Please, for the sake of you and your happiness, do not continue.
The orphans arrive at a lumber mill, hoping to find someone who can answer their questions. Instead, they are put to work by a crooked boss who pays his employees with coupons.
Tropes:
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Mr. Poe is immediately and unceremoniously (a word which means "without ceremony") knocked out of his hysteria over the orphans running off by the scent of free sample chowder.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Doubling as a Bait-and-Switch: The parents we followed in the beginning were the Quagmires's parents, and the "real" guests at the door of Lucky Smells Mills was no other than Count Olaf (disguised as usual) and Dr. Orwell giving Klaus another hypnotic command.
- Cut Apart: A series of scene cuts involving doors make it seem like the Baudelaire's parents are about to find them. They are actually different doors and a different set of parents (the Quagmire's).
- Death by Irony: Sir thinks that the Baudelaire's parents dying in a fire was very karmic since they (allegedly) burnt down Paltryville.
- Don't Go in the Woods: Discussed by Snicket when he explains the saying "out of the woods"; he mentions stories where the forest is perceived as a dangerous place — Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, and Walden.
- It's All My Fault: Violet has a moment of this.Violet: I promised our parents I'd always look out for Klaus. But I didn't. He wanted to leave and I made him stay. Except now he's acting strange. It's all my fault. There's no one else to fix it.
- Wham Line:
- When "Mother" and "Father" finally reach their children."Children? Children! Duncan, Quigley, Isadora!"
- Also, when Violet, Klaus and Sunny ask Sir about their parents and the sorry state of Paltryville:Sir: There's a reason this town will never forget your parents. They're the ones that burned it down.
- When "Mother" and "Father" finally reach their children.
