- * MTV *
- Omar is a very sweet, geeky guy.
He's head over heels for this gorgeous girl
named Iris, who also happens to be an uber nerd.
- Let's run the pictures.
- Holy moly. - Who is that?
- She's typing. She's typing.
- What the fuck?
- She said meet her by the flagpole.
- The anticipation is killing me.
Jesus. I don't see nobody.
- Oh, wait a second. Who's that?
- Oh, shit.
[dramatic musical sting]
- All right, ready? - Chopstick.
- One, two, three, up. - Juggle.
- All right.
- Slow and steady. Slow and steady.
Slow and steady wins the race.
- [blows] - Ah!
Ooh, no!
- Part of it, you're allowed to blow.
- No, you're not!
You can't make up rules.
No!
- I think I won. I won.
I won!
Yay.
[applause]
- I was close.
- Now that I've had my win for the day, shall we?
- We shall.
- See what's bubbling up in the old email.
"What's up, Nev and Kamie? My name is Omar."
- * It's so good to meet you *
- "I'm 23, live in New City, New York,
and work at a sandpaper factory."
- Sounds rough.
[laughter]
- "Around six months ago, my friend
"posted my handle on social media for a Followback Friday.
"And this gorgeous girl named Iris
started following me and messaging me."
- * Week five with you by my side *
- "She's 22,
"and she lives 45 minutes from me in the Bronx.
"I knew right away that this girl was amazing.
No joke, I won the lottery."
- * Oh, we've got it *
* Yeah, yeah, we've got it *
- "She likes all the same stuff I like--
"video games, TV shows, even anime stuff.
I want to make her my girlfriend."
- * We could be friends *
- "But every time we try to meet or FaceTime"...
- * We could be friends *
- "There's an excuse." - Of course.
- "I've been burned in the past by pushing for things too fast.
"I wanted to let her set the pace.
But it's been six months,
"and this is starting to feel like more than her
"being shy or something.
I've been looking for a girl like Iris."
- * You're turning into my favorite person *
- "But if she's not telling me the truth,
"I think I deserve to know.
"It's possible we could still make things work,
"even if she's not the girl in the pictures,
"so I hope you guys can help me meet up with her
"so that I can figure out what to do.
Thanks, Omar."
- So he's willing to go for Iris no matter what.
- Well, it sounds like he wants to be in a relationship.
She's everything he's looking for.
And even if she's not the girl in the pictures,
I think he's open to other versions of Iris.
- We'll have to wait and see.
I don't wanna make any assumptions.
- Well, we should--right. We should call Omar.
[line trills]
- What's up, Omar?
It is Nev and Kamie.
- Oh, okay. - Oh, okay, okay.
- We just read your email.
And it definitely sounds like you
need some help figuring this out.
- Okay.
- Well, we're gonna come to New York.
We're gonna help you.
- Yeah, we'll see you soon.
- All right, later, bud. - Bye.
- I love Omar.
He talks so fast. - He seems great. Yeah.
All right, let's go.
- * Let's go to work *
* Yeah, let's take it to the top *
- All right.
- New City.
- So Omar and Iris have been talking now for six months.
And Omar's no dummy.
He knows that they don't live that far.
- There's no reason why they shouldn't have met yet.
- * Get ready for the fireworks *
* Level up, showing up first *
* It's go time, let's go to work *
- Let's do it.
[creaking]
Oh, I hear a door. I hear a screen door.
- I heard it too. - Uh--uh--
- Hi, how you doing? - He can't wait.
He can't wait. - Look at him.
- He's so excited. - Omar.
- How you doing, man?
How you doing? How you doing, man?
How you doing? - Hi. Kamie.
- How you doing? - Nice to meet you.
- Come in, guys. It's kind of cold, so come in.
- Thanks. - All right, let's have a seat.
- Hey, guys.
I apologize if I talk fast.
But be prepared to tell me, hey, slow down, if I--
if I do talk a little too fast. - Don't worry.
We love the excitement.
Tell us about yourself. You grew up here?
- Grew up here.
Born in Staten Island.
Went to school in the Bronx for a little bit
then been up here all my life.
But my parents are Jamaican. - Jamaican?
- Hey, wagwan? - Oh, wagwan?
[laughter]
- What about Iris? What's her deal?
- Iris, she told me she's Jamaican.
So I was, like, yes, sir.
- Well, she's from the Bronx. - Yeah.
- She's gotta be Dominican or Jamaican.
- Solidly. I was like, come on, man.
- Or she could be Puerto Rican. - Or Puerto Rican.
- Right. - Wow.
Okay. - Yeah.
- All right, so tell us how you met.
Tell us about Iris.
- Okay, Iris.
I was hanging out with my friend Leonard,
and he put me on his Snapchat.
And then she got my handle from the Snapchat,
and she added me on Snapchat.
