Red Herring

Red Herring
General Information
Type	Statue
Purpose	To smuggle Duncan and Isadora Quagmire out of The City
Users	Count Olaf (Gunther) Esmé Squalor
Location	Veblen Hall Village of Fowl Devotees The Island (Netflix)
Description	Large statue of a red herring
Behind the Scenes
Appearances	The Ersatz Elevator
Adaptation Appearances	Netflix Adaptation: The Ersatz Elevator: Part Two, The Vile Village: Part One, The End (cameo)

“	This beautiful red herring fish will be a lovely addition to any home or place of business or, how do you say, dentist office lobby.	”
	— Gunther

The Red Herring statue was an item sold at Lot #48 when the In Auction took place during The Ersatz Elevator.

Description

This statue was where Count Olaf truly hid the Quagmires in, while lot #50, V.F.D. (Very Fancy Doilies), turned out to be the figurative red herring. The doorman that runs the apartment building at 667 Dark Avenue, who was really the Hook-Handed Man, attended the auction to purchase Lot #48 and beat Mr. Poe as the item's highest bidder, helping Gunther (Count Olaf in disguise) whisk away the Quagmires a second time in the process. The reason the Baudelaire children were deceived by the red herring statue was because they initially thought it would've been too obvious and as Esmé Squalor admitted maliciously, "we used two red herrings to fool you".

Esmé and Olaf (disguised as Gunther) hid the two Quagmire triplets inside the statue, attempting to trap them until both children came of age so that he could steal their Quagmire sapphires. (This is similar to how Olaf attempted to keep the Baudelaires in his grasp to steal their fortune when the eldest, Violet, came of age).

Appearances

Books
A Series of Unfortunate Events (Books)
1. The Bad Beginning (1999):	Absent	7. The Vile Village (2001):	Appears
2. The Reptile Room (1999):	Absent	8. The Hostile Hospital (2001):	Absent
3. The Wide Window (2000):	Absent	9. The Carnivorous Carnival (2002):	Absent
4. The Miserable Mill (2000):	Absent	10. The Slippery Slope (2003):	Absent
5. The Austere Academy (2000):	Absent	11. The Grim Grotto (2004):	Absent
6. The Ersatz Elevator (2001):	Debut	12. The Penultimate Peril (2005):	Absent
13. The End (2006):		Absent
All the Wrong Questions
Who Could That Be at This Hour? (2012):	Absent	Shouldn't You Be in School? (2014):	Absent
When Did You See Her Last? (2013):	Absent	Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? (2015):	Absent
File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents (2014):		Absent
Snicketverse
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography (2002):		Absent
The Dismal Dinner (2004):		Absent
The Beatrice Letters (2006):		Absent
29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy (2014):		Absent
The Hero of the Story (2017):		Absent
Poison for Breakfast (2021):		Absent
Other Snicket Books
The Baby in the Manger (2002):		Absent
The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming (2007):		Absent
The Lump of Coal (2008):		Absent
The Composer Is Dead (2009):		Absent
13 Words (2010):		Absent
The Dark (2013):		Absent
Goldfish Ghost (2017):		Absent

Trivia

• "Red herring" has multiple meanings. Lot #48 was a statue of a type of fish, kipper, also known as red herring. While lot #50 was a different type of red herring: "a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion." Lot #50 being listed as V.F.D., made the Baudelaires think that the Quagmires were being hid inside it.
• In the Netflix Adaptation, Duncan Quagmire wrote DQ + VB inside it, alluding to a crush on Violet Baudelaire.
• In the Netflix Adaptation, the statue can be seen in the arboretum in The End.