- Hey, everyone. Nev here.
As you can see, I am back at home,
and we're filming remotely again.
We were back in the office,
and we did an episode in person with Kamie,
and it was so great.
- ♪ Keep on, keep on ♪
♪ Keep on, keep on movin' ♪
- But we're not allowed to hug!
We can, like, foot bump.
[cork pops] - Hey!
We're officially in each other's bubbles.
- Now I have a barrier if I want to punch you.
- But unfortunately, there was a spike in COVID cases,
and in an effort to keep everyone safe and healthy,
we're going back to remote episodes.
But that doesn't mean we can't have some fun.
So let's get Kamie, and let's catch some catfish.
[dramatic musical sting]
[birds chirping]
- ♪ Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh ♪
♪ Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh ♪
- All right.
Let's see what Kamie is doing.
- ♪ Are you ready? ♪ - ♪ Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh ♪
- ♪ Are you ready for it? ♪
- Oh!
- I feel like we should be wearing pajamas right now
since it's nighttime.
- Uh...
full pajamas. - [gasps]
Cozy vibes.
We're on the night shift.
- Cozy AF.
There's so many catfish out there,
we're working round the clock.
- I feel like Santa's elves. - Exactly.
All right, we got work to do. Let's just jump into it.
All right, here we g-- oh, we got an email.
"Help me shed some light on this relationship."
You ready for this? - No.
- "Hi, Nev and Kamie. My name is Tam.
"I live in Houston, Texas.
I'm 27, and I live with my older sister, Tay."
Tam and Tay. - Aww.
- "I'm writing because she's convinced
I'm being catfished." - Oh.
- "And I recently started to think
she might be right."
[upbeat electronic music]
"I met a woman named Jamena about two years ago
in August of 2018 on Plenty of Fish."
"I was living in Prairie View,
"and she was 45 minutes away in Houston.
"We connected immediately
"and ended up being together for six months.
"During that time, I tried to meet up with her,
but she would always ghost me."
"I couldn't get past that, so I ended things."
Smart!
"Jamena was furious
"and blocked me on everything.
"I wanted to move on, but no matter what I did,
"I couldn't forget her.
"A little while ago, I begged my sister
to message Jamena for me."
"All my accounts were blocked,
"so this was the only way I could contact her.
"Tay finally agreed, and when she reached out,
Jamena said we could talk."
"Things seemed to be going well until...
"I recently got an anonymous text message from someone
"claiming to be Jamena's girlfriend.
"She said I needed to back off from Jamena,
or she'd beat me up."
- [gasps]
- "I thought Jamena was the love of my life,
"but now, I don't know what to believe.
"I need serious help.
Thank you, Tam."
Wow, let's get a little bit more information.
"Hey, Tam. It's Nev.
"Just read your email.
Oh, boy. We gotta talk."
- If you get a text from someone saying,
"Stop talking to so-and-so or I'm gonna beat your ass,"
I think it's safe to say you should stop talking to them
so they don't come beat your ass.
- At the very least, it means, "That's not your girlfriend
if she's [bleep] talking to me."
[computer chimes]
Hey! - Hey!
- Hey. - What's up, Tam?
- Hey, what's up?
- Damn, Tam!
Got that chain, you got the baby hairs on.
- [chuckles] - Got the lashes.
- I feel like that's all you that's popping.
- Oh, thank you. Oh, you're talking
to me or Kamie? - No, not you.
- I was--both of y'all popping.
Both of y'all popping. - [laughs]
- The only thing that's popping about me
is the fact that I'm a pop.
I'm a dad. That's about it.
- [chuckles]
- Well, obviously, we got your email,
and we're not really sure what to make of all of it.
Can you just kind of take us back to the beginning?
- Okay, I had just got out of a six-year relationship.
- Whoa.
- I was living in a small college town
named Prairie View. It was boring.
So all my friends was like, you know,
"Try to start dating again," so I got on POF,
and I just happened to run across her profile.
I thought she was cute, and I just did
the little "hey there" thing.
Yeah.
And she wrote me back,
and we was just talking and whatever,
and then she got me her number.
But when she first gave me her number,
she was kind of mean.
'Cause at the time, my phone was,
like, messed up completely,
so I was actually texting her from the Text Free app,
and she was coming at me out of pocket, like,
"Why you texting me off this fake stuff?
I don't do the fake stuff."
- She thought you were a catfish.
- Yeah, and she was like,
"Uh, we must FaceTime."
- So did you FaceTime?
[suspenseful music]
- She did used to try to FaceTime me.
[phone rings]
But I didn't used to answer.
- Oh, my God!
- I was just--I was so nervous. She obvious--
- Tam, you sound like the catfish right now.
Honestly. - [laughs]
- "I was so nervous, I didn't know what to say."
- "I had that Text Free app,
and I didn't wanna answer FaceTime..."
- Did your car break down?
- No, I eventually tried to FaceTime her,
but she didn't answer.
- Interesting.
Well, what do you know about Jamena?
- She said she was a registered nurse,
and she said she did real estate on the side,
and she said she had two kids.
She told me about her sister,
and she told me she had a brother.
- Were you able to see any of them on social media?
- No.
I did ask her about, like,
social media, but she was saying, like,
"Oh, me and my best friend were doing, like,
"this social media cleanse where we're not
getting on our social media,"
and at that time, it was cool with me
because when we talked on the phone,
we ended up just, like, instantly clicking.
Like, we ended up falling asleep on the phone
from the first day.
Literally, we used to say we was on the phone
eight hours, ten hours.
I could talk to her about anything.
We was just there for each other.
- ♪ It is a time of stillness ♪
- So we were instantly, like, became soulmates, like...
- Mm...
- And I feel like she helped me too
with, like, my sexuality.
Even though my ex was a girl,
we didn't even hold hands in public.
That's not something that I was just very open, like...
but with Jamena, I always used to tell her, like,
"I feel safe in your energy."
So that was really what attracted me to her.
Like, I felt like I could be myself.
- Right.
- Were you saying "I love you"
and stuff like that? - Yeah.
I don't know who said it fir--
no, I said it first. I ain't gonna lie.
I really miss it.
- ♪ And nothing ends ♪
- So things with Jamena were going really well,
and you guys were very close, so after a while,
you must have felt like it was time to meet up, right?
I mean, 'cause you don't even live
that far away from each other.
- Yeah, I tried to meet her more than a few times.
The first time, she was like, "Okay, I'm on my way."
I sent her my location and everything,
and then all of the sudden, I ain't heard from her.
And I was calling her, and she said
she had gotten into a car accident.
[chuckles]
- Tam. - I know.
And that's when my sister was like,
"Catfish, catfish."
And then one time, she really embarrassed me,
and I felt like that was kinda, like, the last straw.
It was about to be PV homecoming.
That was, like, gonna be my first year as an alumni.
So me and my sister, we was coming to Houston,
and we was planning on trying to see
what hotels was available,
but Jamena was like,
"Why y'all don't just stay at my house?
Y'all can stay at my house."
So she texts me her address,
and when we get there, she was like,
"Okay, I fixin' to open up the gate,"
and then I ain't heard from her.
- And then just nothing?
- Yeah. - Wow.
- And then my sister was like, "Well, let's just go."
So then Jamena, she tried to flip it on me and be like,
"You wasn't outside, you was playing,
"you was lying, you was trying to be sneaky.
You was not outside. I've been calling you."
- That's insane.
- So after that, I was so embarrassed,
I just stopped talking to her.
But I used to always think about her, like...
[solemn music]
We connected on a deeper level.
We could talk to each other, like,
about everything under the sun,
and I really miss that.
I used to try to find her for a while,
but she had me blocked still.
So that's when I gave it to my sister, and I was like,
"Text this and see if it work."
And she texted it, and that's when she was like,
"My sister wanna talk to you. She say she miss you."
She was like, "All right, you can tell her to text me,"
and then we just started talking on the phone,
and it was just like old time.
Every day, we texted each other and talked to each other,
and I really enjoyed that 'cause that's what I missed.
- Wow.
So can we see what she looks like?
- Yeah.
Okay.
- Well, she's cute.
- Yeah. - Yeah, she is cute.
- Same girl.
- Can we see some of the messages between you,
just to get a sense of what the conversations are like?
- [sighs] I--
we talked a lot, so... - Wow!
- Yeah, this is a lot of... - Yeah.
- I'm gonna read you this text message
that I feel like was very sweet.
Okay, this--this is long. - Oh, wow.
- All right, so she said, "So I love you...
"because you're super cool, funny, outgoing,
"talkative like me, but I feel like
"I can tell you any and everything.
"You have such a beautiful soul inside and out.
"Your personality is super dope.
"I love you because I can always
"count on you no matter what.
"I know I act like a bitch,
"but, Tam, I love you for real,
"and I never want you out of my life.
