In "The Grim Grotto", Phil worked as a cook at a submarine manned by Captain Widdershins (who calls him Cookie) and his stepdaughter Fiona although all he can make are damp casseroles. Klaus believes that Phil is still being affected by the stamping machine accident upon seeing his limp, but Phil claims it to be a shark bite. He, along with Captain Widdershins, abandons the Baudelaires and Fiona during the middle of the novel for unknown reasons (or had been captured), and does not appear in "The Penultimate Peril" or "The End".