The Swimming Lady

[looneylad]

I'm sure this question was discussed many times before now, but I wasn't able to find the thread.

Was there ever a definitive answer as to who the "swimming woman" was from TGG? The one who went on board the Queequeg and seemed to take Captain Widdershins and Phil away?

[Dante]

I'm sure there's a thread on this somewhere, but I can't find it due to the clunky Search system. Anyway, there was never a definitive answer, but some people think that woman is mentioned a couple of times in TPP (at the start of Chapter Seven, as a woman in a diving suit, and as the woman in the trunk of the taxi in Chapter Ten).

[Invisible]

I like to think it was Aunt Josephine (if she survived!) who had turned evil lol.

[Christmas Chief]

Though it says some fisherman found her torn lifejacket in Lake Lachrymose.

[Hermes]

Yes, it's most likely that she is dead - but deliberately left just a bit uncertain, I think. (I don't think the swimming woman has to be evil, though; just a bit misguided, perhaps.)

[Tiago James Squalor]

I like to believe it was R. ^^

[Dante]

I used to think that it was R., on the assumption that the character would be introduced in The End; it would kill two birds with one stone, and in that respect, the reference to Duchess R. in Versed Furtive Disclosure would be a hint. Didn't come to pass, though.

[Hermes]

It could well be R. While they are in the cave they read - rather cryptically - about R in a code book; nothing ever comes of this, but it might be a sign that she was nearby. Apart from this cryptic reference, and the bit about the masked ball in TAA, there's nothing about her in the main series, only in the supplementary works, so the reference to her here is a kind of coded message to the fans, who have read those mysterious books.

[Christmas Chief]

Don't forget the ring in The End, and the possible note signed with an "R" (originally thought to be a "K") in Madame Lulu's tent in TCC.

[Tiago James Squalor]

I also believed it was R who photographed the Baudelaires when they arrived at Damocles Dock. It just makes sense, in my head, for it to be R.

[Christmas Chief]

I'm almost positive it is R. who delivered the picture to Madame Lulu, but I'm not so sure she took the actual picture.

[looneylad]

Dammit, Duchess R is turning out to be quite crucial and yet she never even appears by name or letter in the series (except for the poem in TGG).

[Christmas Chief]

She doesn't appear by name anywhere, supplementary or otherwise. She appears a few times by reputation (the Duchess of Winnipeg) in, like Hermes said, TAA, and she appears by letter in several places throughout ASOUE, TBL, and the UA.

[Hermes]

Arrgh, yes, the ring. The interesting thing there is that it's given as an example of things the Baudelaire's don't know - so in a way that's the payoff from the mysterious way she's treated in most of the series. Once again, it's not a specific problem with a solution, just an illustration of how much is unknown.

I tend to think the message on the photograph was in fact from K (Kit) - I don't think, though, that, it was originally sent to Lulu, but to Jacques, since Quigley tells us he had a copy of it. How it got from him to Lulu is a mystery.

There's another case of confusion between R and K in TPP, where Lemony describes how he once misintepreted some sausages.

(Sometimes I wonder what non-ASOUE-fans reading these messages would make of them.)

I don't think R is important to the plot as such - she's just an illustration of the further reaches of VFD, which clearly has a lot of members and activities which go beyond the Baudelaires' knowledge. We do learn quite a lot about her from her letter to Lemony in TUA - even if this is a forgery, as L suspects, most of what it says is probably true, as the writer is trying to establish her credibility.

She also appears in one other place - she wrote the preface to the second edition of The Puzzling Puzzles. That seems to make her an official spokesperson for VFD or some such.

[Christmas Chief]

I think the reason R. has such a mysterious nature is that throughout the entire series and supplements, she's always off-screen. She seems to connect all or most the events in ASOUE, without actually being there.

As for the "K." rather than the "R.", I think the vagueness of the message- "This may be helpful" (or something like that) sounds like something R. would do, while Kit would be more likely to elaborate, but then again if you take R.'s handwriting from TBL, you'll find it very distinguished and easy to read (not likely to be confused with a K.). Though it is very possible, probable, even, that either of the two could be in a rush and not take the time to, say, make the signature of the letter more legible.