elbo hose leading to nowhere under the intake
 

Can someone explain to me why there is an large plastic elbo shaped hose/pipe coming out of the bottom of my intake. It's a few inches short of where the intake hooks up to the throttle body. It's short and shaped like a candy cane and hooks right into the bottom of the air intake system. Looks to be like a sump (garbage collector) for anything that might get in there. Or is it a closed connection for something that my runner does not come with.
I'm driving a 97 v6.

It's just part of the intake tract. Use the blinking search button above and you'll get a ton of threads discussing intakes and the deckplate mod.

It is used to silence the intake noise.

^
yes, and most ppl remove it and replace with a plumbing end cap. Search for "isr" and you'll find tons of info.