A listener note, this episode contains adult content and language. Let's find out who this girl really is. Let's see who the friends are. Brandy, Brandy, she was on Catfish. Wait a second. That's crazy. I'm bugging out right now, for real. You guys wait here. I'll knock on the door. Hello. Hello.
From MTV and Wondery, I'm Nev Schulman, and this is Catfish the Podcast, where we uncover the truths and lies about love in the digital world and help people find out if someone really is who they say they are. Now our most shocking episodes are adapted for your ears for the very first time. On this episode, Danny and Rosa. Let's do it. We got an email, Max. This is a love SOS.
Dear Nev and Max, my name is Danny and I have a special someone I've been trying to meet for quite some time. Her name is Rosa. We both live in Orlando, but we've never met. I first saw Rosa almost two years ago. I was like, wow, this girl's gorgeous. I messaged her a bunch of times, but I didn't get a response until last year. We finally started texting and calling now every day.
When we first met, she was living in Connecticut, so I told Rosa to hurry up and move to Orlando ASAP. In February, she actually got a transfer. We started to make plans to meet, but then Rosa started to give me the runaround. She straight up stood me up a couple of times. I feel like she's hiding something. Why else would it be such an obstacle course to see each other? Rosa is special to me. No other girl has made me feel like she has.
I still love her, and I think she might be the one. I need your help. Sincerely, Danny. He saw this girl. He really pursued her. Even though he knows there have been some red flags and it's ridiculous that they've been in the same city for a period of time and haven't met up. So he knows something's up, but... Not willing to let it go. Let's get him on the horn. Let's get him. I'm Raza Jaffrey, and in the latest season of The Spy Who, we open the file on Vitold Pilecki.
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Max and I just got an email from Danny, who lives in Orlando, Florida. Two years ago, he saw pictures of a beautiful woman named Rosa online and began sending her messages. After a year, she finally messaged him back. They started texting and calling regularly, and now they talk every day. When he first met Rosa, she lived in Connecticut, but he convinced her to move to Orlando.
She got a transfer from her job and Danny started making plans to meet in person. But Rosa keeps giving him the runaround. Danny thinks that she might be hiding something. Max and I are giving him a call to find out more. Danny has short black spike hair shaved on the sides with a goatee, a thick gold chain around his neck, and a diamond stud in his left ear. He's wearing a gray t-shirt.
he smiles nervously before we get into the whole thing with rosa like tell us a little bit more about you well i'm originally from puerto rico i was born in the island and then i relocated to the central florida area Cool. So tell us the story. I met her online. As soon as I saw her, I fell in love with her. I was like, wow. She looks amazing. She's hot.
And I wrote her a couple of times, but she never responded. A year passed by and I actually found her in another page. So I messaged her again a month later. I find a third page and I wrote her and she finally responded. We exchanged numbers. Hold on a second. So you saw three different pages for the same girl with the same name? Yeah. It's weird.
Yeah, weird. Why would you have so many pages, you know? But yeah, she finally responded. We started talking. Is she Puerto Rican? Yeah, she's Puerto Rican. She spoke to me in Spanish. She definitely has an accent. What was she like? What'd you like about her? How'd you guys connect? What I really liked about her is her personality. She's a little feisty, explosive.
Rosa's a very good looking girl and she would tell me that a lot of the girlfriends of the co-workers would get jealous of her. One of the girls would say something and she would actually just beat them up. Weird. Did she get arrested? I mean, did she get in trouble? She actually got arrested, you know, and I don't judge a book by its cover.
Sometimes you got to open up the book and read it. And, you know, I really care for her and, you know, I want to help her. You know, I think I can make her a better person. We got really close as we spoke. We got to know each other. We were making plans. Okay, how did you not meet up once you moved down to Orlando? Well, that's been the dilemma. She kept on giving me the runaround of like with her job, she's working all these long hours.
I mean, I'm sure you've considered that she might be lying to you, right? Yeah, I've had my doubts. That's why I'm reaching out to you guys to help me. All right, well, we want to help, so sit tight. We'll come down there. We'll see if we can unravel this mystery. Great. I would love that. Hasta luego. Danny smiles. Hasta luego. Later. Danny signs off. Danny boy. Ah, poor Danny. All right, well.
