A Series of Unfortunate Events S2: The Vile Village Parts 1 & 2 Recap + Review

April 21, 2018

A Series of Unfortunate Events S2: The Vile Village Parts 1 & 2 Recap + Review

Feathers Fly & Heroes Die in The Vile Village

After The Ersatz Elevator ended with the Esme Squalor (Lucy Punch) running-off-with-her-boyfriend-who-is-Count-Olaf plot twist, and the attempted Quagmire triplets auction rescue attempt was a bust, The Vile Village begins in the most mundane of ways. With Violet, Klaus and Sunny buckled up in the backseat of Mr. Poe’s car driving down a bland and flat stretch of highway. Bored to tears and still smarting from their failure in freeing their friends they’re driven for an indeterminately long time to their next guardian. But there’s a catch.

No penthouses or stylish city living this time. School is out, too, with the disastrous stay at Prufrock Prep. So, Mr. Poe takes a new tack. One guided by the overused aphorism: It takes a village to raise a child. YES. Mulctuary Money Management has eschewed the single guardian route. Now an entire village is taking in the Baudelaires. A village that’s known by the abbreviation, VFD *gasp*.

But our OMGS!!!! are blown to smithereens when it’s revealed minutes into the trio’s arrival that VFD is short for, brace yourself, the Village of Fowl Devotees. As in birds. Specifically the murder of crows inhabiting the village. What the what.

The Village of Fowl Devotees is a dusty rural town straight out of the set of a wild west film. The weathered buildings are huddled together, congregated far from civilization in a parched desertlike patch of land. The villagers prefer wearing homespun garb. And and while it’s not quite Amish country, technology and modern day conveniences are DEFINITELY frowned upon. Tumbleweeds? Check. Cacti? Probably. A saloon with wooden swinging doors? MOST definitely.

Count Olaf and his motley crew commandeer it for their headquarters and wardrobe room (Esme is only too gleeful to take up her post as disguise and props mistress in the troupe), but more on that later.

TL;DR version: Sunny, Violet and Klaus are stranded in the middle of nowhere in a ghastly town that follows innumerable crazy weird rules that’s led by dozens of even weirder and crazier bird fanatics.

Upon arrival the kids are dragged to meet the village elders. Standing on a wooden platform in an old timey courthouse, the Baudelaires aren’t so much welcomed into the village as they are put on trial. The kids are now responsible for doing just about every single chore and are at the beck and call of every villager. Free labor what now? The three elders, wearing hats festooned with taxidermied crows, quickly sort out the housing situation for these new prisoners I mean members. Violet, Klaus and Sunny are entrusted the Hector (Ithamar Enriquez) , the handyman and groundskeeper who lives on the outskirts of the VFD.

Hector scares easily and is prone to fainting spells whenever he’s in close proximity to the village elders. Little do they know that Hector has defied just about all of their rules. He’s secretly been gathering parts and tinkering with them in his barn turned workshop. He has a straight up DIRIGIBLE… I mean, pardon me, hot-air-powered mobile home in his possession. Creativity points to Hector for making an uncompromisingly stylish getaway vehicle. Why speed off into the sunset when you can take to the skies instead?!

His mobile home is completely self-sustaining and roomy with enough space to fit 6 people. But there’s a hitch. Hector’s engines are faulty. Fixing them is a cinch for savvy inventor Violet, but she and her sibs are only willing to escape with Hector unless they can free their friends. 3 Baudelaires + 2 perpetually in peril Quagmires + 1 handyman on the verge of a nervous breakdown = ready for take off.

The Quagmires are stashed somewhere in the village and only Count Olaf and Esme know where. Because OFC they also drove an indeterminately long time after the Baudelaires. One of the best ways to infiltrate the village without being questioned? THE LAW! Esme assumes the identity of Officer Luciana, a cocky cop who fires off a long string of ever changing and nonsensical names everytime she springs into action. With a fishtail braid, obnoxious dome of a blue helmet and a ridiculous Russianish accent, she takes over the role of chief of police after the previous one erm...dies...probably...at the hands of Olaf & co.

Officer Luciana is followed closely by her partner in crime (literally) Count Olaf who’s undercover as Detective Dupin (that is, doo-pan) a scatting slam poet character, and Olaf’s latest shamelessly flashy disguise. He swaggers around the village wearing a tight purple leather jacket, tinted aviator shades and open-fronted button downs that are a throwback to the 70’s and mens disco era fashion (leisure suits anyone?). Flashy flashy flashy. He’s also determined to incarcerate the very handsome Count Olaf, who’s still a wanted criminal after being unmasked at the auction in The Ersatz Elevator.

