J.S, I think I have discovered your true identity!

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

That's true I have considered Jacob Snicket to be a candidate. But not a likely one since we don't know anything about him except he's the snicket father, probably in Good VFD, but we don't even know if he's still alive..
My candidates:
Justice Strauss
(very slight) a spats parent
Jacob Snicket

[RockSunner]

darkavenue13 said:

So, is this J.S Person suppose to be evil, or good? See, if it was going to be Justice Strauss, then how could she be evil? She seemed to be the nicest person in the Baudelaires lives. And I'm not so sure what people are talking about when they say something about a 'red herring'? What happened?

Here is the situation: Quigley copied a telegram to a J.S., so Quigley seems to trust that person. However, a J.S. sent Poe to pick up the Baudelaires, when actually Kit was supposed to get them. So it looks like J.S. betrayed Quigley, and is therefore evil.

There are other possibilities -- like two different J.S. characters, with the evil one knowing the Baudelaire's location through Fiona. But the simplest explanation is a single traitor J.S.

Now, who would Quigley trust? Not Jerome Squalor (too obedient to Esme) or Mr. or Mrs. Spats (parents of the odious Carmelita). But he would trust Justice Strauss. We know very little about her, other than that she was apparently nice (and smart) but she nearly married Violet to Count Olaf. I think she's the culprit.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

If it was the justice she may not have exactly known what she was doing. She may have thought it the right thing to do to at least let the man in charge of them know where they were. She may even have wanted to have him bring them to her as she seemed to geniunely want to be their guardian in book 1 so she may not be all that bad even if she did alert mr. poe to where they were.

[ImAFemmeFatale]

I dunno. I have a hard time believing that Justice Strauss would have sent it. How would she even know where they were to tell Poe in the first place?

One thing, wouldn't it be possible that it was for Jaques Snicked, but now that he's dead, Quigley was able to get to it first?

[RockSunner]

Jacques said:

If it was the justice she may not have exactly known what she was doing. She may have thought it the right thing to do to at least let the man in charge of them know where they were. She may even have wanted to have him bring them to her as she seemed to geniunely want to be their guardian in book 1 so she may not be all that bad even if she did alert mr. poe to where they were.

The rest of Quigley's telegram said that they were desperately needed for an urgent matter (TGG p. 260). If Justice Strauss was trusted by Quigley with a copy of this message, she should have known to let his mission take priority and not call in the bumbling Mr. Poe.

Quigley sent the telegram, and J.S. decoded the first part of it, enough to learn where to send Poe. It could not have been intended for Jacques (Quigley knew he was dead).

[callum]

who said justice strauss was in v.f.d any way i think maybe DH put her in thetre when he thought of vfd cos' he only planned 4 books but

and justice is her title not her name!!

[Dante]

callmu said:

who said justice strauss was in v.f.d any way i think maybe DH put her in thetre when he thought of vfd cos' he only planned 4 books but

and justice is her title not her name!!

1. Her costume matches the "Judge Disguise" from the Unauthorised Autobiography.

2. It doesn't prevent her real forename from beginning with a J.

3. We have to view any J.S.s with high suspicion.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

This is a difficult subject. But Justice Strauss could be willing to deceive Quigley and even jeopardize the mission to have the orphans in her care if she wanted them so much.

[RockSunner]

Jacques said:

This is a difficult subject. But Justice Strauss could be willing to deceive Quigley and even jeopardize the mission to have the orphans in her care if she wanted them so much.

It's interesting that from the end of TEE until the start of TVV, Justice Strauss could have put in a claim to raise the children. Poe had run out of relatives to be guardians. Why didn't she remind him of her wishes sooner? If she was interested enough she could have kept track of them. She either got too busy (indifferent) or had some ulteriour motive (evil).

[Mr. Smiley-san]

I thought this was pretty open and shut

Clue from TSS :"Many people have the same initials which can lead to much injustice."

From quidditch.com: Esmé would like an "in" judge, and a judge is also called a "justice." (Or an Etartsigam) Does Justice Strauss ring a bell?

Maybe this has been disproven but it seems fairly concrete to me.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

Maybe Justice Strauss had another important trial like the one that kept her from them in book 1.

[RockSunner]

Jacques said:

Maybe Justice Strauss had another important trial like the one that kept her from them in book 1.

In this series, adults that are too busy to help the children are not considered good. It still seems odd to me that she wasn't there for them when they needed help at the beginning of TVV, and now a note from her shows up at the end of TGG just when they are needed for a V.F.D. mission. It could be coincidence... but it could also be enemy action.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

Adults in the asoue world also aren't the brightest individuals. Perhaps Bad VFD made sure to draw her away from the subject while the bauds were free for adoption. Or perhaps she simply didn't know they were free at that time. The only way she knew of their VFD mission is a telegram from Quigley, maybe she simply didn't have word of their need for a guardian.

[RockSunner]

I just had a new wild idea. We have never seen the parents of Carmelita. Could Justice Strauss also be Mrs. Spats? Could Jermome Squalor also be Mr. Spats? Either or both might be true. What do you think?

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

I highly doubt either or. The jerome Squalor one is even less plausible and Justice Strauss being a spats just doesn't make much sense.