So I'm like, mm.
I don't know about this, right?
I asked Leonard, you know who she is?
And he said-- - Cross-check.
- Yeah, cross-checking.
He's like, no, I've never met this girl.
But I asked her.
She's like, I know your friend because I just--
I see him around.
- Well, she says she does.
- Yeah, but she is one of the most amazing
people I've ever talked to.
She is smart.
She's beautiful.
Like I said, she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
And my love life is really not that crazy, to be honest.
So when she entered my life, I was like, yo.
We have a connection.
- So she added you on Snapchat. - Yes.
- Does she post on Snapchat?
- No, she don't post on Snapchat.
- So when she messaged you on Snapchat,
you didn't even really know what she looked like?
- No, but, like, within the two weeks of us talking,
I was like, hey, can I have a photo?
And I was like, oh, she's--
I was like, yo, she's very pretty.
We talk about everything under the sun.
We talk about superheroes.
We talk about anime.
We talk about video games.
- But is she as involved and invested and aware of...
- Yeah.
- All of the things that you are?
- Yeah, when I talk to her on the phone,
we just talk about literally catching up on what we--
like, how I'm talking to you guys.
- So how many times have you talked on the phone?
- Three times at this point.
- But it feels very natural.
- Mm-hmm. - And what does she do?
- She says she goes to school.
- She studying something specific or...?
- She said communications. - Okay.
- So, okay, so you guys, over the last six months,
have become pretty close? - Yeah.
- Would you say Iris is your girlfriend?
- I want her to be my girlfriend.
- And you've talked about that?
- Yes, I expressed, "I do care for you,
and I do wanna meet up with you."
So the first time I tried to meet up with her,
I was like, hey, before Halloween kicks in,
let's meet each other.
And she's like, oh, I would love to,
but I gotta study.
And I said, okay. I'm not a pushy guy.
Now, the second time I offered to meet her,
she was like, yeah. Let's meet up.
But my car's messed up.
I need to go to the mechanic, and I had to go fix it.
I said, no problem, 45 minutes away from there.
I'll come pick you up.
We'll drive around town for, like, a couple hours.
I'll drop you right back off, and that can be our date.
No, she was very, like, no. I gotta stay here.
I gotta fix my car--exactly.
I was like-- that made me go, like, hmm.
But I was like, when we talk to each other,
even after that, the conversations
are going on like nothing ever happened.
Like, we're talking, having the most fantastic conversations.
But I feel like every time I'm like, hey, let's meet up,
can I FaceTime you-- oh, it's always something.
And to be honest, too, even if she isn't the girl that
is in the picture, I'm still willing to make this work
because the connection that we have is something
that I've never, like, experienced before.
- And she's never asked you for anything?
- No, nothing. No money.
No, hey, food. None of that stuff.
- Even when the car thing happened, she was--
- Yeah, that was me being like, hey, let me go to you.
Let me--
- But she didn't say, ugh, I gotta
spend $1,000 to fix my car?
- No, none of that.
- I don't know what I'm gonna do.
- If only I had someone to pay for that.
- Yeah, so that's why I thought--
in my head, I was like, I hope she's not
gonna ask me for that.
But then when she didn't, I was like, okay.
- How many pictures has she sent you?
- About two to three. - So let's see.
Let's see these three pictures.
[upbeat music]
- Okay. - I mean, she's very cute.
- You know, she a 10.
- But yeah, she-- that's what I said.
She's, like, when I look at her, I'm like, yo,
she's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
And especially she likes everything I like?
I was like, come on.
That's just once in a billion. Like--
- Yeah, I mean, if I had to guess,
I wouldn't necessarily expect this girl...
- To like this stuff, right?
And that's what I'm saying.
- To be into all of it as much as you are.
- That's what I'm saying. That's why I'm, like--
- Not to say that... - It can't happen.
- It can't happen, but--
all right, show us some messages.
- Okay, you're gonna laugh at some of them.
So prepare for my sense of humor.
I don't got no-- no crazy things, crazy, but--
- All right, you said, "What you doing, baby girl?"
So that's--you call her "baby girl."
- Yeah, 'cause I'm telling you. I'm serious--
- Whoa, then you said--after a Happy Thanksgiving meme,
you said, "I can't wait to make love to you."
Well, you also wanted her to be your first.
- Yes. Yes, I do.
So, guys, I'm a virgin.
So I'm saving myself up for the right woman.
- Yeah. - So--
- I love that. I love that.
- Wait, so then she responded.
"Happy Thanksgiving and hold your horses there.
"I'm very flattered, but you gotta earn that.
"But maybe if you play it right, lovely,
I'll give you a treat." - Yeah.
When she said that, I was like, okay.
We here now.
- And you said, "Iris, can I be real?
"You know how I feel about you.
"You know I'm willing to make this work
"and take this to the next level.
