40 Fun Facts About The Hostile Hospital

In The Hostile Hospital, what is strange about the hospital where the Baudelaires take shelter?

Only half of it is built: one side is a working hospital and the other a bare wooden frame, where the children secretly sleep in the cold.

Heimlich Hospital in The Hostile Hospital echoes Henry Heimlich, the doctor famous for a way to stop what?

Choking is what the Heimlich maneuver treats, using sharp abdominal thrusts. The name works twice over: heimlich is also a German word for secret.

In The Hostile Hospital, the operation Count Olaf's troupe schedules for Violet would really mean doing what?

Cutting off her head is the plan, hidden behind the made-up word cranioectomy. The real craniotomy and craniectomy only remove part of the skull.

In The Hostile Hospital, what do the Volunteers Fighting Disease hand out to Heimlich Hospital patients as they sing?

Heart-shaped balloons are all the volunteers offer: they believe a cheerful attitude beats medicine, so patients asking for painkillers or water go without.

In The Hostile Hospital, which food from a supply closet helps Klaus work out where Violet is being hidden?

Alphabet soup baffles Sunny at first: she cannot see why her brother wants to eat at such a desperate moment. He needs the noodle letters, not a meal.

In The Hostile Hospital, Mattathias announces that Babs has left Heimlich Hospital to take up which new career?

Stuntwoman is the cover story: he says Babs has already begun throwing herself off buildings. It is a chilling hint about what Count Olaf really did to her.

In The Hostile Hospital, where do the Baudelaires hide to get away from the burning Heimlich Hospital?

In the trunk of a car, and not just any car: it belongs to Count Olaf himself. Bullet holes in it let the children breathe as he drives away.

In The Hostile Hospital, Violet makes a bungee cord for a window escape by tying together what?

Rubber bands from a supply closet become her escape line. The three jump just as one of Olaf's henchpeople breaks down the door behind them.

In The Hostile Hospital, the one Snicket file page the Baudelaires recover hints at what?

Someone survived a fire, the page says, though not who or where. The children take it to mean one of their parents may still be alive.

In The Hostile Hospital, how do the Baudelaires send a plea for help from the Last Chance General Store?

By telegram: the store still offers the service even though it also stocks fiber-optic cable, one of the series' many deliberate anachronisms.

In The Hostile Hospital, which adult do the fugitive Baudelaires beg for help in a message from a store?

Mr. Poe is the banker in charge of the orphans' affairs. Their plea insists they are innocent of the crime the papers accuse them of.

As The Hostile Hospital opens, the Baudelaire orphans are on the run, falsely accused of which crime?

Murder is the charge: the victim was Jacques Snicket, whom everyone had mistaken for Count Olaf at the end of the previous book.

In The Hostile Hospital, why do the Volunteers Fighting Disease fail to recognise the wanted Baudelaires?

They never read the news, on principle: the group thinks it is always depressing. So a van full of people who have not seen the headlines carries the children to safety.

In The Hostile Hospital, Count Olaf's troupe hides Violet on the patient list using which kind of word trick?

An anagram is the troupe's habit: the false name Laura V. Bleediotie uses exactly the letters of Violet Baudelaire, and other names on the list are decoys.

In The Hostile Hospital, how do Klaus and Sunny disguise themselves to reach Violet inside Heimlich Hospital?

As doctors in surgical masks, wearing white coats from a supply closet. Olaf's own troupe is fooled, taking the pair for two of its own members.

In The Hostile Hospital, which failing of Hal's leads him to welcome helpers in the Library of Records?

Poor eyesight troubles Hal despite his glasses, whose lenses are tiny. It is also why Violet later risks swapping his ring of keys for a fake.

In The Hostile Hospital, what strict rule does Hal give the Baudelaires about papers in the Library of Records?

File them without reading is Hal's rule: he only skims each paper to see where it belongs. It forces the children to trick him to see their own file.

The Hostile Hospital is credited to Lemony Snicket, the pen name of which American author?

Daniel Handler invented the name as an inside joke among friends, years before the series. He had never written for children before these books.

Which actor plays Count Olaf, disguised as Dr. Mattathias Medicalschool, in Netflix's The Hostile Hospital episodes?

Neil Patrick Harris plays Count Olaf and each of his disguises in the Netflix series, which he also produced. Jim Carrey took the role in the 2004 film.

The final illustration of The Hostile Hospital hints at the next book by showing which fortune-telling object?

