In the sewers, Lemony advises the audience to look away as they face the slippery slope. He explains what happened to the Baudelaires in season 2. Now the Baudelaires are in a runaway caravan running down a mountain.
The caravan runs down the mountain and Violet devises a braking system with an oar to slow down the caravan, buying her time to make a drag chute. The oar breaks and Violet deploys the chute, and the caravan goes off the road. The chute snags on a branch, holding the caravan suspended halfway down the cliff. Klaus and Violet climb out of the caravan and climb up to the road, and the chute rips and the caravan plummets into the valley below. Violet assures Klaus that Sunny is a fighter, and they go to rescue her from Olaf.
Olaf and his group drive away, and Esme puts Sunny in the glove compartment. The count says that he smells triumph and is on the right path to get the Baudelaire fortune. He tells his troupe that they are on the way to the secret VFD headquarters to destroy their enemies, including the Baudelaire parent that survived the fire. The Henchman of Undetermined Gender points out that they don't know Violet and Klaus are dead, but Olaf is sure that they died exactly according to his plan. He laughs maniacally and everyone laughs with him.
Kit runs through the forest holding the sugar bowl and comes to the edge of a cliff. The Man with Beard but No Hair and the Woman with Hair but No Beard confront her, and tell her to give them the sugar bowl or face death. Kit falls off the cliff and a pair of artificial gliding wings emerge from her backpack. The Man and Woman summon eagles and Kit dives into a hole in the ice below. The eagles are unable to follow, and Kit emerges from the ice downstream. She tells her unborn child that it's a trooper and warns that they're not out of the woods yet.
Olaf and others arrive at the top of Mount Fraught but there's no sign of the secret VFD headquarters. He figures that burning down the VFD HQ will kill the Baudelaire parent and orders his people to pitch the tents. Olaf has them get the three freaks out of the trunk and the troupe order them to cut wood.
Violet and Klaus come to a crossroads, and Violet finds a discarded sarsaparilla bottle that Olaf threw it down on one road. The other road leads to VFD HQ, but Violet insists that they have to rescue Sunny. The siblings argue, and snow gnats fly up and the attacks the siblings. They run into the forest and come to a cave, and the gnats fly away in fear. Carmelita is inside and greets them.
Olaf lectures his troupe on acting and tries to work out a catchphrase. Sunny escapes from her ice jail, and Esme comes up and says that she found a pack of green cigarettes discarded by someone running for their lives. They finally realize that Sunny has escaped and find her crawling behind the car. Olaf tells her that she'd never survive in the mountains by herself and if Sunny wants to survive, she should be less irritating. He mentions how irritating Carmelita was.
Carmelita tells the Baudelaires that it's a private cave. She recognizes them and the Snow Scouts with her, including Scout Master Brucie have read about the Baudelaires' alleged villainy in the paper. Bruce explains that the Snow Scouts been hiding from the snow gnats but have a map of the mountains, but Carmelita refuses to help the Baudelaires. Despite that, the other Scouts invite the Baudelaires to stay but suggest that they wear masks as a furtive disguise.
Sunny tries to get water from a frozen pond while Olaf and his troupe laugh. The Hook-Handed Man brings Sunny a special outfit to avoid freezing, and makes a hole in the ice so Sunny can get water. He gives her a rag to clean her face with and quickly leaves.
Carmelita tells the group a story about Sleeping Beauty. Brucie suggests that the Baudelaires take their turn, and Carmelita says that the whole point of the Snow Scouts is to do everything over and over again. They come to the top of Mount Fraught to celebrate False Spring and they always choose Carmelita as their False Spring Queen. Carmelita insists that it has to be her, and a masked Scout asks the Baudelaires if they have ay stories and mentions Anna Karenina, the story that their mother read to the Baudelaires. Brucie says that it's time for everyone to go to sleep, and the masked Scout tells the Baudelaires that it's easier to find missing persons in the dark.
Once the Scouts go to sleep, Klaus and Violet figure that the disguised Scout is with VFD and wonder why he's wearing a mask. As they wait for the fire to go out, Klaus asks Violet which parent she thinks is alive. They admit that they both wonder even though there's no way to know.
