Ready? Good, here we go!
What Happens?
The Baudelaires head to Madame Lulu’s tent to see if they can find
anything that will help get them away from the carnival. Unfortunately, after
they’ve found a map and some food, Olaf and Esme show up to tell the children to
torch the tent and then take ‘Chabo’ away with them. The children have no join
but to join Olaf’s troupe and take their place, as directed, in the caravan
connected to Olaf’s car. It’s only when they’re actually in the caravan and
starting to move that Olaf reveals to them that he knows exactly who they
are.
Thoughts as I read:
Throughout this book we’ve had little hints about how Snicket has
returned to the site of the carnival everything has been destroyed by a fire. I
suspect that this is going to be the chapter when this happens. My clue comes in
the form of the blazing torch which is the picture for the chapter opening. It’s
held by someone with a frilly sleeve so I’m going to guess that Esme will be the
one to blame for this little bit of destruction.
We catch up with the Baudelaires outside Madame Lulu’s tent.
Everyone else is crowded round the tent watching the violent and sloppy deaths
of Lulu and the bald headed man so for now they’re relatively safe, that is
provided that no one looks round and realises that they’re over there.
Violet has her priorities straight, she’s wondering where the fan
belt has gotten to. Klaus is understandably annoyed at his sister. Despite her
determination to feed the older Baudelaires to a bunch of hungry lions, Klaus is
clearly more affected by Lulu/Olivia’s death than her. But Violet is really just
trying to focus on anything rather than what has just happened and worrying that
their chosen course of action might not have been the right one, considering
that it’s led to the death of two people.
Klaus tries to talk Violet round, telling her that she couldn’t
have finished the invention, for obvious reasons, and that it’s not her fault
that Lulu died. Sunny adds ‘And bald’ as she doesn’t want to take responsibility
for his death either. But it’s dawning on Violet that they helped to rile up the
crowd, who were already pretty bloodthirsty to start with, into an even more
bloodthirsty fever. This is very true. Klaus does make an equally valid point;
Olaf started it.
None of this is making Violet any happier, they did after all make
a promise to take Lulu/Olivia with them when they left. This will be somewhat
tricky to do now. They’ve been trying but Violet is not satisfied that
this is good enough. I think it’s all getting to be a bit too much for her.
She’s suffering from a massive amount of guilt right now and I’m not sure that
anything Klaus does or says is going to make her feel any better. There are so
many things that they still don’t know and still haven’t figured out and we only
have four more books to get to the bottom of it all! I can understand why she is
worrying.
Klaus is determined that they shouldn’t give up. He is a
researcher after all, that means that there’s one good way to get to the bottom
of things. And what was there in the tent that might be able to help them? Sunny
says ‘Ghede!’ meaning ‘I almost forgot about the archival library!’ It’s okay
Sunny, I forgot about it too.
Madame Lulu was obviously planning to leave with the children
since she had packed up a lot of her belongings in the tent. I’m hoping that the
guilt of the children isn’t going to stop them from making off with some of the
things that she’s prepared because some of those things like the map and the
food will probably come in handy. Klaus sets to studying the map straight
away.
I love all the place names in this series and there are a few of
them in on the map. So we get Plath Pass, Richter Range, Silent Springs, Paucity
Peak, the Valley of Four Drafts and Stricken Stream. Do you see which one we
might end up aiming for? The children spot it straight away, with even Sunny
shrieking ‘V.F.D.!’ There’s no markings there but Madame Lulu has spilled coffee
there which seems to some sort of unofficial map marker. It probably has a name
like the ‘veiled facial disguises’ which abbreviates to V.F.D.
The children are hesitant. They’ve come up against several other
instances of V.F.D. all of which have been red herrings, what’s to say that this
one isn’t as well? Besides, the Quagmire notebooks led them to believe that the
first word was ‘volunteer’. Sunny says ‘Winnow?’ meaning ‘But where else could
the headquarters be? There’s no other marking on the map.’ Violet does point out
the fact that is is supposed to be a secret organisation so they’re highly
unlikely to advertise where their headquarters are.
