The Quagmires’ Fate In ‘A Series Of Unfortunate Events’ Is Another Lemony Snicket Puzzle

A Series Of Unfortunate Events makes a strong case for being the most appropriately titled television show of all time. Things start bleakly for the Baudelaire orphans at the beginning of the series and only get worse. In Season 2 of A Series Of Unfortunate Events, the Baudelaires meet the Quagmire orphans at Prufrock Preparatory School. It seems like having friends would make things easier, but anyone familiar with ASOUE knows that good things don't last, and those who know what happens to the Quagmires in the Series Of Unfortunate Events books are right to expect the worst now that the characters have entered the television series.

The Quagmires were introduced to the show at the end of Season 1, during the first part of "The Miserable Mill." After spending all season checking in on characters named Mother and Father (played by Cobie Smulders and Will Arnett), which led audiences to believe they were the Baudelaires' parents, it was revealed they're actually the parents of the Quagmire triplets. However, they are killed in a fire that consumed the Quagmire house, just as another consumed the Baudelaire house.

Two of the Quagmire children — Isadora and Duncan Quagmire (played by Avi Lake and Dylan Kingwell) — seem to be the only survivors of the fire and are sent to the same school as the Baudelaires. This is where Season 2 picks up with the Quagmires, but book readers already know there's no such thing as a happy ending to be found for a set of orphans, or for anyone in A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

Spoilers ahead for the Series of Unfortunate Events books. After forming a friendship with the Quagmire siblings at Prufrock Preparatory School in The Austere Academy, things start to look up for the Baudelaires. However, Count Olaf and his lackeys kidnap the Quagmire twins (formerly triplets; their other brother Quigley supposedly died in the fire). The Baudelaires cross paths with the Quagmires once again in the following book, The Ersatz Elevator, in which the they find Isadora and Duncan in a large cage. The cage containing the Quagmires is supposed to be included in an auction in an attempt by Count Olaf and associates to sneak the children out of the city undetected. The Baudelaires formulate a plan to aid in the Quagmires' escape, but to no avail. At the end of The Ersatz Elevator, Count Olaf runs away with the Quagmires once again.

The following book, The Vile Village, shows the Quagmires finally escaping the grasp of Count Olaf with some help from the Baudelaires. After being trapped inside of a giant bird-shaped fountain by the Village of Fowl Devotees and sneaking Isadora's poetry into the world so that the Baudelaires could find them, the Quagmires are whisked away in a makeshift airship (made of a hot-air balloon and mobile home) by the Baudelaires' friend Hector.

The Baudelaires and Quagmires eventually cross paths again — but not through Duncan or Isadora. Instead, the protagonists meet Quigley Quagmire in The Slippery Slope, who actually survived the fire that took the Quagmire parents. Quigley proves to be an indispensable ally to the Baudelaires, managing to help Violet rescue Sunny after she's kidnapped by Count Olaf. Unfortunately, they're separated while escaping from Count Olaf and an icy stream sweeps Quigley away.

The rest of the Quagmires' story is told to the Baudelaires through secondhand communications in The End. Kit Snicket, sister of Lemony Snicket and friend to the Baudelaires, reveals that Quigley managed to reunite with his siblings on the makeshift airborne mobile home they had escaped on. However, Count Olaf trained a convocation, aka "a group of eagles," to attack the balloons holding up the flying home.

The Quagmire Triplets, Hector, Kit, and various other characters involved in the home's descent were left stranded in the ocean. At this point, Snicket reveals that a mysterious darkness, which is shaped like a question mark and called "The Great Unknown," appeared beneath them and... that's it. It's not revealed if the "Great Unknown" saved them or caused their demise.

While it's nice to imagine the three children end up alright, the book series isn't called A Collection Of Circumstances That Begin Badly But End Excellently. Whatever fate befell the Quagmire children in The End, it was almost certainly unfortunate. Things could go differently in the ASOUE Netflix series, but fans probably shouldn't get their hopes up.