Count Olaf’s Death in ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ Is Devastating for a Surprising Reason

Over the course of three seasons, roughly nine villains, 13 books of source material, and too many near-death experiences to count, Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events has always preached the same lesson. No matter how dark the world may seem, there are good, noble people in it who will do the right thing. But in the final episode, as the villain Count Olaf (Neil Patrick Harris) dies, he manages to break that one ideal not with deeds, but with his own carefully chosen words.

From the moment their bank-appointed and always coughing guardian Mr. Poe (K. Todd Freeman) picked them up from Briny Beach, the Baudelaire orphans’ lives have been one long exercise in misplaced trust. The dream of finding their next true home has taken Violet (Malina Weissman), Klaus (Louis Hynes), and Sunny (Presley Smith) to lakes filled with flesh-eating leeches, creepy cult-loving towns, dangerous lumber mills, deranged hospitals, and all sorts of other deeply unpleasant locales. But through even the most cunning of Count Olaf’s  plans the Baudelaires always held the hope there was a place for them among truly good people.

So it’s only fitting that in his last moments, the dastardly Olaf would attempt to steal even that from these children. Up until Season 3, A Series of Unfortunate Events followed a predictable formula. The acting disaster that is Count Olaf would do something terrible in an attempt to steal these children’s fortunes; only to be outsmarted by Violet’s inventions, Klaus’ intellect, and Sunny’s expertise in biting (and later cooking). But the “Slippery Slope” saga presents a subtle change in that formula. In an attempt to get their sister Sunny back, Violet and Klaus attempt to kidnap Olaf’s fashion-forward girlfriend Esme (Lucy Punch). They do a wicked thing in order to reach a noble end.

That theme continues throughout the season, as it shows the normally sweet children lying, defying authority, disobeying rules, and accidentally killing one ally in an attempt to stay alive. Of course, everything they do is justified. But time and again, survival forces the children to go against the morals and lessons they’ve been taught.

This “means to an end” approach even carries on throughout Season 3’s flashbacks. The most important of which reveals that Beatrice Baudelaire (Morena Baccarin) accidentally killed Olaf’s father while attempting to save this universe’s MacGuffin, the sugar bowl. The intentions of the Baudelaire matriarch are as good as you would expect. She only wanted the sugar bowl to guard the all-important immunizing antidote hidden inside. But her actions still led to the death of an innocent man. As Olaf reveals to the children he’s been torturing for months, she was a good person who did a bad thing.

And that’s the lesson that shakes this series to its core, one which the seemingly nefarious and incredibly injured Olaf imparts before sacrificing his life to save a dying mother and her unborn child. There are no good or bad people in the world. There is not a force of blameless firefighting volunteers, and the people who light the fires aren’t always unjustified. There are just people, and people are complicated.

For 24 episodes we’ve watched the Baudelaires scream, argue, and fight against Olaf’s warped view of the world. When he finally offers them his bleakest belief — the one capable of destroying the tiny fragment of a silver lining they’re still holding onto — they stay quiet. And why wouldn’t they? By the time they’ve made it to “The End,” Violet, Klaus, and Sunny have encountered all manner of well-intentioned and seemingly good people who have either ignored them, indirectly hurt them, or who were so concerned with their own well-being and comfort they refused to help three orphans. By the time Olaf debunks the idea of solely good or solely bad people, these smart children already know it’s an ideal not worth pursuing.

But even after they have been confronted by unimaginable darkness, these three intelligent, charming, polite, and resourceful children haven’t fully given up hope in there being good in the world. They save Kit Snicket’s (Allison Williams) orphaned baby, because they know: they must be the good people they hope to see.

Watch A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix