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Post by lsandthebooks on Sept 16, 2019 19:33:15 GMT -5
I feel like the mystery was never cleared up. Why are the initials even significant? Jerome Squalor and Justice Strauss are both on the Baudelaires' side and they're both fairly minor characters...
And why did the Baudelaire kids find the message for JS at the mountain headquarters in Book 10? Neither Jerome or Strauss would've been at the VFD headquarters.
And in Book 12 Kit tells the Baudelaires that she got this message:
And right after this, Kit says that JS isn't necessarily a wicked person, but that they're definitely an imposter...
I know that Olaf is posing as one JS, because he invited people to the party.
But the other JS told Charles that they knew the Baudelaire kids would be arriving by submarine. How could JS know that?
And then there's this conversation from Book 12:
So those two seem pretty clueless. Who is JS supposed to be? Who were the volunteers really trying to send messages to...?
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Post by Dante on Sept 17, 2019 3:03:01 GMT -5
You have correctly hit on a mystery. TSS through TPP contain references to what can only be multiple instances of J.S., and when all is said and done, it appears clear that there is at least one outstanding.
With that said, the message for J.S. in the ruined headquarters I do not think is particularly significant; it is possible that the sender was ignorant of Jacques's death, or left the message because they believed it was possible for Justice Strauss or Jerome Squalor to access it. We have no evidence to suggest that they could not have arrived there at some point after the fire.
The J.S. alluded to in Frank's note remains unidentified, although it is entirely plausible that Kit misinterpreted the note and it was merely a harmless confirmation of either Jerome or Strauss's arrival. J.S. could, however, have known that the Baudelaires would arrive by submarine because Quigley's telegram to the Baudelaires in the Queequeg in TGG was copied to J.S. What is interesting is that a J.S. who clearly received this telegram subsequently contacted both Mr. Poe and Charles to inform them of the Baudelaires' arrival in this matter; but a friend would not have summoned the unhelpful Mr. Poe, not least since Quigley's Volunteer Factual Dispatch also confirmed that the Baudelaires would have someone waiting to meet them. I would suggest that the copy to J.S. found its way into the hands of multiple people by these initials, some of whom wished to help the Baudelaires, others harm, and perhaps some of whom simply didn't understand Verse Fluctuation Declaration. This probably accounts for the remaining inconsistencies, since canon allows the point to lapse.
When all's said and done, it's quite possible that the volunteers were also confused about J.S.'s identity, and merely knew that an individual or individuals of those initials was involved in the Baudelaire case and trying to help; which did not prevent misunderstandings and further imposture, likely from Olaf.
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Post by Foxy on Sept 17, 2019 13:08:42 GMT -5
I think there were probably many, many J.S.s, and we don't know who all of them are.
Frank sends the note, saying the J.S. he saw had sugar in his tea. We also he later in TPP of a villain ordering tea with sugar at a cafe in the hotel and being thrown to the ground, but not having the tattoo of an eye and being apologized to for his trouble. However, Snicket does call him a villain. I wonder if this unknown villain is the unknown J.S. in the hotel?
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Sept 17, 2019 14:22:00 GMT -5
Well, I have a hypothesis based on the scenario I created in my complex theory.
First, it was Lemony who left the message in the fridge. He was the one who threw the sugar bowl through the HQ window. We know this from two tips: the first involves something Lemony claims involving the olive he left in the fridge, and the other is the presence of lemonade in the fridge. And lemonade is Lemony's nickname since he was a child.
So Lemony was part of the fragmented plan. The JS who had told Charles about the Baudelaire parents was Jacques Snicket, and that happened before Jacques died. JS who wrote to Charles about the arrival of the Baudelaires on the beach in a submarine is the same JS who wrote to Poe about the arrival of the Baudelaires on the beach. This behavior is consistent with someone who didn't want the Baudelaires to be in the hotel. Just because someone is on the same team doesn't mean they agree on everything. Quigley and Kit apparently crashed into the fragmented plane. They had been left out, and that got in the way. They involved the Baudelaires in the plan, not knowing the whole plan well. This worried JS, as JS did not want the Baudelaires in the hotel when the plan was finally put into practice. So JS sent Mr Poe to the beach to get the Baudelaires off the fragmented plane. I believe, for a variety of reasons, that JS the swimmer, who adopted Jacques Snicket's initials after Jacques Snicket's death. She got the message in the fridge, and asked Captain W to look for the sugar bowl in the ocean. Captain W informed JS where the sugar bowl was, and JS went to GG to get the real sugar bowl. The real sugar bowl needed to be in the Hotel for the fragmented plan to come to fruition. Well, in short, I believe JS is Beatrice in disguise. She cared about her children, and would never let anything dangerous happen to them. JS lured villains to Hotel D to get rid of them once and for all by using the sugar bowl.
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Post by Hermes on Sept 21, 2019 17:21:02 GMT -5
I've always felt that people make the JS mystery more mysterious than it is. The answer to the question 'Who is JS?' is clearly 'several people' - primarily Strauss and Jerome. It's also clear that Olaf is using the initials, since Sir's JS is obviously a villain - he may be posing as Julio Sham. We don't absolutely have to believe in any other JS (apart from Jacques).
The message in the fridge can perfectly well be for Jacques, the person who left it (I agree that it was Lemony) not knowing he was dead. This possibility is actually mentioned at one point, but then forgotten. (Remember that his death was first announced as that of Count Omar.) The messages Jerome and Strauss initially got can also have been meant for Jacques. Once they reply, volunteers continue to leave messages for JS, because they are getting messages from JS, though they may not know exactly who it is. Olaf then finds out about this confusion and barges in on it.
I'm not sure that the JS who summons Mr Poe needs to be anyone other than Jerome or Strauss. At this point, though they are volunteers (by volunteering) they are not privy to the organisation's secrets. Finding out the whereabouts of the Baudelaires, who have been missing for two weeks (or several months if you believe some of Lemony's less careful claims), being law-abiding people, they notify Mr Poe, the person responsible for their welfare.
The one remaining puzzle is Charles's JS. This could be Jerome or Strauss again, but it would be more elegant if it were someone else (since Esme's is clearly Jerome, and Hal's is Strauss.) But of course a third person might have had the same experience of finding messages that they did.
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