The first week of the Jeopardy
Second Chance Tournament demonstrated just how much the first group of players
deserved their second chance. The second week has actually given us something
that I’m not certain the tournament needed, but absolutely couldn’t hurt – a breakout
sensation.
On the last day of Season 37
Matt Amodio faced his first real challenge as a Jeopardy super-champion by Nicole
Neulist, who fought him to a near tie before getting Final Jeopardy wrong.
(Matt got Final Jeopardy right, so it didn’t make much of a difference.) Nicole
used her prize to money to make a change to her life, and Nicole changed a name
to reflect a non-binary lifestyle to Rowan Ward. I can not state this with
certainty but Rowan may be the first non-binary contestant in Jeopardy’s
history.
I would not care about this if
Rowan was not a very good player, and that is one thing they definitely have
proven to be, as well as exceptionally enthusiastic at their job. In the third
and last semi-final match, Rowan utterly dominated fellow contestants Do Park
and Nikkee Porcaro from beginning to end, dazzling Ken Jennings with their
willingness to go ‘all-in’ on a Daily Double when it served their purpose (even
if it seemed it wouldn’t) Rowan walked to the biggest runaway in this entire
tournament, and finished with the highest winning total of any semi-final game in
this tournament. I am not inclined to
pick favorites but going into tonight’s final Rowan looked like the most
obvious contender.
Sadie Goldberger was superb in
her semi-final appearance and Jack Weller played very well in what turned out
to be a (much closer) runaway game, but I still truly believed going in Rowan
had the best chance. And Rowan proved my confidence was not misplaced.
Almost from the beginning of
the Jeopardy round, Rowan was in complete command. They got off to a quick
start, helped by finding the Daily Double on the sixth clue of the game by
which point Rowan already had $3800. They wagered everything on THE ANIMAL KINGDOM:
“Males of these mammals engage in bouts called necking to establish a social hierarchy.”
Rowan knew it was giraffes and went up to $7600. Neither Jack nor Sadie could
make up much ground the rest of the way (Sadie was in the red much of Jeopardy
round only working her way to zero on the very last clue) and Rowan had $11,800
by the end of it.
Paradoxically, the person who
did the most damage to Rowan in Double Jeopardy was Rowan. They found the first
Daily Double on the third clue of the round in THE SECOND CHAPTER. Rowan bet
big again - $8000- but it worked against them.
“’Ralph says, “We’ve been on
the mountain top and seen water all around.”
Rowan was silent before humorously guessing: “What is James and the
Giant Peach?” It was actually Lord of The Flies.” Down they went to
$5000.
They made up for it by finding
the Daily Double on the very next clue in LAKES AND RIVERS, this time betting
the $5000 they had left. “This river that flows 2,300 miles before emptying
into the Caspian Sea is Europe’s longest.” Rowan knew it was the Volga and
jumped back to $10,000.
From that point on, neither Jack
nor Sadie had a chance. Rowan’s performance in both rounds could only be described
as ‘utter domination.’ They got thirty-seven correct answers and only five incorrect
ones. Those are numbers that even the greatest players of all time – the James
Holzhauers, the Matt Amodios and yes, the Ken Jennings’ only occasionally
achieve. When the round was over Rowan was at an even $30,000 to Jack’s $6400
and Sadie’s $4400. Sadie and Rowan knew that it was going to be tough to make a
comeback, but I’m not sure that affected their wagers in Final Jeopardy,
The category was AMERICAN
COMPOSERS: “He turned to opera with the 1903 work ‘Guest of Honor’, likely
inspired by Booker T. Washington’s dinner at the White House.” Rowan and Sadie
knew the correct response: “Who was Scott Joplin?” Jack thought it was Gershwin
and lost the most - $3000. Sadie only bet $400 and Rowan bet nothing at all.
Going into Game 2 of the final, Rowan is in control of their destiny with
$30,000 to Jack’s $3400 and Sadie’s $4800.
I have to say that this may be
the one point where Alex Trebek’s absence is sorely felt. At points like this in every tournament, no
matter how wide the margin between first and third could be: he would say: “The
person in a distant third often comes back to win the second game and then the
whole tournament.” The long-time viewer knew better (Alex himself knew that as
well) but whenever he said it, his gravitas could carry the day. Ken said the
same thing too both at the end of the first game of the final this week and
last week, but it’s a lot harder to buy coming from him because given his
history on the show, we know he know he knows better. He’s been in too many special tournaments before
he retired from playing to know very well just how hard it was for his
opponents to come back when he was leading them $40,000 to nothing at the end
of Game 1 – or by contrast, when he was trailing that badly to James Holzhauer
in a similar situation.
But this is Jeopardy and you
never know. We’ll certainly see at the end of tomorrow’s final when I report
the results.
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