A Reprehensible Quiz on "The Reptile Room"

Answer: Tedia

"Tedium", the experience of boredom, is generally an uncountable noun, but as a Latin word its plural might be "Tedia" - "multiple experiences of boredom".

Chapter One sees the Baudelaires traveling by car to meet their new guardian. Mentioned are Hazy Harbor, the Grim River and - most importantly - Lousy Lane, with trees that have "apples so sour that one only has to look at them to feel ill". We discover in "The End" that these apples are horseradish-infused.

Lachrymose Lake appears in "The Wide Window"; Paltryville is the location of the titular mill in "The Miserable Mill"; the Mortmain Mountains are the setting of "The Slippery Slope".

Answer: Herpetologist

In Chapter Two, the Baudelaires are slightly confused by Uncle Monty, but he establishes himself as kind and thoughtful through his offerings of coconut cream cake and carrots. Klaus is excited at the announcement of their planned travels to Peru.

Answer: Misnomer

In Chapter Three, the Baudelaires get used to a pleasant routine, each using their talents to help Uncle Monty's snake studies. Snicket's friend Madame diLustro is mentioned for the first of two times in the series, here as an excellent dinner party host so long as one is not late.

In "The Grim Grotto", Snicket alludes to discovering her true identity. It seems that, like the Incredibly Deadly Viper, she has been going by a "misnomer" - a wrong name.

Answer: Stephano

Another reference to "The Tempest" is found in the name of the ship to Peru - the "Prospero". In fact, Olaf finds himself shipwrecked in a later book, just as Stephano does. Unfortunately for the Baudelaires, the absurdity of Olaf's schemes is balanced out by the incompetence of the adults around him.

Despite Uncle Monty's seeming trustworthiness, he is completely fooled by Olaf's disguise.

Answer: Stroganoff

In Chapter Five, Olaf's surveillance and Uncle Monty's obliviousness means the children are presented with no clear opportunity to tell Uncle Monty about the true nature of his assistant. Olaf rubs the knife against Violet's leg under the table at dinner to provide a continual threat to stop them confronting him.

Answer: Zombies in the Snow

In "The Unauthorized Autobiography", the film is seen to contain a coded message used by the secret organisation V.F.D. During Chapter Six, the whole movie goes above the Baudelaires' heads as they try to work out a way to communicate with Uncle Monty without Olaf finding out.

Answer: Brummagem

Klaus, despite being a wide reader, is unaware of the word "brummagem". It is immediately clear to the Baudelaires that Olaf has killed Monty, though the exact method is not.

In Chapter Seven, Olaf gets into a car accident with Mr. Poe, who accompanies him and the Baudelaires back to Monty's house and tells Olaf to call a doctor. Mr. Poe is disbelieving of the Baudelaires as to Olaf's identity.

Answer: Dr. Lucafont

"Lucafont" lacks the second "o" to be a perfect anagram. As the Baudelaires learn in "The Hostile Hospital", many of Olaf's disguised names are anagrams.

The Baudelaires do not realize the man is Olaf's assistant - the hook-handed man - until the denouement of the story, but they do notice his "oddly stiff hands".

Answer: Pale

From reading in Uncle Monty's library, Klaus learns in Chapter Nine that the snake kills with its "strangulatory grip" and "deadly venom, giving all of its victims a tenebrous hue". This means its victims are dark with bruises. Instead Monty's face is pale: he has been deliberately injected with the snake's venom by Olaf.

Answer: Nathaniel Hawthorne

In Chapter Ten, Mr. Poe invokes figures from Christianity (God, Mary and Joseph), Islam (Allah), Ancient Greece (Zeus and Hera) before giving contradictory advice about what to do to save Sunny. Meanwhile, Violet is attempting to save herself and her siblings from Olaf by searching through his belongings for evidence of murder.

Answer: Plug socket

In Chapter Eleven, Violet fashions a lock pick that she uses to get into Stephano's suitcase. She uses metal strips from the plug's prongs, butcher paper, a thumbtack and soap. Violet finds a complete array of evidence of how Olaf killed Monty.

Answer: Left ankle

The tattoo's significance is established later in the series. The Baudelaires find it frightening, as one example of the eye imagery that Olaf decorated his house with in "The Bad Beginning". However, in Chapter Twelve, they are happy to see it.

Answer: Brilliant

The other words are generally used as nouns.

In Chapter Thirteen, Violet praises Klaus as brilliant for his research into the Mamba du Mal. He returns the compliment for Violet's discovery of evidence in Olaf's suitcase. Sunny celebrates herself as brilliant for her distraction with the Incredibly Deadly Viper. Nonetheless, the children are left without a guardian, with Olaf still in pursuit of them, and with an incompetent banker - Mr Poe - in charge of their affairs.