"I've told you before, and I'll say it again.
"I've never felt like this.
"And when I talk to you, I feel like I can be myself.
Like, I feel like we were meant to be."
- Yes. - And she hearted that.
I mean, she didn't respond, but she acknowledged.
- Yes. - And approved.
- At least we're moving in the right direction.
- Right. - That's how I feel.
- Um--no. - No?
- If my boyfriend sent me that and I just hearted it,
he would call me and be like,
what the fuck is wrong with you?
What do you mean, heart?
You're not gonna say any-- like, come on.
She's not responding in the way that
you would think that she would respond
if she felt the same way.
- Yeah, but I feel like--'cause when we talk on the phone,
that's when I feel like--
it's, like, the real conversation kicks in.
- The girl in the pictures that she sent
looks like a girl that might have an Instagram.
- Oh, yeah, have you guys talked about social media?
- Mm-mm.
I only have, like, 37 followers on myself.
- And you've obviously already considered
that maybe the reason you're getting a little bit
of resistance and excuses when it comes to meeting up
is because maybe she's not the girl in the pictures.
- I think she's hiding something from me.
That's what I personally think.
I think she might be hiding something.
What it is, I don't know.
That's why I'm trying to figure it out
because I feel like I've been putting a lot of effort in,
at this point, on my side.
So that's why I was like, hey.
- Well, we're gonna do some research.
- Okay. - See what we find.
- I really wanna know.
And I hope Iris is who she says she is
because I really am crazy about this girl.
- I wanna know now too.
- We'll figure this out. - Yeah, hopefully.
Man, I'm excited, though.
I've been saying--I've been-- I'm excited, man.
I'm excited to meet y'all.
- All right. - It's nice meeting y'all, man.
- Good to meet you. - Thanks for having us.
- No problem. No problem.
- Wow.
- Omar has the gift of gab.
- My ears are tired.
[laughter]
But, I mean, he's got a lot to say.
- He does. - He's passionate.
- But that's why I want for him to be with someone
who matches his energy.
Iris is not giving me good vibes.
- I mean, the fact that it's been six months
and that she's been consistently
engaging every day-- - Mm-hmm.
- So if and when we likely find out
she's not the girl in those three pictures...
- Yeah.
- We're going to meet somebody that is probably
super into Omar but has been really nervous
and keeping him back... - Mm-hmm.
- Because she knows she's been lying.
- However all this turns out at the end of this,
Omar, for the first time in his life, might be left speechless.
- All right, we ready to work?
Ready to save lives?
- Yeah. - All right.
Omar is a very sweet, geeky guy
who randomly got added by the most beautiful girl
named Iris, who also happens to be an uber nerd
and loves all the same stuff he does.
He's head over heels for this girl,
desperately trying to have her be his first sexual partner.
- I just--I'm not seeing it.
And I hate that for him
because I know that he's really passionate.
- I think the chances are slim.
But I'm hopeful that, whoever this person is,
they are at least being serious about their feelings.
Hopefully also where they live. - Yeah.
- All right, let's check our email.
Here we go.
Iris information.
- Very short email.
- "Hey, Nev and Kamie.
"Here's all the information I have for you.
Iris Simpson lives in the Bronx."
- She's from the Boogie Down.
- "She's 22.
"She's a junior at [bleep] College
"and a communications major.
Her Snapchat handle is @BaebyIris."
And her phone number, okay.
"I'm sending the three pictures I have of her.
Talk to you soon, Omar."
We should call her college and just say,
can you confirm you have a student named Iris Simpson?
Are they allowed to do that? - I don't know.
- How would you fact check someone's résumé
if they said they were a student at or went to--
there's gotta be a way to do that, right?
- I mean, maybe.
- Let's just-- let's just start with that.
So let's look up the school.
- Registrar?
- Yeah, the registration, transcripts.
Let's see.
[line trills]
- Hey, I just wanted to confirm one of your students.
Iris, last name Simpson.
She's a communications student.
- Oh, thank you.
- Bye-bye.
I mean, look, I'm not ready to say for sure
that she's not a student there because maybe she's enrolled
under a different name.
But [bleep] is a pretty specific local school.
- Yeah.
- So it does suggest that she is probably locally based.
- Yeah, I think she's New York based, for sure.
- Let's do a little Facebook search in the New York area.
Iris Simpson.
- New York, New York.
Education, you could put [bleep].
That could actually be her school.
- College.
It found the school.
No hit.
- Her name is probably not Iris Simpson.
- Obviously, she's lying about something.
- Mm-hmm. - So we've got a phone number.
I think we should search that and see if a name comes up.
- Carmel, New York.
- No name, but it does come up in Carmel
as a MetroPCS phone number.
Carmel's pretty close to where Omar lives.
- Interesting.
- What else? What else?
