"The Slippery Slope: Part Two" Quiz

Answer: Monty Montgomery's house

Though the Baudelaires and Quigley Quagmire come upon a destroyed V.F.D. Headquarters, it's not the first time they've survived such dire events. Quigley, a true survivor of the fire that destroyed his home, only managed to escape through the V.F.D. tunnels though he was separated from his siblings and parents in the process.

He hid in other destinations visited by the Baudelaires (including Monty Montgomery's reptile house) and there he found a copy of 'The Incomplete History of Secret Organizations', and with that he learned about V.F.D.-- as much as possible-- and set out.

He visited Prufrock Preparatory School; he visited 667 Dark Avenue; he visited the Hinterlands and the Mortmain Mountains. Most importantly he joined the Snow Scouts.

The V.F.D. Headquarters was his last hope to find Duncan and Isadora, but he didn't know that the pair escaped in a self-sustaining hot air mobile home on their way out of the Village of Fowl Devotees. When he discovers this, he vows to help them save their sibling since they saved his.

Answer: Fire

At the top of Mount Fraught, the man with a beard but no hair and the woman with hair but no beard contemplate Sunny's presence but suggest that there's no problem that can't be solved without setting it on fire, just like the issue of someone hiding at V.F.D. Headquarters. Unfortunately, they didn't find anyone hiding there when they burnt it down, but they are aware that Kit Snicket is alone in the mountains.

She's not. While Kit attempts to create skis out of tree bark, Mr. Poe, who spent the night with her in a cave in the Mortmain Mountains, offers her a ride back into the city. She suggests this might be a good idea because 'where there's smoke, there's fire', and she's been seeing a lot of smoke in the city.

'Where there's smoke, there's fire' is an expression which, here, means 'if something seems wrong, it usually is'. Before she and Mr. Poe can be swarmed by snow gnats, Kit accepts Mr. Poe's ride back to the city and lights her skis on fire. Snow gnats, after all, hate smoke.

Answer: Green

Olaf is disappointed that his mentors only see his flaws, and he's certain he needs to prove the success he knows he has. He decides that the best he can do is prove this through a theatrical performance. Sunny, meanwhile, still needs to make a warm breakfast for the troupe, but her mind is set on contacting the V.F.D. members that the man with a beard but no hair and the woman with hair but no beard have indicated are on Mount Fraught. She's fortunate that Count Olaf lit one of the odd, green cigarettes that Esme found near the camp.

While Sunny uses the green cigarette to smoke lox, it also acts as a smoke signal that her siblings see from the ruins of the V.F.D. Headquarters; Quigley notes it's a Verdant Flammable Device. Violet, believing that it might be Sunny, thinks about how to reach her. Fortunately for her, there's a direct route...up a sheer, frozen waterfall.

Answer: True

Count Olaf, against the wishes of his mentors, sets up a stage performance at the top of Mount Fraught to show off his exploits through song and dance, but it's a bad idea. His mentors, claiming that they only brought him under their wing to spread fire and destruction, are disgusted by his troupe, and when they realize that Sunny has been broadcasting a smoke signal using the Verdant Flammable Device, they chastise their student for his inadequacy and his failure to look at the bigger picture. The troupe sides with Sunny, claiming she didn't know what she was doing, but the man with a beard but no hair and the woman with hair but no beard take Olaf and Esme aside to let them in on bigger plans, not unlike years ago when Count Olaf was met by his mentors in the tunnels beneath V.F.D., wandering lost. "Bad mentors," Lemony Snicket claims, "can lead you down a slippery slope."

At the ruins of the V.F.D. Headquarters, the dissolution of the smoke doesn't go unnoticed, especially when Olaf's troupe starts playing instruments at the summit. Violet salvages items that survived the fire and with them, she creates ice climbing equipment, all the better to climb the frozen waterfall. Fortunately, her parents gave her the tools she needed when she was young, and those good mentors prepared her to climb the slippery slope

Answer: 'Codes'

Searching through the burnt library of V.F.D. Headquarters, the children find a surviving book simply titled 'Codes' and realize that there's value to reading the material to decipher V.F.D.'s hidden messages. It means that Klaus volunteers to stay back and pore over the material while Violet and Quigley ascend the waterfall in hopes of saving Sunny. And with that, they set out.

Olaf's troupe gets to thinking about their predicament and the misguided nature of Olaf's mentors-- some serious creeps who give the serious creeps-- and they're certain that they killed the carnival freaks. They ask Sunny's opinion; she thinks they're trouble.

