30 Best Catfish Episodes Ranked

Believe it or not, "Catfish: The TV Show" is almost ten years old. Yes, it's been almost a decade since Nev Schulman and Max Joseph began helping to answer that all-important question: "Am I being catfished?" Each episode, our hosts take a look at someone's online lover and find out, simply put, if they truly are who they say they are.

Over the course of hundreds of episodes, Nev, Max, Kamie Crawford, and all the other guest hosts have overseen some of the funniest, saddest, craziest and loveliest stories ever to grace MTV — or anywhere else, for that matter. They've seen, filmed, thrown, and lived it all. From Katy Perry to creepy middle-aged guys, from true love to frenemies and beyond, the show has spent a decade solving the nation's personal mysteries. And to celebrate, here are the 30 best episodes 10 years of TV sleuthing for our viewing pleasure can possibly provide... Enjoy!

We're just two entries into the list, and already we've hit a hella-complicated, catfishy mess. So, let's break it down. Cherie first met Avion when he sent her a text claiming that they'd previously met. He also claimed that meeting came about when Cherie sold him a tablet. If all your catfish bells aren't ringing at this point, you've never seen the show. But it gets worse. He then turns revealing his real identity into a game. At this point, most viewers are screaming at the screen, but Cherie's into it.

The relationship blossoms into one of an adult nature, and the pair eventually arrange to meet. Avion, though, as we've all guessed by now, doesn't show and proceeds to ghost Cherie. Once the "Catfish" team is on board, however, Avion's fakery is quickly discovered. They even manage to persuade him to face his victim. Cherie, though, has already met him. Her internet boyfriend is actually a former friend out for revenge over a debt. Or as she puts it, someone "who doesn't know his place." Never loan money to your friends, people.

Ready for some more mind-blowing catfishery? This one proves that catfish just get more and more sophisticated. And the stories get more and more complicated. We barely have a handle on this one ourselves, and that's partly because it was just so ... involved. So, Jeanette and Kiara are cousins. Kiara's new girlfriend, Gaby, says she has a cousin, Patrick, who would be perfect for Jeanette. Gaby makes the online intro, and the pair get on like a house on fire. That is until Kiara tells her cousin that Patrick might be fake. And that Gaby is behind it. Confused? You will be.

Gaby catfishing her girlfriend's cousin turns out to be just the tip of a very catfishy iceberg. After Kamie and Nev do a deep dive into her life, they come across something huge: Gaby has been posing as a man and catfishing straight women for years. There's a whole Tumblr dedicated to her methods, which include image manipulation and posing as a casting agent. She's serious about her craft, is what we're saying. Gaby, or whoever she really is, takes an age to even pretend to be sorry, and we're pretty sure she'll keep doing it. So be careful out there.

Where Ari got to live one of Max's more successful fishing escapades, Chelsea wasn't quite so lucky. Turns out Max is far better at predicting men than women. Go figure. Anyway, Chelsea wants to know if Charles, whom she met on a dating site a year earlier, is for real. After the regular Google advertising, Nev and Max decide it boils down to two suspects: Chelsea's ex or her roommate, Dominique.

Max, though, is pretty sure it's the ex-boyfriend. The roommate, he says, just doesn't care enough to engineer all of this: "She's just too self-involved. She's more into herself than she is into her friend." And guess what? It's the roommate. She's not self-involved; she's in love with Chelsea. Nice one, Max. Despite all the fake profile nonsense, Dominique and Chelsea actually attempt a couple of dates. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it didn't work out. At least they'll always have Charles.

This is exactly the sort of episode that underlines the need for "Catfish" to be on the curriculum. Today's lesson: Don't fat-shame your cousin. She will tag you back, in a big way. Poor Antwane had no idea what had hit him by the time Nev and Max rolled out of town. He's been speaking to Tony for three years, and his cousin Carmen wants to make sure he wasn't being catfished. So she contacts the show, mentioning that the couple met on a chat line. Yup, an actual phone. No internet required.

Having called in the team herself, Carmen then leads them on a tour of Cincinnati's most attractive condemned properties. She even makes them believe Tony is in prison before grandly announcing that she is, in fact, Tony. Antwane is crushed. And her reason for breaking his heart? "You should never have called me a fat a** Kelly Price!" And even in the catch-up she's unrepentant, leading to a bust-up so huge that it had to be heavily edited. Don't mess with Nev, y'all.

