A Wheel of Fortune contestant on Friday’s (February 7) episode left the game with a new favorite band and over $30,000 in cash, but she missed out on the massive $100,000 grand prize in an “impossible” Bonus Round.
The contestant in question was Nekeia Borders, a US Navy veteran and retail store supervisor from Dallas, Texas, who faced off against Britney Spears superfan Patrick Thomassie from Chicago, Illinois, and mom-of-two Abby Gerlemann from Hermann, Missouri.
Despite nailing the first puzzle of the episode for $2,000, Borders struggled to increase her winnings in the first few rounds. By the end of the Express Round, Borders was trailing her two opponents, still only having $2,000 compared to Thomassie’s $15,298 and Gerlemann’s $21,350.
Even though she landed one of the puzzles in the Triple Tossup round, it seemed highly unlikely for Borders to catch up with just one puzzle remaining. However, in the Speed-Up round, Thomassie spun big, making every consonant worth $6,000.
Borders took advantage, finding five letters on the board and solving the “Song Lyrics” puzzle by answering “Welcome To The Jungle,” the words to the Guns N’ Roses classic. This gave her a total of $34,000, resulting in a huge comeback victory and sending her through to the Bonus Round.
“Well, with that last solve I think you’ve got a new favorite band,” host Ryan Seacrest quipped.
“Yeah, absolutely, Guns N’ Roses, you know it,” Borders joked. “I gotta memorize the song now.”
Borders, who entered the Bonus Round with a Wild Card wedge, meaning she could select five additional letters, picked the dreaded “Phrase” category and the letters “D, M, P, I, and C.”
This left her with a four-word puzzle that read: “L _ _ _ / _ _ C _ / _ I T _ / _ _ N D N E S S.”
Unfortunately for Borders, she couldn’t figure out the answer, “LOOKING BACK WITH FONDNESS.”
Seacrest then opened the prize envelope to reveal Borders lost out on a whopping $100,000 (plus a trip to India), making her the sixth contestant to miss out on the $100K this season. Borders threw her head back and pretended to have a tantrum before saying, “It’s okay.”
Many fans felt for Borders, saying the Bonus Round puzzle was “impossible.”
“KILLER puzzle. Unlucky to get that one. No way anyone is solving that,” wrote one YouTube commenter.
“Yea that was impossible. You had to call the right letters to have any chance,” said another.
“That was very difficult puzzle, but she still took home a bulk of cash! Congratulations,” another added.
Another wrote, “NO! IMPOSSIBLE! WORST FRIDAY EVER TO WRAP UP THIS WEEK! HOW PAINFUL IS THIS?!”
“I had absolutely no clue. I was thinking “with kindness,” but the K and I weren’t there so I was drawing a blank,” said one fan.
“Honestly that puzzle was VERY hard. PHRASE had a good winning streak in Bonus Land recently until this one. It’s too bad she landed on the big one,” added another.
What did you think of Friday’s episode? Did you figure out this tricky Bonus Round puzzle? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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This story originally appeared on TV Insider
