"The Miserable Mill: Part Two" Quiz

Answer: Mrs. Poe

Mr. Poe, disappointed that the Baudelaires have seemed to elude his searches, confides in his wife that he'll likely lose his job because he lost the orphans. He's informed almost immediately after that he won't be fired, but he will be demoted severely. In the meantime he's told to remove his #1 banker pin. He places it with a package he's meant to deliver to Klaus. Eleanora Poe takes up the mantle, claiming that her roots as an investigative journalist make her suited to find the missing children.

Lemony Snicket assures us that the events taking place at the Lucky Smells Lumbermill are not as black-and-white as Mrs. Poe's articles at the Daily Punctilio, and says that the misfortunes that happen there in the Baudelaires' presence are twofold, unlike what the news would have one believe. He encourages you to avoid viewing any further, but that he will nonetheless tell the truth.

Answer: Shirley

After handing Klaus his new glasses, Shirley is introduced to the Baudelaires as Dr. Orwell's new assistant, but Violet and Sunny aren't fooled in the slightest, even though Olaf points to his name tag bearing the name 'Shirley St. Ives'. Dr. Orwell admits that the children are a bit too nosy for their own good, but no one can really do much else because Sir and Charles arrive soon after. Sir makes it apparent that he and Dr. Orwell have a deal and before long, Charles is encouraged to stop by for an eye exam even though he claims to have perfect vision. Soon after, the children are put back to work, with Klaus working the stamping machine. Violet is, of course, concerned; her brother would never operate such a machine without reading the manual first...even if he's doing it perfectly.

Answer: Phil

Violet confides in Phil about her brother's zombie-like trance state and Phil admits he did see something like it once in a black-and-white movie. Violet believes he's talking about 'Zombies in the Snow', which the children saw with their Uncle Monty, but he's actually referring to another movie entirely-- 'Hypnotists in the Forest'. Before he can say much else, Klaus uses the stamping machine incorrectly, sending it running haywire. Phil is knocked underneath the stamper as it comes down onto him.

Lemony Snicket watches 'Hypnotists in the Forest' in his motel room. It's real, he says. 'Encyclopedia Hypnotica' tells of a woman who, when hearing the word 'omelette', would cluck like a chicken. The book does not mention the accident at the Lucky Smells Lumbermill which resulted in an accident with the stamper machine. This is due in part to that accident not involving Phil, whose leg was simply pinned under the stamper. Violet, grabbing a piece of gum, rewires the machine again and uses the gum to hold the components together. The stamper comes up off Phil's leg, but the damage is done.

Answer: Inordinate

The stamper seems to have done a great deal of damage to Phil's leg though he seems entirely optimistic about his situation (half-off pedicures for life!). His coworkers decide they'll chip in with their coupons to help with his hospital bills. Sir and Charles come in and the former claims that he will send the children away if they step out of line one more time. When he mentions the inordinate amount of money they're costing, Klaus snaps out of his trance once again.

Violet tries to convince Charles to speak up instead of continuing to be unhappy as a silent partner and he decides he will, considering their parents' ties to the secrets of the mill. He asks Violet to meet him in the library after lunch. He can give her the details, but only after an appointment.

Klaus, asking Violet for help, asks what happened to Phil. He seems to have no idea what happens in his trances.

Answer: They made a costly mistake

The truth is, Dr. Georgina Orwell has been involving herself a great deal in the workings of Lucky Smells Lumbermill. She has been performing weekly eye exams on the workers to practice her craft and splitting profits 50/50 with Sir who, in all fairness, doesn't care to know why his workers are so compliant, only that what she's doing works. Shirley is brought to his office to share a story with him, and it's then that Olaf, in the guise of a receptionist, reveals that he is seeking three orphans to fulfill his dreams. Sir won't part with them though, since they're an economic bonanza. They would need to be fired under drastic circumstances for him to part ways. Dr. Orwell tells Olaf to wait while she works her magic and, perhaps, a fatal accident could occur with a bit of prodding.

Klaus, realizing how deep into the mess he's gotten his siblings, says that he will return to Dr. Orwell's office to find the truth. They decide to go together though, sneaking up a fire escape and directly into Orwell's office while Charles is hypnotized in the patient's seat. They hide upstairs in time for Orwell and Olaf to head back into the office and reveal their plans to one another, confirming their past relationship and that they're convincing Charles that the Baudelaires are bad people.

Answer: Sir

The Baudelaires are forced to hide when Olaf hears them hiding upstairs. They make their way into a closet to find literal skeletons inside, but behind those, Klaus finds a box of records for the employees of the mill indicating that, perhaps, every one of the workers is under a hypnotic trance like himself and Charles.

