The end of A Series of Unfortunate Events is finally here and, after three seasons of
very fascinating drama, we now have answers to many questions fans have been dying to
know.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and in this video I'm explaining all the mysteries
from the last season of Unfortunate Events including the Sugar Bowl, VFD, the fate of
the Baudelaires and Count Olaf, and who Beatrice really is.
Keep watching to the end where I'll reveal the final episode's secret symbolism and watch
out for the hidden VFD I've snuck into the video.
Spoilers ahead for the full series, so take care if you're not up-to-date.
One of the biggest mysteries in the series has been the Sugar Bowl and why everyone is
so obsessed with getting hold of it.
The secret is revealed in the very final episode when Kit explains to the Baudelaires that
the bowl simply contains sugar.
However, it's no ordinary sugar – it's a sugar derived from a botanical hybrid that
VFD developed to defend against the deadly Medusoid Mycelium.
Which is why during the opera flashback, after Esmé adds sugar from the sugar bowl to Kit's
tea, she tells her that she'll find the sugar is extremely bitter, however, Kit never drank
the tea, sadly for her given her eventual fate.
Crucially, Kit also reveals to the Baudelaires on the island that the hybrid sugar isn't
just a cure, it actually immunises you against the Medusoid Mycelium.
Remember when Sunny is infected with the deadly spores from the mushroom in the Grotto, well,
the horseradish substitute, wasabi, that the Baudelaires use to cure her works, but it's
just an antidote, not a vaccine and so Sunny gets infected again on the island.
In the TV series, the Medusoid Mycelium is introduced in Season 3's The Grim Grotto episodes
where it's revealed that Gregor Anwhistle was cultivating a disease that could annihilate
VFD's enemies.
The Hook-Handed Man, aka Fernald, warned him that the weapon he was developing was too
dangerous and risky as it could wipe out everyone.
However, Gregor wouldn't listen; so, Fernald burned down the laboratory which effectively
ended up isolating the Mycelium there.
The botanical hybrid vaccine in the sugar bowl was recreated by the Baudelaire's parents
when they were stranded on the island.
The children discover this while searching for a cure after they get infected.
The solution lies in a tree their parents grew which contains the vaccine, so when they
eat an apple from the tree, they're cured.
Interestingly, the snake that gives them the apple in this scene is the same Incredibly
Deadly Viper from Uncle Montgomery's collection that was falsely accused by Olaf of killing
Uncle Monty.
By the end of the series, the power of the Sugar Bowl's contents is clear, especially
if a villain were to have both that and the biological weapon that is the Medusoid Mycelium.
The Sugar Bowl is also one of the factors that triggers the Schism within VFD.
In the opera flashback, Esmé and Beatrice argue over who should keep the valuable sugar
vaccine safe.
Beatrice knows there are already tensions within the VFD organisation, with some parties
arguing they don't want to put out fires, and warns Esmé about the Woman With Hair
But No Beard and the Man With A Beard But No Hair.
But Esmé insists on keeping the sugar bowl herself, as it completes her tea set.
So, Beatrice and Lemony conspire to steal it.
In their words, "it's a wicked thing to do for a noble reason."
That phrase, in fact, is a recurrent theme throughout the final season as the lines between
right and wrong become blurred and the Baudelaires themselves question whether, at times, they
really acted in a moral way.
In fact, much of this season deals with the idea of moral ambiguity or moral relativism.
"Is a personal philosophy of moral relativism the only way to survive in an ethically complex
world, or is it an excuse we use to justify doing bad things?"
Of course, Beatrice and Lemony's heist ends up causing an incident that leads to a series
of unfortunate events.
When Esmé discovers their plot, she faces off against them, but Olaf's father steps
in the way and ends up dead from a poisoned dart that Beatrice intended for Esmé.
Lemony takes the fall for Beatrice because he's in love with her, and he escapes with
the Sugar Bowl in a taxi, leaving Beatrice behind, and that's why he's on the lam during
the series.
Olaf vows that Beatrice will burn, which gives us the best evidence yet that he set the fire
that burned down the Baudelaire mansion, killing their parents, even though he later casts
doubt on that before he dies on the island.
Lemony's love for Beatrice also explains why the narrator of the series is so interested
in the fate of her children and why it's a bittersweet moment for him when he meets his
niece Beatrice in the final scene.
The last part of Chapter 14, which serves as an epilogue to the series, takes place
many years later, probably at least a decade after the events of the island.
In the epilogue, Lemony Snicket comes face-to-face with Beatrice Baudelaire (the Second).
She's the daughter that his sister Kit gave birth to on the island and who the Baudelaires
raised there for a year before setting sail.
The addition of this final chapter is a nice nod to the final book from the Unfortunate
Events series and, as it's the 14th chapter, it takes the story beyond the unlucky number
13, suggesting that the Baudelaires' long streak of bad luck may finally have been broken.
We can see that Lemony's niece Beatrice survived and made it back to the mainland at some point,
however, the fact she doesn't appear to be with the Baudelaires any longer suggests they
were separated some time through the years.
In fact, there are some interesting teases in what the young Beatrice tells us:
"Female Finnish pirates" "It was after we sailed away from the island
but before their third trip to Briny Beach, Violet had just tied up her hair to invent
the steering mechanism and Klaus was studying tidal charts."
The "female Finnish pirates" that Beatrice mentions suggest that after leaving the island
on the boat, the children encountered some seaborne bandits.
And the mention is also a nice easter egg to the knot that Violet uses in the second
episode of season 2:
"This knot's called the Devil's Tongue."
"It was invented by female Finnish pirates in the 15th century."
The children evidently survived the pirate encounter because Beatrice says that that
happened before "their third trip to Briny Beach".
