A Series of Unfortunate Events S2 : The Hostile Hospital Parts 1 & 2 Recap + Review

April 30, 2018

A Series of Unfortunate Events S2 : The Hostile Hospital Parts 1 & 2 Recap + Review

Stargazing on Scaffolding & Surgery Scares in the Hostile Hospital

For the Baudelaires life on the lam trudging through the desolate Hinterlands isn’t feasible for the long term. With their stolen fire truck’s gas tank running on empty, Violet, Klaus and Sunny end up the Last Chance General Store. The creepy convenience store has no gas, no phone service, or anything useful. It’s plastered with ‘out of order signs’ and vacant of customers. Inside, beyond shelves laden with porcelain kittens, cheese puffs, and other pointless knick knacks and cheap snacks, the Baudelaires find a telegraph machine. But, their SOS message to Jacqueline at Mulctuary Money Management is STOP’ed by the sudden appearance of… *PLOT TWIST* Count Olaf.

With some trademark fiendish villain chuckles, Olaf prowls through the crammed store, sniffing out the orphans. But much to his ire, the trio flees the premises… by hopping into a van with VFD and music notes scrawled on its sides. K so, diving into rando vans isn’t exactly the best idea. BUUUUUT this a Series of Unfortunate Events and our rules don’t always apply to this eccentric dramedy-verse.

In said van is not a balding, onion-breathed, creepy child predator. Nope, instead VFD is a vanpool of absurdly optimistic singers who look like extras spat out of a Partridge family performance. They are the Volunteers Fighting Disease and they use the power of music to soothe the maladies of hospitalized patients.

Their current destination?

Heimlich Hospital-- a gray and grimy monstrosity on the same stretch of sandy desert as the Vile Village. This inhospitable hospital is in a state of haphazard half construction. But that doesn’t mean that it’s lacking. Heimlich Hospital has:

A batty record-keeper with steampunk-tastic magnifiers on his spectacles.
A ginormous library of said records with locked filing cabinets towering up to the ceiling
And a paperwork loving, frequently hyperventilating receptionist/human resources/one woman party planning committee head named Babs (Kerri Kenney, Superstore)

The Baudelaires slip away from the fa-la-la-laing troupe of troubadours (AND their shiny heart balloons) and down a hallway handily labeled with an arrow directing them to the hospital’s library. What better place to gather intel on VFD and figure out what to do next?!

Hal (David Alan Grier), the batty record keeper of said library becomes a kind of surrogate guardian for the Baudelaires and quickly takes them in as his protégées. An expert organizer and labeler, he instantly stamps two labels on Violet, Klaus, and Sunny: friends and trustworthy. Hal’s labyrinth of confidential records is one of the only places the trio can hide from Count Olaf who infiltrates the hospital as Dr. Mattathias Medical-School and as fortune would have it, it’s the best place to be.

In the library a metal chute acts as a slide for the new files, records, or other media to come zipping into the room to be sorted. A tape in a silver case labeled ‘The Snicket File’ makes Violet, Klaus, Sunny, and us, jump to attention. What will the film reveal when it’s spooled onto the projector?! Oh wait. There’s that whole looking-at-files-is-off-limits thing... Hal quickly files it away and locks it up. Hal carries his weighty ring of keys with him at all times, so unless the Baudelaires can sneak it out of his pocket retrieving the film reel and snooping around for more clues in the filing cabinets is impossible. That is until later that night...

Hal kindly brings them dinner as they’re settled on the scaffolding in the construction zone of the hospital, away from the numerous cameras. Hunger sated but wracked with guilt, Violet and Klaus manage to get the keys from Hal without him noticing. Friendship and trust sometimes have to be sacrificed in the pursuit of answers. Violet and Klaus agree, solemnly, that it’s worth it.

Olaf’s new charade Dr. Mattathias Medical-School (pronounced as: mehd-eek-ahl; skool) may be a failure on the part of his imagination, but after battling extensive packets of paperwork and overthrowing Babs he’s more driven than ever to get the Baudelaires once and for all. Ridiculous accent, less than average intelligence and a scheming drive that just doesn’t quit. Classic Olaf. It’s not his most shining role but he’s still as dangerous as ever, even though he’s easily shown up by Esme.

For Violet, Klaus and Sunny navigating around the hospital takes on a dangerous edge with Olaf, Esme and the rest of his lackeys controlling Heimlich. As if they weren’t on guard already, they have to be even more vigilant and cautious. One big reason? Esme is on the loose.

Like her role as chief of police in The Vile Village Esme means business. Fully committed to her role of villainess she proves herself as even more savage than her boo and takes matters into her own hands. Frustrated by how the trio is sneaking around and with the incompetence of the rest of the gang she takes matters into her own hands. She’s no Sherlock but even she can tell that they’re hiding in the library/records room.

