"The Reptile Room: Part One" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lousy Lane

"For Beatrice-- My love for you shall live forever. You, however, did not."

Mr. Snicket stands outside a house will outside the city because another episode in the Baudelaire Orphans' ghastly story is about to begin. Sure enough, the Baudelaires, almost immediately departing from their horrible stay with Count Olaf, are in the car with Mr. Poe en route to meet the man who was supposed to be their legal guardian-- the closest living relative after all-- Dr. Montgomery Montgomery. Mr. Poe admits that it may have been a mistake to be put into Count Olaf's hands. His assistant, Jacquelyn, has also informed him that Count Olaf is still, unfortunately, 'at large', a phrase which here means 'that the authorities had not caught him and would not catch him for a very long time.'

Before long, Mr. Poe drives the orphans down Lousy Lane, a street driving past an orchard so foul that the fruits it bore were so sour it would turn off anyone who looked at them. Not to mention the bitter smell of the horseradish factory nearby.

Answer: Slices of cake

The children are introduced to Dr. Montgomery at his front door and, considering their first guardian, are surprised with an amicable and welcoming individual who offers them coconut cream cake and says that they will be going to the movies together an awful lot.

He brings them in and indicates that he seems to know a lot about them but, more importantly, that he is interested in their well-being and not their fortune. Mr. Poe, before departing, says that he's always there for the children if they need anything, but Dr. Montgomery says they won't need anymore, so he leaves. The children tell Dr. Montgomery Montgomery, who prefers to be called Monty (or Uncle Monty, eventually) that their parents never spoke of him, and he's a bit disappointed in this since they all grew up together.

He insists that they will come to know him soon enough, and that they will hopefully enjoy his job as a herpetologist. He studies snakes.

Answer: Gustav

Monty suggests that he would like to introduce the children to his assistant, Gustav, but he remembers that he left early the previous morning, having tended an unexpected letter of resignation without any warning or reason. None of them are aware of Gustav's actual fate. Nonetheless, he welcomes the children in and suggests that perhaps they can assist him with his thorough studies and he quickly leads them to the high-security door leading to the Reptile Room, a beautiful solarium on the back of the house containing numerous reptiles from winged lizards to dissonant tortoises.

His most recent discovery is one of his favourites: the Incredibly Deadly Viper. He shows the children and it leaps out the door of its cage at them!

Answer: False

The Incredibly Deadly Viper lunges at Sunny Baudelaire and wraps around her on the floor, but to the surprise of the Violet and Klaus, she remains unharmed. In fact, as Monty says, the Incredibly Deadly Viper is one of the friendliest snakes in the animal kingdom; its name is a 'misnomer', a word which, here, means 'a very wrong name'. Monty named it as such to play a trick on the other herpetologists at the Herpetological Society who've ridiculed him for his name over the years. There are, of course, deadly snakes in the very room they're in-- the job requires that Monty deal with all sorts of snakes-- but it will be safe. He encourages the children to let their inquisitive minds be free. He shows them the scientific library and implores them to read. Even though there are deadly snakes, Monty says that no harm will come to them in the Reptile Room.

Mr. Snicket tells the viewer that a 'dramatic irony' occurs when 'a person makes a remark and someone knows something that makes the remark have a different, usually unpleasant meaning.'

Answer: A hedge maze

Klaus and Violet find themselves a bit worried about their current situation, not because Monty isn't a good guardian but because their parents never mentioned him before. Nonetheless, Monty pulls out all the stops to ensure the children are able to grow and flourish in the Reptile Room, and before long he tells them that they will go out together to see their first movie-- one they won't know until they get there.
When Monty leaves to pick up some items from town, Klaus looks at the blueprints for the hedge maze outside and discovers that the labyrinth is shaped like Count Olaf's eye tattoo, a mark of certain evil.
The doorbell rings.

Answer: Stephano

When the Baudelaires respond to the doorbell, they find a bald man with a distinctly fake beard behind the door. While he introduces himself as Stephano, Dr. Montgomery's new assistant, they immediately know that he's actually Count Olaf in a shoddy disguise, and tell him that he will not be let into their new house. Olaf, however, threatens them with a knife and lets himself step across the threshold. The children are able to escape his clutches, at least temporarily, by slamming shut the door to the Reptile Room, confounding Olaf with its high-tech security system.

When Monty arrives at home, however, things only take a turn for the worse. It turns out that Monty never asked to hire a new assistant, so that in and of itself is weird. But since he has proper papers, he invites him in.

Answer: Lamp

While Stephano heads up to the spare bedroom to make himself more comfortable, Dr. Montgomery opens the door to the Reptile Room, making sure to pass all the security checks, as it would seem, and tries to assuage the children's fears. He invites them outside to retrieve his items from the car (including the brand new flameproof canoe) and while portaging it off the vehicle, he informs them that he knows exactly who Stephano is. Once more, he assures them that everything will be fine; they just need to act quickly and safely to prevent him from doing anything horrible. Dr. Monty says that they will need to be watchful and 'wary'-- a word which means 'very careful'-- as they will need to invite Olaf to dinner and their movie to make him believe he isn't tricking them. Of course, that's when Count Olaf drops a glass lamp on Uncle Monty's head from the second floor of the house.

Answer: Zombies in the Snow

After dinner, Uncle Monty urges Stephano to join himself and the Baudelaires on a trip to the movies, but he refuses outright, saying that he would rather stay in and learn about exotic venoms and poisons (besides which, he prefers long-format television series instead). Stephano is soon backed into a corner and forced to attend the movie, but not before making a call to one of his associates.
The five make it to the Murnau Cinema in time for the 'Zombies in the Snow'/'Men in Beige' double feature, receiving the Verified Film Discount because Monty is a preferred customer. Monty takes the children into the cinema while Stephano buys the popcorn, and soon their first film, a black-and-white zombie movie in English with English subtitles, hits the screen. The kids don't think too much of things when Monty pulls a spyglass from his jacket pocket and begins fiddling with the dials to decode a secret message onscreen-- it reads 'Hello Monty-- Take the children on the SS Prospero to ....' Monty doesn't get the last of the message. Stephano walks in front of him, blocking the last of it.
Olaf, heading to the lobby, meets with his henchmen behind the concession stand and suggests accelerating 'Operation Capture Monty'.

Answer: Peru

The movie continues as Stephano returns to his seat in the theater and, as he said he would, Dr. Monty leaves to investigate something alone; the children keep Stephano occupied with looking after them. In truth, Monty heads to the projection room and winds back the reels to the spot in the film he missed, discovering that he needs to board the SS Prospero with the children and take them to Peru for safety. The cinema porter, assisting Monty, brings him to the front office and prints four tickets for rides on the Prospero, but before the Baudelaire guardian can return to his seat, he's captured by Olaf's two female henchmen.

Somewhere, a mother and father escape from their prison cell, opening a vault door and emerging on a narrow cliff overlooking a Peruvian waterfall.

Answer: Yes

'Zombies in the Snow' comes to an end and Monty doesn't return to his seat. Checking the lobby, they still can't find him. Olaf drags the children outside and...find Monty, sure enough. Olaf is shocked that Monty has managed to escape his henchwomens' clutches, but he's even more surprised when Monty calls him out for being a spy sent by the Herpetological Society, and not as Count Olaf.
Monty takes the children home, insisting that the confrontation in the movie theatre parking lot has ended with the mysterious Stephano inevitably going with the police. He will also be taking them to Peru. The children are tucked safely into bed and the lights are turned out. The next day, they will head out on their trip.
As Uncle Monty leaves the children's bedroom, he notices that the door to the Reptile Room is open. That's when great harm befalls him.