"I think this is the true meaning
"of lifetime partners.
You are my better half." Oh, wow.
- [sighs]
- I mean, that's, like, one of the more sincere,
meaningful messages I think I've ever read.
- You guys are really into each other.
- Makes me feel bad. about the messagesh.
I send my wife. I gotta step up my game.
I mean, have you ever talked to someone like this before?
- No, I never felt like that. Ever.
- This is the person that you feel the most safe with.
Are you willing to risk that?
- I feel like...
I need to know, 'cause...
if not, then I'm just wasting my time.
- Mm-hmm.
- So we need to do some research, obviously.
Send us any other things that you've got,
and first thing in the morning, we'll jump in,
and we'll see what we can find.
- All right, then, good luck.
- All right, Tam. We'll talk tomorrow.
- Right. - All right, bye.
- Bye.
Man. - Wow.
- She is head-over-heels for this girl
and I am emotionally invested.
- I know.
I just don't get-- 'cause Jamena seems so great,
but then why did she also get so shady and stand Tam up?
- After reading those messages, I feel like this could be
the making of a beautiful love story.
I need this to be real!
This has to end well.
- "Y'all ready for this?"
[computer chimes] - Behold.
The most glorious breakfast sandwich.
- Whoa...
- If you were here, I have a whole other half
you could've had.
- If you're not gonna eat that,
send that over to me, okay?
'Cause if we can't be together,
at least let's share a sandwich remotely.
- That's really nice. - And you know what?
I'll send something over to you.
What about this?
Willy Wonka-style Itchocolate bar.ant
- Oh, that does look like it came
from Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.
- I'm gonna go put this-- - I'm so excited.
- For you. Okay. - Okay.
- Setting it outside,
and I did not touch this half of the sandwich.
- I'm gonna leave it here to get picked up.
Right there.
Your chocolate is awaiting its courier.
- Sandwich is cozy, confident, and ready for devouring.
- All right, so Tam met Jamena on POF
a little over two years ago.
They fell in love hard.
There was obviously some red flags.
Eventually, they broke it off because Tam had enough.
So then they stopped talking for, like, almost a year.
But Tam can't stop thinking about her.
Long story short, they are talking again,
and when I say, "I don't think I've ever seen
this level of emotional connection in messages,"
I--ever.
- So, like, I remember writing things like that
to my middle school crush. [laughs]
But, like, that's, like,
the last time I remember... - Right.
- Really pouring my heart out. Oh, my God.
- We gotta figure out if this Jamena girl...
Jamena's business.
Anyway, we do have an email from Tam.
She says, "I'm gonna be honest.
"I've been so nervous since we finished talking,
"and I really hope Jamena is real.
"Here's the stuff I have about her.
"I don't remember what her POF user name was.
"Her phone number is a 404 number.
"Jamena is a nurse in Houston, and she has two kids.
"I found a Facebook page, but it's from 2011.
"The URL is Jamena Smith.
"The number for the girl that texted me
saying I needed to back off is a 314."
- Oh, right, we never asked her about that.
We need to look up that number.
- Yeah, I mean, we got some real stuff here.
"I'm sending some pictures of Jamena.
If you need something that I forgot, just let me know."
- I mean, I feel like there's quite a bit to go off of.
- I kinda want to start with an image search.
All right, so let's see if this picture...
searching...we got nothing.
Here's another one.
But no, no hit on that.
No. Oh, okay. So nothing on the images.
- Should we just search the name?
- All right, so here's Facebook.
Jamena Smith.
- The first one says "RN, I am a nurse."
- What? You're right.
[suspenseful music]
- Doesn't that kinda look like her?
- I don't think so.
Let's see.
- Yeah! Look at the tattoo! The tattoo on the wrist!
- What the [bleep]?
This is her? - Yeah!
- You're right! She has the tattoo.
I don't know-- how did you just--
- Is this the Facebook that Tam was talking about?
- No...it's not.
Let's just see the page that she sent us.
This is a different Facebook.
Kamie, did we just find her new Facebook page?
Oh, but this is old.
This photo was from 2011. Huh.
So I guess she just had two Facebooks.
- Should we just run the numbers?
- Here we go.
Searching Jamena's phone number.
Daniel Wolf? - Daniel Wolf?
- That's...pretty weird.
- Tam's definitely not talking to a guy.
She would know that after hours and hours
of phone conversations.
- Maybe this is a previous owner of the phone.
- What about the number that texted Tam
telling her to back off?