The children leave the office unfound and return to the gate of the mill, and Violet suggests that they run away and try to escape Olaf once more. Klaus, however, realizes how compromised they would be with him under hypnosis, and urges her to stay to fight back, even if only for the mill workers. That's when Sir opens the doors to find them.

In his office, Sir gives the children good news and bad news. The bad news: one more step out of line and he will have to relinquish the children to Shirley St. Ives, who wants children of her own. The good news: the situation will build character. Charles agrees; inflexibility will go a long way.

Answer: The Verified Functional Dictionary

Violet and Klaus fight to determine what word will break the hypnotic spell, and fortunately, Violet still has the 'Verified Functional Dictionary' from the library. There's no real way to figure it out though, unless all the words are gone through. They don't get the whole way through; in the night, they pass out. Klaus is awakened by the foreman in the middle of the night and told that he's a 'lucky boy'. Klaus immediately gets back to work in the mill and Violet wakes up to discover where he is.

A mother and father realize that things are much worse than they envisioned. As the father takes a spyglass from the desk drawer and the mother sends their three children to bed, a figure parked in front of their house uses a laser to spark a fire in their study.

Answer: Fire

Klaus ends up in the lumbermill proper with Count Olaf watching the proceedings and his henchman, the man with hooks for hands, revealing himself to be the new foreman. Klaus, in a trance, ties Charles, also in his trance, to a log as it lines up to be put through a saw. Violet and Sunny arrive before Klaus can pull the lever and cause the horrible accident. It doesn't matter though-- the hook-handed man grabs Violet and Olaf tells Klaus to start the machine, which he does.

It doesn't take long for a screw-up though. The hook-handed man says Charles' trigger word, 'fire', which pulls him out of his trance while he's tied to the log. It doesn't work for Klaus though-- only the mill workers. Violet is only barely able to sneak out of the hook-handed man's grasp and into the foreman's booth to shout the word 'fire' into the speaker system.

She does. It works. The mill workers awaken from their trance and storm the building.

Elsewhere, in another time, in a motel room, Lemony Snicket also shouts fire. It gives him time to escape.

Elsewhere still, in a pleasant home owned by a mother and a father, no one shouts fire.

Answer: Dr. Orwell

Sunny nearly rescues Charles, climbing atop the trapped man and chewing through some of his ropes as Violet and Olaf use Klaus' trigger word-- 'lucky', to get him to push and pull the lever for the log. It's Dr. Orwell who puts an end to that, telling Klaus not to listen to his sister's instructions before heading over to remove Sunny from Charles' bindings. Olaf argues with Orwell's propensity to keep secrets from him-- like how she got into the mill with the door barred shut-- and decides to break up with her once again, opting to go with plans that use less science fiction mumbo-jumbo than he needs.

Their argument has a secondary effect. It gives Violet the time she needs to realize that Klaus' trance-breaking word is 'inordinate', and with that he stops the machine and saves Charles from the saw.

Dr. Orwell still has Sunny in her hands though, and a fatal accident is all that's needed to get their fortune. The fatal accident isn't Sunny's though. As the mill workers break through the door, Orwell is startled enough to fall backwards into an open furnace, flinging Sunny into the air and out of harm's way as she burns up and causes the fatal accident she sought to have.

In the ensuing chaos, Olaf and his henchmen flee into the night while Sir, emerging to find his workers beginning what he thinks is a night shift is attacked for not giving his employees their freedom.

Answer: A school

Mr. Poe finally locates the orphans after the tragic events at the Lucky Smells Lumbermill (and his wife reports on the news therein) and he finds their own tale a bit unbelievable. He gives the credit to his wife who admits she found them by instinct, on accident, by following the story. He also tells the children that the lumbermill is no guardian and that he will be passing them on to the next possibility down the line.

Charles helps the children solve a bit of a mystery though. He gets ready to head out and hunt for Sir, who went missing, but before he leaves he gives the children the page from the history books, proving once and for all that the Baudelaires put out the Paltryville fire and helped the locals get back on their feet.

Mr. Poe drives the children onward to their next destination and informs them that he is now Vice President of Orphan Affairs at Mulctuary Money Management, meaning he'll be too busy to keep checking in on them. But fortunately, he has enrolled them in a boarding school-- Prufrock Preparatory School-- which will allow them to learn in a safe environment, even if it may be near the end of the semester. It'll build character, he says.

Mr. Poe leaves them outside the office and departs, giving Klaus a package from South America, specifically his former secretary, Jacqueline. It's the half of the spyglass they loaned to her. They don't see the other children on the other side of the bench, eying their own half of a spyglass. A violin plays inside the administrative office. They don't see a photo across the hall containing both Lemony Snicket and Count Olaf.

Will the Baudelaire's find a happy ending? Nothing is really that black and white. For now, that's not how the story goes.