Remember that super secret film mentioned earlier? With the pilfered keys, the Baudelaires find it. Not wasting a minute Violet fires up the old timey projector. In flickering black and white on a pull down screen the camera focuses on Jacques Snicket seated at a table as if making a confession or in an interrogation. Eerily “alive” on the camera after being murdered by Olaf in The Vile Village Jacques drops a bombshell. There may be a survivor from the Baudelaire fire.

He doesn’t get another word in when Esme, wearing a mink jacket that would make Cruella De Vil livid with jealousy storms in and crashes the movie.

The gaspworthy turn of events becomes even more gaspworthy when Esme kicks down row after row of filing cabinets. They come crashing to the ground like extremely heavy metal dominoes, and the Baudelaires barely avoid becoming smushed into pancakes. Unlike Count Olaf Esme doesn’t just tease and toy around with words. Nope. She isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and and stick her claws out.

Sunny and Klaus dodge her, but Violet isn’t so lucky. She’s taken captive by Esme and the rest of Olaf’s cronies and is hidden in the hospital in the guise of a patient. Like the previous episode, Klaus gets a lot of screen time here and shows us that awkward and composed as he may be, he can be hilarious! With Sunny strapped to his abdomen he pulls on a voluminous white lab coat and a false beard and pretends to be a doctor himself. His stomach bulging out and his voice gruff and deep as he can make it, it’s impossible not to laugh at his improvising. Young actor Louis Hynes shows that he too has comedic chops!

Klaus uses his Ravenclaw grade intelligence to deduce that Violet’s name is scrambled into an anagram and he quickly decodes it and finds out which “patient” she is and where her room is. Buuuuut as the unfortunate forces would have it, he’s too late. Violet, having already tried to escape once before is sedated and wheeled away on a gurney by the baddies for a special surgical procedure.

The Hostile Hospital plays off of medical and body horror tropes and even has sly references to Stanley Kubrick’s 80’s horror hit ‘The Shining’. In an effort to send Babs spiraling into a nervous breakdown and to snatch the hospital away from her Olaf & co. bring Stephen King’s classic to life. Hands down it’s the best acting the troupe has done so far! Ominous booming echoes in the hallways as they bang pots and pans and a disassembled toilet seat. Tampering with the electricity makes the lights snap, crackle and pop, flickering before the burst out. The white-faced women (Jacqueline and Joyce Robbins) recreate the Grady twins iconic hallway scene, and later on the henchperson of indeterminate gender (Matty Cardarople) has a ‘HEREEE’S JOHNNY’ moment, cracking open the wooden door with a hatchet.

It’s this that makes the Hostile Hospital one of the most theatrical episodes yet in a Series of Unfortunate Events, second only to Olaf’s play/wedding in The Bad Beginning. Lyrics pop up on screen with a heart bouncing along each word playing every time the Volunteers Fighting Disease launch into song and there’s a major scene in the operating theatre...which LITERALLY plays out like a show at a theatre! Playing off of the very real word, it takes on a slapstick vibe when it’s presented to us as an auditorium for onlookers to grab and seat and snacks and watch the surgery show. The main attraction? Violet Baudelaire. Getting her head cut off. But a case of mistaken stolen item identity --Esme believes the film reel the Baudelaires are guarding so fiercely is her sugar bowl -- makes everything go up in flames. Literally.

Olaf watches Jacques’ confession, and in a fit of rage breaks it to bits and sets it on fire. Then sets the rest of the hospital on fire for good measure. With Heimlich blazing there’s a mass evacuation, which is the perfect opportunity for Klaus to rescue Violet and to slip away out of sight. It’s short lived though… as police swarm the surrounding area and the Baudelaires are still pegged as wanted murderers.

The Hostile Hospital part two ends with an act of desperation. Violet, Klaus and Sunny stowing away in the trunk of Count Olaf’s car. As he idles waiting for last minute stragglers, the Baudelaires gamble in favor of hitching a secret ride with their adversaries. How they’re planning on slipping away unnoticed when Olaf and the gang makes it to their next destination is another story.

But it’s the best shot they have to get to the carnival where Madam Lulu performs. Madam Lulu, isn’t just a tea leaf or crystal ball reader. Nope. She reputably has knowledge and an in with VFD. And the Baudelaires are ready to pick her brain. Hopefully without medical grade saws or heavy doses of anesthesia.

Other Observations:

A thickly gloved hand grabs the notorious sugar bowl from Heimlich hospital’s pantry shelf. A VFD member? Probs.
Babs isn’t killed off like she is in the novel, but instead is allowed to live on. Will we see her again?
Mr. Poe LOVES hospitals. The more time he spends there, the better. He also lives for watching live surgery.
In Violet’s ‘holding cell’ aka the room where she’s belted to a gurney to await her surgery there’s clown wallpaper: a reference to the theme restaurant in The Wide Window where the Baudelaires first met VFD member Larry as well as the Carnivorous Carnival season 2 finale.