That's an interesting detail because in the original book, Chapter 14 leaves the survival
of the Baudelaires unclear, but this implies that they did make it back to the mainland
because in the TV series we only see the Baudelaires visit that beach twice.
Once in the very first episode where they receive the terrible news from Mr Poe that
their parents have died in a fire.
And a second time in the fourth episode of season 3 when the Baudelaires land in the
Queequeg on Briny Beach where they meet Mr Poe again, although they ignore him and leave
in Kit's taxi.
I'd like to think that the Baudelaires did made it back alive, even if they did have
to contend with a set of pirates on the way.
And just maybe, given that Violet learns to tie a knot from them, those Finnish pirates
actually ended up helping the Baudelaires on their way back home.
By the way, when the camera pulls back from the diner for the final shot of the city,
notice the ever-present VFD symbol in the pattern of the buildings and streets, a little
hint perhaps that the VFD organisation lives on.
Although Count Olaf really was absolutely awful to the poor Baudelaires, his deliciously
wicked and hilariously stupid ways certainly made him entertaining to watch and he was
brilliantly played by Neil Patrick Harris .
Just like Kit Snicket, Olaf doesn't make it out of the series alive, however, unlike Kit,
in the end, Olaf died not from the Medusoid Mycelium, but from the harpoon that Ishmael
shot into his stomach.
A very fascinating detail in both the opera flashback and the scene on the island is that
Olaf was actually in love with Kit Snicket.
This confirms a suspicion a lot of book readers had and it also explains some of his indifference
towards his girlfriend Esmé and why he didn't seem that bothered about breaking up with
her.
Remember, the show did hint at Olaf's feelings for Kit previously, for example, in Season
2 via the names carved inside a heart.
The other big reveal in the final episode is that Ishmael is actually the original founder
of VFD.
He started the secret organisation when he was principal of Prufrock Prep after he spotted
talented pupils with what he calls "a gleam in their eyes".
For Ishmael, the idea behind VFD was to fight figurative, not literal, fires, though like
the constantly referenced novel Moby-Dick where the whale is both a literal whale and
a metaphor for death, the fires that the VFD ends up involved in turn out to be both literal
and figurative.
Ishmael says he wanted the gifted students inside VFD to "come together to stand against
the injustice of this world" to make it "a quieter, safer place", which fits in with
the motto we saw at VFD Headquarters: "The world is quiet here".
The problem was that the organisation became divided and split apart in the schism, so
Ish gave up on the world and went to live in exile on the island.
The supposed paradise that Ishmael established is like the Garden of Eden.
There's even a tree with special apples on the other side of the island, a clear allusion
to the Tree of Knowledge and its forbidden fruit, and a snake also offers an apple to
the Baudelaires, just like Adam and Eve.
Ishmael's appearance also reflects a traditional ideas of God as a bearded man with long flowing
robes who shields his people from potential harm.
Ishmael's people all have to eat plain food with no spices or flavours and when the Baudelaires
discover Ish has been putting drugs in the coconut cordial, he says "there's nothing
wrong with a little opiate for the people", echoing how Marx dubbed religion as the "opium
of the people".
A central theme of the show and books is that many people, especially adults, refuse to
question authority, even in ludicrous situations, like wearing blindfolds during the trial or
failing to recognise Count Olaf in his crazy disguises.
Smart characters like the Baudelaires, who read, educate themselves, question and search
for the truth, are contrasted with foolish characters like Mr Poe and many others who
refuse to see the reality of what's going on around them.
The story plays around with the idea of ignorance as bliss and does so in many ways from the
theme tune's refrain of "look away" to Lemony Snicket's continued insistence that we stop
watching this dreadful story and do something more pleasant instead.
It's a clever metaphor for whether it's better to remain in a state of blissful ignorance
versus the pursuit of knowledge and advancement.
Ish always recommends the islanders discard anything that washes up on the island for
fear that the object or the technology and knowledge that it brings might taint the innocence
of the world he's created, in other words, cause people to question his authority and
create division.
However, he's always keen to point out that he never forces anyone to do anything, a nod
to mankind's free will, yet the islanders never do go to the other end of the island
where Ish has been hoarding all the objects for his own benefit.
Ishmael also knows about the special properties of the apples in the arboretum and has been
eating them.
Look carefully when the Medusoid Mycelium is released and you'll notice that Ish is
the only person who doesn't start coughing and choking.
Even though Ishmael knows there's a cure in the arboretum, like many religious authorities,
he demands blind faith from the islanders as he takes them off on an impossible journey
to reach the horseradish factory on Lousy Lane.
Fortunately for them, the Incredibly Deadly Viper swims out to their boat with an apple,
suggesting they could have survived and prevented the disease from spreading to the mainland.
There's so many references packed into this final episode and the series as a whole that
I'm working on another video about the show and how it relates to the books.
I'll add a card with the link here and in the video description as soon as it's ready.
The finale also delivers a few more answers about the fates of other notable characters
in the series.
The Quagmire triplets' survival is uncertain in the books, but Chapter 14 of the TV show
tells us that they survived fire and eagles to be reunited safely.
Fiona's fate in the books was also unclear, but in the show we see that both she and her
brother Fernald made it through, and end up reunited with their stepfather Captain Widdershins.
Olaf's troupe, who abandon him after the White-Faced Women refuse to throw Sunny off Mount Fraught,
also get a pleasant ending in the TV series as we see they finally get to perform on stage
together "at least for one night".
Now that A Series of Unfortunate Events is over, how do you feel about how it ended?
And did the show leave any questions unanswered for you?
Let me know your thoughts and any theories in the comments below.
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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!