As usual, Mr. Poe is proven unreliable yet again. But unfortunately, he’s right about the note Aunt Josephine left behind since she actually wrote it despite the Baudelaires’ disbelief. So it’s a legal last will and testament as far as the idiot banker is concerned since he doesn’t buy the fact that Captain Sham is Count Olaf. And Poe and Sham have made plans to meet and bring the kids in the afternoon at the Anxious Clown. So once again, the Baudelaire orphans are screwed since Sham is their guardian and there’s nothing they can do about it. Though the have to do something to get out of their latest predicament and they don’t have long. But Klaus still has Aunt Josephine’s note in his mind and notices something off. So as Count Olaf and Mr. Poe sort out the legal paperwork, the Baudelaires must do something drastic.

The song I chose to mark this moment is Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” which is best known for Jimi Hendrix’s cover version. Like many Bob Dylan songs, its meaning has been debated for decades with theories ranging from the Vietnam War or Armageddon. But there are some reviewers who think the lyrics echo Isaiah 21:5-9 (KJV):  “Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise ye princes, and prepare the shield./For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth./And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed./…And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.” Only Bob Dylan would really know. In this version, I have the Baudelaires mulling over what to do about getting to Aunt Josephine’s house so Klaus can study the note in the grammar library. But in the end I have Lemony Snicket narrate that more trouble is on the horizon.

“All Along the Watchtower” (ASOUE Version)

Violet:
There must be some way out of here
Time window’s very brief
There’s too much confusion
I can’t get no relief
Count Olaf, he drinks his wine
As Poe draws the terms
We need a way to buy some time
Before it all starts getting worse

Klaus:
No reason to get excited
There’s something about this note
I might need to use the library
To make out of what she wrote
But for us right now, we need a plan
For this won’t be our fate
So let us not talk falsely now
The hour is getting late

Lemony Snicket:
All along the watchtower
Coast guards kept the view
While the kids ingested peppermints
They’re allergic to

Outside, in the distance
A taxi came around
Dark clouds were approaching
The wind began to howl