Last week’s episode of Catfish featured a familiar face for Starcasm readers as someone posing as Whitney Way Thore’s ex boyfriend Lennie Alehat was courting a 28-year-old tattoo apprentice named Chelsea from Salt Lake City, Utah. Actually, I should say that it was the other way around because Chelsea saw Lennie on My Big Fat Fabulous Life, and it was her who reached out to Lennie after he and Whitney broke up.
In the episode, Catfish host Nev Schulman and his co-host Tallulah Willis get extremely suspicious whether or not Chelsea was actually talking with “reality star” Lennie due to his reluctance to talk via FaceTime, the number of admins on his Facebook fan page, a telephone number discrepancy, and several other red flags. So, Chelsea takes a trip to Los Angeles where she, Nev, and Tallulah confront the man posing as Lennie — which turns out to be ***SPOILER*** Lennie!
It was a rare happy ending for Catfish, and judging from the reaction on social media, it punched a lot of folks in the feels in a great way. Although they wrapped filming as just friends, in the final update three months later, Chelsea and Lennie reveal that they have started dating!
Lennie and Chelsea, who were not able to talk about their appearance prior to the episode airing, were FINALLY able to talk about it — and also reveal that they are apparently still together. “I’m so happy, I’ve been waiting for Catfish to air for forever,” Chelsea wrote on Facebook. “I love you Lennie Alehat ?????????”
During the episode, Lennie was getting the usual harsh criticism from viewers (and Tallulah) on social media — including those wondering why this “reality star” was claiming not to have much money. “God, I wish reality shows gave you as much money as what people expect you to make,” Lennie lamented on Facebook. “Catfish out here making me look like a drug dealer with a burner phone,” he joked in another post.
Tallulah openly wondered whether or not money issues was a legitimate excuse to not do more to close the distance on their long distance relationship. “If my parents were loaded too it would definitely have made it easier to start a relationship with Chelsea,” Lennie responded. “It’s a legit struggle to most people.” Oh snap! (Tallulah is the daughter of Hollywood actor Bruce Willis.)
But Lennie wasn’t the only one defending Lennie after the episode aired. Whitney Thore was also hearing a lot of negative things about him, and she was having NONE OF IT! Here is her Facebook post standing by her former man:
Chelsea saw Whitney’s message, and she shared her appreciation for the kind words. “Thank you Whitney Way Thore for saying what you have and being so kind to me. People don’t know the behind the scenes but everyone should know he is a wonderful human.”
I’ve been a big fan of Lennie since before his appearance on My Big Fat Fabulous Life. (Back in 2015, I did a profile post on him for fans of the show when he was still just Whitney’s bearded mystery man. If you want to know more about Lennie — and see a photo of him without a beard — then be sure to click the link!) I’ve got my fingers crossed for him and Chelsea because they sure seem like a great couple!
Lennie revealed on the show that he did FINALLY paint a portrait of Chelsea like he promised more than a year ago. Since then, he has painted another portrait of her — actually, a portrait of both of them. Here it is, slightly straightened out in PhotoShop:
“Just finished this painting of Chelsea and myself as alien gods,” Lennie tweeted along with the picture. He tagged Nev and Tallulah, and Nev responded by tweeting: “Ya’ll married yet? ?”
Lennie called Nev’s bluff by asking: “Are you an ordained minister?”
Lennie and Chelsea’s Catfish episode did have one major cliffhanger, however, as they failed to show the finished product of Lennie’s very first tattoo. So, here you go:
— Lennie Alehat (@LennieAlehat) December 22, 2018
Here is the beginning of the episode, you can click here to watch the full episode on MTV.com.
.@NevSchulman and Tallulah Willis (@buuski) are ready to help Chelsea turn her fantasy into a reality, but could reality mean she's getting #Catfish-ed? ? Find out Wednesday 9/8c @MTV pic.twitter.com/UJWin81Aye
— Catfish (@CatfishMTV) December 14, 2018
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