It's not a season of Catfish without an episode in Orlando, so let's do it. All right. Hey, sunny Orlando. Here we are. Max and I just landed in Orlando. It's a beautiful day and we're driving through town. We pass a business park with palm trees and offices scattered across green grass and a Ferris wheel in the distance. Denny needs our helpy. We pull into the driveway of a two-story house.
A basketball net is mounted above white garage doors and a wooden railing surrounds a large deck above. Max and I climb the stairs that lead to the front door. Before I even have a chance to knock... Danny greets us in the doorway. He's wearing a red t-shirt and thick gold chain around his neck.
Danny leads us through the house. On the far end, there's a small living room with a brown couch and lots of pillows. A kitchen opens up into the dining area where the three of us sit down at a small white table. Okay, so... You fell in love with the super hot girl, Rosa, and you're still in love with her despite all the red flags and weird things. Yeah, I mean, I've been trying to meet her for quite some time now. We really connected.
We would talk every day. I fell in love with her, like, bam, at first sight. I want to find someone that I can settle with, and we planned to have a family. We planned on, let's have a baby. We were making plans like that, you know, and it all seemed perfect. You know, she made the effort of moving down from Connecticut. Did she sell you that she was moving down here for you? Yeah, she actually moved down for me.
Like she, you know, she said she wanted to meet me, but she stood me up a couple of times. She just got to Orlando, and one of the messages that I received was that she had gotten arrested down here. She already beat up another girl. Same story. One of the co-workers, girlfriends, they're jealous of her. The girl spat on Rosa's face and Rosa just beat her down, man. She actually slammed her face in the floor and everything. She slammed, wait, she slammed.
the girl's face into the floor. Danny smiles and nods his head. Into the floor, yes. I was like, what are you doing? You got to control your temper. Made me wake up a little bit. Do I want to pursue this? Do I want to continue? But everybody has a different life, you know, and she hasn't had it good. She tells me that she got molested when she was a child.
The way I see things, sometimes you need to have some kind of relationship with God just to bring up your spirit, man, to change the way you are, just to be a loving person. I suggested to her to go to a church to seek spiritual help. Instead of just kind of like pushing it away, I feel that, you know, I'm someone that can save her. I want to see what kind of texts you guys are sending back and forth, what your relationship looks like.
Sure. All that good stuff. Danny smiles and nods his head. So that's Rosa right there. Yeah, Rosa's hot. Rosa has long, wavy, dark hair and huge dark eyes. She stares very seriously into the camera. Are you kidding me? In another picture, Rosa's wearing a bathing suit and her hair is pulled up in a...
She has sunglasses on and strikes a provocative pose. So you blame me for sticking around? No, I don't. Danny shows us their texts. That's when we first, hey, it's me, Danny. You know, we talk Spanglish, so... So it is Papi Chulo. What does it mean? Papi Chulo means sugar daddy.
Danny laughs. Yeah, okay, I mean, I get it. Look, I get it. Can we see the three pages? Yeah. Danny takes his computer and opens Facebook. In the profile picture, Rosa's wearing a brown halter top sitting with the ocean and a gorgeous sky behind her. This is the first page. 1,700 friends, you messaged this account with a silly puppy love emoji. She never responded that.
So let's look at the second page. In this profile picture, Rosa looks less glamorous. She's fresh faced wearing a blue t-shirt and smiling sweetly. That's weird. Seems like too few. You sent her the same emoji. Which of these accounts were you talking to? The third one, this one. Rosa's dressed up in a spaghetti-strap black dress drinking a glass of wine. This one, she only has 15 friends. What? Come on.
That's really suspect. Yeah. You really like these little dog emojis, huh? That's your move? Hey. You got that copy pasted. What's wrong with you? That doesn't stink. Oh, hey, papi. Oh, you like them? I love puppy dog emojis. That's so cute. Alright, you got a game. I mean look, for me, there is a small chance it could be the girl in the pictures, so I'm willing to hang in just for that.
And if not, at least we'll figure out who that person is. Danny nods seriously. We'll do some research. We'll see what we can find. Sit tight. We'll get to the bottom of this. Thank you, guys. All right. Appreciate it. See you tomorrow. Manana. All right. Take care, man. Max and I get back in the car. Oh boy. He still is hoping.
that it turns out to be the hot girl. But I don't think he's even thought far enough to think about, well, even if she is the hot girl, she still is the same troublesome, dramatic person. And do I want to even be with that person? I think he just still wants... to smash, and then he'll think about all these things. He's gonna have to come to grips with reality sooner or later. Max and I just spotted the perfect spot to start our investigation. Okay. Bam.
