August: Osage County Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mouth cancer

Beverly and Violet are quite the match for each other. Beverly, a poet and writer, is an alcoholic, while Violet uses her cancer as a cover for her addiction to pills. Beverly is nonchalant about their situation, which he sums up for Johnna in this way: "The facts are - my wife takes pills and I drink. That's the bargain we've struck, just one paragraph of our marriage contract." He confesses to Johnna that he is not entirely comfortable with his decision to "join the ranks of the hiring class", but his circumstances have left him with no alternative. "I know how to launder my dirty undies. Done it all my life," he says, "But I'm finding that it's getting in the way of my drinking." Just then, Violet surfaces and makes a poor first impression when she is introduced to Johnna. She is disheveled, and makes inappropriate comments about Johnna's ethnicity and appearance. She tries to curtsey, but loses her balance and stumbles into the door. Finally, Violet exchanges some rude words with Beverly before taking her leave.

Beverly goes on to explain to Johnna that part of her duties will involve accompanying Violet to Tulsa for her chemotherapy sessions. When Johnna asks what type of cancer she has, Beverly replies, "Oh my God, I nearly neglected the punch line. Mouth cancer."

Answer: How to attract a man

Violet tends to run her mouth off when she's under the influence of her pills, which she consumes like Tic Tacs in this scene. Violet questions Ivy about her hair - she had it straightened - and chastises her for not wearing any make-up. "Every woman needs makeup. Don't let anybody tell you different. The only woman pretty enough to go without makeup was Elizabeth Taylor and she wore a ton," Violet says. "Your shoulders are all slumped and your hair's all straight and you don't wear makeup. You look like a lesbian. You could get a decent man if you would just spruce up a bit, that's all I'm saying." Ivy isn't interested. "I'm not looking for a man," she says.

In a later scene, Ivy, Violetm and Ivy's aunt, Mattie Fae, are looking at old pictures in Violet's room and talking about how men and women preserve their sex appeal into old age, when Violet starts in again on Ivy about her appearance. "I have a man, all right?" Ivy finally says in frustration. "Now will you leave it alone?" Violet and Mattie Fae tease Ivy relentlessly about the man in her life, but Ivy won't tell them anything more. The audience soon learns that Ivy has started seeing Little Charles, but wants to keep it a secret from the rest of her family. "They're on to me," she tells him, as she steals a quick kiss while he retrieves a casserole from the car. "Not us, just me. I told them I was seeing someone. I didn't tell them who. I just wanted you to know, in case it came up."

Answer: She broke her father's heart when she left home.

Barbara's first conversation with her mother in what must be many years is a tense and difficult one. Barbara is ostensibly getting information about her father's disappearance to aid in his search, but her questions imply that Violet must have said or done something to set him off. When Violet complains that Beverly hired a strange "Indian" woman to cook and clean before he disappeared, Barbara criticizes her for being politically incorrect ("They're called Native Americans, Mom."), and comments that it must be nice to have some good home cooked meals for a change. Violet tersely replies that it is nice for Barbara, but "soon you'll be gone, never to return", and starts in on her daughter for leaving home. "When was the last time you were here?" she asks Barbara. "And your father, you broke his heart when you moved away." Barbara disputes her mother's "wildly unfair" statement, but Violet doesn't relent. "If you'd had more than one child, you'd know a parent always has favorites. Mattie Fae was my mother's favorite. Big deal. I got used to it," she says to Barbara. "You were your Daddy's favorite. Broke his heart."

Barbara follows Violet to the bathroom, and grills her mother about the pills she is taking, saying that she's not "going through this again". She softens a little after Violet says that she needs her pills for the pain in her mouth, and complains that Barbara didn't come home after she was diagnosed with cancer, but "rushed right back" once her father had vanished. "I'm sorry," Barbara says to her mother. "You know where I think he is? I think he got some whiskey, and a carton of cigarettes, and a couple of spy novels... I think he got out on the boat, and steered it to a nice spot, close to shore like he likes... and he's fishing, and reading, and drinking, maybe even writing a little. And I think he's gonna walk through that door any time."

Answer: That she used to date the Sheriff

In what must be one of the worst moments of her life, Barbara's thoughts turn to the strangeness of the situation. "I used to go out with that boy... that man," she tells Jean, explaining that the Sheriff was her boyfriend in high school. "Day of the prom, his father got drunk and stole his car - stole his own son's car - went someplace, Mexico. Deon showed up at the house. He'd been crying. Confessed he didn't have a way to take me to the prom. So we got a six-pack and broke into the chapel, and stayed up all night talking and kissing. And now here he is, showing me..." She trails off. "It's so surreal. Thank God we can't tell the future. We'd never get out of bed."

