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S04.E13: Falesha & Jacqueline

Tara Ariano

By Tara Ariano
in Catfish [V]

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Madison Bumgarner

Madison Bumgarner

(edited)

Oh my God, this girl (Not Falesha) is absolute trash. Dear people, LOCK YOUR PROFILES! I can't believe there are people who even think to keep their profiles unprivate in this day and age. And it pisses me off that they even gave this girl the satisfaction of filming her, and then airing it! And, PLEASE tell me that daycare fired her ass! I wouldn't want my kids anywhere near her.

Edited by kp199
  • Love 12
MitaJo

MitaJo

This Tracey bitch is crazy!! Possibly psychotic. She needs some serious help. I knew it was some jealousy playing into her need to go after Falesha. I really think I hate her, but part of me truly believes that she's mentally ill.

And, PLEASE tell me that daycare fired her ass! I wouldn't want my kids anywhere near her.

If not, I really hope that the parents see this mess and take their kids out of the center tomorrow.

  • Love 3
TrininisaScorp

TrininisaScorp

I just couldn't.  That shit was insane. 

 

My coworker and I were texting and couldn't believe Tracey was 20.  She seemed about14 and crazy as hell.

 

I thought Falesha was lovely and handled that very well.  She seems like a smart, sweet girl. 

 

That said, I had a moment of "oh geez, I'm old" when they were talking about FB in middle school. I'm only 32, but it made me feel ancient.  Also, Kimberly (I think) hacking into the fake Jacqueline account was so neat.  A little strange, but way to hit back against the crazy.

  • Love 5
Spencer Hastings

Spencer Hastings

Tracey clearly needs a lot of help. Her mother seemed normal but said that her husband handled all of the discipline before he got sick. I think that Tracey is either seeking the attention she got from her father (positive or negative) or she's rebelling in a very strange way.

But I could see fairly normal moments of aggravation and attitude when her mother spoke to her or when she spoke about her father. Her mother seemed to be able to snap her out of her act at times and she was not liking her being there. That bubbly attitude is a facade and a cover, but when she's around her mother she has to tone it down.

Liked the PSA at the end. This girl needs help.

  • Love 6
GaT

GaT

What the hell did I just see?????? I definitely think Tracey has some kind of brain damage, she acted & spoke like a 14 years old valley girl on drugs. When she was talking about how she didn't like Falesha because she stole all of "Jacqueline's" friends, my jaw just dropped, the girl is just completely disconnected from real life. And saying she liked working with kids because they were just like puppies, oh yeah, she's just who you want near your kid. 

 

I wonder if Nev really believes that she's trying (or wants to) change, because there is no way she does. She's just going to be crazy on someone else. 

  • Love 1
gesundheit

gesundheit

Wow, that was terrifying. That girl (woman?) needs some serious help. I sincerely hope the producers actually gave her some resources or a help line or something.

 

Falesha was one of the smartest, most compassionate people they've ever featured on the show. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and was so grateful that it didn't.

 

I was trying to figure out how this got initiated, and my guess would be that Tracey's the one who contacted Catfish so she could be on TV, and it's exactly why she turned back up out of nowhere after all this time.

  • Love 8
Empress1

Empress1

What the hell did I just see?????? I definitely think Tracey has some kind of brain damage, she acted & spoke like a 14 years old valley girl on drugs. When she was talking about how she didn't like Falesha because she stole all of "Jacqueline's" friends, my jaw just dropped, the girl is just completely disconnected from real life. And saying she liked working with kids because they were just like puppies, oh yeah, she's just who you want near your kid.

I wonder if Nev really believes that she's trying (or wants to) change, because there is no way she does. She's just going to be crazy on someone else.

I almost hope she was high, because otherwise she was either insane or really stupid. Or maybe she was acting and thought she was cute. But: no boo. I loved when Max asked her if she took drugs. Falesha handled that very well.

As soon as she said she liked attention, good or bad, they should have shut this shit down. She doesn't want to change and maybe cognitively she can't.

