r/netflix • u/AnotherDarnDay • 10d ago

Discussion Unknown Number High-school Catfish Spoiler

What the hell did I just watch? And what the hell was this person thinking?

I'm in shock that someone would do such a thing to their own child. And that she doesn't seem to have any focus on what she actually did.

The daughter didn't seem to grasp what her mother did when they told her but the father acted on it right away.

Was she totally jealous of her own daughter?

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u/RogueKitteh 10d ago

So livid after watching this. Holy hell. Let me rant some thoughts/questions I have after watching.

How did the cops not immediately separate Kendra from her daughter/victim when they came to the house?? Instead they let her creepily hold/pet her? Wtf?

Why was the sexual component treated like an afterthought?? Why weren't there specific charges relating to that and why when they did briefly touch on that with Owen's mother did they try to sugarcoat it with older pictures of him instead of younger pictures of him when it actually started to drive home how creepy and fucked up it was?

Why did they give a platform to Kendra after sexually harassing children? Why did they try to humanize her and make us sympathetic with her to some degree? Would they do that with a grown man who sent equally sexually explicit messages to children?

Why didn't they focus more on how Kendra went after the new girl that Owen was talking to and her mother and what that means? I.e. that she did in fact have a fixation on him that went beyond her daughter

Why are they ALLOWING ANY contact between Lauryn and her mother after everything??

That woman belongs under the jail. For life.

Lauryn needs a world of therapy. It's almost like she needs deprogramming even

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u/tracebellevie 10d ago

LITTTTTERALLY it’s abhorrent, repugnant, and WILDLY inappropriate these cops. I used to be an investigator of crimes against children and let me tell you - even how they broke the news to the minor Lauren WITHOUT having an emotionally SAFE ADULT there with her for support and processing after makes me nauseous. Literally allowing the perpetrator of assault, stalking, felony harassment, and mental torture to continue touching her WTAF? And how he didn’t even DIRECT wording, dancing around the shit omg. It’s so difficult to see wide spread incompetence sometimes with law enforcement. Hell I was most impressed with the superintendent and principal in using the appropriate language and gravitas for the situation throughout. But then I don’t talk about it much, but when I needed law enforcement for any of my cases it was typical for me to remind them I needed HELP from them NOT for them to escalate or minimize the situation. Just wow.

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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 10d ago

This is the way the police broke the news to a minor with only her abusive parent present:

"Mom got wrapped up into some stuff and she didn't start it but continued it. So we found some evidence and have a search warrant. We're gonna take her phone and stuff. Sometimes when we're not thinking straight we do some things that aren't right. Your mom doesn't want this to get out but it is some public information. So it's not going to not get out. I wanna be honest about it, all right? She said you had no idea what was going on and I believe that. What has to happen now is I have to make sure you and your mom are safe before I leave."

What does that even mean, to Lauryn, in that situation? They never even clearly said what her mother had done. Then the dad comes in and starts talking about Kendra lying about the jobs she had (I'm not blaming the dad, he must have been emotionally all over the place, and at least he had the presence of mind to ask her to leave), but if I were 14-year-old Lauryn in that situation I'd be thinking "okay, my mom's being accused of something, maybe to do with her work situation, my dad's angry about it, and the police are here to make sure my dad doesn't get too angry at my mom?"

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u/Behind-the-Meow 7d ago

Right, they should have removed the mom from the home, arrested her, then waited for the dad to arrive before talking to Lauryn. It was disgusting to watch that mother reach out and hold her daughter, like the mom was the victim and wanted to protect her daughter in the moment. It was so incredibly manipulative of the mom, and I can’t imagine how confused poor Lauryn was 😳. That mom clearly has major psychological issues; she should never be around children again.

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u/FIowtrocity 4d ago edited 4d ago

The cops had to collect the evidence that she actually did it before they could do anything. Getting her to admit it then and there was just the icing on top to guarantee a guilty verdict at trial after she was formally arrested. That’s why the cop had to tiptoe around things so lightly. He wanted to seem on her side and get a confession. And he did.

