Catfish just exposed more than just a con artist: It was the first time the docuseries featured a collision with popular subscription site OnlyFans. And the fiery confrontation that eventually erupted between a man looking for love and the person who’d deceived him was nearly too hot for TV.
On this week’s episode, MTV detectives Nev and Kamie met a Detroit native named Ryan, who — like many others in COVID-mandated quarantine — had turned to Tinder to make new connections. About a month earlier, Ryan said, he’d matched with a 21-year-old restaurant worker named Micah, and what started with Instagram messages and Snapchat check-ins evolved into daily communication.
Ryan was so invested in the new spark, he said, he’d even deleted Tinder.
Still, Nev and Kamie had their doubts about Micah. For one thing, she and Ryan only spoke on the phone two or three times, and they never video chatted. Further, though Micah’s Snapchat page was teeming with content, she had neither an Instagram nor a Facebook page.
Oh, and Ryan had sent her more than $500 over the course of their chats, which Micah had requested for new hairstyles and a widening wardrobe.
Immediately, Kamie suspected Micah may have been a fake and that the person behind the account had subscribed to her OnlyFans account, stolen her private pictures and peddled them to Ryan to pressure him for cash.
“Ryan is a trick,” Kamie said. “It’s like trick-or-treat.”
After some research, it was discovered that Micah’s phone number was registered to someone named Kassandra and that a woman named Bryanna had commented on Kassandra’s page: “I need to talk to you — it’s about Micah.”
Quickly, the detectives got in touch with Bryanna, who confirmed that Micah was real (and, indeed, operated an OnlyFans account) but added that she and Micah both believed a catfish was stealing and peddling Micah’s photos. And when Nev and Kamie finally made contact with Micah herself, the 21-year-old confirmed that she knew a woman named Kassandra had been trying to steal her content.
Ryan was crushed, especially when he and Micah finally came face-to-face on Zoom; there, Micah confirmed she had never met or spoken to him.
Kamie, meanwhile, was concerned that whoever was behind the stolen photos was putting Micah at risk (imagine if a man who’d sent money to the fake-Micah account saw the real woman in public and confronted her). Soon, the group decided to sleep on their discoveries before confronting Kassandra.
But sleep did little to prepare the group for what came next: a man named Tony, who introduced himself as the gatekeeper of the fake-Micah account. Tony insisted he’d duped Ryan — and many other men — to teach men a lesson about accepting explicit photos from women.
“It’s a lesson for all the guys who are on there,” Tony said.
(For the record, Tony’s logic didn’t add up, as Ryan didn’t know Micah had an OnlyFans account. And yes, Tony’s philosophies were misogynistic.)
Tony said he’d pay Ryan back and that his scheme was harmless. Either way, Kamie insisted, it was dangerous. Then she snapped on Tony for his chauvinistic behavior.
“That’s so f*cked up,” she said. “Who are you to tell women they should expect to have their photos taken and shared to lure men for money?”
The bad news: Tony signed off in a huff after refusing to admit to any wrongdoing. The good news: Micah asked Nev and Kamie for Ryan’s number, meaning the horror show might still lead to a love story. Think it can? Sound off with your predictions, then catch another Catfish Wednesday at 8/7c.
