Daily analysis, Monday, June 9
After a weekend of some serious Jeopardy! karaoke, it’s time to get back to business.
Molly’s in the lead once again – but both Heather and Jack are in contention.
Molly Lalonde: 14,200
Heather Heffner: 8,200
Jack Barry: 7,600
The Final Jeopardy! category: THE MEDITERRANEAN
A pretty simple scenario.
Basic strategy – first vs. second
Molly should wager 2,200 to take her destiny into her own hands.
Neither Heather nor Jack can win without getting this clue right, so they both might as well wager everything.
(At a minimum, Heather needs to wager at least 7,000 to cover Jack; Jack needs to wager at least 4,400 to have a shot if Molly gets it wrong.
All three players struggled with this one; all three players wagered properly.
The Final Jeopardy! clue for June 9, 2014 (THE MEDITERRANEAN):
IT’S THE ONLY U.N. MEMBER COUNTRY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN WHERE ENGLISH IS AN OFFICIAL NATIONAL LANGUAGE
[spoiler]What is Malta?[/spoiler]
This clue was very poorly worded; it doesn’t specify whether it’s the SEA or the REGION. Don’t be surprised to see both Heather and Jack returning in Season 31 as a result.
I agree that the FJ wording was somewhat ambiguous, but what justification would there be to bring back the losing contestants? There is no interpretation of the clue that would make any of the responses correct.
The argument for bringing them back is that a poorly worded question undermines your confidence and that you need to spend time figuring out what you think they mean (or guessing at it, even, since there are two equally probable interpretations here) rather than time figuring out your answer.
That said, I suppose that Malta fits either definition of Mediterranean and no other country would.