A year ago, Michael slides into Romeo's DM.
- He was so generous and so sweet.
He saying he want a future with me,
but I still haven't seen him yet.
- Oh!
- You see that punctuation?
- A lot of girls text with extra spaces.
Some weird [bleep] is going down.
He said, "Sure, is it about the woman in Philly?"
- What? - Ah, what is going on?
- Oh. - "I'm not a catfish."
- What? [bell chimes]
- Oh, no.
- Today is a very big day.
Nev is in New York.
Laura's about to pop any day with baby number three.
So that means everything today is my responsibility.
I will be taking over the reins at "Catfish" HQ,
and I will be running the episode.
- All right, guys, I gonna go to work.
- Bye. - [laughs]
- Bye! Love you.
- Bye. Love you.
- I'll see you later, okay?
It's a beautiful early fall day.
I'm gonna head in, get set up.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- I've made it to the "Catfish" HQ.
Nev, if you're watching this,
I'm the captain now, okay? This is my show.
It's my [bleep].
[laughs]
Oh.
How are you? What's going on?
- We are officially on baby watch.
The nursery room is ready.
- Well, that's exciting.
- Kamie, you're welcome to fly out and join me.
- I would love to,
but there's something about the power that I have here now.
- Well, let's see how you feel after you actually have to,
like, run the computer all day.
- Yeah, I don't know about that part.
- Whenever you wanna start, we can start.
- Okay, we got an email here.
I'm gonna let you read it.
That way, you're involved. - Oh, okay.
- Go ahead. - All right.
This is an email from someone named Romeo.
- ♪ I need a lover to keep me safe ♪
- "Hey, Kamie Kam, and Nevie Nev.
I'm in need of your guys' help."
- ♪ Play me the classics ♪
- "I'm 23 years old from Philly
"and I live in Atlanta now.
"A year ago, I still wasn't out,
"but then a guy named Michael DM'd me.
"Something made me respond
"and it turns out he was just what I needed
"when I was afraid to take the next step with a man.
I was falling for him quickly."
- ♪ I just wanna live in this moment forever ♪
- "We messaged constantly
and he motivated me to live my truth."
- ♪ Get any better ♪
- "So earlier this year, I came out
and I'm happier than I've ever been."
- ♪ Forever ♪
- "Ever since then, our relationship has deepened
and I'm even more in love than ever."
- ♪ Oh, my angel ♪
- "Eventually, Michael encouraged me
to move to Atlanta to be with him."
Oh, my--wait a second. "It all sounded crazy,
"but also like the best idea I could think of.
So I did it." - Oh, God,
- "But even though I moved all the way down here,
Michael and I still haven't met up or even video chatted."
- Uh-oh. - ♪ Tell me a secret ♪
♪ Baby, I'll keep it ♪
- "And it's been seven months."
- ♪ Play house for the weekend ♪
- That's crazy.
- They--what?
- Oh, my God, wait, listen to this.
"A week ago I got a weird anonymous text
"saying that Michael isn't who I think he is.
"I have no idea who it's from,
"and I haven't said anything to Michael yet.
"At this point I love him,
but I'm starting to get impatient."
Starting? - Yeah. [laughs]
- "I need help making sense of all this."
- ♪ Angel baby ♪
- "Thanks, Romeo."
- I mean,
is this even, like, a question?
- He says, "You can message me here on my Facebook."
- Let's message him.
"Romeo, oh, Romeo!
"It's Kamie Kam and Nevie Nev. We just read your email.
Can you join us in a Zoom?"
- First message, yay!
People always sort of talk about,
"you should move here"-- he did it,
but he still hasn't met Michael.
Like, how long after you move to a new state
to be with someone and they still don't meet up with you
do you finally say, like,
"Ah, I guess this isn't gonna happen?"
- Week one. [bell chimes]
- Oh! Hey.
- Hey, Romeo.
- Hey, Nevie Nev. Hey, Kamie Kam.
- What's up? What's up?
- You look so cute. I love your red.
I love your hair.
- Thank you. - Wow.
- How you guys doing? - We're you doing good.
How's Atlanta? - It's great,
beautiful weather, nothing more that
I could ask for,
but, you know, always a catch to something.
- Yeah, tell us the tale.
- Give us the whole story about how you first met Michael
and your whole life, like up until now.
- Okay, so I'm 23 years old. I'm from Philadelphia.
Growing up in Philly, it was not easy.
I was telling everyone Ithat I was straight
and I was dating females to cover up for me being a gay.
But people would like bully me and say things to me.
Things like you act feminine. Your hair long.
