


This is the central investigation of the documentary. How can the family not recognize the obvious imposter? The Nicholas who returns in 1997 has brown eyes, obviously dyed hair, and a French accent. The Nicholas Barclay of 1994 was a blue-eyed and blonde-haired kid who lived his entire life in Texas. The family welcomed him back without hesitation, but other people noticed that something was not quite right. Then, less than three years later, the Barclay family got a phone call that their son had turned up, lost and scared, in the middle of Spain. He was presumed murdered, but his body was never found. In 1994, an American teenager named Nicholas Barclay disappeared after playing basketball with his friends in San Antonio. This audacious fraud is the subject of The Imposter, which is the craziest documentary streaming on Netflix. But then there is the case of the Barclay family, who welcomed their missing son Nicholas back into their lives only to find out he was an imposter. How well do you know your loved ones? If you were separated for several years, would you recognize them instantly? Most of us think we would, that no changes in appearance or passing years would stop us from knowing our family.
