“There’s no word to describe the feeling of waking up and knowing instantly that something is terribly wrong.”
In many ways, “The Reptile Room: Part Two” is the least ambitious, yet most successful, episode so far of A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was a good showcase for all the actors, and their characters as well; hell, even Mr. Poe got to act competent for a few minutes there. The locked-room mystery format is perfectly suited to this kind of story, which is a surprise, because in retrospect jamming all those quirks into the same room should have been something akin to a Wes Anderson fever dream. But “Part Two” – from a deftly written script by Emily Fox, ably directed by Mark Palansky (Penelope) – is even better at this kind of narrative than was The Hateful Eight (and it’s not two and a half hours long, either).
In a nicely ominous opening (“Dawn had awoken them,” Lemony Snicket intones, “but their uncle Monty had not”), the Baudelaires discover Monty’s body in the Reptile Room, and Olaf follows shortly, taunting them and ordering them to accompany him to Peru on the S.S. Prospero (named for a Shakespeare character whose throne was usurped). Once again, he endangers Sunny to gain their compliance, and while I don’t, at this point, think that Olaf would actually harm Sunny – or rather, I don’t think Unfortunate Events would actually show him doing so – I have to say, as far as running jokes go, this is one of the darkest I can remember.
Mr. Poe crashes Olaf’s attempted kidnapping, quite literally, and doesn’t believe the Baudelaires when they tell him that Stephano is actually Count Olaf, and thus begins the farce. “Part Two” is a nice companion to “Part One” in the Reptile Room arc; tonally, the two balance each other out nicely. Hope and despair in part one, freedom and renewed hope in part two. I’ve worried in the past about Unfortunate Events compressing books to two-part episodes, but “The Reptile Room,” at least, is a rousing success, with a nice self-contained arc that sets up the next installment easily.
As with any good farce, more and more characters are introduced; here we have the Baudelaires, Olaf, Poe, and Olaf’s villainous theater troupe, who make for a skilled comic ensemble. One thing that makes the Baudelaires so special is that they are among only a handful of people in this world who don’t take things at face value – to wit, when Poe sees the hook-handed man wearing obviously fake hands, he doesn’t recognize his former assistant who broke the typewriter. Rather, he tells Violet and Klaus, “That man is eating peaches with regular hands, not hooks.”
So naturally it’s up to Violet and Klaus to prove Olaf’s guilt, which is such a potentially grating premise that Olaf even hangs a lantern on it, telling Klaus that “the kid detective thing has gotten old.” It’s actually a thrill to watch, and, as often happens on the best episodes of this show, both siblings get to show their mettle. One of the strengths of Unfortunate Events is that it doesn’t favor one sibling over the other, and honestly neither do I (Sunny is still very hit and miss for me). Moreover, one of the best bits of characterization on the show is Violet pulling her hair back when she’s about to get down to business; it’s not overused enough to become cheesy, and Malina Weissman looks like a genuine badass while doing it.
The greatest strength of “Part Two” is how easily it broadens the world of A Series of Unfortunate Events. In “Part One” we learned that Olaf has known Monty and the Baudelaires’ parents for some time, and here we learn that he knows Jacqueline as well. That’s right, bitches, Jacqueline is back, and remains my favorite character. She treats us to the coolest shot of the episode, as she stalks Olaf through a set of tunnels, all while painted like a statue. She also tells Violet and Klaus to go to their aunt Josephine, “a fierce and formidable woman,” which both sets up the next two episodes and builds anticipation for them. I mean, if Jacqueline says this lady is formidable, she must be pretty damn formidable.
I had my doubts about this show throughout “The Bad Beginning,” but “The Reptile Room” is so successful that those doubts have been officially alleviated. There’s real competence in front of and behind the camera of this show, and enough humor, tragedy, and imagination present to warrant watching.
A Few Thoughts
- “We have a ship to catch, and I’d like to board in time to have a bottle of wine before lunch.” “If I were standing closer to you I would slap you in the throat.” “Well, he is coughing a lot; let’s see if he dies of natural causes.” To a gold-painted Jacqueline: “We meet again. You should ease up on the bronzer.”
- Mr. Poe’s freakout at seeing the Incredibly Deadly Viper was the funniest K. Todd Freeman has ever been on this show. “Run away! Get closer!”
- Neil Patrick Harris sings the theme song in Stephano’s voice this time, a fantastic touch.
- I love the endings with Mr. and Mrs. Baudelaire, and this was my favorite. I think it’s because I never realized just how much Will Arnett and Cobie Smulders resemble adventurers from 1930s films.
4.5/5
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