So I had to fight a lot to defend myself
and, you know, not let anyone pick on me.
So about a year ago, Michael had DM'd me on Instagram.
And I'm like, "Oh, he's cute."
So I DM'd him back and then after a while,
I finally gave him my phone number.
So we took to texting.
He was so generous and so sweet.
He's actually like the first guy that, you know,
I actually talked to for real, for real
He would always tell me, adon't listen to anyone,
only God can judge you. When you ready to come out,
come out and be your true self and blossom.
- So Michael is someone you would say
was the key to helping you come out?
- Absolutely, 100%, hands down.
- Wow, which is wild 'cause you don't even know him, I mean.
- I know that's true, but at the same time, I feel like,
"Oh, I like him a lot." [laughs]
- Look at you.
[laughter]
Are you in love with him?
- I'm falling in love with him.
- Do you guys say "I love you"? - Yeah, we do.
He's saying he want a future with me.
He saying he wanna have five kids together.
So we definitely talk about the future.
The only problem is, I haven't seen him.
- Mm-hmm. - He always would tell me,
"Move to Atlanta. You could be closer to me.
We could finally, you know, see each other.
We could finally go on dates.
We could finally do this, that, and the other.
But after I moved to Atlanta, every time I say,
"Let's see each other, let's go out,"
and he'll say all of these excuses,
"Oh, I gotta babysit," "Oh, I have work"
So it's frustrating.
I still haven't seen this man,
but he's seen everything on my body from top to bottom.
- Ooh. Front, back, side,
left, right. - Ahh! [laughs]
- Does he send you pictures?
- No, he don't send me pictures.
He don't send me nothing.
- Wait a second, wo in a year of talking to him,
the--the only pictures you've ever seen of him
are from his Instagram?
- It's from his Instagram, yeah.
- And is he active on Instagram?
Does he like post often?
- So he only had about two or three pictures up,
and I did ask him about that.
I know, I know, Nev, I know!
- Have you guys even just talked on the phone?
- No.
- A year of not even being able to get on the phone.
- That's crazy.
- Anyone can find a couple minutes to get on the phone
and just say, "Hey, what's up?" - Exactly.
- And you said in the email something about
how someone sent you a message that says,
"Michael's not who you think he is."
- Mm-hmm. - What was that all about?
- I got a text message from--
I don't know who number it is,
"The person that you're talking to, isn't who it is."
It took me to somebody else TheInstagram pagenk.
that says ArQuez,
but it was pictures of Michael.
I'm like, "Oh, maybe, you know, Michael,
made a new Instagram page.
- It sounds like someone sent you the actual person.
- I pray to God that this is actually Michael's Instagram.
Maybe he made a new account or something.
- Mm. - Well, you said he's fine.
How fine is he is my question?
- He is fine, fine! [laughs]
- Can we see him? Can you show us?
- [laughs] - Yes.
- Oh. - Wow.
- He's cute. - But this is obviously
a screenshot from an Instagram carousel.
- I know.
- Can we see some of your messages with Michael?
- Okay. Um...
- "Good night, baby, I love you so much.
"You mean the world to me, no kapp.
"Just thought you should know.
"I know I said it a million times,
"but I'm so happy, excited, and proud
you made it to see 22."
See that punctuation, Nev?
- Oh, I do.
- I find a lot of girls text with extra spaces
between the last letter,
the punctuation, and the next letter.
I don't feel like I see a lot of guys text that way.
How recent was your last girlfriend or girl
that you were talking to before you started talking to Michael?
- Like two years ago.
- Maybe a girl that you started dating
before you came out who really liked you
was hurt when you broke up with her,
when it didn't work out, and then found out you were gay
and was like, "Oh, I still really like him.
Maybe I can try to win him back."
- It maybe could be.
- Okay, show us the messages
between you and the "anonymous" whistleblower.
- Right here. - "The person you're talking to
isn't the person they say they are."
Oh, and then they sent the link.
- StillArQuez. - Right, we can look them up.
- ArQuez.
115,000 followers.
- Yeah.
- This feels like a pretty legit account.
He's posting all these videos.
If this was Michael, why wouldn't he FaceTime with you?
I know it's not fun to think about,
but are you willing to acknowledge that the chances
that Michael is that guy in the photos is very, very low.
- I would say like a 50%.
- 50? - [laughs]
50%. I'm protecting my man.
- I can't.
- Romeo, if we're gonna help you,
you need to start accepting the facts.
- But if this isn't Michael, who is doing it?
It was a year straight.
We exchanged so much, like,
personal information about each other.
