This episode of Catfish begins with Nev’s wife, Laura, walking into a room full of Catfish crew to a chorus of the Catfish-typical, “Heeeey!” and a round of hugs from everybody. Nev starts with the jokes right off the bat, first mentioning that he never gets that kind of greeting from the staff, and secondly making a sarcastic comment when Laura goes for the Starbucks drink on the table, telling her, “That’s my tea.”
Laura, of course, plays right along and lifts her hands in surrender, saying, “Woah! He is the host and I am the guest.”
Laura then explains that the usual co-host, Max Joseph, couldn’t be there today because he’s giving a TED Talk in France, and Nev jumps in to tell everybody watching to be nice to his wife online (aww). I’ve always really enjoyed the few glimpses of Laura we’ve gotten so far on the show. I find that since Laura’s a woman, she really brings a unique perspective to what’s going on that Max and Nev just can’t offer. So I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what Laura adds to this episode!
We jump right into the video clip from Angel, who tells us she’s 26 and lives in California. Five months ago, Angel met a guy named Jordan on Tindr and was very attracted to him. Jordan is 28 years old, he drives trucks… and he’s a rapper. Anybody who’s watched Catfish before knows that anybody who claims to be a singer/rapper or model automatically raises a red flag for the viewers. Angel says they had an instant connection, though, and she ended up giving him her number the same day they first spoke. She has been trying to meet up with him ever since, but he always has some kind of excuse. She confesses that she feels like Jordan is her soul mate and that they have a connection that she’s never had with anybody else, and ends the video message by begging Nev and Laura to please help her meet him.
Laura speaks her mind right away by saying, “Oh man. I want to be optimistic to her face right now, but I’m not optimistic.” Well, Laura, that makes two of us!
Nev gets Angel on Facetime, and starts asking her a little bit more about herself. The first thing they discover is that Angel, too, is a truck driver! Nev’s a little over excited about this if you ask me, exclaiming, “Are you kidding me!? You drive a truck, he drives a truck – you’re basically perfect for each other!” If only that was all it took, am I right? This is where it starts to get a little confusing, though.
Angel explains that she was in a three-year relationship with this guy named Brandon, but they broke up five months ago after she told him she loved him and he told her he wasn’t ready to commit.
After the breakup, Angel went on Tindr to find somebody new so she didn’t have to think about Brandon anymore. She met Jordan that night, and the two of them spent five hours messaging back and forth. She tried to meet up with him in person, but he keeps saying he’s too busy. Nev asks where Jordan lives, and they discover he says he lives in Richmond, California, which is only twenty minutes away from Angel! It’s crazy that they haven’t met up yet!
Nev asks if they’ve ever Facetimed or talked on the phone, and Angel admits that they haven’t. Laura doesn’t bother to mince words at this point, and says, “So you know that something’s up!?”
Angel responds, “Yeah, which is why I broke up with him and got back with Brandon… but then I started talking to Jordan again. It’s just an on-and-off again relationship with both of these guys.” But then she explains that Brandon just broke up with her two weeks ago after she came clean to him about everything about Jordan.
Nev says, “So Jordan just ruined your real life relationship. What’re you doing messing around with this guy?”
Angel answers, “It’s just the connection! I feel like we have this emotional connection and I feel like he gets me in a way that Brandon hasn’t in the last year. He’s just perfect for me, really!”
They end the call with Angel and Laura immediately says, “Oh man, this guy’s lying about something major!”
Nev comes in strong with the first dad joke of the episode, saying, “For a woman who drives a truck, she’s not very good at reading signs.”
We must help @NevSchulman and @LauraPerlongo with navigating Angel out of this mess! #Catfish pic.twitter.com/QAQtdAr5ff
— Catfish (@CatfishMTV) July 19, 2018
Let me tell you, as funny as the joke was, it was Laura’s over-exaggerated eye roll in response that really had me cackling! We get a montage of Laura and Nev at the airport where they explain Nev’s mom has their daughter, Cleo, for the week and they’re about to have an “adults’ week”. In the car after they land, they start talking about how suspicious it is that Angel and Jordan haven’t spoken on the phone yet. Nev reminds us, “Not talking on the phone almost always means they’re not the gender they say they are.”
They get to Angel’s house and go through a quick recap of everything that’s been going on with Brandon and Jordan. We learn that she made plans to meet up with Jordan at a bar. She brought her best friend Cece along and they ended up waiting for four hours but he never showed up, even after she called and texted him. She said that Cece was super supportive and told her that Jordan sounds like such a nice guy and that the two of them are going to be super cute together – and I’m not gonna lie, my Catfish senses are tingling at this point. Could Cece be Jordan?