The dandelion. It's a pale green and white cottage surrounded by a white picket fence. There are tables set up outside with orange umbrellas. A blue wooden sign hangs on the pointed roof with the name dandelion painted in green. Inside, Max and I find a quiet room with artwork covering the light gray walls. We sit down and get to work. All right, we got Danny.
And Rosa. Max writes that down in his notebook with a little picture by Rosa's name. What is that? A little rose? Yep. Danny from Puerto Rico sees a beautiful young lady. They start chatting. Hit it off. She lives in Connecticut, but she is having a hard time up there. Actually does move to Orlando, looking like they're gonna meet up and this is gonna work out. But then the problems start.
She can't meet up with him. She beats people up. She got arrested. There's a history of violence. But Danny's very captivated by both her beauty and her... Mystery. Mystery. We got an email from our guy here. Hey Nev and Max, here's everything I know about Rosa, her current phone number, and I also tapped some of the pics she sent me. So...
Should we start with the pictures? Yeah, let's find out who this girl really is. All right, is this picture gonna come up? I drop a photo of Rosa into Google image search. Wait, no, nothing. One of these has got to be a hit. I drop another one in. No. Nothing. Come on. Come on. Nope. This one's good. I feel good about this one. This is the picture of Rosa by the ocean. And finally, a bunch of other photos pop up.
Oh, I told you I felt good about it. I'm such a good investigator. Here she is. Wow, there's a lot of photos. What's her name? Hold on a second. What's this? Natalie. Let's look on here. I searched Natalie's name on Facebook. Yep. We got her. We got her. We got her. Yeah Natalie's profile picture is the smiling photo in the blue t-shirt
Good night. 250 posts, 13,000 followers. So we found the mask. Pictures of Rosa are actually of this girl, Natalie. But then the question is, who is the real Rosa? All right. Let's search for her phone number. I enter the phone number that Danny has for Rosa. Here we go. Oh, Jenny. Is that just? It's Jenny. It's Jenny. All right, in Connecticut. Let's sign into his Facebook.
and cross-reference. Let's see if there's any connections. This is what makes you such a good investigator. All right. Okay, so let's sign in. We are in. We are inside Danny's profile. Let's search Yenny . No. No results. Okay. Let's go to the fake pages for Rosa. I go back to the other page we have for Rosa with the profile photo of her in the black dress. Let's see who the friends are. I scroll down through Rosa's friends and Max stops me on one of them. Brandy, she was on our show. What?
She was on Catfish! Wait a second. She was the catfish. Brandy has shoulder-length straight blonde hair, light makeup, and is wearing a blue t-shirt and a big smile. Yeah, I remember. Why is Brandy friends with her? We know her. That's crazy. I went to meet her in... in like Dallas. Yeah, I remember. Wait a second. I mean, that's crazy that a previous catfish is friends with a current catfish. That could be Rosa. Who knows?
Maybe she's consulting. Let's reach out to her. Yeah, still have her number. I dial Brandy's number. Hello? Hello, Brandy? Yeah. Hey, it's been a long time. It's Neve and Max. Hey, Brandy. Oh, hey. The reason we're calling, it's kind of crazy, but we're working on an episode right now. We're looking up... this person who we believe to be a catfish, and on one of their pages, you're friends with this girl, Rosa .
She only has 15 friends, this girl, and you're one of them. That's weird. I mean, I can look her up to see if I know her. Okay. Are you still in Texas? Right. You know, if anything occurs to you, let us know. Okay, thanks. I don't know. I think it's very suspicious. that of the 15 friends on Rosa's profile, one of them is a former catfish. Sure, but she lives in Dallas. Well, so she says. You know, once a catfish, always a catfish.
I'm Afua Hirsch. I'm Peter Frankopen. And in our podcast, Legacy, we explore the lives of some of the biggest characters in history. This season, Genghis Khan. Best known for his brutal campaigns, he was accused of causing millions of deaths. But he also gave his followers religious freedom and education. So is there more to his story than violence and bloodshed?