  • Love 3
suzeecat

suzeecat

I nominate Nev, Max and Felesha for the Nobel Peace Prize cuz, seriously, that could have gone so very, very wrong.  Nev and Max never cease to make me feel like I'm emotionally stunted because I am never, ever as compassionate as they are to these crazies.  Nor do I ever think to look behind what may be causing these people to act so maliciously.  Oh, how I hope the people in that daycare get their children out FAST.  It is so very scary to think about young innocent babies being in her care. 

  • Love 3
leighdear

leighdear

(edited)

That all just seemed so manufactured, staged, rehearsed and faked to me.  The PSA-worthy words and information coming from all of them was clearly and carefully coordinated. 

 

Just like with shows "Say Yes to the Dress" and "Bridezillas", there is no longer any spontaneity or any genuine situations that are legitimately "caught" on the camera, as in the first few seasons.  People now know the deal, they create their characters and situations in advance, then contact the show in hopes to showcase their "story".  

 

This Tracy pushed her character and acting further towards the damaged/drugged/clueless barrier than I've seen before. But I don't believe anything about her or her situation.  

Edited by leighdear
  • Love 2
shady lane

shady lane

Definitely the most crazy Catfisher since the guy a few seasons ago who pretended to be a girl online and then did a terrifying slow clap when confronted.

Something that the show didn't pick up on was the fact that Tracey is a dark-skinned black girl of Ghanaian descent, and chose to terrorize and impersonate Falesha a very pretty light-skinned light-eyed biracial girl (guessing as her mom appeared to be white). She also went after fake online relationships with white guys. I think there's some self-hatred going on at the root of her behavior. She simultaneously wants to be Falesha and to destroy her for having what Tracey does not. And I do not for one second believe she has a new boyfriend as she claimed on Skype at the end of the episode.

  • Love 15
truebluesmoky

truebluesmoky

This article provides links to Tracey's social media accounts and notes her obsession with the Teen Mom franchise, particularly Amber and Farrah. She seems very enamored of the idea of young women behaving badly, making no apology for it, and still being famous and beloved. I'm telling you, there is a thesis to be written on these MTV shows and their effect on teenagers' perceptions of what makes a role model.

  • Love 9
andiepants

andiepants

It's hard for me to know what to make of this Tracey chick. Stunted emotional development? Or was her giggly preteen persona a complete act? Or has she deluded herself into thinking she really is sort of a carefree fun (20 year old) preteen? I'm so confused. 

 

AdorkableWitch and a few others have mentioned borderline personality as a diagnosis for Tracey. Is putting on fake personas a hallmark of the disorder? I was done in a few years ago by an ex-friend who I'm now told is probably borderline. I've read up on it a bit, but it's one thing to read about it on the internet and another to see the traits exhibited on someone in real life. 

 

The whole thing is just baffling. 

GaT

GaT

This article provides links to Tracey's social media accounts and notes her obsession with the Teen Mom franchise, particularly Amber and Farrah. She seems very enamored of the idea of young women behaving badly, making no apology for it, and still being famous and beloved. I'm telling you, there is a thesis to be written on these MTV shows and their effect on teenagers' perceptions of what makes a role model.

Thanks for the link, there was some interesting stuff in it:

 

As you might have guessed, Jacqueline Linkwood turns out to be quite the character! Her real name is Tracey Armah, and she’s a from a town in Maryland close to Washington, DC. From what I can tell she is a recent graduate of Atholton High School and there’s a LinkedIn profile for a Tracey Armah in Washington DC that lists “Financial Analyst II at Sprint Nextel” as her job.

"Financial Analyst II at Sprint Nextel"??? What happened to the kids? And if she's just a recent graduate of high school, how is she a financial analyst? Either this is a different person with the same name, or Tracey is hallucinating.

 

 

According to her Facebook page, her life goal is to have an MTV show, and with her appearance on Catfish, she seems to think she has attained it. Tracey, who refers to herself online as “Tracey Barbie,” wrote recently on her Facebook wall, “AND NOW THAT IM FINALLY ON MTV THIS IS MY DREAM COME TRUE YES THANK U LORD♥” Later that day she added, “Pretty much living the Barbie fab life, :) ”

Hmm, now I wonder who contacted MTV about being on the show, Falesha to get help, or Tracey to get famous.