Let's just look at her Snapchat handle.
[suspenseful music]
Oh, yeah. There she is, Iris Simpson.
- Hmm.
- That doesn't even really look like the girl.
I mean, I guess it wouldn't. - No.
- This girl has a couple nose rings.
- Hmm.
Let's run the pictures.
That girl lives in LA.
- All right, well, let's find out.
- Atlanta.
Those are my two-- LA and Atlanta.
* *
- Holy moly.
- It's her all over the place.
- Oh, my God.
There are a lot.
This is the most hits I think we've ever had on a picture.
- Every picture of her is on this site.
- I mean, I just keep scrolling,
and it just goes on forever.
- Who is that?
- @itsxiya.
All right, so hold on a second. Does she have an Instagram?
Let's go there. Boom.
27,000 followers.
Tons of photos.
- Look at the location.
- Atlanta. - Atlanta!
I knew those were ATL edges.
I know ATL edges when I see them.
I would like to know the product that she used.
[laughs]
- This girl got a YouTube channel.
She's got a Twitter.
And I'm not seeing anything about anime.
- The girl in the pictures is not talking to Omar.
- Right. - That's very clear.
We don't even need to ask because it's very obvious.
- I don't think we need to bother her.
I don't think we need anything more to show and convince Omar
that it's not her.
- We gotta tell Omar.
- Omar's gonna need a heck of a lot more
than the sandpaper he works with
to smooth this out. - This is gonna be rough.
- Poor Omar has been saving himself for Iris.
Little does he know, she's lying
about her pictures and probably many other things.
But as long as this girl doesn't have some kind
of nefarious intentions, I still think that there's
a chance of something.
- He said he's open to that,
but let's see how he reacts when we tell him.
- We'll see.
[suspenseful music]
[groans]
[doorbell chimes]
- Hey, wagwan, guys. - Hey!
- What's up, man? What's up? What's up?
How you doing? - Hi, good to see you.
- Good to see you guys.
- Anything come up today?
Have you talked to her today?
- No, I talked to her last night, though.
- On the phone? - No, just regular text.
- Okay, any "I miss you"s?
Any flirty-- - Nah, none of that last night.
- All right, let's get into it.
So Iris says she goes to [bleep] College.
So I thought maybe I could just call the college
and ask if they have an Iris Simpson.
Can you just confirm... - Mm-hmm.
- You have a student at the school?
And she said she didn't see any student with that name.
- What the fuck?
- So obviously, we were a little confused
because that's a very specific thing to say.
You go to a specific school. She studied communications.
But it got us really wondering. - Mm-hmm.
- The simple explanation is,
Iris is just not her government name,
whether it's her middle name or just a nickname.
But it's possible she's not lying about
where she goes to school.
She's just not enrolled under that name.
That's one version of what's going on.
- Mm-hmm.
- The more upsetting version is that she just doesn't
go to that school at all.
- And her name might not even be
the name that she's given you. - Right.
So then, when we looked up her phone number,
we didn't find a name.
But her phone number does come back--
as you know, 845 is this area,
but in Carmel, not in the Bronx.
- Yeah. - So we were like, okay, look.
She's got the phone number.
She knows about [bleep] College.
This person probably does live close by.
- Close by. Mm-hmm.
- Because I don't think she's making all this up.
I think she probably does live locally.
- Okay.
- So then we took one of the three pictures
that you sent us, just the first one.
And then right away, we got a buttload of photos.
- What the fuck?
That's her.
- There are just hundreds of pictures of her.
Okay, and as we scroll down, we found this.
It leads us to an Instagram for a girl named Xiya.
This girl lives in Atlanta.
- Atlanta?
- She's got 27,000 followers.
This is a girl who's very much an influencer of some kind.
She's got a bunch of links.
Let's just go to her YouTube, maybe,
so you can hear her voice, the real girl's voice.
- Like, you're not gonna talk to me no kind of way.
Okay?
- Yeah, that's definitely not the voice I was hearing.
- Doesn't sound like-- - No, it definitely does not.
[somber music]
[sighs] Damn, bro.
* *
- * Gonna weep myself an ocean *
- I just lost the words, man.
Mm.
- * For the sun that set too soon *
- I'm so sorry, guys.
- * I wish I'd thought of something else *
* Before you vanished in the dark *
* *
- Who the fuck have I been talking to, then?
It's like, what the fuck?
- Whoever this girl is, I think she
probably does genuinely like you and has been keeping you...
- At arm's length.
- At arm's length because she knows
she's been lying and that, eventually,
you're gonna find out.
And it's going to make the likelihood of you
continuing to like her a lot smaller.
- Damn, man.
[groans] I do wanna figure out who I've been talking to
because, at this point, like,
you've been leading me on for so long.
Like, what's going on?
- All right, so if it's cool, I will try calling her,
see if she answers. - By all means.
