Double Catfish!

Kya met Alyx on an online website called VampireFreaks.com , they’ve been talking for 8 months and have fallen in love. 

Kya is a female that lives in Mexico, Missouri with her mom. Alyx is a 21-year-old male & lists his sexuality as: pansexual (meaning sex/gender don’t matter, he loves people for who they are, the gender is irrelevant). His sexuality doesn’t matter to Kya as she’s dated girls before. He lived in Switzerland, but recently moved to Riverside, Ca. When he moved, Kya felt it was time to come clean – she had originally set up a fake profile as “Ellie”  photo of a thin attractive girl. When Kya told him the truth & showed him her real picture (she’s overweight & looks nothing like “Ellie”) Alyx said, “I don’t care what you look like. I love you for you.”  They like the same type of music, say “I love you” about 50 times a day & talk until they fall asleep. They haven’t Skyped because Alyx doesn’t have his own computer.  Kya wrote to Nev, asking him to help her meet Alyx. 

Nev contacts Kya via Skype & they make arrangements to fly out and meet her. Max & Nev meet Kya & her mom, Lisa. Her mom is open to Kya meeting someone online & she’s talked with Alyx once; she says he seems nice. They talk for a while out back, Nev and Max get all the details and history of their relationship.  Once in the car, Max says he thinks Alyx must have something as equally big to hide since he accepted her lie so easily.  (Max has very good insight in more than one situation.)

Nev & Max immediately get to work on researching Alyx and are suspicious because on Facebook he only has 10 friends. They call his work & find out he doesn’t work there and never has. As usual, they start picking up red flags: none of his Facebook pictures are ‘tagged”, they do a Google Image search & get a hit for a Chris in Switzerland with 500 friends; Alex has only 10. They know Chris is a legitimate person, so now have to find out who Alyx Dorian really is. They look up his phone number online & find a blog (beneathskylines) which is a close match to Alyx’s VampireFreaks user name. But, the name is Dani, not Alyx.

Looking at the photos they realize Dani is actually a female, however; on Facebook she’s listed as a male. While reading Dani’s blog they come across something quite telling, it says “You know you’re Trans* When: #2431 Your mum, with the best of intentions, tells you you’ll always be her precious son/daughter, and you find yourself thinking “Yes…and that’s the problem.” ” They decide to inform Kya what they’ve learned & realize they’ve need to be extra sensitive with this situation.

They meet Kya at a restaurant & tell her everything they’ve discovered. Kya’s visibly bothered, it’s almost as though you can see her heart sinking.  She’s pissed that after she asked Alyx if he was hiding anything from her, he told her no. Then, they explain Dani may actually be transgender and was curious to see how committed & real Kya could feel about her as a man. Kya reveals she’s never really had a preference between males & females. Soon, Kya seems to be more understanding of Dani’s predicament & why she’d use male pictures if she identifies herself as a male. 

Nev calls Alyx and has an interesting conversation – Alyx/Dani obviously cares a LOT about Kya and considers her a soul mate; she says Kya’s helped her through a lot of difficult situations. So, off they go to California! (I was surprised that Kya had never been on an airplane before); they arrive and are soon on their way to meet Dani (living in this area, I can tell you they’re not in Riverside, but Pomona-which is in a different county…kind of irrelevant). 

In the car Max is already referring to Dani as a “he”, which I think is good. Takes’em a few minutes to find the house (its behind another house) but they finally do and Dani emerges. He’s obviously a female, but appears and behaves like a male. There’s an awkward moment where they both stand and stare at each other, then Kya goes up and hugs Dani…then there’s a sigh of relief (for myself, as well). Kya asks why Dani didn’t tell her the truth when she revealed who she was? Dani says she just didn’t want to lose her. The tension eases and Dani shares some really heartfelt things about his life. Kya asks if he’s a transgender & Dani says yes. He has known since he was 6 years old that “something wasn’t right about me.” Although he didn’t know what transgender was, he knew he was different from the other kids but didn’t know how to voice it. When he turned 18 he shaved his head, bought clothes he wanted and did what he wanted to do. At 20, he wrote a letter to his parents trying to explain himself & they’re starting to accept it more. 

Dani has started hormone replacement therapy and will have to have testosterone shots for the rest of his life. He’ll be having surgery for a full hysterectomy and mastectomy, but isn’t sure about anything else right now. He says he’s open about telling people he’s transgender, but after the first week they walk out. The reason he wasn’t honest with Kya was because he felt such a strong bond with her immediately, he needed to do whatever he had to, to keep Kya in his life for as long as possible.  Nev asks Kya about his feelings & she tells Dani she has no problem with it, he’s still a man to her – she cares about his personality, not the looks, and she also likes redheads! Kya confirms her love for Dani. 

You can tell Dani has waited all of her life for this moment as he shares something profound: “All the words in the Webster’s Dictionary, all the words in the universe, every language there is, there is no amount of words, can sum up my feelings for her. You’d have to physically be in my being to understand my love for her.” They are both so comfortable, so happy, and obviously, so in love ~ it’s truly a moment of watching soul mates connect.

Nev & Max are talking alone and Max says, “They both Catfish’d each other.” (They did!) Nev is deeply touched at what he’s witnessing and admits this could actually be true love. (I think so, too)  I’ve got to say, I’ve watched every episode of Catfish and this is, without a doubt, the most endearing moment yet. 

Dani and Kya spend some boyfriend/girlfriend time together, it’s really sweet to watch. Back at the hotel, Nev goes to Kya’s room & asks Kya what she wants to do as they’ve got 10 hours left; Kya wants to go to the beach. There’s something else she has to do… call her mom & tell her everything. Everybody seems apprehensive as Kya calls her mom, she tells her all about Dani & does an excellent job of explaining everything to her. Her mom just wants to know Kya is okay with everything.  Kya’s mom tells her something I think every parent should tell their child, “As long as they treat you with the dignity and respect that you deserve, that is all that I care about.” After hanging up, Kya says, “I have an amazing mom.” (She really does!)

And now it’s off to spend the last of their time together at the beach. It’s a beautiful day, they’re holding hands & putting their toes in the water (just for a second cuz the water’s so cold). Both Dani and Kya are amazed, Kya compares it to the best Christmas present you always, always wanted! 

Nev sits down to talk with Dani about what her life was like growing up. Dani talks about what she’s endured, things NO human being, much less a child, should ever have to experience:  being bullied in high school, being physically beat down, physically hit, pantsed in public by guys. He initially identified as a lesbian but didn’t feel that was right; after more research he realized he’s a transgender.  Dina starts crying as she talks with Nev. In a separate conversation Kya cries as she talks with Max… both are really sad their time together is coming to an end so soon. They spend more time on the beach together: hugging, crying, comforting each other.

6 weeks later….

Dani and Kya speak on the phone daily and are still boyfriend and girlfriend. Dani’s voice is noticeably lowered as she’s continuing her hormone replacement therapy and is saving money for gender reassignment surgery. In a week, Dani will be flying to see Kya and meet her family. They’ve been talking about moving in together. 

This was my absolute favorite Catfish so far, I cannot imagine any episode even coming close. I wish Kya and Dina all the best and I’m hoping (in a really BIG way) they stay together. If these 2 don’t define soul mates, I don’t know what does. I’m beyond thrilled they both followed their hearts & despite the fear & obstacles, they still found each other.  *sigh* Be still my heart.  Nev & Max  both must have such a sense of fulfillment for their part in bringing these 2 together.   

Tags: Alyx, Catfish, Catfish Alyx, Catfish Kya, Catfish the TV Show, Facebook, Kya, MTV