Theory: was Jerome Squalor a member of VFD prior to his marriage to Esmé?
Although Jerome initially appears to be a late addition to VFD (on the firefighting volunteer-side, following the schism), his ties with the organisation go back much further.
I’ve been prompted to look into his relationship with VFD after listening to a conversation on the Unfortunate Associates podcast (The Ersatz Elevator, Part 1 - Netflix, broadcast 29 May 2018 - listen from 27:40.)
In The Unauthorised Autobiography, it’s clear that Jacques and Jerome were good friends prior to Jerome’s marriage — Jacques writes an urgent letter to his ‘good friend’ Jerome urging him not to marry Esmé, as she clearly has an ulterior motive (a letter which, as we know from the Doorman, never arrived, and from Jerome’s post-marital letter dated a few weeks later, he did not receive.)
The autobiography (LSUA) also explains how Jerome and Esme meet. Geraldine Julienne, unreliable reporter at the Daily Puntcilio, is so starstruck to be profiling Esmé, the city’s sixth most important financial advisor, that she willingly gives up the information of Jermone’s whereabouts — i.e. the Veritable French Diner, a restaurant he frequents. If this is VFD HQ, is he aware of this? Jerome is apparently unaware that this will help Esmé with her scheme to marry him for his penthouse with a secret tunnel leading from the ersatz elevator shaft to the Baudelaire mansion.
Although Jacques and Jerome are friends, Jerome does not seem to be a member of VFD — note that his notice from the Valley of Fragrant Grapes isn’t in code (as Lemony and Beatrice’s is), and that he seems unaware of Esmé’s schemes. In addition, in Jacques’ letter in LSUA pp.122-23 states:
“The same reason I begged you to but the apartment at 667 Dark Avenue”
I.e. Jacques had an ulterior motive that Jerome didn’t know about; Jacques may well have been friends with Jerome long before this, but he buys the penthouse apartment with the tunnel at Jacques’ insistence. Later, he says:
“I am not really a detective, my friend. I am a member of an organization that requires its members to pretend to be various occupations…”
— indicating that Jerome was in the dark (ha ha) about VFD.
Now in the Netflix show, Jerome clearly tells the children that he lost contact with a lot of his friends once he married Esmé, so we have reason to believe that she knew about or was part of VFD even if he wasn’t. The sugar bowl was allegedly hers, stolen by Beatrice, and in the Netflix show we see the tea set which the item belongs: and an illustration of the SB in the Incomplete History of Secret Organizations, which the Quagmires read in the library at Prufrock Prep. Note that this is Netflix-only canon: the book is only alluded to in the novels, and the children certainly don’t read it this early on in their narrative.
The Netflix adaptation also suggests that Esmé knew Count Olaf (perhaps even romantically) before she married Jerome, so there’s a case that she was in VFD before her husband, but I’ve yet to verify this in the books. In EE p.30, Jerome refers to Count Olaf as “this Count Olaf person” and “that despicable man”, indicating that he hasn’t had the same history of knowing Olaf within VFD.
Later in Book 12, Jerome has joined VFD and has partnered with Justice Strauss and Dewey Denouement on the children’s behalf. He realises that Esmé was just as corrupt as the volunteers on the other side of the schism and vows to help the children. At that point he shows remorse for his actions when he failed the children as their guardian (TPP p.192: “I’ll never forgive myself….for walking away from you children. I’m afraid I wasn’t a very good guardian”), yet ultimately doesn’t come through for them since the children set fire to the hotel and escape (presumably everyone else in the hotel didn’t).
So, back to the original question: did Jerome know about VFD and was he a volunteer? I think he would have known of it (through Jacques and later his wife) but his meek and at times, dim-witted personality (taking everything at face value and refusing to argue) are the traits that stop him from fully grasping the consequences of his complicity until it’s too late.
