[The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for the Wednesday, June 4, episode of Jeopardy!]
Another tough Final Jeopardy question had fans aggravated. However, the reigning Jeopardy! champion spoke out about their answer and the game as a whole.
Stella Trout, from Houston, Texas, returned for her second game with a one-day total of $28,800 after beating three-day champion Geoff Barnes. She faced off against Jay Borsom, from Plainfield, Illinois, and Joey Quismorio, from San Antonio, Texas, on Wednesday, June 4.
Trout, a software engineer, selected the first clue, which turned out to be the Daily Double. She had $0 and wagered the allotted $1,000. In “Give Us The Short version,” the clue read, “Cut the lizard-related part off & you’re left with this 4-letter shortened word, the ‘terrible’ part.” She answered with “dino,” earning $1,000.
Trout spoke out about the first Daily Double on Reddit. “That first DD! I felt like I was in a Saw trap when I got the clue and didn’t know it off the bat, then felt like Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover parsing it out, then it just clicked. Extremely satisfying, just wish I didn’t find it immediately,” she said.
She dominated most of the round, ending with $7,200. Quismorio, a product manager, had $2,200. Borsom, a trivia content creator and DJ, trailed with $1,400.
In Double Jeopardy, the game got more intense as Quismorio and Borsom got the hang of it and quickly caught up to Trout. However, Trout tried to maintain the lead when she found the first DD of the round. With $8,800 in her bank, she wagered $2,000.
In “Colleges & Universities,” the clue read, “Daniel Webster, a grad of this Ivy League school, argued & won an important 1819 Supreme Court case on its behalf.” Trout answered correctly with, “What is Dartmouth?” giving her $10,800.
Trout didn’t have much time to recover because she found the last DD on the next clue. She wagered $4,000 in “The Same Letter 3 Times.” the clue read, “From the Latin for ‘iron,’ it’s the specific job of someone who shoes horses & cares for their hooves.” Trout answered correctly with “a farrier,” giving her $14,800.
She spoke out about her wagering as well. “Honestly, I was SO terrified up there on the stage and I think it really came across. On both DJ DDs, I bet against myself – in my head was just the question ‘How much can I afford to lose when I get it wrong?’ and so I was trying to maintain double Joey’s score with that in mind. I wish I’d believed in myself more, or that I’d bet big regardless, at least on the last DD. If I did so and answered wrong (but kept the lead), I would’ve been in the same situation that I ended up in at FJ, and if I’d answered right I’d have the lockout. I just wasn’t in the right mindset to see that.”
Trout ended the round in the lead with $17,200. Quismorio had $9,400. Borsom was in third with $4,200. But, Final Jeopardy can change everything, and it did.
The category for Final Jeopardy was “American History.” The clue read, “He recalled that before an 1831 revolt, he had a vision of ‘white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle.’” The correct answer was Nat Turner, and only one player got it right: Quismorio. He wagered $7,801, ending with $17,201. Borsom’s answer was Brown. She wagered $3000, leaving her with a total of $1,200. Trout answered, “Who is Sitting Bull?” She wagered $2,000, making her final total $15,200.
That made Quismorio the night’s winner. He will be back on Thursday, June 5 to face off against two new opponents.
About the final clue, Trout wrote, “My answer doesn’t make much sense. The ‘spirits’ part made me think of ghosts, which brought me to Ghost Dance and Sitting Bull. I didn’t even compute that ‘white’ and ‘black’ meant skin color until it was too late. Really silly but the nerves got me good; my head started spinning as soon as DJ finished and I saw it wasn’t a lockout :/.”
“(Not so) fun fact, though, just as the music was ending (literally in the last 5 seconds), I took a fresh look at the clue and this time I got it,” she added. “I realized what they meant and that it was Nat Turner at the same time I realized I didn’t have enough time to write it down (especially because I’d already set down the pen – future contestants, don’t do this), so I just accepted it was all down to Joey, who killed it, unsurprisingly and deservedly. So it goes.”
“Tough FJ today. Guessed John Brown but realized it was the wrong time period,” a Reddit user said.
“Final Jeopardy! strikes again. I feel for Stella, but she underwagered on the Daily Doubles,” another commented.
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