"The Grim Grotto: Part Two" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Orphans

After the Baudelaires discover that Sunny has come into contact with the Medusoid Mycelium, they're quickly taken into Count Olaf's submarine as prisoners. Since they don't have the Sugar Bowl, there's much to discuss, but it doesn't take away from the fact that a deadly spore has entered Sunny's diving suit. The Mycellium grows best in small, dark places, like a toddler's throat, and will kill the youngest Baudelaire in an hour if left alone. Count Olaf has no real concern for this. After all, he doesn't need more than one Baudelaire to get their fortune.

And so the orphans head to the brig, where the Snow Scouts are being used to paddle the submarine.

Answer: The Hook-Handed Man

As the Baudelaires are brought to the brig to find not only the captured Snow Scouts, but their captured chef, Phil, paddling the Carmelita, it seems like the most proper time for Carmelita herself to announce a recital (encouraged by Esme, of course).

Count Olaf stows the children away where they can't escape and the Baudelaires realize that all hope is lost. After Olaf leaves, it's only moments, however, before the Hook-Handed Man bursts in the door claiming to be there to torture them. In reality, he's actually curious as to how they ended up on the Queequeg. When he realizes that Sunny is sick, he decides to help. He insists that they're not on the same side though.

Answer: Sea monster

While the Hook-Handed Man distracts Count Olaf with an impromptu trip to the galley...erm...wine room, the Baudelaires pass by the rowing Snow Scouts, suffering at the hands of Carmelita as she enters the third act of her recital. To get back to the Queequeg they need to make a distraction, and to do that, they need to get creative and, as Violet suggests, make a sea monster. Combining some nearby tools and a whistle, Violet creates an instrument that sounds like an alarming sea creature, and with that the Baudelaires are convincing enough to scare the Snow Scouts, terrify Esme and Carmelita, and safely descend down the tunnel to the Queequeg.

Answer: Horseradish

When the Baudelaires return to the Queequeg there's no time to waste. They alert Fiona of the Medusoid Mycelium and head to the library to read up on the toxic fungus, but their hunt for the cure is almost fruitless as they discover that Very Fancy Doctors on Lousy Lane have yet to create one. There is, however, a note in the margin of the book; a poem:

"Is dilution simple? But of course.
Just one small dose of root of horse."

The Baudelaires, remembering when they visited Uncle Monty down Lousy Lane, recall the solution almost immediately: horseradish.

Answer: Wasabi

The children search through the cupboards in the galley for horseradish, but its not so simple; the Queequeg is hardly outfitted to make meals. In most cupboards, the children only find gum from the Lucky Smells Lumbermill, but there are a few others containing wasabi and tarragon. The fridge only contains lemon-lime soda, gorgonzola cheese, and a birthday cake for Violet (made by Sunny for dessert).

The phrase 'the tables have turned' is not one, according to Lemony Snicket, that the Baudelaires have ever had much occasion to use. It refers to 'a situation which has suddenly been reversed so that those in a powerless position suddenly find themselves in a powerful one and vice versa'. When Sunny hears the need for horseradish, she points them to the wasabi. She knew that it would be a suitable substitute.

Answer: Hotel

Count Olaf, realizing how much he wants to see the Baudelaires tortured, plans to follow the Hook-Handed Man to their cell, foiling the distraction attempt, but the wine in the galley seems to be causing its intended effect. When Olaf is handed a sandwich, the plan comes to him. If he disengages from the Queequeg, which he believes to be empty, then it will just sink to the bottom of the sea. The Hook-Handed Man tries to convince him that it's not something that's needed to be done, but that's not a good enough answer.

In the Queequeg, Violet gives Fiona the diving helmet containing the Medusoid Mycelium, sealed with a dinner plate and chewing gum. Something good, like the medicines that can be derived from studying the fungus, may come from something bad.

There more good news. Because Violet and Fiona were able to repair the telegraph machine, they were able to get some much needed info: the Last Safe Place is the Hotel Denouement. It's on the seaside; they can take the sub there...or at least they could if Fiona would let them. Captain's orders though; they can't leave yet.

