Season 4 of Catfish the TV Show has officially begun. And if this episode is any indication, then this season will be full of shock, awe and plot twists.
Quick refresher:
Nev Schulman, one part of a two part crew, was initially catfished himself and used his experience to help others. Nev’s friend and camera guy, Max Joseph, is on hiatus for the first five episodes working on his first feature film called We Are Your Friends staring Zac Efron.
Being that Max is on hiatus, Nev will be joined by some special guests to help him this season. This episode had Charlamagne tha God, Breakfast Club radio host, and TV personality.
This episode is about Miracle, a 26 year old from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She sent Nev and Max (Charlamagne) an email asking for help in meeting the man of her dreams Javonni. He is an up and coming music producer who messaged her on Instagram. The message led to text messages and feelings progressing. Nev and Charlamagne hopped on facetime and chatted with Miracle, oddly enough, Charlamagne had just met Miracle a few weeks prior at an even for the radio station in Milwaukee. Anyway, for Miracle “he knew the right thing to say at the right time.” That is until the excuses started coming.
Miracle told Nev and Charlamagne that when she asked Javonni to video chat he said he couldn’t remember any of his logins to do so, and to top it off, they have only spoken on the phone a total of three times.
At this point in the episode, Nev and Charlamagne are headed from Los Angeles to Milwaukee. Cue the randomness from Charlamagne on his travel swag, “t-shirt from Target. 9.99.”
Finally, they arrive in Milwaukee to visit Miracle and get the rest of the story. She reveals that her life was a hard one. Her mother was addicted to drugs while she was pregnant with her, that she and her siblings are exchange babies (women who have sex in exchange for drugs/drug money) and that she has no clue who her father is. But then she had her daughter and in that moment she realized that she needed to get her life together for her daughter’s sake.
Now on to Javonni. According to Miracle, Javonni told her that he lived in Milwaukee but, due to being signed to TI’s Grand Hustle label, that he had to move to Atlanta. He would be traveling back and forth between Atlanta and Milwaukee because his sister had lupus (this comes up again later in the episode.) The back and forth texts between Miracle and Javonni made her feel wanted. However, she does state that if he is indeed a catfish she wanted to know, why her.
The next day, Nev and Charlamagne head to a local coffee shop to use their free wifi to do research. On the initial search of Javonni’s number, the only information they received was that the owner was in fact male but there was no address listed. Next step was to do an image search based on Javonni’s Instagram page, again no hits. At this point, Nev suggested they call Max, who is on location filming a movie, and he tells Nev to use the site People Smart. This is where Nev and Charlamagne hit pay dirt. A name, Rickie Witherspoon, and an address in Milwaukee appear. Nev searches Rickie’s name and a photo of a man, who is not Javonni, appears. As well as, a soundcloud sample of his music and a video.
It’s time to “catch a catfish.” Nev enlists Charlamagne as a “sexy decoy” (Charlamagne's words) to use his millions of followers to find the real Javonni. And in a few minutes they do. Before we get any more information on the real Javonni, Nev and Charlamagne meet up with Miracle at another coffee shop to debrief her on what they found. During this exchange Miracle reveals that the address that is listed under Rickie’s number is actually a few blocks from where she lives. That she has never heard or met anyone named Rickie and that the voice in the videos does not sound like Javonni. The actual Javonni, we later find out his name is Johnathan, has no idea who Miracle is, let alone, know anyone in Milwaukee. At this point, Miracle becomes emotional. She leaves the table and Nev follows her to console her. She gathers her emotions and she wants to know who is the catfish and why.
All of this and we are only halfway through the episode!
Nev and Charlamagne decide to give Rickie a call and get him to come clean about it all. Rickie answers and he says “he wants it to be over.” But he’s very defensive and short with Nev. Rickie texts Nev the address, which happens to be the address they found earlier and off they, Miracle included, go to confront Rickie.
They arrive at the address and Rickie comes outside, he seems defensive and wants Nev and the crew to come inside of his home. But before they do Miracle asks him does he know her and if someone put him up to her being catfished. He doesn’t answer; he just wants them to come inside.
Nev finally decides to go inside, but not before Charlamagne tells him “don’t you follow no angry black man in his house.” They all go inside anyway with Charlamagne again adding “Mtv ain’t paying me enough for all of this.”
Inside, Miracle again asks Rickie why her. He doesn’t answer but walks down his hallway and into a room, only to resurface with a woman by his side. That woman is Kara. She’s Rickie’s wife, has lupus and she is also none other than Javonni him/herself.
It comes to light that Kara created Javonni to find the woman who was sleeping with her friend’s boyfriend. That out of all the random people she friended, Miracle was the one to respond and one thing led to another and a year later she was in too deep. Tempers flared and the initial meeting ended with Miracle telling Kara that if she saw her on the street to never speak to her and that her lupus has her sick in the head and Kara responding with she wouldn’t speak to her anyway because Miracle was basic. (Basic: something/one that is uninteresting, vapid, boring, or uncool. -Urban Dictionary.)
Nev decides to go visit Kara alone and get her side of the story. Kara explains the pain of dealing with lupus and how it has taken a toll on her marriage and her life with her kids. For her, the messages between her and Miracle were things that she would love to hear from her husband. But, her feelings for Miracle were somewhat real, she reveals that she was always a little bi-curious but shied away from it due to her upbringing.
Nev breaks down his meeting with Kara to Miracle and Charlamagne and gets Miracle to have a one on one with Kara. Miracle tells Kara why she was so angry and hurt and Kara tells Miracle that she never meant to hurt her and that her motives were never malicious in nature. The two ladies decide to try to move past the catfishing and to work on eventually becoming friends.
In the end Miracle stated that through all of that “the frowns turned into smiles.”
Credit: ACE/INFphoto.com