| “ | There are secrets everywhere. I think everyone's parents have secrets. You just have to know where to look for them. | ” |
— Quigley Quagmire, The Slippery Slope
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Quigley Quagmire is one of the Quagmire triplets, along with Isadora and Duncan Quagmire. They were orphaned after their parents were killed in a fire. Quigley and his siblings are heirs to the Quagmire Sapphires.
Personality
Like his siblings, Quigley has an interest in a form of study, in his case cartography (the study of maps). He is, like his siblings, a very intelligent boy, with nice vocabulary, and eager to help the Baudelaires, as seen in The Slippery Slope. He is very trusting of anyone who appears to be well-read, sometimes to the point of naivete. He is, however, incredibly loyal to his siblings and to the Baudelaires.
Biography
Early Life
- Violet Baudelaire: That is a very well-drawn map.
- Quigley Quagmire: Thank you. I've been interested in cartography for quite some time.
The Quagmire Triplets.
Quigley was born as one of three identical triplets, his other siblings being Duncan and Isadora; they were unknowingly born into a family related to VFD. Quigley took an interest in cartography from a young age and received a cartography teacher who may have been connected to his parents' organization. He also received a purple commonplace book.
The Quagmire library on fire.
Sometime after The Reptile Room, a fire broke out in the Quagmire Mansion. At the time, Quigley was in the family library, studying a map of the Finite Forest. He heard a shattering of glass and people shouting, and his mother ran in and informed him there was a fire. They first tried to go out the front door, to find the hall filled with smoke, so she took him back to the library and sent him into a secret door. She told him to wait while she fetched his siblings, but she never returned. Quigley heard the house falling to pieces above him and the screams of his siblings, but when he tried to open the door, something had fallen on top of it; he was trapped.
Once he realized that he was in a passageway and that nobody was coming to retrieve him, a terrified Quigley followed the tunnel and exited in the now-empty reptile room of Montgomery Montgomery's house. Quigley found the suitcase of Count Olaf and several empty cages.
For several days, Quigley remained in the house. He found out about his parents' death and the fact he was legally considered deceased from a copy of The Daily Punctilio left on the doorstep, and he was too scared and shocked to do much more than eat food from the kitchen and sleep on the stairs to wait for the herpetologist to come home.
Upon learning that his siblings were sent to Prufrock Preparatory School, Quigley became determined to find them. He found an atlas in the reptile room and studied it until he found the school, and traced a route. But as he started to gather the supplies he would need in a tote bag he found, Jacques Snicket arrived.
Jacques was overjoyed to find Quigley alive and quickly informed him that he knew his family. Quigley decided to trust him on account of his knowledge of the secret tunnels, the Quagmires, and how well-read he was. Jacques showed Quigley a photo of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire and asked if he'd seen them; the man was investigating their case and trying to find them.
Jacques didn't tell Quigley as much information as the boy hoped, instead spending his time digging through Monty's library to try and find some crucial information. Quigley did manage to find out that VFD probably stood for "Volunteer Fire Department", and that they had suffered a schism that divided the volunteers from the firestarters. Jacques mostly left Quigley alone while he conducted his investigation in the library, and would sometimes disappear for hours at a time.
Quigley in Dr. Montgomery's library.
Soon afterward, Jacques left for Paltryville to continue searching for the Baudelaire orphans. Quigley remained at Montgomery's home, starting his own commonplace book to gather together the mysteries surrounding him. He read Remarkable Phenomena of the Mortmain Mountains which contained a secret chapter about how to reach VFD Headquarters.
One day, Quigley finally decided to leave, firstly because he received a newspaper informing him that his siblings were kidnapped, and secondly because someone set the reptile room on fire. He left with a backpack Jacques had left behind, including Verdant Flammable Devices, and his commonplace book.
He traveled first to Paltryville, using Dr. Montgomery's atlas to travel on foot, afraid that anyone who offered him a ride could be an enemy. When he reached the town, he investigated Georgina Orwell's office, finding Olaf's fake nameplate and fingernails, as well as some notes in Jacques's handwriting. Realizing finding Jacques would be harder than he'd anticipated, Quigley set out to find VFD Headquarters, hoping they'd help him rescue Duncan and Isadora.
