Catfish Season 4 Episode 15 Recap: Once a Catfish, Always a Catfish

On tonight’s episode of Catfish, Nev and Max help out Thad who send them an email about his catfish story. Thad starts the email off by saying how he is a former corrections officer from Texas — wait a second! Don’t tell me he was a cop and got catfished! They have the best catfish-investigation tools available to them!

But back to Thad’s story. He needed a stranger’s help with some issues he was dealing with at home and along came Sara. After talking for a month, Sara admitted that she started developing feelings towards Thad and it seemed like the feelings were mutual. Sara made plans for the two to meet up but the meeting never happened because she had a seizure which led her to be rushed to the hospital. Really? A seizure was the best thing you could come up with at that moment, Sara?

I guess not, because a couple days later she let Thad know that her ex-boyfriend had abducted her. But no need to worry — she was able to escape and called Thad the next day to let him know she was OK. Good thing she called because I was really getting worried about her made-up excuses. After hearing that ridiculous story, Thad had enough with Sara and decided to do some of his own investigating. While he didn’t use his police resources, he did find out that Sara’s real name is Ashley. Thad also found out that the real girl in the pictures is actually named Sara. He got in contact with her and she let him know that Ashley has been doing this for years. She asked Ashley to stop but it’s quite obvious she still likes to play the game. Thad wants justice not only for himself and the real Sara but for Ashley’s next victim as well. Way to go, Captain America — justice for all!

When the guys Skype with Thad, they find out why he got in contact with the Sara profile in the first place. Sadly, he was planning on leaving his wife at the time, because he’s been so unhappy in his relationship over the years they’ve been together. Thad decided he needed a stranger’s advice, so he began adding anyone and everyone in order to hear what they had to say. Sara advised him to go to counseling with his wife which led the couple to believe being separated would be the best for them. A week later is when Sara admitted her feelings, so either she planned it perfectly or she’s a fly on the wall. One month later things went crazy and Sara’s stories began in order to prevent them from meeting.

That’s when Thad began his digging and found that the Ashley profile posted the exact same things that were on Sara’s profile. He really had her trapped when he found the real Sara who is in the photos. Turns out Ashley has been using Sara’s information for 7 whole years! Doesn’t this girl have a life to live?! Now Thad believes all this happened to him because he sinned by being unfaithful to his wife. He’s publicly punishing himself in order to make sure this catfish is exposed. I can respect that!

With such an interesting story on their hands, Nev and Max head out to Texas right away to investigate the story. Nev decides to send out messages to the real Sara and also Ashley’s latest victims, Joe, Marcus and Cory. When the guys do a general search for Ashley’s name, they find out that she has a record for larceny of merchandise. They also find an address which they might be able to find her at. Now they have to worry about the possibility of her being 6’1” and having the ability to crush them.

While on their search for answers, Joe calls Nev and tells his tale of Sara — AKA Ashley. He says that the two were in the same Facebook group and one day Ashley randomly messaged him. Their relationship turned into a romantic one and while they did try to make plans to meet, they always fell through. Sound familiar? Turns out she told Joe the same stories about her seizures and her crazy ex-boyfriend kidnapping her. Joe also found out she was lying, but he got a confession that she basically had no life so she had to make one up. That’s what TV is for!

Catfish-Season4-EP15-SaraSara Skypes with the guys and lets out her frustration. Nev thinks it’d be best to hold a mini intervention for Ashley so she finally stops what she’s doing once and for all. He asks for Sara to meet them in Texas so they can all go to Ashley’s place in Oklahoma together. Sara is nervous about meeting Ashley because of what could possibly go down. I don’t blame the poor girl! However, she wants this all to end just as much if not more so than Thad does, so she agrees to meet the guys in Texas. We’re headed on a road trip for an intervention, Catfish style!

Sara finally arrives in Texas and heads off to Thad’s house with the guys for an awkward first meeting. I feel bad for Thad because the girl he thinks he’s been talking to this whole time in the photos is now sitting next to him, but the feelings aren’t mutual. I also feel bad for Sara because she knows there are so many guys out there in Thad’s position and she can’t help them out when she doesn’t know them. It’s not her fault someone is impersonating her and developing relationships with so many different men.

Sara tells her side of the horror story, which was brought to her attention back in 2010. She received an email from a guy named Sam explaining how he’s wasted a whole year of his life on this fake account because now he’s found the real Sara. She was kind enough to send him a photo of herself with her URL, so he had some closure as to whether or not he was being lied to. The two exchanged phone numbers after she sent him the photo.

