- ♪ MTV ♪
- Alaysia has been through unbelievably awful things.
- Whenever I told Qua, like, what happened to me,
he knew how to be like, baby, it's okay.
You're strong now. Everything's gonna be okay.
- I don't think she's gonna like
that he was talking to her sister.
- We're not saying, forget Qua, But something's not right.
Let's check it out.
- My heart's beating. - Oh, someone's coming.
[suspenseful music]
- This is very light blonde.
Is this, like, your summer-- - I'm blonde.
- No. - Yes, I am.
My hair has been blonde.
My colorist dyed-- - Where is your hair?
- You don't need to worry about that.
- [laughs]
- They take my hair off, and they give me new hair.
Where is your hair? - Where is my hair?
- Yeah. - I've been getting laser.
- Where? On your chest?
- Here, here. The maintenance is exhausting.
- [laughing] Oh, my God.
- All right, well, should we go
from one hairy situation to another?
- I hope not. - Here we go.
"I'm finally sending this email.
"Hey, Nev and Kamie.
My name is Alaysia, she/her."
- Love the pronoun inclusion.
- "I'm 18 years old, and I'm from Abilene, Texas.
I'm talking to a guy named--"
- Qua? - Which means "what" in French.
- Spelled different but close enough--Qua.
- So she's talking to a guy named...
both: What? [laughter]
- Great.
- "So I'm talking to a guy named Qua.
"He is from Philadelphia.
"We've been in an ongoing relationship
"for about 10 months.
We initially met off the dating app Tagged."
Never heard of it. - No.
- "He randomly came upon my Live,
and we hit it off instantly."
- ♪ I'll be there ♪
♪ Back's against the wall ♪
- "I know he is the person for me.
"He's so sweet.
And he has such a kind soul."
- ♪ I've got you, and you've got me ♪
♪ I'll be there ♪
- "He's there for me the times when no one has been.
"I really don't have much family to reach out to
"with my problems or concerns.
So he is the person I confide in."
- ♪ I got your back, and you've got mine ♪
- "He has my heart, but there are some things
"he does that scream 'red flag.'
"In 10 months, we haven't met or video chatted.
And he's only sent me three photos."
- Okay, girl.
- "We made plans to meet up,
"but those plans to meet fell through.
"We're back to normal now, but now I don't know what to think.
"I have no doubt the things he tells me are true.
"But I do have doubts that he is possibly hiding something,
or maybe he just doesn't know if he can trust me or not."
- ♪ I've got you, and you've got me ♪
- "I totally understand that, but I need to know now.
"I look forward to hearing from you.
Alaysia."
- ♪ I'll be there ♪
- All right, let's call Alaysia.
[line trilling]
Hello?
Is this Alaysia?
Hi. - Howdy.
- It's Nev and Kamie.
We just read your email.
And, obviously, there are some things about this guy
that are red flags.
- Qua. - That's his name, Qua, right?
- Her man, her man, her man.
- You must be dying to meet him.
You're in Texas right now, right?
both: Oh.
- So, rather than you flying back to Texas
and us flying to meet you there,
you could just come meet us here.
Could you fly out tomorrow?
All right, so we'll get you a ticket to LA,
and we'll get into this.
All right. - See you soon.
Bye.
- ♪ Ooh, you're just my type ♪
♪ My type, my type... ♪
- All right, Alaysia landed in LA.
We are picking her up.
- Right there. - Where?
Oh. - There's a girl.
- Oh. - Hey!
- Wow, there she is.
What's up? - Hello.
- Alaysia? - Hi.
- Hi, how are you? - Welcome.
- Welcome to La La Land.
- Yes, my first time.
- Yes? That's what we were wondering.
You're gonna be in the front.
- All right, well, we're gonna give you the VIP treatment.
- Yes. - Let's do it.
So you're 18 years old. And you're out of school now?
- Yes, I'm out of school.
I graduated early, actually. - Oh.
- I graduated at 15. - What?
- Oh, my God. Wow. - What's the rush?
- When I was 12, I was put in foster care.
So ever since--like, foster care kind of,
like, makes you, like, have to grow up a little earlier,
just because you have to--majority--
take care of yourself.
And then I have a younger sister.
So I was kind of like the parent for her, too.
- You sound very mature for your age.
But you've had to grow up a lot really quickly.
- Thank y'all.
- We rented you a little house.
- This is cute.
I like it here.
- All right. - Oh, wow, so nice.
- Love it. - Sit, sit.
- [groans]
- All right, so, give us the whole story of you and Qua.
- Okay. So I'm on Tagged.
I'm just casually just talking to everybody.
Then Qua gets on there.
And he's like, you're so beautiful.
And I would love to get to know you.
And I'm just like, mm.
Like, a lot of guys get on there and say that.
So it was just like, eh, I'm not worried about that.
But then the more he would say, the more I'm like in tune.
Like, okay, like, okay, you're getting my attention, you know?
So I'm like, okay. - But you liked his picture?
- Yes, I love-- Yes, yes.
I love the pictures, yeah. It was like, okay, yo.
Yeah, it was my type, for real, so I was like, yeah.
So then we just were texting on Tagged
for, like, two or three weeks.
And then, finally, I'm like, let's get off the app.
So then we started texting on text messages,
telling each other about what we've been through
and where we're from and just kind of like that.
- Have you ever talked on the phone?
- Oh, yeah, we talk on the phone.
- Oh. - Oh, yeah.
Like, every other day probably. - Oh, wow.
What's Qua like? What's his vibe?
- Very sweet. He really cares about me.
And I have a soft spot in his heart.
And he has one in mine, too, because it's hard for someone
to actually get in my heart.
But when they do, I'm, like, real connected.
It's just--it's hard, because, like,
it's just everything I've been through,
because...
when I was young, I was sex-trafficked and kidnapped.
- Oh, my God. - Yes.
- Wait a second. What happened?
- So I ran away from my foster home.
My foster home was just not giving.
Like, it was just not what I wanted it to be.
And I was, like, trying to find people to, like, meet up with,
meet up with, so I could have a place
to stay for the next night, next night.
So I just started texting this one guy.
And he's like, oh, meet me downtown.
And--
- Where did you meet that person?
- I was texting him on, like, this little app or whatever.
I didn't know Houston, so I just saw the address.
I'm like, okay, that's an address. Go there.
But once I saw the bus station, I'm like, what's going on?
But I'm, like, so naive and so--so young.
I'm just like, where else am I gonna go?
Then two people walk up to me.
And they're like, are you Alaysia?
And I'm like, yeah. Why?
They're like, oh, we're the people you've been talking to.
I said, the people? What you mean, the people?
Like, yeah, you're gonna come with us.
And I'm like, hold on, and they were like telling me,
oh, this is what you're gonna do.
And we're gonna be here.
And I'm like, damn, I done got myself into some, you know,
some [bleep].
No one knew where I was, no one,
and my phone was taken, so-- - Wow.
- Yeah. - That's crazy.
- Yeah.
- I'm so sorry that happened to you.
- Well, I'll tell y'all how the situation ended.
- Yeah. - So the situation ended.
Well, they were on my phone,
and then they were texting people.
When they would text them, they would pretend like it's me.
So one night, I just had-- I was done. I was done.
So the next person that bought me, I told them, I'm like,
it's not me texting you. That's not me.
Can you please help me with this situation?
Like, I need to get out. Like, please, help me.
He's like, yeah, come with me right now. I got you.
So he gave me $50.
He took me to the bus stop in downtown Houston.
I got on the bus. and I went to go stay with my aunt.
- How did you even know that you could trust him?
- Either you gonna trust somebody,
or you gonna be stuck in that situation.
So that's all I could do.
- Did you ever go to the police?
- I told the police what happened.
They never found the guy.
- You must have been terrified. - Yes, I was very terrified.
I couldn't believe that was happening, you know?
[somber music]
[crying]
I'm sorry.
- I'm really sorry, Alaysia.
- Jesus.
I can't believe that you've been through this.
My God. - [sniffles]
- That's terrible.
I mean, have you had a chance to talk about this with anyone
and, like, get any help for this?
- Yes.
Once I went to CPS--back to CPS, they sent me away.
That's how I graduated early. They sent me away to the RTC.
And it was strictly for sex trafficking.
And so they sent me to this little farm.
Like, it was, like, a little therapy farm.
We had, like, every day therapy.
And we would just work on everything that happened.
The program was, like, a year and a half.
That place really helped me, like, learn
that what happened to me was not right,
because I didn't know about that.
Like, I couldn't have even really did anything
because I didn't even know what was really happening.
[sniffles]
- You were too young to know what was happening.
- Yes. [sniffles]
- None of that was your fault.
- And I had learned that over time,
that none of it was my fault.
So I forgave myself, but it's took time.
It's been four years.
And... [sniffles]
I still struggle with it every day.
But I'm okay now because I'm grown now.
So, like, now I can talk about it
and then spread the word.
- Thank you for sharing your story with us.
- I would always.
I don't mind saying it, because, like, people just--
when they think about probably sex trafficking,
they probably think, like I thought--
overseas and all that. - No, it's--
- But, no, it's here.
It's right here in the United States.
- I can't believe how that happened.
- That's--wow. - Yep.
- But you're a great advocate. - Thank you.
- I didn't expect...
to have you open up and tell us all that.
- Yeah. - And this is something
you've opened up to Qua about? - Yeah.
Whenever I told him about that, he knew how to handle me.
He knew how to be like, oh, you know, baby, it's okay.
You're strong now. You're grown now.
Everything's gonna be okay. So this is for real, for real.
Like, oh, yeah, so this is somebody I'm finna be with,
because I'm used to having to do everything alone.
We've been talking about plans to live together.
- And do you guys say that you love each other?
- Mm-hmm, yes. - Oh, wow.
Does he have, like, social media?
Is he online? Like-- - No social media, no.
He doesn't do that.
- Had you had any plans to meet?
- Yes, one time before,
we wanted to go to Atlanta together.
We had talked about me bringing my sister
and him bringing his brother.
So, once my sister started talking to the brother,
they were talking and texting.
- Did they talk on the phone? - Yes, they even FaceTimed.
- FaceTime? - Yes.
- Huh. - And I'm like, okay.
I'm thinking they're hitting it off.
But then whenever the time had came for us,
he just stopped texting me back.
I don't never want nobody to feel like I'm getting
on they nerves or something, so I just didn't say nothing.
- But things with you and him are good now?
- Yes. both: That's weird.
- Yeah, weird.
- I want to see Qua. - Yeah, let's see.
Let's see this guy.
- Her man, her man, her man. - My man, yeah.
- All right. Okay.
- I mean, I hope it's him.
I really do. - Yes, because he's so fine.
Like, baby, I want to see you. Like, yeah.
Like, that's my man. Like, I think--that's him.
I'm saying that's him, because, you know, we--
I like him, so... - All right, well, look.
You are an exceptional young woman.
- Thank you.
- Send us an email with everything you have--
the pictures, if you can get the info on the brother.
Ask your sister if she wants to talk to us,
since she's talked to the brother.
Anything you have. - Mm-hmm.
- We'll jump in first thing in the morning
and hopefully have something for you by the afternoon.
- Okay. Thank y'all for listening.
- Of course. Thank you for sharing.
- My God, yeah. All right.
- Bye, girl. - Bye.
- Wow.
[dramatic music]
Oh, man. - Jesus.
- She has had an insane...
- Oh, my God. - Young life.
- And yet, there she is, still smiling and believing in love.
- Yeah. - She's incredible.
- She's amazing.
- And if this guy is [bleep] with her--
- No, it's--no, I don't even want to think about it.
She needs a win so badly.
- I don't think I've ever wanted something
to work out more than this.
- All right, this is a very delicate situation.
- Yes.
- Alaysia has been through and experienced
unbelievably awful things.
- For an 18-year-old-- for anyone.
And pushing her towards Qua,
who has yet to prove anything about himself
to be 100% true... - Right.
- Is not the position that I personally want to take,
unless he really is Prince Charming
and he can really help her heal
through what she's been through.
- Clearly, there's something going on here.
- So let's figure it out.
- Okay, Alaysia sent us this info email.
"Hey, Nev and Kamie, thank you again for meeting me.
"Here's what I know about Qua.
"He doesn't have any social media,
"but I do have his phone number. Ania"--
which must be her sister-- - Mm-hmm.
- "Talked to his brother Stefan.
Ania's phone number"-- Okay, so we can call her.
And then Stefan's number. All right.
"Good luck."
All right, here are the pictures.
- We run the pictures.
- I mean, yeah, I think this guy is on the Internet.
All right, let's upload a photo of him.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Stop.