He ran into the Snow Scouts and joined them in order to get to Mount Fraught, where he knew a VFD Headquarters was located. However, Bruce takes away his matches.[3]
The Slippery Slope
| “ | I keep wondering the same thing. If I could travel back in time to the moment my mother showed me the secret passageway under the library, I would ask her why she was keeping these secrets. | ” |
— Chapter Nine
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While traveling with the Snow Scouts, the group picks up Violet and Klaus Baudelaire. Quigley communicates to them his connections to VFD by dropping several "VFD" phrases into a conversation. When the snow scouts are asleep, he directs and accompanies Violet and Klaus up an escape passage in the cave, known as a Vertical Flame Diversion, which he'd mapped out while in Monty's home. They travel to the Vernacularly Fastened Door, which Quigley has the password questions for. Violet and Klaus type them in, and they arrive at the old mountain headquarters, only to discover that it had been burned to the ground.
Distressed, Quigley reveals himself to the Baudelaires, who tell him about Jacques's death and Duncan and Isadora escaping into a Self-Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home. They then spot a Verdant Flammable Device signal from atop the waterfall; after failing to signal back, Violet resolves to journey up the mountain to see who is giving them the signal.
"Very lovely indeed."
While searching Headquarters, Klaus finds a code was left behind in the fridge, though he needs to decipher it; Quigley gives him a spare, blue commonplace book to use. While he does, Quigley and Violet use her inventions to travel up the slope. They stop to rest halfway up and wonder about the secrets their parents kept from them. Violet mentions that their spot on the slope has a lovely view, and Quigley turns to look at her as he says, "Very lovely indeed." Lemony Snicket refuses to describe what happened following that.
Violet and Quigley eventually reach the top of the mountain, where they find Sunny alive and well, but still held hostage by Olaf's troupe. After hiding from Olaf, Esmé Squalor, and Olaf's henchmen, Sunny decides to stay and spy on the troupe to find out where the Last Safe Place is, and Violet and Quigley travel back down the waterfall. Klaus has discovered that there will be a meeting on Thursday, though he can't find out where.
They initially decide to set a trap for Esmé in order to hold her hostage in exchange for Sunny. At the last minute, they regret their decision and instead take Esmé back up the mountain disguised as nameless volunteers. They try to fool Olaf into giving them Sunny in exchange for false information about the Sugar Bowl, but their plan fails. When the Snow Scouts arrive, Quigley and the Baudelaires unmask themselves to try and convince them not to trust Olaf's troupe, but this fails, and the Snow Scouts (save Carmelita Spats) are captured.
Quigley is swept away in the Stricken Stream.
When Sunny escapes Olaf and returns to her siblings, Olaf and Esmé try to convince Carmelita to join them, and Quigley warns her that the two of them will burn down her parents' home. She refuses to listen to them, and the Baudelaires and Quigley are forced to flee by sailing a toboggan down the Stricken Stream.
Just as Sunny tells them that the Last Safe Place is the Hotel Denouement, the ice of the waterfall breaks, and Quigley is washed away by the current into a separate tributary. Before he disappears from the Baudelaire's sight, he yells Violet's name and asks her to wait for him at an unknown location.
The Grim Grotto
Quigley manages to send a Volunteer Factual Dispatch to the Queequeg. He knows that the Baudelaires are aboard and says that they are in desperate need of their' assistance. The dispatch also contains two poems that use the Verse Fluctuation Declaration to code the meeting location. He tells them that there is a taxi waiting for them at Briny Beach, and also adds a "Violet" to the dispatch, possibly just to signal her.
After The Grim Grotto
Quigley met with Jacques' sister, Kit Snicket, and they plan to meet up with the Baudelaire siblings, but he receives word from Duncan and Isadora's Self-Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home that they are being attacked in the sky by the V.F.D. eagles. Kit and Quigley steal a helicopter from a nearby botanist to help them and Hector. Only Quigley goes on the helicopter, as Kit has to meet the Baudelaires. Quigley has to construct a huge net to defend their balloon.
Kit claims in The End that he managed, at last, to reunite with his siblings on the mobile home, but the Eagles took out the balloons holding them up. Everyone inside the mobile home was sent toppling downwards, right onto the Queequeg directly below them. Quigley, Duncan, Isadora, Kit, Captain Widdershins, Fiona, Phil, Fernald, Hector, and Ink are all left stranded in the water, before the large question-mark shaped object, the Great Unknown, appeared below them. Kit and Ink managed to escape, while everyone else is pulled under. It is unknown whether the massive creature if that is what it is, swallowed them up or saved them.[4] Interestingly, in Chapter Eight of The Penultimate Peril, Lemony Snicket claims that the triplets battled the eagles as well as Fernald, implying that Kit's story may not be entirely accurate. All that is said is that, while the Baudelaires were traveling to the arboretum of the island, the Quagmire triplets were "in circumstances just as dark although quite a bit damper than" theirs.
