The Season 3 finale of Catfish ended with an episode unlike the others. The story begins with Bianca, who lives in North Carolina, and her 5-month relationship with Brogan through Facebook. Both ladies are into body modification and Bianca is head over heels for Brogan’s tattoo artwork and piercings. Bianca never thought of asking Brogan to video chat because she always thought of it as an awkward ordeal herself. However, once Bianca got over that mindset and asked Brogan to video chat with her, Brogan magically disappeared and deactivated her Facebook account.
While Bianca tried her best at moving forward from her relationship, which ended so quickly and out of nowhere, she couldn’t help but always think of Brogan and wonder where she was. Her questions were answered nearly a year later when out of the blue, Brogan reactivated her Facebook and started texting Bianca again. The weird thing is that the two picked up right where they left off, as if Brogan hadn’t gone M.I.A. for a whole year without an explanation. Bianca claims that she never questioned what happened because she was walking on eggshells while talking to Brogan, always worried about driving her to run away again.
Enter Nev and Max, who agree to help Bianca. The dou apparently are looking to change things up so they ask a special friend of theirs, who is a huge fan of the show, to accompany them. Now I would have been so all over that opportunity, unfortunately, I’m not even on their radar and they ask model Selita Ebanks to join them. She’s thrilled and can’t wait to participate on this adventure. Turns out Selita had a personal experience with being catfished — a catfish took her photos and developed a relationship with someone, making them think they were with Selita. This creeper even went so far as to make a voicemail with Selita’s voice saying it was her personal phone and to leave a message.
After meeting Bianca (pictured left), the guys and Selita discover that she’s truly all alone in her small and judgmental town. She’s one of only a few gays in her town, which not only makes it hard for her to date, but also hard for her to live a normal carefree life. This is exactly why Bianca and Brogan’s relationship was so strong because they were so connected on every level of interest. Bianca mentions her interest in moving somewhere in the Pacific Northwest area, which she shares with Brogan, who tells her she too is interested in moving to that area. Now it’s critical for her to find out who Brogan is right away.
The guys quickly hurry to get their research done and make sure to teach Selita a thing or two for future knowledge (AKA taking over for Max). A brief phone call from actor David Spade encouraging the guys on their show and including Selita in this episode helps push them to find answers. They try all the classics — Google, Spokeo, Facebook — and end up with nothing. Then, for some odd reason, taking out Brogan’s middle name gives them the hit they need.
It brings them to a blog entry that’s deactivated but shows that it was focused on the subject “who the hell is Brogan Acaster.” Digging deeper they see multiple pictures and one that connects this account to Brogan. The same tattoos Brogan had pictured above her knees on Facebook are now shown on the blog below a big pregnant belly. This could be the reason why she left mysteriously for one year, and actually was one of Selita’s possible predictions. They find that the author of the blog is Chloe Acaster and when they Google her name, they find Chris, her boyfriend’s, Twitter. They look through his pictures on Facebook and not only confirm it’s “Brogan’s Broski” from her profile, but also Chloe’s baby daddy. A picture with Chloe tagged confirms that Bianca is not talking to the girl in the photos. Gut punch!
Bianca’s mother expresses how much suffering her daughter has had to endure from being in a town that judges by race, sexual orientation and even religion. She explains how Bianca used to get bullied all the time, which eventually led to her mother being frowned upon by the church and getting kicked out of her position at Sunday school. I feel Bianca’s pain for suffering in such a town that is judgmental, and know her mother truly means that she only wants happiness for her daughter. After being so upset at what the research uncovered about Brogan, Bianca only wants answers now as to why she did it. This is when Nev calls Brogan and luckily, for once, gets a good conversation. Brogan tells him her real name is Tia and she never meant to upset Bianca. She agrees that now is the perfect time to meet and come clean.
Once the gang arrives in Iowa at the address Tia gave for her home, tensions rise as Bianca waits with Max and Selita, while Nev knocks at the door. Tia finally comes to the door and seems shy to meet Bianca. She explains that she got too obsessed with the fake Brogan account that she created. She was constantly updating it and ended up becoming involved in it more than she ever imagined. She found Chloe’s photos on Tumblr and wanted to become her because at that time, she was at a personal low, where she was struggling with her self-esteem and not knowing how to deal with it.
As for whole year being “on the back of a milk carton,” Tia says she felt bad about what she was doing to Bianca and wanted to stop it. She admits that it didn’t work too well because she couldn’t stop thinking about Bianca and that’s why she started talking to her again. One sad confession is that Tia admits to dating other people online as Brogan before meeting Bianca, but she did come clean to them eventually. Her reasoning for not telling Bianca the truth is that she didn’t want to hurt her and lose her. After hearing what Tia had to say, Bianca is confused with truth vs. lies coming.
The next day, Nev mentions that he’d like to try talking to Tia alone with Max and Selita to see if they can crack Tia in any of her lies. They’ll bring Tia back to talk with Bianca once they’re done. In the meantime, they want Bianca to come up with questions she still has for Tia. While talking again with Tia, she explains how she had a low point in her life where she had very low self-worth and felt more powerful through Brogan. When questioned whether she got bullied for her sexual orientation or weight, before losing much of her weight, she replied that she never did. It was easy for her to be accepted by everyone as gay and no one ever bullied her for being overweight. This angered Selita a bit because she pointed out how much Bianca had to suffer, through real struggles, in her life with all the hate being lashed out towards her with race and sexuality. She never had it easy like Tia did, even though Tia hints that she has a secret struggle she had to go through.
During her talk with Bianca, Tia reveals her secret that she was sexually abused around the age of 14. She says that this is around the time when she began to gain weight and lose herself along with her self-confidence. Her only release from this pain was becoming Brogan through the fake Facebook account and talking to Bianca. She says she never wanted to hurt her and was always afraid of telling her the truth because she might lose her. After their heart-to-heart, Bianca and Tia end the trip on good terms and seem to have a relationship as friends still intact.
For me, I didn’t buy any of Tia’sBS since she had a history of fooling others. If she cared about Bianca so much, why wouldn’t she tell her the truth but tell it to the other people she dated? In the end, I was happy Bianca got the answers she so desperately needed to move on. As for Selita, I wouldn’t be worrying if I were Max about her taking over. I hope they don’t continue this since the true experts are Nev and Max. Oh well, hopefully next season of Catfish won’t be too focused on people wanting to become famous. They need to re-watch Nev’s Catfish story and find the true meaning behind why they started the show-finding true love.What were your thoughts on this episode? Do you think Tia was honest in never wanting to hurt or lose Bianca and that’s why she kept lying to her? Do you think the two will remain friends, become something more, or lose all contact? Did you enjoy this season of Catfish? What was your favorite episode? Comment Below.