I suspect that there might be Peter, and since violence and bloodshed is basically all I ever learned about Genghis Khan growing up, I'm actually really curious to find out what lies behind the legend. I can promise you are in for a treat because the Mongols were capable of exceptional acts of brutality. But all the stuff in the positive column either is never talked about or gets brushed to one side. So I'm really grateful to have the chance to speak up for Mongol history.
Follow Legacy Now wherever you get your podcasts. Or binge entire seasons early and ad-free on Wondery+. I'm John Robbins and on my podcast, I sit down with incredible people to ask the very simple question, how do you cope? From confronting grief and mental health struggles to finding strength in failure.
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Max and I are pretty sure we figured out who Rosa is pretending to be. When we searched her photos, there was a match for a woman named Natalie. But we still have to figure out who the real Rosa is. We checked out the 15 friends on Rosa's fake Facebook page, and one of them is a woman named Brandy who was the catfish on an old episode of the show. So we contacted her, and she said she has no idea who Rosa is.
But who knows? We need to go through those 15 names with Danny to see if they mean anything to him. We're back at his house, sitting at the kitchen counter, ready to give him the update. All right, we did some research. I'm ready already. Let's see what you guys came up with. I opened my computer. All right, we downloaded all the pictures you sent. Okay. And we started searching them. And on this one... This one.
We got a hit. The page of photos appears on the screen. That's her. And the name at the top says Natalie. Danny leans back in his chair. So we went to that page. And we found... this natalie's facebook page with a picture in the blue t-shirt that's crazy man And the other pages is mostly like men commenting. Right. And then this page is kind of like... Right. People who know her. So Rose has been stealing all these pictures, basically.
It appears that way. Danny takes that in. This is like the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me. I never had anybody send me fake pictures. It looks like that's what happened. Danny shakes his head in disbelief. So... We know this girl is a liar. We still need to figure out who you're really talking to. Her current phone number came back under Yenny . That's weird. You know that name? Danny shakes his head.
Rosa's Facebook pages, all three of them. And this one, we went to her friends, and they're mostly guys, with the exception of Brandy . This girl was a catfish on our show a couple years ago. Okay. Now I go to Brandy's page. Danny stares at her photo. What's interesting about Brandy is that she was talking to a guy who was in Jacksonville, Florida.
So her episode had something to do with Florida. She had a kind of somewhat dramatic past, not too different from Rosa. Rosa, she's gotten in a lot of fights. She was molested as a child. So she says. This is weird. Too weird. This could just be a crazy coincidence, but it's definitely very interesting. I'm not ruling out that it could be Brandon.
Anybody could be Rosa at this point. The only thing that we do know for sure is that the phone number that you're communicating to her through is connecting you to her. Danny nods seriously. In the last few weeks, you've talked to Rosa on the phone and via text. I can call that number. I can explain. We discovered she's not.
The girl in the pictures. He knows you're fake. He still wants to meet you. Where are you and can we come? That's our last real option. Okay. All right, let's give her a call. You ready? Danny looks nervous, but he nods. I'm ready. Hello? Hello, is this Rosa? Danny listens intently. My name is Nev from the TV show Catfish. And we were called by your friend Danny to help him. Yeah, we did a little bit of research. And we discovered that...
The girl in the pictures that you've been sending, Danny, is somebody else. You know, we know that that girl's name is Natalie. Well, I'm not calling you a liar. I'm just trying to figure out if there's any way that we can meet up with you. You know that Danny cares about you, right? I mean, you guys have been talking for a while. And I assume that you must have some feelings for him as well. Is that accurate? I think you know that meeting up with Danny is the right thing to do. Are you in...
Florida? Danny smiles and shakes his head. Okay. More importantly, do you really want to meet him? Okay, Danny raises his eyebrows if you tell him the truth and you're honest with him and Text me your address when you get a chance and we'll see you tomorrow. Jeez. Danny shakes his head and exhales. This is like the craziest thing for real. Sounds like she's been in Connecticut the whole time.
Yeah, I don't know if she ever came down here. Danny looks down sadly. This sucks, man. I feel like... I feel like crap now. You know? We know she's a little aggressive and possibly dangerous. Willing to do things or at least says she's willing to do things that are not cool is finding out who she is worth the risk of upsetting her
Obviously, she's interested in me in some kind of way. I want to find out who it is, at least. Well, it looks like we're going to Connecticut. Pack a bag, collect your thoughts. We'll leave first thing in the morning. We'll get up there. and hopefully we'll actually meet her. Alright, sounds like a plan. It's early the next morning. We're on our way to the airport to fly to Connecticut to finally meet Rosa. How are you feeling this morning? A little nervous. You didn't hear from Rosa, did you?
