The Miserable Mill: Part One

"The Miserable Mill: Part One"

Adapted from:	The Miserable Mill
Main character(s):	Violet, Klaus, Sunny
Baudelaire guardian:	Sir
Featuring:	Charles
Main enemy:	Count Olaf
Olaf's disguise:	Shirley
Main setting:	Lucky Smells Lumbermill
Library:	Lucky Smells library
Key crew
Writer:	Joe Tracz
Director:	Bo Welch
Producer:	Neil Patrick Harris
Release details
Story number:	4a
Season/series:	Season 1
Premiere network:	Netflix
Release date:	January 13, 2017
Format:	44 minutes
Production code:	1.7
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A Series of Unfortunate Events
"The Wide Window: Part Two"	"The Miserable Mill: Part Two"

"The Miserable Mill: Part One" is the seventh episode of Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It covered the first half of The Miserable Mill.

Official synopsis

The children arrive at Lucky Smells Lumbermill and unearth some unsettling accusations about their parents. Count Olaf courts an old flame.

Dedication

To Beatrice –

My love flew like a butterfly,
until death swooped down like a bat.

Plot

The Baudelaires arrive at Lucky Smells but they don't receive a very warm welcome. According to the workers that they meet, their parents were responsible for burning down the surrounding town of Paltryville, something the Baudelaires immediately believe to be false. The Lucky Smells Lumbermill owners, Charles and Sir, put the children to work. Violet and Klaus argue about staying at the mill. Violet is curious to know why her parents are believed to have burned the town down but Klaus doesn't feel safe at the mill, believing that Count Olaf may find them there.

On their first day of work, the foreman trips Klaus up with his foot and stamps on his glasses. Against his wishes, he is encouraged to visit Dr. Georgina Orwell, the local optometrist. Klaus doesn't know that Georgina is an ex-girlfriend of Count Olaf's, or that they are now reunited and working together to destroy the children's lives. He is therefore taken by surprise when the doctor takes him hostage and proceeds to hypnotize him.

Violet and Sunny visit the mill's library in search of the town's history book. They manage to find an extract that features their parents, but every book they initially find has had the extract censored topping the blame for the fire of Paltryville at them. Finally, they find one book that hasn't had the first chapter redacted, but Sir arrives before they can read what it says. Later, Violet is suspicious that something is wrong with Klaus. He isn't himself and almost harms Sunny with a wood chipper before Violet manages to snap him out of his hypnotized state with a code word, not realizing that the word controlled his hypnotism.

The Baudelaires are caught by surprise when they are told that they have visitors. Unfortunately, it isn't the father and mother of the Baudelaires, but Dr. Orwell and Olaf, disguised as a female receptionist. Father and Mother are subsequently revealed to be Mr. and Mrs. Quagmire, not the children's parents as the audience were led to believe.

Cast

Starring

Guest starring

Sir - Don Johnson
Father - Will Arnett
Mother - Cobie Smulders
Dr. Orwell - Catherine O'Hara
Charles - Rhys Darby
Hook-Handed Man - Usman Ally
Quigley and Duncan Quagmire - Dylan Kingwell
Isadora Quagmire - Avi Lake

Co-starring

Crew

to be added

References

Klaus mentions his mother, Beatrice, wouldn't let him watch Pink Floyd – The Wall.

Story notes

This is the time in the tv series that only one member of olaf's acting troop/hench people appears (albeit in disguise in this episode and it is only properly revealed in the next episode) this is in contrast to Olaf in the books for which this happens for most of the series

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

to be added

Deviations from the novel

The opening dedication omits this next line: "As the poet Emma Montana McElroy said: "That's the end of that."
In the books, Mr. Poe organized for Sir to be the Baudelaires' guardian, and the siblings didn't run away in order to try to find out their parents' secrets.

Continuity

Count Olaf may have referenced Kit Snicket. He says, "Did you ever know a woman who took your heart and rattled it like a baby in a cage? Who joined you for years on a sequence of heists and schemes until the two of you were forced apart by circumstance, and also because you ran off in the middle of the night with a bunch of her valuables?" However, it is also possible he means Georgina Orwell.