Part 3
Let’s put this in perspective. Catfish has been on MTV since 2012. In that time, Nev Schulman and Kamie Crawford have exposed fake profiles, stolen photos, and catfish who turned out to be someone else entirely. They’ve dealt with a woman pretending to be a man (season 2, anyone?), a catfish who was a friend of the family (season 4 had some wild ones), and even a catfish who turned out to be a celebrity (season 7 kept us guessing). But an identical twin? That’s a new circle of hell. It’s not just about a fake persona anymore. It’s about two people sharing the same face, the same DNA, and one of them possibly being used as a pawn in a game they didn’t even know they were playing.
And that’s what makes this episode feel like a Shakespeare play. Someone literally says it in the transcript: “It really is like a Shakespeare play.” They’re not wrong. You’ve got unrequited love, mistaken identity, a manipulative friend pulling strings, and a tragic hero (Aubrey) caught in the crossfire. It’s basically A Midsummer Night’s Dream meets Catfish, minus the fairies and plus a lot of Snapchat.
But let’s get back to the twin. So who was Brian really? The transcript suggests that the real guy’s Facebook page was sent to Aubrey, but the real guy might have an identical twin who was also involved. Or maybe the twin was the one talking? The mind reels. This is the kind of twist that makes you rewatch the episode immediately, pausing every frame to see if you can spot the difference between the two faces. It’s like The Parent Trap, but with more betrayal and fewer catchy handshakes. Or like Dead Ringers, David Cronenberg’s 1988 psychological horror about twin gynecologists — except here, the horror is emotional, not surgical.
Think about it: identical twins have fascinated filmmakers for decades. From The Shining (1980, Stanley Kubrick) with those creepy Grady twins to The Social Network (2010, David Fincher) where the Winklevoss twins are played by Armie Hammer (yes, both of them), the idea of two people who look exactly alike but are distinct individuals is inherently unsettling. It messes with our sense of reality. If you can’t trust your own eyes, what can you trust? That’s the exact feeling Aubrey must have had when she realized the guy she’d been falling for might have a double.
Now, here’s where the transcript gets a little murky — and that’s part of the fun. We don’t get a clean answer about who Brian really is or how the twin fits in. Did the twin know? Was he in on it? Or was he just an innocent bystander whose face got dragged into a roommate’s misguided love scheme? The show doesn’t spell it out, and honestly, that ambiguity makes it even more haunting. It’s like the ending of Inception (2010, Christopher Nolan) — you’re left wondering what was real and what was a dream. Except here, the spinning top is a Facebook profile, and the dream is a three-month Snapchat relationship built on lies.
Let’s also talk about how rare this is for Catfish. In over a decade of episodes, the show has featured hundreds of catfish. Some were lonely, some were malicious, and some were just plain confused. But an identical twin? That’s a unicorn. It’s the kind of twist that makes you realize why this show has lasted so long. Just when you think you’ve seen every possible permutation of deception, someone raises the stakes. It’s like watching a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat, except the rabbit has a twin and the hat is on fire.
And the fallout? Aubrey leaves. She’s done. She’s not sticking around to hash it out with Kourtney and Janissa. And who can blame her? The transcript captures that moment of pure exhaustion: “I don’t even know I’m probably just gonna leave them just go yeah.” It’s heartbreaking. Kourtney and Janissa are left to deal with the wreckage. The roommate dynamic is shattered. The friendship with Janissa is in question. And Aubrey is left wondering if any of it was real. It’s the kind of ending that doesn’t wrap up neatly. It just sits there, heavy and unresolved, like the final scene of The Graduate (1967, Mike Nichols) — two people staring into the void, unsure of what comes next.
So what do we take away from this? This episode of Catfish isn’t just about a fake profile. It’s about the lies we tell ourselves when we’re too scared to be honest. Kourtney was scared. She had feelings for Aubrey, didn’t know how to express them, and let Janissa convince her that a fake Snapchat account was the answer. Janissa was misguided. She thought she was helping, but she ended up manipulating both of her friends. Aubrey was collateral damage. She trusted her roommate, her friend, and a guy named Brian who never existed. And the audience? We’re left to wonder what we would have done in their shoes. Would we have come clean sooner? Would we have seen the signs? Or would we have fallen for the same trap?
The identical twin twist adds a layer of identity confusion that makes this episode stand out in the Catfish canon. It’s not just a catfish story. It’s a story about how fragile our sense of self can be, and how easily it can be shattered when someone we trust decides to play God with our emotions. It’s the kind of episode that stays with you, long after the credits roll.
If you ever think about catfishing your roommate, just remember: the park is only six minutes away, but the betrayal lasts a lifetime.