As it turns out, Max occasionally isn't great at predicting men, either. He's convinced from the start that Brandon is fake, and the fact that said love interest claims to have had truck trouble for three whole years really doesn't help. Kelsie also can't believe that transport issues can really have kept him from her the entire time they've known each other. So she calls in the cavalry, who swiftly decide she's going to get her heart broken.

After basically calling Brandon a liar, they somehow persuade him to meet them and Kelsie. They pick an out-of-the-way location in Missouri — never a good sign — and a guy pulls up on a four-wheeler ... and a massive helmet. Is it Brandon? Yes. Yes it is. He's just really bad with trucks. And women. That said, he's totally into a relationship with Kelsie. She'd even met his mom by the catch-up. Happy endings all round.

Here's another reason "Catfish" should be taught in schools: Some people it seems, have a little too much time on their hands and no appreciation for those who might not. Caitlyn and Kenton met on Facebook, and things were going so well he suggested she and her daughter move to Kentucky to be with him. Caitlyn, though, had her suspicions. Firstly, he claimed to be Nev's personal trainer. In Kentucky. Why? Then there was the weird way he claimed to have done all the same things she had, but only after she'd brought them up. Mirroring like that is a massive red flag, FYI.

Kenton is horrified that there's any question of his identity and voluntarily comes to see the team to clear it all up. That's great, right? Except for the part where he completely turns on Caitlyn. He refuses to see that having a job and a two-year-old daughter might eat into your texting time, or that you might be tired after working and putting said daughter to bed. No, she's just a liar. Kenton, dear Kenton. Let's talk when you've got a job and a baby, okay?

When is a catfish not really a catfish? When it's your husband trying to get closer to you. Yes, we know we've spoiled it, but you're not here because you've never seen the show, right? Anyway, Candic gets a little suspicious when a man approaches her online claiming they met on a retail app she uses for work. Even though, as we mentioned, she's married, she's intrigued and begins an online affair with her mystery shopper. 

Her feelings torn, Candic enlists the help of the "Catfish" team to find out who her new man might be, before she makes any life-changing decisions. This episode definitely brings the drama, particularly when it turns out that she not only already knows him — she's living with him. The twist here is that hubby Titus wasn't even trying to catch her cheating. He just wanted to know her better. It's almost sweet. Almost.

Where some episodes showcase the technical ability of a good catfish, other could be solved without anyone needing to lift a camera. And this is one of those episodes. Jeff and Megan met on Facebook and bonded over their mutual love of dogs. It's as good as anything right? Jeff eventually hauls his cookies to Texas to meet his new gal, and she ghosts him. The thing is, Jeff is in the military and can't just be running off to Texas whenever Megan decides she might be open to it. 

In steps the "Catfish" team, who, with barely any effort whatsoever, discover a highly suspect account belonging to Brandy. It's basically identical to Megan's, just with no pics. It was that easy. Of course, it's her. Brandy explains that the other profile helps her escape her problems and that Jeff isn't like the others. Jeff, not massively impressed with the deception, politely considers her request for a relationship ... and then reenlists.

Was this the ultimate expression of catfishing? When Courtney wrote to the show asking for help finding Isaak, the production team duly agreed. But when they contacted her with the good news, she had no idea what they were talking about. There was only one explanation: Her catfish wrote to "Catfish" to force a meeting with his victim. And this was after she'd told him in no uncertain terms to leave her the hell alone. 

Courtney and Isaak met on a dating site, but she broke contact when he sent pictures of himself that did not match his profile. Smart move. He clearly wasn't happy about that and continued to contact her. When that didn't work, he apparently asked Nev to do it for him. Called out for his record of creepy behavior, including offering free massages to any woman in the vicinity and then suing her for nonpayment, Isaak promises to change. Nev believes him, but no one else does.

This episode actually ends up being kind of sweet, in a teen drama sort of way. But isn't that the point of being a teenager? Derek met Annabelle on Snapchat following a bad breakup and quickly fell for her. But in the usual "Catfish" vein, they'd never even spoken on the phone, so meeting in person with a huge number of cameras present was really his only option. Nev and Laura boil it down to two suspects: an ex-girlfriend and the sister of a friend. At this point, we kind of want it to be the ex.

