Catfish (Derek & Kristen) : A Facebook Spy, a Veteran … and Vanessa Hudgens?
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It’s yet another new episode of MTV’s Catfish. Tonight, we head to Detroit to meet Derek. Derek has been unlucky in love. He has two children with two different women and just got out of the army. He believes he found love in Kristen.
Recap
There was a point in last night’s episode where the catfish’s identity was a toss-up between three different women. Between the name in her Facebook URL being different from the one on her page and her online pics showing three different women (plus Vanessa Hudgens?!), no one was quite sure what to think. Nev wasn’t his usual smug self about the catfish’s identity, besides the fact that it was clearly fake. The catfishee, however, was gutted over it, despite the obvious signs.
Detroit native Derek seems like a Nice Guy. A veteran, he claims to have been cheated on by both of his baby mamas (married to one, engaged to the other) while serving his country. So on top of the whole “23-year-old daddy” thing, he’s got trust issues like his name’s Drake. Still, for a guy who’s had his heart ripped out and stomped on by the mothers of his children, Derek is awfully trusting of Kristen. He loves love, this guy, and he’s found it again. He just wants to know if it’s real. “Even the elation I felt when I got married is nothing compared to this,” he says, grinning. A day later, Max will ask him how he’s feeling. Derek will say, “Like it’s all getting ready to fall apart again.”
Right around the time Derek returned home from service, Kristen added him on Facebook. A 23-year-old babysitter from Tampa, Kristen just so happened to have a Michigan area code - which Derek never noticed until this episode. It’s situations like these in which I feel like some aspect of the show has to be staged or reverse engineered. How does someone go through a casting process for a reality show before exhausting all his snooping options? Did you Google her phone number and see that it’s listed under the named “Chasity Noneya”? I get him not knowing who Vanessa Hudgens is because he was in the military for almost the entirety of the time she’s been C-list famous, so I’m not surprised that he didn’t recognize that Kristen was using the actress’s photo on her Facebook. But you’d think it would not be difficult to see that the pictures on her page show different women. Love is pure and total blindness. You want to root for a guy like Derek to find love, but c’mon, dude, open your eyes.
Basic searching and a quick chat with Kristen’s Facebook friend City Lightz (the names on this episode, damn) led Nev and Max to their crossroads: this woman, whoever she is, is certainly not Kristen Whoo. The name her Facebook URL displays is Tricia Waurd; a quick search shows that Tricia Waurd, whoever she is, is a married woman with two kids. That seems to be the one piece of information that sticks in Derek’s mind when they bring it back to him: “Kristen” is probably married. That’s what he leads with when he finally meets Kristen, a.k.a. Tricia, a.k.a. Chasity. As it turns out, she is not, though she has two daughters of her own and lives an hour away from Derek. Oh, and those pics? Yeah, she claimed to not notice they were three different women; she ripped ‘em straight from another girl’s page.
Backing up a second, Chasity alluded to something big while on the phone with Nev, amid reasons why she was not ready to meet Derek. The thing, it seems, is her reason for making and maintaining the page: The father of her daughters is in prison, and she’s trying to be preemptive about keeping him away from them when he gets out. She created the page in order to gather evidence of any shady behavior on his part, eventually using it against him if he tries to get visitation rights. Nev, Max and Derek don’t question it for a second... Full recap here
Derek’s Delusion Score (out of 10): 9.9 - Despite all the glaring online clues, Derek wanted to believe something, so he did.
Kristen/Chasity’s Delusion Score (out of 10): 5.8 - She expected to be fully forgiven by Derek and move forward with their relationship. The former happened; the latter didn’t work out.
Outcome: Catfish with a twist, served up with a side of sadness.
Watch episode
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I cannot wait for next week's episode. Bow Wow? Girl please.