How will they ever find this out for certain? Well, the only way
to find out is to go there. This has its own problems as they don’t currently
have any transport to get to the Mortmain Mountains. Violet’s starting to get
over the shock of what has happened though, she’s starting to think of something
else that she might be able to invent. Violet and Klaus decide they need to
separate so that one can start inventing and the other can start researching.
‘Ingredi’ says Sunny, meaning ‘Meanwhile, I’ll look through all this food and
make sure we have everything we need to prepare meals.’ Which I’m pleased about,
because they’re going to need to eat while they’re travelling.
It’s at this moment that Esme and Olaf show up; the former
carrying a bouquet of ivy and the latter carrying a flaming torch. And they’ve
found the children. They still don’t seem to be aware of who the children are
which is probably a good thing for the Baudelaires. The evil duo have generously
decided to allow everyone to join their crew, even though they didn’t entirely
uphold their side of the bargain, they’re nice like that. They go on to reveal
that their latest plan is to burn down the carnival, in fact, they’ve already
started, so the children don’t have much of a choice!
The children don’t have much choice but to go along with them. And
then Olaf spots the map and realises exactly what the coffee stain is there for.
He learn this particular code as a small boy. Ooh, another little clue about
Olaf’s past. I wonder if we’ll ever find out exactly what the deal is with him.
Maybe, but now is not that time.
Instead Olaf wants to know if there is anything else of use in the
tent. He’s quickly told there isn’t, as everyone holds their breath waiting to
see if Olaf realises there is a massive pile of useful notes under the table.
Luckily he just spots the boxes of food and then takes Chabo, aka Sunny, out
with him after giving Klaus the instruction to torch the tent.
Once again, the children have no choice but to do as Olaf has told
them, sparking another moral dilemma for Violet. The one thing that is keeping
them going is the fact that joining Olaf’s troupe will give them the transport
they need to actually get into the Mortmain Mountains. Whenever Violet suggests
an alternative, Klaus quickly shoots it down. They have no alternatives.
Outside the tent the carnival is in chaos. None of the people who
remain are very impressed with this turn of events. They prefer the violence
when it’s happening to someone else, when they’re the ones in danger they’re a
lot less impressed. It appears that Olaf has told The Daily Punctilio
reporter that once again this is all down to the Baudelaires, so they’re going
to cop the blame for something else that he’s responsible for.
Now the large black car Olaf drives is hitched up to a caravan
which the Baudelaires are told they will be riding in, or rather the older
Baudelaires will be riding in. Sunny is sitting on Esme’s lap. Poor Sunny. I
think I would much rather be in a caravan than with Olaf and his gang. At least
this should give them the freedom to discuss what they will do next without
worrying about being overheard.
We get to see the Devil’s Tongue knot again as well as the walkie
talkies that he used way back in The Marvellous Marriage. Violet is
hating all of this. She feels like they’re using their skills for bad rather
than for good but Klaus is determined to focus on the bigger picture and tells
Violet this as they feel the caravan starting to move.
And then we get a shock. Olaf’s voice comes through the walkie
talkie as he reveals some terrifying news. He’s perfectly aware that Beverly,
Elliot and Chabo are in fact the three Baudelaires, which considering this
information came from Madame Lulu hopefully makes Violet feel slightly less
guilty about playing a part in the woman’s death. But they don’t have time to
dwell on this because Olaf has Sunny and Sunny doesn’t seem very happy with this
development.
Since Olaf has Sunny he doesn’t need Violet and Klaus any more, so
there’s no need to keep pulling the caravan with the other Baudelaires in
it.
But we don’t get to see this next bit because these books have to
have thirteen chapters and we’ve had a warning that the next chapter is short so
the action has to stop here to keep us turning the pages.
Tune in on Thursday to find out just what will happen to the
Baudelaires next!
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