Stop right now.
- He's all over the place.
- It's just a bunch of people reposting his picture.
- Whoever this guy is,
pictures of him have been added
to Pinterest boards and photo albums.
Like, he's clearly someone.
- Yeah. And, clearly, not who she's talking to.
- Yeah. Let's look up this number.
- What's 252?
Is that Philadelphia? - 252 is North Carolina.
- Stop. - Let's run this number.
Danielle [bleep].
- Who's Danielle?
Henderson, North Carolina?
Could be on a family plan.
- You know what else we should do?
Cash App.
Okay, now, what about his brother Stefan?
- 252.
♪ ♪
Stefan Urquelle.
Wait, Steve Urkel? - Oh, Steve--
That's Steve Urkel. - From...
- A TV show from the '90s-- "Family Matters."
That's the fancy way of spelling Steve Urkel.
Stefan Urquelle.
- That was his alter ego... - Oh, my God.
- On the [bleep] show, when he was like, suave.
- That's right. [laughs]
I think it's safe to say
that Qua's brother,
Stefan Urquelle...
[laughing]
Is not named Stefan.
- What about the sister?
We need to call Ania, because Ania FaceTimed
with Stefan, allegedly.
- All right, let's call Ania.
[line trilling]
Hey, is this Ania?
Hey, it's Nev from-- - And Kamie.
- And Kamie, from "Catfish."
We got your number from Alaysia.
Did she tell you that we were helping her out?
Okay.
Well, the reason that we called you
is because she mentioned a little bit
about how, when her and Qua
were planning to meet in Atlanta,
Alaysia told us that you and Stefan...
Stefan actually, like, talked for a little while.
And did you FaceTime with him?
Okay, so you know what the person you were talking to,
what they look like?
Did he ever send you any pictures?
If you could send us the pictures
that you have of him, that would be great.
All right, thanks so much, Ania. Bye.
I wonder if--is it possible that Ania,
she was talking to-- both: Qua?
- Since we now pretty much know
that Qua is not the guy in the pictures...
- Mm-hmm. - It's possible that Ania
was talking to Qua and FaceTiming with him.
- The real Qua. - But why would he do that?
If he was comfortable doing that with her...
- Right.
- Why wouldn't he do that with Alaysia?
- Because Alaysia thinks that Qua is somebody else,
and he's trying to corroborate his story.
- Right. So it is possible.
- Yeah.
- All right, with nearly 100% confidence,
I'm comfortable telling Alaysia
that she's not talking to the guy in the pictures.
- Ugh, we should fill her in about this
- Let's head back to her house befand bring her up to speed..
I wish we had good news.
But it feels like everything is kind of bad.
- Yeah.
- It's probably not the guy in the pictures.
- And if he's not the guy in the pictures,
then I don't think she's gonna like the possible reality
that he might be the one talking to her sister
and showed his actual self to her.
- Not sure how she's gonna take all that.
- Yeah.
- Everything is possible right now.
[smooth music]
♪ ♪
[knock at door]
both: Hello. - Hi.
- How are you? - Good. How about you?
- Good.
I like your California crop top.
- Thank you.
- Whew. - How's it going?
- Oh, I just had a lot of emotions
and always wanted to have control of everything.
Like, I'm in control of my life now.
So it's like, when I don't have control of something,
it just--my head goes over the roof, because I'm like,
what am I supposed to be doing
if I'm not controlling something?
And I wish I could, but I don't have the power to do that.
So I just have to sometimes let go.
- I get that feeling of losing control,
especially when it's kind of in our hands now
to take the reins.
But we have your best interests at heart,
no matter what happens. - Yes. Mm-hmm.
- So... - I trust y'all.
Nev and Kamie got this. [giggles]
- Well, we did some digging.
We found some stuff.
So we wanted to go through that with you
and see if we could kind of collectively come up
with a theory on what it all means.
- Yep.
- Okay, so...
we just searched the area code
of the phone number that you gave us.
And that number is from North Carolina.
- Hmm. - Has he ever talked
about anything North Carolina-related?
- Mm-mm.
- Well, when we searched the number,
it came back to a Danielle [bleep].
Is that a name that--
- Mm-mm, I don't know a Danielle.
- Now, obviously, you've talked to him on the phone.
So you know you're talking to a guy.
