I might have gone a bit darker on the ending , implied a bit more that they might not have made it . Really the book itself doesn ' t really give any reason to think things may have gone wrong . Its The Beatrice Letters companion book that does . except then also proves they did make it so there was no point in saying the boat crashed to begin with . Also , maybe not really an ending issue per say , but the Baudelaires really should have had the curiosity to ask Kit why in the world Widdershins abandoned them and his own daughter . It ' s funny since the readers more or less get that answer , I think Handler may have forgotten in the last two books that the Baudelaires themselves never got that answer . Since they should have brought that up the moment Kit said she was in contact with Widdershins . Before that for all they knew he was dead yet they have no reaction .