BUT our favourite heroic tag team isn’t far behind. Olivia (Sara Rue) the former Prufrock librarian and Jacques Snicket (Nathan Fillion) the debonaire taxi driver mosey on into town with one objective: capture Olaf. And by any means necessary DO NOT let him escape.

Which means OF COURSE that’s exactly what happens.

The noble apprehenders are apprehended themselves: Jacques and Olivia are thrown behind bars and Dupin gets to keep duping the villagers. It’s quick-thinking Olivia using her power of persuasion (aka bribing Esme with location of her precious sugar bowl) who gets out of jail free (and does not pass go, or collect $200) and races back to the city to fetch backup.

The primary purpose of The Vile Village, besides the entertainment value obvi, is to propel the plot forward. We’re privy to big reveals liiiike how the eye tattoo on Jacques’s and Olaf’s ankle isn’t ACTUALLY an eye. It’s the initials VFD written together and it marks the members of VFD : a do-gooder organization Count Olaf was once part of. MINDBLOWN, friends. Mindblown.

Along with that the writing and script is compelling and there’s nary a filler in sight. Yes the Baudelaires partake in their forced binge-cleaning and chores order. But in between dusting and disinfecting they poke around for clues. Quagmire clues.

The stakes are catapulted skyscraper high when Dupin and Officer Luciana pass Jaques off for Count Olaf, and stir up the very fowl devoted villagers into agreeing to the harshest possible sentence: death. By fire.

Until then, Jacques, is under lock and key in Ye Olde Gaol. Which means it’s time for Violet to tie her hair back with a ribbon and get snappy with the inventing because burning at the stake (!!!!!!!!). She makes a pick-axe machine to crack through the jail’s cinder blocks. But she’s not the only focus.

As for character development and screen time Klaus’s bookishness finally is front and centre in The Vile Village. The last time he really had a moment was when he cracked Aunt Josephine’s code in The Wide Window and later when he was hypnotized in The Miserable Mill. Looks like our demand for #needsmoreKlaus was finally granted here!

Every night the crows roost in the Nevermore tree outside Hector’s place. When morning breaks they fly out of it, and their glossy black feathers rain down along with little snippets of paper. Poetry, written by Isadora, drifts right into the Baudelaire’s hands. Klaus puts it together that her rhyming couplets are actually CLUES. Clues leading to their prison The village square’s crow F-O-U-N-T-A-I-N !!!

But once Izzy and D are freed from the “sad beak” things get HELLA bleak when Olaf:

1. Kills Jacques

2. Frames sharp-toothed Sunny as the murderer

3. & Says Violet and Klaus are her accomplices

Now wanted criminals, the Baudelaire’s (+ Izzy and Dunks) dodge the pitchfork wielding mob and seize an ancient firetruck, desperate to catch up with Hector, who’s already taken to the skies in his hot air mobile home. The ladders are perfect to give them leverage to hitch a ride onto the dirigible. Buuuuuuut they’re intercepted by Olaf, Esme and the bloodthirsty villagers. Harpoon gun at the ready, and the Quagmire kids stumbling up the ladders slow AF, Esme nearly blasts the balloon out of the sky... until Klaus and Violet urge Hector to fly off with just the two passengers: the Quagmires.

Isadora and Duncan researched the HELL out of the VFD secret organization and put together a massive packet of info. A packet that they hurl down to the Baudelaires. But as it comes careening through the air, it’s struck by a projectile from Esme’s gun and flies off in ALL directions. What’s not scattered is random and mostly shredded. Klaus and Violet manage to snatch a few stray pages but the rest of the painstakingly researched packet is blasted apart. As if we forgot everything is terrible.

The Vile Village marks a GIGANTIC turning point in the Series of Unfortunate Events saga. Now wrongfully accused wanted criminals the Baudelaires realize nowhere is safe, the adults are not trustworthy, and Count Olaf is winning more than ever before. They embark on a darker chapter in their story by puttering off into the sunset with the stolen fire truck.

Despite this darkness and cynicism, black comedy still rules in The Vile Village and the odd and eccentric go hand in hand with it all. Not just any show can calibrate campiness with earnest storytelling. The Vile Village is a slam dunk installment in this Netflix series. It has it all: a birthday bash jail break out with a loaf of some extremely stale bread; a go-go boot wearing lady cop who totes a harpoon-gun; and a murder of crows inadvertently delivering poetry clues.