Laura is clearly thinking along the same lines, because once Angel admits they’ve never spoken on the phone, she asks if she thinks Jordan could actually be a woman. Angel answers with, “I don’t really want to consider that. I love him. We’re supposed to be moving in together. We plan to get married.”
Angel is ready and willing to move in with Jordan despite never meeting or hearing his voice! Would you do the same? #Catfish pic.twitter.com/ZfEKafsdPK
— Catfish (@CatfishMTV) July 19, 2018
Nev is just as skeptical as Laura. “Woah, woah, woah, wait – stop. You’ve been talking to him about getting married and moving in together? I gotta see this guy!” Angel shows them some pictures, landing on one mirror shot of the guy’s abs, and Nev jokes while working the camera, saying, “Just let me just get another shot of you guys drooling over this guy’s body.” He reaches out to wipe at Laura’s mouth with his hand and says, “Let me just get this little dribble here.”
They ask to see some of the text messages between Angel and Jordan and after reading several “babes” Nev says, “Alright, you’re talking to a girl.”
“How do you know?” Angel asks him.
“Look at this!” Nev says, pointing to her phone. “Awwwh babe, cuddling sounds amazing right now.”
“Maybe he’s just a sensitive guy!” Angel suggests.
Nev responds by looking into the camera and once again making me laugh out loud with his expression.
.@katieross_418 #Catfish pic.twitter.com/SAXy7Yiken
— Catfish (@CatfishMTV) July 19, 2018
Nev asks the final hard question: What about Brandon?
He asks if Angel’s in love with Brandon, and if she would want to be with him again right now if he was willing to commit the way she wanted him to. Angel admits that she can’t until she knows for sure that Jordan is who he says he is, so Nev and Laura take off to get down to business in order to figure out who Jordan really is.
They head to a cafe, and the first thing they do is start by doing a reverse image search for the photos Angel has of Jordan. Nev is discouraged immediately when the first picture comes up listed on “a million websites”. They find the real guy’s Instagram account and see that his name is Robert. They send a message to Robert asking him to hit them up, and then get back to work.
They run Jordan’s phone number and discover it’s listed as a landline, which Nev explains usually means the person is using a texting app – which was brand new information for me. Next, they go to the Instagram account Jordan has been using in order to contact people who have liked or commented on his posts. Pretty quickly, they stumble onto the fact that Angel’s best friend, Cece, has commented on some of his pictures!
Nev calls it just from that with, “I have a feeling she’s somehow involved.”
But that’s when Nev’s phone starts ringing – and it’s a Facetime from Robert! Nev explains the situation to him, and Laura asks him to confirm that he’s not talking to somebody named Angel, which he does. So that cements that Jordan doesn’t look like he said he did, but they still don’t know who he really is. Nev says he thinks they need to get in touch with Cece because he’s very suspicious of her.
They get Cece on the phone and ask her what she thinks of Jordan. “Well, it seems like he’s a pretty cool guy for her. She talks about this guy a whole bunch.”
Nev says, “You haven’t had any direct communication with him, have you?”
“No, I haven’t,” Cece answers. “I feel like that’s against the ‘girl code’. I can’t get past that, I can’t push that.”
That’s enough to have Laura writing a note for Nev that says, It’s not her! Once they hang up the phone, Laura repeats her thoughts.
.@LauraPerlongo has excluded Cece from the lineup! Do you agree? #Catfish pic.twitter.com/lw86qZlI2o
— Catfish (@CatfishMTV) July 19, 2018
“She brought up girl code! She seems like a good friend,” she adds.
Nev isn’t quite as convinced, and declares, “There’s no real leads, but I still have a hunch it’s Cece.”
The next morning, Laura and Nev are in their hotel room when Nev’s phone starts ringing. It’s Cece. She says she isn’t feeling all that great and wants to know if they can meet up somewhere. When Nev asks if everything’s okay, she responds, “No. Not really. I’d rather just tell you guys in person.”
Laura sticks to her guns even after that, and tells Nev in the car, “I bet she knows who the person is, but I don’t think it’s her.”
They get to Cece’s house, and Cece drops the bomb that she’s been talking to Jordan, too! At first, she said she was doing it just to get a feel for the guy that her best friend has been talking to, and then they DMed each other and ended up texting… and talking on the phone.
Could Jordan be playing Cece and Angel? #Catfish pic.twitter.com/NDrJCRvoSF
— Catfish (@CatfishMTV) July 19, 2018
Laura says that if she was Angel, she’d be furious, and Cece says she knows that, but at the same time, she also feels like Angel had Jordan and that she’s been playing them both. I’m somewhere in the middle of Laura and Cece. While I don’t think what Cece is doing is okay at all, I also don’t feel super bad for Angel considering she’s kind of been playing two guys.
Nev asks if they can hear a voicemail from Jordan, and Cece plays it for them.
