Rylan Isn't Who She Seems On 'Catfish

It sucks anytime someone is the victim of a Catfish scheme, but it's even worse when the victim is a genuinely sweet person, and that's what makes this week's episode of the show so heartbreaking — you know, except for the fact that Max is still off having fun with Zac Efron. Instead, Todrick Hall is filling in, and he and Nev introduced us to Devan, a total sweetheart who's head over heels for Rylan, a gorgeous girl he met on an app called Meet Me. And from the start, I had a feeling that Catfish couple Devan & Rylan weren't going to get a happy ending, but don't worry. It's nowhere near the kind of disaster we've witnessed in earlier episodes this season.

At first, it seemed like something super dramatic was going on: Rylan might actually be a married woman named Savanah, or she could be a girl named Cassandra with a pretty intense criminal past. But Nev was able to get in touch with Savanah and found out that the girl that Devan's been talking to is actually her neighbor, Michelle, who has been using her photos on Facebook for awhile now. Cue the plane ride to Texas to get to the bottom of this... and this is where the heartbreak comes in.

At first, Michelle refused to come out of the house. The moment of truth had finally arrived, and she wasn't ready for it. But after Nev went inside to talk to her first — pretty brave of Nev, if you ask me — she was able to introduce herself to the group. Devan was understandably disappointed, but I give him major credit for how well he handled the situation, days after finding out that the future he'd imagined wasn't going to happen.

In the end, Michelle ended up admitting that her catfishing stems from feeling insecure about her skin color (and the fact that her father was never there for her), and if she revealed her true self to Devan, she wouldn't have him anymore and then she'd have no one. It's a scary situation, and I understand why she panicked. That's the problem with lies — after you tell that first one, the ones that come after are that much easier to build on. But good for her for owning up to her mistakes, and

And Devan, a nice guy to the core, promised he'd always be there for Michelle, even if the lack of trust destroyed the romance he felt between them.

Maybe I'm becoming a little jaded toward Catfish, but I kept waiting for something more serious to emerge. Really, it's just one of the more typical cases of a fake identity we see on the show, and at this point, it's kind of refreshing. One more episode like last week's with Hundra and my heart would not have been able to take it.

Image: MTV