Final Jeopardy: Russian Literary Works (12-10-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (12/10/2025) in the category “Russian Literary Works” was:
The son of a former serf buys this title area for 90,000 rubles above the mortgage
2x champ Will Riley, an engineer orig. from Houston, TX, has now won $45,602. In Game 2, he takes on these 2 players: Chelsea Carter, a creative director from Pasadena, CA; and: Eddie Kass, a double bassist from Jamaica Plain, MA.
Round 1 Categories: Remember December – The “New” World – Prison Lingo – Literary Agents – The Name of the Game – That’s a Christmas Movie
Eddie found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “That’s a Christmas Movie” under the $400 clue on the 23rd pick of the round. He was in the lead with $5,400 now, $600 more than Will in second place. Eddie bet $2,600 and thought it was “The Santa Clause”. That was WRONG.
In this 2003 movie, we learned “They tried using gnomes & trolls, but the gnomes drank too much” show
Will finished in the lead with $6,000. Chloe was second with $4,400 and Eddie was last with $2,800. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Civil War Era Geography – Paintings – Broadway Number, Please – From the French – Med. Abbrev. – Make Your Own Wes Anderson Movie Title
Eddie found the first Daily Double in “From the French” under the $1,699 clue on the 10th pick. He was in lead with $9,200 now. Will and Chelsea both had $4,800. Eddie bet $1,800. He got the right word but after time ran out and that counts as WRONG.
The originally French word for this deadly natural phenomenon was influenced by a French word for “descent” show
Will got the last Daily Double in “Civil War Era Geography” under the $1,600 clue, with a dozen clues left after it. In second place with $8,400, he had $2,600 less than Eddie’s lead. Will bet $3,000 and guessed Jackson. That was WRONG.
This city on a bend in the Mississippi River was called “The Gibraltar of the West”; the Union captured it in 1863 show
Eddie finished in the lead with $13,800. Will was next with $12,200 and Chelsea was in third place with $4,400. The top 2 clues in “Med. Abbrev.” were not shown.
The $400 clue in “From the French” (You’re a winner, baby! Specifically this 8-letter winner of a game or battle) was shown but time ran out before Ken could let Eddie respond.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS “THE CHERRY ORCHARD”?
“The Cherry Orchard” is a play by Anton Chekhov about the aristocratic Ranevskaya family. Falling behind on their mortgage, they need 50,000 rubles to save their estate, which is well-known for its cherry orchard. Lopakhin, a former serf’s son, offers to lend them the money on condition that the orchard be chopped down to build rental cottages. They refuse, the auction goes forward and Lopakhin buys the property for 90,000 rubles. Chopping down the cherry trees in this play symbolizes the changing social order in Russia after Tsar Alexander II freed the serfs in 1861. Before that, serfs could not own land.
“The Cherry Orchard”, written in 1903, was the last play Anton Chekhov wrote. It premiered on the stage of the Moscow Art Theatre on 1/17/1904, mere months before Chekhov died from tuberculosis at the age of 44 on 7/15/1904. His other notable plays, “Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya” and “Three Sisters”, also turn up in Jeopardy! clues.
Chelsea got it right. She bet $4,399 and finished with $8,799.
Will’s incomplete response started with “House of.” That cost him $3,399 and left him with $8,801.
Eddie was going for the Gulag Archipelago. He lost $11,000 and finished with $2,800. So Will Riley remained champ for a 3-day total of $54,403.
2 triple stumpers from THE NAME OF THE GAME:
($200) Choose word or phrase; have foe try to guess, letter by letter; invent wheel-based game show based on it (oops, too late!)
($1000) Go through phases, including movement & shooting; unit coherency is crucial; 40k reasons to leave your lover
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “MOVIE MUSICALS”
Of the musicals to win an Oscar for Best Picture, 1 of the 2 with one-word titles based on & named for literary characters show
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Wow. Quite a shock between Will and Chelsea. But, man. He and Eddie were 🎶 super fast 🎶 on that signaling button.
Excellent, back-and-forth game, despite the missed DDs. Still not sure why Final came to me immediately. Really thought at least 2 would get it. Crafty wagering by Will, locking out Chelsea, especially after missing that gettable 3rd DD. (Given more time, I’d have thought of it. I crashed on all 3 DDs but knew a surprisingly large # of the $1000 and $2000 clues.)
How no one knew the wheel-based game show’s basis is a head scratcher. Same with the # of squares on a chessboard, come on. (And the $2000 Broadway clue was NOT a stumper; Will got it.) I despised that Wes Anderson made-up titles category, but I did come up with the $2000 stumper there.
@Howard, I also thought 2 players would get it — Chelsea, based on her occupation, and Will, because he aced the Russian composers yesterday. I guess he’s not as savvy in Russian literature as he is in music.
I also thought Ken was way too chatty during the game today and it contributed to the board not being finished. And, yeah, the 2 stumpers in Bway were Guys & Dolls and Chess. That’s fixed.
Howard, speaking of despising, my parents don’t like triple rhyme time, initials with roman numerals, before during and after, and anagrams.
Right on! My mind is just not as quick as it used to be. When Ken was in his run 20-ish years ago, I remember him totaly crushing a difficult Roman numerals category.
Rough show as 3 DDs were missed resulted our second DD washout of the season.
“In this 2023 movie, we learned”
Should be 2003, not 2023…
Thanks, John. It’s fixed.