"Milkmaids" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lazarus

In New England in the year 1757, a young mother rests in bed near the end of her life, pox-covered, suffering her final days as her daughters did before her. Outside, bodies are collected and heaved into a cart for mass burial. A father and son contemplate yet another loss in their family.

Elsewhere in town, Pastor Walter enters the Temple of Lazarus to meet Celeste, a prostitute with whom he wishes to spend his afternoon. When he discovers that she is infected with smallpox, he angrily prepares to leave but she insists that she has been blessed by Saint Lazarus, himself, and that her customers seek her out to cure them of their ailments. One lick of the pox, she claims, can ward off smallpox indefinitely. Walter accuses her of being an occultist and insists upon her silence or, else, she will be hanged.

Answer: No

Pastor Walter delivers the eulogy for Rachel Brown while her family members and community watch on. During this service, Celeste arrives, statue of Saint Lazarus in-hand, to burst into the church and let his audience know that Walter is nothing more than a false prophet. Walter decries Celeste as an idolatress and his followers quickly deduce that she is the source of God's wrath, urging that she be purged from the community.

She attempts to escape the grip of the churchgoers and tumbles down the building's front steps, breaking her arm.

Their sending her to the gallows is only stopped when Thomas Brown demands his wife's funeral not be interrupted.

Answer: The dead, rising from their graves

After the service, Walter and Thomas speak on the circumstances of the eulogy. Though Walter is incensed with Thomas overruling his authority regarding Celeste, Thomas says he had to speak up so that his son could withstand his own mother's funeral service. Both apologize to one another, acknowledging that their recent grief is just a symptom of the curse that has befallen their community.

There is hope, however, in the form of a leap of faith. Thomas lets his pastor know of a new ritual, one that could help ward off the plague.

In a town not far from theirs, a man of faith was told by God that smallpox came about when the souls of the dead rose to feast on the bodies of the living, so the townspeople dug up victims of the disease. What they found was that those bodies had barely decomposed.

They removed the hearts of the bodies and burned them to prevent them from rising again and, sure enough, the town went back to normal. Thomas insists that they try it on his wife as an experiment; no one needs to know.

Answer: Walter

Walter and Thomas, with Rachel on a table before them, say one final prayer before Thomas takes a knife and prepares to plunge it into his wife's chest. He finds he can't do it, however, so Walter is the one to make the cut, cutting in and removing the organ in short order.

When Walter takes it out, Thomas makes the off-handed comment that it's believed, by some, that eating the hart protects one from smallpox. The rumour is enough to convince the pastor; he bites into the heart in an attempt to prevent himself from getting the affliction. Walter reminds him to think of his son.

It's why Thomas brings it home and prepares it as part of their family meal.

Answer: The stables

While Thomas and his son, Edward, dig into their meal they're interrupted by a guest at the door, Delilah, who arrives to deliver milk to the household. While Thomas takes Delilah's condolences and well-wishes, Edward reminds both of them that Pastor Walter believes women who work with beasts to be unclean. Thomas encourages him to eat the stew he made, not telling him of the contents, but Edward feeds it to the cat instead.

Delilah, wandering back out to the farm, finds Celeste hiding amongst the animals with her broken arm still injured. Granting Celeste mercy, she brings her home and makes her comfortable. Delilah believes that whoever harmed her should be held responsible, but since Pastor Walter is a man of the cloth, it's hard to ensure this. Celeste fears for her life; Delilah insists she say until she's healed. It doesn't take long before the two find themselves smitten with each other.

Answer: True

While placing flowers at Rachel's grave, Thomas and Edward are approached by Pastor Walter who, under the pretence of asking after their health, not-so-subtly notes that they've been avoiding attending church services since Rachel's funeral. Thomas sends Edward away to speak to the holy man and let him know that he hasn't been able to sleep since eating Rachel's heart. Contrarily, Walter believes it was a good idea; he hasn't been sick since the ritual was undertaken. In fact, Walter has taken more hearts from the recently deceased and continued to feast on them.