- Let's do that. Now let's see.
Phone search...
♪ ♪
Dreah Taylor. Wow.
There's no age info, though.
Hold on, let's search that name on Facebook.
[keyboard clacking]
Okay. Dreah Taylor.
- Maybe we could find if she's friends
with one of the Jamena Smith pages.
Then that can determine whether or not she knows her?
- Right, if this girl texted on behalf of Jamena,
then she should be friends with Jamena, right?
No Jamena Smith.
But there is a Jamena [bleep].
Okay. Who is this?
She's got two daughters.
And look under her name...
there's even, like, a little hospital emoji.
She--isn't she supposed to be a nurse?
- Let's go through her pictures.
You see that at the top.
That looks like she's definitely
in a medical facility. - Oh, yeah, for sure.
In her scrubs again.
So could this be her?
It's a Jamena, does have two daughters,
and works at a hospital.
- She's single.
- It's definitely possible that this could be our girl,
just with a different last name.
Well, I think we gotta message Dreah.
Maybe she can give us some info.
"We are hoping you could help us."
All right, I sent it.
- Did we do a Google search for Jamena Smith?
- No.
Jamena Smith.
Plenty of Fish. - "Plenty of Fish review:
impersonation to file report"!
- Whoa.
- Oh...no... - Whoa. Wait a second.
"Okay, someone by the name of Jamena Smith
"keeps contacting different women
"using my pictures. She won't stop.
It's a fake account."
Whoa...
- No...
- The person who made that complaint,
dontplay[bleep], let's look that up.
So here's Plenty of Fish.
We can search by user name.
Dontplay[bleep].
Dang.
All right, so this is obviously not great.
It suggests that someone
tried to report the Plenty of Fish profile.
Now I think we gotta talk to Tam,
take her through this, see if any of this makes sense
or rings any bells.
- None of this is good news.
I usually take the side of "everyone is bull[bleep],"
but this genuinely felt real to me.
Until I saw that complaint website
from Plenty of Fish, I was still on Team Jamena;
I had my T-shirt,
and now I feel like I have to burn it.
That...really...
made my heart sink.
That's, like, the worst possible thing
that you can find.
- It's not looking good.
- I just received word that
my chocolate bar and your sandwich
have been delivered. - Oh!
- I think it's outside your door.
- Allow me. - And mine as well.
- The only good news of the day.
- Yeah!
- Here it comes.
[upbeat music]
Why does it feel so light?
Feels very light.
- Light?
Sandwich is good.
- You ass[bleep]!
No! - [laughing]
Oh, my God.
- Mmm... - Oh, I hate you.
Oh, I hate you so much.
- You got snack-fished.
Boom!
All right, enough fun and games.
We gotta get Tam in here and talk to her
and tell her what we found.
- And that's even more depressing
than not getting my chocolate.
- All right, well, doesn't look
like we have any proof that Jamena is real.
We have a couple things that suggest she might not be.
But we definitely don't have what we wanted,
which is a beautiful love story.
Yet.
- We haven't found the real Jamena
in the pictures, so there still is a chance,
but it's just-- it's not looking good.
It breaks my heart. Tam's gonna be so disappointed.
- Wait a second.
She texted back and said she's coming now.
Whoa!
- Hey! - Hey.
- Oh, wow.
- Hey. - A little hair switch.
- How you feeling, Tam? What's going on with you?
- I'm nervous.
Like, very nervous.
I wanna know what y'all found.
My mind all over the place, to be honest.
- Have you talked to Jamena today?
- Not today, but I talked to her last night.
We fell asleep on the phone.
We was on the phone for, like, six hours.
- Wow, jeez.
All right, well, look. We found a couple things,
maybe some of which will make sense to you,
but we wanna show you what we found
so that we can figure out what the next step should be.
- Okay.
- I'll share my screen with you guys.
All right, so the first thing we did was,
on Facebook, we did a search for Jamena Smith.
And the first profile that came up here is this.
This is not the same Facebook page that you had found.
This is different.
You saw this one, and this one seems
to have very, very little on it.
The one that we found at least has a little bit more.
But it's definitely the same girl.
You can tell by the tattoo on her arm.
It looks like both pages were last used in 2011.
- Mm-hmm.
- The one that we found, this page was made,
it was filled out, some pictures were put up,
and then it looks like it sat and hasn't been used since.
Says that she lived in Illinois and that she's from Atlanta.
- She told me she was from Atlanta,
but she never said nothing about Illinois.
