Here you’ll find the Final Jeopardy clue for Wednesday, October 9, 2024. Despite a triple stumper about flags in yesterday’s match, Mark Fitzpatrick still managed to come out on top as a three-day Jeopardy champion through some lucky betting. Today he hopes to extend his winnings, which total $58,000 so far, and will battle against data analyst Robert Franke from Wisconsin and Colleen Kelly from Massachusetts. Here is the question and answer for Final Jeopardy on 10/9/2024, plus the wagers and the winner of the episode.
Final Jeopardy Question for October 9
The Final Jeopardy question for October 9, 2024 is in the category of “Word Origins” and has the following clue:
The word for one who cuts a trail comes from a name of a character in an 1840 novel
The right answer to this clue can be found at the end of this guide. This is to make sure we don’t spoil anything before you see it.
Final Jeopardy Wagers and Winner for October 9
It’s becoming a habit, but Mark won the October 9 match after getting a runaway lead after the second round. No one was able to get the right answer to Final Jeopardy, given the difficulty and vagueness of the clue.
Mark didn’t need to bet anything to win today’s game, and so he didn’t. He wagered nothing and kept his total of $23,600 intact, making him a rare 4-day champion with $81,600 in winnings thus far. He made a good guess of “pioneer,” though.
Meanwhile, Robert had $6,200 and only lost a wagered $130. This put him in second place with $6,070. On the flip side, Colleen had $5,600 and bet it all, placing her in third with $0. Neither of them were able to come up with a guess.
Final Jeopardy Answer for October 9
The correct answer for Final Jeopardy on October 9, 2024 is “What is pathfinder?”
This is one of the hardest clues that we’ve seen for Final Jeopardy this season. There are many words that describe an explorer and a lot of important novels were written in the 1840s. We don’t expect anyone to be able to know specific books that came out in 1840, so this clue being a triple stumper is not a surprise for us.
The only reason I was able to come up with the right answer here is because I have played Pathfinder before, a tabletop RPG that’s similar to Dungeons & Dragons. As for the reference in the clue, the book is called “The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea” written by James Fenimore Cooper in 1840. The main character named Natty is also called the Pathfinder as he guides people through the woods. That said, it’s not the most well-known book for this time period, other than it coming after Cooper’s “The Last of the Mohicans.”