Netflix Series Divergent Canon
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You started VFD?
The following article or section concerns information that is considered canonical to the Netflix series, but it is unknown as to where it stands in the books' canon. It may also contain information contradictory to the books. Be very cautious when using this information as a source, or you may end up reporting for The Daily Punctilio, or on the lam. Whichever you consider worse. |
Quigley in Season One.
Quigley first appears with his siblings in The Miserable Mill episodes; while Duncan and Isadora run to greet their parents home from a work trip, Quigley stops and suspiciously asks his father why his leg is hurt. Later, when their parents are talking about fires, his father quips that the children would have flunked eavesdropping, which Quigley finds an odd remark.
He later was having a cider with his mother due to being unable to sleep, and when the fire began, she shoved him into the tunnels before going back for his siblings. Quigley wandered through until he reached Dr. Montgomery's house, where he located The Incomplete History of Secret Organizations. He studied the book, with VFD's secrets, and ate Monty's canned peaches until he received word that his siblings had been kidnapped. He set off to find them, unknowingly trailing the Baudelaires the whole way. He joined the Snow Scouts in hopes they could lead him to headquarters.[5]
In The Slippery Slope, his role is relatively the same, though instead of planning to trap Esmé, Esmé wanders into the destroyed headquarters, chasing the children, and traps herself, to which Quigley insists on using her as a hostage. She quickly escapes once they make it up the waterfall, however, and after the capture of the Snow Scouts, Quigley and the Baudelaires escape on the sled. Instead of being swept downstream, Quigley is hit by a tree branch and knocked from the sled.
Quigley looks inside the Sugar Bowl.
He fashions ski out of tree bark and makes his way back to the city, where he contacts Arthur Poe, the Vice President of Orphan Affairs, in hopes of help. Poe proves useless, but the trip puts Quigley in contact with Kit Snicket, who sends him to retrieve the Sugar Bowl from the Gorgonian Grotto. There, at the top, he hears the Baudelaires arrive. Violet tries to go up to him via a spiral staircase, but the Medusoid Mycelium begins to spread, and the Baudelaires force Quigley to shut the trapdoor so he doesn't get infected.
He sends VFD a telegram that he has acquired the Sugar Bowl, but the Baudelaires are in danger, before looking inside the bowl and being shocked at the contents.[6] He then gives the Sugar Bowl to the trained VFD crows, and figures out the Baudelaires' location by studying tidal charts, which he communicates to Kit.[7]
Quigley reunites with his siblings.
He is picked up from the destroyed Anwhistle Aquatics by his siblings in the Self-Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home.[8] It is heavily implied via a secret message (delivered in couplet form) that the Quagmires (and possibly other allies of the Baudelaires) reunited with Violet, Klaus and Sunny on Briny Beach sometime after The End.[9]
Quigley is portrayed by Dylan Kingwell, who also portrays Duncan. Quigley's main distinguishable feature from Duncan is his hairstyle, which is messier in comparison to Duncan's. By the time of The Slippery Slope, his hair is shoulder length, offering additional distinguishing features between the two.
Quotes
The Slippery Slope
| “ | We have some spare masks over there. They'll keep the snow gnats away when you go back outside. Help yourself. | ” |
— Chapter Four
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| “ | I know that having a good vocabulary doesn't guarantee that I'm a good person, but it does mean I've read a great deal. And in my experience, well-read people are less likely to be evil. | ” |
— Chapter Five
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| “ | I know we were all hoping to find people at the headquarters, but I don't think anyone is here. I think we're all by ourselves. | ” |
— Chapter Seven
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| “ | I think the survivor is here. I'm Quigley Quagmire. I survived the fire that destroyed my home, and I was hoping to find my brother and sister. | ” |
— Chapter Seven
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| “ | Something happened. Something that changed everything. Jacques Snicket called is a 'schism,' but I don't know what that word means. | ” |
— Chapter Eight
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- Klaus Baudelaire: Do you want to join the search?