Answer: Parsley soda

Violet and Quigley reach the summit of Mount Fraught to spy Sunny conversing with the Hook-Handed Man. She sees them as well and devises a distraction (in the form of sending the Hook-Handed Man to collect the bottle of sarsaparilla Count Olaf tossed on their way up the mountain) to speak to the climbers, but they get very little time when Olaf leaves his tent to yell at the baby, specifically to conjure up a meal for their False Spring celebration. Violet and Quigley end up at the perfect vantage point, fortunately, to hear the whole conversation-- including Olaf's needing to get a tarp from the woods and his mentors' plan to steal more orphans' fortunes-- and it leads Sunny to decide to remain in her cage. Ultimately, she serves more good in the stead of Olaf's troupe since she can spy from within. Violet struggles with leaving her sister behind, but Sunny insists.

The climbers are able to hide just in time as the Hook-Handed Man returns, not with the sarsaparilla, but a bottle of parsley soda.

Answer: In the fridge

Violet and Quigley reunite with Klaus at the base of the waterfall to discover that he solved the code in the V.F.D. ruins. Searching the fridge, he found Verbal Fridge Dialogue, a code used in dire situations, and with the 'Codes' book, he determined that the writer of the hidden message was in the darkest jar of jam. Opening the boysenberry jar, he found the initials J.S.-- possibly Jacques Snicket. Using further clues, he deduces that J.S. is calling a meeting on Thursday, less than a week away, at the Last Safe Place, wherever that might be. There's nothing else they can do save wait for Sunny to reunite with them.

Unfortunately, while the children watch the summit, Olaf spies them from above. The troupe sends somebody willing to investigate for survivors.

Answer: Esme

Though the children anticipate a reunion with Sunny, they are instead met by an imposingly garish red figure who hurtles down Mount Fraught on a pair of skis. It's none other than Esme, and when she crashes into the ruins she begins her pursuit of the volunteers still hiding there and, of course, the Sugar Bowl. Unfortunately, Esme falls into the remains of a surprisingly deep hot tub, and with her trapped there, the children have the opportunity to propose a trade. Quigley is all for the idea, suggesting that sometimes you need to fight fire with fire, but Violet and Klaus are resistant, feeling that if everyone did this, the world would go up in smoke.

They have to think fast though, especially when Esme reveals Olaf's plan to kidnap the Snow Scouts when they arrive for False Spring, murder their rich parents, and claim their inheritances.

Answer: The Hook-Handed Man

The children, tying up Esme, ascend the waterfall once more with the added weight. At the same time, the Snow Scouts hike to the summit after leaving their scout leader by the side of the road.

All of them head onward to the waiting troupe and Olaf's mentors who outline their plan to allow the children to join them as part of their nefarious deal, but none of this really holds for the group when the man with a beard but no hair and the woman with hair but no beard insist that Sunny Baudelaire be thrown off the side of Mount Fraught. Olaf is fine with this, but his troupe, to his dismay, refuses the order. They're done participating in his schemes. It's a slippery slope. They opt instead to descend the mountain on foot.

The only henchman who stays is the Hook-Handed Man who, grabbing Sunny's cage, tosses it over the side of the cliff himself.

It all snowballs as it unfolds. The cage hits the valley floor as the Baudelaires (and Quigley) crest the ledge, bringing Esme back to the summit. They hear the news of Sunny's death, but Sunny managed to escape with Violet's lockpick and hide before the cage was tossed over.

Moments later, the Snow Scouts arrive, led by Carmelita Spats. They fall almost willingly into a trap, getting picked up in a tarp and flown away by eagles.

With little left to do, the man with a beard but no hair and the woman with hair but no beard steal Olaf's car, promise they'll contact Esme with work, and depart.

Answer: On a sled

The children are left atop Mount Fraught with Olaf, Esme, Carmelita, and the Hook-Handed Man and though Olaf plans to kill all but one of them to secure his fortune, Sunny gives the children an easy escape route on the back of a wooden sled sending them careening straight down the side of the peak. They pass right by V.F.D. Headquarters and maneuver through the forest down the Stricken Stream, but a stray branch knocks Quigley off the vehicle, separating him from the Baudelaires. He vows to meet them at the Last Safe Place.

Lemony Snicket doesn't know if Violet and Quigley ever reunited to visit the Mortmain Mountains again; he doesn't know what became of the departing members of Count Olaf's troupe. What he does know is a stanza of poetry written by Kit Snicket that may indicate where the Baudelaires headed next as they rode down Stricken Stream:

"That no life lives for ever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea."

The Baudelaires slide out to sea as the ice breaks around them, but to their surprise, a periscope rises from the waters...and the submarine surfaces directly beneath.

Kit Snicket and Mr. Poe return to the city not in Mr. Poe's car, but in Kit Snicket's taxi. As they arrive, they spy the smoke on the horizon. There are arsons-- many of them-- as the world goes up in smoke.