- If she doesn't, we can text her
and see if we can find a way to meet up with her,
hopefully tomorrow.
All right, let's give her a ring.
[line trilling]
[tense music]
* *
- Please leave your message for--
- Okay. - Let me send a text.
All right. Hey, Iris.
This is Nev from the show "Catfish."
I'm here in Rockland with Omar and hoping I can
help you guys finally meet up.
Please give me a call when you get this.
Thanks. - Okay.
Man, I still-- you know, after all this,
man, you know, like, I hope--
I hope--[groans] I hope she can call back.
Sorry, guys, if I'm stuttering
'cause I'm still a little angry.
- That's fair. - Uh-huh.
- I think it's okay for you to be upset.
This is a half of a year of your life.
- Yeah.
- And I think that, if you do get a chance
to meet whoever this person is, they should know
that it's upsetting. [phone chimes]
Ooh. Ooh.
- She said, "Oh my God.
"I can't believe he wrote into the show.
"To be honest, there's a part of me
"that thinks this won't go well.
I'm afraid and don't really know what I should do."
I'm just gonna say, I totally understand.
Having helped people through this situation many times,
I assure you that meeting face-to-face and being honest
is always the right thing to do.
We also already know that
you're not the girl in the pictures,
and Omar still very much wants to meet you.
- Yes. - Hopefully that helps.
- Oh, she read it. She's typing. She's typing.
Oh, wow.
She said, "To be honest,
"it's way more complicated
"than me not being the woman in the photos."
"I know how upset he's gonna be.
"This will tear him apart.
"If it's better, I can just stop talking to him.
"I can just go away and we can act like
none of this ever happened."
- It's way more complicated than you
not being the girl in the photos?
That just gave me chills.
- What the fuck?
- It's way more complicated than you
not being the girl in the photos?
What is that bad that she would rather just disappear?
- No, 'cause of that, I definitely wanna meet up
with this girl to know what's going on
'cause it's tearing me apart.
No, I have to meet-- I have to meet her now.
- He wants to meet.
I think you owe him that much and should let him decide
how he feels for himself.
What could it be other than it's like--
what's the worst version of this?
She said, "All righty, I just wanna say it's on him.
"I can meet up tomorrow in his area.
Just let me know the time and location."
- So now she's trying to tell me that if whatever happens--
- Right, if you're hurt now because of what she's done,
it's your fault.
That's a weird way to try to twist this and--
- Don't even get into it. Don't even get into it.
- Say it's not her fault anymore if she upsets you
because you asked for it.
- Don't even get into that.
- Right, I'm not gonna get into that.
Okay, I will text you in the morning with a time and place.
Plan on meeting us around 11:00 a.m.?
- Okay.
- The only thing that I can think of
is that this is somehow related to your friend
that posted your handle on Snapchat.
- Leonard? - Leonard.
But you've talked to some girl on the phone.
- Yeah. - It's just a theory.
But think about it. You all right?
- Definitely something to sleep on tonight.
100%. Yeah.
- You know, you like to stay upbeat.
But obviously--
- I mean, yeah, I was disappointed in this, though.
And she was like, I'm not ready to handle the truth?
Like, what? All right.
- All right, so let us figure out a good place to meet.
And just prepare yourself to get some strange,
possibly very upsetting news.
- Yeah. - All right.
Try to get some rest.
- Yeah.
Y'all have a nice night.
- Thank you. You too.
Oh, boy.
I'm just really, really concerned
that this is a joke to somebody.
- It's just--it's starting to feel like the situation
just went from bad to way worse.
[dramatic music]
[knocking]
- * Coming *
- I wanted to show you. I have a text here from Iris.
"Hey, good morning.
I'd just like to check in to ask where we are meeting."
- So where are we meeting?
- I'm gonna text her this nice, little park.
We will meet you
at Eugene Levy Park at 11:00.
All right, let's go.
[phone dings] Oh, whoa.
She wrote back. - What'd she say?
What'd she say? What'd she say?
She said, "All right, that's fine.
"I know that park.
I'll meet you up by the flagpole."
Wow, she like-- - Okay, this is her park.
- Wow, she really knows it.
- I'm gonna thumbs up her message.
- Okay, and then text Omar.
Tell him we're coming to scoop him.
Well, I'm a little surprised.
But she texted and said, what's the plan?
Are we meeting? Like, she followed up.
It's somewhat reassuring that she is actually
going to meet us today.
- Yes, but it feels very business now.
She's just like... - Right.
- Okay, this is what he chose.
- Oh, there he is.
- Hello.
- Hey, what's up, guys?
- What's up? - What's up, man?
- Well, she texted. - Oh, she did?
- Yeah, she texted me this morning
and said, are we meeting? What time?
Like-- - Oh, shit.
Man, after sleeping on it, man, I'm kind of a little nervous.