“That’s a guy’s voice,” Nev confirms. Then asks, “You think the energy and the love and the attention you’ve been getting from Jordan is meaningful and something you really want to pursue – enough that you’re willing to risk a long-time friendship with Angel?”
Cece says yes to all of the above, and Laura suggests going to meet up with Angel to tell her that she’s been talking to Jordan behind her back. They drive to Angel’s house and find Angel outside already. “There she is,” Nev announces. “Time to confess.”
Cece dives right in and says, “You know that guy Jordan you’ve been talking to? I’ve been talking to him.”
Angel is understandably shocked. “What? When did you even start talking to Jordan?”
“A few weeks ago. We’ve been texting, he calls me…”
“He calls you?” Angel asks, shocked all over again. “Like – a relationship talking?”
Angel gets upset and she and Cece go back and forth a few times with Cece trying to explain she only did it because Angel was playing two guys, too, and Angel repeating that it doesn’t matter. Finally, Nev breaks it up by saying now that Cece has confessed, it’s time for them to find out who the hell this guy really is. Nev offers for Cece to hang around while they figure it out, but Angel says she doesn’t want her around right now, so Angel goes inside and Cece gets taken back home.
Back inside Angel’s house, Laura brings up a good point. “Who is Jordan, and why is he going after your friend?”
“Did he ever really have feelings for me or was this all some kind of game? I need to know!” Angel responds.
Nev says they need to sit down so they can walk Angel through everything they’ve already found out about Jordan. He prepares her with a warning of, “You’re not gonna like this.”
And he’s right – she doesn’t. She refuses to believe that Robert on Instagram isn’t really Jordan right up until Nev shows her a video Robert took spelling it out for her.
“So this is not Jordan – so who am I talking to!?”
That’s what we all want to know, Angel! With no other options left but for Nev to reach out to Jordan via text, he goes ahead and does that. They tell him they’re with Angel, and that they now know that one of the reasons he didn’t want to meet her is because he isn’t the guy in the photos. Laura reads that they think he still owes it to Angel to meet her face to face and explain why he did this to her.
Once the message is sent, Angel opens up a little bit, explaining how crazy this is because her relationship with Brandon was starting to be the relationship she wanted it to be. But then Jordan came back and she just fell for him as soon as he came back. She explains she feels played – both by Jordan and Cece. Everything suddenly seems crystal clear as Angel says, “If I would’ve never talked to Jordan, me and Brandon would be in a serious relationship right now.”
Like Laura said earlier in the episode, the grass is always greener on the other side, and it looks like Angel had to learn that the hard way.
Nev and Laura take off again, and decide to bring Cece in on what they know about Jordan, including sending her the video from Robert. The next thing we see, Nev and Laura receive a text from Jordan saying that he can meet them at a park by the fountain later that day. Once their plans are concrete, they fill in Angel and Angel agrees that Cece should also come along. Without further ado, they head off to the park to find out Jordan’s true identity.
Cece gets a ride with Nev and Laura, and as they walk through the park she comments that she didn’t even know there was a fountain over here. They wait for almost a half hour without either Angel or Jordan showing up, and Cece wonders aloud if maybe Angel is here with Jordan. Then Nev adds on the next layer: maybe Angel is Jordan and she just made the whole thing up because she’s in love with Cece! Of course, that’s when Angel comes strolling into the park – alone.
Nev even comes right out and admits to his thoughts, saying, “So we’re just waiting. Trying to figure out what the heck is going on here. It’s not you is it? You’re not Jordan?”
“No!” she scoffs. “I’m not Jordan!”
Nev says it’s been a half hour since Jordan was supposed to show, and then Cece says to Angel, “You ain’t heard from him?” Angel says she hasn’t, and then the bomb drops. “You wanna know why you ain’t heard from him?”
I JUST SPIT MY WATER OUT!!!! #Catfish pic.twitter.com/BMDpRwAXnL
— Catfish (@CatfishMTV) July 19, 2018
Once again, the best thing about this moment for me wasn’t even the confession, it was the expression on both Nev and Laura’s faces! Absolutely priceless! Although I do have to say that I was completely blown away by the expression of utter and complete hatred on Cece’s face! How on earth do you pretend to be somebody’s friend for so long when you hate them as much as she obviously hates Angel!? At this point, I’m dying to know what Angel did to Cece to make her hate her so much!
Nev says, “I don’t understand. So you made the profile and it was you the whole time?”
“Why would you do this for this long?” Angel asks.
Cece is still super angry and aggressive looking, and I’ve watched enough episodes of Catfish to know that it is about to go down. “It don’t matter how long I’ve been doing it! You had it coming!” Nev asks what Angel had coming, and Cece explains, “This girl’s been stealing dudes from me for years. How does it feel? ‘Cause it don’t feel good, right? It don’t feel good!”
