"The Vile Village: Part Two" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sunny

Mr. Snicket informs the viewer this time around that his brother's death in the small, dusty town of V.F.D. is not unlike the bad news that befell its townspeople or the Baudelaire orphans as they talked to Mr. Poe the morning Jacques' body was found-- it all filled him with sadness, misery, and grief.

There is still every opportunity to stop watching though, especially as the Baudelaires accuse Count Olaf and Esme of killing the innocent Jacques Snicket. Instead, Olaf, still dressed as Detective Dupin, theorizes that it was the Baudelaires, using their illegal blueprints and mechanical devices, who broke into the jail so that Sunny could bite the prisoner to death.

The townspeople settle on burning the orphans at the stake, but not until after dinner.

Answer: Because Violet is not of age

At Mulctuary Money Management, Jacquelyn receives word from Mr. Poe and she and Larry realize that something must be wrong. Sure enough, when they receive word from the Daily Punctilio, they very quickly realize that with Snicket dead, their troubles are only beginning to worsen.

They head out immediately. In V.F.D., the Baudelaires end up in prison with no way out, and Mr. Poe admits that he should have steered them away from murder. As orphans, they were susceptible to crime, and he failed them by not sheltering them.

He says his goodbyes and speaks with Detective Dupin about Count Olaf's death before planning to leave.

Answer: A noose

Mr. Poe's departure is cut short when his wife appears to take photos for the Daily Punctilio. The story of the Baudelaire Murder Orphans is, of course, big news. Detective Dupin offers to give an interview, but not before heading down to the cells to give the Baudelaires their last meal-- stale bread and water-- and informing them of his plan to have them burned at the stake, sure, but to save one of the children and use them to nab their fortune.

In the meantime, they'll need to stay in the deluxe cell (complete with noose) alone. That's when Hector shows up and lets the children know he'll be leaving V.F.D. in his hot-air mobile home during cocktail hour, and if the Baudelaires an escape prison, they can join him.

Unfortunately, according to Klaus, that would require deus ex machina, a Latin phrase which translates to 'God from the machine' and which means 'something helpful happening when you least expect it'.

Answer: Klaus'

Hector says that he tried to help the Baudelaires, but they overpowered him, much like they did when his mother wore white after Yom Kippur against the rules of the town, was forced to pay a steep fine for it, and then moved to the city to open an art gallery. As Hector departs, he hands the Baudelaires the two couplets he found under the Nevermore Tree:

"The first thing you read contains a clue
An initial way to speak to you

Inside these letters the eye will
Nearby are your friends, and the V.F.D."

While the Baudelaires worry about their predicament and struggle to come up with a plan, Klaus remembers that it's his birthday. Unfortunately, sitting in a deluxe cell, with a noose, awaiting being burned at the stake is not the best birthday plan.

Answer: FOUNTAIN

Violet believes that there may be a way to give Klaus the gift he needs for his birthday and, weirdly, it may be a case of deus ex machina. So while Olaf and Esme are occupied by the Poes upstairs in the sheriff's office, the Baudelaires sing and try to bash their way through the jail wall with the old bread, the noose, and a board of wood. Fortunately, this is enough to keep Olaf from suspecting a thing. At the same time, Klaus discovers that the couplets always contained the clues they needed to find the Quagmires.

When laid out in order, the first letters of each line of the poems spell out 'FOUNTAIN' in an acrostic.

Answer: Yes

As cocktail hour comes upon the town of V.F.D., Hector fires up his hot-air mobile home in his barn. Realizing that the Baudelaires probably can't escape the prison, he prepares to depart, leaving it all behind. Meanwhile, Olaf, Esme, and the henchmen assemble their funeral pyre for the post-dinner festivities. Olaf is eager to see all of his plans finally come to pass, but Esme, now bearing the knowledge of the whereabouts of the sugar bowl, wants to pursue that quest.

As the hot-air mobile home goes by, Count Olaf, seeking a place to hide orphans, gets a nefarious idea in his head.

Answer: Sunny

A huge cloud of dust, our narrator says, is not a beautiful thing to look at. That being said, the cloud of dust the Baudelaires witnessed, breaking out of the V.F.D. jail, was beautiful to look at since it indicated they were free from their cell. As soon as the children leave the jail they head directly to the Fowl Fountain and get a closer look at the landmark, lifting Sunny up to the beak to look inside.

When this happens, the beak shifts downward, unlocking the statue and allowing Isadora and Duncan to escape from inside, reuniting them with the Baudelaires. Jacquelyn and Larry, approaching V.F.D. on their motorcycle, spy Hector's hot-air mobile home on the horizon. Olaf sees it too, and when the townspeople, finding the hole in the jail, call for the police, he and Esme need to call them to action to hunt down the alleged murderers and bring them to justice. Soon, pitchforks are handed out.

Answer: To burn children

As the mob approaches, led by Olaf and Esme, the Baudelaires and the Quagmires flee through the small own of V.F.D., barely staying ahead of Eleanora Poe, clamoring for a great story for the Daily Punctilio. She and Mr. Poe are, of course, forced to go along with the town's rules in bringing its criminals to justice.

The kids narrowly escape capture (by using a distracting, charming donkey), but with very few places left to hide, they can only wait. And that's when deus ex machina rolls in; Jacquelyn and Larry arrive on their motorcycle and they give a noble speech inspiring the mob.

Unfortunately, the mob still wants to burn children, so that doesn't work too well. But the speech does give the children time to start up an old fire engine and drive it out of V.F.D.'s town square.

Answer: No killing the birds

Sunny drives the fire engine down the street out of V.F.D. and towards Hector's hot-air mobile home, and as Hector drops his rope ladder, the children raise theirs on the back of the fire truck to meet it. As the mob nears, the Baudelaires try to fend them off, but Esme pulls out a harpoon gun and fires it at the mobile home's balloons, attempting to shoot Hector out of the sky.

The Quagmires are able to make it to the rope ladder and up to the deck of the mobile home, but not before too many of the balloons are shot out.

The Baudelaires tell them to leave; they won't make it up the ladder in time, and Hector complies. Another attempt at escape disappears into the distance. To protect the Quagmires, Klaus tells Esme to stop firing her mechanical device.

This, of course, catches the attention of the Council of Elders who, up until this point, neglected to follow rule #67. Esme doesn't follow it anyways, and as the Quagmires drop their commonplace books down for the Baudelaires to use to solve the mysteries of V.F.D. and Jacques Snicket, her last harpoon strikes the books and hits a crow, breaking rule #1 of the town of V.F.D.: no murdering the crows.

Answer: Yes

As the Baudelaires drive away in the fire engine, Count Olaf laments losing two sets of orphans in one encounter. The town of V.F.D. is still out for blood and, now armed with pitchforks, they have the resources they need to burn someone else at the stake. Since Esme has the location of the sugar bowl though, they can continue on as long as they escape. They do. And Mr. Poe rushes the crow to a vet.
In the town square, Jacquelyn and Larry use their spyglass to watch from afar as Hector and the Quagmires fly away safe and sound.
The Baudelaires, watching their friends leave up in the air also had their feelings 'up in the air', a phrase, here, meaning 'not quite sure how to feel'. On one hand, they likely wouldn't see their friends again and on the other, their friends were safe. As the sun sets in V.F.D. and the crows return to the Nevermore Tree, the Baudelaires try to make sense of the commonplace notebook pages they were able to collect. Sunny drives them straight to the horizon.