- But it also says that she was a registered nurse.
So this looks like an account that certainly was hers,
but why so few friends? Why so few posts?
Why did they stop using it?
And a lot of questions this brings up.
- Mm-kay.
- But at the same time, it also kind of confirms
that maybe she is Jamena Smith.
That's what she says her name is,
and these are pictures of her.
So in a way, it's also a good thing.
The next thing we did, we searched the number
that you had for Jamena.
The current phone number, on one site,
came back registered to Daniel Wolf.
Wasn't sure if that name rang any bells for you.
- No, I ain't never even heard of that.
- Sometimes the phone search picks up people
who maybe had the number before.
It doesn't really necessarily mean anything
one way or the other.
So then we searched the number
that sent you the threatening text
and came up with this.
Dreah Taylor.
Have you ever seen that name? - Nuh-uh.
- So we then went and looked at Dreah's page,
and I sent her this message.
As you can see, I just said, "Hey, I'm Nev
"from the show 'Catfish,' hoping you can help us.
Call me," and I haven't heard anything from her.
More importantly, though,
we searched Jamena in Dreah's friends list...
If this girl texted on behalf of Jamena,
then she should be friends with Jamena.
It did come back with a hit,
but this woman's name is Jamena [bleep].
She's got two daughters, which also matches
with what Jamena told you, right?
- Yeah. - If you look
in her little bio here, it's got some emojis,
one of which is a hospital.
And there are photos of her in her scrubs,
which matches with her potentially being a nurse.
So this could be who you're talking to.
- That kinda creeping me out, low-key,
'cause the two kids and the hospital,
and the name...it's crazy.
- Some things make sense, a lot doesn't,
and so we're not sure what it all means.
So after that, we just did a basic search
for Jamena Smith.
And when we did that, we got one hit.
And it says, "Someone by the name of Jamena Smith
"keeps contacting different women
"using my pictures.
She won't stop. It's a fake account."
[gentle acoustic guitar]
- This is just making me wanna just throw up.
- ♪ Well, I'm so sorry ♪
♪ That I wasted my time ♪
- It's just weird, but...
I don't know. It is what it is at this point.
- All right, well, look, right now, we're waiting
to see if Dreah gets back to us.
But if we don't hear back from Dreah,
then the only thing left to do
is just reach out directly to Jamena.
♪ ♪
- I just feel like...
a waste of time.
A straight waste of time.
[somber music]
- All right, well, look, Tam, we gotta figure out
what we wanna do know because obviously,
the last piece of the puzzle is figuring out
who Jamena is,
and maybe even more importantly,
finding out how she actually feels about you.
We're waiting to see if Dreah gets back to us,
but if we don't hear back from Dreah,
then the only thing left to do
is just reach out directly to Jamena
and give her an opportunity to explain herself.
- Mm.
- I feel like if I sent her a message that said,
"Hey, Tam reached out. She wanted to meet you.
We've done some research.
We know that you haven't been totally honest."
And just tell her, "Look, you've got one chance
"to try and explain this to Tam,
"and if you don't take this opportunity,
you're never gonna hear from her again."
- I don't even know if you should give her,
like, an easy way out 'cause she'll choose it.
She's not gonna hold herself accountable.
I think you should just be like,
"This is Nev, and we got Tam here.
Get on." Like...
- "I'm reaching out on behalf of Tam
in an effort to help her finally meet you."
- I don't think you should even give her a inch.
Like, just get in Zoom, like... - All right.
Says, "Hey, Jamena, this is Nev from the show 'Catfish.'
"I'm reaching out on behalf of Tam
"in an effort to help her finally meet you.
We are in a Zoom now. Join."
All right, I'm sending her the link now.
[tense music]
All right, it says it's delivered.
- This better work, Tam.
I mean, do you have anything in mind that you're gonna say?
[message notification dings]
- Oh, oh! Hold on, hold on.
Sorry. She wrote back.
She said, "Why are you messaging me?
What do we have to talk about?"
Okay, so I'm gonna say, "Well, I'm messaging you because...
"Tam asked for my help.
"She's an amazing woman,
and I don't want to see her get hurt."
Is that okay? - I think that's good.
- I'm just gonna start a conversation with her,
to see if I can get her talking a little.
[message notification dings] Oh, whoa, whoa.
She just sent a long message. Hold on.
"Tam never told me she thought I was a catfish.
