The Final Jeopardy question (10/14/2011), in the category The Western Hemisphere, was:

“This nation lost its direct access to the Pacific around 1880 but retains a Navy that now patrols its river & a large lake“

Two-day champion Katie Proctor returned on Friday to defend against two new challengers, Joe Koster and Megan Benitz. So far, Katie has been leaving the other contestants in the dust. Here’s how it went down today:

In the Jeopardy round, it looked like Katie was going to leave them in the dust again, as she took an early lead with the “At 33” category and got the Daily Double. She bet all of the $1,400 she had and was correct. Megan and Joe got it together in a bit and Katie even got one wrong in The Planets, which worked out well for Joe. That happened again in “You’ll Need Some Backup” when Katie knew Harold was the lead singer of The Bluenotes but Joe knew his last name was Melvin.

Katie ended up tied with Megan at $5,000 at the end of this round and Joe was a close second at $4,400.

Megan got the first Daily Double in Double Jeopardy (Starts with “V”), bet $1,600 and pulled the answer to “this South American ruminant that’s related to the guanaco” from deep within. Close one, Megan! She was now temporarily in the lead by $2,000.

Joe got the Second Daily Double in Architecture and bet $5,000, putting him in a tie at this point with Katie for the lead at $11,400.

Joe finished in the lead with $18,200. Megan was second with $12,600. Katie went into Final Jeopardy in third place with $12,200.

Katie bet $10,000 and wrote down Brazil. Wrong-o! That left her with a measly $2,200. Megan chose Venezuela, also wrong. Her more conservative $6,000 bet earned her second place. “Both of you on the wrong coast,” Alex said.

Joe was the only one who got the Final Jeopardy answer right:

“What is Boliva?”

If you want to find out more about that, check out Bolivia – Chile relations (wikipedia)

Joe’s total winnings were $25,201. Alex congratulated Joe, who will be back on Monday: “You started slowly but you came on strong.”

It was quite an up and down game, wasn’t it?

Final thought: Katie really knew her Sherlock Holmes, even his address, but the clue that got all of them in that category was “His colorful first case.”