Catfish: Nicole and Nicole

We start with a girl named Nicole who goes by Nicole Riot on the internet. She has a sort of an alternative punk rock kind of look. She is not contacting Nev and Max about an online relationship she’s concerned about. She is trying to find a way to stop people from using her photo to catfish others. It seems to be a major problem and is causing her problems in real life. People will come up to her and ask why she disappeared after being in an online relationship for years. People also accuse her real social media accounts as being fake. So Max and Nev are going to help her.

Nicole is gay and only came out to her parents who are LDS Mormons two years ago. Recently, the fake accounts have caused problems with her girlfriend who dumped her because she thought she was creating multiple accounts to talk to other people.

On the flight to Salt Lake City, the boys eat sushi they apparently brought with them. Ew. This is like cooking fish in the office microwave at work.  No. Just NOE.

The guys arrive at Nicole’s house and meet her roommate Tyson. He says she doesn’t like to go anywhere anymore because there is always the chance someone who has been catfished with her photos will approach her. 

The walls are a very light gray making me wonder if they do actually paint them rather than use some sort of graphics magic. She doesn’t seem the type to allow any of the weird colors they often use on the walls. The walls have original art with none of the cheesy LOVE  or Family wood carvings. There is a cute plant in a crate and a ficus type plant or two in the background. The couch is pretty subdued as well. It was sort of a tan color cloth fabric that may or may not be a New Couch By Catfish. Nev and Max are sitting on wooden chairs from a kitchen or dining room table.  Perhaps she declined the makeover because she likes her stuff.

Nicole has a particularly active fake site she wants shut down. Even though it is only one of many accounts, she says she needs to feel like she is fighting back.

Apparently, there is a Brazilian version Catfish, and those two dudes are going to help the guys find Nicole’s Catfish. It’s an International Crossover!  So the four of them reach out to Facebook friends of the catfish.  One of the Brazilian’s is giving Nev and Max a lot of tips on how to search more deeply. Apparently production on the Brazilian version of Catfish doesn’t do all the work for them. 🙂

Nev and Max get a call from Ryan, one of the guys they contacted through Facebook who has been in an on and off relationship with fake Nicole for almost ten years. Max’s asks if he is hopelessly in love with her, because we really need the brokenhearted idiot fooled by the catfish to make the episode great again. Luckily, he is hopelessly in love! Imagine that!

Nicole, Nev and Max arrive in Cleveland. Max and Nev get up early the next morning to break the bad news to Ryan about Nicole. They want to tell him first so that he doesn’t freak out when he sees her. He says that he never actually talked to Nicole on the phone for the past ten years. This makes me think it might be a guy. Ryan has the sads about the person he has been talking to not being the real Nicole. Then Nev goes to get Nicole so they can figure out how to meet fake Nicole. The way Ryan got a bit flustered seeing her seems genuine. Despite all the production manipulations and the fact the catfish always knows they are coming for them, I still believe these are real people. It blows my mind that this keeps happening in 2017 but I believe it.

The usual meeting a park near a large body of water is set by production. Due to the fact the catfish has never spoken to Ryan on the phone, Nev and Max are convinced it’s a guy. Side note: Apparently there are no large bodies of water in Cleveland.

The catfish arrives, it’s a girl and Nicole knows her.The catfish, Arica, friended her on Facebook as herself. She claims that she was eventually going to confess that she was making the profiles. Arica knows Ryan. She “low key dated” Ryan ten years ago.  Ryan didn’t even recognize her. Arica says that she liked Ryan in high school but her parents would not let her date and told her she could not talk to him so she created the profile to be able to still talk to him without her parents finding out.  She says he was not catfishing anyone else. It was just a way to talk to Ryan.

Ryan and Nicole didn’t really say anything to Arica, so that is the plan for the second meeting.  The catfish house has some wild apricot walls and some really dark green ones.  There is an entire living room set that is a couch, chair. side table and coffee table but it looks like perhaps the mother didn’t want to change it. It doesn’t look like something Arica would choose from The Catfish Catalog of Staging Furniture. A painting was also left up that had to be blurred. One of those “inspirational sayings” wall hangings appears to be covering something in the corner. It has the feel of Arica living with her grandma who said no one is touching her living room.

Nicole goes straight in on her. She says she feels betrayed two ways since Arica pretended to be her friend on Facebook and she is also the one using her photos. Ryan says she was really emotionless at the park. Arica seems a bit more contrite today.  Here comes the bisexual story. I knew that was going to come out and in the end Nicole will comfort her over her sexual identity issues. Only Nicole is not doing that yet. Ryan is not having it either. Nicole is really pissed and calls Arica a bitch. Arica cries and apologizes. Arica says she deleted the fake profile the night before. There was no warm fuzzies with Arica and Nicole or Ryan.

Two months later: Nicole says she feels better after the experience and is more social. Ryan didn’t want to Skpe. He is still looking for love, but not online. Arica got a new hairdo and looks much better. She has stopped catfishing.