] this up?
- What would you think?
- No.
I would think he would be
more so interested in me
'cause I was interested in him.
- Do you feel like
he's not showing the in?
- I mean, it's just
a little--I don't know.
- Yeah, kind of.
[foreboding music]
♪ ♪
- Mystery call.
- Yeah.
- Are you good?
- Yeah.
- Are we being annoying?
- Nah. It's, uh--nah.
- Well, what's up?
Are you--are you feeling it?
- Uh, it's not--
it's a little situation.
Basically...
I'm engaged.
- Come on.
- Yeah.
- What the [bleep]
are you talking about?
- Yeah.
It's--
- How could you not tell us?
Wait, so you have a girlfriend?
- Fiancé, yeah.
- Legit fiancé?
- Yeah.
- Well, how long
have you been engaged?
- Not too long.
Like a couple of months.
- And you bought her
a ring and everything?
- Yeah.
- What're you doing?
- I thought it would, like--
like, meeting her would, like,
change--I don't know--the way,
like-- the way I feel, like,
I would just be feeling her,
but, like, I can't.
Like, I'm actually, like, I
guess, in love with my fiancé.
- So meeting Cierra only
confirmed for you
that you really want
this other girl?
- Yeah.
- She needs to know what's up.
Because she thinks
you're acting kind of cold,
and that you're not into her,
which isn't really
what's going on here.
- All right, I mean, it still
can--I don't know--
work out in different ways--
- No, don't try and--
- Not like that, but, like--
- You can't.
You [bleep] up.
- Yeah.
- As not fun and uncomfortable
as it is gonna be,
I think you gotta
just be straight-up.
- Yeah.
- Jeez, man.
You ready?
- Eh.
- Oh, jeez.
- [sighs]
[suspenseful music]
- [sighs]
- Mm, mm.
- I think, Max, we should
let them chat for a minute.
- Okay.
- Let's give them some room.
- Hey.
- Hey.
- [laughs]
- How're you doing?
- Great, I'm fine.
- You sure?
- Yeah, I'm fine.
- Okay, so here's
what's going on
and why he's acting weird.
Lawrence is engaged.
- What?
How did he not tell us
about this until now?
- I don't know.
- How're you feeling?
You good?
- I'm fine, I'm fine, mm-hmm.
- So, I'm about to get serious
right now.
- I was waiting for that.
- Uh, all right,
so basically, like...
[ambient music]
Mm.
- [laughs]
Can you talk?
- No, I can't, it's stuck.
Uh.
- Don't be stuck.
- All right, you ready?
You good?
- Yeah, I'm fine.
- Okay.[sniffs]
So don't be mad at me,
or nothing like that.
Basically, like,
I am technically, like,
engaged, or whatever.
- Okay.
- That's it.
- What was the point?
- So I can, like, meet you,
and, like, I guess, like, see
what I wanted or whatever,
like, so yeah.
- Okay, so now
that you met me...
Why do you have to see me?
To my face, sit down,
eat lunch--
- I didn't know how I would
feel until I'm here.
And it's like, seeing you
physically is just different.
So--
- But you didn't talk to me.
When we was alone,
you wouldn't say nothing.
I said what's up?
I could understand
there's nerves
or whatever, okay.
But I don't see the point
for you to come
all the way out here to see me,
making me think,
"You're pretty.
"I'm coming to see you.
I wanna see if
you're real or not."
What was the point of that?
For you to tell me
you have a [bleep] fiancé?
♪ ♪
It's just pointless.
Pointless. A waste of time.
- Hey, guys.
Sorry to interrupt.
We're just as shocked
as you are.
I feel bad that we
brought you into this.
- Yeah.
- I'm mad as hell.
Like, that's embarrassing.
- Yes, and some--
- If I was dating somebody,
and I've made the decision
to get on my knee as a man,
and propose to her,
it's no doubt in my mind
that that is
the one for me.
It's no doubt.
It's no reason to meet
another chick,
'cause she don't
even matter.
If you're having questions
in your mind,
that's something that you have
to think to yourself.
Now, are you wasting her time?
- Yeah, I understand.
- Okay, Lawrence has some
figuring out to do.
- I agree.
- Unless there's anything left
to say on your part.
- No, I'm good.
- Alright.
- Bye, guys.
[soulful music]
♪ ♪
- Sorry.
- Yeah.
- We really didn't know.
- Messed up.
- He put himself in this
position, but--
- He sure did.
- He sure did.
- He sure did.
It was nice meeting you.
Yes.
Thank you.
- Good luck.
- Yes.
- All right, Cierra.
- Bye.
- You can sit in the back now.
- Put him in the back!
♪ ♪
- I'm sure this girl that
you're engaged to is great,
but, like, you're not ready
to be married.
- I really shouldn't be.
- You don't have enough
figured out yet.
- Yeah, no, I realized that.
I didn't realize that till now.
Like, that was, like, crazy.
♪ ♪
- You came, you saw,
you [bleep] that one up, huh?
- ♪ But I'll stick
through it ♪
[line ringing]
- Hey, Lawrence.
- How's it going, mop top?
- [vocalizes]
- It's going good.
Got a little longer too.
- Yeah.
- How have you been handling
the situation
that you found
yourself in?
- You know,
it ended pretty bad.
I reached out a little.
And I was, like,
trying to, like,
basically explain to her
everything, you know.
- You kind of burned her.
- Don't make me feel
bad about it.
- But what's your
status right now?
Are you still engaged?
- Um, no.
- You broke off the engagement?
- I broke it off.
- Wow.
- You guys taught me actually
a lot, you have no idea.
I've learned...
- All right, well, good.
- Glad we could help out.
- Thank you.
Appreciate it.
- All right, Lawrence.
- See you guys.
[line ringing]
- Hi.
- What's up?
How're you doing?
- I'm fine.
- Are you feeling any better
now than you were that day?
- Yes, but, I mean,
it still kind of sucks
because, like,
we don't talk anymore.
- You think there's a chance
that you could still
just be friends?
- No.
- Whoa.
- It's pretty definite.
- Yeah.
- I don't know if you heard,
but Lawrence broke it off
with his fiancé.
- Are you serious?
- Yes.
- He tried to have his cake
and eat it too.
And he went home cakeless.
- Right.
It blew up in his face.
Yeah.
- Well, so that's it.
- Wipe your hands clean.
- Mm-hmm.
- And the future
is bright for you, Cierra.
- Very bright.
[laughs]
- All right.
- All right.
- See you.
- Bye.
1034
00:41:19.