However, the Baudelaires don’t have the time to dwell on what they found in the Snicket File. Because Esme Squalor shows up breaking down a door. She’s wearing a fur coat and her trademark stiletto heels, which has actual knives in them. Yes, her shoes are about as violent as they’re impractical. While the show has her trying to find the Sugar Bowl, Esme in the book goes to the Library of Records to find and destroy the Snicket File. And she’s pleased to find the kids so she can destroy them, too. The children ask about how she knows about their file while Klaus wants to know which of their parents survived. But this clues Esme into that they know about and apparently read the file even though they only read one page. Thinking, the kids have the whole file, she chases them through the library. But thanks to her sharp stilettos, Esme doesn’t get very far on her feet. So she decides to push cabinets, causing them to fall over and spill out contents. The Baudelaires narrowly avoid being crushed. Yet, since the toppled file cabinet has blocked the exit, the only way out is up the chute where the files enter the library. Sunny fits easily being a baby at all. It’s a squeeze for Klaus but he gets through (though in the TV show he’s bigger than Violet). But there’s no way Violet could get in (yet, in the TV show she couldn’t because the chute opening was blocked by a file cabinet). At any rate, Violet is screwed.

The song I went with here is Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Run Through the Jungle” which you’d find in a lot of Vietnam War movies. However, while people think it’s about the Vietnam War, it’s actually about guns and gun violence in the United States. In fact, John Fogerty said in 2016, “The thing I wanted to talk about was gun control and the proliferation of guns… I remember reading around that time that there was one gun for every man, woman and child in America, which I found staggering. So somewhere in the song, I think I said, ‘200 million guns are loaded.’ Not that anyone else has the answer, but I did not have the answer to the question; I just had the question. I just thought it was disturbing that it was such a jungle for our citizens just to walk around in our own country at least having to be aware that there are so many private guns owned by some responsible and maybe many irresponsible people.” As someone who hates guns and strongly believes in gun control measures, I have to agree as his statement gains relevance with each mass shooting on the news that it’s ridiculous. Because yes, it’s disturbing that so many Americans have guns. So if you’re in The March of Our Lives, you can totally use this song to promote gun control since Fogerty won’t. In fact, Fogerty wrote it as a gun control anthem. This version involves the Baudelaires trying to get away from Esme.

“Run for an Exit”

Sung by Violet and Klaus Baudelaire

Violet:
Whoa Esme wants the Snicket File
Knife shoes on the floor

Wants to destroy it along with ourselves
Got to find a door

Better run for an exit
Better run for an exit
Better run for an exit
Whoa don’t look back to see

Klaus:
Running in wrong direction
Exit’s other way

Now Esme’s felling file cabinets
How do we escape

Better run for an exit
Better run for an exit
Better run for an exit
Whoa don’t look back to see

Violet:
Over across the library, there’s a large tall chute
Sorry, but I can’t fit in there
Klaus, Sunny, go through

Better run for an exit
Better run for an exit
Better run for an exit
Whoa don’t look back to see