- Yeah.
- So this could just be the last person
who had the number,
or it could be an aunt or a mom, or who knows?
- Yeah.
- Now here's where it gets really interesting.
When we searched the photos you have for Qua--
Now, you say Qua doesn't have social media.
- Mm-mm, never. - All right.
Well, because when we searched the photos,
we get a lot of hits.
- Mm.
Hmm.
- These all look like selfies
that are pretty obviously from social media.
So, pretty hard to deny that, very likely,
that he's not the guy in the pictures.
♪ ♪
- Mm.
I feel lied--like, if it is, I feel lied to.
[sighs] I would just want to know who it is now.
If it's not that person, who is it?
- All right, well, the only other thing
that we were able to do was,
we spoke to your sister Ania
and asked her to tell us a little bit more
about sort of what went down
between her and Qua's brother, Stefan.
They FaceTimed.
Ania has actually seen him. - Mm-hmm.
- So we asked her to send some pictures.
We haven't gotten those yet.
But when we ran his number in Cash App,
we got this... - Mm.
- Stefan Urquelle. - Mm.
- This name is specifically of a character
from a TV show from the '90s.
- No.
- So that's obviously not his real name.
So here's what we were thinking.
If we know Qua is lying about who he is in his pictures,
we kind of have to question everything he says.
Maybe Qua...
is Stefan
and talked to your sister,
because right now the only person connected to Qua
that anyone's talked to or seen
is the guy that FaceTimed your sister, Stefan,
or whatever his real name is.
- It's a possibility. - Yeah.
Hmm.
- ♪ Hold me in the morning ♪
♪ When I can't stand myself ♪
- [sighs heavily]
- ♪ Love me without warning ♪
- So we can't really explain everything,
and we don't have any answers.
But a lot of what he's told you doesn't really match
with what we've found.
- ♪ Just to keep from drowning ♪
- Hmm.
♪ ♪
- It's all right. It's a lot.
- Yeah, it is.
- And here you finally thought you found someone
that was being real with you.
And, again, we don't know.
But something's not quite right.
- Yeah.
- ♪ It's easy for you to let go and not notice ♪
♪ ♪
- Here you finally thought you found someone
that was being real with you.
But something's not quite right.
- Yeah.
It seemed like it.
- We're not saying, forget Qua.
- I am a little bit. - Okay.
Kamie is a little bit. And I am a little, too.
But, like, we want to find out who this guy is,
because he has been there in ways for you
that no one else has. - Yes.
- And I do believe his intentions are good.
It sounds like, for the most part,
it's been a very mutual bond that you guys have made.
- Yes.
- So, if it's cool, I think we should call him.
And I'll just explain, hey, we're here.
We're trying to help you guys finally meet.
Can we come? Do you want to come here?
Whatever makes the most sense.
- Yeah.
- All right.
[line trilling]
Yo, is this Qua?
Hey.
This is Nev from the show "Catfish."
I'm here with Kamie and Alaysia.
And we're reaching out because we know
you guys have been talking for a while
and tried to meet up.
And we were just hoping that we could finally make that happen.
Okay. Where are you?
- Okay.
So should we come meet you there?
Okay. Well, I have to say I'm delighted
with how accommodating you're being.
I wonder, why hadn't it worked out for you and Alaysia
to have met previously?
All right.
We will text you once we have our travel plans.
And then you can let us know, I guess, where to meet you?
- Oh. [line beeps]
- He's lying like [bleep]. - I know.
It almost felt too easy.
But I did think it was big of him
to admit that the issue, at least potentially,
is that he hasn't had a lot of money
and that traveling
hasn't really been something he can do.
- But...
just something didn't seem right.
Uh-uh. - That was him, right?
I mean, that was obviously-- - Yeah, that was him, yeah.
But, mm, yeah, that was just a little odd.
- I don't know.
For the moment, I think we should assume
So get ready, weand we'll see how it goes.
- We'll see how it goes.
- All right. - All right, girl.
- Okay. - We'll see you tomorrow.
- Thank y'all for everything. - Of course.
I don't know what that was.
It was just-- - Too casual.
- Too easy, too casual.
Oh, yeah, sure, come on. Come on down.
- I'd love to, yeah.
- Yeah, I wanted to meet Alaysia.
I just--you know, I didn't have the money.