- Quigley Quagmire: I think I'll stay here. I've heard quite a bit about Violet Baudelaire's marvelous inventions, and I'd like to see her at work.
| “ | It's hard to believe that we've always been surrounded by people carrying out secret errands, and never known it. | ” |
— Chapter Ten
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- Violet Baudelaire: Maybe they didn't want us to find out about such a dangerous place, although if you have to hide a headquarters, it's a beautiful place to do it. Aside from the remains of the fire, this is a very lovely view.
- Quigley Quagmire, looking at Violet Baudelaire: Very lovely indeed.
| “ | I see what you mean. If the VFD motto is 'The world is quiet here,' we ought to be doing something less noisy and violent than trapping someone, no matter how wicked they are. | ” |
— Chapter Twelve
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Netflix
- Mrs. Quagmire: Children? Children! Duncan, Quigley, Isadora?
- Isadora Quagmire: Mother?
| “ | What kind of school teaches eavesdropping? | ” |
- Violet Baudelaire: And why would we want masks?
- Brucie: If you're outside, they keep the snow gnats away.
- Klaus Baudelaire: Jacques Snicket said there was a survivor of the fire!
- Quigley Quagmire: There is.
| “ | You saved my siblings, Baudelaires. Let me help you save yours. | ” |
- Violet Baudelaire: We'll use these to pull ourselves up and test for thin ice so we don't fall.
- Quigley Quagmire: Not falling is an excellent plan.
- Quigley Quagmire: Count Olaf has someone you love. Now we have someone he loves. We could arrange a trade.
- Klaus Baudelaire: An exchange of hostages?
- Esmé Squalor: Didn't you float off in a bunch of balloons?
- Quigley Quagmire: I'm Quigley Quagmire. I survived the fire.
| “ | Are you going to help me find my friends or not? | ” |
| “ | Sugar Bowl safe. Baudelaires in danger. | ” |
Trivia
- Due to Quigley and his siblings being born at some point in the two years Violet and Klaus's respective births, it can be assumed that all three are around thirteen years old, and possibly closer to fourteen by the end of the series.[10]
- The reason Quigley was taken off by a branch on a frozen stream in the Netflix adaptation instead of being lost in a streaming waterfall is that the creators said water is incredibly time-consuming and difficult to animate.
- His commonplace book is violet.[3] It is notable that his notebook is the same color as the first name of Violet Baudelaire, who is implicitly his love interest.
Family
| Mr. Quagmire † | Mrs. Quagmire † | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Duncan Quagmire | Isadora Quagmire | Quigley Quagmire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Appearances
Gallery
Books
Netflix
Behind the Scenes
Sources
- ↑ PROSE: The Austere Academy
- ↑ The Incomplete History of Secret Organizations, page 79: "When asked in a fan interview what year the story takes place, Daniel Handler replied with characteristic Snicket dryness: "The Year of the Rat." Violet turns fifteen during the Year of the Rat, and Klaus thirteen, and as the Quagmires are stated to be inbetween Violet and Klaus's ages, it is likely they are fourteen, meaning they were born fourteen years prior to the Year of the Rat; according to the Chinese Zodiac Signs, that would mean they were born in the Year of the Dog.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 PROSE: The Slippery Slope
- ↑ Duncan and his siblings were taken by the Great Unknown. Many readers believe the Great Unknown is the Bombinating Beast though this has not been confirmed.
In Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?, it states that Lemony killed Hangfire when he pushes the villain into the mouth of the Bombinating Beast. If the two entities are the same and Lemony did actually kill Hangfire, then Quigley would likely also be deceased.
However, at the end of the eighth chapter in The End, Lemony Snicket wrote that the Quagmire triplets "at this very moment were in circumstances just as dark although quite a bit damper than the Baudelaire's," suggesting that the Quagmires might be alive inside the Great Unknown.
Also, noteworthy, while Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? was published after the The End, in-universe it is the report Snicket wrote as a teenager versus A Series of Unfortunate Events was written by Snicket as an adult. This means Snicket had more knowledge (about what happens to someone eaten by the Great Unknown/Bombinating Beast) when writing The End then when he wrote Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? - ↑ TV: The Slippery Slope: Part Two
- ↑ TV: The Grim Grotto: Part One
- ↑ TV: The Grim Grotto: Part Two
- ↑ TV: The End
- ↑ PROSE: The Incomplete History of Secret Organizations
- ↑ Violet and Klaus both celebrate their birthdays during the series, confirming that it unfolds over the course of roughly one year.
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