Waiting for Annabelle at the usual remote location, Derek can't hide his surprise when his buddy Jeremy gets out of the car. Is this a twist? Was Annabelle Jeremy all along? Nope. He's there to support his younger sister, Becca. For 'twas her all along. Having grown up together, she invented Annabelle because she worried Derek saw her more as a sister. Which, apparently, he did not. They were still together at the catch-up. And we assume Jeremy was cool with the whole thing.

Where to start with Spencer and Katy? This poor man actually believed he was in a six-year relationship with Katy Perry. Yes, the Katy Perry. And, more than that, they're about to be engaged. How? Well ... we're still not sure, to be honest, but even after the catfish admits to Spencer's face that it's her and not the Grammy-winning singer that he's been talking to, he doesn't really believe it.

Alarm bells start ringing long before the reveal, though. As evidence of the real nature of the relationship, Spencer points out that Perry shares songs with him long before they're released, and she does it through YouTube. Uh-oh. Once Max and Nev track Harriet down, a trip to the U.K. to meet her makes little difference. Spencer emails Katy Perry (Harriet) when he gets back to tell her all about his vacation. Not a happy ending, guys.

Despite the detective nature of "Catfish," this episode is as close as it's ever come to being a true crime show, although we're not really sure what purpose it served. Long story short: Nev and Max investigate the completely non-catfish behavior of a former catfish who went to jail for her catfish crimes. We're talking about one Shelley Chartier, who intercepted a bunch of texts between Paris, this week's hopeful, and NBA star Chris Anderson. She caused a huge scandal and was convicted in Canada, where she served her sentence.

Paris, though, isn't convinced Chartier won't do it again and sends Nev and Max to the edge of the world (read: Canada) to find out what she's up to. Along the way, we discover the convicted catfish is still wanted in the U.S. and could face 40 years for a separate scam. And that's about it, really. Chartier has little to say that isn't blaming someone else, and everyone leaves a little bit sadder than when they arrived.

Two happy endings in a row? Yes, but only if you're not Max, because he gets bitten by an ostrich. Outside of that, both Max and Nev are super heavy-handed with Lauren when she asks for help finding Derek. They met as teenagers and talked for eight years, but Lauren also got engaged and had a baby IRL while they were talking. She even ended her engagement when Derek blocked her on the socials. The boys spend a really long time preparing her for the worst, which, at one point, includes dragging her parents in to it. Bit far, lads?

Yes, actually, it was a bit far, and now you all look like miserable boomers. Because Derek is real. And not only is he real, but he's all in as far as Lauren is concerned. They immediately go on a date, and he meets her son. And when the catch-up rolls around, they're still together. Hence the justice in Max's ostrich wound. Even the birds knew he was being harsh.

Sometimes, a catfish causes more trouble than they can possibly comprehend. And oftentimes, the most damage is done when romance has absolutely nothing to do with it. That's when catfishing can get closer to stalking than anything else, and that's exactly what happened to Falesha. Someone, using her pics and calling themselves Jacqueline, is spreading hate and drama all over the internet. And Falesha is catching all kinds of hell because of it. It's time to take a stand.

The catfish, Tracey, is super easy to find in the end. After all, she's made very little effort to conceal her real name, not really seeing, or maybe caring, why using someone else's identity to abuse people might cause some trouble. And her reason simply comes down to having taken an immediate dislike to Falesha. And loving "Hannah Montana." Miley Cyrus has a lot to answer for.

As insane "Catfish" stories go, this one probably deserves its place at No. 1. When Danny chooses to commit to Rosa out of all the women he's been talking to, he asks the "Catfish" team for help tracking her down. You see, Danny and Rosa live in the same city and somehow have never managed to meet. Also, she appears to have a reputation for being a bruiser. And yet, Danny can't wait to meet her. Can they help? Sadly for their hopeful, they very much can.

At the end of a convoluted journey, Rosa turns out to be Jose, an outcome Danny had clearly not anticipated. Rosa was created as a way to take revenge on Jose's school bully, and the whole thing clearly got very out of hand. Having walked out of the first meeting, it looked as though Danny was done for good. But then he did something no one else ever has, at least to our knowledge. He prayed with Jose on his second visit. And the men parted as friends. That's the power of "Catfish."