The Miserable Mill - Plot Notes

Plot Notes

• The only food the workers are given all day is a casserole for dinner and gum for lunch. They are paid in coupons. Ironically, at the end of the book, Phil reads the town constitution and says that it's illegal to pay workers in coupons. In The Grim Grotto, the Baudelaires find boxfuls of gum in the kitchen, brought there by Phil.
• Brett Helquist's style of illustration changes following this book.
• In the beginning of the book, the Baudelaires enter the Lucky Smells Lumbermill, passing a stack of newspapers. It is later mentioned, in Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, that the archives of The Daily Punctilio were stacked up in large towers along a street in a small town matching the description of Paltryville.
• "Flacutono" is an anagram of "Count Olaf."
• When Klaus is dazed after being hypnotized he calls Violet "Veronica" and Sunny "Susan". When the Baudelaires are on the run from the police, the Daily Punctilio calls Violet "Veronica" and Sunny "Susie". Count Olaf also calls Violet “Veronica” under the guise of Captain Sham in The Wide Window.