Holy crap. (spoilers)

How crazy would it have been if they actually dug up Nicholas in the end?

It seemed like the documentary was leading up to that moment, by featuring it last and underscoring it with dark, dramatic music and a fancy-schmancy crane shot...and then nothing.

The film leaves the fate of Nicholas and culpability of the family ambiguous. They stated that the mom took the polygraph test three times and only failed in the final try. Jason seems to be the most guilty, seeing as how he ignored the reappearance of the fake Nicholas and promptly OD'ed when faced with the possibility of conviction. What doesn't make sense though is WHY Nicholas would be killed, since he seemed to be so beloved by the entire family (who also seem way too eager to accept an obvious imposter as their son). Maybe it was an accident. They don't seem to go in too much detail about the relationship between Nicholas and the family (other than the videotape shown at the beginning which seems to come from a much earlier time, and the suggestion that Nicholas had a bit of a rebellious streak). It's entirely possible it could just be one of those situations where a child is kidnapped by a total stranger and never heard from again.

The whole thing reminded me of the Memphis Three case and each separate investigation launched into the family members (the latest suspect being Terry Hobbs) and how well they changed and crafted their stories in order to match specific evidence found, and how it seems completely plausible that each could be responsible. What a scary world it is when you can't tell the difference between truth and falsity.