I haven't heard from Rosa at all. We pull up to the curb at the terminal. You ready? I'm ready. We landed at the Hartford, Connecticut airport and we're on our way to Rosa's house. What does it feel like? I'm a little nervous. We're pretty close. It's like right around this corner, I think. It's one of these houses in here. Yeah.
That's the house. I park across the street from a two-story yellow house with a red brick wall surrounding the front door. There's a small lawn and a short path that leads to the front steps with green hedges on either side. All right, this is it. There's no turning back. All right. So, I think we should do it. Let's do it. Let's go. We get out of the car and walk down the driveway into the back of the house. Cement covers the ground, surrounded by trees. This is crazy, man.
You guys wait here in the shade. I'll knock on the door. Max and Danny stand back as I walk up a few stairs to the back porch. How you feeling? I'm feeling like... This is like so weird, bro. This is like killing me right now, like for real. The door opens. Hello. Hello. Hi. Hey. I'll stick my head in for a second. I can't see anything. I'm not sure what's happening. I go inside the house. I'm sure you must be pretty nervous. I just didn't know that he was standing right there.
All right, it's okay. Take a second. I'm assuming you're Marissa. Yep. Be yourself, be honest, say whatever it is that you feel comfortable saying. Okay? I'm ready. I open the door slowly and walk out with Jose. Oh, my God, bro. Danny turns away. Jose and I walk down the steps and walk slowly toward him and Max. Say something. I'll start the conversation. This is Jose.
As I understand, Jose has been Rosa. Yep. Jose has short, dark hair. He's wearing a maroon t-shirt and light blue denim shorts. He rubs his chin nervously. He looks very sad. Danny stares at him angrily. What is this man? Why would you do something like that? I never meant, you know, I never meant to hurt nobody else. I was trying to hurt the person in the picture. The girl in the picture? Why, do you know her? No.
Natalie. Jose breaks down in tears. So you know Natalie? I went to school. In Florida. I was trying to get her to feel the pain that I felt. I used to be bullied in school, you know. By her and obviously a group of other people. So you created the account to take revenge on her? Basically, yeah. You made that account in high school? I was in high school. I was in ninth grade. And how old are you now? I'm 26 now.
That was a long time ago. That was a long time ago. Danny's trying to make sense of what Jose is saying. Whatever you have against this girl, bro, what does that have to do with me? You don't play with people like that. You don't do that to people. I'm over here making plans. I'm, like, all into this girl. What were you actually planning on getting out of this? Eventually, we're going to find out the truth, you know?
This is just crazy, man. It's embarrassing, actually. You know? Jose stares sadly at Danny. He nods. It is embarrassing. You know, like, I'm sorry. Like, I am. You need some help. You need to go to church, you need to get involved, you need to speak to someone. You can't just lock yourself in there and make believe you're a woman. If you like men, holla at a dude that likes men.
As simple as that, man. What you did was wrong. And I admit it. And I have nothing to say to you, man. This is an embarrassment, for real. I'm done here. Danny turns and walks away. Jose looks down. He puts his head in his hands and starts to cry.
What's up, guys? It's your girl, Kiki, and my podcast is back with a new season. And let me tell you, it's too good. And I'm diving into the brains of entertainment's best and brightest, okay? Every episode, I bring on a friend and have a real conversation. And I don't mean just friends. I mean... the likes of Amy Poehler, Kel Mitchell, Vivica Fox, the list goes on. And now I have my own YouTube channel.
So follow, watch and listen to baby. This is Kiki Palmer on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch full episodes on YouTube and you can listen to baby. This is Kiki Palmer early and ad free right now by joining Wondery. And, uh, where are my headphones? Because, uh, it's time to get into it. Holla at your girl! Wow. Well, that was a shock.
But for Danny, it was just too much to take. He went back to the car to decompress. Max and I stayed with Jose to find out more about how this all happened. For him, it might not seem that I care, but I really do. Like I really do and I feel bad about myself every single day that I wake up. I didn't mean to hurt him, you know, but I was going through so much.
