Final Jeopardy: South America (10-23-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (10/23/2025) in the category “South America” was:
An airport at this South American city is named for archaeologist Maria Reiche, who was known as the “Lady of the Lines”
2x champ Tom Devlin, an attorney from Washington, D.C., has won $43,199 so far. In Game 3, his opponents are: Elijah Perseus Blumov, a poet & podcaster from Evanston, IL; and Jake Tomlin, a middle school teacher from Lynchburg, VA.
Round 1 Categories: Presidential Facts – Beer Me – Disney Characters – That’s Totally Sus – Tough 6-Letter Vocab – “Saint” Somewhere
Tom found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “That’s Totally Sus” under the $800 clue on the 6th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $2600 now, and the only one with any money. Tom bet it all and he was RIGHT.
A boy “known by the sobriquet of” this tells Oliver Twist about a free place to stay in London; what could go wrong? show
Tom finished in the lead with $9,400. Jake was second with $1,400 and Elijah was last with negative $600. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: An Italian Renaissance Man – You Are Wrong – Alliterative Pop Culture – Transportation – An Ill Wind – Book Ends
Tom found the first Daily Double in “You Are Wrong” under the $1,200 clue on the 12th pick. He was in the lead with $12,200 now, $6,800 more than Jake in second place. Tom bet $4,000 and sort of offered foible but he knew that was WRONG.
The French are generous with terms for blunders, having given us faux pas & this 5-letter word for a public mistake show
4 clues later, Tom landed on the last Daily Double in “Italian Renaissance Man” under the $800 clue. In the lead with $11,800, he had $6,400 more than Jake in second place. Tom bet $6,000 and, this time, he was RIGHT.
Marsilio Ficino knew this family & founded his Platonic Academy, an intellectual hub of the It-Ren, at their villa near Florence show
Tom finished in the lead with a runaway $27,800. Jake was next with $7,800 and Elijah was in third place with $3,400. All clues were shown.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS NAZCA (PERU)?
Nazca is a city in Peru, approximately 278 miles south of Lima. The area is famous for countless line drawings in the desert, which were studied in the 1940s by Maria Reiche, a German-born mathematician, and Paul Kosok, an American historian. They thought the carvings were meant as a calendar of sorts, pointing to the winter and summer solstices. Since then, other theories ranging from alien visits to religious purposes have been considered.
In 1994, the area became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2011, the first official flight took off from the Maria Reiche Neuman Airport, the small airport named in Reiche’s honor.
Elijah thought it was Lima. He lost $3,399 and was left with a dollar.
Jake came up with Cuzco. He stood pat on his $7,800 to make sure he got second place.
Tom got it right. He bet $2,200 and won the game with $30,000. Tom’s 3-day total is $73,199.
A triple stumper from each round:
AN ITALIAN RENAISSANCE MAN ($2000) Shown on a medal, Sigismondo Malatesta was lord of Rimini but also one of these mercenaries from “condure”, to conduct or lead
BOOK ENDS ($1600) The ending of this Wilson Rawls tale reveals the title botanical location: near the graves of beloved dogs
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “FAMOUS FAMILIES”
In 2020 a former U.S. ambassador to Ireland, the last of 9 siblings in this dynastic family, died at 92 show
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Excellent work by Tom to dominate the remainder of the game after his costly DD gaffe. I rarely get to say this, but I found all 3 DDs to be easy. I saw my 2nd Broadway show, “Oliver,” in 1964. The Artful Dodger was played by young Brit David Jones, who two years later would become Davy Jones of the Monkees. I still have the Playbill to prove it.
I have never ever heard of Nazca or Maria Reiche. I guessed Lima and thought that would be right. Not many stumpers tonight, and I can’t say I got any of them at first look.
I guessed Cusco for the final and thought I had it… I was sad to get it wrong.
I was hoping Elijah’s chat story would be about Perseus, his cool middle name.
By the way, Reiche was never married. Her full name was Maria Reiche Grosse-Neumann. Reiche Grosse was her father’s surname and Neumann was her mother’s. I couldn’t find any reason why an ‘n’ was left off Neumann and Grosse was totally left out when naming the airport. Maybe it’s a Peruvian thing 😉