Final Jeopardy: Ancient Builders (7-9-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (7/9/2025) in the category “Ancient Builders” was:
A 2nd c. inscription in northern England records that the gods imposed “the necessity of keeping intact the empire” on this man
4x champ Scott Riccardi, an engineer from Somerville, NJ, has now won $132,402. In Game 5, he takes on: Sarah Mulligan, a lawyer from New York, NY; and Rahul Kak, a law student from Brooklyn, NY.
Round 1 Categories: American History – Sporty Stuff – We Are Literary Family – How Now, Dow Jones 30 Symbol – Number, Please – “Straight” Talk
Scott found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “American History” under the $600 clue on the 1st pick of the round. Nobody was on the board. Scott bet $1,000 and guessed mustang. That was WRONG.
Around 1870 unbranded strays gained this moniker from the name of a Texas rancher negligent in marking his calves show
Scott finished in the lead with $3,800. Sarah was second with $2,600 and Rahul was last with negative $200. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Sketches Give Stitches – Old Reviews – Earth Science – French Proverbs – Take a Long Walk – Off a Not-So-Short Pier
Scott found the first Daily Double in “Earth Science” under the $1,600 clue on the 7th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $6,600, $4,000 more than Sarah in second place. Scott bet $4,000 and he was RIGHT.
On a global scale this process of heat transfer sees warm air rise & cold air sink, driving much of weather & climate show
Scott got the last Daily Double in “Take a Long Walk” under the $1,600 clue on the 9th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $10,600, $8,000 more than Sarah in second place. Scott bet $5,000 and came up with the Pacific Coast Highway. That was WRONG.
Very few have walked the entire length of this route that runs 19,000 miles from Argentina to Alaska via the perilous Darien Gap show
Scott finished in the lead with a runaway $12,000. Sarah was second with $5,400 and Rahul was last with $3,800. All clues were shown.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHO IS HADRIAN?
The Per Lineam Valli website says that the inscription in today’s clue is labeled RIB 1051a. RIB stands for “Roman Inscriptions Britain”, a means of cataloguing Hadrian Wall inscriptions. There were two fragments found at St. Paul’s church at Jarrow, a town in northern England near Newcastle upon Tyne. It says that part of the inscription was missing. The translation after the Latin part they have is “Son of all the divine emperors, Emperor Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus, once the need to maintain the empire within limits had been placed upon him by divine authority… consul for the third time…” The 2nd fragment is then translated, although it isn’t altogether certain that both fragments belong together because of the missing text.
St. Paul’s church at Jarrow may be more well known for its connection to the Venerable Bede.
Rahul wrote down “I dunno”. He lost $1,601 and finished with $2,199.
Sarah didn’t know either but she just had a blank. She lost $2,201 and finished with $3,199.
Scott got it right. He bet $500 and won the game with $12,500. Scott’s 5-day total is $144,902. I’m sure we all had no doubt Scott already had a spot in the next Tournament of Champion, but Ken let us know his 5th win made that a lock.
A triple stumper from each round:
“STRAIGHT” TALK ($1000) This 3-word phrase meaning simple & direct is the title of a Thelonious Monk album
EARTH SCIENCE ($2000) Dubbed Clambake 1, the first of the structures called these vents, the “hot springs of the ocean floor”, was discovered in 1977
2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “NAME’S THE SAME”
A 1931 Charlie Chaplin film & a West Coast bookstore open since 1953 both bear this name show
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Also had a dud question. The “Wild” answer was a bad question. The author did not hike the Pacific Coast Trail as stated in the question, she hiked 1100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, a distinctly different trail.
Thanks for that information, Daybreak. That one’s on Jeopardy! — I put a screencap of the clue on page 2, and a link to a YouTube where the author talks about her Pacific CREST Trail adventure.
I was 2/3 on DD, but missed FJ. I said “Caesar”. Oh well!
Concur with a dud game. However, I DID miss the isotope! But, as per very usual, agree with my friend Howard.
If there was a lamer crew than this one this season, I can’t think of one. Including Scott, who blew $5K on a very knowable DD. I wasn’t shocked when the two challengers came up blank on a pretty easy Final. I trounced them repeatedly throughout: Galsworthy family; KO liquid; HON symbol; uranium isotope; the artist with praised skies; French insect; title song distance; Durban’s country; the San Diego Padre I got his autograph at a card show 40 years ago); and the UConn star. A hefty $8800 right there. Knew the “Wild” author, even saw her in person a few years ago, couldn’t get it out in time.
Right, Howard? If Scott had held back 3 or 4K on that last DD, he could have doubled it in FJ!
I was surprised no one knew that Proclaimers song. I think it was used in a commercial fairly recently.
I performed a tad below average in the game, but almost aced the American History category. Well, I got 3 out of the 5 in the Earth Science category, but only 1 out of the 5 in the French phrase category. Gee, I do know some of the French language, and given a little more time, I would have surely performed better in that category. Regarding the FJ, I went with Edward the Confessor (although I knew that he came centuries later) for lack of a better choice. Hadrian? I never heard of the man until now, and I suppose that he built the Hadrian wall (wherever that was).
Every time a player gets a decent lead on a Daily Double like Scott did with a $4K bet, then gets the last Daily Double, I’m over here saying “Don’t do it! Don’t do it!” Then they bet the same amount or more and lose the advantage!
It worked out okay for Scott today but I still think betting like that is reckless in general. It’s truly reckless when the DD was the 2nd clue in the category and the 1st one was a triple stumper!