As Bill gets out of the car and walks over to the Sheriff, Barbara turns deadly serious. "Listen to me - die after me, all right?" she tells Jean. "I don't care what else you do, where you go, how you screw up your life. Just survive. Please."

Answer: Cowboys and Indians

The evening gets off to a bad start when Violet berates the men for not wearing their jackets by pointing out that this is a funeral dinner, not a cockfight. She tells an embarrassing story about Beverly, and screeches at Karen when she tries to correct her faulty recollection of the catchphrase for the Wendy's television commercials ("Where's the meat?"). Violet belittles Karen's relationship with her fiancé, Steve, by expertly deducing that he has been married before.

When Karen starts talking about how they used to play Cowboys and Indians in the old fort, Violet pounces on her for her comment, but is really getting back at Barbara for correcting her earlier when she described Johnna as the "Indian" that Beverly hired to cook and clean. "Karen! Don't you know you're not supposed to say 'Cowboys and Indians'? You played 'Cowboys and Native Americans', right Barb?" she says, while casting a meaningful glance over to Barbara.

It's unclear how much of this is due to the drugs Violet is taking, but Violet is certainly in "rare form", as Charlie says at one point during the dinner.

Answer: "You're a drug addict."

Violet tells off Jean for calling Barbara a liar, and reveals that Beverly left a will containing inheritances for all three girls, but claims that he meant to change this to leave everything to her. She offers to sell her girls the old furniture and silverware in the house for less than what she would get at an auction, prompting Barbara to say that they could just wait for her to die and get them for free. Violet settles the score by announcing to the table that Barbara and Bill are separated - nothing slips past Violet - and casually comments to Barbara that she cannot compete with a younger woman, because all women "get ugly" with age. Karen disagrees, but Violet bluntly tells her that she is just starting to prove the adage herself. When Barbara says that she will not let her mother "viciously attack every member of this family", it provokes a lecture from Violet about what it really means to be attacked, and how fortunate her daughters have been in life compared to their parents. "Everybody's got the idea I'm mean all of a sudden," she says. "I'm just telling the truth," prompting Barbara to chime in with a truth of her own. "You're a drug addict," she says matter-of-factly.

"That's a truth! That's what I'm getting at. Hey everybody, everybody listen... I am a drug addict," Violet replies, refusing to give Barbara the satisfaction. "I love drugs, especially pills, especially downers," she says, as she taunts Barbara with a prescription bottle of "little blue babies" she produces from her pocket. "You try to get them away from me, I'll eat you alive." Pandemonium erupts at the dinner table, as Barbara lunges at her mother and wrestles her for the bottle. The others try to pull Barbara and Violet away from each other, as the fight spills over into the living room. Eventually, Barbara proves triumphant, and she towers over her mother holding the bottle. "Pill raid," she announces to her sisters. "Remember how it goes? Search everything. Every closet, every drawer, every shoebox." Violet protests by saying that she can't do this to her in her own home, but Barbara shows no mercy. "You don't get it, do you?" she says. "I am running things now!"

Answer: Because Little Charles and Ivy are first cousins

Little Charles had a 'truth' to tell during the funeral dinner, but he backed down at Ivy's insistence, arousing Barbara's suspicions. "Is there something going on between you and Little Charles?" she asks Ivy. "Because he is our first cousin, you know." Ivy is dismissive, and when Karen remarks that she shouldn't consider having children with him, Ivy reveals that she can't have children because she had a hysterectomy after being diagnosed with cervical cancer the previous year. Ivy only confided in Little Charles about her condition (she didn't want to give her mother yet another reason to treat her like "some damaged thing"), and that was when they started seeing each other.

Karen and Barbara were unaware of Ivy's illness, and they criticize her for keeping them in the dark. "We're your sisters," Barbara points out. "I don't feel that connection very keenly," Ivy replies. "I can't perpetuate these myths of family or sisterhood anymore. We're just people, some of us accidentally connected by genetics, a random selection of cells." When Barbara asks Ivy what happened to make her so cynical, Ivy replies, "Maybe my cynicism came with the realization that the responsibility of caring for our parents was mine alone." Barbara starts to protest the unfairness of that comment, but Ivy makes it clear that she isn't criticizing Barbara or Karen, and intends to follow their example. "When I leave here I won't feel any more guilty than you two did," she says, revealing that she and Little Charles are moving to New York. When Karen confirms that she is going back to Florida, Ivy turns to Barbara. "You want to know what we're doing about Mom? Karen and I are leaving. You want to stay, that's your decision. But nobody gets to point a finger at me," she says, as she starts back for the house.

Answer: She wants Barbara to stop Ivy from seeing Little Charles.

