About the family killing Nicholas

I think they know more than they are saying. The entire thing is messed up.

I agree with you that something feels off with their story. Sorry if any of this sounds off, since I haven't seen the movie in a long time.

I can relate to your account of recognizing people after not seeing them for several years, and it makes me wonder how they couldn't recognize one of their own after that time. Sure puberty can do a lot, but three years isn't that long.

I'm also not sure how to feel about nobody trying to look for him. Pardon me if they did mention a specific length of time they tried, but if they just gave up sounds fishy to me. I've heard of cases of kids disappearing where the family and friends of the missing kept looking for months or years for them. To think they just flat out didn't bother looking sounds troubling.


Here's the best I can come up with:

1) They were in a state of denial and willing to believe anyone posing as Nicholas was really him. They probably legitimately didn't know they were being conned until the feds got involved. But still, denial can only get you so far. I have a hard time believing that he could have passed for 16 that well and go to school without getting some weird reactions.

2) The family had something to do with whatever may have happened to Nicholas, and they were being conned. They played dumb and went along with it to avoid rousing suspicion from the police and to cover up their track--that is if we're lead to believe they are responsible for his disappearance and likely death.

3) This also goes hand in hand with Frederic said about how Nicholas' sister would show him pictures of people in the family asking if he remembered them, as if she knew it wasn't him and wanted him to just go along with things. It might be silly, but why would you try to force feed your sibling information they already know in a manner that people do when showing off pictures of relatives to strangers?

I too find it hard to believe that nothing was done further to investigate "Nicholas" resurfacing. You'd think they would have taken him to a hospital to make sure he was okay, and at least doing vitals could prove or disprove him being related to them in some way right then and there.

Our songs will all be silenced, but what of it? Go on singing. -- Orson Welles

I read on a UK site Nicholas was a problem child, had hit his mom, a teacher, and parents did not want him hanging with their kids. He was definitely going down the wrong path.
Mom brings in the uncle to live with them to help straighten Nicholas out. He ends up going missing. Three months later it is reported to police he (Nicholas) is trying to break in the house. ??? When the imposter shows up, the uncle is the only one in family suspicious of him, then he ends up committing suicide when they start investigating the disappearance of Nicholas. I am very suspicious of the uncle.

Riddle me this, genius:

If they'd killed the real kid, why would they accept Frederik at all? Why not say to the Spanish cops "No, that's not him."

End of story. That wouldn't give anyone any reason to think they'd killed him. It would just be a bad lead.

It makes zero sense at all that they'd take in someone they knew not to be him. They'd have to KNOW he was up to something, and yet have to trust him completely not to give it away. They simply had no reason to do it.

They took him in because they believed him. And if they believed him, then they didn't know that Nicholas was dead.


The same thing explains the complaint. Jason heard someone trying to break in and thought it was Nicholas (because he hadn't killed Nicholas). If you've never known anyone who broke into their own house, you haven't lived. It happens all the time.

"I would suspect the kid also tried heroin and OD'd; therefore, killing himself making it easy for them to play dumb and along with the imposter. They won't get found out their lying because they know the child is dead."

"If Mad Max Fury Road is an 8 (I gave it a 1). Then I'll use 8 for OK, 9 is better, 10 is best."

I think Fredric is a liar and a fraud, but I do believe he is on to something when he says "they killed him".

This guy was a master manipulator and knew how to read people like the back of his hand. Having actually lived with the family for a few months, I don't question for a second that he may have picked up on some things here and there. The family definitely knows more than they are saying.

I'm thinking mainly about the phone call to the police from Jason about his brother "breaking in" to the house, since that is one of the few facts and not something that could be made up or lied about. If I had a Brother and he had been missing for 3 months (even if he had run away a few times and came back the next day)and I hear someone trying to get into the house, what would I do or think? Would my first instinct be to call the police? Only if I thought it was a stranger. Jason reported that it was Nicholas. If I thought that it was my missing Brother, there is no way I would call the police first and ask questions later! I would be running to where the person was with open arms. If my Brother then ran off, I would take off and try to find him, not call the police on him. This fact alone makes me suspect pretty strongly that Jason, at least, had something to do with the disappearance. As for the other family members, I couldn't be sure.