"We've been talking a really long time,
"even had a break up, and she never expressed those feelings,
"so I'm bit thrown off guard by this and shocked.
I have to think about this. I need some time."
"I'll get back to you in an hour."
- Fine. - "Okay, fine.
Let's talk in an hour."
- I feel like she playin' me.
I don't like that.
- All right, well, let's take a break,
and we'll get back in a little bit.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- [sighs] Hey. - Well, here we are.
Waiting for Jamena. I mean, it's like...
This is what she does, right?
She says she'll meet you, and then you show up,
and she doesn't. - Mm-hmm.
- If she needs to be coddled
and handled with kid gloves right now, fine.
All right, so I said, "Well, if you pass up this moment,
"you will have to live with that decision
for the rest of your life."
♪ ♪
I mean, we're still waiting.
It's been over an hour now.
♪ ♪
- It's been a while.
I've, like...
gotten really comfortable.
It's been over an hour.
- Girl, at this point...
- If this is how it ends, with...
Jamena just not showing up,
are you gonna be okay with that?
- I just feel like it's still weird
'cause I don't even know who I'm talking to.
It's weird. [message notification dings]
- Wait, she just texted me back.
- Ah! - She said...
"I'm really sorry.
"Today is a horrible day,
"and I just can't do this right now,
and I would like to be left alone for now."
- Oh! - She's typing.
"I don't want to have to do this,
"but if you guys keep pushing...
I will block the number."
- Okay. - Okay.
[tense music]
- At this point...
- Just leave it, Nev.
- "The victim here, and nobody feels sorry for you."
- Oh, no, n--
No, no, no. - "Bye."
- No...
She blocked you.
- Sorry, Tam.
I know that's not how any of us wanted this to end, but, uh...
- This is what she does.
This is what she does.
Why should we be any different?
- I still don't even know
who I was talking to, but it's...
Cool, I guess.
- ♪ Shouldn't this place ♪
♪ Feel like home? ♪
- You deserve closure.
Like, you deserve to be able to move on with your life
and have answers to everything that you want answers to.
You deserve that.
[somber music]
- Thank you, guys.
I know y'all tried.
- We tried.
- Bye.
- All right, bye, Tam.
- All right, bye.
- I feel awful.
- Such a bummer, you know?
- ♪ Shouldn't this place ♪
♪ Feel like home? ♪
[message notification dings]
- Oh, just got a text
on the show phone.
[suspenseful music]
Remember that episode that we just filmed?
They just texted.
"Hey, Nev. This is Jamena.
"I wasn't able to talk the other day,
"but I can talk now.
"Is there any way we can Zoom today?
I will definitely show up today."
- "Definitely show up."
I'll believe it when I see it.
- We'll see.
Ooh, I better tell Kamie.
All right.
Text Kamie.
"Just got a text from Jamena.
She says she wants to Zoom now."
- Hey!
What is happening?
- Well, let's get Tam.
Let me get Tam on here. Tam!
"Jamena just texted me.
Looks like today might be the day."
- Don't get her hopes up.
- "Come back in the Zoom!"
Tam and this girl...
have on-and-off two years been talking, but, like,
they are tight.
She's jumping on now.
Oh! - Ah!
- Oh! - Tam!
- What's up, y'all?
- Tam, this is my wife, Laura.
- Hey, Laura.
- Hi, how are you?
- Hey. I'm good.
- We filled her in a little bit on your situation.
- Yeah, it's crazy.
- It's a [bleep] situation, Tam.
- I di--listen. Listen.
I don't know what's gonna happen today.
I'm not getting my hopes up.
I don't know how you feel.
- Yeah, I'm not getting my hopes up, neither.
- Well, let's see if she shows up.
I'm gonna text her now.
- All right, I'm gonna let you guys
wait it out. Good luck!
- Nice to meet you.
- All right. - Man.
- So y'all think she gonna really show?
- We'll see. - No.
The thing is, though, Tam, like,
you did have a really amazing connection with her,
and I would love for that to continue.
I just don't want her dicking you around.
- Oh, she said, "Okay,"
so fingers crossed she shows up...
which should be any moment now.
- Here we go!
[computer chimes] - Oh!
- Oh, she said, "Okay,"
so fingers crossed she shows up,
which should be any moment now.
- Here we go!
[computer chimes] - Oh!
Oh--oh!
- Hi. - Oh! Hello!
- Oh.
- Jamena, is that-- that's your name?
- Correct. Yes.