I sent explicit pictures, like I was saying.
[sighs]
- Well, look, we already suspect
that the pictures are some other guy,
but we can certainly reach out to him.
We can do a little research on the phone number.
Hopefully, we'll find something and get closer
to the "real Michael".
- I'm praying to God, yo, I am.
- We'll be in touch. - Okay, thank you so much,
you guys. I really appreciated it.
- Bye.
Oh, Romeo.
- Romeo has convinced himself so much that this is the guy
that he needs to be with
that when he finds out it's someone else,
it's going to really pull the rug out from under him.
- I still have hope that maybe
Romeo can open his heart
to whoever the real Michael is
because it feels like someone out there really likes Romeo.
We just need to find out who that is.
- What are you guys doing? - [laughing]
- You're not allowed in there.
All right, I guess that's fine.
- All right, who wants purple? Who wants orange?
- Look at that belly-- look at that belly.
both: Aww.
- Let me just take you on a tour
of everything that is now mine.
All these crafty here is mine.
Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.
And guess who's not gonna take my chocolate today?
Nev, 'cause he's not here. It's mine.
You see all this? All these cameras, mine.
We're gonna take this poster down.
It's just gonna be a big-ass picture of my face.
We don't even have a second chair.
Oh.
- All right, Kamie, are you ready
to do your first investigation
and do all the clicking and typing
and really take the reins on this?
- Ready. Got Romeo.
A year ago, Michael slides into Romeo's DMs.
He's in Atlanta. Romeo was in Philadelphia.
Like "You're so cute. You're so beautiful.
You're so this. You're so that."
They switch off of Instagram DM
so now they're texting back and forth.
They're so in love.
Michael has helped Romeo coming into his own
about his sexuality,
and now Romeo's out and living as a happy gay man.
Then Michael starts talking to him
about moving to Atlanta to be with him.
Romeo is like, "That's a great idea."
So he decides to move.
That was seven months ago.
Romeo's been in Atlanta, Michael hasn't met up with him
and it sounds like a whole bunch of bull [bleep].
- And Romeo got an anonymous text message
from a mystery whistleblower who said,
"You think this is Michael, but the picture are actually
this guy and here is the Instagram."
- But there's a part of Romeo,
that's still thinks that it could be that guy.
It's--it's impossible.
- Highly unlikely.
We need a video from ArQuez saying,
"Hey, Romeo, it ain't me,"
'cause that's the only way
Romeo's ever going to actually accept that it's not him.
- But even then, he--he might still--
- Even then, he'll be like--yeah.
- "He's just trying to play hard to get.
"He's just in a silly, goofy mood.
I know him." - Exactly.
- Okay, Romeo sent a message.
Oh, he so sweet.
He said, "Thanks new friends. I'm glad you're helping me.
"His name is Michael [bleep]
"and he currently lives in Atlanta.
"I attached his pic and that weird text I got.
"His number is this.
"I hope y'all can solve this mystery.
Thanks, Romeo."
- Yeah, let's start by just sending that guy a message
so that hopefully he'll get back to us.
- ArQuez. Okay.
Hey, ArQuez, this is Kamie from the hit TV show "Catfish."
- Good job.
- Working on a case
and could use your help.
- Bam. The good news is,
the mystery text came from a number
that might potentially be a lead.
- Well, we have this number
and then we have the informant number.
- Right. - So let's run the number
for Michael.
- Oh. - Tramaine.
- Tramaine [bleep].
both: Philadelphia.
- Interesting. Let's run the number on one
or two other sites just to see if we get the same names.
- Okay, BeenVerified.
Tramaine.
- Okay.
Oh, look, the number is linked to a Facebook.
- Oh, West Philadelphia.
- Whoa.
Interesting.
I assumed Tramaine was a guy's name,
but I guess it's also a woman's name.
"I'm very laid back, independent, and a little shy."
[ominous music]
There's not a lot on this profile.
It looks like it's pretty buttoned up.
♪ ♪
- Interesting because they haven't talked on the phone
which also suggests that maybe it's a girl.
- So that changes things a little bit.
- Yeah. - I mean, you did notice
that weird spacing with the period...
- Mm-hmm. - Which is often a sign.
- It's a woman
and the fact that she's in Philly,
suspicious.
We didn't search Cash App. Oh, you k- Ooh, yeah.didn't do?
Try Michael's number and see what we get.
- Phone share.
♪ ♪
Nothing.
- Let's search the anonymous phone number.
- Yeah. - Who said, "I know you've been
"talking to this guy, Michael. That's not who he is.
The pictures are actually this guy."
