Jeopardy Season 41 Second Chance Recap, Week 1 Finals

 

Eugene Huang Vs. Dave Widmayer vs Pete Johnston

Game 1

 

The Jeopardy round of Game 1 gave the impression that it would be a cutthroat thriller like the three semi-finals match were. It ended as what seemed very much to be a race to the bottom, though in fairness none of this was quite the three finalists fault.

At the halfway mark of the Jeopardy round all three players were doing well: Eugene was in the lead with $4200, Dave was next with $3000 and Pete was not far behind with $2800. Pete got the Daily Double in CIVICS and wagered everything.

"The 5^th and 14^th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution enshrine this 2-word guarantee of a fair trial. " Pete fumbled before guessing: "What is habeas corpus?" It was due process. (In fairness I only knew this because a variation of this response had shown up in a Jeopardy clue a couple of times before.) He dropped to nothing. Pete went in the red for a while but finished the round with $600 to Dave's $4200 and Eugene's $6000.

Pete  started out Double Jeopardy by going to the $2000 clue in THE LIFE OF A SHOWGIRL. He seemed to think it had to do with the Taylor Swift album which was a rookie mistake (or perhaps someone who had only played a few games. Either way the clue was not a picnic.

"This American was a sensation at the Folies Bergere, dancing while wearing not much but a skirt ornamented with bananas." He fumbled before guessing: "Who is Carmen Miranda?" (I thought it was too.) It was actually Josephine Baker. He dropped to -$1400.

Pete managed to climb out of the hole and the game was close for a while. Then Dave got control of the board and found the other Daily Double in BODIES OF WATER. He had $8200 and bet for  the lead, wagering $4200:

"Care to Gdansk? Then come on down to the mouth of this river, it's country's longest."

He guessed: "What is the Dnieper?" He was in the right part of Europe but it was the Vistula, the longest river in Poland.

In a sense Eugene managed to finish in front by the end of Double Jeopardy because he didn't find a Daily Double. He finished with $12,000 because he gave 16 correct responses and only 2 incorrect ones. Dave gave fourteen correct responses and only two incorrect ones (one of which was that Daily Double) to finish with $4000. Pete managed to give 20 correct responses and five incorrect ones (three others besides the two Daily Doubles he got wrong) to finish with $7400.

The Final Jeopardy category was U.S. PRESIDENTS.  Frequently this is a category most Jeopardy players do very well in. Instead it was yet another triple stumper, though to be fair I was equally baffled by it at home:

"His mom Eliza, the first mother to attend her son's inauguration, survived him by about 6 years; his wife, by 36."

Dave guessed what might have been the obvious one: "Who is William Henry Harrison?" He was on the right track but as I knew Harrison was actually one of the oldest Presidents when he was sworn in and it cost him everything he had. Pete wrote the same response and had the same result.

It depended on what Eugene wrote down. He guessed: "Who is Franklin D. Roosevelt?" Ken told us that it was James Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881. I must, however, correct Ken as he argued that Garfield was the shortest lived President apart from JFK. He left out Zachary Taylor who made it about a year and a half.

It cost Eugene half his total leaving him with $6000 in what is going to be a fairly close final even though both his opponents have no money going into Game 2. Eugene really doesn't have much of an advantage.

(By the way I wrote down: "Who is James K. Polk?"  Polk, for the record, was also pretty young when he died at age 53 and he was the first President to be outlived by his mother. Polk died just three months after leaving office in June of 1849. I was more right then I knew in many ways because his wife Sarah Childress Polk also outlived her husband by even longer than Lucretia Garfield.  She died in 1891, and her 42 year widowhood is the longest of any first lady. This is one of those clues where I was right in a general sense but got the specific answer wrong, something any Jeopardy champion can appreciate.)

 

Game 2 Recap

The deciding game really did offer redemption for Dave and Pete in particular both of whom went into Game 2 playing their best during the entire tournament. Dave got the Daily Double in the Jeopardy round incorrect yet again but fortunately it was only on the second clue of the round so he only lost $1000. He held his lead for the entire Jeopardy round afterward finishing with $6600 to Eugene's $3200 and Pete's $1400.

Double Jeopardy was everything you could hope for nearly perfectly played by all three players. Early in Double Jeopardy Dave leading with $9000 found the first Daily Double in YE OLDE SCIENCE. He wagered $5000:

"The ancient Romans used this 2-word farming concept with a revolving 'food, feed and fallow' planting method." Dave needed a moment to come up with: "What is crop rotation?" It was the first correct Daily Double in the finals so far and he went ahead with $14,000.

A few clues later Pete found the other Daily Double in 19^th CENTURY WOMEN WRITERS.  Having been burnt twice before badly he only wagered $2000 of his $11,000. This time it went better:

"An older sister wrote about this youngest one's Tenant of Wildfell Hall, "The choice of subject was an entire mistake." Pete knew it was Anne Bronte (apparently Charlotte was roasting her younger sister) and Pete gained $2000.

All three players played superbly. Eugene responded correctly on all 14 clues he rang in on to finish with $11,200. Pete got 14 correct and five incorrect but finished with $13,000. Dave got 25 correct responses and only three incorrect ones, giving him $20,000. With Eugene the only one on the board at the end of Game 1 and with just $6000, anyone could win.

The Final Jeopardy category was MOVIE INSPIRATIONS. "A store's mingling of displays of 2 different holiday's inspired a poem & years later, a 1990s film with this name." For the first time all week the players knew the correct response to Final Jeopardy and for the third consecutive game and four out of five Second Chances I didn't have a clue.

Eugene's response was revealed first: "What is The Nightmare Before Christmas?" That was correct. It was the overlap between Halloween and Christmas that inspired Tim Burton's film. (I didn't know that:- I wrote down: "What is Eight Crazy Nights?" ) Eugene bet $8600 which gave him $19,800. His two day total was $25,800.  Now we had to wait and see.

Pete wrote down: "What is The Nightmare Before Christmas?" He did what he had to do and wagered everything. That gave him $26,800 which put him in the lead.

Now it was all on Dave. He had the right idea but wrote down: "What is The Nightmare Before Halloween?" His wager of $8401 was essentially irrelevant because he had no money at the end of yesterday's game. He dropped to $11,599 and Pete Johnston had managed to advance to Champions Wildcard.

Appropriately given the nature of every victory in the semi-finals it was fitting that Pete managed to come from behind to clench his spot in Champions Wildcard. Furthermore he is now one step closer to achieving his goal of revenge on Scott Riccardi. (I mean advancing to the Tournament of Champions but come on we all know that's got to be at least part of it.)

We've already had five thrilling games in the first week with no runaways, three come-from-behind winnings and a stirring finish. Will Week 2 be able to top it? I'll be back on Christmas Eve with an early present – a recap of the semifinals in Week 2.