- Hi. - You know, you can't--
you can't get coronavirus through computers,
so if you wanna take your mask off,
you're welcome to. - Well--I'm not.
Well, I'm very pleased that you chose to join us today.
Obviously, you know Tam.
- Correct.
- I'm Kamie. - This is Kamie.
- Hi, Kamie.
- So the first thing that comes to mind for me is,
can you just tell us a little bit about yourself?
- So what would you like to know?
- Well, you've been pretty hard to get ahold of,
so we do have some questions.
[tense music]
- Is your real name "Jamena"?
- No... - Okay.
- But I go by-- I go by Mena.
- And, Mena, where do you live?
- I'm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. - Oh, okay.
- Um...I do nursing work.
Um...what else you like to know?
- What--what was stopping you
from talking to us the other day?
- I just had a lot going on
that I don't wanna discuss right now.
- A lot going on. Well, you're here now.
So when did this all start?
When did you create your fake profile?
- Ten years ago?
- Yeah. - Wow, that's a long time.
Okay, so I'm sure then
you've talked to a lot of women.
- Mm-hmm.
- Okay, and have you talked to them
for as long and as intensely as you did with Tam?
- No, it'd probably been, like, a month...
- But again, you had initially been the one
to say, like, "If you can't FaceTime, forget it."
and then-- - Yeah.
- You were the one who FaceTimed her.
What would you have done if she had answered?
- So...
- Wha-- - You just block the person.
- Oh. - You block the person.
And so when you call them, they won't be able to pick up.
- Wow.
[tense music]
- So, Mena, do you consider that to be manipulating people?
- It may be manipulation.
- So do you feel like you manipulated Tam?
- I'm not sure. I don't think so.
- 'Cause you did the same kind of thing to her.
- So I guess--well, I guess that is a form of manipulation,
so I guess that's what it is. I don't...
wanna...whatever.
- Man, see, I don't know.
I just feel...
played.
- Well...
- See, I'm trying to understand why you would either
create a fake profile, or be sort of nervous to,
or--or avoid--
- It was just something that I did, like,
not even being serious about it.
Like, it was just something-- I was bored,
and I did it, not even being really serious.
Wasn't even taking the whole profile serious.
[somber music]
- Just based on what Tam told us,
the relationship you guys have had
and the connection that you've had
seems to have been very meaningful.
- Mm-hmm.
- And I just can't tell...
where you're at with your feelings towards her.
What do you feel like you and Tam are?
- Just, like, a really good friendship.
Like, a really good friendship.
Somebody to talk to. Like, we vibe like that.
Like, I really look at her like that.
- Well, we saw a lot of the messages
that you guys have shared back and forth,
and it doesn't just seem like something
that you send to your girlfriends.
Like, it sounds like something
you would send to your girlfriend.
- It was bigger. It was deeper.
And I feel like you kinda took advantage of me a little bit.
'Cause I was really broken.
And I feel like... you don't understand that.
- Okay, so I guess it is...
I-I have feelings. I do, I do.
It is a--it is.
I guess it's me just trying to say this
to protect my own self, but I do have feelings.
♪ ♪
- I feel like everything is a lie.
You're telling me to link up with you places,
and you knew you wasn't coming.
That's just--I still feel like that's [bleep] up.
I'm really embarrassed.
I feel like you embarrassed me.
- I'm just worried that you don't truly care about Tam.
I mean, are you in another relationship?
Who texted Tam those threatening messages?
Someone named Dreah.
- Oh, Dreah. Okay, she's a friend.
- So she's your friend?
And you had her send some smoke Tam's way for no reason?
If she's someone that you really care about,
like, why have her threaten her?
Why?
- Because I just wanted it
to end at that point.
Like, I just wanted it for--
at that point, I just wanted it to be over with.
Just to end.
- That's pretty [bleep] up.
- I did that all, and I apologize.
I truly am sorry. Like, I was wrong.
I really, really messed up something great.
I don't want to get emotional; I don't wanna cry.
So I'm actually, like, holding stuff back...
- Mm.
- I've never was able to be so open with a person.
I really wish that we could move forward and move on,
and like I've told you, I love you.
- Mm...
Kamie, can me and you talk?
Real quick?
- Yeah. - Okay.
All right, we'll see you guys in a minute.
- See you in a second. Okay.
- Hey.
- Girl, you're being so quiet.
You've gotta tell her how you feel.
- Right now, I'm just like, numb.
To be honest.
I'm, like, very, very numb.
I don't know what's real and what's fake.
