The Sinister Duo's Plans

[SF]

While I was re-reading TGG. On page 193 it says " 'To cheer myself up,' the villain continued, 'I met my associates at Hotel Denouement, where they were cooking up a little scheme of their own, and convinced them to lend me a handful of our new recruits.' The elder Baudelairs knew that the associates were the mna with a beard but no hair, and the woman with hair but no beard..." -- This was Count Olaf talking.

Does this further justify our theory that the sinister duo is trying to find the SSHAMH, or were they concocting a plan to find out where in the Hotel the sugar bowl was hidden?

[Dante]

I don't think that they know the sugar bowl is at Hotel Denouement - they had no idea where it was at the end of TSS, after all, and Count Olaf doesn't know either.

At the end of TSS, the sinister duo said that they were going to use the eagles to catch up with the SSHAMH. However, it's pretty much impossible for them to have done this in the short time between them leaving, and Olaf going to Hotel Denouement and getting his submarine (especially considering that this would require him to travel at a speed faster than is possible to achieve all this before the Baudelaires next saw him). So I'd say that they've given up on finding the SSHAMH for now, and are plotting something at Hotel Denouement*.

What are the sinister duo planning to do at Hotel Denouement? I'm pretty sure that they intend to burn it down during Thursday's meeting, thus eliminating all the volunteers in attendance and any evidence they may have brought along, and also destroying the only remaining place where V.F.D. can still meet. Since they probably also want to destroy the sugar bowl, then learning that it was at Hotel Denouement probably wouldn't dissuade them (unless they haven't actually seen the contents, and want to know what's inside - they didn't know what was in the Snicket File, after all).

*It's possible, of course, that their plan at Hotel Denouement is part of a cunning conspiracy to bring down the SSHAMH. However, it seems like a lot of effort, and a waste of time, when they already have all the resources they need. The SSHAMH isn't that important - which is probably why they've apparently moved on to bigger things.

Edit: We've already touched on this issue in this thread. However, that thread had a different original topic, and the matter we discussed was more on the SSHAMH than the sinister duo's plans.

[Sugary Snicket]

What is SSHAMH?

[Dear Dairy]

Self-Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home - from TVV - with Hector and the two Quags aboard.

[lilmermaid987]

It seems to me that the main goal of the sinister duo...Is to burn good V.F.D. stuff down. Headquarters, Last Safe Places, that kind of thing. They just need the Sniket file and the Sugar Bowl to get rid of incriminating evidence. I can't really see them coming up with anything more creative than that since they obviously aren't interested in fortunes of helpless orphans or anything like that...

[Juan Roberto Montoya De Toledo]

Yes, it's starting to seem that you're right. They had the Snicket file at one point though. And they gave it to Olaf, who's probably burned it by now.

[Sugary Snicket]

deardairy2 said:

Self-Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home - from TVV - with Hector and the two Quags aboard.

Oh, sorry, It's been a while since I've been able to check back on TVV and reread it.

Anyhoo, I'm thinking that the sinister duo is after the Quagmires. Maybe because they're with VFD now?

[lilmermaid987]

I would venture a guess that the evil side of V.F.D. is no longer interested in the Quagmire's simply because they know that the SSHAMH isn't going to come down, and they think that Quigley is dead. I think with all their "new recruits" that they obtained in TSS, they have enough to worry about with burning all those kids's parent's houses down than they do about what the Quagmire's are up to....thousands of feet in the air is less than threatening to sinister plots.

Also, I think they want to focus on obliterating whatever is left of V.F.D. so that they can go on with making their own V.F.D. with all those children they kidnapped.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

I actually think catching the sshamh would be fairly important to them as it contains volunteers and the sshamh could become a mobile safehouse for the volunteers, almost impossible for them to reach, so they might wish to destroy it now before it becomes a threat.
But their plot as of tgg(yes, how did Olaf manage to get all the way to Hotel Denouement from the highest peak of the mortmain mountains with a flat tire, procure a submarine, and catch up to the Queequeg all in about a day or maybe even less? )
is probably concerning the hotel since that's where they are and that's where the volunteers are meeting, they probably would not wish to burn it down now, knowing the volunteers(wait, do they know about the meeting on thursday?) will be congregating, they'd want to take out as many as possible. If I were them I'd actually want to see the sugarbowl before I destroyed it, to ascertain that it was in fact the real sugarbowl and not a fake.

[The World Is Quiet Here]

I don't think anyone wants to destroy the sugar bowl just get it for themselves

[RockSunner]

Given that the SSHAMH is actually attacked in the air, and sends a message to that effect to Kit before the start of TPP, and that later an attack by eagles and Hooky is mentioned, it seems to me that:

1) They delegated the attack to some other henchperson, giving them eagles to work with. Hooky happens to attack also.
2) They delegated the attack to Hooky, giving him eagles to work with. (This seems most likely).
3) Some other villain has eagles and is carrying out an independent attack. (This seems most unlikely).

I don't think they can be involved in the attack themselves since they are available for the trial at the hotel at short notice.

[Sugary Snicket]

Hooky and Fiona defected from Olaf, so the second one is not likely, unless Hooky was given the eagles BEFORE the defection. The third also seems incredibly unlikely, as RockSunner already speculated. I think that Hooky and Fiona will reappear in book 13 and that option one occurs.

[Grace]

Hors derves (sp?) that Senor RockSunner is talking about, if I am not mistaken.

[RockSunner]

I'm not talking about hors d'oeurves in this thread, though I did in another one.

I think case 2 (Fernald now works for the Menaces, and is attacking the SSHAMB for them) is more probable because it involves less coincidence than the other two ways.

Fernald was in their clutches from the end of TSS until we see him again in TGG. I think they might have convinced him to dump Olaf and join them. They probably also told him where the SSHAMH could be found, and where to pick up the eagles (there could be one or more extra henchmen helping here, as long as all of them are carrying out the plans of the Menaces).

Fernald was apparently willing to dump Olaf in one of two ways: to leave with the Baudelaires and Fiona on the Queequeg, or steal the Carmelita. (Because of this, I no longer believe the eagles were aboard the Carmelita.)

The other alternative, an independent attack by Hooky, requires that he coincidentally wants to attack the SSHAMH too, that he knows how to find it independently, and that these two coincidental attacks happen at close to the same place and time. It's weaker plotting than the other case.

[twistedbrain]

Kit said that the message was incomplete. Fernald might actually be trying to help them, or at least get the eagles for his own sinister plot. I know it sounds unlikely, but we have to remember to keep an open mind until everything is cleared up.