Catfish: The TV Show (2012–…): Season 8, Episode 8 - DeJohn & Cashay - full transcript

- DeJohn, he's been talking to
Cashay for over a year or two.

- Like, she just got
the purest soul.

I want to ask her
for her hand in marriage.

- [gasps]
This is madness.

There's a lot on the line now.

Nobody's here.

- Oh, I see someone.
- You do?

- Someone just came down
the stairs.

- What the?

- "I need your help."
"Help."

For almost a decade,



"Catfish"
has brought desperate hopefuls

the answers they deserve.

- Thank you guys so much
for bringing us together.

- This time around, though,
we flipped the script.

Now I'm heading out
with my cohost, Kamie.

- Who's ready to go fishing?

- We're helping people
who need us the most.

Let's do it!

Only they have no idea.

- She doesn't know
I reached out to you guys.

- Oh, my goodness.

- This season, we're being
tipped off by friends...

- I care about him a lot.

- Family...



- My brother's really
in love with her.

- And even anonymous sources.

Whoa!
- What?

- This is from
the whistleblower.

Ride-or-dies
who will not sit back

while their love ones
get played.

- ♪ Come on and catch me now ♪

- Why can't we meet?

- Homey is getting played.

- So many layers.

- 'Cause even when
you don't know it...

- Chill, chill, chill, chill.
- [bleep] him, man.

- Take a second.
- [exhales]

- "Catfish" has your back.

[dramatic musical sting]

- How early do you have to
get ready before we film?

- I didn't get into the shower
until 10:00.

- The call time was 10:15!
- [laughs]

- Do you know what time
I have to wake up?

To put all this [bleep]
together,

and it's still not right 'cause
I don't have foundation on.

I just had to make do
with what I had.

You know what it's like to
"make do"

and then be on camera?
It's horrible--

- I did make do
this morning also actually.

- With what?

- No, I make--
I made a doo doo, I mean.

[laughter]

- Funny.

- All right, we got
a video submission here.

- Hey, Nev, this is Adonis.
- Adonis.

- I just wanted to reach
out to you on behalf

of my brother DeJohn.

[Binki's "Sea Sick"]

- ♪ I feel like I'm stable,
why I'm always tabled? ♪

- He's been talking
for, like, a couple years

with this girl named Cashay.

He swears he's in love
with her.

- ♪ See there's
no one like you ♪

♪ It's not an obsession ♪

♪ I just need to find you ♪

- But she doesn't
show her face on video.

- ♪ You can be my sunshine
even when it's grey ♪

- Whenever he tries to go on
a date or try to reach out--

probably go see a movie or so,
she always stands him up.

- ♪ I can't make my mind
if I want it ♪

- I feel like she's a catfish,
but he doesn't wanna see it.

And I just don't wanna
see him hurt.

Can you help me out?

- ♪ I-I-I-I ♪

- It sounds like his brother
and this girl he's talking to

must live close enough
to each other

that they could be meeting up.
Like--

- That's weird.
- Right.

- Let's get DeJohn's brother
on the line.

I need more details.

[video call ringing]

- Oh.
- Oh.

both: Hey.
- [laughs]

both: You're sideways.
[laughs]

Can you--
- Oh, yeah, my bad.

- Oh, ay, there it is.
- There we go.

Much better.
- All right.

What's up, Adonis?
Where are you?

- Nice.

- Okay.
That's where my Dad's from.

- That's where my wife's from.

- Go blue.
- [laughs]

Yeah, you see me?
[laughter]

- And how old are you?
- I'm 20.

- All right, and your brother,
how old is he?

- Wait.
- What?

20-year-old looking out
for his 38-year-old brother.

That's very sweet.
- [chuckles]

- So, tell us more
about DeJohn.

- So what do you think
the best way

for us to get in touch
with your brother is?

- Add him to the--
all right.

[video call ringing]

- Oh!
- Hey!

- DeJohn.
- Hello.

- Surprise.
- Surprise.

- Hey.
[laughter]

I'm not even sure if he knows--
so, uh--

- Probably not.

- Your--your brother
got in touch with us.

We make the show "Catfish"

which I know he'd mentioned
to you.

- Yeah.

- In regards to
your friend Cashay.

- Right.

- First of all,
we're here to help,

so I know you got
a lot going on.

You have kids as well, right?
- Yeah, 12, 8, and 7.

both: Wow.
- You have your hands full.

- Yeah, and I got custody
of all of them.

- Good for you.

I feel like we don't
see enough,

like, empowered single dadsaround,

so that's really nice to hear.
- Oh, yeah, yeah.

- How long have you been
talking to Cashay?

- Close to about
21 months now.

- You're very, uh--
- Precise.

- When you've been in a
relationship for eight years,

and that was toxic,

and you find something
that's so clear,

you kinda latch onto it.

The conversations are crazy
off the chain, like,

they different.
Like, mentally she gave me

everything that the females
out here didn't give me.

- And how serious
are you with her?

- Everybody else
is irrelevant.

She makes me feel special
even in hurt times.

2019 was a really tough year
for me.

I lost a little bro six months
ago from violence,

and she was there
just to console me

and try to keep me sane.

And a person that helps you
through a lot of that

can get all my love.
Every single bit of it.

- And did you guys
meet on an app?

- Yes, we met on
Plenty of Fish.

- How did I know?

I knew it was gonna be
Plenty of Fish.

- I tried dating.
That didn't work.

I guess I didn't understand

how to get in
the dating game again.

- It's hard out here.
- Well, yeah.

- So I tried to go with
the new millennium stuff,

uh, which is the internet.

- And how old is--is Cashay?
- Cashay, she's, like, 28.

- Okay,
and where does she live?

- Detroit, and that's
the other weird part about it.

It's, like, if I'm here
and you're here,

within 21 months
we should've found--

- 21 times to see each other.

- I'm just wishing for the--

for the best
out of this situation.

- Same.

I want the best out
of this situation for you,

so we're definitely
gonna help you out.

- I've been looking at those
pictures for so long.

I'm ready.
It's time to meet her.

- You guys hang tight.
We'll come out to Detroit.

- Appreciate it.

- All right.
- Choo-choo.

- We'll see you guys soon.

- Bye.
- All right, thank you.

[guitar riff]

- Oh.
- Wow.

- I really want this for him.

Single dad, just wants a girl
to have a conversation with.

You don't get that these days.
- I know.

So let's go meet DeJohn
in Detroit with the catfish.

- [laughs]

- ♪ We're gonna shout,
shout, shout, shout ♪

♪ Before we turn to dust ♪

♪ ♪

- All right, Motown.

DeJohn, totally new to
the world of online dating,

I get why it never even
occurred to him

that she could be fake.

- I really want for this girl
to be real,

but I'm worried she's not.
- All right, here we are.

- DeJohn to De-rescue.

♪ ♪

- This is where Laura grew up.

- In Dearborn?
[gasps]

- Hello.

- Hey.
- Hello.

- How are you guys?
Nice to meet you.

- Yeah, nice to meet you.
- What's up?

Come on.
- Good to see you.

- So tell us about yourself.
- Yeah, um,

I own a tow truck company
and a carpentry company.

- Good for you.

- I got, uh, custody
of all three of my kids,

and they my world.

- Were you married
or just together?

- Engaged, then I broke up
out the relationship,

so I tried the--the new stuff,
the internet.

Then, uh,

Cashay got in my inbox and
I was looking at her pictures.

I inboxed her back.
We started texting.

From there it
was like firecrackers.

[upbeat music]

Like, she just got
the purest soul.

She is an independent woman--
work, take care of herself,

then I asked, like,
"can we meet up?"

But when I got there, you know,
like, ten minutes later

I got the text,
"oh, I can't come."

They called her in
to work or something.

It's, like, I done heard
so many, like, excuses.

- How many times
have you tried to meet?

- About eight times.
- Wow.

- It seems like she's nervous,
you can be shocked,

but if you can talk to me
over the phone,

well, you can talk to me
that same way in person.

- But even if you're shy,

that's no excuse to bail,
like, eight times.

- And we in the same
neck of the woods.

- Yeah.

So she has pictures
on her Plenty of Fish profile

and she has sent you pictures.
- Yeah.

- And are the pictures, like,
just regular every day,

kind of personal pictures?

- Yeah, yeah, I can show you
guys a couple pictures

right now.
- Yeah.

- Also does she have kids
that you know about?

- Yeah, she got one
that I know about.