Delilah, meanwhile, discovers that Celeste is sick with pox and suggests isolation. Celeste, however, continues to believe herself to be a healer. She admits the truth-- she was once a milkmaid and received the pox when she held that job, but she hid the marks away and was never truly sick. When she fell in love with a man and became pregnant with his child, things changed; the man left her and took the baby when he found out the truth. That's when she turned to prostitution to survive.

Answer: To support this ritual

As Celeste recounts, she was cast out from society and use her body to survive. Though she tried to keep her wounds hidden in the beginning, many men tempted their fate, turning her disease into a fetish. The real surprise, however, came when none of the men who visited her got sick with the pox, causing her to understand that she was chosen to stop peoples' suffering. Delilah, skeptical of God's role in Celeste's healing capabilities, says that she'll need to get to the bottom of what makes her so critical to peoples' health.

Thomas and Edward return to church despite Thomas' growing disdain for Paster Walter's services. What they discover is that Walter has chosen this opportunity to inform his followers of the ritual he's continued to stand by. The townspeople support his cause, insisting they have nothing to lose.

Answer: Blood

Celeste and Delilah fight over the the latter's staunch eagerness to prove logic and reason behind the former's healing powers, and it comes to a head when both reveal their love for one another. Delilah insists that she wishes to be healed and it leads the two to indulge in their impulses. Little do they know, Edward watches them from outside.

That evening, when checking the milk stockpiled that day, Delilah finds that there's blood in the batch. Checking the cow, they find that it has its own pox, and it might explain why the two of them have seen the disease on their own bodies and not been affected by the smallpox outbreak. Packing the bottles she has, Delilah says she'll deliver them to the townspeople to inoculate them against the disease, and when she comes back, Celeste will have more at the ready.

As Delilah departs, Celeste struggles with the thought that she may not be a healer.

Answer: Celeste

As Pastor Walter leads the townspeople to the local cemetery, he encourages them that unearthing their loved ones will lead them to peace, health, and salvation. Delilah arrives at Thomas and Edward's house to find the former has joined the townsfolk. She urges Edward to drink her milk, but Edward claims to be strong; the weak will die and Pastor Walter will save the strong with his and God's methods.

When Delilah makes it to the cemetery she declares that she has the cure in-hand. Though the bodies in their cemetery don't decompose quickly, that can be attributed to the shallow groundwater and the salt level keeping the bodies intact. Walter won't hear it, however, suggesting that she's employed by the devil. Picking up a large rock, Walter strikes Delilah in the head and decides to head to her house to put an end to Celeste as well. Thomas tries to stop him, revealing that Celeste is actually Edward's mother and claiming that he's lived with regret for his infidelity and choices in life. It's not enough, however. Walter stabs him, disgusted by his weakness and insistence, and leaves him to bleed out.

Answer: Edward

Walter finally enters Delilah's home and wields his knife, intending to put Celeste to death for her crimes against their God. Assaulting her before he murders her, his back is turned long enough for Delilah, who awakened from the blow to her head, to return home and stab him with his own knife. The two women back away from him, believing themselves to be safe, but Thomas, who survived his injuries as well, walks in to find Delilah and Celeste in embrace. Though he's injured, he suggests that their unnatural, lustful ways are an affront. Thomas, coming to the conclusion that Edward's own wickedness can be traced back to Celeste, grabs the knife from Walter's corpse and prepares to kill her with it, but Delilah stands between them and dies to protect her.

As both Delilah and Thomas succumb to their wounds, Celeste is convinced to spread the smallpox cure far and wide to honour their love. That night, as Celeste prepares to depart, she stops at the Brown household to reveal the truth to her estranged son. Edward, however, still believing in Pastor Walter's words, stabs her in the side when she admits to being a milkmaid.

As she bleeds to death, Edward cuts into her chest, removes her heart, and eats it.