Warning: This page contains spoilers for the October 31, 2025, game of Jeopardy! — please do not scroll down if you wish to avoid being spoiled. Please note that the game airs as early as noon Eastern in some U.S. television markets.
Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Famous Trials) for Friday, October 31, 2025 (Season 42, Game 40):
A lawyer in a 1933 trial called this novel “tedious and labyrinthine and bewildering”–& he was arguing on its behalf
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Robbie Ellis, an orchestra manger & composer from Chicago, Illinois |
Siobhan Hickey, a grad student from Frederick, Maryland |
Christopher Tillman, a pastor from Plover, Wisconsin (1-day total: $16,000) |
h2>Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Happy Halloween! The end of Week #8 of Season 42 features a new champion in Plover, Wisconsin’s Christopher Tillman, who defeated Aaron Levine yesterday. Siobhan Hickey of Maryland and Robbie Ellis of Chicago are your challengers today.
One very interesting thing about the few weeks’ disconnect between “J!PT” (Jeopardy! Production Time) and “J!AT” (Jeopardy! Air Time) is the fact that while Aaron does know if his 3 wins and just under $50,000 is enough for the Tournament of Champions, the viewers at home are on pins and needles for the next two weeks waiting to find out. With only 2 weeks left until the Tournament of Champions cutoff, it is within the realm of possibility that we’ll get a pair of last-minute entries into the ToC field (which would be enough to relegate Aaron to Champions Wildcard.)
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is Ulysses?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2025 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
In addition to being banned in much of the English-speaking world for over a decade after its 1922 publication, James Joyce’s Ulysses was also known for its stream-of-consciousness style that could be seen by many as “tedious”, “labyrinthine”, and “bewildering”. The book was initially de facto banned following the publication of an excerpt in the literary magazine The Little Review; however, Random House, who obtained the publication rights for the United States, wished to challenge that ban. It arranged for the importation and seizure of one copy of the book to bring forth a test case, now known as United States v. One Book Called Ulysses. In this trial, Judge John M. Woolsey ruled that the work was not pornographic, leading to its publication in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
As long as one remembers that it took over a decade for Ulysses to become unbanned, or doesn’t pay as much attention to publication dates, this is a straightforward Final Jeopardy clue. It wouldn’t surprise me to see at least one guess of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer from someone who sees the year 1933 and assumes that the work was written near to that time and not a decade prior.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Friday, October 31, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: All Kinds Of Scary Books; Costumes; Pump Kin; Braaaaaains; “Trick” Or “Treat”; Halloween On-Screen)
While it was Siobhan who found the Daily Double, it was Robbie who had the best opening segment. After 15 clues, the scores were Robbie $4,000 Christopher $1,800 Siobhan $800.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Robbie 6 correct 0 incorrect
Christopher 2 correct 0 incorrect
Siobhan 3 correct 2 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Robbie is a musician for magicians.
Siobhan is part of a family that opened a natural foods restaurant 30 years ago.
Christopher got a historic church for his congregation.
Christopher had the best second half of the opening round as Robbie held just a $400 lead after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Robbie 9 correct 1 incorrect
Christopher 8 correct 0 incorrect
Siobhan 7 correct 3 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Robbie $4,800
Christopher $4,400
Siobhan $1,800
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The 1980S; World Geography; Paint & Sip; Commencement Speeches; Women Of Country Music; 2-Letter Responses)
The good news for Siobhan: she found both Daily Doubles. The bad news for Siobhan: she got both Daily Doubles incorrect. That, and some high-value incorrect responses from Robbie, was enough for Christopher (who had 0 incorrect responses) to take a runaway into Final Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Christopher 15 correct 0 incorrect
Robbie 14 correct 3 incorrect
Siobhan 14 correct 6 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 6 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Christopher $10,800
Robbie $4,400
Siobhan $3,300
This Final Jeopardy was a Triple Stumper; Christopher is now a 2-day champion! He’ll go for win #3 on Monday.
Tonight’s results:
Siobhan $3,300 – $3,298 = $2 (What is Lolita? Hi Mom + Dad!!)