Mattie Fae is suspicious of her son's relationship with Ivy, so she seizes the opportunity to drive a wedge between them. She criticizes the amount of television he watches ("Too bad there's not a job where they pay you to sit around watching TV.") and bemoans the fact that he got fired from a shoe store, which prompts her husband, Charlie, to intervene. "I don't understand this meanness. I look at you and your sister and the way you talk to people and I don't understand it," he says to Mattie Fae once they are alone. "We've been married 38 years and I wouldn't trade them for anything, but if you can't find a generous place in your heart for your own son, we're not going to make it to 39." Mattie Fae is about to follow Charlie into the yard, when she notices Barbara standing in the doorway. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop," Barbara says. "I froze."

Mattie Fae gets Barbara to confirm her suspicions about Ivy and Little Charles, and says that a relationship between them is out of the question. When Barbara acknowledges that a relationship between cousins is unorthodox but points out that they are in love, Mattie Fae comes clean with the truth. "Little Charles is not your cousin. He's your brother," she says. "He's your father's child, which means he's Ivy's brother. Do you see?" Barbara takes a moment to let this bombshell sink in. "I don't know why Little Charles is such a disappointment to me," Mattie Fae confesses. "I'm disappointed FOR him, more than anything. I made a mistake, a long time ago, okay? I paid for it. But the mistake ends here." When Barbara points out that Ivy would be destroyed if she found out the truth, Mattie Fae sees only one way forward. "You have to find a way to stop it," she says to Barbara. "You have to put a stop to it."

Answer: Violet

Barbara is left on her own with her mother and her maid after Karen's fiancé, Steve, is caught in an inappropriate situation with Barbara's daughter, Jean. Barbara threatens Steve and slaps her daughter in a moment of anger, prompting Karen and Steve to leave that very night. Bill leaves with Jean the next morning, and makes it very clear that he is never coming back to Barbara. When Ivy arrives, she is determined to tell her mother about her relationship with Little Charles, and no amount of Barbara's distractions, pleading, and plate-breaking will stop her. When the time finally comes for Ivy to tell her mother, she has trouble finding the words. "Little Charles and I are..." she says, but doesn't get to finish.

"Little Charles and you are brother and sister. I know that," Violet says, to Ivy's stunned surprise. "I've always known that. I told you, nobody slips anything by me." When Ivy asks her mother what she is talking about, Violet continues. "Better you girls know now, now you're older. You never know when someone might need a kidney," she says bluntly. Ivy looks from Violet to Barbara in shock, calls both of them "monsters", and leaves the house. "You will never see me again," Ivy promises, as Barbara follows her to her car and explains that she didn't know what to do once she learnt the truth from Mattie Fae. "This is not my fault. Mom told you! It wasn't me, it was Mom!" she says. "There's no difference," Ivy replies emphatically. She drives off quickly, ignoring Barbara as she runs through the yard after Ivy, calling her name.

Answer: Beverly had left a note.

"We couldn't let Ivy run off with Little Charles," Violet says when Barbara returns. "It just wouldn't be right." She explains that she had always known about Beverly and Mattie Fae, and wonders if he was motivated by guilt to end his life. "If I'd reached him over to the motel, I would've said, 'You'd be better off if you quit sulking about this ancient history,'" she says. The revelation isn't lost on Barbara. "What motel?" she asks, as she edges closer to her mother. Violet explains that Beverly had left a note the day he disappeared, saying that he could be reached at the Country Squire Motel, but that he had already checked out by the time Violet called on Monday. Violet had waited until after the bank was open on Monday to call over at the motel, because she and Beverly had agreed that one of them would empty their safety deposit box if anything ever happened to the other person, a fact that Barbara cannot get over. "If you could have stopped Daddy from killing himself, you wouldn't have needed to get into your safety deposit box," she points out, before asking, "Did the note say he was going to kill himself?" Violet avoids the question and instead blames her behavior on her drug-addled brain, before saying that Beverly killed himself because his own daughter had abandoned him. "Oh yes, you stick that knife of judgment in me, go ahead, but make no mistake, his blood is just as much on your hands as it is on mine," she says cruelly.

Violet starts to get caught up in her own weak rationalizations, and begins to rant about how she is the victim in all of this, and only did what she did to prove that she was stronger than Beverly. "You're right, Mom. You're the strong one," Barbara finally says to her mother, and gives her one last hug before leaving in her father's truck. She keeps driving until the house is far behind her, and then stops at the side of the road to look out over the miles of prairie and let the wind wash over her hair and clothes. Her face is a mix of emotions - incredulity, exhaustion, and ultimately relief. She lets out a huge sigh, gets back in the truck and continues down the road.