Separate from the others, Kevin, Collette, and Hugo try to start the fire and Kevin figures that Olaf is testing. Hugo suggests that they start their own farm with the money that he has saved, and they argue about what to grow. Kit arrives and says that there are dangerous people on the mountain and she'll lead them away. She starts the fire for the group and runs off. The Man and Woman arrive and say that the spot will do nicely. When Kevin says that they're with Olaf and he'll come to help them if they scream, the couple advance on them, sword canes drawn.
Olaf hears the screams and dismisses them as weasels.
Kit hears the screams and realizes that the sugar bowl is missing from her pack.
Once the fire dies down, the Scout leads Klaus and Violet to a plaque reading "Vertical Flame Diversion". He explains that it's a secret passageway and he read about it in the Incomplete History of Secret Organizations book. Violet points out that they don't know who the Scout is, and he notes that there are enemies everywhere and it's not safe to reveal his face. The Scout leads them over the sleeping Scouts and they climb up the vertical flame diversion.
As they climb up, a spider lands on Klaus' hand and knocks it loose. It almost falls on Carmelita, who almost wakes up. The trio get to the top and see the symbol-shaped hatch.
Come morning, Olaf emerges from his tent and discovers that Sunny has gnawed her way through her ropes and out of the back of her tend. He finds her in the car and wakes everyone else up, and says that Sunny is making breakfast. Sunny goes to work and discovers that the orange juice is frozen. Hook-Handed Man fishes in the water and snags a fish, and gives it to Sunny to cook. He talks about his father didn't approve of his life choices and it's hard losing family, and says that it wasn't his idea to plunge Klaus and Violet to their deaths. The Hook-Handed Man tells Sunny that he'll be glad if one of her parents is alive.
Mr. Poe shows Mrs. Bass around the bank, and she clubs him unconscious. The police eventually capture them and discovers that Poe became friends with Bass.
Sunny and Hook-Handed Man make orange juice and salmon tartar together, and Sunny wipes off Hook-Handed Man's face. The troupe likes the food, but Olaf figures that Sunny is trying to poison them and demands a hot breakfast. He prepares to throw her off the mountain, but then says that he's kidding because he needs her to get the Baudelaire fortune. The Man and Woman arrive and Olaf stares at his mentors in shock. They ask Olaf what he's been doing with his life, and are less than impressed when he says that he's an actor. Olaf introduces Esme and the troupe, and the Man and Woman remind Olaf that he lost the Quagmire triplets after they went to the trouble of killing their parents. He blames the troupe and says that he'd be burning down the VFD HQ if the troupe didn't insist on having breakfast, and the Man and Woman tell him not to worry about the HQ.
The trio open the hatch and emerge into a tunnel. There's a large vault door and the Scout says that VFD HQ is behind the door. They have to type in the right phrase to open the door, and the Scout has the three questions that have to be answered and entered into the lock. They get the first two answers, and the central theme of Anne Karenina is the third one. The Scout has never read it, and needs the Baudelaires to answer it. Their mother had them memorized it, and Klaus enters the phrase. The vault door freezes on the last word, and they figure that it enters it run.
Kit goes back to the stream to search for the sugar bowl, and realizes that with it she's lost everything. Poe arrives and says that he's lost his map, and Kit tells him that the mountain is dangerous. He left the city because the bank manager thinks the robbery is his fault, and he has a sudden feeling that someone is in trouble. Poe offers to help the pregnant Kit and gives her a handkerchief.
Lemony leaves his apartment as someone pounds on his door.
The Baudelaires realize that the mechanism is stuck and the door opens. They find the burned HQ on the other side, and call to their parents.
The Man and Woman say that they burned down the HQ themselves. Sunny says "No", and Olaf says that his mentors will love what happened.
Klaus notes that there was one survivor of the fire, and the Scout removes his mask to reveal that he's Quigley Quagmire.
Written by Gadfly on Feb 3, 2019