- Huh.
- This is Cashay.

She's beautiful.
- She's cute.

- Yeah.
- Yeah, she's cute.

She's got tattoos.

- This is a filter
from social media.

- For sure, I mean,

I don't know if you use
any filters on--

- Nah, you know.
- Right,

so you may not know that.
- Mm-hmm.

- But for her to say she
doesn't have any social media

and then send you pictures

that are almost certainly from
social media posts is weird.

- Mm-hmm.
Welcome to 2020.

[laughs]

- Yeah, I know.

Well, you've been out of
the game for the last decade.

- Yeah.
- You know what I mean?

- Yeah.

- A lot's--a lot's changed,
man.

[laughs]
- Yeah.

Other than those photos,
has she sent you other photos?

- Yes!
- So she's not shy.

- Exactly!

- Whoa.
- Exactly.

- So if you can send
your titties,

you're not shy.
- Yes!

That's exactly what I'm saying.
- [laughs]

- Wait, are they the same
as the face--

are they the--
- Yes!

It's one torso.
- It's one whole body.

- Wow.
- With the face?

- With the face.

[confrontational music]

- How do you--I mean--

- Thank you!
That's what I'm saying!

It just gives you the persona
of someone who's not shy.

- Right.
- Yeah.

- So have you returned
the favor?

- The favor?
Yes.

- [laughs]
- Wow.

- You don't get no picture
if you don't send no picture.

- That's fair.

All right, well we got
our work cut out for us.

So send us the info you have.
- Okay.

- We're gonna figure it out.
- We're on the case.

- All right, later.
- All right.

- Oh, boy.
We got a live one.

- I think it's way worse
than he thought.

[suspenseful music]

- I don't think he's ready
to concede

that she's not the girl
in the picture, so--

- I mean, we don't know
that for a fact.

- We don't know that
for a fact.

- She did send him nudes
with her face in them.

- That's true.

- After all
that he's going through,

I really want for
this to be a good one.

Something's tells me

he's gonna get his heart
broken all over again.

- Uh-oh.
Got a text

from DeJohn.

"Hey, Nev,

"there's something I didn't
tell you guys yesterday.

I want to show you something.
Can you meet me at this place?"

Something's always up.

Something is always up.

[rock music]

So he texted me.

He just says "I wanna
show you something,"

and he sent me an address.

I'm very unclear as to where
we're going and why.

- I don't like that.

♪ ♪

- God.

- ♪ ♪

The heck is going on here?
- Hello.

- So what the hell you got us
all the way out here for?

- Uh, I actually would like
to just show you.

- So let's see.
- Come on.

- I'm more invested than
I actually led you to believe.

- [gasps]
Hello!

- Hello, how you doing,
Cecelia?

Um, I would like to show, uh,
them the ring I have, so...

- Wait, uh--hi.
- Hi!

[laughs]
- Hi!

- So if things were going to--
- Oh, my God.

- As planned,

I was going to ask her
for her hand in marriage.

- [gasps]
Can I try it on?

- Wait, so you bought this?

- Yeah, I've been paying on it
for a while.

- Well, this is
a mighty nice stone, sir.

- I fell for her.

- This is madness.

There's a lot on the line now.

- We're actually headed to a
café to investigate this girl.

You wanna come with us?

- If you guys would allow me,
I would love to.

- Yeah.
All right, let's do it.

- Wow.

- Well, there's a lot
of cameras in here.

- Oh, yeah.

♪ ♪

- Going to this little café,
get on the computer.

All right, so let's just dive
in and see what we can find.

So let's take--
oh, you sent us an email.

Great.

The craziest part
about the story

is that Cashay
lives in Detroit.

- Right.
- You live in Detroit.

You've talked about meeting up
many times.

She hasn't showed up.
- Right.

- All right, so
let's do the phone number.

'Cause, have you searched
her phone number?

- I didn't even know you can
search a phone number.

- All right, well, yeah, so

we never know
what we're gonna get,

but maybe we can get
a clue or something.

[mysterious music]

- Oh.
- Oh.

- So we got a hit.
No name.

But look, social profiles.
- Ooh.

- For Ebony [bleep].
What is this?

♪ ♪

You don't know this girl,
right?

Someone set this up
a while ago.

Profile picture
was updated last in 2016.

