Diamonds are forever…unless, of course, they’re meant for a Catfish who duped you with a particularly convincing Plenty of Fish profile.
On the most recent episode of MTV’s detective series, Nev and Kamie voyaged to the state of Michigan to help a Detroit native named DeJohn, a 38-year-old dad of three who was in love with a 28-year-old woman named Cashay. Cashay, who also lived in Detroit, gave DeJohn a sense of hope he’d left for dead; he even said the relationship exploded “like firecrackers” and called Cashay a completely pure soul.
“She gave me everything that the females out here didn’t give me,” he said. “She makes me feel special.”
Still, there were a few things that gave DeJohn pause. Nearly two years into the couple’s relationship, Cashay couldn’t meet up, even though she supposedly lived nearby. And though Cashay was fine with sending nude photos, she would only video chat from dark rooms.
Regardless, DeJohn revealed he had big plans for the future: He was planning to propose. After directing Nev and Kamie to a local jeweler, he showed off a $3,000 ring that he’d already begun paying off in installments.
It seemed like there was no turning back, but would DeJohn’s purchase — and his vow to commit — be worth it?
So that he’d be in the loop, DeJohn joined Nev and Kamie as the sleuths hunted for traces of Cashay online. First, they found a woman named Ebony after performing a reverse phone number search on Cashay’s account. And the number was also attached to an Instagram profile of a woman who looked completely different than the woman DeJohn thought he was dating.
Hope continued to wane. After reaching out to one of the few Instagram accounts Ebony followed, Nev and Kamie unearthed a woman named Cid, who admitted that while she, herself, wasn’t behind Cashay, she knew who was: her cousin.
“It’s kinda her thing,” Cid said.
With few routes left to take, Nev, Kamie and DeJohn reached out to Cashay directly, and after some serious teeth-pulling, she agreed to meet, and the group headed to her house. There, a teary woman emerged, confirmed Cid was her cousin and introduced herself as Gervaise. Gervaise, who said she was 30 and worked in healthcare, had a number of nervous tics that threw DeJohn off-balance — he, Nev and Kamie couldn’t tell if she was laughing or crying, contrite or vengeful.
But one thing was for sure: DeJohn didn’t really care. He was just angry.
“Twenty months down the drain,” he said. “It’s a lot of betrayal…I was in love with a figment of someone else’s imagination.”
Gervaise said she’d been catfishing for years and that she’d created so many false accounts, she wouldn’t have been able to count them. Still, she said she didn’t mean to hurt DeJohn. Though she admitted she began lying to men “as a game,” her connection to DeJohn, she said, developed into sincere love. And when DeJohn told Cashay about the ring, she nearly fell over.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I really care about you.”
There were few stones left unturned as Gervaise continued to answer DeJohn’s questions, and though she hoped her honesty would earn DeJohn’s friendship, DeJohn, sadly, didn’t see a relationship of any kind surviving.
“This is kind of a scared-straight moment,” DeJohn said to Nev and Kamie as he left the house of his bride-not-to-be.
What do you think of DeJohn’s would-be proposal? Was he foolish to almost pop the question to a woman he never met? Or was he just head-over-heels in love? Share your thoughts, then hang tight for the final episodes of the season!
