The Pretty Little Liars forum puts the Unknown Number culprit on block
- Brandi Bradley
- 1 minute ago
- 5 min read
When the Netflix documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish dropped, the Pretty Little Liars forum on Reddit was live.
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is a Netflix documentary about a group of young teens who are being tormented with a relentless text message bullying campaign. It sounds very similar to the plot of Pretty Little Liars, except in the former Freeform series based on a series of books by Sara Shephard the primary characters were motivated to keep their bully secret because they had secrets of their own that they did not want others to find. In Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, the teens confided in their parents with the hope that maybe the parents and the police officers could help. It took the efforts of the FBI to get involved before the tormenter is eventually arrested.
Many members of the Pretty Little Liars Reddit forum watched the production and the only thing they wanted to discuss was the ending. How can someone do that to another person, particularly someone they know so well?
When I went back to watch Unknown Number: The High School Catfish a second time, the answers to who was responsible did not jump out to me. In fact, with the knowledge of where it was eventually leading me, I was even more struck by the same thing that all the other Liars fans was asking – how could someone do this to someone they claimed to care about.
I don’t like to spoil endings, so I am going to be as delicate as possible. And perhaps because it was a program that was structured like a whodunit, or a who was doing it, than the point of the show was to eventually reveal the culprit. Once the culprit was revealed, there was a little time asking why and also speaking to the offender. But the problem is that the offender is a known liar – not just in regards to the case but had been known by others to be less than truthful with their information. The old, retired journalist in me understands that if you can get an interview with the offender, you grab it. But the skeptic in me sees it as futile. All a narcissist is going to do is tell you what they think you want to hear in a way that will excuse or justify all their behavior.
How can you tell they’re lying? Their lips are moving.
Lately my mystery-writing research has led me down the road of narcissism. And while most of us feel like we know what narcissism looks like, it’s actually far more insidious that we realize. When you are in the thrall of a narcissist – someone who is actively not thinking about your well being but at times are rooting against it for their own interests – it’s hard to see the bigger picture of what is happening. And when someone tells you that you are special, important, and necessary to their life, it’s hard to accept that they might be manipulating you with those kind words.
The director of Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is documentarian Skye Borgman, who directed the highly discussed documentary Abducted in Plain Sight about the Broberg family. She is also the director of other documentaries I Just Killed My Dad, Girl in the Picture, and American Murder: Laci Peterson. And the commonality between the stories, the through-line of them all, what Borgman seems to be most interested in telling stories about is absolute betrayal by the people who you most trust.
I am a huge fan of Borgman's documentaries because I feel like she really wants to tell the stories about the messy connections between people, and often how one person can strategically dismantle multiple families for their own interests. Interests that aren’t about money, fame, or notoriety, but simply control, satisfaction, and amusement.
But one of the things that is missing from Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is exactly what’s causing all the discussion on the Reddit forum: is it possible to forgive someone who wronged you so maliciously?
And the reason why I think this discussion is happening on the PLL forum, in addition to the similarities in the programing, is because many of the fans ask that question about the show. The characters on the show do horrible things, and the fans have a tendency to pick and choose what they are comfortable living with and what they are not. And they will speak about it loudly on the forum. Whether it’s the inappropriate and illegal relationship between Aria and Fitz, Paige’s anger issues, Ali’s redemption arc, or Hanna’s impulse control, the fans have a line and when a character crosses that line, the character is dead to them. And if you add the character of Mona into the mix, the conversations get more heated. Respecting the writing and what the actress is going can create a fondness for a character who does despicable things, and there are some viewers who can only see the despicable acts.
On the forum there seems to be a question of what can be forgiven, what should be forgiven, and whether someone who does horrible things can ever be forgiven.
I think Skye Borgman’s documentaries ask the question that I am always interested in, which is: how can families come back together after a villain has dismantled them? Narcissists often isolate their victims. When the narcissist is removed, it allows those who were isolated to return to the community and eventually, after some time, will reunite and be stronger because of it. They often seem to ask the question of what does it look like to survive a the manipulations of a narcissist? Anyone who has watched documentaries that show victims of cult leaders coming to terms with what they have done (like The Vow and Stolen Youth) can see how over time the person who was being controlled slowly comes out of this haze and have to start doing things like look for jobs, make their own choices when it comes to food and entertainment, and learn how to make outside friends.
But in the case of Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, I think the documentary was truncated because it was missing the unification of those victimized. It could be that the people in this small town are still too angry; it feels too fresh and new. Those wounds are still open. And if your perpetrator is still walking around, still existing, and still in the possession of a cell phone, it’s even more difficult to recover.
It reminded me of an old Southern saying, “Forgive? Yes. But forget? Never.”
The documentary is well done, and perhaps the absence of the unification is the point. This might be a situation where the narcissist is still in control. Considering that they were given a certain amount of time in the documentary might imply that the as long as the narcissist is breathing, they will do everything they can to control the narrative and keep their victims isolated.
I feel it is necessary to state that if you are struggling with a suspicion that you are under coercive control, know that you are not alone and you have more power than you think. Netflix offers resources through WannaTalkAboutIt.com for individuals in crisis.
XOXO,
B.
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