It's private though,

so it's hard to tell
if it's real or fake.

But, she has a unique handle.

Let's search and see
if it's anybody on Instagram.

Bam, bam!
No posts.

- Same picture.
- But same picture.

Ebb.
Wait, who she's following?

Four people.

Cid, Chrissy Teigen,
Meghan Trainor--

- Barbie.

- Is that her?

- Ooh!
- Exactly!

That is the girl.
- Barbie.

- That's her.
That's Cashay, that's her.

- That's the girl
in the pictures.

- Yep.
Nakeya.

She's 26.
- Where does she live?

- That is crazy.
- She's in Louisiana.

She's been tagged in a bunch
of stuff.

- So does this girl
just have nudes--

- Yeah, where are you--
how are you seeing--

- I don't understand that.
- Contact.

- Yeah.
- Wow.

- She has her phone number?
- It's for business I guess.

Should we call?
- What's the area code?

- Let's give her a call.
Nakeya.

[line trilling]

- Please leave your message.
[beeps]

- Hi, um,
I'm looking for Nakeya.

Uh, this is Nev from "Catfish."

We think someone
might be using your photos,

so if you could give me a call,
or we could sort this out.

Thanks.
[beeps]

All right,
she only follows four people

and two are celebrities,

so let's message
this other person, Cid.

[ominous music]

All right, so I sent Cid
a message.

♪ ♪

- I feel really bad.
I'm sorry.

- This is--this is the craziest
stuff ever.

♪ ♪

[phone rings]
- Oh, she's calling.

Hi.
- Yeah.

- Is this Cid or Cidney?
- Yeah.

- It's about a girl
named Ebony [bleep].

- We're trying
to get in touch with Ebony,

and on her Instagram
she only follows four people,

and you're one of them,

so we just thought
maybe you knew her.

- Some guy in Detroit that
we're trying to help out.

Do you know someone
named Cashay?

How do you know her?

- Um.

- Okay.

- Okay, great.

- All right, thanks.

- Okay.

- What in the [bleep]
is going on?

- What?
- So she knows something.

- She know a Cashay.
- Right, which is weird because

as far as we know Cashay
doesn't really exist.

- Period.

- But she obviously wants
to tell us something.

- Man, I'm tripping.
It's just not making no sense.

One person, she don't know
Ebony, but she know a Cashay--

- Or Cid's the catfish.

- It don't sound
like her, though.

- It doesn't sound like her?
- Yeah, it's weird.

- Like Cashay?
- It don't sound like her.

No.
- All right, so look,

the fact that Ebony
only follows four people

on her Instagram

indicates that there's
some connection between them.

Obviously,
we have to go meet this girl

and see what she has to say,
because aside from that,

there's nothing left
for us to find,

meaning it's either Ebony
and that's the end of it,

or this girl's somehow involved
and knows more.

- What does she know?

♪ ♪

- Obviously, we have
to go meet this girl, Cid.

It's either Ebony
and that's the end of it,

or this girl's somehow involved
and knows more.

- What does she know?

[phone swooshes]
- Oh, she sent me a text.

Oh, here's the address.

- So let's go.
- All right, so let's go.

- This is nerve-racking.

- So this is Cid--
- Cidney, AKA Ebony.

Why did she wanna know
who was being catfished so bad?

What if she's talking
to multiple people?

- Oh.

- What if this is Ebony,

and she's talking
to multiple people,

and doesn't know which one
called the show?

- Ooh.
- Something ain't right.

Something ain't right
in the water.

[ominous music]

This is weird.

- Cidney...

Well, there's one car
over here.

Could be her.

Well, not a lot of people
here right now.

So, it's pretty cold.

- And this is her?
- I mean--

- Come on, man.

♪ ♪

- There's a person
right over there.

- Where?
- Aren't they sitting down?

- Yeah, somebody's sitting
over there.

- Like, there is.

- It looks like it, but--
- Yeah, it's a girl.

Somebody.
- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

God.
- Ooh.

Aw.

- It's icy.

Cidney?

- Hi.
- Hi.

- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.

- Hi.
- Hi.

- Cidney, right?
- Yes, Cidney, yes.

- Okay, and this is Kamie
- Hi, nice to meet you.

- Hi, Kamie, nice to meet you.

