Post by veryferociousdrama on May 28, 2019 2:03:53 GMT -5
Who was hiding in the trunk of the taxi? Quite possibly the same woman who picked the sugar bowl out of the pond. Would the driver have known she was there? If the driver is indeed Lemony, I would say yes.
'"[Count Olaf] was murdered right in my hometown!"' (p254) Hang on, Mrs Morrow should know that Olaf isn't actually dead and is a criminal. Maybe she's just forgotten.
Has the word 'bootless' been defined before, in a previous book? I want to say that it has, but maybe I'm getting confused.
'If you were to put this book down and travel to the pond that now reflects nothing but a few burnt scraps of wood and the empty skies,' (p266) From this, we can work out that something has gone wrong with the VFD gathering, though the obvious thing to assume is that Olaf set the fire and possibly that it had something to do with the cocktail party.
'Justice Strauss was there, too, tucked in the crook of Olaf's arm the way you might carry an umbrella if both your hands were full.' (p293) This is hard to picture. The Netflix version of this scene makes more sense, where Olaf is just sort of corralling Justice Strauss around with the harpoon gun.
Who are the other Volunteers who have been observing the Baudelaires? Larry, Prufrock Librarian, the ones at Heimlich, Gift Caravan Lady? I really like the idea that both sides of the Schism are bigger than we realize.
In all fairness, neither Frank or Ernest seem that evil or good, they seem more in the middle.
The woman in the diving suit is Josephine/R.
It makes a somewhat refreshing change for somebody to know Bertrand better than Beatrice. The fact that little is known of Bertrand makes him very intriguing.
The fact that Justice joined VFD explains why Poe never let the Baudelaires go to her, even when he was desperate. He couldn't if he couldn't find her! Though he also seems idiotic enough to forget.
I wonder when Beatrice told Olaf he would fail, and what about. Presumably nothing as dramatic as him attempting to poison people.
Okay, I've changed my mind: this is the best chapter ending in the series. Or, actually, I don't know if it's better than the previous chapter, but I would say it is just as good. It seems like the Baudelaires coming up with the idea of burning a building down is the logical endpoint of their moral ambiguity arc, and as much as you would hope it wouldn't actually transpire, there's a sense of inevitability in this scene as much as it is deeply disappointing to the reader who realises the VFD gathering will never go ahead. And the final line, 'all three Baudelaire orphans felt as if they were falling' (p317) feels so apt. The final few chapters of this book are very much the rug being pulled from under the Baudelaires' feet; it's their world being turned upside down again and again.
Yeah, I suppose it could be Beatrice as well. While there are many different theories regarding what happened to her after the fire, I think it's clear she definitely didn't die in it. It's interesting to think about!