- Okay.
♪ ♪
- Nothing there.
- But it does say that it's also a Philadelphia number.
Definitely looking like there's a Philadelphia connection here.
- Mm-hmm. - Hmm.
- Should we search the informant's number in Cash App?
- Yeah. - Okay.
♪ ♪
- What? - [gasps]
- Ohh.
- Lanier.
Lanier 1997. He's 23.
- I mean, look, if this guy is 23,
and he's from Philadelphia,
I feel like there's a very good chance this informant
and Romeo have crossed paths. - Mm-hmm.
- Well, let's just look him up.
- Lanier [bleep], Philadelphia.
♪ ♪
- Hmm. Really, nothing?
- It's weird.
- What about just a Google search for Lanier [bleep]?
- Mm.
- Oh, look at this. - Look at that. Lanier A.
- Oh, well, it's an old Pinterest,
not super helpful. - [sighs]
- Look this could be someone who's trying to help Romeo,
who somehow knows what's going on,
or maybe this is Michael
and he was trying to end things.
- I don't know, but I think Lanier [bleep] knows Romeo.
Maybe it's like some big plot or something.
- Right, Tramaine and Lanier could be in on it together
for some reason.
- I wonder--Tramaine is Tramaine following Lanier?
Oh, no. - All right,
so here's what I think we should do.
We know ArQuez is the guy in the pictures.
Hopefully, he'll see our message and get back to us.
And we know that both numbers are from Philadelphia.
First number goes back to this girl Tramaine,
and the number of the secret informant
leads back to someone named Lanier.
So we share that with Romeo tomorrow,
see what may ring a bell and between those two things,
we have enough to move forward, contact "Michael"
and hopefully get him to spill the beans.
- Hopefully, we can get Romeo to see the red flags finally.
- Finding out that Michael isn't the guy in the pictures
will be tough for Romeo,
but if he finds out that it's someone that he knows,
that could be devastating.
- Are you ready for another day's work?
[upbeat music]
Let's go, Biggie.
Make sure you clock in. [dog barks]
You got work to do, Small.
Come on.
Bring back my cohost.
- Look who decided to join us.
- This is my show. I get to decide the start time.
- Unbelievable.
What I really wanna do is figure out who Michael is.
- Same. - Any messages?
- No. [laughs]
Just an update, there are no updates.
- How has ArQuez not written back to us?
- He hasn't written back to us,
which I find to be a little sus.
- Well, maybe he gets a lot of DMs
- Also ArQuez in his bio has adult entertainment service.
So I think he does porn.
Let's look him up.
ArQuez Twitter.
- What are you looking for, his Twitter?
'cause that's where people post nudes.
- Oh, it comes right up.
♪ ♪
Oh, he does have a Twitter. - What's this?
Ahh! Okay.
♪ ♪
- Okay, so these are some of the same pictures
that were on his Insta--
Whoa! Bam. - Wow, wow.
- Ding dong.
[laughs]
Okay, so there--
but this is the point, there is content.
There is content. - [bleep]-tent, yeah.
Wow.
- There's a lot of it
and Romeo hasn't seen any of it.
- Yeah, Romeo definitely doesn't know about this page.
I mean, Romeo, isn't really talking to this guy
because this guy has zero reservations
about sharing dick pics.
All right, so now what?
- Okay, let's text Romeo.
Tell him to hop back in.
"Romeo, oh, Romeo,
"do we have some news for you.
Some weird [bleep] going down.
We've got a pornographic mask.
We've got a woman in Philly named Tramaine,
who's connected to Michael's number.
And we found the informant, Lanier,
who also lives in Philly. - Right.
- That's a lot of Philly connections.
So hopefully, Romeo can shed some light.
[bell chimes]
Hey, Romeo. - Hey.
- Hey, Kamie Kam. Hey, Nevie Nev.
- Wow, what's up? I like the fit.
- Ah, thank you. Y'all see me?
- We see you.
Romeo, how are you feeling about everything?
- I'm just feeling a little nervous and--
you know, but let's see.
- Yeah. - Let's just show you
what we found and talk our way through it.
- Ready?
- [exhales] I'm ready.
- Okay, so the first thing we did was look up
ArQuez's Instagram, which you know
the whistleblower sent you the link to this account.
So we already know
that that's the real guy in the photos, ArQuez.
And, you know, we couldn't help but notice that in his bio,
it says adult entertainment service.
So we looked into ArQuez
and we did find his Twitter account
and when we go through that--
- Oh, gee--
Oh, I haven't peeped that.