At home, and the only reason that I did continue talking to Danny, I wanted to stop at first. But he was the type of person that he sat there and he listened. He listened and actually gave me advice and never tried to judge me. Obviously he was a good person, you know, very religious, you know. And those words of inspiration that he used to tell me, you know, really helped too.
Everything that I said that, you know, that Rosa was going through, I really went through it, you know, as me, as Jose, you know. I told Danny, you know, that Rosa was sexually abused. I mean, it happened to me. I was in pain. I, to this day, I'm still in pain. I just try to find an escape. I tried to find an escape through drugs. I used to do drugs heavy. You know, the only way that I stopped doing drugs, I got locked up.
And that was the only thing that was helping me. I felt like being somebody else, being somebody that you're not, being somebody that you can actually talk to somebody and they can't judge you on your past because they don't know nothing about your past. I will look. This is a distinctive moment for you. Because right now, when you look back at your life, a lot of it's the stuff that wasn't great. It's getting bullied in high school, it's getting addicted to drugs, it's going to jail.
It's not the best past. And while it's not going to go away, starting now, you can do it a little differently. Jose listens intently. He nods. Tomorrow, if you're up for it. and hopefully help you start that process of healing and turn that page and leave volume one of the life of Jose somewhere else and start, you know, volume two. Okay. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you guys. Like, thank you guys for real. Max and I shake Jose's hand. I give him a pat on the back as he walks away.
We'll check in with you later. Max and I walk back to the car to see how Danny's doing. Oh, man. That was probably more than you bargained for. Uh, yeah. I just kind of want to disappear from the world for a couple of days. Yeah, I mean, I know it's not fair because this is just as much your experience as it is his, but...
I think it's pretty obvious that this guy's had it pretty rough. You have every right to be mad and to not want to do anything more for this guy. But if you really wanted to be a hero... and go beyond, the one thing you could give him is to let him know this is not something you're going to hold against him for the rest of your life. and that might lighten his burden a little more. Danny shifts in his seat. He sighs. Okay. It's the next day. I give Jose a call. Hello? Hello, Jose. It's, uh...
Neve and Max and we're in the car with Danny, we thought it might be good for us to get back together like we discussed and talk a little bit more. We'll probably be there in 10, 15 minutes. Okay, thank you. All right, see you soon. All right, so this is it? This is it. We turn onto a tree-lined street and pull into the driveway of a brick house with two brown garage doors. We all get out of the car.
and walk to the front door and knock. Jose opens the door. Hello. You can come in. Jose leads us inside and we sit down in the living room. The space is large with floor-to-ceiling windows. There's a floral print rug under a light wood coffee table surrounded by a brown leather couch and matching armchairs. How'd you feel after we left yesterday? It was kind of confusing.
Yeah. Danny had a lot of emotions that he brought. You had a lot that you brought. You guys didn't really get a chance to communicate in any kind of meaningful way. So that was partly what we were hoping we could do today. Jose nods seriously. So you were Rose's voice. I felt like that was pretty convincing. You were pretty convincing. Is that voice something?
that you've always been good at doing? I used to do acting in high school, but that voice, like, I never tried it before. Can we hear the voice right now? I mean, I don't know what's going on. You know, a lot of things have been changing in my life. Wow. That's good. Yeah. Jose smiles. Danny looks down and laughs. It's pretty good. You know, like, I'm embarrassed about the whole situation. Really, I'm like, I can't even sleep at night, you know, thinking about...
All this stuff, all the consequences, you know, it was bringing me down every day. You know, every time that I thought about it, you know, every time that I was like, okay, I want to say something, but at the same time, I'm scared. I didn't know how to stop. You did Danny wrong. I did. But here he is. He could have not come back here today. He could have just chosen to be angry and just say, that's it. I don't want to ever see this person again, but here he is.
I'm going to give you some advice, man. You know, first of all, erase those pages. You need to let go of those demons that are kind of like from the past. Stop worrying about Natalie. people that bullied you, you need to focus on you. Go to church. Once you start having a relationship with God, that's when God starts blessing you. Would it be okay if I prayed for you? Jose nods. Yeah. Okay.
