MTV’s hit show Catfish: The TV Show first debuted in 2012 after the success of Nev Schulman’s 2010 documentary titled Catfish. In his movie, Schulman’s brother and friend document him as he navigates an online relationship through social media with a young woman named Megan after becoming friends with her whole family on Facebook. Unfortunately, things come crashing down for Nev when he learns Megan and her younger sister Abby are not who he thinks they are, and he’s actually been talking to a woman named Angela. This shocking realization not only helped create the term “catfish” we know today but also inspired the TV series that has shocked viewers ever since.
Catfish: The TV Show has a standard episode format where someone reaches out to Nev for help with their online relationship. Nev and his partner, originally Max Joseph but now Kamie Crawford, investigate the situation and help bring people face to face to see if they really are who they are portraying online. With well over 200 episodes to its name, Catfish: The TV Show has delivered no shortage of shocking reveals and unexpected twists. Here are the top 10 wildest episodes of Catfish, ranked.
10
“Kristina & Faith” (Season 7, Episode 30)
One wild episode of Catfish is from season seven, episode 30, “Kristina & Faith.” This episode follows Nev and his guest co-host Tallulah Willis as they help a woman named Kristina, who fell in love with a person online named Faith. However, things get complicated when Kristina reveals she is engaged to someone named Sami, who is completely unaware of her online romance. After Kristina contacted Catfish and came clean to Sami, the two broke off their engagement and traveled to Michigan to see if Faith was truly the one for her.
In a shocking turn of events, the big reveal determined that Faith was actually Kristina’s current partner, Sami. Sami claims she started talking to Kristina in an online chatroom to see if she was unfaithful but ended up taking the act too far. The two decided to go their separate ways to work on themselves and build a friendship with one another.
9
“Kayla & Courtney” (Season 5, Episode 10)
One of the most outside-the-box Catfish episodes is season five’s “Kayla & Courtney.” This specific episode does not focus on a couple but rather on a young woman named Kayla, who is in contact with Courtney, a woman claiming to be channeling the spirit of her deceased father. When Kayla was just a toddler, her father murdered her mother before taking his own life, leaving her with a lot of pain and unanswered questions. Nev, Max, Kayla, and her aunt all set off for Jupiter, Florida, to meet Courtney and see if she is truly a psychic medium.
The meetup is shocking, as Courtney arrives and is able to provide details about Kayla’s father and his life that few people would know otherwise. This realization not only helped to change the cast’s opinion of Courtney, but it also helped to bring some much-needed closure to Kayla.
8
“Paul & Caitea” (Season 8, Episode 32)
Season eight, episode 32, “Paul & Caitea,” is one of the more disturbing episodes of Catfish, where the situation starts to cross lines into the unthinkable. It starts with Samantha reaching out to Nev and Kamie to help determine whether her fiancé Paul’s prior love is real or a catfish. Paul met someone he believes is named Caitea on Xbox and fell in love with her before she ghosted him. Now, almost a decade later, Samantha needs help from Nev to show Paul that Caitea is not who he thinks she is so the two can move on with their own relationship.
Things take a downward spiral when it turns out Caitea is a real person but is not who Paul was talking to. Paul was actually talking to Caitea’s mother, Martha, who was posing as her underage daughter online. It’s incredibly unsettling that Martha was talking to underage children online as an adult, though it’s not the first time the show has uncovered predatory behavior.
7
“Open Investigation” (Season 6, Episode 12)
“Open Investigation” from season six of Catfish: The TV Show is a wild ride that follows Nev and Max as they help get to the bottom of a celebrity catfish case. This episode follows them as they try to find Shelly Chartier, a woman who orchestrated an elaborate scheme that catfished model Paris Roxanne and NBA star Chris Andersen. The crew had to travel to rural Canada to locate Chartier, which is where they learned she had been acting as an invisible intermediary in the celebrity relationship.
They also learned that Chartier had catfished others online under the alias of Tom with an unsuspecting woman from Texas. Chartier had previously been charged with impersonation, extortion, and fraud, and served time before appearing in the episode, where she claimed her life of online crime was behind her and that she was ready to move on.
6
“Lucas & Many” (Season 5, Episode 13)
One of the most popular episodes of Catfish is when former Playboy model Jayme seeks help from Nev and Max after suspecting her online boyfriend Lucas is lying. The two met virtually on Tinder, but both Jayme and her friends became suspicious of him after learning he was using fake photos on his profile. The investigation takes off as Nev and Jayme start receiving messages from other women claiming they, too, have been talking to Lucas. It doesn’t take long for the team to discover Lucas is actually someone named Zac, who has been preying on unsuspecting women online for some time.