Robbie $4,400 – $2,201 = $2,199 (What is the Wizard of Oz???)
Christopher $10,800 – $1,200 = $9,600 (What is Catch 22?) (2-day total: $25,600)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) BRAAAAAAINS $600 (clue #8)
Siobhan 800 +1000 (Christopher 0 Robbie 2200)
2) WORLD GEOGRAPHY $1600 (clue #7)
Siobhan 4200 -3000 (Christopher 6800 Robbie 4800)
3) COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES $1600 (clue #21, $8400 left on board)
Siobhan 6000 -3500 (Christopher 9600 Robbie 3600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -30
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Christopher 3 5
Siobhan 4 3 3*
Robbie 3 4 4
DJ! Round:
Christopher 4 5 3 2 1 2
Siobhan 3 4 2 4* 3† 3 5 4 5 3 1 4 2 4*
Robbie 5†
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Christopher 3.13
Robbie 4.00
Siobhan 3.35
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 6 (0.15 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Christopher $10,800 Coryat, 15 correct, 0 incorrect, 22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Robbie $4,400 Coryat, 14 correct, 3 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Siobhan $9,400 Coryat, 14 correct, 6 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $24,600
Lach Trash: $18,800 (on 15 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $10,600
Lead Changes: 1
Times Tied: 1
Player Statistics:
Christopher Tillman, career statistics:
32 correct, 5 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 13 rebound opportunities)
28.95% in first on buzzer (33/114)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
1/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $9,400
Siobhan Hickey, career statistics:
14 correct, 7 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57)
1/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$5,500)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $9,400
Robbie Ellis, career statistics:
14 correct, 4 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $4,400
Christopher Tillman, to win:
3 games: 36.302%
4: 13.178%
5: 4.784%
6: 1.737%
7: 0.630%
Avg. streak: 2.570 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- It baffles me when contestants don’t make a guess—or, worse, say “I’m not sure”, which implies you have a guess—on a Daily Double, when you are forced to answer. There’s always a minuscule chance your guess is correct, but zero chance of being correct when you have no response.
- Today’s J!6 clues can be found at the monthly archive.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Christopher $10,800 Robbie $4,400 Siobhan $3,300)
Christopher: Bet no more than $1,999. (Actual bet: $1,200)
Siobhan: In the battle for second, bet no more than $1,100. (Actual bet: $3,298)
Robbie: Standard cover bet over Siobhan is $2,201. (Actual bet: $2,201)
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and there went my streak – I had no clue on this one.
Easy for me, since I had to read “Ulysses” in college. In fact, I was responsible for Chapter 8, the “Laestrygonian chapter.” The professor assigned each student a chapter, probably realizing that nobody was going to actually read the whole book.
I knew it was Joyce but couldn’t come up with Ulysses. Oh well!
Andy – you have a typo in the wagering suggestions. “Bet no more than $1,199” should be $1,999.
The best I could come up with was Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which was at least published by that time (five years earlier) and controversial enough that it could have been put on trial. I’m not familiar enough with Ulysses to have gotten it from the clue, but I should probably be more familiar with it given how often it comes up in Jeopardy! and other trivia competitions.
Ditto. (on all counts)
I got confused by the year and I was thinking of Tropic of Cancer.
I had to read “Ulysses” in high school. Yes, high school. That was probably far too soon for anyone to be reading “Ulysses.” It has always stuck with me that I hated it. So, the description of “tedious and labyrinthine and bewildering” fit right in with my most hated book. Therefore, it was easy to come up with this FJ for me.
As for Andy’s thought that you have “zero chance of being correct when you have no response,” it reminds me of what Wayne Gretzky is credited with saying. The famous quote is, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” Although credited with that quote, Wayne Gretzky himself says it was really his father’s quote as that’s who he got it from. Either way, it certainly applies here, too, and fits exactly what Andy is saying.
I just watched the FJ recap a few minutes ago and I had no idea. Never even heard of the book.
Back to being able to watch Jeopardy again next week, now that the World Series is over. That was nuts and it was great of the LA Kings organization letting us stay in the arena after the hockey game ended so that we could see the conclusion of an epic Game 7. 🙂