Answer: False

The reason that the Baudelaires can not surface becomes very clear very quickly when the Hook-Handed Man enters the control room of the Queequeg and embraces Fiona. The situation, as Lemony Snicket explains, is volatile, a word which, here, means 'unstable or likely to cause trouble (as it can apply to people or poisonous mushrooms)'. When volatile things are present, trouble may wax and when they are not, trouble may wane. In this case, the trouble is apparent.

Fiona and the Hook-Handed Man-- Fernald-- are brother and sister. Fernald left the family after an argument with his step-father, the former Captain Widdershins of the Queequeg. Though the Baudelaires decry Fernald for his wickedness in siding with Count Olaf and opposing V.F.D., he explains that Anwhistle Aquatics was an awful place used as a testing ground for a substance that would end the other side of the schism once and for all, and that's why he had to start the fire to burn it down. He was playing with fire; it was volatile. But no one listened.

The fire cost him his arms, which he replaced with hooks. He did a horrible thing for a noble cause and he paid the price, but the Baudelaires have done much of the same. After all, they burned down Caligari Carnival.

Answer: By trading the Medusoid Mycelium

After rounding up the Snow Scouts, Count Olaf, Esme, and Carmelita head to the Queequeg to retrieve Fernald and are surprised to find that not only did the Baudelaires escape, but that Fiona had stowed away onboard. It turns out to be a very volatile situation made all the more complicated when Fiona, revealing her relation to the Hook-Handed Man, trades his life for the sample of Medusoid Mycelium contained in Sunny's diving helmet, an amount of fungus that could kill all of V.F.D. if it got out. Fiona also manages to convince Olaf not to leave the fungus for the Baudelaires; he can use it to hurt more people later on.

But the tables keep turning. Olaf, using her brother as leverage, convinces Fiona to join his side and imprison the Baudelaires in the brig of the Carmelita, but before she can do that, she lets them escape. While she brings up the rear and joins her brother on the opposite side, the Baudelaires take control of the damaged submarine.

Answer: Briny Beach

When Fernald and Fiona board the Carmelita it becomes very apparent that Olaf has no intent on letting his turncoat henchman assist any longer, but Fernald manages to stave off doom by offering Olaf the one piece of information he can: the location of the Last Safe Place where all of V.F.D. is gathering. Olaf doesn't even notice, at least not until it's too late, that the Baudelaires haven't been imprisoned before they disembark. There's a lot, at least from Olaf's point of view, to be excited about-- they have the orphans, they have the fungus, and with their luck, the Sugar Bowl will fall into their lap.

Fiona's repairs manage to work perfectly, but there's something very wrong as the Baudelaires regain control of the Queequeg, and that's in the form of the Great Unknown, which races towards them at an alarming rate. They push the submarine into turbo drive and race on to the shore at Briny Beach.

Answer: True

The Water Cycle consists of three phenomena-- evaporation, precipitation, and collection. Occasionally, a drop of water falls, unpleasantly, before being pooled and dragged back into the sky to start all over again. The Sugar Bowl has a very similar cycle. As Quigley has dredged from where it fell and was collected, he places it back into the sky, handing it off to a murder of crows flying over Anwhistle Aquatics.

The Baudelaires manage to outrun the Great Unknown and find the closest beach, a place they've been before. Their cycle complete and restarting, they return to Briny Beach, where they originally heard the news of their parents' death from Mr. Poe at the start of their series of unfortunate events. And Mr. Poe is there once again.

Mr. Poe is not thrilled to see the children, but he doesn't need to worry as Kit Snicket has also arrived in her taxi specifically to retrieve the Baudelaires. Poe poses a unique problem though-- they can go with him to the police station or they can go in the cab. Mr. Poe believes that the Baudelaires suffer from not having a dedicated guardian in their lives, so he offers himself as that figure. The Baudelaires refuse, however, as staying with him would perpetuate their own cycle.

Instead, they follow Ms. Snicket. She warns them that if they join her, their lives will become more difficult and they will learn things they may not have wanted to know, but she will take them to V.F.D. They get into the cab and she offers to answer their questions, but first she gives them her name.