The Ersatz Elevator: Part Two

"The Ersatz Elevator: Part Two"


Adapted from:	The Ersatz Elevator
Main character(s):	Violet, Klaus, Sunny
Baudelaire guardians:	Jerome Squalor, Esmé Squalor
Main enemy:	Count Olaf
Olaf's disguise:	Gunther
Main setting:	667 Dark Avenue
Library:	Squalor Library
Key crew
Writer:	Daniel Handler
Director:	Bo Welch
Producer:	Neil Patrick Harris
Release details
Story number:	6b
Season/series:	Season 2
Premiere network:	Netflix
Release date:	March 30, 2018
Format:	42 minutes
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A Series of Unfortunate Events
"The Ersatz Elevator: Part One"	"The Vile Village: Part One"

"The Ersatz Elevator: Part Two" is the twelfth episode of Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It covered the second half of The Ersatz Elevator.

Official synopsis

The Baudelaires find their friends -- and then lose them -- at the bottom of an elevator shaft. Count Olaf conducts an auction in disguise.

Plot

The Baudelaires find the Quagmires at the bottom of the shaft. They have no tools to help them escape so they go back up the shaft. Once they're back at the penthouse, they run into Esmé with an unconscious Jerome. She asks what's wrong and they tell her about Count Olaf and his evil plot. She actually believes them and says that they must go to the police. She doesn't like the idea of having to take the stairs again so she suggests the elevator, but just as the doors open, she pushes the Baudelaires down into the shaft. They are miraculously saved by a net that Count Olaf installed when they removed the Quagmires to another location. Esmé reveals that she knew all along that Gunther was Olaf as he was her former acting coach, and she wants to "steal" from them because Beatrice Baudelaire once stole from her.

MansionRevisit — The Baudelaires revisiting their mansion.

The Baudelaires try to figure out how to get out of the shaft which leads to Sunny Baudelaire climbing up it and returning to the penthouse for some tools. She returns with a cloak and a length of rope. The children shimmy down to the bottom of the shaft and find a secret tunnel. They find a trap door to the ruins of their old home and wonder why they would have a trap door to begin with.

They coincidentally find Poe and his wife and hitch a car ride with them to the In Auction hosted at Veblen Hall in order to save the Quagmires, which the Poes were coincidentally planning on going to anyway.

The group arrives too late at the auction to bid on a giant red herring statue. A mysterious box with "VFD" on it, large enough to fit two Quagmires, is about to be bid on. At the request of the Baudelaires, Poe tries to bid on the "VFD" that the children want but gets outbid by one of Olaf's minions. Jerome suddenly appears after a long nap and begins to bid on it leading to Olaf, Larry the Waiter, Jacquelyn, Olivia Caliban, and Jacques Snicket to bid in on it as well. Sunny suddenly bids 1000 dollars and wins but when they open the box they find that it's been filled with Very Fancy Doilies.

While twirling his sharp cane, Olaf accidentally cuts his boot and he's revealed his true identity to the public. Everyone wants him captured but Olaf and Esmé escape through a trap door. Klaus says that the whole auction was a red herring and suddenly they realize that the Quagmires were put into the large statue of a red herring.

Jerome tries to dissuade the Baudelaires from chasing after Olaf but they are adamant about saving their friends. Poe arrives after Jerome relinquishes his guardian rights and tells them that he'll be taking them to a faraway town called V.F.D. Jacques and Olivia continue their pursuit of Count Olaf.

Cast

Starring

Guest starring

Co-starring

Bald Man - John DeSantis
White-Faced Woman #1 - Jacqueline Robbins
White-Faced Woman #2 - Joyce Robbins
Voice of "Sunny" - Tara Strong
Chauffeur - Marco Grazzini
Auction Attendee - Marion Eisman
Auction Attendee - Morgan Brayton
Auction Attendee - Craig Erickson
Doorperson - Sage Brocklebank

Crew

to be added

References

ParsleySoda — Sunny giving the Hook-Handed Man parsley soda.

Sunny is caught by the Hook-Handed Man and gives him a bottle of parsley soda, apparently trying to bribe him to her side. This may be a satire of the infamous Pepsi commercial which came out the same year when the episode was filmed, in which a woman gives a police officer a can of Pepsi during a street protest/riot, and everything is all okay.[1]

Story notes

to be added

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

to be added

Deviations from the novel

Olaf does not wear horse-riding boots or a monocle. Instead, he wears normal boots and sunglasses.
Jacques and Olivia Caliban are present in the TV series, while in the books, they are not present until book seven and book nine, respectively.
In the book, Violet invents wielding torches to try to break the Quagmires out of their cell, but the siblings find that the Quagmires were taken away before they could save them. This scene is removed from the TV series.
In the book, Sunny bites her way up the elevator shaft. In the TV series, she climbs two vertical railings.
In the book, Sunny fetches Violet's invented cord. In the TV series, Sunny bites a curtain's pull rope.
In the book, there is a scene where a mailman is spooked by the Baudelaires rising out the ashes of the Baudelaire Mansion, as he thinks they are ghosts and there is a rumor the place is haunted. They ask him for directions to Veblen Hall and he runs away in fear. This scene is not in the TV series.
In the book, the Baudelaires do not get a ride to Veblen Hall with the Poes due to the previous scene mentioned. Instead, they walk two blocks.
In the book, Mr. Poe almost buys the red herring and is close to saving the Quagmires. In the TV series, Mr. Poe arrives too late at the auction to bid.
In the book, when saying goodbye, Jerome kisses each Baudelaire on the forehead. In the TV series, Jerome only gives an indirect kiss to Sunny.