The real twist comes when Jayme and several other women Zac lied to confront him together and tell him how violated they felt by his actions. Things only get worse when they learn Zac has done this to hundreds of women online and seems to have little remorse for his lies.
5
“Falesha & Jacqueline” (Season 4, Episode 13)
Season four, episode 13, “Falesha & Jacqueline,” follows Nev and Max as they try to help a woman named Falesha who’s dealing with a form of identity theft online. Essentially, someone is stealing Falesha’s pictures and using them as a profile for someone named Jacqueline, who is bullying and attacking others online. This has been happening for years and is starting to take a heavy toll on Falesha’s personal life.
The investigation revealed that Jacqueline was actually someone named Tracey, who goes by the alias Tracey Barbie. The reveal where the cast and Tracey meet up is downright shocking, as she has absolutely no remorse for all she put Falesha through. Her reactions are so unsettling that it makes it hard for Nev, Max, or Falesha to really get through to her and help her realize the gravity of the situation.
4
“Gemini & Myranda” (Season 8, Episode 10)
Season eight is one of the most intense of all the Catfish seasons, and episode 10, “Gemini & Myranda,” has a wild turn of events. This episode features Gemini, a man who fell in love with someone he believes is named Myranda. The two talked for seven years, yet Gemini has never been able to meet her, creating doubts about whether she’s telling the truth. As Nev and Kamie dive into the case, they learn that Myranda is actually Ashley Taylor, a repeat offender who was previously on the show for the season eight premiere.
Nev and Kamie decide to stage an intervention for Ashley by bringing Gemini and Red from episode one of the season face to face. It’s shocking to see a catfisher appear on the show twice, but Ashley was someone who needed to heal her lifelong issues and trauma. She went on to be featured on the TLC show My 600-Lb. Life and claims to no longer use any social media platforms.
3
“Spencer & Katy” (Season 5, Episode 15)
“Spencer & Katy” is a Catfish episode you need to see to believe. It follows Nev and Max as they try to help Spencer, a man who believes he’s in a relationship with pop icon Katy Perry. He claims the two have been talking for six years and are madly in love, despite the fact they’ve never video-chatted or met in person. A little detective work from the cast determines that Spencer has actually been talking to someone named Harriet, who is also a Katy Perry fan. They all meet up with Harriet so she can explain to Spencer that she is truly the one he’d been speaking to over the last few years, but Spencer is still suspicious.
Even after the reveal, Spencer shares that he has doubts about the whole situation and still believes there’s a chance he was speaking with Katy. He continued to message Harriet after the show as if she were Katy, though Spencer claims he had come to terms with the truth. It’s a somewhat sad yet memorable episode that shows how hard it can be to let go of a dream.
2
“Antwane & Tony” (Season 3, Episode 2)
One of the best Catfish episodes is season three, episode two, “Antwane & Tony.” It starts with a woman named Carmen contacting the show in an effort to help her cousin, Antwane, meet his long-time online boyfriend, Tony. He’s never seen a picture of Tony or met him in person, creating suspicions about his true identity. Nev and Max research Tony and find a phone number connected to someone named Diana Thomas. Nev, Max, Antwane, and Carmen travel to several different addresses to find Diana, only for Carmen to reveal she had been speaking to her cousin as Tony.
Carmen claims she pretended to be Tony for three years because Antwane had body-shamed her several years prior, and she wanted revenge. The jaw-dropping reveal remains one of the most iconic in all of Catfish, especially given how pleased Carmen seems with her deceptive work. The episode update shows viewers that Carmen reached out to make amends with Antwane but did not receive a response.
1
“Artis & Jess” (Season 2, Episode 9)
“Artis & Jess” from season two, episode nine of Catfish, remains one of the wildest reveals in the show’s history. It starts with Nev and Max meeting a man named Artis, who fell in love with a woman named Jess, whom he met on Facebook. Although Artis was in a relationship and had only seen one photo of Jess, he was desperate to meet her and start a life together, even if that meant risking things with his current girlfriend. The meet-up takes an unexpected turn when a man named Justin arrives and reveals he has been talking to Artis as Jess.
The reveal is heated as the two argue, and Justin claims his catfish motives were to teach Artis a lesson for being unfaithful in their relationship. Justin is aggressive and seems to enjoy being in the limelight, which proves true as he and Artis started making YouTube videos together after the show aired. Artis claims the events made his current relationship stronger, but Justin’s reveal and the whole premise of this episode made it one of the most unhinged in the Catfish catalog.
Make sure you let us know what your favorite episode of Catfish is, disaster or not, in the comments below.