- This is DeJohn.
- Hi.

- You had asked about who we're
dealing with here.

- Yeah, I wanted to know
what's going on.

- Well, we wanna know
the same thing.

[laughter]

- We were hoping you might have
something to tell us.

And when I asked you if you
knew someone named Cashay,

you said, "yes."
- I know Cashay.

- Are you Cashay?

- I'm not Cashay.

But I do know who Cashay is.

[mysterious music]

- And so who is that?

Who's Cashay?

- Cashay's my cousin.

♪ ♪

- Cashay.
- But what's her real name?

- Kay, I'm not gonna--
- Well, okay, whatever.

- You guys, you know,

I'm not gonna tell you guys
stuff about her, you know?

I don't feel comfortable--
- What can you tell us?

- Okay, well,
she does this a lot.

♪ ♪

- Talks to guys on the
internet as someone else?

- Yeah.

It's her--
kind of her thing.

I've told her multiple times
that,

"you need to stop doing this,"
like, you know?

People get hurt.
Their feelings get hurt.

It's not healthy.
It's not good.

I'm so sorry that that's
been happening to you.

Sorry, about that.

I really am.

- Anything else that
we should know, or...

- I told you all
I can tell you.

- Okay.
- Yeah.

- All right, so then should
we--let's call her.

Wanna get in the car
and call her?

All right, well, thank you.
- You're welcome.

- Thank you.
- You're welcome.

- And uh--
- I'm so sorry.

Nice to meet you, I'm so sorry
this happened to you.

- Okay, see you.
- See you.

♪ ♪

- What the [bleep]
just happened?

- All right, sort of helpful.
- Sort of not.

- There's no way her cousin's
real name is Cashay.

- There's no way.

- So should we just call her?
- Yes.

- All right, let's just call.

[outgoing phone ringing]

- Hey, is this Cashay?

- Hi, uh, so, this is Nev

from, uh,
the TV show "Catfish,"

and I'm happy to be
speaking to you

because as I'm sure you know,

you've been talking
to DeJohn now for a while,

and I'd love to help you guys
meet each other.

- If it makes any difference,

in terms of you feeling
comfortable or ready to meet,

we were able to track down

and locate the girl
who those photos are of.

So DeJohn knows that's not you.
- [sobbing]

- And I'm not sure
what's funny about that.

- Are you in Michigan?

- Do you think that if you
gathered your thoughts

and got yourself sort of ready,
that tomorrow at some point

you could be ready to meet up
with DeJohn?

- All right, so I'll expect you
to text me in the morning

letting us know when and where
and we'll just be ready for it.

- Is there anything you want me
to tell DeJohn?

[ominous music]

- Okay.
- Okay.

- All right, thank you.

- Bye bye.

- Sounded like she was crying.

- Yeah, I just wanna go home.

[Danny Ayer's
"Sharp as a Knife"]

- ♪ You say you wanna
be my muse ♪

♪ But you just wanted
to use ♪

- Whoever this girl is, what
she's done is super messed up.

- ♪ You say you wanna
be my muse ♪

- ♪ But you just wanted
to use ♪

♪ I meant nothing to you ♪

♪ Sharp as a knife ♪

[knocking]
- Bawk bawk, bitch.

- Who is it?

[laid back music]

- Morning.
I was just watching too.

- Really?
- Yeah.

- It's still great every time.
- It's great.

- DeJohn said he heard
from Cashay

and that we should give hima call.

[outgoing phone ringing]

- DeJohn.
- Hey.

- What up, man?

- Okay.
All right, so we'll come over

to your place now
and get going.

- No idea where this
is gonna go.

I just don't get--
why drag this guy in so deep?

- The man has ring on standby.

- A nice ring.
- A nice ring.

For what he was hoping was
gonna be a nice girl--

the girl of his dreams.

- Are you ready to rock?
- Yeah.

♪ ♪

- Oh, what's up, Adonis?
- Hey!

- Good to see you, man.

- Aw, I thought we were never
gonna get to meet you.

- Yeah, good to meet you.

- Hello.
- Hey, what's up?

- What's going on?
What's going on?

- Good to see you.

- [grunts]

- Did you fill in Adonis
about yesterday?

- A little bit, a little bit.

- To your suspicion
about her not being real,

we were able to find the woman
who's in the photos

that DeJohn
has been looking at.