There's something about this guy that makes me feel
like he could be lying about a lot more.
[line trilling]
- Just when I thought I could chill,
I missed a call from-- Look who, Qua.
Yo.
What's up? It's Nev.
No, I'm actually back at my place.
Okay. We're not leaving till the morning,
so I'm sure we can sort out all the logistics
and figure out flights and stuff.
All right, dude. Later.
[line beeps]
Okay, well, I guess we're not going to Philly.
All right.
Made it to LAX.
I think everyone's already inside.
- What's up? - What up?
- Well, I had a call with Qua,
basically just to tell me that he's still down to meet,
but he's not living in Philly
and that he's actually in Durham, North Carolina,
which makes sense... - Yeah.
- 'Cause that's his phone number.
But the good news is, he seemed, again, like,
very polite and agreeable.
So I said, okay, text us where you want to meet.
- How do you feel? - Very nervous.
I feel all my nerves right now.
- Hey, you can handle anything.
It's just a question of how you want to handle it.
- Yep.
- All right, let's get to the gate.
- ♪ 'Cause I-I-I-I-I ♪
♪ I-I-I-I-I will follow you ♪
♪ I'll follow you ♪
- We made it.
Guys, look. I got a text.
He sent an address. Hey, let's meet here.
What's this? Oh, so Ania just sent this.
- That's who she was talking to?
- I guess that's the guy she was talking to.
That must be Stefan.
I mean, it could be Qua.
He looks nice. - Decent.
- I mean, you know, different.
All right, I'm gonna say, thumbs-up.
Left me hanging. - Oh, sorry.
- Damn. I'm still here. - [laughs]
- I'm still here.
All right, got a little bit of a drive but not too far.
- Oh. This is so country out here.
- Not Philadelphia. - Yeah.
- As agreeable as this guy is to meet up,
makes me worry that if he didn't tell you
he was in North Carolina, what else is he not telling you?
- Yeah, exactly.
- Are we going to his house? - I don't know.
He just sent us an address. I don't know.
[dramatic music]
All right, well, let's check it out.
- Let's check it out.
[insects chirping]
♪ ♪
- My heart's beating, like, bump, bump, bump, bump.
It's making a song.
♪ ♪
- Somebody's home. - Oh, you saw someone?
- No, I just see the light is on.
♪ ♪
[doorbell rings]
♪ ♪
- Oh, someone's coming.
[dramatic music]
- Oh, someone's coming.
Hi. - Hey.
- I'm Nev.
But you--you're not-- Are you also Qua?
- Qua was actually someone I was plagiarizing to be.
My name is actually Rod.
- Wait. Okay, hold on.
Ania sent us a picture of Qua's brother, Stefan.
Isn't that you? - I mean, it's my picture.
- Weren't you talking to Ania?
- I was talking to her trying to get Alaysia to see me
and think she likes me or whatnot.
- Wait, so you were talking with her sister
to see if Alaysia would be into you?
To your picture? - Yes.
But I've been talking to Alaysia.
- Aha. Okay, got it.
So why don't you come down and we can explain all that again?
So I was confused because I thought this was Stefan.
- Yeah.
- So this is the guy in the picture Ania sent us.
- Okay. That's what I thought.
- He says his name is Rod. - Okay. Hi.
- I'm Rod.
And I was playing to be Qua when I was talking to Alaysia.
- Hmm.
- Wow. - But the thing with Ania,
I was trying to see if I could see Alaysia
on the camera or whatnot.
- Okay, so hold on.
You have been Qua the whole time.
And then you brought up the idea of FaceTiming with Ania?
- Yes. - Why?
- I just had showed myself in the camera--
- Because you were going to try and see
what Alaysia might have thought of you.
- Yes. Yes. Yes. - But she never saw you.
- I thought that they were together.
- He thought they were together when he FaceTimed with Ania.
And that's why you sent her sister your picture as well,
hoping Alaysia would see it and be like, he's cute,
and then it would get back to you.
It's kind of a lot, but it's been you the whole time?
- Yes.
- From the beginning? - Yeah. I've been Qua.
- Right. Okay.
This is the guy you've been talking to, right?
- Mm. - I mean, the voice--
that's, like, his voice, right? - Yeah, I guess.
- I mean, I just want to be able to explain better
so you can understand.
- Okay, what's the reasons why?