Mm...I don't know.
- What's up? Because I'm a little confused.
Because even though you're saying
all the right things now,
based on the actions of the past,
it just didn't feel like you cared that much,
so I'm not sure if--
- Yes, I care!
I really do. I really care.
- I don't think she was even bad-looking.
- No.
You can tell by her attitude
something else is going on.
She's just not willing to say what it is.
I guess, like, when you have feelings for a person,
kind of, it's just, like, hard.
- Yeah, it doesn't just go away.
And like, even the fact that
she looks like an attractive woman,
and everything is the same,
it's hard not to imagine what could possibly be.
But at the same time, keep in mind that this woman
has been manipulating you this entire time.
- Yeah.
- But I just wanna know from you
where you stand currently, knowing what you know,
because I'm gonna have your back
whichever way it is that you wanna go.
So if you think that you wanna, like,
maintain something with this person,
then I will go that route,
but if you think that this is it,
and you wanna just tell her how you feel about everything
and move on with your life, I'm here.
- [sighs]
- So let's see if we can get them
back into the Zoom. - Okay.
Why don't you guys jump back into the Zoom?"
[computer chimes]
Oh, there's-- okay, there's Kamie.
Okay. All right, we're all back.
Why don't you guys talk without us for a minute?
Because I feel like maybe it'll be easier
for you guys to talk if it's just you two.
Is that cool?
Would you guys be okay with that?
- Yeah. - Okay, mm-hmm.
[suspenseful music]
- I still feel like you took advantage of me.
- Okay, why can't you look up?
Look up, girl, like-- [laughs]
why you can't--okay, look up.
Now, what was you saying?
- I feel like you playing mind games.
Like, you used to block me. You just--
- But you know why I blo--
- Like, we'd be talking, and then you block me.
I used to be like, "What the [bleep] is going on?"
- Don't say like I blocked you just because.
- You're just so defensive,
but I'm telling you what it-- - I'm not.
I'm not defensive. - You're just so defensive.
Yes, you are.
I just feel like I really came into the situation
so vulnerable and so me and so true,
so this [bleep] just kinda...
it hurts.
I used to tell you every day, like,
"Okay, well, we can be friends.
If you not the girl, I'm cool. Like, we can be friends."
So I don't understand why you just never was like,
"Damn, okay."
- You know, I didn't want to lo--
I didn't want to lose you, girl.
♪ ♪
Tam...
you need to let that [bleep] go.
- I guess you got it all figured out.
- So what you wanna do?
- For as far as dating
and all this [bleep], I just need to chill on that...
You got anything else you wanna say?
- Yeah, I love you.
Okay?
So you ain't gonna say it back?
So you really just gonna sit up here
and not even say nothing back?
- I feel like I've said everything I can say.
- Okay. All right.
- I'm fixin' to get off of here.
- Go ahead. [chuckles]
[line trilling]
- ♪ What height is the ceiling this time? ♪
- Hey, Nev.
- Yeah, that's cool.
- Bye.
[somber music]
- ♪ My eyes are open so wide ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Prove that it's more than I think ♪
- Hey. - Hey.
- Hey, everybody.
- Do you feel like you...
came to some kind of conclusion?
- She want everything to just be back how it was,
and it can't ever be like that.
- Mena, I don't know if you feel like you're...
finally ready to stop doing this.
- Yeah, yeah. - I know it's been ten years.
- I'm over it.
- Okay, well, I hope that's true.
I think you understand that not a lot of good
really comes out of this,
for you or anyone. - No.
I totally understand.
- All right, well, then I think we'll say goodbye.
- All right. Bye.
- Bye.
- Well, I'm very proud of you
for how you stood up for yourself.
- Thank you. - Look.
You're amazing, Tam. All right, we love you.
- I appreciate y'all. Y'all was amazing.
- Aww... - Thanks, Tam.
- Thank you, Tam.
- Bye-bye. - Bye.
[singer vocalizing]
♪ ♪
- ♪ I'll go where I am led ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Who will I love in the end? ♪
[upbeat techno music]
- Ten years ago, Paul met Caitea.
They planned to move in together.
But on the day of the move, she stood him up.
- Ten years later, and I'm still thinking about her.
- He's not over Caitea. He's not over her.
- Whoa! "Caitea [bleep] is a catfish."
- [gasps] [cell phone chimes]
- Caitea just texted me "What's the Zoom link?"
- Oh, [bleep]. - I'm literally shaking.
[Zoom bell chimes]