Part 3
Ricky goes on camera to defend himself. "I’m sick and tired of constantly being accused of cheating," he says. "Two of the most important people in my life think I’m a liar. I refuse to stand for it any longer. Last time I came to the show, Shardidrick found out I was cheating on her, but that’s the only time I’ve been unfaithful. Now, she think I’m cheating with a random woman and my brother’s girlfriend. I’ve never cheated on Shardise with no one, especially not Myteeka. The girl’s like my little sister. I would never look at her in a sexual way."
The audience is silent. Then Shardidrick speaks. "You’re lying. You’re lying. You did it one time. You’re doing it again." It’s not a question. It’s a verdict. The studio lights catch the tears in her eyes. Mario mediates, but there’s nothing to mediate. The evidence is on the table: the Facebook comment, the McDonald’s date, the car, the lipstick, the earring. Ricky says the girl is like his little sister. Shardidrick says he’s lying. And the lie detector is waiting in the wings.
The Lie Detector Results: What the Polygraph Revealed
The polygraph is a cold, unblinking machine. It doesn’t care about tears, or tickling, or the way a woman’s voice cracks when she says she’s been faithful. It just measures the body’s betrayals: the sweat, the pulse, the breath that catches when a lie is born. On this episode of Maury, the machine was the star. And Ricky, the man accused of tickling his brother’s girlfriend and lying about a McDonald’s date, was about to face his verdict.
[[AD]]
But before we get to the results, a spoiler warning: if you haven’t seen the episode, stop reading. The truth is about to come out, and it’s messier than a Happy Meal.
The lie detector test was broken into three parts, each one a nail in the coffin of Ricky’s credibility. The first section dealt with Ricky and other women—specifically, women from X-rated Facebook groups. Ricky had denied having sex with any of them. The polygraph said he was telling the truth. That’s right: the man who once posted a naked picture of himself on Facebook, inviting a woman to lick his tattoos, was not lying about that particular accusation. Score one for Ricky.
But the second section? That’s where the floor dropped out. Ricky was asked if he had sex with another woman besides the one Shardidrick already knew about. He said no. The polygraph said he was lying. And then came the third: Ricky claimed he was at a family member’s house when he was actually with another woman. Lie. The machine caught him again. By this point, Shardidrick’s face was a storm. She had brought Ricky back to the show because she feared he was hiding more cheating secrets, and the polygraph was confirming her worst fears.
Then Ricky made a confession that hung in the air like smoke: he admitted to being a sex addict. It was a moment of raw honesty, but it didn’t earn him any sympathy. Not when the next question was about Derek’s ex-girlfriends. Ricky had denied pursuing other ex-girlfriends of his brother. The polygraph said he was lying. And when asked if he had sex with more than one of Derek’s exes, Ricky admitted it. Yes, more than one. This was the same brother who had once come home to find Ricky on the couch with his girl—before Myteeka. The betrayal was layered, like a bad onion.
But then came the twist that no one saw coming. The final two questions were about Myteeka. Ricky had denied taking her on a McDonald’s date. The polygraph said he was telling the truth. And Ricky had denied having sex with Myteeka—despite the earring and lipstick that Shardidrick had found as evidence. The polygraph said he was telling the truth about that, too. The audience gasped. After all the lies, after the sex addiction admission, after the parade of Derek’s exes, Ricky was actually telling the truth about Myteeka. Or at least, the machine believed him.
It was a paradox that made Shardidrick’s head spin. Her suspicion about the tickling and the McDonald’s date was not supported by the polygraph. But her broader distrust? That was validated. Ricky was a liar. He was a sex addict. He had slept with multiple exes of his own brother. He had cheated on Shardidrick before. The machine had confirmed that he was capable of deception on a grand scale. So why would he tell the truth about Myteeka? Maybe because he wasn’t lying. Maybe the tickling was just tickling. Maybe the McDonald’s date never happened. But the damage was already done.
And then Myteeka dropped a bomb of her own. She admitted that she once called Derek ‘Ricky’ during sex. It was a slip of the tongue, a tiny, devastating detail that suggested intimacy, or at least confusion. Derek’s name is Derek. But she said Ricky. The audience gasped. It was the kind of moment that made you wonder what else was going on in the dark. Myteeka and Ricky had always been ‘too friendly,’ according to Shardidrick. They tickled. They played. Myteeka let Ricky drive her car, a privilege Derek never got. And now, in the heat of the moment, she had called out the wrong name. It wasn’t proof of an affair, but it was proof of something. A blurring of lines. A crack in the story.
The episode’s structure mirrored a trial. There was evidence: the Facebook messages, the naked picture, the earring, the lipstick. There was testimony: Shardidrick’s tearful accusations, Derek’s quiet fury, Ricky’s defensive posturing. And there was a verdict: the polygraph results. But lie detectors don’t heal relationships. They just make for good television. The machine can tell you if someone’s heart is racing, but it can’t tell you why. It can’t tell you if the tickling was innocent or if the McDonald’s date was real. It can only tell you what the body already knows.
In the end, Ricky was a liar and a sex addict, but he may have been telling the truth about Myteeka. Shardidrick’s suspicion about the tickling and the McDonald’s date was not supported by the polygraph, but her broader distrust was validated. The tickle was never just a tickle. It was a question the polygraph couldn’t answer. It was a symptom of a relationship built on suspicion, jealousy, and the performance of innocence. The tickling, the McDonald’s date, the lie detector—they were all part of the same story, a story about love and betrayal and the desperate need to know the truth.
As the credits rolled and the audience applauded, one question remained: what happens when the cameras stop rolling? The polygraph can’t follow Ricky and Shardidrick home. It can’t sit on their couch and watch them argue. It can’t tell them whether to stay or go. That’s the real test, and it’s one that no machine can grade. So stay tuned, because the drama never really ends. It just goes off-screen.