That's not who DeJohn's
been talking to.

- So she's not
who she says she was.

- Right.
- So...

- I got mixed feelings, period,
about the situation.

I don't know
if I wanna meet this person,

but then I wanna know
who's behind the pictures.

She said she loved me
yesterday,

and it's, like, how do you lie
to a person that you love?

- That's a lot to take in, bro.

- So why don't you text her
back, since she texted you.

Why don't you just say,
"we're ready to head there now.

I'll see you soon."
- I don't know.

I just want you to
keep your head up, bro.

- Uh, yeah.
- Stay positive, man.

- Yeah.
[phone dings]

- She says, "I'm here."

- All right, well, let's do it.
- Let's do it.

[suspenseful music]

- All right.
Good to meet you, man.

- Nice meeting you too.

- We'll call you
if we need backup.

- All right.
[laughs]

♪ ♪

- Wow, this place is close.
It's, like, ten minutes away.

- That's crazy.

I really wanna know
who this is, man.

I--
[scoffs]

My brain is like
a merry-go-round right now,

going round and round.

- It's just down
this next street.

Yeah, this one.

- All right.
Everyone ready?

- Yup.
- I'm ready.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- There a doorbell?

- I don't see one.

Don't see anything.

Hello!

- Aw, there isn't.
There's another door.

- Another door.

- You did doubt this.

- Door doesn't look like
it gets used a lot, though.

The house kind of feels like...
- Nobody's here.

- It doesn't feel super
lived in, right?

- It's blocked.

- What upstairs, I--
- Oh, I see someone.

- You do?
- Yeah.

No, I definitely see someone.

Someone just
came down the stairs.

It was a woman's voice.
- Yeah.

- Okay.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- Oh, hello.

Hi.

- Hi.

[suspenseful music]

- Oh, hello.

Hi.

♪ ♪

- Hi.

- Nice to meet you.

Do you wanna come down
and say hello?

♪ ♪

- So you're Cashay?

That's--
that's crazy.

- Thank you for
agreeing to meet us.

Just to be very clear,
you've been talking to DeJohn?

- Yeah.

- What's your name?

- My real name is Gervaise.
- All right.

- Whoa.

- Cidney, who we met yesterday,
is that your cousin?

- Yeah.
- Okay.

- [sighs]
- Are you all right?

- Yes, I'm okay.

- It's overwhelming.

- Yeah.

21 months down the drain.

I didn't know who you were.

I got a whole bunch
of questions.

- Can we just get your stats?
Are you 30?

- Yeah, I'm 30.
- All right.

- And do you have a son?

- [sighs]
No.

- Do you have any ki--
uh, children?

- No.
- Okay.

- Wow.

- Have you ever
ran into DeJohn before?

Because you guys live
really close to each other.

- No.

- What happened?

Why did you mess with me?

I mean, for one time just--
just be real.

- I didn't even--
like, this is not intentional,

or, like,
it just happened I guess.

In the beginning,
it was a game.

I was fishing one day
on POF,

and some type of way,
he just got hooked.

- Mmm.

- It wasn't necessarily you
I was fishing for,

it just happened, and, like,
over the years, you know,

we just grown to be close
I guess, you know?

- You had me believing in a--
in a--a...

in a whole nother woman.

- No, I had you looking
at a whole nother woman.

But the woman that you
talked to every day was me.

- Why use
somebody else's photos?

Like,
you're an attractive woman.

You have beautiful eyes.

Why not use pictures
of yourself?

- When you're behind
that person

you can do and you can be
and you can create the image

that you wanna portray
to somebody else.

because I already know how
I've been tormented in my past,

you know what I'm saying?
I know how I've been judged.

Cashay probably might be

a little bit better
than my real person.

- When did you first start
making a fake profile?

- I've been fishing since

before catfish
was really catfish.

Like, the chat lines--
the phone chat lines

and stuff like that.
It was like an outlet.

- How many profiles
have you had?

- Ain't no telling.

- I was so caught up
in Cashay that,

like, a couple months ago,

went and purchased
an engagement ring.

I was that serious.

[dramatic music]

- Mmm.

Mmm.

- Because you guys talked about
starting a life together.

- Yeah.

- [heavy breathing]

[cries]

Mmm.