But at the same time, now I'm ready to get
to the bottom of it because, yesterday, I was upset.
So now today, I'm like, all right,
I'm ready to face it now.
So let's see what's about to happen with Iris,
if that really is her name.
- And we really don't know.
- Really don't know at this point.
- She said she knows the park that we're going to,
which makes me even more curious...
- Oh, shit. - If she's from here.
- Oh, shit.
- Have you heard of Eugene Levy Park?
- Yeah, I used to go to school here.
That's why. - Oh.
- Oh, you used to go to school here,
and where we're meeting her is right here?
- Yeah, it's, like, elementary school.
Like, field trips, we would always go over here.
Yeah, I haven't been here in a while.
- All right, she said to meet her by the flagpole.
Let's see. I mean, I assume we'll see it.
Oh, there's a flag.
- Oh, so up there? They want us to meet up there?
- I guess so.
- Just the anticipation's killing me.
This is getting a little nerve-racking.
- It's getting real now.
- [groans] Here we go, guys.
* *
- Anyone up there?
- Have no idea.
Let's see.
[trills lips] I don't see nobody.
Ooh, it's cold, man.
- I'm gonna let her know that we're here.
- Okay.
- I just wish we knew who we could expect.
- Man, the anticipation, man.
It's just, like, finally here now.
- Oh, wait a second. Who's that?
- Oh, shit.
- What the--
- Who is that? - Fuck.
- Yo, what the fuck?
[dramatic music]
- [sighs] I don't see nobody.
- Are you freaking out?
- I got the nervous jitters.
- Oh, wait a second. Who's that?
- Oh, shit.
- What the--
- Who is that?
- What the-- - Who is that?
- Fuck.
Yo.
- Shawn?
What the fuck?
- Hi.
Your name is Shawn.
- Shawn. - Okay.
- Where's Iris, man?
- Right here.
- What in the actual fuck, man?
Jesus.
Why--why'd you do this?
What did I do?
- Well, Omar, honestly, this wasn't my idea.
I didn't start this.
- Who start this?
- I will explain my side.
He doesn't wanna be involved.
He didn't wanna be a part of this.
- So there's two people?
What the fuck, man?
- Why don't you just start by telling your part.
- Well, we used to be friends.
- You guys used to be friends? - Okay.
- So, wait, is this the guy who posted you on Snapchat?
- No, no, no. This is not him.
- Oh. - This is not him.
This is a whole other guy that I don't fuck with.
We haven't been friends in a--in a while.
- So hold on. I'm confused.
So who was Omar talking to on the phone?
- Well, once I got involved, it went under my number.
The girl on the phone was just a girl that we found.
Like, we know her.
She doesn't wanna be involved, either.
- But they are involved.
That's why we're here.
That's why it's been six months of him talking to some girl,
so he thought.
I don't get--
- And Omar knows this other guy?
- Yeah.
- Why were you involved?
- I got on board because me and Omar
have a history of him just, you know,
being a dickhead to me.
- Fuck out of here, bro.
- Dude, you went on my phone,
and you put me in a relationship
with a girl I didn't wanna be with behind my back.
- Bro, we were kids when that happened, though.
So you're still stuck up on that, though?
- We were 17. - Are you serious?
- That's just only one thing out of all the other things
you've done to me.
You went on a date with a girl that I had broken up with
a day after I broke up with her.
Come on, Omar. - Bro--
- You're not the best person.
- Is that true?
- I did talk to somebody, but it wasn't like that.
- You're supposed to be my friend,
and you're going on a date with a girl that I was dating.
- It wasn't a date. It wasn't a date.
She was telling me about whatever happened with you,
and I was like, listen, I don't know what's going on.
- You hung out with her, right?
- Yeah, because they were having problems.
But, like, I didn't do nothing with her.
- Throughout our friendship,
you were never the best friend to me.
- So this is your way of getting back at me.
- Okay, sorry.
I just wanna try and get an understanding of the timeline.
So some other person that is a mutual contact
started this Snapchat and thought,
I'm gonna catfish Omar. - Yes.
- And you said, oh, I wanna get in on this.
And so you sent him your phone number?
- Yeah, my phone number.
- Omar, do you have his number?
- I don't have his number whatsoever.
I haven't talked to this guy in a long time
because we had a falling out. - How long ago was that?
- Like, two years ago.
- So since the relationship with Iris
went from Snapchat to texting,
it's always been you he's texting with?
- Yeah.
- At times, were other people texting on your phone?
- Yeah, me and the person, the other person--
- The other guy? - Yeah, we'd be together.
And he'd text, sometimes.
- But for the most part, that was you.
- Yeah. - Do you have a crush on Omar?
- [laughs] No. No, I don't. It was--
- Because, like, I get the idea of, like, messing with someone.
