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See V.F.D. (disambiguation) for other uses.
It's called a Vernacularly Fastened Door. It opens with language. The keyboard is wired to the hinges. You have to type a phrase. Three phrases, and if you get them wrong, it locks forever.
 

A Vernacularly Fastened Door is a door used by members of V.F.D. to seal entrances or passageways until the correct set of words is inputted into the locking device, the set of words needing to be inputted is normally three (it's unknown if the amount can be changed), with the last set of words usually being a long phrase originating from an old, well known piece of literature. This device can be very dangerous due to how an incorrect input can lock the door forever.

The Slippery Slope[]

The Baudelaires first encountered such a door within the Mortmain Mountains, and with the help of Quigley Quagmire's commonplace book, were able to enter the correct phrases:

  • "Sir Isaac Newton," the name of the scientist most widely credited with the discovery of gravity
  • "Panthera leo," the Latin name for the Volunteer Feline Detectives
  • "A rural life of moral simplicity, despite its monotony, is the preferable personal narrative to a daring life of impulsive passion, which only leads to tragedy," the central theme of the novel Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

The door was an entrance to the V.F.D. Headquarters in the Valley of Four Drafts in the Mortmain Mountains, the second-to-last safe place for the volunteers of V.F.D.

The Penultimate Peril[]

Another Vernacularly Fastened Door was placed on the door of the Hotel Denouement's laundry room by Sunny Baudelaire at the request of Dewey Denouement. The door was a decoy to make the villains believe that the Sugar Bowl was located inside. After the Baudelaires were manipulated into helping Count Olaf open the door using Dewey's clues, they found that it was not inside. The correct phrases to the door were:

  • Peppermints, known from The Wide Window as the severe allergy Beatrice passed on to her children.
  • Poison Dart, the weapon that left Olaf an orphan during the opera leading to the Schism.
  • "Who knows when some slight shock disturbing the delicate balance between social order and thirsty aspiration, shall send the skyscrapers in our cities toppling?" This was the famous quote from the story Native Sonby Richard Wright.

TV Series[]

The devices make a reappearance in the Netflix adaption, putting a better emphasis on their importance in the plot. 

In The Slippery Slope, the device shares the same importance as the original, and the passcodes have remained unchanged.

Appearances[]



Sources[]

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