[sighs]

- Forked over a lot of money
for that damn ring

thinking that I found my one.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- I'm sorry, DeJohn.

I'm sorry.

I care about you.

Like, I really...
I care about you.

I didn't want to hurt you,
okay?

I can't do nothing
but stand here

as a woman, as me,
and apologize and hope

that you can still
try to start over as friends.

That's all--you know...

- I mean--

I need some air real quick.

This is a bit much.

Bit much for me.

♪ ♪

Oh, Lord.

This is crazy as hell.

♪ ♪

Totally different people.

[Oce Elliot's "Forest Floor"]

- Nothing was real.

- ♪ Lay me down
on the forest floor ♪

- What do you think
drove you to kind of

hide behind these profiles?

- I had a terrible childhood,
and I was not nobody's friend.

I thought Cashay--
she's really really pretty.

And, like, my profile
just didn't work like hers.

Cashay is just very nice,
and just--I don't know.

- Are you not nice?
- She's just different.

I get nervous.
I laugh when I'm nervous.

- That's fine.
- I cry, like--

I'm weird.

- I don't think
you're that weird.

You're different.
You're interesting.

- Thank you.

- My only issue with it is that

you're--you're really
hurting other people.

- ♪ Let me down easy, baby ♪

- Everything was lies.

Everything.

- ♪ Let me down easy, baby ♪

- I was in love with
a figment of my imagination,

or a figment
of someone else's imagination.

I don't know.

♪ ♪

- I've never went through no
situation like this.

This is--this is crazy as hell.

I don't even know that girl.
I don't.

I've never felt this way ever.

- Should we go back?
- Uh, yeah, if you want to.

- I don't wanna
do this anymore.

I care about that man.

He's a good-hearted person.
I never meant to hurt him.

[tense music]

- We're back.

- Why don't we go inside?

Then we can all sit down,
we can talk a little bit more.

- That's fine.

♪ ♪

- Have a seat.

All right, nice and warmin here,

which is nice.
- Much better.

- So, Gervaise,

okay, so I wanna try
and understand.

You had fake profiles before...
- Cashay?

- Right.
- Or before DeJohn?

- Who is it--
is Ebony?

There's an Instagram account

for someone named
Ebony [bleep]--

- That's linked
to your phone number.

- Is that yours?

- Um, well,
I can't explain that.

- Could it be one of
your fake profiles

that you just, like,
don't remember?

- It takes a lot to be
17 and a half different people.

[laughs]

- Is that how many profiles
you have?

- Ain't no telling.

[laughing]

- Well, then how about
the photos of Cashay

that you're using?
The photos of the real girl?

How did you find her profile?
- She just popped up.

- Where did you find nude
pictures of her to send to him?

- Oh, yeah, "hey--

"hey, what's up, baby?
Call, uh--"

that girl, inboxed her,
started talking to her,

get some nude pictures from her
and send them to me

'cause this [bleep] want
pictures, and I can't get them.

- Wait, so you had a guy
befriend the real girl

and get her to send him nudes?

That's what you're saying.
- It was the only way.

I couldn't just inbox her,
like,

"Hey, I'm using your pictures.
Can I get some nudes?"

- Well, obviously,

but you do see that's like a
huge violation of her privacy.

This guy she
doesn't even know--

- She sent the pictures.
- She sent it to that guy,

not to this guy
and whoever else.

If he was talking to you
to get your nudes,

I'm sure you would have
an issue with that.

That's [bleep] up.

- I'm flabbergasted.
[laughs]

I'm, um, I mean--

I don't know.

- I'm weird.

I don't know what else, like,
how even to explain it.

I got...

- You have a big personality,
and what I'm picking up here

is that you like to assume
that your unusual personality

is something that people
are going to use against you,

and as a result, you throw
it out there aggressively

as an excuse for them
to not like you.

- I don't throw it out there
at all.

I pretend to be somebody else.

- Well, right, but--but
in person you--I can see you--

right, you do stuff like that.

[puzzling music]

- I'm just trying to understand
and get a sense of who you are.

- Maybe if I already have it
in my head

that this [bleep]'s
not gonna like me--

- Yeah, but why
do you start there?

- It's easier that way.
- Right.

- It's easier because, like,
oh--

- Right.
- Like, if you do then you do,

but I already had it
in my head, you know?