But it does feel like, to talk to him for six months,
you weren't messing with him. You were, like, his friend.
- I didn't mean for it to go this far
and end up on "Catfish."
I went into this hoping it would end
after, like, a month or two.
- So, like, what? Teach him, like, a lesson?
- Like, you messed with me.
I want you to feel what I've been feeling
when you've done me dirty.
- Why not just finish the job and be like, got you.
Now you know what it feels like, and peace out?
- Honestly, I didn't really care about hurting him anymore.
The person who's still friends with him,
he decided to drag it on for six months.
I was just along for a ride.
If you look at the text messages,
it's mainly him talking.
I ignore everything flirty he's saying.
You're basically talking to yourself.
I'm not gonna lie.
I don't think it's right.
It's a little childish.
Honestly, I just-- I really didn't think
that it would get this far.
- Okay, well, obviously, there's more to talk about
with Shawn and, like, his whole side of this,
but, like, who is someone that you think is a friend
that would, A, wanna mess with you to begin with,
and then, B, encourage someone else
to, like, mess with you more?
- I don't know.
Seriously, who is it?
Who put you up to this, bro?
- Let me call him. Can I--can I call him?
- Sure.
- Fuck out of here, bro.
Jesus.
[tense music]
* *
- Hey, man.
I'm up here with Omar.
I need you to come clear this stuff up, man.
Please.
- Who could this other person be?
Could it be the friend that posted your Snapchat?
- Leonard? - I don't know.
- I mean, it's gotta be someone you both know.
- So seriously, like, who is the person?
- All right, bye.
- Any luck?
- I contacted him.
He said he's willing to come or meet up somewhere else.
- Okay.
- He will text you.
- He'll text Omar?
- Yeah. - [trills lips]
- Do you have your phone?
- Yes. - Did you get a text?
Did you?
- Yeah, I did.
- Who is it?
- It's this guy, Edmond.
He's a friend that I literally hang out with
most all the time. He's a snake like that?
- So Edmond is the friend?
- Yes. - "Hey, Omar. It's Edmond.
"Shawn told me what's going on, and I apologize.
I didn't mean for this to get this far."
- We need to talk to Edmond.
- I think we should go meet Edmond.
There's, like, a restaurant we can meet him at
not far from here and get the whole story.
- Okay.
- We'll text you and tell you where to meet us.
We'll see you in a few minutes? - Yeah.
- All right.
* *
- I didn't fucking think my own friend would do this to me.
- What the fuck has gone on with you and Edmond,
and why he would play with you like that?
- Jesus, man.
I just wanted to get to the bottom of this.
That's crazy.
- Why don't you text Shawn and Edmond
and tell them to meet us at Gardenia restaurant.
The fact that, this whole time, you've had a close friendship
with Edmond and he's known about this
and been, like, involved--
it's, like, very weird.
- Friends don't play like that.
- Yeah.
[tense music]
Okay.
* *
- Are you gonna be cool? Like--
- Yeah, I'm not gonna launch over the table.
- [laughs] - Sit and talk to Edmond.
- Yeah, I just wanna know why.
- I don't know.
I don't know how you wanna go about this.
- I'm gonna let them talk.
And then I'm gonna hear what they have to say
because I wanna know what's going on.
- When was the last time you saw Edmond?
- Right now. - It's been a minute.
- Here they are. - Hi.
- Hey, everybody.
- What's up? Nev.
- Nice to meet you. Edmond. - Good to meet you.
- I don't know if I should shake your hand.
- Okay. - We didn't really meet.
- Shawn. - Thanks for coming back.
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
We didn't properly meet earlier.
- Have a seat, fellas. Have a seat.
[exhales deeply]
Well, I'm glad you showed up.
Shawn was not going to speak on your behalf.
But we're very happy that you're here
to do that for yourself. - Yeah.
- I think it would be helpful for all of us, but mainly Omar,
if you just kind of walked us through how this all
got started, how then Shawn got--
like, we just wanna get the whole story.
- Okay, well, first, it started about, like,
I'd say, seven months ago now.
And honestly, it started off as a joke because we were friends.
And, like, we do that all the time, jokes.
- Right, so you were just trying to mess with Omar.
You weren't trying to get revenge like Shawn was?
- No, it was just a joke.
But I didn't think it was gonna get this deep.
And it was nothing, like, too crazy at first.
It was two weeks by myself,
and then two weeks, I incorporated Shawn in.
- All right, so how did that happen?
- I was at his house, actually,
and the next thing you know, I was like, yo,
you trying to get in on this?
'Cause I knew they had, like, the bad history.
But at the time, it was-- I wasn't thinking about that.
I mean, I'm not gonna lie. I did a little bit.
But I didn't think it was gonna get too far,
if you get what I mean.
- I was gonna say, 'cause if it started as a joke
but then you asked him if he wants in on it,
you must have known that it was gonna
take a different tone... - Yeah.