I'm going to do a quick prayer in Spanish. That's where I'm going to feel more comfortable. So close your eyes, man. Jose bows his head and puts his hands together. All right. Father, I present to you Jose, sir. who has had a difficult past. But, Father, I know you have a plan for him, to help him rise from the darkness. Father, I ask you to shine your light on him. And take him on the right path. Show him your love. And teach him how to love others and not to hate. Guide him. Bless him.
and give him a new life of love and happiness so he can smile every day, sir. Thank you for listening, Father. In the name of Jesus, amen. Danny and Jose shake hands. That was really nice. We're going to leave now and the cameras are going to go away and it'll be very easy to go back to exactly how things were before. So it'll be on you. To kind of... Good. Use this experience to kind of... Yeah.
You know, I'm ready. Jose smiles. Good. Great. I shake Jose's hand and give him a hug. Thank you. Thank you very much. Goodbye, Jose. It's a new day, man. Everything's going to be all right, right? Okay. Danny shakes Jose's hand, and he, Max, and I walk outside to the car. That was a really beautiful thing that you said in there. Thank you.
He probably thought the last person that would accept him would be you. And to say a prayer for him, I think, means a lot. This is crazy, man. But, you know, I think this happened for a reason. This guy, you know, he needed... Something like this. I think we're going to make something happen for her. For sure. Hopefully I can actually meet the real Rosa. Natalie. Try sending her your puppy emoji. Yeah, I'm not so sure. I think he deserves a lot better than Natalie. What an amazing guy.
He was shocked and understandably very angry at first, but he turned it around to a place of such compassion. And Danny might be right. Maybe it all happened for a reason. This could be a turning point for Jose to change the way he views himself and his life. Four months later, we check back in. I'm doing good, man. I'm doing good. Danny's let his hair grow out on the sides. He's wearing a pale yellow sweater with a familiar thick gold chain around his neck and a diamond stud in one ear.
He looks really happy. Are you dating anyone seriously right now? Nothing serious right now. I've been dating here and there. Do you ever talk to Jose? A couple of weeks after the show, I started actually texting him some positive... I was like, you know what, man, instead of kind of like avoiding him, this dude needs help. Let me do what I can. But lately I haven't been in contact. What about Natalie?
Uh, you know, I never contacted her. You know, it's just, I've just been focusing on myself, man. So thank you for everything. Thanks, Danny. Good talking to you, man. Take care. God bless you guys. All right. We'll see you soon. Jose's hair is stylishly cut, short on the sides and spiked on the top.
He's wearing a gray button-down shirt, and he's got a broad smile on his face. You look good. You look like you lost some weight, too. I've been working out. What? I've been working out. You guys help me a lot. Tell us everything. Well, I actually got my own place now.
I'm very excited, you know. Living here is great. I'm working for a new company now. I really like it. But I'm still doing door to door. Sales? Sales. I love sales. That's what I like to do. That's me. And I've been going to church. Really? How's that been going? When I go there, you know, I feel more peaceful. I feel comfort. I feel like that's where I belong. That's nice. Have you made any friends through the church? I have made a couple of friends.
I'm kind of talking to somebody right now. That was my next question. Who are you kind of talking to? I'm not going to put his name up there and nothing like that. Someone you met on the internet? Jose smiles. No, I did not meet on the internet. It was actually one of the customers that I met knocking on their door. Maybe you didn't make a sale, but you definitely got a tip. No, I did make a sale. Oh, you did make a sale. Oh, great.
Have you been talking to Danny at all? Danny was a great person, but Danny is somebody that I want to leave in the past. Right now, I'm very happy. I'm closer to my family now. And it's just amazing waking up every morning and just knowing that you don't have to make no lies up for the day. You don't have to live the...
What a transformation, a total transformation. Yeah, it's like night and day. Thank you. These are the best kind of check-ins that we can ask for. Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. Good luck with everything. Keep it going. Okay, thank you guys. All right. See you, Jose. See you. This is Catfish the Podcast. If you like our show, please give us a five-star rating and a review. And be sure to tell your friends.
You can follow this show on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, on the Wondery app, or wherever you're listening right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app to listen ad-free. I'm your host, Niamh Shulman. This episode was produced by Donna Hyams. Sound design is by Rob Spate. Additional assistance by Eugene Pereiras. Our coordinating producer is Matt Gant. Tanja Thigpen is our managing producer. Our series producer is Kate Young. Wondering.
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