- I mean, I got low self-esteem.
The things that you said about Qua,
the things that you liked about him,
I don't have those type of things--being athletic
and things of that.
I mean, being him, I was a new person.
And I was just trying to, you know what I'm saying,
live a new life and just get away from my past.
- Okay, you said about the low confidence and stuff.
Like, that would have been something
you could have told me-- oh, well, this is what it is,
and I did it, 'cause you know I'm nothing but understanding.
And I thought you were, too, but then now it's like--
- I apologize.
- You was being sneaky and doing sneaky stuff,
when, you know, that's, like, everything I'm against.
It's sneaky. - I'm...
It's my fault. It's-- - [crying]
- I mean, I tried to, you know...
That's why I'm here today, to try to make it better.
Like, if you can give me a chance to, you know,
show you the real me and really who I am,
then you'll really understand.
Like I said, I apologize.
I wasn't trying to play with you or your emotions.
- It seems like it. - Everything I said was real.
Mm-mm.
No, I don't want to be the one to do that.
That's why I'm here today trying to apologize
and show you who I am.
- But it took for us to come all the way over here
and do all of this for the truth.
[somber music]
- I ain't mean for it to be all like this.
Everything was true.
Qua was the only thing that was untrue.
- And the pictures. - And the pictures.
- And the brother. - Yeah.
I feel for you.
Like, I mean, I don't know what else to do
to make you, you know what I'm saying, believe me.
- The things you told me-- - Emotionally.
- You say you want to move together,
you say you want to do this, you want to grow together,
you want me to be your wife-- was all that right?
Or was you for real, for real? Like...
- Everything was for real, for real.
All my emotions that I have about you,
that I tell you that I feel about you are all true.
[distant dog barking]
- But there's also a lot you didn't tell her.
- There's also a lot I didn't tell you.
Give me a chance, and I guarantee
that everything from here on out will be put up front.
Ain't nothing gonna be in the blind.
- How do I know that for sure, though?
How do I know that for sure? That don't make sense.
- I don't want to lose you.
- [sighs heavily]
- I understand you for not believing nothing else,
but just, you know, if you can give me one chance
to show you my backstory,
if you can give me one more chance--
- She can't even look you in the eye,
so I think tonight is not the night.
- Yeah, I just need to sleep on it
and think about some things.
- Yeah, you don't have to make any decisions right now.
Are you around tomorrow?
- Yes, I'm free.
Just let me know.
- Well... - Appreciate y'all.
Y'all drive safe. - Nice to meet you.
- Thank you. - Nice to meet you.
- We'll see you tomorrow. - Y'all drive safe.
- All right, good night.
♪ ♪
- You okay? - Yes, I'm fine.
- It's okay to cry when somebody hurts you.
- Yeah.
- I don't want for this to be the reason
why you stop putting your trust in somebody.
But I think, moving forward,
you need someone to prove to you
why you should trust them in the first place.
- [crying]
- I don't know if he's gonna be that guy.
♪ ♪
- Do you want our opinions? - Yes.
- As friends? - Yes.
- You have so much life ahead of you.
I would hate for you to get locked down by this man
who has been lying, has been manipulative,
whether it's malicious or not.
You don't know him.
- All right, let's call Rod.
[line trilling]
Hey, morning.
We were just trying to see if you were down to meet back up
and have a little heart-to-heart.
All right, we'll head on over there.
All right, see you soon.
[knock at door]
- How are you guys doing? - Hey.
- You can come on in.
- [groans]
What's up, man?
- How are you guys doing today? - I'm good. How are you?
- Nervous, but, I mean, we're here.
Alaysia, how are you feeling?
- Done.
Over it. [chuckles]
Something like that.
- All right, well, look, yesterday you mentioned
that there was a lot going on in your life
that Alaysia didn't know about.
And we all agreed, we are curious,
and we want to give you an opportunity
to sort of tell your story.
- Well, two years ago I got shot in my stomach.
I was at a barbershop, and they--
I was attempted to be robbed coming out of the barbershop.
I end up getting shot in my stomach
and end up in the hospital.
I was a problem child. I was always into something.
So I guess my past was just catching up on me.
- So you have had some run-ins with trouble.
- Yes.
And, plus, I got shot in my arm.
It was because of some misunderstanding
that me and another group of guys had.
