Characters Who May or May not be part of V.F.D

[Tinuviel]

First of all, Dashiell Qwerty. He has the strongest possibility of being a member, because 

a.) He works at a library

b.) He mentions they installed a sprinkler system so they don't have to worry about fire

c.) He was most likely about to say "The world is quiet here" in WDYSHL

Then, Hal

-also worked at a library (though it was a library of records)

-says "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion," to Mr. Remora

and there may be others, but I cannot think of them presently. Any thoughts?

[The Duchess]

I agree about both, especially qwerty.

[bandit]

Hal was confirmed to be helping VFD in TPP. I agree with Qwerty, though; I think another clue is that anyone else would have done something about Lemony's obvious book request communication system, but he decided to go along with it anyway.

[Teleram]

Qwerty almost said "The world is quiet here" to Lemony in WDYSHL.

[Dante]

I think it's pretty clear that Qwerty is V.F.D.'s "observer" of Lemony and Theodora's mission at this point. Notice how, in ?1, he was also cagey about how long he had been in Stain'd, which could be to hide the fact that he's only a relatively recent arrival - which would be true if he was sent exclusively to monitor Theodora and Lemony's progress. He also clearly knows everything that's going on in town and tries to recommend Lemony books that will clue him in. I'm fairly confident that we'll find out the truth about him in ?3.

[MisterM]

I think... i think we will learn something about qwerty in ?3, but i dot think we find out outright that he is a member of vfd just yet.

[Hermes]

I think it's made fairly clear in TPP that Hal, Jerome and Justice Strauss are recent recruits to VFD. More mysterious is Charles; when Dewey is asked if he is a volunteer he does not give a straight answer.

Qwerty is certainly a member of VFD, but I'm not absolutely sure he is the watcher mentioned by Theodora; there is some reason to think that he represents a different faction of VFD, given that he seems to support Lemony7 and Kit's plan, which is not approved of by the VFD establishment.

[Tinuviel]

Oh wow, I feel dumb now about Hal. Anyway, yeah, what about Charles?

[Dante]

Personal friend of Kit, I suspect, but largely ignorant of V.F.D. - in the same way that the very similar character of Jerome was a personal friend of Kit's brother Jacques, but believed that he was a detective and didn't know about V.F.D.

[Hermes]

Could well be. We know, from TBL, that Lemony and Beatrice knew Sir and Charles in their youth, but that might simply be through their supplying wood to VFD - Sir says at one point 'We never heard form that organisation again', which implies he knows VFD exists, but not much about it.

Nero is mentioned in the same passage - but again, we know that VFD has links with Prufrock Prep through the librarian; it doesn't follow that the rest of the staff are members.

There's an interesting arc in ASOUE; towards the middle it is starting to look as if VFD is everywhere, but by the end it has become clear that is not so; there is more than one story in the world, and VFD is not the answer to everything. It will be interesting, though, to see how ATWQ affects this. It has already given us one member of VFD who we did not know about before - Hector - and it may give us others.

[Tinuviel]

Speaking of Hector, why do you think he pretended not to know what V.F.D. was when the Baudelaires asked him in TVV? Do you think he left the organization?

[Dante]

It's not like Monty or Josephine or the Baudelaires' own parents ever told them about V.F.D., either. It's a secret organisation. Hector might have sympathised with the Baudelaires as much as he liked, but he'd still have had to keep quiet unless there were some quite exceptional circumstances. If the Baudelaires had managed to escape in the SSHAMH, I imagine that Hector might well have told them then.

[Tinuviel]

They never asked Monty or Josephine or their parents though, and they did directly ask Hector.

[Dante]

Given how the Baudelaires' guardians, and their parents in particular, kept a whole secret life unknown to the Baudelaires, I don't think the children just asking about V.F.D. without knowing what it is would instantly lead to a full disclosure. If you really want a better explanation, though, how's this: Hector wasn't sure he could trust the Baudelaires and was waiting to see if they proved themselves to him to be worthy of becoming volunteers.

[Hermes]

That certainly sounds plausible - it fits in with the 'are you who I think you are?' theme in TPP - and he fact that they had previously lived with Olaf no doubt adds to the suspicion; it's possible that he had recruited them, though this clearly turns out not to be the case. When they do finally find out about VFD it's from the somewhat dodgy Lulu, though once they already know something others are more ready to open up to them.

On the other hand, Jacques was ready to tell Quigley a lot - though, interestingly, not what VFD stood for.

A rather more disturbing fact about Hector is that he must have known Jacques, and yet did not speak up in his defence. I guess we should just put that down to his being skittish (something which ATWQ may explain, in the passage about saving up your fear for later).