Sugar Bowl (A Series of Unfortunate Events) - Contents

Contents

There are many clues and hints about the sugar bowl and what it is, but Lemony Snicket does not reveal its secret at all in the series, leaving an element of suspense for the readers. The Slippery Slope indicates that the sugar bowl contains something that proves Lemony Snicket innocent of arsons committed by Count Olaf; The Penultimate Peril implies that Lemony Snicket has gained possession of the bowl. If this is the case, Snicket may have gone on to use the sugar bowl to clear his name; The Beatrice Letters reinforces this, as by the time its later segments take place, Snicket is apparently able to publicly rent an office and have mail delivered there, something he would be unable to do as a wanted fugitive.

Esmé Squalor, when confronting the Baudelaires, Dewey Denouement and their associates in The Penultimate Peril, emphasized the difficulty of finding a container that could hold the sugar bowl's contents safely, securely, and attractively, and stated many lives were lost in the quest to find it; she also states that it means very much to the Baudelaires and the Snickets. However, it is unclear where she is referring to the sugar bowl and where to its contents. There is also another possible use for the sugar bowl: it could contain the figurine mentioned in The Carnivorous Carnival, since it was said to contain "vital evidence" and was relatively small. If this theory is true, then the figurine was probably placed inside the sugar bowl as it winded down the Stricken Stream and possibly taken away, which would be the reason that the Baudelaires didn't find it in the Gorgonian Grotto.

The sugar bowl could also contain something of great power, perhaps even greater than the Medusoid Mycelium. This is because Dewey says that Count Olaf wouldn't dare use the Mycelium if he (Dewey) has the sugar bowl. This might imply that Dewey could use the contents to retaliate, either because it contains some sort of weapon or if it contains evidence that could be used to convict Olaf of a crime, prove Lemony Snicket's innocence or both.

It is most likely that the sugar bowl is merely a MacGuffin, a plot device whose contents of it are actually completely irrelevant and whose function is simply to be a much sought-after object that motivates characters and drives the story along.