A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Complete Season 2 Recap

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The Austere Academy: Part One

Season two kicks off in the gloomy, dark Prufrock Prep School (which we really wanted to be a good place for the orphans to find peace). Sunny has grown up a bit, but the kids are as miserable as ever. They can’t seem to catch a break and are still the target of Count Olaf’s obsession. And just when we thought the guardians couldn’t get any worse, they do.

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The school is run by a man named Nero, who is meant to watch over the kids, but proves to be utterly useless and narcissistic. While Count Olaf doesn’t show up in his latest disguise until the end of the episode, his presence is lurking over the lives of the Baudelaires like a dark cloud.

The mystery of their parents is a big part of the season two premiere as they try to seek out the book that holds all the secrets they desire to know.

And while the kids try to adjust to the Orphan Shack Nero has forced them to live in, they are also left dealing with the obnoxious star student of Prufrock, Carmelita Spats. Not only is Nero indifferent to the pain of the Baudelaires, but he forces all the students to attend his nightly, horrendous violin recitals. Spats goes above and beyond to torment the Baudelaires who she refers to as “cake-sniffers” and alienates for being orphans.

There is light at the end of the dark tunnel when the Baudelaires meet the Quagmires, Isadora, and Duncan, who also lost their parents in a fire along with their younger brother. This brings the bunch together as they realize their paths are one in the same, and their parents were once friends.

And while the A.V. Club may have created a “super, high-tech” device to keep Count Olaf out, the device clearly fails when he shows up with his crew in tow. Not only does he manage to kick off a team of athletes from a school bus, but he shows up adorned in his latest disguise — Coach Genghis, a southern man with an Indian touch. This won’t end, will it?

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