- The reason that we wanted you to see this
is because you've been talking to a guy
for a year and a half who's been pretending to be this guy.
And he hasn't once, in response to you sending nudes,
even thought to send you a nude back.
- Yeah, and that's what I gonna say.
It clearly-- it shows that he posts,
you know, nudes and everything on Twitter.
- From our perspective,
it just feels like Michael is not this guy.
- It's just crazy. You lie about that,
you can't be trusted. What else are you lying about?
- Yeah.
So we messaged him, haven't heard anything back.
Then we decided to run the phone number
that you gave us for Michael,
that you've been talking to him on,
and that came back to someone named
Tramaine [bleep] in Philly.
[tense music]
- Tramaine?
I know, like, a couple of Tramaine.
A lot of people having that name in Philly,
but I don't know the last name [bleep].
- Okay. Okay.
- So then we ran it on another site, BeenVerified,
and as you can see, Tramaine [bleep] comes up again.
- Up again. - The number came back
with a Facebook attached to it for Tramaine [bleep]
and this is Tramaine [bleep].
- A female? - Right.
- I don't know who that--
I don't even know no female named Tramaine.
- Well, look, you haven't talked on the phone,
which is suspicious.
Maybe it's because it's an older woman
and she doesn't sound like a young man.
That's a possibility. - Right.
- So the next thing that we did
was ran the informant number through Cash App.
- Okay. - This is what came up.
- Let me see-- zoom in on the picture.
♪ ♪
Okay, I know who that is.
Me and him used to go to school together.
- So wait, you do know this guy?
- I know of him.
So me and him used to go to school together.
We did use to follow each other on Instagram.
He used to like all my pictures and things like that too.
And he would, like, comment.
He would always say things like "You're cute,"
and a lot of people that, like, the wanted me in the past
that, like, I curved, he was one of them.
So I don't know, like, him too well,
- The anonymous phone number
that texted you ArQuez's profile
is registered to Lanier on Cash App.
- Right. - And you know Lanier
and you know he liked you.
So that's starting to feel like Michael is Lanier.
And for some reason, a couple weeks ago,
he, from another number, sent you that message
to try and come clean, I guess,
or at least help you understand
that "Michael" isn't the guy in the pictures.
- My thing is if--if he wanted to come clean or whatever,
he could have did that a long, long time ago.
- Well, it's also weird because if you know this guy,
maybe, you know, you weren't ready to date guys then,
and he wasn't-- or who knows?
Like, he could've also just hit you up and be like,
"Hey, we went to school together.
"I see you're gay and out now, me too.
Like, we should go out."
- Well, have you ever responded to his other messages before?
- No. - And the real question is,
is Lanier definitely who you've been talking to
or is he ratting someone out, like Tramaine?
- Whoever he might be, this worries me
because he played a big role
in a lot of big major events in my life.
But at the same time, he could be a serial killer
for all I know. It's like, I don't like--
what else are you lying about? [phone chimes]
- Oh, [bleep], wait,
ArQuez just DM'd.
The real guy from the pictures.
- What'd he say? - Mm...
What?
- Check it out.
♪ ♪
- He said, "Sure, is it about the woman in Philly?"
- What?
- Oh, what is going on?
- Oh, [bleep], wait, ArQuez just DM'd.
He said, "Sure, is it about the woman in Philly?"
- What is going on?
- Write back and say, "I can explain everything.
Jump in on a Zoom."
- Is he talking about Tramaine?
- Oh, he said, "Sure, I'm free now for a bit."
- Great. - Oh, man, here we go.
[bell chimes]
- Hi. - Hey
- Hey. What's up?
- I'm Kamie.
- Hi, Kamie. - Nev.
- Hi, Nev - I'm Romeo.
- Hi, Romeo.
- How you doin'? [chuckles]
- So wait a second, so Romeo is from Philly
and about a year and a half ago,
he met somebody online
who was using pictures of you
but said their name was Michael.
And we wanted to just confirm with you
that you're not the person Romeo is talking to.
[tense music]
- I've never seen Romeo, a day in my life.
- Got it.
- Yeah. Well, I'm sorry.
It's unfortunate that happened to you.
I understand. I'd be mad too.
- We're curious, you responded to Kamie's message,
asking if it had something to do with some lady in Philly.
What was that about?
- This lady in Philly has been going crazy
using my pictures for, like, a very long time.
A lot of people are calling me telling me,
"Hey, I be talking to you online."
And I'm like, "I don't know you," you know what I'm saying?
But someone told me that they was talking to me
and they found out it was a lady in Philly.
- You know what the lady's name was?
Like, somebody named Tramaine?