Catfish-Season4-EP15-Thad-NevAbout 3 years later, Joe lets Sara know that someone had been catfishing him with her information. Sara is furious and asks Joe for some information on the girl impersonating her. He gives Sara the fake’s phone number and when she types the number into her phone, it pops up as — Sam. Yup, the same Sam who supposedly had an issue with being catfished before. So Ashley was pretending to be Sam in order to get photos from Sara and use them for whatever she wants. Ashley is so deep into taking over Sara’s life that she can hack into the private photos that Sara has and even steals photos from Sara’s friends. She also knows the real ages of Sara’s sister and niece. Talk about stalker!

Nev decides to call Ashley, but of course he has to leave a voicemail since she won’t answer. Since Ashley never replied, the gang heads out to her house. Let’s hope she can’t defeat all four of them with one swing. Power in numbers!

When they arrive at the house, Nev notices that the windows are blocked so no one can see inside. They knock, but no one comes to answer the door. It’s obvious that someone is home and simply hiding inside because there’s a truck parked in front of the house. The guys start to ask the neighbors if they know anything about Ashley and find someone who knows just how weird she is. He lets them know that he’s heard some yelling and hollering coming from across the street before. He’ll also occasionally see a guy or girl come outside to continue their debate, but it’s unclear as to whether or not it’s Ashley all the time.

Catfish-Season4-EP15-AshleySince it’s obvious they aren’t going to get any answers, the crew heads back to the hotel. Looks like Ashley knew about their visit and even sends Thad a text letting him know she’s not too happy about it. The two talk on the phone and Thad advises Ashley to think seriously about meeting up with them. She eventually texts him with an address to her friend’s house saying she’ll meet them the next day. I wonder if she knows Sara is with them too.

When Nev knocks on the door this time, he finally gets an answer. It’s Ashley. She has a young daughter and is currently a stay-at-home mom. When they ask about her arrest, she avoids answering any questions. When Ashley made the account, she was 2 days away from getting married. Her fiancé called and let her know that they weren’t able to get married because he had been cheating on her with another girl who is now pregnant. Ashley blames her making the account on the fact that she was so depressed and down on herself, but Sara isn’t going to let that be her answer. Sara tells Ashley that she sympathizes with her for what’s happened, but everyone has problems and Sara doesn’t do something like this when she’s feeling down. We all know Ashley is just coming up with more excuses.

Nev asks why she’d want to put people through the same hurt right after she herself has been hurt. Her answer? She doesn’t really have one. She thinks she’s not hurting anyone. When she was supposedly being kidnapped, Ashley admits that all those noises including the police were from a video off of YouTube. Girlfriend needs some serious help! Ashley says that the whole point of them meeting is for all of this to stop, but I doubt she really wants to stop. When she doesn’t have answers for all the questions they’re answering, that’s a huge problem. This is an addiction for her and it’s now a part of her daily life.

Catfish-Season4-EP15-Sara-emotionAfter cooling down a bit, the group gets together to sit down and talk more in depth. Ashley breaks down and starts letting her true emotions show when she talks about how she was feeling at the time she made the account. She talks about how she was feeling so lonely and has always struggled with weight issues and feels that these reasons helped contribute to why she started the profile. It was an escape for her to be someone else and it allowed her to not deal with what she was feeling inside about herself. Sara gets emotional while Ashley is speaking and walks away from the cameras for a minute. Max heads after her where he learns that Sara is so emotional because she struggled with a lot of the same things Ashley mentioned. She doesn’t want to make this about her, but she wants to somehow let Ashley know she’s not alone. In the end, it seems like everyone is supportive of each other and Ashley promises that she will never catfish again.

During a two month checkup, Thad lets the guys know that everything is looking up. He’s going back to work for the corrections office and he and his family are stronger than ever. I can’t say the same for Ashley. It seems like she’s sticking to her catfish ways, as more people are continuing to come forward and telling their stories. Sara tells the guys that Ashley changed her story up a bit just a week after they left. A guy found Sara and let her know that they were engaged. Yikes! Now Ashley tells guys that there is a girl out in the world somewhere named Ashley who has been impersonating her for 10 years. It’s no surprise that Ashley never responded to the guys’ many attempts to get in contact with her.

What were your thoughts on this crazy episode of Catfish? Do you think Thad was wrong for getting involved in a relationship while still being married and having kids? I have to admit that Thad is one smart guy for figuring out he was being catfished. To Thad and all the other guys that were able to find the real Sara, I give you mad props! Watching this episode it made me wonder if anyone has ever thought about using my photos for a catfish profile. I’m not bragging but I just wonder what goes through a person’s mind when they pick who they want to use as their catfish persona. Did you believe Ashley when she broke down and said she’d stop catfishing? I couldn’t believe that she is still catfishing after the heart-to-heart they all shared that day! And now she’s adding herself into this story to try and make it seem more legit?! This chick has some serious guts. Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

New episodes of Catfish premiere Wednesday nights at 10/9CT on MTV.

Photos: MTV