Ep 1. Shawny & Jack

Shawny & Jack is the first episode of the sixth season of Catfish: The TV Show. The episode starts with co-hosts Nev Schulman and Max Joseph reading out a message from a woman named Shawny, who wants their help in confirming whether or not she and her online love interest Jack are meant to be together. The storyline focuses on Shawny, a young single mother who has fallen in love with a man she met online named Jack. Though they've been talking for some time now, Shawny has never actually met Jack in person, which is why she's reached out to Nev and Max for help.

Nev and Max meet Shawny in her hometown in upstate New York. Shawny tells them about Jack, who she met on the dating app Plenty of Fish. Jack is in the military, stationed overseas, which is why they've never met in real life. However, Shawny is convinced that Jack is the one for her and she wants to make it work. She shows Nev and Max pictures of Jack, and they all appear to be of a very handsome man. Even though Shawny's described a few red flags to Nev and Max in her message, the photos seem to put their minds at ease somewhat.

When Nev and Max start their investigation, they run Jack's pictures through their tracking software and quickly discover that they've seen one of the photos before - on another dating profile for a man named Michael. Though Michael claims he didn't mean to use Jack's photos to catfish anyone, he insists that he and Shawny really were chatting with each other, and that he was being truthful about his own life. Michael claims he never intended to hurt anyone's feelings and didn't realize just how much the situation was hurting Shawny.

From there, Nev and Max have to unravel the mess of intertwined lies and deceit. They contact Jack to tell him what's been going on and discover that he's unaware of the entire situation. Jack is in shock when he learns that his images have been used to catfish people and he's desperate to get to the bottom of things. Jack ends up making his way back to the US at great personal expense, just so he can meet Shawny finally.

In the end, the meeting is a success and Shawny and Jack are able to move forward with their relationship. Catfish: The TV Show is a reality series that examines the lives of people who have been caught in lies and emotional turmoil thanks to their online relationships, offering hope and guidance to those who've been left questioning everything they thought they knew about the person they love. The show premiered on November 12, 2012, and has since aired over 150 episodes across eight seasons.