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Fear Factor Episode 430 Original Airdate: March 22, 2004

The concrete jungle was the scene for the first stunt in this episode of Fear Factor. The six players met Joe at the bottom of an office building. What dangers would they face: paper cuts, carpel tunnel syndrome, stapler's elbow? None of the above. To understand the dangers, you'd have to aim a little higher, like the top of the 65-story building. Each player would be dangled from the top of the building and then dropped. As the player fell along the glass exterior of the structure toward the pavement, he or she would grab as many flags as possible. The two men and two women who retrieved the most flags would move on. The other two players would be eliminated.

Eric, a machinist from Mission Viejo, CA, said that he was doing Fear Factor for his best friend who died a year and a half ago. He said that he and his friend used to watch the show all the time and now he knew that his friend was watching over him. After Eric was harnessed up, he dangled over the top edge of the office building. Then, he plummeted downward. As he skimmed the side of the structure, he grabbed at flags. He had a hard time at first, but managed to get four flags before his descent was over. Next up was Michael, who predicted that he would be the first to be eliminated. Michael only got three flags in his attempt. Next was Tracy, who got five flags, besting all of the men and sending Michael home, just as Michael had predicted.

Heidi went first for the women. She said that by watching Stacy, she learned that she should concentrate on just one side when grabbing the flags. But even with a solid plan, Heidi got off to a rough start. She seemed paralyzed during the first part of her trip down the side of the building. She finally kicked it into gear toward the end and finished with just two flags. Next, Stephanie tied the best showing so far with five flags of her own. Last was Tatiana, a bulked up bodybuilder, who fell quickly down the side of the building and only managed to get two flags, tying Heidi's low score. That meant that Heidi got a reprieve and all three women would move on. The next day, the players met in a junkyard filled with old cars. In the second stunt, players would have to scoop up super worms, red worms, stink beetles, grasshoppers and crickets all smashed onto a car windshield using only their mouths. Then they would have to transfer the squashed bugs to a scale. The three players who transferred the most weight in two minutes would move on to the finals. The other two players would be eliminated.

Tatiana was first and literally leapt up onto the hood of the car and sucked down the crushed critters. But she didn't pace herself and she started to fade in the last minute, ending with 6 ounces of bugs. Heidi, who admitted that she was worried about this stunt, got 5 and 7/8 ounces. Would it be enough? Eric had a special strategy where he tried to scoot the bugs into a big pile with his face before he put them into his mouth. But the strategy actually slowed him down and he finished with only 5 and 1/2 ounces. Stacy pulled in 7 ounces of bugs, securing his spot in the next round and sending Eric home. Finally, Stephanie was next. She started with small mouthfuls, but then learned how to grab big piles and finished with a whopping 7 and 3/8 ounces, sending Heidi home.

The remaining three players met Joe at the docks for the final stunt. Players would have to leap from a rotating beam to four different platforms, grabbing flags from the platforms, leaping back to the beam and attaching the flags at the beam's center. Players could only transfer one flag at a time and the beam's rotation would pick up steam along the way. The player who transferred the most flags in the least amount of time before falling into the water below would win.

Tatiana went first and looked uncoordinated up there. After grabbing just one flag from a platform, she tried to jump back to the beam but failed. Her body smacked hard into the side of the beam. She tried to hang on, but slipped and splashed down into the water. Since she'd failed to attach the flag and so ended with a score of zero. Stephanie took the defensive tact of landing with her entire body as she leapt back and forth between the beam and the platforms. The strategy might have been conservative, but it looked like it hurt. However, it paid off and Stephanie got all eight flags in 3:33.9. Next, Stacy moved quickly. And although he almost fell on flag number seven, he transferred all eight in just 3:20 and won! Stacy was lining his pockets with the $50,000!