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u/IntrepidGarlic4361 4d ago

They weren't able to arrest her yet, my understanding is that he had to take her confession in to the station to get an arrest warrant

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u/Affectionate-War3724 14h ago

She confessed on bodycam though

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u/Redxluckyxcharms 2d ago

The mom holding Lauryn and caressing her was DISGUSTING. And the way the cop was trying to bring sympathy to the mom was so gross

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u/brittany_cece 1d ago

It was almost like the mom was soothing herself by doing that. Or gauging how ok Lauryn was with the whole situation and if she kept letting her console her then it was ok

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u/ApricotClassic2332 6d ago

Ya the police reaction was insane when they spoke to mother and daughter. Like they barely even explained that mother had committed a CRIME and that she was a VICTIM of her abuse.

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u/CatCatCat 3d ago

I don't understand why she wasn't cuffed and hauled away.

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u/TheDonnaChang 3d ago

This was ENRAGING.

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u/Affectionate-War3724 14h ago

It was told in a super confusing way :(

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u/Pomeranian18 6d ago

And don't forget they tell her all this while she's still in her BATHING SUIT. In front of several adult men.

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u/DapperAmbassador9249 5d ago

DANG, I didnt realize how strange that was but looking back you're 100% right??? they straight up kamikazed her into that situation like dang, didn't even let her get her bearings before derailing her whole life

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u/Pomeranian18 5d ago

I know right? It was SO badly done.

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u/brendam213 5d ago

I was like what in the word salad?!? I didn’t even understand what he was saying. And why didn’t they call the father first and separate mother and daughter!? It was awful police work. They should be ashamed. They allowed the mom physical access to her (kept touching her) instead of getting the minor child away from the predator. I was gobsmacked.

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u/IntrepidGarlic4361 4d ago

I think they were trying to be sensitive as the young girl had been through so much trauma from the text messages and knew finding out it was her own mother would be equally traumatic and confusing. I think they also wanted to gauge everyone's reactions before they left as they weren't able to arrest her immediately. But the father did the right thing by asking her to leave straight away.

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u/curiousncomplicated 4d ago

I wonder if they thought the mother might be covering for the daughter and wanted to see the daughters reaction? Not defending anything but Im just wondering why they handled that situation so horribly.

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u/WonderfulShelter5526 4d ago

I thought all this exactly. Does Lauren understand what the cop is saying? I thought I understood Til the cop said what he did to Lauryn then I was confused again. I don't think Lauryn could have understood. Also, such a huge thing, why is he telling the child with the mom right next to her?! And Lauryn has no other responsible adult w her - just the mom?!! The literal perpetrator?! And bs it didn't start w her. It did.

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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 4d ago

Yeah, I don't know why the cop assumed the mom was being truthful about how "she didn't start it but continued it."

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u/Savings-Cheetah6991 4d ago

These cops are so useless and had no idea how to handle the situation. Small town cop mentality.

Given how graphic and sinister the harassment was, child protection services should have also swooped in and protected Lauren.

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u/OkPineapple6713 4d ago

Yeah I can see how it wasn’t clear to Lauren exactly what happened. I guess it was such a horrible thing to have to tell her that they couldn’t bring themselves to just say it straight up.

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u/MemoFromMe 4d ago

I thought maybe they were downplaying the situation to make it more likely for the mother to confess? (and she did), but yeah none of it was good for Lauren.

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u/OkPineapple6713 3d ago

Yeah I think so too, police often seem to do that to get or keep someone talking.

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u/Periwinklepixel 6d ago edited 6d ago

But since then she knows exactly what happened. This just doesn't seem like a normal reaction to the situation. Maybe it's how her mom raised her or she had mental health issues too. Something just seems off with both of them.