 

The funniest part to me is that people are now stealing Tracey's identity, & she doesn't like it.

Glade

Glade

My first thoughts at the beginning of this episode--why didn't anyone call the police? Back when it was happening, and there were even threatening prank phone calls from her, someone should have. And even now, once you've found out her identity, put a restraining order on her! Press those charges, don't make empty threats! How the hell this person is allowed to work with around children, I don't know. Isn't there any psychological testing or background check system in place? How can her adult coworkers stand her?

She is totally fake and psychotic, either she is on drugs or she's going through some manic episode, or both. I also don't know about the mother--her excuse for leaving was such a convenient catfish clich..and I don't think Nev pressed hard enough how much her daughter needs help, I don't think she gets it at all, she's checked out and apparently spends all her time caring for the girls formerly physically abusive father.

And no, Nev, you did not make an impact, a five minute conversation isn't going to have any effect on someone that far gone. I'm sure wherever she is right now, she's high, giggling, and lacking any human empathy or self-awareness. Making new fake profiles but with different names and pictures.

  • Love 7
DiabLOL

DiabLOL

The mom is definitely checked out and has no idea what's going on. All she seemed to grasp was when someone would try to explain what Tracey has been doing and a phrase like "she called a person fat" would draw an admonishment from her. I don't think she understood what they really meant about Tracey "stealing" someone's photos. She sure endorsed the dad's physical abuse. I did feel like she was totally overwhelmed by the stressors in her life and just couldn't begin to figure out how to deal with Tracey's enormous problems.

I don't know why the police weren't called either. Man the weird Valley Girl uptalk and mimicking and huge affected weirdness really freaked me out. I kept hoping it was as fake as the golf clap guy mentioned above but I don't know. Looking at her FB page is weird as well. 

  • Love 3
Granimal

Granimal

(edited)

Can we all agree that this is Miley Cyrus' fault?

 

Mmm, did anyone notice Max flirting with Felisha's mother? "Do people think you're sisters?" Slick.

 

As soon as I saw Tracey I assumed she had been abused as a child. She displayed the telltale coping mechanism of managing to withdraw completely into her head and remove herself from reality. So much so that she became another person- modeled after Hannah Montanna. She seems to have used television and the internet as ways to further remove herself from the real world. I would guess that Tracey had some organic mental illness that was exacerbated by childhood abuse. It seems that once the abuse stopped and she was "safe" she became a bully herself. Cycle of abuse style. I don't believe that Tracey works anywhere. No way she could pass any job interview. Maybe one of her mother's friends allows her to come over and play with the kids while she's busy and still at home and they tell her she's babysitting (my parent's friends did this for me when I was not old enough to actually babysit, but they didn't want to entertain their kid's all day). That's the only explanation I can fathom for how she "works with children".

 

I'm a very happy person! Anyone who says this is definitely hiding some deep dark shit. If you're happy you don't have to say it, its just assumed that you are. I can't imagine having an abusive father who suddenly had a coma. Oh my god. The feelings Tracey must be scrambling to run from inside must be overwhelming. This child needs to be in a mental health facility.

 

Mom was giving typical Catfish excuses (sick kid). Methinks mom, like daughter is a liar. Perhaps they only got mom to agree to film based on not pressing charges? Mom didn't have a proportionate reaction- like daughter, she was checked out. At least she has some acquaintance with social norms and pretended to act horrified by her daughter and give Felesha a hug. I cracked up when she gave Nev that awkward hug. She did not want to that! Hubby would not have been pleased.

 

Mom presumably had a choice in marrying hubby. Tracey was a child who couldn't escape the abuse so she withdrew into television-fueled fantasies, and then later on it escalated to fake personas online.

 

Is it possible to feel empathy towards someone you feel is a horrible human being?

 

Also agree that Tracey watched the show, remembered some profile she had from middle school, and resurrected it in order to become infamous. How nice for Catfish to accommodate her by putting her on television. I almost thought they shouldn't have aired the episode because Tracey was so mentally ill. I don't even see how she could be held competent enough to sign a release form. Surely if her sanity were to be questioned in a court of law it would be determined to be MIA.

