The latest episode of Catfish, season 4 episode 15 “Andria and David,” shows a very extreme case of a catfish relationship.
Nev and Max receive an email from Andria, a 21-year-old from St. Louis. The subject of the email reads “12 going on 21,” which basically describes the timeline of Andrias’s relationship with her catfish. Andrea explains that she has been talking to “David” for about 10 years.
This is the longest catfish relationship we have seen on the show so far.
Andria has only talked to David over text, emails, letters and the phone. Of course, something has always come up when they were supposed to meet or video-chat. Although it is beyond me that David was able to get away with excuses for a whole decade, but somehow he managed to do so.
David lives in Chicago, which isn’t just a town over or anything, but considering they live about a 4 hour drive apart you would think after 10-years of interacting one of them could have made the drive out.
Andria does tell the guys about one instance where David claimed he was driving down to see her, but his trip got interrupted when he was pulled over and arrested for contraband in his car. This resulted in him getting put on house arrest and evidently unable to come see her.
Somehow, Andria took all of this mess as a sign that she should drop out of school and wait for David to come pick her up so they could start a life together. Obviously, this never happened.
Just like I was, both Nev and Max are skeptical of why Andria kept up this questionable relationship with David for so long. Andria explains that she began talking to him when she was in middle school, so she became very attached to him, as it was “cool” to have an older guy to talk to. Eventually, they’re relationship turned romantic and Andria truly believed they would one day begin a life together.
Although Andria has made plenty of debatable decisions in the last ten years in terms of David, she did at one point threaten to contact the Catfish crew in the past to David. This immediately prompted David to offer to Skype or send her pictures. This event prompted David to reveal himself to be named “Geo,” and that “he” was actually a “she.”
Andria didn’t believe Geo, as she felt the voice she has been talking with over the phone was masculine. She shares a voicemail from Geo to Nev and Max, and it does sound rather manly, however Nev and Max believe there is a very good possibility it could be a female with a deeper voice.
Getting their needed information, Nev and Max start their snooping. Right away they are able to uncover “Geo Stain’s” (yes, that’s apparently her name) Facebook profile. The pictures match the female pictures that Geo eventually revealed to Andria to be her (even though Andria refused to believe her).
When a catfish reveals himself or herself to be completely different than who they initially made themselves out to be, I think that’s a pretty good signal to END THE RELATIONSHIP.
Nev and Max show Andria what they had discovered and basically let her know that “David” was most likely telling the truth when he revealed himself to be a woman named Geo. Somehow Andria is shocked. I am not exactly sure what she expected from the whole debacle, but obviously she didn’t anticipate the Geo theory to be the truth.
Eventually, Nev gets a hold of Geo (whose real name is apparently Christina) and while she is hesitant at first, after a day of contemplating she finally agrees to meet up with Nev, Max and Andria.
They drive out to Chicago and meet Christina, who is the woman from the pictures and “Geo Stain” Facebook profile. Christina explains that she began her David account when she was 13 years old as a joke. She saw Andria, who she thought was a pretty girl, and decided to ask for her phone number. From there things just escalated and she thought it was funny all of the lies she was able to get Andria to believe (including being arrested).
Christina, who identifies herself as a lesbian, establishes that she has no feelings for Christina after all these years. This however is hard to believe, especially by Max who can’t help but blurt out that she must be lying. At this point, Christina is very emotionless when telling them the blunt truth, however, from the messages that Andria shared with Nev and Max I highly doubt Christina feels absolutely nothing for Andria.
Eventually, Christina gets angry at Andria as she feels she is not taking any of the blame for the situation. According to Christina, Andria initially presented herself as a white, blonde girl.
After a while of being “confused,” Andria finally decides to come clean and reveals that she did use a fake picture to get David to accept her friend request. However, she revealed her true identity shortly after the request was accepted.
Despite Andria, Nev and Max trying to uncover how Christina really feels, she continues to ensure them that she feels “absolutely nothing” for Andria.
Two months later, Andria video-chats with Nev and Max and tells them that she has enrolled in school once again. She also tells them that Christina has been messaging her almost everyday saying that she actually does have feelings for her. However, finally Andria takes the safest path and decides it’s finally time to cut Christina out of her life.
At the same time, Christina also talks to Nev and Max and tells them that she hasn’t talked to Andria since they all talked two months ago.
Someone’s lying, and if you have a history of catfishing someone for 10 years, sorry but you don’t get the benefit of the doubt.
While this episode was pretty basic, as it was pretty obvious that “David” wasn’t who he said he was (especially since he told Andria he wasn’t) it still shows the extreme trust and attachment someone can feel for someone even if their relationship is solely virtual.