The Mysterious Taxi Driver ~ SPOILERS

[Volunteer C.]

Old news, I know, but I have to post it because I spent ten minutes typing it.

The cabdriver, as he drives away, holds a monogrammed napkin in his trembling hand, and the editor's letter at the end of TPP is scribbled on a monogrammed napkin.
The term 'monogrammed' refers to not only initials as in the 'important brunch', but also to a symbol, crest, logo etc. If the napkins at Hotel Denouement were monogrammed with the picture of a ship, it could very well mean that the man is either Lemony or one of his associates.

2nd reason to believe that the cabdriver is LS:

In the 13 Shocking Secrets, it says that in TRR, someone important disguised as a taxi driver passes unnoticed.

Why shouldn't both the cabdrivers be the same man, ie Lemony?

Please don't flame me if this has already been discussed. I merely wished to present my views.

[superorange]

The monogrammed napkin is more likely from the Prospero.

[Volunteer C.]

Has that been discussed anywhere? Where the napkin's from? But I agree with you, it could very well be from the Prospero. That's more likely than it being from Hotel D, which has nothing to do with a ship anyway.

[wingalls]

lauren said:

My sister also thinks it s Lemony but I dsagree for several (not very good) reasons includng:
...
3. The many is descrbed as tall and skinny but judging from his pictures I would describe him as more medum hieght and medium weight

From "About the Author" in The Austere Academy: "Lemony Snicket ... [has] been mistaken for a much taller man on several occassions." Could this be one of those occassions?

[queequegcaptain]

At first i thought "No way! lemony couln't be the taxi driver!"
However, i have found extremely good evidence.
In these boooks, the pictures have always been important, especially those on the last page. Well, I was browsing through TCC, and i noticed that on pg 147 (underneath the crystal ball) there is a newspaper clipping. There is a shadowy figure with a hat, and the beginning of the word "Snicket" is written across the top. Then, in the picture of the cab driver in TPP, it is the exact same person, meaning that the cab driver is in fact lemony Snicket.

[U T O P I A]

Interesting evidence, queequegcaptain. Good observation.

Another little thing I came across was the fact that during the brunch (in Chapter 2, TPP), Lemony says: "and what appears to be melted chocolate".
If Lemony had been driving the taxi following Kit and the Baudelaires, and then if he had travelled to the hill they were brunching on (Lemony hinted that the Baudelaires heard a sound that could either have been the wind or the taxi turning around to follow them), then the chances of him seening what they were eating are high.

[queequegcaptain]

Earlier in this thread someone said that there was a damp spot in taxi seat, meaning the cabdriver had the sugar bowl. I think that the sugar bowl is still in the lake with Dewey. If the man had retrieved the sugarbowl from the lake, he would have been wet. Also, it mentions in TE that it is with Dewey.

[Dante]

Actually, TPP mentions the passenger seat of the taxi having a small item that was still damp from its hiding place - and I always thought it was the woman in the taxi's trunk (who I believe to be the same woman from the beginning of Chapter Seven wearing a diving suit and hanging around outside the hotel, and who I also believe to be the same swimming woman from TGG) who retrieved the sugar bowl from the pond. Also, I can't remember where in The End it mentioned that the sugar bowl was with Dewey, but I think that might have presented as what the Baudelaires believed rather than what was true. It'd be good if somebody could find that part.

[thedoctororwell]

Ah ! I've just noticed something in TSS.
The Verbald Fridge Dialogue implies that JS is the adressee. But there is a bottle of LEMON juice in the fridge... Klaus said he didn't know what this bottle meant. Maybe it was the signature of the person who created the message. I personnally think that Lemony was working for JS and impersonating him because he asked him for. Another explanation could be given in LSUA. In her letter, Sally describes what seems to be a VFD custom : when one VFDer dies, one of his siblings handles his works. Maybe that's what happenned : Jacques was the original JS, and when he died, Lemony had to accomplish his mission. By the way, there's also a sausage in the fridge, and I remember that Lemony mentionned a sausage accident in TPP and TE.

[Dante]

Relating to TSS and the fridge: I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but Lemony states in TPP that he knows the contents of a sandwich in the glove compartment of the taxi that the mysterious person was driving. In TSS, Lemony states that he will never, "retrieve my pickle from the refrigerator in which I left it, and return it to its rightful place in an important coded sandwich." If the lemon juice, as speculated, refers to Lemony, and Lemony is the taxi-driver, then possibly the sandwich in the glove compartment was this same coded sandwich which he could never retrieve the pickle for.

[melon head.]

I thought that Justice Strauss was the one who was following the Baudelaires in the taxi at the start of TPP. Didn't it mention that somewhere? No, maybe that's just me. But I agree with the Lemony/Taxi Driver theory. Well found!

[Dante]

thegreatunknown said:

I thought that Justice Strauss was the one who was following the Baudelaires in the taxi at the start of TPP. Didn't it mention that somewhere?

Yes, but she wasn't the one driving that taxi.

[EyeAndInsignia]

I think in TRR, It said the man disguised as a taxy driver was important. this means it could be lemony

[vfds321s]

Oct 30, 2005 20:40:34 GMT -5 lauren said:

Are you sure that is him??? I always thought he would be too sinister to draw

Yet he is not too sinister to be onscreen in the Netflix series complete with a real actor in costume and makeup.