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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 6d ago

this just doesn't seem like a normal reaction to the situation.

Compared to what? Compared to all the other teen girls you know whose mothers secretly texted them for two years telling them to kill thesmelves?

There is no "normal" here. This is an abnormal situation, and there's no natural way to handle something so horrific.

Saying "something just seems off with both of them" is ignorant and unkind considering one of them is an abusive parent and the other is an abused child.

There's really no such thing as an abnormal response to even common forms of abuse, and choosing to love your abusive parent in spite of their abuse, and to believe you'd be better off with them than without them, is actually a very common response even in teens and young adults. Google "trauma bond."

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u/DapperAmbassador9249 5d ago

I think maybe just referring to finding out the one person that is biologically programmed to love you unconditionally completely and wholeheartedly sought out to terrorize you to the point of suicide. I wouldve thrown up on the spot

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u/IntrepidGarlic4361 4d ago

I totally agree with your comment. She is a young girl who loves her parents and is probably extremely confused and conflicted inside but she still loves her mom. This is how trauma gets passed down in families

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u/Periwinklepixel 6d ago

I feel like any teen would be upset at their parent for this. But they didnt show her being upset at all really besides the one clip where she cried when the cop was there. Which was understandable ofc. The anxiety and confusion she must have been feeling there would overwhelm anyone. But after her mom's arrest she's just like its okay i love my mommy 🥰🥰🥰🥰 also I finished watching this at like 3am and was so tired. Trauma bond was a good point to bring up. I still think the mom is a pedo

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u/anakari 5d ago

In child psychology we learn about something called disorganized attachment - it'd become unfortunately a part of pop psychology stuff now but Lauryn's reaction truly reminds me of someone with that sort of attachment. Look up Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation Procedure. Or this: https://youtu.be/ChoOExRLT4Q?feature=shared

Lauryn needs a world of therapy to work through this and to regain any sense of normalcy. This documentary should have done better by her. This honestly felt predatory itself: the constant highlighting of Lauryn longing for a mom, the weird shots of her bonding with her father, everyone insinuating she may have known etc. -- a better documentary could and should have focused on, and PROTECTED the mental health of these kids, instead of literally asking them to playact in a retelling of an intensely traumatic episode! I just hope she gets to get away from this and get real help now

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u/Periwinklepixel 5d ago

Thanks for sharing that!

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u/Pomeranian18 6d ago

"Both of them"??? Are you like Khloe's parents and blaming a 15 year old child? She is a seriously abused child. Yes her reaction is not going to be 'normal'. Please look up C-PTSD and children of malignant Cluster B parents.

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u/Periwinklepixel 6d ago

Got it, thank

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u/IntrepidGarlic4361 4d ago

Im not 100% sure but I think he had to be careful of his words because she wasn't considered "guilty" until he got her confession back to the station and got an official arrest warrant

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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 4d ago

He actually couldn't use the word "guilty" until she was found guilty in court. I wasn't suggesting he should tell Lauryn "your mom is guilty of a crime."

But he could have, and should have, said something like: "We have reason to believe your mom is the one who has been sending the malicious texts. We have a warrant to remove her phone and other devices. We won't be arresting her just yet, but we will have to searate you and your mother for your own safety."

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u/IntrepidGarlic4361 3d ago edited 23h ago

I wonder if he was being vague to just see what else the mother would say, which would have make sense, like I think he was trying to get a full blown confession out of the mother, so maybe he left it open in hopes she would break down and fully confess and tell the daughter what she did, maybe why she was doing it? That would kind of make sense why he was so vague and left it open....

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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 3d ago

It's possible, but if so, it's a highly unethical and unprofessional way to extract a confession. You're not supposed to use abused children as bait to make their abusers talk.

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u/Affectionate-War3724 14h ago

I was super confused. I thought FOR SURE Lauryn would say “wait what?? Who did it?” Because the cop literally blew through the whole story in half a second. Idk it was weird man