WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the second season of A Series of Unfortunate Events, streaming now on Netflix.
The second season of A Series of Unfortunate Events ends, quite literally, on a cliffhanger, as the caravan carrying Violet and Klaus Baudelaire is sent careening off a mountainside, by Count Olaf's order, naturally. That cliffhanger doesn't require any explanation -- besides, c'mon, the orphans will survive -- but the events immediately preceding it certainly do.
While hiding at the horrific Heimlich Hospital, the Baudelaires finding a film reel containing a debriefing of Jacques Snicket (Nathan Fillion), the V.F.D. operative murdered by Olaf during their unpleasant visit to the Village of Fowl Devotees. In it, the taxi-driving Volunteer reveals there was a survivor of "the fire," although the children don't have the time to watch further. Olaf makes the same discovery and arrives at the same conclusion as Violet and Klaus: that either Beatrice or Betrand Baudelaire somehow survived the blaze that, in effect, began this series of unfortunate events.
At the Caligari Carnival, revealed as an information-gathering front for the V.F.D., Madame Lulu (aka the Librarian, aka Olivia Caliban, played by Sara Rue) provides the Baudelaires with a map to the secret society's secret headquarters in the Mortmain Mountains. "If one of your parents really is alive, this is where they'd be," she says, promising to take the children there. However, neither the carnival nor Olivia survives a visit from Olaf, which is how the orphans ("disguised" as Elliot and Beverly, the Two-Headed Freak) find themselves in a travel wagon trailing his car through a perilous mountain pass.
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That Violet, Klaus and Sunny might be headed to a happy reunion is reinforced by the ubiquitous Larry the Waiter, who radios to an unseen ally, "I've just learned the survivor of the fire is headed to headquarters!"
However, we can safely presume this is another red herring in a series chock-full of them. As a reminder, we need only look back as far as Season 1, to the elaborate ruse in which the audience is led to believe that Beatrice and Betrand Baudelaire are making their way across the globe to rescue their children. However, it's ultimately revealed the two, played by Cobie Smulders and Will Arnett, are actually the Quagmires ... who then die in a mysterious fire.
Page 2: Who Is the Mysterious Woman?
Just as A Series of Unfortunate Events loves red herrings, it also has a fondness for fires; for evidence of that, we need look no further than the heap of ash where the Caligari Carnival once stood. Therefore, there's absolutely no reason that the mysterious survivor is from the Baudelaire fire. Fans of the source material will no doubt smile, content with their knowledge of the survivor's true identity, but we won't spoil a potential Season 3 development. It's worth noting, though, that the Netflix series has already deviated from the books in significant ways, so it's certainly possible this element could change.
More puzzling, and arguably more intriguing, is the identity of the Volunteer who previously assumed the identity of the fortune teller Madame Lulu. As Olivia explained to the Baudelaire orphans, it's the alias used by whichever V.F.D. operative is stationed at the Caligari Carnival. Her unidentified predecessor took Jacques' taxi to Heimlich Hospital to retrieve the mysterious sugar bowl, leaving Olivia in her place (unfortunately).
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In the closing moments of the finale, the Volunteer returns, with the sugar bowl in her possession, to see the carnival engulfed in flames. Addressing the viewers, Lemony Snicket ponders the identity of the previous Madame Lulu, but offers that "reliable sources tell me it's a woman I know very well."
With that comment we might be tempted to conclude the mysterious woman (played by Allison Williams) is dear Beatrice Baudelaire, to whom Lemony dedicates each episode (and book). But we should resist that impulse, because 1.) this woman is too young to be Beatrice; and 2.) Beatrice is most certainly dead.
Instead, this woman Lemony knows very well is his sister Kit Snicket, who's introduced in the books just a little later, as a member of the V.F.D., just like her brothers. Oh, sure, in the source material Kit is the elder sister of Lemony, and the twin of Jacques, but the Netflix series has played a little loose with ages (show us anyone who believes Nathan Fillion is older than Patrick Warburton). So, yes, it's Kit, now in possession of her late brother's taxi, and on the trail of Olaf and the Baudelaires.
Available now on Netflix, the second season of A Series of Unfortunate Events stars Neil Patrick Harris, Malina Weissman, Louis Hynes, Presley Smith, Patrick Warburton and K. Todd Freeman, with Lucy Punch, Nathan Fillion, Tony Hale, Sara Rue and Roger Bart, among others.