Catfish: Yasmine & Lewis

I’m  two episodes behind on Catfish. The past couple of weeks have been extremely busy so I am hoping to get caught up this weekend.

In tonight’s episode, Sandra contacts the Max and Nev about her granddaughter who is sending money to her online boyfriend. Yasmine sent the money to “Lewis” but since you have to show ID to pick up money, it seems he used his real name to get the money. Grandma was able to do the simple Google searches so many being catfished refuse to do, and she discovered some of “Lewis'” videos. Yasmine realized that was not the voice of the man she was talking to on the phone, but apparently decided to ignore all of that.

The money was sent to a woman named Rihana who lives in Arkansas. It was only $40 so that’s good news.  It’s enough to teach her a lesson about sending money to people on the Internet but not her college savings account. The phone number that this love affair is happening on is registered to Lakeisha who also lives in Arkansas about two and a half hours away from Rihana. 

The guys arrive in Oklahoma City to talk to Yasmine and her grandma. It doesn’t look like grandma got new couches. Bummer.

Yasmine tells us about the usual excuses Lewis gives for not being able to video chat. Broken phone. Broken laptop. The usual drill.  Then he says that his cousin was in a bad car accident and he asked for money. She sent it to Rihana because he could not find his ID. Apparently, he needed $40 for gas money. Yasmine realizes that none of this makes sense. She just doesn’t care.

Even when she discovers that he is not John Lewis, and is sent a photo of “the real him” who is cuter than the first lie. He says his real name is Meelo. This time she starts to wonder if he is lying again. So she confronts him again. This time he tells her his name is Blue, and sends her yet another photo. Blue seems like he could be female. Or perhaps transgender. Yasmine decides to just roll with it because she feels like she fell in love with him, or her, or whoever the hell it is, when he was there for her through some difficult times. Blue asks her to stay home from work and talk to him sometimes and she does. Yasmine refers to Blue as “the person” or other gender neutral terms. 

Not only does grandma not get new couches, they film the dramatic results from their rudimentary Internet search in a garage full of junk. Why is production being so stingy with these people?

Nev makes the requisite call to the catfish who does the usual dance about not wanting to meet but then agreeing to meet. Well sort of. He hangs up on Nev before agreeing to meet. Yasmine cries and they decide to make a road trip to Little Rock the next day anyway. Blue finally agrees to meet via text message.

When they get to the house, Blue takes forever to come to the door. But when he (? I’m still sure) comes to the door, he is dressed in the required plan t-shirt with no logos. Yasmine asks Blue what his actual name is, and he says Keerah. Nev, is still unsure what he is working with here, so he asks what gender she identifies as, she says,”female” as if that were obvious. It’s not. I could be convinced either way.

Keerah gives the usual story that everything was real except for the names, and the photos, oh and that she is female. Nev asks if the car accident story was real, she says yes, but she’s lying.

Yasmine is furious that Keerah told her she should get Lewis tattooed on her. Keerah has the crazy eyes. And a wild hairstyle like Leslie Jones might have the day after a week-long bender. Keerah has a tantrum and storms into the house muttering about how a bitch don’t wanna listen.

Nev follows her right inside. They have either removed all of her furniture or she didn’t have any. Catfish bought her a shiny new leather recliner though. Oh wait, there is a sectional in there. We just didn’t see it before. I’m not sure if it is a catfish sectional. Keerah wants to talk with Yasmine alone. But Yasmine is in the car crying about how stupid she has been and isn’t interested. Yasmine wants to go home to grandma. But Max and Nev are having none of that. They are spending the night for a follow-up.

The next day, they go back to Keerah’s place and go sit in the backyard at a table and chairs provided by production. Keerah has on a champion tee-shirt. They do not blur the logo. Keerah apologizes. She tells Yasmine she is in love with her. Yasmine says the best thing for both of them is to let go of their relationship. How old is Keerah? Is that gray hair or the lighting? They talk for a bit and hug it out.

Yasmine is in college when the guys do the follow-up. She still talks to Keerah, Keerah says they are just friends now.