But that was before the stomach situation, so...
- So you've been shot twice. - Yes.
- And now where are you in your life, in terms of--
- Just working, staying out the way,
just staying away from a lot of things.
- Keeping it clean. - Yes.
- By the book. - Yes. Yeah.
- To be able to pull yourself out of it,
which looks like you have, is something to be proud of.
- Thank you.
Me creating that page, that was me getting out of the space
that I was in, because I was just being in that hospital.
And then I had to learn how to walk all over.
And I had three months sitting at home in my bed
and just a lot of time on my hands
and--I don't know-- the dark place that I was in.
That's really selfish of me, to just do that,
try to hide all my insecurities
when you're sitting here being open about yours.
- [sighs]
- Do you have feelings about that, Alaysia?
- [sighs]
I just--I don't know.
It's just--
you know, if someone says they've been sex trafficked,
sex trafficked means that someone took advantage of you,
you know, and used your body or used you for whatever.
So you used me
for whatever you were trying to get through.
Like, I just can't allow that.
I can't allow someone in my life like that, you know?
So I just--
I really, really appreciate you
for all the times you were there for me,
but I don't know what you're gonna lie about next.
And I don't always want to be--
kind of look behind my shoulder and wonder,
oh, was he lying about that, or is he for real?
I just don't think that it would work out.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- I can't do nothing but respect you.
And like I said, I apologize for wasting your time.
- I don't think it's a waste of time.
I think it's a really important,
valuable lesson for both of you.
And, look, you seem like a good person.
And you've done a lot for her.
You've been there for her in ways that other people haven't.
And, Rod, I don't necessarily think you need me to say this,
but you can't be messing around on the Internet
pretending to be someone else.
I think this makes it clear...
'cause she's amazing.
And it could have been a great relationship.
- Well, we appreciate you coming and being vulnerable.
It's not an easy thing to do, but you did it.
And even though it obviously didn't end up
the way that you wanted it to,
I'm still glad that you did it. - Appreciate it.
Thank you. - And I know Alaysia is, too.
- Thank you. - [sighs]
- ♪ I was down like... ♪
- On that note... both: All right.
- Thanks. - Good to meet you.
- Good to meet you, man. Thank you.
- Good to meet you.
- Good luck with everything. - Best of luck.
- Nice to meet you as well.
- Mm-hmm, thank you for everything that you did.
- ♪ Screaming in oblivion ♪
♪ I was alone in a lonesome place... ♪
- All right, Rod. - All right.
Safe travels, everyone.
- Stay out of trouble. - Yes, yes.
Thank you.
- ♪ 10,000 days of waking up ♪
♪ I pulled myself out of the dust ♪
- Good job, Alaysia.
- So what's next? - [sighs]
- Qua's in the rearview.
What's the future?
What's through the windshield now?
- I'm just hoping that, you know...
I can just work on myself and better myself
in the ways that I want to. - I see big things for you.
- Thank you.
- ♪ So suddenly, so clear to me ♪
♪ So clear to me ♪
[computer chimes]
- Hey. - What's up?
- Hey! You look so cute.
- How have you been? - I've been great.
How about y'all? - We've been good.
- I am very curious to know about Rod.
Have you guys talked at all? - No.
That just was not gonna never be nothing
'cause it's not even the person I really was thinking.
So it's no point of me even having you in my life.
So... - Yeah.
I think he's a nice guy, just not the guy for you.
- Not the guy. - Yeah. Yeah.
- I do miss having that person I could confide in,
but at the same time,
there's, like, girlfriends for that, too.
So, if it's just because it's not a male,
doesn't mean it's not someone I can still open myself up with.
- Right.
- Like, I've always been a little guarded.
But after that, like, I need a two-step verification
on everything you say.
Like, I don't have time for that.
Trust but verify. - Right.
- All right, well, we love you. - Yes.
- And if we could adopt you, I think we both would.
- Agreed.
- So consider us your "Catfish" parents.
- Yes. We got you, girl. - Thank y'all so much.
I really appreciate everything.
Bye. - Bye.
- Thank you.
- Thank you for hearing my story
of what happened to me when I was younger.
I'm hoping that sharing my experience
could reach to someone out there
that's going through the same thing
to know you are not alone.
Please reach out for help if this is happening to you
or someone else you know.