They just said it was a lady in Philly.
- Oh, okay.
But obviously, stuff like this sort of
has happened to you before?
- Yeah, this happens all the time.
I have to send out so many DMCAs, download checks,
and all types of stuff, just to prove that it's not me.
- Right. - People do all type
of crazy stuff, and I just like,
what do you do when the person shows up
and you realize it's not me? You know.
- Right.
- All right, well, that's all very helpful.
- I'm glad that you guys are helping clear this up.
- All right, man.
- Bye. - Thank y'all.
- Romeo, how are you feeling about everything?
- Oh, it's just a lot of thoughts
and things that is running through my mind so--
- I know, I know.
All right, so look, the fact that we found a lady
in Philadelphia and that the first thing ArQuez asks
is, "Is this about that lady in Philly?"
I feel like there's still some weird chance
that Tramaine could be involved,
but then this whistleblower's number comes back to Lanier
who you've rejected in the past
and that's even more suspicious.
- Man, I don't know.
My head's just everywhere right now.
- So what do we wanna do?
- I mean, whether it's Tramaine or Lanier
or somebody completely random,
I think at this point we gotta reach out.
- I-I don't know how you wanna handle this
if you wanna be the one to contact him,
or if you want for us to try to first.
- That's fine. You guys can absolutely,
you know, try to do it first.
- Okay.
I'll text.
"Hey, Michael, this is Kamie from "Catfish."
"Working on an episode right now that involves you
and would like to get some clarity on a few things."
- Yeah, I think that's good.
- Sent.
- Says "Delivered," so that's good.
I mean, I don't wanna rush them but like maybe if you also text
and say like, "Hey, Michael, really appreciate it
if you could help me find some clarity."
- Okay, I'll send it to him really quick.
I just said, "Hey, Michael, this is Romeo, text Kamie."
- All right, straight to the point.
- Okay. - Oh, he just read it.
- Should we send another text now saying like,
"Look, I know you're not the guy in the pictures,
we just wanna talk."
- Yeah.
- Can you share your screen, Romeo?
- Yeah.
- "Look, I know you're not the guy in the pictures
and I just have some questions, no hard feelings."
- I would like to talk to you face-to-face.
Can you Zoom call?
♪ ♪
- Oh. - Oh, he read it.
- Ooh, okay, okay.
He read it. That's good.
Oh. - [gasps] What?
- "I'm not a catfish."
- Should I say, like, we spoke to ArQuez?
- I mean... - Or should I say,
"Then get on Zoom"? - Yeah.
[tense music]
- What does that mean, "I'm not a catfish,."
Okay.
- Oh, you got text bubbles.
♪ ♪
- He said, "Fine, okay."
- All right, so write back now and say, "Okay, great."
♪ ♪
Yeah, and then we'll send him the link.
Perfect. - It say "Delivered."
♪ ♪
[bell chimes]
- Oh.
♪ ♪
- Oh, no.
- What does he mean by, "I'm not a catfish"?
[bell chimes]
- Oh.
- Hello, hello.
- Lanier, right?
- It's Lanier, but I go by Michael.
- Wait, you go by Michael in real life
or just with Romeo?
- No, I go by Michael in real life.
- Okay, welcome to "Catfish,"
even though you say you're not a catfish.
- I don't think that I am a catfish.
- How not?
- As far as the picture,
I felt like it looked like me.
But that was the only thing that was a lie.
- Okay, well, why don't we just give you an opportunity
to sort of say whatever your piece is, explain yourself,
'cause we obviously have a lot of questions.
- Um, well, I made the account in middle school
before I came out.
I wasn't a really a social person.
So the page was really mainly to manage my coming out
but later on,
I started to see Romeo on Instagram
and it was kinda like, "I should try to talk to him."
And I DM'd him from Michael's account.
- But Romeo said that you had liked and commented
on some of his pictures at some point as Lanier.
- I probably liked them, but he didn't reply.
- Michael, when you first came on,
you said, "The only thing I lied about was the picture."
- Yeah. - And obviously we didn't know
that you go by Michael,
so, okay, that-- that makes sense.
But you also said you lived in Atlanta, right?
So have you been living in Atlanta?
- So I do go back and forth from Philadelphia to Atlanta.
I have family in both places
- Okay. - But I'm from Philadelphia,
originally.
- We found a woman in Philadelphia
connected to your phone number named Tramaine.
Do you know that person?
- No, I don't, actually.
- So you did this alone?
- Yeah. - Have you talked to other
people with the Michael profile?
- Not really.
