This week on Catfish we meet a nice boy name Tyler, who is actually attractive and seems fairly normal. But for some reason Tyler can’t seem to find a girl in real life (dating is hard. I feel ya, Ty) and he has found himself in love with a girl named Amanda, who he has been chatting with online. Tyler has been trying to get her to meet up, since he is a ‘face-to-face kind of guy’ but Amanda lives on the other side of the state and is hard for Tyler to reach, since she doesn’t have a cell phone. And as Nev’s buddy says, in this day and age not having a cell phone is like saying you’re not wearing pants. Everyone has a cell phone! So right from the start Nev and his pal suspect that something is up with this girl.
Right after chatting with Tyler, Nev flies out to the sticks of Michigan to help this bro out. One of the first things Nev asks Tyler when he arrives is why a good looking jock like him isn’t banging all the hot pieces in his own hometown. Tyler claims that those girls aren’t mature and just play games (oh, clearly he has no idea what kind of games Amanda has been playing with him). After showing Nev the racy conversations he’s had with Amanda, and mentioning that a dick shot may have been sent at one point in time, the guys leave Tyler to head back to their camp ground and get some sleep.
The next day Tyler takes the two city boys out fishing with some of his friends so they can get to know him better and better understand his whole relationship with Amanda. While the friends are pulling in some bass and catfish (!), Nev manages to catch himself a nice little sunny. It’s adorable. Nev and his pal chat with Tyler’s friends, who all clearly want the best for him, which is really sweet and they are all skeptical of this Amanda character.
In the car after their fishing excursion, Nev and his buddy go over Tyler’s life and personality AGAIN. It seems like they just can’t believe that this good-looking jock would really be into an internet girl. Which is completely understandable. I went to high school. Guys like Tyler didn’t need things like facebook to get a girlfriend. As they continued to speculate, the two guys head to a coffee shop so they can do their usual facebook stalking and try to get in contact with some of Amanda’s facebook friends to see if anyone knows her for real.
They realize that most of Amanda’s posts are very sexual in nature and the majority of her friends are male. First red flag. And as the facebook guys start responding to Nev’s messages (People really just call a guy who randomly direct messages them his number?), Nev realizes that all these guys are being hit on by Amanda and participating in some cyber sex. Amanda is a classic cyber slut (Not that there is anything wrong with that). Red flag number two.
Nev decides to do an image search of some of Amanda’s profile pictures and that is when things get reallyyyyy juicy. They find that pretty much all of Amanda’s pictures came from an old Myspace profile for a girl named Trina. You know the old saying, three strikes and you’re out. Clearly, Amanda isn’t who she says she is. Nev and Max (that’s his friend’s name. I realize this now) go back to Tyler’s place to break the bad news to him. The poor guy looks devastated, but he still wants to find out who he has been talking to all this time.
So, in order to honor his wishes, Nev sets out to contact Amanda, which is made much more difficult because she doesn’t have a cell phone and doesn’t video chat. So he goes with his only option, he facebook messages her. She is reluctant to met up, because she ‘doesn’t want to let Tyler down.’ After being assured that Nev will be at the meeting, Amanda agrees to meet up, and conveniently she isn’t on the other side of the state at the moment, but just a few towns away! Funny how that worked out so well.
On the way out to Amanda’s ‘friend’s house’, Tyler tries to remain positive. “Maybe she’s some super sexy farmer’s daughter,” he says, and he is met with only silence and a timid, “Yeah, maybe” from Max in the backseat. At this point we all know she isn’t some sexy farmer chick. It’s just a matter of discovering who exactly she ACTUALLY is.
They pull up to the house, and Tyler is still hopeful that it will turn out to be a cool chick in the house, ‘even if she isn’t the girl in the pictures.’ Aw, his naivety is so precious. They ring the doorbell and out of the side door comes a chubby African American boy named Aaron, who states right off the bat that he is Amanda Miller. Aaannndddd the awkwardness sets in.
Poor Tyler looks like he is about to cry as Aaron explains that he used to talk to about a hundred guys, but he cut back because he really liked Tyler, which didn’t really seem to make Tyler feel any better.
Aaron explains his reasoning, saying that he is uncomfortable as a gay man, and the profile helped him show straight guys his personality and make them like that. In a bit of a sad revelation, Aaron says he would rather be a straight girl than a gay guy. He clearly seems uncomfortable in his own skin.
The next day, after the boys have had some time to digest everything that happened, Nev and Max visit Tyler, who has already unfriended the Amanda profile, and convince him to come back out to Aaron’s house. Aaron’s friends are there and while they already knew about the fake profiles, they didn’t know the full extent of his dependence on them. When they scold him a bit about it, Aaron is clearly upset and tells Nev one-on-one that he really needs to change his life. He is manipulating people into liking him, because he wants everyone to like him, but Nev points out that he doesn’t even like himself.
Nev is usually pretty tough on the fake profilers, but even he clearly feels bad for the kid. Tyler, however, is still pissed that he was just Aaron’s little joke. But when Aaron explains things to him further and apologizes, Tyler ends up forgiving him and getting some closure from this whole experience.
When they do their one month catch up, Tyler has started college and is meeting a bunch of new people (not online) and Aaron has moved to New York City and has started dating people (also not online). Unfortunately, but not all that surprising, Tyler and Aaron have not been in contact since filming ended.
So another week and another failed love connection on Catfish: The TV Show. Hopefully next week someone will be able to get their happy ending! I’m still holding out for some true love!
I’m Sam, your reality TV expert. When it comes to television my motto is: the trashier, the better. If a show is winning Emmys and making critics swoon, it probably isn’t my style. I’ll take Kardashians and teen moms over great acting and writing any day of the week.