The last duel winner from last week’s “The Floor” episode, like most of the contestant’s strategies, was to go back to the floor.  Another consistent theme this season is that everyone really thought Brian had long overwhelmed his stay on “The Floor” and they wanted nothing more than to see him go home.

No Fairy Tales and Fables for Brian!

This was definitely true for the next selected player, Zaph, who challenged Brian in an attempt to send him home.   This marked Brian’s tenth duel since his reign started in the show’s second week. 

THE FLOOR, Zaph vs. Brian / FOX

The duel was in “Fairy Tales and Fables.”   Zaph and Brain had to fill in the missing word in the titles of fairy tales and fables.  It turns out, this wasn’t the strongest subject matter for Brian.  Because just like that, Brian’s long ruling over the floor finally came to an end.  He walked away with $110,000.  Brian credited himself as being a “fountain of useless knowledge” for him maintaining his lead for so long and maybe now the fountain has run out. Brian made history on “The Floor,” and was proud of that. 

Decoding ‘Happy Birthday’:

Zaph continued to play another duel by deciding to challenge the “Languages” category held by Amanda.  It was an audio duel where they had to listen to different languages say “Happy Birthday” and guess which one correctly.  Zaph won after Amanda failed to name a few of these languages in a row.

THE FLOOR, Zaph vs. Baron / FOX

Zaph stayed and played and challenged one of the most avoided categories next, the “Marvel” category!  Marvel is one that a lot of players have been very hesitant about dueling.  The risk factor was that “Marvel” is Baron’s expert category!  This duel was unbelievably close with only three seconds left. But, Zaph did lose this duel.  Baron challenged Clint’s “Classic Cars” category next.

Two New Players Left!

Clint won that duel when it turned out that Baron did NOT know his classic cars.  That meant Clint inherited Baron’s inherited category of “Eras.”  So, Clint went back to the floor to defend that category that he’s studied.  By this time, the floor had gotten pretty sparse with very few players remaining.  The Randomizer was selecting only the contestants who had not yet played a duel.  There were only two contestants – David and Laurel who had yet to play.

THE FLOOR, David vs. Clint / FOX

Into the Lion’s Den:

The Randomizer chose David, who had the category of “European Geography.”  He challenged Clint’s newly inherited category of “Eras.”   David is a serious competitor who’s won $780,000 on “Jeopardy.”  He’s the player that everyone on the floor was trying to avoid.  For a good reason, because Dave cremated Clint.  In this duel, they had to name the decade after being shown words associated with that decade.  After winning this duel, David took over Clint’s 28 pieces of the floor.

This was the moment David was waiting for, and it seemed that he would have kept going.  However, he went back to the floor, stating that he came to play for the grand prize of $250,000.  The only player left who hadn’t yet dueled, was Laurel.   She challenged Kathy for 32 pieces of floor with the “Authors” category.  Laurel really did know her stuff, and Kathy did not, having to “pass” on almost all of the titles.  Laurel won this duel.
 
A Self-Sacrifice:

Kathy left with $40,000 from previous nights on “The Floor.”  Laurel returned to the floor.   The Randomizer was on the move again, and now because every player had already had their turn,  it could choose anyone.  It landed on Lisa.  She challenged “European Geography” held by David, “the scariest player on the board.”  Her strategy is to give him her “Wedding” category so that “someone else can take him down.”  A “self sacrifice” of sorts.  The remaining players all lined-up to kiss Kathy “goodbye.”

David now held 30  pieces of the floor to Laurel’s 32.  There was one more duel left.  Easy choice is to keep going and take home $20,000.  He challenged the “Bodies of Water” category held by Terry, who was confident he’d be able to “slay the dragon” and win.

THE FLOOR, Pictured: David, a 19-time Jeopardy champion. / FOX

Going Into the Finals!

Before their duel, Laurel was awarded HALF of the $20,000,  $10,000 because the most that Terry and David could do would be to tie her since they were almost out of time in this episode.  David’s fast shouting out answers, so far, has been working for him, and he won again along with $10,000 and 32 pieces of the floor. That was two duels won in a row for David.  He’ll be going into next week with the category of “Weddings.”  David told host Rob Lowe that he was confident about that category as well, since he’s married.

NEXT WEEK:  There’s $250,000 on the line in the season finale.  Someone will win it.  There’s a lot of confident players.  David, being the most. He said he’s “fast.” Maybe someone else will adopt his style of rapidly firing off answers and beat David at his own game.