"The Penultimate Peril: Part One" Quiz

Answer: Concierge

"For Beatrice-- No one could extinguish my love, or your house."

"Things," Lemony Snicket suggests, "are not always as they seem." Take a pond for example, which may hide awful things under its reflective surface. The world is like a pond, and if you drop something in it, it will cause ripples that change everything.

The Baudelaires head to the Hotel Denouement in Kit Snicket's taxi, but they're being followed by two people in a conspicuous vehicle. Kit gives the kids the telegraph sending them to the hotel and theorizes that the J.S. who sent it is likely not her brother, Jacques, who died in the Village of Fowl Devotees, but someone else. They will need to act as flaneurs to determine who sent the message and if they're safe. Acting as concierge, they'll infiltrate the building and, by Thursday, determine if it really is the Last Safe Place. They volunteer, of course.

At the same time, Count Olaf contacts the man with a beard and no hair and the woman with hair and no beard to let them know about the Hotel Denouement lead. They already know, so that's not a big deal, but he has the Medusoid Mycelium. There's nowhere for Olaf, Esme, and Carmelita to go but the Hotel though; Fernald and Fiona steal his submarine and save the Snow Scouts, leaving them with no other direction to take.

Answer: Her brother, Lemony

The Baudelaires decide that Kit is able to be trusted if because, at the very least, she went out of her way to help them. It's because of this that they listen when she points out Frank Denouement, one of the managers of the Hotel, before they head inside. He is, fortunately, V.F.D. Unfortunately, however, his identical twin brother, Ernest, is on the other side of the schism. They need to identify the helpful brother, through close observation, as he will help them understand if the Hotel truly is the Last Safe Place. If it isn't, they will need to signal V.F.D. to stay away.

As the Baudelaires head inside, Kit is met by one of the Denouement Brothers, the father of her child. If she can get her hands on the Sugar Bowl, she says, she can end the schism and they can finally be together.

And as Kit reaches her taxi, she doesn't notice the man in her back seat-- her brother, Lemony.

As Lemony explains, many years ago when he was younger and at the Hotel Denouement he would receive awful news about Jacques, his brother. If he could go back in time, he would have told himself to stay at the Hotel Denouement instead of leave with Kit, but he can't change the past.

Answer: Books in a library

As the Baudelaires enter the luxurious lobby of the Hotel Denouement they realize that Count Olaf has already arrived with Esme, Carmelita, their luggage, and a small sailboat by the name of 'Carmelita II' (after all, the first was the submarine). While the children act as flaneurs, Count Olad aims to fool flaneurs specifically. It doesn't quite work that way. While Olaf and the others plan evil things, they don't recognize the Baudelaires in their uniforms.

That's when things get complicated. The Baudelaires are met by one of the managers-- Frank or Ernest-- and brought to the front desk. He's pulled away and his brother-- Frank or Ernest-- introduces himself in his place. The children are no closer to figuring out which brother is which.

What they do find out is that the guests check in not like in a normal hotel, but more like they're in a library. All of the rooms of the Hotel Denouement are placed in rooms according to where they would be shelved as per the Dewey Decimal System. When three of the bells ring on the wall behind the Denouement they're speaking to, they're told to split up to solve the guests' needs. Three guests, three problems. It's impossible to be in three places at once, of course.

Answer: Vice-Principal Nero

Violet's dangerous work takes her to the rooftop sunbathing salon, categorized outside of the Dewey Decimal System because people who sunbath typically don't care for libraries. Taking the elevator to the roof she nearly runs into Count Olaf, putting on his disguise outside. Camelita happens to be on the roof riding around in the pool aboard the recently-moved Carmelita II while Esme sunbathes with Vice-Principal Nero of Prufrock Preparatory School. The reason Violet was called to the roof was to get anything Carmelita wants, and she wants an ice cream cone with hot pink sprinkles and bananas and lemon sorbet because she's lactose intolerant. What Violet does learn from this encounter is that Nero is supremely interested in Esme's top secret plans (if only because he's part of the Esme Squalor Fan Club). She simply gives him a hint: birdwatching is 'in'.

As Violet leaves, Carmelita claims she wants just one more thing: a harpoon gun.

