Mrs. Bass

Books
Mrs. Bass
Biographical Information
Died	Hotel Denouement Fire (possibly)
Physical Description
Gender	Female
Hair	Black (illustrations) White (Netflix)
Skin	Dark (Netflix)
Relationships
Love Interests	Babs (Netflix)
Affiliation
Interest	Metric System
Profession	Teacher Bank thief
Loyalty	Prufrock Preparatory School Vice Principal Nero
Behind the Scenes
Appearances	The Austere Academy The Penultimate Peril
Adaptation Appearances	Netflix Adaptation: The Austere Academy: Part One, The Austere Academy: Part Two, The Carnivorous Carnival: Part Two and The Slippery Slope: Part One
Portrayed by	B.J. Harrison (Netflix)

“	I'm so hungry I could eat a dekagram of rice.	”
	— Mrs. Bass in The Penultimate Peril

Mrs. Bass was Klaus Baudelaire and Isadora Quagmire's teacher at Prufrock Preparatory School in the A Series of Unfortunate Events book The Austere Academy.

Biography

The Austere Academy

In the books, it is mentioned her black hair was so long and messy that she vaguely resembled a gorilla.

Mrs. Bass was a teacher obsessed with the metric system. Each day she made students measure anything she could find and had them call it out in class. She would write the measurements on the board and then the students would switch items. Vice Principal Nero mentions both she and Mr. Remora have been teaching at Prufrock for more than forty-seven years.

She thinks that Klaus is very smart and nice as she states so in The Austere Academy, when giving out hard tests to Violet and Klaus. She even admits that she never liked Carmelita Spats.

The Penultimate Peril

In The Penultimate Peril, she returns at Hotel Denouement as a guest alongside Vice Principal Nero and Mr. Remora. Mrs. Bass has some bank money with her which Mr. Remora and Vice Principal Nero don't question her on. When at the hotel's Indian restaurant run by Hal, the food that Mrs. Bass orders are 10 grams of rice, 1/10 of a hectogram of shrimp vindaloo, a decagram of chana aloo masala, 1,000 centigrams of tandoori salmon, 4 samosas with the surface area of 19 cubic centimeters, 5 deciliters of mango lassi, and a sada rava dosai that is 19 centimeters long.

When Dewey Denouement is killed, Mrs. Bass states that the Baudelaire children are criminals that should be punished which Hugo agreed with her on.

During the trial of the Baudelaire children and Count Olaf, she submits blueprints of banks as evidence. When the Baudelaire children discover that Count Olaf has Justice Strauss and that the other two judges are the Man With a Beard But No Hair and the Woman With Hair But No Beard, they try to talk the trial attendees into taking off their blindfolds. As different people argue about the innocence of the Baudelaire children, Mrs. Bass claimed that the Baudelaire children rob banks to which Arthur Poe quotes "Who said that?"

When the Hotel Denouement Fire is started, Mrs. Bass was last seen on the third story muttering something about a getaway car. It is not clear if Mrs. Bass escapes the fire at the hotel. However, it is possible she did because in The Austere Academy, Lemony Snicket states that Prufrock Preparatory School closed after she was arrested for robbing Mulctuary Money Management, and she still seems to be on the lam in The Penultimate Peril. Some theorize she stole the Baudelaire Fortune or money from the Spats family as there is a pile of large bulky bags in her hotel room with "PROPERTY OF MULCTUARY MONEY MANAGEMENT" stamped on them.

TV series

Mrs. Bass on the lam at the lion show.

In The Austere Academy, she and Mr. Remora intercept the Quagmires attempts to warn the Baudelaires that Count Olaf is on the property. She later assists Vice Principal Nero and Mr. Remora in quizzing the Baudelaires.

In The Carnivorous Carnival, she and Mr. Remora go to Caligari Carnival to watch someo ne get devoured by lions in "The Carnivorous Carnival: Part Two." She has a bag of money in her hands and had to pass them off as quiz papers. When the Caligari Carnival was burning down, Mrs. Bass was seen in Mr. Poe's car where she persuaded him to give her a "private tour" of Mulctuary Money Management.

Mrs. Bass playing Go Fish with her hostage.

In "The Slippery Slope: Part One", Mr. Poe shows Mrs. Bass the bank. She attacks him and opens the vault. However, she decides to play a game of Go Fish with a tied-up Poe instead of trying to flee. The police come and take Mrs. Bass away.

In "The Penultimate Peril: Part One", Babs mentions her true love is in prison for bank robbery. This means that Mrs. Bass is either bisexual or lesbian.

Behind the scenes

In the Netflix adaptation, she is played by B.J. Harrison.

Appearances

Books
A Series of Unfortunate Events (Books)
1. The Bad Beginning (1999):	Absent	7. The Vile Village (2001):	Absent
2. The Reptile Room (1999):	Absent	8. The Hostile Hospital (2001):	Absent
3. The Wide Window (2000):	Absent	9. The Carnivorous Carnival (2002):	Absent
4. The Miserable Mill (2000):	Absent	10. The Slippery Slope (2003):	Absent
5. The Austere Academy (2000):	Debut	11. The Grim Grotto (2004):	Absent
6. The Ersatz Elevator (2001):	Absent	12. The Penultimate Peril (2005):	Appears
13. The End (2006):		Absent
All the Wrong Questions
Who Could That Be at This Hour? (2012):	Absent	Shouldn't You Be in School? (2014):	Absent
When Did You See Her Last? (2013):	Absent	Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? (2015):	Absent
File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents (2014):		Absent
Snicketverse
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography (2002):		Mentioned
The Dismal Dinner (2004):		Absent
The Beatrice Letters (2006):		Absent
29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy (2014):		Absent
The Hero of the Story (2017):		Absent
Poison for Breakfast (2021):		Absent
Other Snicket Books
The Baby in the Manger (2002):		Absent
The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming (2007):		Absent
The Lump of Coal (2008):		Absent
The Composer Is Dead (2009):		Absent
13 Words (2010):		Absent
The Dark (2013):		Absent
Goldfish Ghost (2017):		Absent

• The Austere Academy
• The Penultimate Peril
• A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV series)
  • "The Austere Academy: Part One"
  • "The Austere Academy: Part Two"
  • "The Carnivorous Carnival: Part Two"
  • '"The Slippery Slope: Part One"

Quotes

• "Pop quiz! Question number one. What is the circumference of yesterday's pomegranate? Question two: What are the dimensions of the vault at Mulctuary Money Management? Question three: how far apart in decimeters are the security cameras? I need you to really pay attention to these numbers and give me exactly what I'm asking for."

Trivia

• Mrs. Bass, Ms. Tench and Mr. Remora are named after fish, possibly because a group of fish is called a school.
• In the TV series, it is mentioned that Mrs. Bass considered a life of crime in order to become rich enough to quit being a teacher and leave the school so that she would not have to deal with Carmelita Spats.