- Knowing that they have beef.
That's when it becomes not a joke.
- So after you included Shawn,
and you knew the whole time how much communication
was taking place because Shawn was either
showing you the messages or you were there for some of them.
You were fully aware of the extent of their communication?
- Yeah. Mm-hmm.
- And you have a friendship with Omar separately.
Did he ever talk about Iris with you?
- He did.
- Did he ever mention that he was talking to a girl?
- Like, I didn't realize how invested Omar was.
- Well, you knew about the calls.
At what point was a girl recruited to be a part of this?
- Oh, it's somebody that I knew.
She doesn't wanna be a part of this.
I already asked her. She has--you know.
- Sure.
- And it's like--she just did me a favor, pretty much.
- But she did it a few times, right?
- Yeah. I know her.
- And she seemed to know enough about, like--
- Yeah, she's into, like, most of the stuff we are,
like anime stuff, probably because of her boyfriend.
She has brothers as well.
- Okay. But she has a boyfriend.
- Yeah, she has a boyfriend right now.
Once I realized it kind of got too deep,
it's like, we should continue it.
But it's, like, eventually, he will stop.
But I guess he didn't.
- You asked Shawn to keep going so that Omar wouldn't get hurt?
- Yeah.
- In the hopes that Omar would just sort of lose interest?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, it's a lot to unpack, bro.
Like, to be honest, bro, like, you know,
I'm very disappointed, and I'm very sad, bro,
because, you know, like, I really cared about this girl.
And, well, it's not even a girl.
But I was really--you know, my feelings were there.
I thought you and I were cool, man.
- I mean, yeah, I understand.
- Ugh. You know what?
I'm gonna need to take some time from y'all, man,
especially you, Edmond.
- We haven't spoke in, like, over a year.
So we don't have to be friends.
You don't--you still don't take accountability
for your actions of the past.
- Look, this is a mess.
- Mm-hmm.
- But as someone who has grown up
and matured a lot from my teenage self,
getting constructive criticism
from people who were once friends of mine
is very helpful.
Shawn, can you be more descriptive in what exactly
Omar has done in the past so that maybe he can learn from it
so that he doesn't have more people out there who are,
like, trying to mess with him?
- Yeah, with me and Omar's past,
he's been very selfish in our friendship.
Any type of girl that comes along,
he's just so quick to turn his back on us.
And I think for him to grow as a person,
he has to realize what's really in front of him
and stop chasing after these women.
But you also don't have to stab your friends in the back
because a girl gives you attention.
- Can you see that? - I can see that.
That's why I was, like, I got a lot of reflecting
to do on that aspect.
But at the same time,
y'all could've just told me that
instead of doing all this.
- I did. - We have.
We have plenty of times.
- I wanna apologize for everything, all right?
To be honest, if you're upset about your ex,
I'm sorry that I went on a coffee date with her.
I'm sorry.
- I do still think, though, that there definitely
needs to be some reflection and accountability on your side.
- Yeah. - This wasn't nothing.
It wasn't just a joke.
Like, there was definitely layers to this
that I feel like... - Yeah. Okay.
- You guys should spend some time trying to figure out.
- And honestly, I do apologize for this.
You know? I do.
- You've apologized.
- Yeah, I sincerely apologize, man.
- You've apologized. - Mm-hmm.
- Do you feel you have anything to apologize for?
- Don't say anything you don't mean.
- I'm sorry it got this far.
I'm not sorry that you're upset about it, so.
- That's all right.
I said my piece. You said your piece.
It's cool now.
Edmond, you and me, I've said, I gotta see
what happens with this now. - No, I understand, bro.
- So that's all I gotta say to you guys right now.
- I don't think any of y'all need to be friends.
I have to say it.
- All right.
We're gonna hang out here for a minute,
but you guys can head out.
So we'll say goodbye.
- All right. - Good to meet you both.
- Good to meet you too.
- Have a good one. Good luck.
- It's a pleasure. Pleasure to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
All right. Take care.
All right.
- Well, that was better than I thought it was gonna be
'cause I thought we were gonna--
it's gonna be a shouting match.
- You handled it like men.
- So you're ready to move on from Iris?
- Yeah, that's too much, man, too much.
But ready to put it to bed now and, yeah, move on.
We good now.
So that's all I gotta say.
- * I'm so tired of lows *
* I'm waiting for the highs *
* I wanna be exposed to *
* What's on the other side *
* Oh, what's on the other *
* Oh *
* What's on the other *
- Sebastian and Allison, talking for three years.
- I feel like she cares a lot about me.
It's, you know, love.
- Let's run the number.
- Allison [bleep].
60 years old.
- She's 30 years older?
That's a whole nother thing.
I see someone back here under the trees.
- Somebody's right there. - Hello?