In the lobby, Violet comes across one of the Denouement Brothers and asks if it's right to give Carmelita a harpoon gun even if she knows it's wrong, but he suggests that not giving it to her is suspicious. V.F.D., he claims, is aware of the situation and sometimes it pays to look at the bigger picture.

Answer: A woman

Klaus takes the conspiratorial trouble on the sixth floor in a room dedicated to healthcare-minded guests, and when he knocks on the correct door, Babs from Heimlich Hospital answers in distress. She has an emergency: she needs to meet her boyfriend in the sauna, but the Hotel Denouement is so confusing that she doesn't know how to get there. Klaus, able to parse out the Hotel Denouement's confusing Dewey Decimal System-inspired layout, brings her to the right spot on the second floor where she meets up with none other than Jerome Squalor (who asks Klaus for an aqueous martini even though they are so 'out'). The two met at a support group for victims of Esme Squalor. As Klaus leaves, he eavesdrops on the couple who, as it seems, are only keeping up a front as a happy couple to ensure that they can help the Baudelaires. They just need to wait until Thursday. The truth is that both Jerome and Babs are seeing other people.

Klaus nearly tricks Jerome into stating J.S.' name, but is foiled at the last minute when Count Olaf waltzes, fully clothed, but covered in what appears to be blood, into the sauna. What Klaus does learn, however, is that the J.S. who sent the Volunteer Factual Dispatch is actually a woman.

As Klaus leaves the second floor, one of the Denouement Brothers asks him to head to the fifth floor to hang up Bird Fly Paper for generally undisclosed reasons. It's strange, Klaus admits, but the manager claims that what seems strange is sometimes just part of a larger plan.

Answer: Indian

Sunny attends to the third floor bell and the strange meeting being held there amongst those with an interest in financial dealings. Knocking on the door she finds Mr. Poe inside. He doesn't recognize Sunny, fortunately, but there is an unfortunate turn. His secretary, Jacqueline, appears to have moved to Winnipeg and his other secretary, who he never got the name of, quit abruptly, so he's in desperate need of secretarial work. Fortunately, Sunny has the experience so she heads up to the ninth floor to assist.

When the pair reach the Indian restaurant they are served by Larry, their waiter, who recognizes Sunny and flashes her the V.F.D. symbol. Unfortunately, the meal is very quickly interrupted by Count Olaf, who Mr. Poe mistakenly believes to be J.S....in this case, Jacques Snicket, who he never met. Olaf recognizes Sunny in an instant, but his focus is taken by the massive amount of paperwork Mr. Poe has dragged along with him, all relevant to the Baudelaire case at Mulctuary Money Management and specifically to evidence against Count Olaf.

Sunny sneaks away from the table and into the kitchen to find Larry speaking to one of the Denouement brothers about the situation, and it's then that the manager asks her to join him in heading downstairs to the laundry room to place a special lock on the door there. They take the mysterious service elevator straight down, acknowledging that sometimes what seems mysterious is just part of a larger plan.

After they leave, Count Olaf and Ernest trap Larry in the kitchen and drown him in the curry cooking on the stove.

Answer: Wrong

The clock in the lobby of the Hotel Denouement is famous for being very loud and when it rings at the top of the hour it lets out a sound that's akin to the word 'WRONG'. When Violet is handed the harpoon gun, Klaus is handed Bird Fly Paper, and Sunny transforms the laundry room entrance into a Vernacularly-Fastened Door, they all hear this sound resonating from the lobby.

Day turns to night as the Baudelaires try to make sense of all the wrong things in the hotel. Although there are so many people they know, not all of them could possibly be part of V.F.D. Nonetheless, they were all invited by V.F.D. What the kids all know is that all of their experiences in the hotel, put together, would give them the big picture. They know that crows are involved and that a package is set to arrive, so they can deduce that it is coming to the Hotel Denouement, possibly through the laundry chute where Klaus set up the Bird Fly Paper. The safety of the package really relies on which Denouement brother locked the door for safe-keeping.

They also deduce that the package is something wanted by both sides, so it must be the Sugar Bowl.

That's when J.S. arrives.

