The lovesick on “Catfish” seek out the help of Internet detectives Max Joseph and Nev Schulman because of the duo’s technological expertise and superior snooping, but it’s possible they’d be bested by John, the enamored hopeful featured on tonight’s episode.
As an IT professional, the Detroit resident has made a career out of sorting through complicated computer systems. And while no one was better suited than he to discover if his online girlfriend Kelsey was real, he simply chose not to try. Well, that’s a new one!
John, who said he met the brainy brunette of his dreams in an online community designed for folks with social anxiety, explained that there was a certain allure to getting to know Kelsey without relying on social media profiles or photos. And while he did perform a reverse-image search with pics Kelsey had sent, he didn’t want to take it any further than that.
“In all of this, I’ve kind of been proving to myself that I could kill past habits,” John told Max, who was sure John’s knowledge of sleuthing was greater than his own.
Moreover, John didn’t want to push Kelsey to video chat, as she’d claimed she suffers from body dysmorphic disorder.
But soon after John, Nev and Max traveled to Orlando to meet Kelsey, John was handed a pretty unfortunate reality check. He’d been duped by Adam, one of his fellow chat community’s members, who admitted to tricking dozens of people for fun between sessions at the local gambling hall. Adam deemed himself the “King of Catfishes,” but the trio only saw him as a jester.
Sure, things didn’t go John’s way. But if they had, wouldn’t his gumshoe-restraint have been noble, and wouldn’t his love story have been all the more sincere? Tell us what you think: Can you understand John’s choice to not sneak around for more information on Kelsey, or was he simply foolish for not doing his research?
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