When I first made it,
I had a bunch of different people DM me,
but it only got that far with Romeo.
- So we went to high school together.
We knew of each other.
We--we--like what is the point
of you catfishing me? Like--
- Like I said, I don't feel like it was catfish.
- What the [bleep] Ido you mean-
you don't feel like that's catfish?
- Hold on, hold on. - So what is it?
- Watch your mouth 'cause what you gonna do
is watch your mouth. - I ain't doing [bleep].
How do you think that's okay to do?
Like I'm asking.
- Well, if you shut the [bleep] up and listen--
- You shut the [bleep] up!
Who the [bleep] you talking-- - If you shut the [bleep] up--
- Anyway, back to you guys, back--
you want me to answer your question or not?
- Take-- can we take a time-out?
- You saying that's you in the picture?
That's what you saying? You do not look like that.
Fake-ass Whoopi Goldberg. - You [bleep] fake-ass
wannabe Bow Wow-lookin'-ass mother [bleep].
- What are you talking about?
You really just catfishing somebody.
- Listen, you gonna watch your mother [bleep] mouth.
That's what you gonna do.
- Michael, why are you being so insulting?
- 'Cause I will not continue to sit here--
- You deserve to be--
- No, you shut the [bleep] up, Nev.
- No, you deserve to eat some [bleep].
- You fake-ass Whoopi Goldberg.
What's up? Then throw your hands up!
- Don't nobody give a [bleep] about you.
- This is supposed to be my show.
- Can we put Michael in the waiting room for a second?
- I'm confused. - Nev, it's about time
that you got cussed out on this [bleep] show.
I'm sick of being the punching bag on this show.
[laughing]
- This--this guy is unbelievable.
- You catfishing somebody, you would think that you would
come in like, you know, more calmer.
He come in aggressive.
- Yeah. - He's kinda delusional.
- I ask you one question,
and I still don't know the answer to it.
Like, what's the point of you catfishing me?
- I think at this point, maybe it's best
if Kamie and I just talk to Michael,
see if we can get him to calmly answer some questions.
- That would be excellent. - All right.
- He just texted me.
"I apologize for getting rattled up.
Can we finish the Zoom call? I really wanna clear this up."
I'm gonna say, "Okay."
[bell chimes]
We're back.
I think we just kind of need to start from the beginning.
- Well, I am sorry for, you know,
coming out of character,
but I will not be disrespected, not even by you, Nev,
or not by Romeo either-- - Well, okay--
what I was trying to say was,
in this situation, it would be expected for you
to have to sit and listen to someone be upset
and possibly even disrespect you
after the fact that you've caused this situation.
- Right, and that's--that's where I got upset
because I'm kinda--I'm still kinda confused on how--
who are you to tell me what's fair and what's not fair?
- I'm not telling-- - Romeo's--
Romeo is saying that it's not fair.
Romeo was asking--he-- the main thing
that he wants to know is why?
Is it revenge?
Were you trying to be malicious or get back at him
for not talking to you before?
Or do you have romantic feelings with Romeo?
♪ ♪
- The main thing that he wants to know is why?
Is it revenge?
Were you trying to be malicious or get back at him
for not talking to you before?
Or do you have romantic feelings with Romeo?
♪ ♪
How do you feel about him?
♪ ♪
- I definitely feel like...
I love him.
I kinda just was nervous.
when I was originally-- made the page,
I wasn't out.
Michael was more confident.
Michael is also... more outspoken.
Michael is also more outgoing then Lanier is.
That's kinda why I still go by Michael.
- So you feel more confident
and more authentically genuinely you as Michael.
- Right.
But I wanted to come out to him,
and I wanted to tell him exactly who I was
and see if we can move forward
'cause when I go back to Atlanta,
I wanna be able to see him
and, you know, show him that I love him.
- You guys made a real connection.
He talked about you as a very important person
who gave him the courage and strength
and support he needed to come out.
- Oh, really?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, so I get--so I can understand why he's so upset.
- Right, so if we could go back to having Romeo on here
now with you understanding what he's feeling
and what he's dealing with,
if you could be really gentle with him
and explain that your feelings are real
and that he is important to you
and listen to him and let him express himself,
I think we could make some--some forward movement.
- Okay.
- Acknowledge where you [bleep] up,
and let him know what was real
and maybe there'll be some hope
for a relationship after all this.
- Got it. Yeah, I can definitely do that.
- Okay, let's bring Romeo back in.
Romeo, oh Romeo,
come back in the Zoom.
[bell chimes]
Hi, Romeo.
- Hi, Kamie Kam.