Answer: Justice Strauss

While the Baudelaires look at the bigger picture, luggage monogrammed with J.S. begin to roll in and they are met by the smiling face of Justice Strauss, who recognizes them immediately. After the false wedding, she vowed to set things right by searching for them, but every time she reached the proper destinations, she was just a bit too late. Reading a copy of 'The Incomplete History of Secret Organizations' she learned about V.F.D. and used their codes to call upon the group since they were also invested in the Baudelaires. By gathering V.F.D. and the witnesses of Olaf's crimes, the high court could hear the story and bring him to justice at last. She also calls out the valuable insights of Jerome Squalor and Jacquelyn Scieszka, others with the initials, who helped along the way. All of the notes she accumulated were compiled in a tome she has titled 'The Complete History of Injustice or Odious Lusting After Fortunes (O.L.A.F.)'.

She reminds the Baudelaires that she invited Count Olaf to the Hotel Denouement specifically to have him in the building on Thursday to face his crimes and be put behind bars, and when that happens, all of their troubles will come to an end. She offers her home to them if they can forgive her for what happened.

They accept the offer as the Hotel Denouement clock chimes ten WRONGs.

Though Justice Strauss suggests the children head to bed, they stay up waiting for Kit Snicket who, as it would appear, has been distracted elsewhere. She and Lemony drive to Briny Beach and she convinces him to do something, especially if he feels guilty for causing all that's happened. If he joins V.F.D. again, he can make a difference. While they chat, they spy a signal flare in the distance. A hot-air mobile home, chased by eagles, floats over the sea towards them. While Kit heads to the Queequeg to intercept, Lemony takes her taxi.

Answer: Dewey

While the Baudelaires sit restlessly in the Hotel Denouement lobby, something doesn't seem to add up in her mind, and it all comes back to them being told they needed to split up to attend to the guests. Knowing this, all three of them could not have encountered one of the two Denouement Brothers-- there had to be a third since they all met one of them as the clock struck 3:00pm.

They think about the hotel and its system. If they could solve the mystery by following the number for mysteries, it would lead them to room 135. Klaus already tried that, but there's no bell for that room. Violet realizes that it may not be a room, however, and when they get into the elevator and press the numbers 1-3-5-, they descend deeper past the basement to find a sub-level....and an office that looks strikingly like a card catalogue.

As they peer at the desk to find a book being rebound, a Denouement brother enters from the other room-- Dewey Denouement, the father of Kit's unborn child. He's a secret triplet which, as he says, suits him fine because he works in secret. Additionally, the Hotel Denouement isn't only sorted like a library; it is a library.

Dewey leads the Baudelaires out a secret passage and into the V.F.D. tunnels beneath the city, tunnels that were created to transport people and books to the Last Safe Place. They head up to street level and out a secret exit to the entrance to the secret library, hiding beneath the surface of the pond in front of the building. The enemies could burn the hotel to the ground and still never find it.

And Dewey is telling all of this to the Baudelaires because after Thursday, he will be leaving his post and joining Kit to raise their child. And with that, the Hotel will need a new sub-librarian. Or three of them.

Answer: False

Dewey is moments from telling the Baudelaires about the contents of the Sugar Bowl when Count Olaf, Esme, and Carmelita arrive to wax poetic on the situation at hand...and reveal their plan to poison everybody at a cocktail party with the Medusoid Mycelium. While Olaf, it seems, only wants the Baudelaire fortune when all is said and done, Esme still seeks the contents of the Sugar Bowl which, as she says, was stolen from her by Beatrice. They demand the codes to the laundry room door, but can't seem to sort through their own personal issues, squabbling amongst each other until the forget about the Baudelaires for a moment. Ultimately, Olaf is convinced by the kids that he would have their fortune if not for Esme, and in that moment, they have a messy and impromptu break-up.

After Esme and Carmelita retreat back into the hotel, Olaf is still left with the harpoon gun. Aiming at Dewey and the Baudelaires he gives them ten seconds to reveal the code to the Vernacularly-Fastened Door, but they manage to secure the weapon from his grasp with seconds to spare.

Unfortunately, they're spooked by Mr. Poe, emerging from the hotel lobby with little means to have done so. The Baudelaires, unfortunately, drop the harpoon gun and it fires when it hits the ground...

...straight at Dewey Denouement.

As the lights turn on in the rooms of the Hotel Denouement, all switched on by people looking out their windows at the crime that has been committed, Kit's taxi returns and Lemony Snicket introduces himself to the Baudelaires.