NBC.com

Fear Factor Episode 312
November 11, 2002

As players arrived at the end of a very long pier, Joe told them about their first stunt. While positioned on a raft in the middle of the water, players would grab hold of a helicopter skid, hang on while they crossed the lake, then drop themselves as close as they could to a buoy. Once in the water, they would retrieve a flag from the buoy then swim over to a raft nearby and hook the flag onto a pole resting on the floating platform. To make the stunt even more challenging, the helicopter would stay low overhead, creating choppy, dangerous conditions. Time started when players hit the water and stopped once the flag was on the flagpole. The ladies were up first. Jill had an okay landing. The wind created by the helicopter's rotor blades whipped water up as Jill grabbed first flag. She completed the swim, climbed up onto platform and hooked the flag in one minute and 41 seconds. Chandra was next, and had a nervous habit of rubbing a small piece of cloth she kept clutched in her hand. She entrusted Joe with this "blanky" as she headed off to perform the stunt. Chandra had a close landing in the water and got the flag quickly. While Joe waved her "blanky", Chandra slowly swam to the platform and hooked the flag with a final time of one minute and 30 seconds. Min, a petite player, had to at least beat Jill's time to stay in the game. Min had almost an exact landing, but had trouble staying afloat in the choppy water. Suddenly, Min began to panic and the rescue divers retrieved her from the water, thus eliminating her from the game. Jill and Chandra would advance. For the guys, Sean was up first. Once he plunged into the water, Sean fumbled disconnecting the flag, which ate up precious seconds. When he finally hooked it to the other platform, his time was a disappointing two minutes and nine seconds. Ryan was next to drop into the cold, wind-swept waters. He was quicker with the flag retrieval than Sean, but seemed slower on the swim to the floating platform. He still beat Sean with a final time of one minute and 43 seconds. However, the swim proved so exhausting, that Ryan felt physically ill and did not rejoin the players to watch Garry's attempt. Garry, who admitted earlier to having a huge fear of water, really wanted to send Sean home. He started out good, dropping near the buoy; however, like Sean, Garry had trouble disconnecting the flag. As he dog-paddled his way to the platform it become clear that Garry was not a strong swimmer. Ultimately, he quit and was pulled from the waves. Sean and Ryan were cleared for day two.

Ominously, "Terminal Street" was the location for night two. Players descended a ramp into a dark voluminous space where Joe awaited them. He lifted the lid on a silver serving platter to reveal a plateful of slimy, fat, disgusting slugs. Each player had four minutes to eat 10 slugs, washed down with a shot of bile ("straight from the cow's gall bladder")! Players were seriously contemplating whether or not to proceed, and Chandra was first. No amount of "blanky" could soothe her nerves on this one. The first couple of slugs slid down fairly quickly. By the tenth one, Chandra was turning green - and she still had her shot of bile left to swallow. Chandra managed to gag it down, guaranteeing her a spot in the finals. Sean was next and stuffed the slimy critters in one by one. At one point he spit some out and had to scoop it up and re-eat it! Jill seemed ready to gag just watching Sean as his body kept violently rejecting the snail slugs. With only fifteen seconds and two slugs left, Sean bailed on the bile and was out. Ryan and Jill remained. Ryan chomped on slugs like they were in the happy hour basket at his local bar. Apparently, the live, squirming, goo-excreting slugs did not bother him as he taunted the girls by flashing the half-chewed remains at them. With less than a minute to go, Ryan downed the bile and advanced to the finals. Could Jill stomach the stunt? Barely. She literally choked down every single slug, pausing briefly to do this nervous arm rub thing between each one. Sufficiently grossed out, Jill completed the stunt.

Day three began at a rooftop location high above Los Angeles. Each player would have to cross from one rooftop to another by building a bridge with only three narrow wooden slats across two slim cables. The cables were suspended 100 feet above ground between two structures. While players were allowed to squat, no butts could touch the board or the player would be eliminated. Ryan was up first and got off to a shaky start when he lost a plank! With only two slats left, Ryan tried to keep moving forward. When a second plank teetered on the brink of plummeting to the ground below, Ryan also teetered. He also got a little stuck suspended in between the two buildings, but he finally got the hang of it and completed crossing in 17 minutes and 56 seconds. Jill was next and tried to learn from Ryan's technique. Like Ryan, she adopted a wide-leg stance and chose only to use two planks instead of three. It was slow goingôand Jill was steadily approaching Ryan's time. She eventually touched down on the other side with a final time of 17 minutes and two seconds. Ryan was out! Chandra hoped her "blanky" would bring her enough luck to beat Jill's time and collect the cash. While Chandra suited up, Jill took the "blanky" from Joe and rubbed it under her armpits! Using only two planks, Chandra traversed the buildings. Halfway across, she seemed to be getting tired. Joe egged her on, but Jill's time was rapidly approaching. Chandra was too slow and Jill became the new Fear Factor champ!