 

Found it so odd that they kept bleeping the name of the town. Even if it was a 3 person town consisting of only Tracey, her mother, her father and her invisible brother- they could have just named the next closest metropolitan area right? At one point the caption even ID'd them as being in Baltimore, MD.

Edited by Granimal
  • Love 7
bilgistic

bilgistic

Because I have insomnia, I read the linked article, which linked to Tracey's Facebook page. It has been up since only March. It's full of pics of her and two different guys in what I "romantic" poses (holding each other, etc.). There is a barrage of videos of her dancing like Elaine Benes in her bedroom to Taylor Swift. I thought that it must be a stunt page by MTV, because it was put up around the time of filming. There's even a pic of GoPro cams mounted on the inside of a car windshield. It's just bizarre.

cooksdelight

cooksdelight

I only read the posts; I don't watch the show anymore, so I'm ignorant and objective. That chick is not 20. People don't have braces at 20. She is crazier than a bag of rats. Her mother's an idiot for letting her run around unchecked online.

Are we spelling names phonetically now?

 

People get braces at all ages. The weather guy on my favorite channel has them and he's in his early 40s. I've known people who got them in their 20s, 30s, etc. because they finally decided to straighten their teeth. In this girl's case, however, I think she got them to uplink to the mother ship with the metal in her mouth.

  • Love 13
HunterHunted

HunterHunted

I half expected a followup of "Are you supposed to be?"

Yes! This girl needs psychiatric help and treatment with one or more psychoactive medications. Yikes. Tracey didn't even seem concerned that her brother is in the hospital. The other thing that is important to note is that because she comes from an immigrant background, her family is less likely to seek mental treatment for her. So she's likely going to continue to be untreated until she does something acutely psychotic and law enforcement, medical professionals, or her bosses take notice and force a change on her.

  • Love 2
missy jo

missy jo

We may even need a whole new diagnostic label, like "social media psychosis," to describe someone with her particular array of symptoms.

 

 

possibilities, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Social Media Psychosis ends up in the DSM V somewhere down the line.

 

Definitely the most crazy Catfisher since the guy a few seasons ago who pretended to be a girl online and then did a terrifying slow clap when confronted

 

 

To this day, I am still terrified of slow claps.

  • Love 1
LoveMyVike

LoveMyVike

My first thoughts at the beginning of this episode--why didn't anyone call the police? Back when it was happening, and there were even threatening prank phone calls from her, someone should have. And even now, once you've found out her identity, put a restraining order on her! Press those charges, don't make empty threats! How the hell this person is allowed to work with around children, I don't know. Isn't there any psychological testing or background check system in place? How can her adult coworkers stand her? She is totally fake and psychotic, either she is on drugs or she's going through some manic episode, or both. I also don't know about the mother--her excuse for leaving was such a convenient catfish clich..and I don't think Nev pressed hard enough how much her daughter needs help, I don't think she gets it at all, she's checked out and apparently spends all her time caring for the girls formerly physically abusive father. And no, Nev, you did not make an impact, a five minute conversation isn't going to have any effect on someone that far gone. I'm sure wherever she is right now, she's high, giggling, and lacking any human empathy or self-awareness. Making new fake profiles but with different names and pictures.

I was also wondering why no one put a stop to this in the beginning? I haven't watched this show in awhile ,but at first I thought it was a repeat of an earlier episode of a girl who gets her identity stolen but it ends up being a guy that did it. Wasn't that an early Catfish episode or am I crazy?

Anyways, I would think there would be SOMEONE that you could report this kind of Internet abuse to, especially if it got to the point of encouraging people to kill themselves. No one even mentioned reporting or flagging it to Facebook! I guess it was left up to teenage renegades to fix the problem themselves and do things like create dueling fake profiles and trick crazy pants into giving them the login (what IS that whole thing anyways, I totally was confused about that part...)

The whole thing was creepy and weird and I commend Falesha for having a lot of restraint. I almost wish they wouldn't have given the crazy girl any time on camera since that's what she wanted all along. The mom seemed to really miss the point of what the problem was. I keep seeing people mention that "sick child" is a common Catfish theme. What does that mean?

  • Love 3
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