A crystal ball appears beside a flier for a fortune-teller called Madame Lulu, whose carnival is the setting of the ninth book.

In The Hostile Hospital, what does Violet leave in place of Hal's ring of keys so he will not notice?

Her hair ribbon, strung with paper clips, stands in for the keys. The children feel guilty about the trick and hope to apologise to Hal later.

In The Hostile Hospital, what does Sunny use to open filing cabinets while working in the Library of Records?

Her teeth, famously sharp, make Sunny the library's cabinet opener, a job Hal hands her on the spot when the three arrive as his new assistants.

The Hostile Hospital picks up straight after which book in A Series of Unfortunate Events?

The Vile Village ends with the orphans framed and on the run, so this book begins with them walking for miles through empty country with no money and no plan.

Like every book in the series, The Hostile Hospital opens with a mournful dedication to which woman?

Beatrice is the lost love Lemony Snicket mourns at the front of every book. The final volume reveals she was the Baudelaires' own mother.

Which artist drew the illustrations for The Hostile Hospital and every other book in A Series of Unfortunate Events?

Brett Helquist studied engineering before switching to art. His final picture in this book hides clues to where the orphans are heading next.

In The Hostile Hospital, which instrument does the bearded leader of the Volunteers Fighting Disease play?

A guitar accompanies the group's relentlessly cheerful song as they tour the wards. Its player has been with the volunteers since the group was founded.

In The Hostile Hospital, what do the Volunteers Fighting Disease call one another in place of their real names?

Brother and sister are the only names they use, since the group holds that all people are siblings. Not even the volunteers know what each other is really called.

In The Hostile Hospital, the operation on Violet is stalled by a long lecture on the history of what?

The knife gets a rambling history lesson while Klaus waits for his sister to wake. A reporter in the audience is thrilled and plans a headline about it.

In The Hostile Hospital, which single page of the Snicket file is still in the Library of Records?

Page 13 is all that remains: the rest of the file had been removed for an official investigation. The number is a running joke in a series of thirteen books.

In the book The Hostile Hospital, how do Klaus and Sunny escape the Library of Records, leaving Violet behind?

Up a paper chute, the one that drops new records into the room. Violet is too big to follow and is caught; the Netflix version swaps it for an air vent.

In The Hostile Hospital, Count Olaf's alias Mattathias claims to have taken over which post at Heimlich Hospital?

Head of Human Resources is the role he announces before declaring he will inspect every room. In the book he is only a voice on the intercom, never seen.

In Netflix's The Hostile Hospital episodes, the Snicket file is not paper as in the book but which object?

A film reel shows Jacques Snicket being questioned. Count Olaf later watches it and burns it in a rage.

A slogan painted on a volunteer's instrument in The Hostile Hospital is a nod to which folk singer?

Woody Guthrie famously lettered an anti-fascist message on his own instrument; the book's version announces instead that its owner fights disease.

A Heimlich Hospital patient in The Hostile Hospital is called Emma Bovary, after a novel by which French author?

Gustave Flaubert wrote Madame Bovary, whose heroine dies after swallowing arsenic. Snicket's patient of the same name is in hospital with food poisoning.

Which comedy actress plays Babs, the Heimlich Hospital administrator, in Netflix's The Hostile Hospital episodes?

Kerri Kenney-Silver plays Babs as a visible, living character who is tied up and locked in a closet. In the book she is never seen and her fate is left ominous.

Hal from The Hostile Hospital returns in which later book, working in a hotel restaurant?

The Penultimate Peril finds Hal cooking at the Hotel Denouement, where he becomes the first to declare the Baudelaires innocent at their trial.

In The Hostile Hospital, what does the shopkeeper at the Last Chance General Store offer the hungry Baudelaires?

Cranberry muffins come free from the kindly owner, and the starving children finish every crumb before the day's paper arrives and changes his mind.

In Netflix's The Hostile Hospital, the Baudelaires reach the Last Chance General Store in which stolen vehicle?

A fire truck, taken at the end of the previous episode, carries them until it runs out of gas. In the book the orphans simply arrive on foot.

Which actor plays Hal, keeper of the Library of Records, in Netflix's The Hostile Hospital episodes?

David Alan Grier's Hal is left heartbroken when his life's work is wrecked, and later joins the crowd chasing the children through the hospital.

What about Esmé Squalor's shoes slows her chase through The Hostile Hospital's Library of Records?

The heels are real daggers, a pun on stiletto, and they stick in the floor at every step. Unable to run, she shoves over the filing cabinets to trap Violet.