- So that you won't
get your heart broken.

- Or your feelings hurt.

- It just feels like you're
trying to prove yourself right

instead of even giving yourself
a chance.

[reflective music]

♪ ♪

- Over the years,
we built something.

And although
I may have wanted to, like,

shake the spot and just run,

it was hard because--

- Because you didn't want to
hurt him.

Which is what you've said.

- And because, like,
he's still my friend.

I'm sorry.

But I'm not sorry.

I'm sorry because you're hurt,
but I'm not sorry because

at times when you needed me,
I was able to be there.

When I need you,
you were able to be there.

So I'm not sorry for the good
things that came out of it,

but I'm sorry for the road
in your life

that wasn't necessarily real.

I mean, at the end,

you know, I'm sorry.

♪ ♪

- What would you ideally
like to happen?

- Like, hopefully
we can still be friends.

I wanna be your friend.

- How do we start over?

I mean, how do we start fresh
being friends?

Like, learning each other?

- Oh, she's gonna start fresh.

- Oh, oh, oh.

- Hi, my name is Gigi.
- [laughs]

I'm DeJohn.
- Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you too.
- Friends?

- [laughs]

[laughter]

Uh, I don't even know what's
going on in my head really.

- Look, the good news is, even
though there's some hurt here

that you're gonna
have to recover from,

and it's gonna be a bummer
in the next days and weeks

when you kind of realize
this relationship is over,

you're now liberated and free.
You got the answer you needed.

Maybe sometime in the future

there's a chance
of a friendship,

and you have to sort of give
him time and figure that out.

[hopeful music]

And are you gonna shut down
the profiles

and stop messing with people?

♪ ♪

- Okay.

- All right,
well then I guess that's that.

- Good to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.

- Take care of yourself.
- I will.

- Delete them profiles, girl.

- I'm gonna do that.

[Boy in Space's "Good-bye"]

♪ ♪

- ♪ And you been
telling lies I can tell, ahh ♪

- Wow.

- Do you think you'll stay
friends with her?

- Honestly,

no!
- All right.

That's fine.
- That's more than I need now.

This is kind of
a scared straight moment.

I'ma leave that internet stuff
alone.

- You're a great guy.

Like, there's other women
out there

that will be happy
to be themselves with you.

- I think I can get out--yeah.
I believe so.

It's opened my eyes to a lot.

- ♪ This is my good-bye ♪

[video call ringing]

- DeJohn!
- Ooh!

- What's up?
Any updates?

- Uh...

- Really?

- Yeah.
- So what about the ring?

- Um, my daughters have
some beautiful earrings now.

Beautiful diamonds.
- That's awesome.

Good talking to you.
- You too.

- And good luck
with everything.

- Later, DeJohn.
- Bye.

[video call rings]

- Hello, Gervaise.
- Ho!

- Hello.
- What have you been doing?

- Well, once me and DeJohn
actually talked

after the show, we're actually
better now as friends,

but I can't lie and say
that I haven't been still--

[laughs]
Fishing.

- No.
- It's an addictive behavior,

but you know, I'm trying.

The day before yesterday,
I made a POF with my pictures.

- There we go!
See?

- [laughs]

It's still hard coming
out of my shell.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause your reintroducing
yourself to the world.

- Yeah.
- But you made progress.

- I think so.
Thank you guys for helping me,

because I never thought
that I was good enough,

and you guys made me feel
like I am who I am,

and I am who I'm gonna be.
Really I do.

- You're so welcome.
- Yeah.

Both of us enjoy
and will never forget--

- Never forget.
- That afternoon.

And hopefully
we'll see you soon.

- Well, no, no, no.
- Or not.

- I don't wanna see you guys--
- You better stop catfishing

'cause we'll find you.
- Right.

- Okay, yeah.
- Bye.

- Okay, bye.

- Melia has been
talking to Jaquan.

She's saving herself for him.

The way he treats me,
I get this feeling--

it's, like, butterflies.
It's, like, this could be it.

- We're trying to connect with
someone you know named Jaquan.

But--
[phone beeps]

- He just hung up.
- What the hell's going on?

- Why hasn't he texted
you back?

- Don't just ghost.

- This is messed up.

[investigative music]

♪ ♪

997
00:41:45.