"The Ersatz Elevator: Part Two" Quiz

Answer: A journalist

Jacques and Olivia depart from 667 Dark Avenue having not found the Quagmire orphans, but the Baudelaires land at the bottom of the ersatz elevator shaft in their makeshift craft to find them in a cage at ground level. While they are happy to locate the orphans, our narrator reminds us of what we're watching, and in the future, there will be a long scream in the darkness that encapsulates exactly how you should feel learning of the tale as it unfolds.

But more on that when it happens. In the meantime, the Baudelaires are unable to pick the lock, but after Isadora hands over her half of the spyglass, they all realize how adaptive a tool it is. Duncan, a journalist, says that his notes from 'The Incomplete History of Secret Organizations' give a number of helpful tips to use the device. Violet suggests they return to the apartment to try and find something to pick the lock with, so they depart with the knowledge that Count Olaf plans to sell them off at the upcoming auction, hidden in an item up for bidding.

Answer: Parsley soda

Count Olaf and Esme return to 667 Dark Avenue and Esme drags Jerome all the way back up the stairs to the penthouse floor. The Baudelaires ascend to the top, but destroy their thrown-together hot air balloon by overusing the heat of the spyglass, barely making it to the penthouse floor and climbing out of the elevator shaft before Esme arrives.

She brings Jerome into the apartment and urges the children to tell her anything she needs to know to help them out. They relent and inform her of everything: Count Olaf is Gustav, the Quagmires are in the elevator shaft, and Olaf is planning to sell them off. Esme claims that this is the least 'in' thing in ages and urges them to have a drink of something very new and very 'in'-- parsley soda.

Answer: False

Esme tells the orphans that there's no time to waste, and after a sip of parsley soda, she takes the orphans to the front of the penthouse and says that they can head to the police station. Taking the stairs, however, may take too much time. So instead, she opens the ersatz elevator and, to their surprise and dismay, she pushes them all in, sending them screaming and hurtling down into the shaft.

They expect to hit the bottom, but find themselves caught in a net instead. It's while they're trapped there that Esme reveals that she's actually a former acting student of Count Olaf and she's been working for him the entire time to get back at Beatrice, who the children do not know. And at the auction, she will smuggle them and the Quagmires out of the city to help Olaf collect both fortunes.

Answer: Dance

Olivia tells Jacques that perhaps she's not cut out for volunteer work and she contemplates returning to her library at Prufrock Preparatory School, but Jacques insists that she could still yet play a role in the overwhelming tale still unfolding before them. Though they didn't find the Quagmires, they still have a chance to save them and the Baudelaires.
Olaf and Esme, meanwhile, toast their disgusting glasses of parsley soda to their successes and their reunion which, after all these years, couldn't have been done without the Baudelaires in their lives. Esme says that had she known about them, she would have adopted them sooner. They dance while Jerome sleeps on a nearby chaise lounge.
The Baudelaires begin to try and solve their problems. Sunny climbs the elevator shaft while Violet and Klaus read through a catalogue of auctioned items.

Answer: VFD

Sunny makes it to the top of the elevator shaft and past the hook-handed man to get back into the penthouse and, inside, she evades the dancing, evil actors to collect a couple of key items needed to get the Baudelaires out of their predicament before diving back into the ersatz elevator shaft. Violet and Klaus, searching through the catalogue, find a lot named 'V.F.D.', which appears to be a large box with a few airholes, and they believe that that's the conspicuous item containing the Quagmires.

The initials V.F.D., however, remain a mystery. When Sunny returns they rappel to the bottom of the elevator shaft to find the cage missing. But there is a secret passageway under there leading into the sewers.

Answer: A sugar bowl

In the tunnels beneath 667 Dark Avenue, the Baudelaires quickly stumble upon a panel in the ceiling with the mysterious eye symbol impressed into the metal. Climbing up and out they emerge into an ashy area where a man with an eye tattoo walks in front of their trapdoor.

They hide away, not noticing that it's actually Jacques Snicket, along with Olivia Caliban, discussing the truth behind the whole scheme and how it was brought into being by a sugar bowl, of all things. It's dangerous, Snicket says, but volunteers need to be there to put them out. When Snicket and Caliban leave, the Baudelaires emerge from the hatch to find themselves int he burnt-out ruins of their old family house.

Answer: Mr. Poe

Although the Baudelaires ponder what connects everything enough to bring them back to the ruins of their old house, they realize that they have very little time; the auction is about to begin. They step out into the street only to find themselves in front of Mr. Poe's car.

He's in a rush as well, heading off to the In Auction with his wife. It's coincidence that they're all heading to the same place: Veblen Hall. They arrive just as Count Olaf, once again Gunther, finishes with a peculiar lot number, specifically a statue of a red herring (because herring is so 'in'). One of Count Olaf's henchmen bids on it for the Herring Houdini restaurant, of course. Once Olaf spots the orphans, he immediately rushes to lot 49: the V. F. D. crate.

Answer: Carmelita

The Baudelaires wish to use their fortune to bid on the V. F. D. crate and save the Quagmires, but Mr. Poe says the bank would never allow their money be used for public sale. Instead, he says he will place a modest bid allowed by his recent promotion.

At the same time, Larry walkies Jacquelyn who, under cover of a false name, enters the auction; Jacques and Olivia also drive through the city intending to stop the events once and for all. They intercept the V. F. D. crate and the auction proceeds with Mr. Poe and Olaf's henchmen engaging in a bidding war, but before the gavel can come down, Jerome arrives to place a bid as well, intending to do right by the Baudelaires.

Answer: Doilies

The bids come hard and fast after that, but in the end, Sunny places the final bid of $1,000 and the Baudelaires race up to claim the V. F. D. box, attempting to out Count Olaf in the process. In the box however, all they find is hundreds of Very Fine Doilies.

The purchase doesn't go to waste though. In the excitement, Count Olaf's boot is ruined an the crowd sees his eye tattoo. The crowd moves in to apprehend him, but Esme gives a monologue praising Count Olaf, her new boyfriend, distracting the crowd until Veblen Hall is declared 'out'.

In the ensuing rush to leave the hall, they escape out a trapdoor in the stage floor.

Answer: True

The words 'red herring' refer not only to 'a common type of foraging fish that may be crimson-hued that can be smoked or painted with excessive nail polish', but it can also be 'a distracting or misleading clue' like a box labeled V. F. D. which has nothing to do with a secret organization. Nothing good is happening and to say otherwise would be a red herring. The Baudelaires talk to Jerome after the events at Veblen Hall and he admits he doesn't have the courage to join them in pursuing Count Olaf or Esme, but he wishes them luck. Mr. Poe has an option for them though-- it's a town looking after orphans and it's called, mysteriously enough, V. F. D.