I'm still a bit overwhelmed so I will just copy and paste what I've written so far on tumblr and later communicate in a more sensible manner. (Warning: Spoilers, repetition of the same points, senseless screaming, a word which here means WRITING IN ALL CAPS, generally irrational behavious and overreactions)
It was perfect
I loved almost all of it
except for some minor details
however I LOVED a great deal of things that I am sure a lot of other fans will not like at all but I don’t care because it’s just what I wanted
I think it’s right that the poison darts incident was more of an accident and less of a murder, even though the good-is-bad-and-bad-is-good-stuff is really really popular on
here, because else the forza del destino allegory wouldn’t work and because it’s bad enough already
I wish there had been more (dubious) involvement from Kit though
I always loudly wondered who the principal of prufrock was, knew Ishmael was a teacher, AND COULDN’T PUT IT TOGETHER WHY I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT WAS HIM
I loved how everything looked and felt
I feel stylistically it had a lot from both the first and the second season and I really really like that
I loved the flashback, and I loved to learn so much! And it was interesting to see Olaf’s father
LEMONY SAYING HOW HE LOVED BEATRICE
Also Dewey saying a Lemony-love-quote to Kit was somehow weird but still lovely
Speaking of that scene - I wish Kit had said Violet would put up her hair like her father, not her mother, and I wish Kit had done it, and that they had a picknick, but I don’t really care because I love it too much
Lemony and Kit!!! Lemony thought the Baudelaires were Kit’s children…
oh my oh my oh my
Lemony and the Baudelaires!
Poor Justice Strauss
I ship JeromexCharles!!! And BabsxMrsBass haha
DID I MENTION THE OPERA FLASHBACK
But I also really really loved all of the beginning - TSS and TGG were both perfect, and I loved Fernald’s and Fiona’s stories and characters
I was unhappy first how they showed Beatrice’s name on the boat, but watching the later end scenes it was just right
I LOVED THE END
I LOVED EVERY SCENE WITH LITTLE BEA
AND I LOVED CHAPTER FOURTEEN SO MUCH
I LOVED THAT IT WAS HAPPY
I KNOW MANY OF YOU WON’T AND I DON’T CARE
I LOVED ALL THE SCENES THAT SHOWED THE OTHER CHARACTERS FUTURES IT WAS PERFECT THEY DESERVE IT
AND IT WAS STILL OPEN AND BITTERSWEET ENOUGH
AAAAAAAND
I LIVED THE END OF THE END WITH BEA AND LEMONY IN THE SODA SHOP IT WAS THE MOST PERFECT OF ALL THINGS THAT HAD EVER BEEN PERFECT AND I LOVED IT AND IT WAS ALL I EVER WANTED FOR THE END AND IT COULDN’T HAVE BEEN BETTER
THERE WILL BE MORE ONCE I CAN THINK PROPERLY AGAIN
I LOVE THE END AND HOW THEY FINISHED IT AND IT WAS DEFINITELY OPEN AND BITTERSWEET ENOUGH AND JUST RIGHT AND ABSOLUTELY PERFECT AND I COULDN’T STOP CRYING
I just realised they really did kill Larry and that’s… I don’t know I completely forgot about that and it really ruins some aspects of it for me… ugh…
The horseradish apple sugar… doesn’t satisfy me as an answer at all.
I also don’t like that Ishmael started VFD (that’s really stupid) but I really love that he’s Prufrock Principal
I also don’t like that the sugar bowl started the schism nor what’s inside it
However, the idea that Kit and B. and B. intended to kill Olaf’s parents that night is not book canon. That’s a fan theory so popular it has been accpeted as canon, but the actual book only implied things
With the series allegory and references, and La Forza del Destino being such an important aspect of it, it has been made very clear that it did NOT go as intended and it was an accident, even if partly intended, as if any person was supposed to die, it was not the person who actually died
That doesn’t change however, that Kit was heavily involved with a morally wrong plan (even more than Lemony) AND that Bertram was involved too, although I think that changed to avoid revealing who Beatrice was
I wish they had explored the dubious aspects of it more, but I am glad they didn’t go the “oh guess what they’re all murderers” route, which would be just as wrong as “they’re all innocent”. Everyone’s talking about “grey morality” but guess what kid’s THIS is grey. The actual murder plan isn’t grey in the LEAST it’s pitch black, if you want to play with these shades and the parrallel to la forza AND dewey’s death would have been worthless. I still wish there had been more information on what WAS supposed to be done with the poison darts which is definitely a very bad thing, but I also like that they remembered - as shown in atwq - that poison darts are a very common/popular weapon in the Snicketverse
which however, reminds me of my own favourite theory: Kit and B&B intended (with some help from Lemony) to kill someone with poison darts in the opera, it went wrong, AND in a whole different situation someone else killed Olaf’s parents with poison darts and both incidents were VERY bad but had nothing to do with each other and I still think that’s the most Snicketish course of the story
alas, they did what they could in the show, as they DID show it while the book only IMPLIED things.
I hate they killed Larry. I hate the tasteless way it happened. I hate how needless it was. I HATE IT. It’s the only thing I hate about this season.
I still don’t like what’s in the sugarbowl or the other things I’ve mentioned though, because it doesn’t make sense
And I don’t like that Kit told Violet she put her hair up like her mother, instead of like her father
And I wish they hadn’t shown Beatrice and her name on the boat as clearly just before the moment of the actual reveal, but one can’t have it all I guess.
Also, I think they handled the Great Unknown pretty well - and it made sense to reduce it’s role in the end, too. Because of atwq - before that the Great Unknown was a very vague thing, but now - especially with the statue found on the island - its a good way to pave the way, and it was still pretty creepy. I’d have liked it better if we had seen less or if it had looked a bit more ambigious but all in all they handled it well.
The ending isn’t any happer than in the books, it’s just less vague because they mingled it with the Beatrice Letters, which pretty much confrmed that the Baudelaires somehow made it. If you think a bittersweet, peaceful calming end, that can only heal the wounds by time and not by a particularly cheerful incident, that is pretty much identical to the books, except slightly more explicit for the sceen, is equal to an average super-duper-happy-end, then I can’t help you. The only additional Happy End is Beatrice’s, who finally found Lemony unlike in the letters, and even that was clear to happen sooner or later. Oh, and the scenes that implied that some other characters would have “happy” (as in calming down-bittersweet) endings to.
It’s self-evident and inevitable that Lemony and Esmé met and interacted, etc., and yet something about it is so unexpected and funny to me. I don’t know, but I really love it, and yet find it weird. It’s like they are from two corners or sides of the story and for some weird reason their little interaction has something oddly (and satisfyingly, though very confusing) tying, connecting for me, although I have no rational reason for this. Also, they are the only two characters whose faces are never shown in the original illustrations, but I don‘t know what to make of that. And they were both obsessed with Beatrice.
It never says Beatrice knows Olaf knows. She could think he thinks it’s Lemony.
Oh that’s right!
I've also seen a similar question come up on tumblr and answered this:
I suppose “Olaf knows” means he knows it was Beatrice. (adding here: as opposed to first thinking it was Lemony!)
As for Lemony, I think he’s there because it’s a “secret” VFD ball, and he’s still hiding from the public. After all that WAS before Beatrice thought he was dead (maybe she did after this) because she knew he was very much alive after the night at the opera.