It was a difficult journey for Iraq war veteran Anthony on "Catfish: The TV Show." He already knew his boyfriend of one year, Marq, wasn't who he said he was, and yet, he still went through with meeting him face to face. If nothing else, it could give him closure.
He connected with Marq after returning from combat. Anthony was dealing with depression, and found that Marq was as well. They were able to talk to one another about their issues, and began to grow closer. Eventually, they were talking every day on the phone. Anthony even went to visit Marq, traveling from Houston to Mississippi, but Marq stood him up. He later claimed he'd been carjacked.
Things started to fall apart when Anthony discovered that Marq's pictures were of someone else. Marq got angry and denied it, but Anthony knew better. So he agreed to go and confront Marq, where he was proved right. Marq looked nothing like his pictures. In fact, his name wasn't even Marq -- it was Framel.
“I can’t even look at you, because I feel like I don’t even know who I’m talking to," Anthony said. "All you did was play a whole bunch of mind games with me. You made me look stupid in front of my friends ... And it shows that you don’t care about nobody.”
Framel said he created the "fictional character" to escape his personal demons -- he struggled with depression as well as his sexuality. He did say he'd fallen in love with Anthony, but Anthony had no interest in being in a relationship with someone who lied like that. He did say he forgave Framel, but the two have not spoken since.
MTV polled its viewers, who said there was absolutely no way they would have met with Framel after knowing the relationship was fake. But series creator and host Nev Schulman took to Twitter to say that Anthony was "brave" for going through the emotional journey on the episode.
See more stories of online deception each Tuesday on "Catfish: The TV Show" at 10 p.m. ET on MTV.
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