- So I think, Romeo,
you were initially feeling like you had some questions,
but I do think Michael has things he wants to say to you.
I'm sure you have things you'd like to discuss.
And I feel like now we can try and do that.
- Mm-hmm.
So the first question I wanna know is,
if we knew of each other in school, what is the point?
Like, why would you catfish me?
- So... [sighs]
I do love you.
I do love you, and I do have major,
major feelings for you,
but I was...
nervous, I guess.
You know, we talked about a lot of personal things and, um...
okay, so let me clear this up to you
'cause I already cleared it up to them.
Lanier and Michael are two different people.
So Michael is more confident, more--he's more outgoing,
more outspoken, more-- you know,
he's--he's the one that's on the camera right now.
The reason why I made the Michael page
and why I keep going by Michael,
is because that's who I came out as.
I know I did catfish you with the pictures,
and I know that you're probably hurt
or you know, that you feel some type of way,
but I want you to know, like,
the love that I have for you,
the way that I feel about you, how much I love you
and the things that I told you in our messages
and things like that, like, those are real.
Those are genuine feelings.
You know what I mean?
I was nervous, and I didn't know
how you would react to me, necessarily.
You get what I'm saying?
- Okay.
- So I do apologize for you, you know,
to you for catfishing you
with the--with the pictures and things.
But like I told Nev and Kamie, I really--I really do
want us to somehow work,
if--if that's ever possible.
If not, be friends, 'cause like I said,
I am back and forth from Philly to Atlanta,
but I do want you to actually get to know who Lanier is.
You get what I'm going--you get where I'm going with that?
- I don't know, for me, I find like it still is an excuse
because that still catfish because you not the person
that you said that you was on the pictures.
So that makes me think, is he lying about other things?
For you to lie for that long, it makes me question
and think about a lot of different things.
- I know it's probably hard for you to believe now
'cause of where we are in the--
you know, in the process,
but like I said, the love that I have for you is real.
And you got every right to feel, like, hurt,
betrayed, everything, 'cause we've talked about some real,
deep, personal things.
I feel like me and you do have a connection.
Otherwise there wouldn't be a conversation
still trying to be had.
- I don't know, for me, this is something serious.
I don't know what's real. I don't know what's fake.
I don't know what's a lie. I don't know what's not a lie.
I don't know.
- Are you saying, Romeo, that you need time to process?
- Absolutely.
- Well, you guys have each other's contact information.
So I think that it's safe to say,
if Romeo wants to get in touch with you,
he knows where to find you.
- Yeah, he knows how to, you know, get in contact.
- I'm gonna say one-- just one last thing.
I don't know what your lives are like.
I have no experience of growing up
a Black gay man in Philadelphia,
but I can tell from the brief descriptions
that you guys gave that it was [bleep] hard,
and you guys share that
and that's not something a lot of people share.
And on top of that, you also now share
a year and a half of deep, intimate connection.
All of that considered,
I think you guys have a lot more in common
and a lot more that you share
than you should be upset about.
And so whatever happens, try to just be,
if nothing else, allies.
- Right, right, right. - Absolutely.
- I do really, really, really deeply apologize,
you know, for catfishing you.
Even if you don't feel like we can be a thing,
which, I, you know, hope for in the future,
but I know we both probably gonna need some time,
you know, to think it over and things like that,
but just like I always tell you in our messages,
I always got you. You know what I'm saying?
You know, just hit me up, call me.
- As much as I would love to see you guys end up together,
I'm not sure if you would survive your first argument.
- I don't know either. I don't know, you know.
- I mean, you guys--you guys are--got short tempers, man.
- [laughs] - All right, Michael,
thank you for taking the time to explain yourself
and open up with us and obviously with Romeo.
I think that was helpful for--for all us.
- No problem. Thank you guys. I appreciate you.
Good night guys. See you later.
- Later, Mike. - Oh, my God.
- Romeo, oh, Romeo,
what a ride this was.
- It was crazy, but he actually do seem cool.
Maybe we could be, you know, friends.
- All right, well, I'm excited to hear how things turn out.
- Thank you so much.
- Bye. - Bye-bye.
- ♪ It's about trust ♪
♪ It's about faith ♪
♪ It's about all the things I want ♪
♪ All the things I'm not willing to say ♪
♪ So what you got? ♪
- I think she could be the one. -I even went to get a ring
- A ring?
Have an address that's not very far.
- It's scary, but I'm ready.
- I won't knock on the door.
I'll take one of our producers
because whoever this is,
will know that we're onto them.
Go, John. - Hey.
- Hi. - Is Mercy here?