The Magdalene Sisters Trivia Quiz

Answer: She looks pretty.

In the documentary "Sex in a Cold Climate", one of the women says she was sent to the laundries because she was beautiful. This made her more susceptible to sexual sin, the nuns said. Sister Bridget says as much when Bernadette asks why she's there if she did nothing wrong.

Rose and Crispina had children out of wedlock, and Margaret was raped by a cousin.

Answer: Patricia

It's not enough that the nuns take away the girls' freedom--they also rename some of them. Bridget tells Rose to go by her confirmation name Patricia because there's already a Rose at the laundries. Crispina also says that Bridget gave her that name in place of Harriet.

Answer: Her hair is cut off.

Bridget makes Bernadette look at her shaven, bloody head afterwards and makes it sound like a liberating experience. According to the documentary, hair cutting was a common punishment for everything for attempted escape to having pretty hair. And the nuns did not do it gently.

Answer: Una

Earlier, Una escaped and was brought back by her father, who disowned her. My interpretation is that Una, knowing she has no sympathetic family and will be here the rest of her life, takes a calling as a nun to escape the drudgery of the laundries. Judging by the meal scenes, she'd certainly get better food as a nun. Katy is an older penitent who dies during the film.

Answer: Hariest

The nuns' cruelty knows no bounds. In a particularly horrific scene, after getting washing machines, the nuns make fun of the girls' bodies after making them strip. They then choose the girls who have the biggest and smallest breasts, biggest butt, and most pubic hair. Crispina cries, and the nun quite horribly tells her to be happy because she won the game. It's after this scene that Crispina starts trying to kill herself.

In the "Sex in a Cold Climate" documentary, one woman says that the nuns at a regular orphanage made them strip to laugh at them and criticize their bodies.

Answer: She puts poison ivy in his laundry.

She puts the leaves in the same machine as his clothes. During the outdoor sermon, he starts itching and peels off all his clothes in public. Margaret looks uncomfortable when Crispina starts itching too: she probably hadn't considered that the poison ivy might rub off on Crispina too.

Answer: "You're not a man of God!"

Finally realizing how Fitzroy has taken advantage of her, she screams this at him in public. Rather than counseling Crispina and punishing the priest, the nuns quickly send her to a mental asylum.

Answer: Watch a film

In a rare moment of tenderness, Sister Bridget tells the girls how she used to love movies, especially Westerns. This scene happens just after Crispina is sent away, so possibly she feels some remorse for her actions, leading her to briefly open up about herself. The film is a religious one, "The Bells of St. Mary's". During the film, Margaret's brother arrives to take her home.

Answer: A key

In an earlier scene, when Rose comes to ask Bridget if she can send her son a birthday card (a request Bridget refuses), Bridget asks Rose to help her find the key to a money box. Rose finds it but keeps it hidden. Good choice--Bridget lets them leave her office when she sees Rose give it over.

Answer: A hairdresser

Rose is afraid that they'll be caught and sent back, but Bernadette assures her that the nuns can't touch them now because they're respectable. Seeing Bernadette and Rose boarding the bus in their nice hair was the only thing in the film that made me chuckle.