Nev gets Cece to confirm that she created the Tindr profile purposely to match with Angel and then asks about what guys Angel stole from her. Angel denies ever doing it, saying she never stole any guys from her, and then we get a moment that I can already guarantee you will go down in the Catfish history books, purely because of the rhyming involved.
Cece: You stole something from me!
Angel: What?
Cece: pic.twitter.com/C5HtKsGM70— Catfish (@CatfishMTV) July 19, 2018
Nev asks some more questions and uncovers that this happened almost ten years ago to men Cece was talking to (not even dating!) and Angel ended up drunk and sitting on their laps at a party. Like Laura says, it’s not cool, but it’s certainly not unusual for an 18/19-year-old to do at a party, and now the things that Cece has done to Angel is so much worse!
Angel tries to defend herself by saying those men were talking to her and not the other way around, and things escalate very quickly. Suddenly both girls are shoving one another and threatening to “lay each other out”, and Nev and Laura are awkwardly trying to separate them. Laura uses her mom voice and declares, “No one’s laying anyone out! Stop you guys!”
Cece says she’s done and wants to go home, quickly realizes she got a ride with Nev and Laura, and then we get my favorite moment of the entire episode.
When my Uber driver cancels on me! 😩 #Catfish pic.twitter.com/97G1aljRIV
— Catfish (@CatfishMTV) July 19, 2018
Again, as great as the GIF and Cece demanding this was, it’s Nev’s reaction that made me laugh out loud. He was shook, and it was audible in his voice and the way he stumbles over his words a little.
“We can – we can – someone can take you home.”
I swear, I must have gone back ten times just to watch this single part over and over, and I laughed every single time.
Laura is off to one side of the park with Angel where we learn that she doesn’t remember the guy’s names, but she does remember sitting in somebody’s lap. Laura says that no matter how many years ago it was or how small it seemed, it obviously hurt Cece much more than she realized. That doesn’t make what Cece did okay, of course, but now at least it’s all out in the open.
Nev is with Cece, and Cece is going off about how Angel thinks she can get every dude just because of her looks and then she gets pushed to the curb. Every time they go out guys are always going after Angel, then when Cece finally finds a little bit of somebody’s attention, Angel comes and takes it away. Finally she admits, “Yes, it was not right for me to fake date her. And I’m sorry, y’all came out here to help her, but I had to get it out.”
Nev suggests that they all calm down and then meet up again so they can try to talk it out. Angel agrees, albeit reluctantly, and they get in the car for what appeared to be the world’s most awkward drive to a little cafe. Nev talks everything out and gets Cece to explain that the voicemail they heard was done by a friend. I’m not going to lie, she looks pretty darn pleased with herself over that.
“I know it wasn’t good but I wanted her to feel how I felt when she did those things to me. I wanted you to feel hurt like I did,” Cece says.
“I didn’t realize how much those guys meant to you. Really, I would never purposely do anything like that to you,” Angel responds, and I’m truly shocked by how chill she seems to be after all of this. I’m not entirely sure I’d have the same grace she’s displaying right now.
Laura interjects to say that they both hurt each other, but there’s no way that what Cece did is on the same level as what Angel did. Not only did she lie and pretend to be somebody else, she also affected Angel and Brandon’s relationship.
Now, Angel says, “I can’t believe I messed up that relationship for somebody I’ve never even met now.”
Nev suggests that maybe the door isn’t completely shut on Brandon, and if she’s up to it, he’d like to try to help Brandon to understand what happened. Cece says she is willing to come clean to Brandon, and so Brandon shows up to join them at the cafe. After everything gets explained to Brandon, he comments that there’s a lot to unpack.
Nev and Laura walk Cece out to leave Brandon and Angel to talk, and Angel admits she’s in shock, but she asks Brandon if he would ever be able to forgive him.
That’s when we cut forwards to two months later and a video call with Angel.
Angel says she and Brandon are back together. They talked and figured out what to do make their relationship work, and now he’s everything she wanted him to be. Brandon comes on screen to say that in a weird way, Jordan actually made their relationship better, which I thought was pretty cool of him to say.
As for Cece, she and Angel both agree that while their friendship is just not the same as it used to be, they have hope that they’ll be able to work through it in the future.
While I wasn’t totally shocked that Cece was the catfish this time around, the way that it all went down definitely took me by surprise, and as always, Nev’s reactions were the perfect comedic counterpart to all the drama. Having Laura as co-host worked really well, and as much as I missed Max (and I really did!) I think having her on-screen regularly whenever Max can’t make it would be a great move for the show.
Don’t forget to tune in next Wednesday to watch more of Catfish on MTV at 9/8c.