We are nearly finished our look at season one of the Netflix Original Series, 'A Series of Unfortunate Events', today we're going over episode seven 'The Miserable Mill, Part One'
The Tale of the Baudelaires
My, oh my, oh me, oh
my… talk about an all together different tale, with actual
dissension between Violet and Klaus over how to proceed that ends up
with dire consequences… following everything we have seen up to
this point… for you see, the Baudelaires arrive the Lucky Smells
Lumbermill which is run by a gentleman named Sir and his associate
Charles who put them to work in the mill for tresspassing and due to
the fact that apparently everyone in the surrounding town blames the
Baudelaire parents for a fire that wrecked the town (though this is
not true, it’s a cover up due to a deal made by Sir to ‘re-write’
history in order to keep the Mill open.
But what about the
consequences I spoke of? Well Violet and Klaus have two very
different points of view of what to do, Klaus just wants to get the
hell out of the mill, between the harsh working conditions that make
even sweet little Sunny not want to bite things any more (even down
she can strip bark off a log within seconds), and the overly happy
workers… he’s just terrified and figures it’s best to move on
before Count Olaf catches up to them. Violet on the other hand wants
to stay and clear their parents name as it relates to the fire that
destroyed the town. We see the two of them argue over this point,
even with them disagreeing over the foreman of the mill possibly
being Olaf, Violet accuses Klaus for not wanting to clear the name of
their parents… and he goes off on his own to check his suspicions,
however ends up getting his glasses broken in the process.
Which leads to the
dire consequences, for Count Olaf is in the area coming to the
offices / residence of an old acquaintance, an optometrist with just
as vile a villainous personality Dr. Orwell. While they did have a
bad break up, the promise of striking down the Baudelaires is enough
for Orwell to associate herself with Olaf once more and when Klaus is
brought to her to get his glasses fixed, she hypnotizes him, turning
Klaus into an too willing to work lumber-mill employee to the point it
greatly disturbs both Violet and Sunny. The trance does seem to get
broken when Violet says she misses him, but the very end of the
episode reveals that a new pair of glasses form Dr. Orwell is placed
on him.
On top of that, it
turns out who I thought were the Baudelaire parents, were actually
parents of another group of delightful children from down the lane,
that of Duncan, Quigley & Isadora … and since I am unfamiliar
with the books, I certainly did not see this twist coming… for all
this time I was thinking there would be an eventual reunion of the
Baudelaire clan, but clearly this is not the case, which leads me to
wonder what is special about these three kids and their parents, and
what is the connection to the Baudelaires.
Now in terms of a
standout scene, that I already covered with the discussion of Violet
and Klaus’s argument which lead to him being hypnotized, however I
will say that Lemony Snicket pointing out directly to the viewer that
Mr. Poe was calling around searching for the Baudelaire’s (after
getting distracted with clam chowder at the start of the episode) is
someone who is of no help what so ever was quite amusing. We also
learn that Snicket got into a fight with a refrigerator repair man,
who is implied to be the same one encountered by who I thought were
the Baudelaire parents.
So on this, we shall
wrap up here… tomorrow we’ll back to finish up our look at season
one of A Series of Unfortunate Events with The Miserable Mill, Part
Two
