NBC.com

Fear Factor
Original Airdate: 10/18/04

by Fearless Frankie

Six overly confident new players met with Joe in the dead of night to see their first, chilling stunt. I say chilling because it involved cold water and a spinning contraption that would dunk them in and out of the water over and over again. I'm thinking there could be a Fear Factor theme park where all of these spinning, launching, dunking stunts could become rides. How cool would that be? For example, for their first stunt each player was shackled to a spinning wheel by both ankles and one wrist. This could be the Fear Factor Wet & Wild Ferris Wheel! While the players spun in and out of the water, they had to find the correct keys for the corresponding locks, free themselves and swim over to a nearby buoy to stop their time. Vanessa, who was sporting a fishhook tattoo on her right bicep, told Joe that water was her friend. Well, she wasn't totally comfortable around her friend, because she had to keep stopping to plug her nose every time she got dunked. By the way, due to the spinning action of the wheel, Vanessa was upside down every time she was underwater. Despite the nose-plugging delays, Vanessa finished in 59.4 seconds. Sandra (pronounced SAUNdra) was up next. She also went with the nose-plugging technique, but was a lot slower unlocking the first lock than Vanessa had been. In fact, by the time Sandra started work on her leg locks, Vanessa had locked a spot on day two. Finally, Sandra freed the final lock but tried to swim off before pulling a release lever! She flailed like a fish for a moment, then figured it out. Her final time: 1:46.2. If the final fearless female, Kristin, beat Sandra's time, she would take Sandra's spot on day two. Kristin moved quickly and did not hold her nose, which gained her valuable seconds. I was thinking, couldn't you just blow air OUT through your nose while underwater and take big breaths above water to eliminate the nose holding issue? Easy to say when you're on dry land and not spinning around. Back to Kristin, she got a final time of 59.5 seconds - almost tying Vanessa, and definitely eliminating Sandra from competition.

Rob, who had big biceps and big tattoos, was up first for the guys. The others had little faith in Rob, especially Vanessa who was now a little too proud of her time. All right, Vanessa, we get it, you did well. Shut up already. Rob was really squirmy on the wheel and relinquished to the nose plugging. His final time of 1:02.8 made Kristin and Vanessa very excited. Afterwards, Rob admitted that he had a "fear of holding his breath" and felt like he was choking every time he went underwater. That would explain the wheel freak-outs, Rob! As Allan told him, Rob got zero style points. Allan, a former MTV DJ in Singapore, was up next. First he told Joe, in Mandarin, that fear was not a factor. Or, he placed an order for lunch, how would I know? Allan did not hold his nose and kept working the locks while he was underwater. Using the wheel to push off once he was free, Allan scored a final time of 42.6 seconds! Oddly, the girls were silent. Eric, who kept trash talking freak-out Rob, was last to take to the wheel. Rob hoped the cold water would deter Eric's success. Eric, however, did not freak. He also did not have a fear of holding his breath - as shown by his lack of nose plugging. In fact, Eric finished with a time of 49.5 seconds! Buh-bye Rob. On day two, the four remaining players arrived in what looked like a hotel bar/lounge.

Bartender Joe greeted them by saying, "Welcome to the Fear Factor bar. I'm going to tell you right now, this may be the worst one we've ever done." Worse than the Road Kill Café?! I'll let you be the judge of that. First, each person would each have to use a paintball gun to shoot at bottles on the shelves behind the bar. For every bottle left unsmashed out of 100 attempts, they would have to drink a shot of blended maggots, stink beetles, worms and rotten fish eyes. Eric was up first. He had 100 pellets to hit 57 bottles. Now, I've never played paintball, but I understand you have use a rapid-fire technique to hit your opponent. However, when you're aiming at bottles on Fear Factor, couldn't you take your time to make sure you hit as many bottles as possible? Eric used a machine gun approach to seemingly randomly blast at the bottles - hence, missing a lot. Top-shelf liquor isn't only expensive, it's apparently impossible to bust open with a pellet gun. In the end, Eric was faced with 20 shots of bug juice. While the others looked on and cringed, Eric slammed back all 20 shots in 40.8 seconds! Joe was disgusted, yet impressed at the same time. He said it was the closest he's come to throwing up - while Eric actually did go throw up.

Kristin was up next and hoped her BB gun experiences as a kid would help her aim with the paintball gun. It didn't. Kristin faced 26 shots - and had to do it in less than 40.8 seconds to guarantee her spot in the finals. She plugged her nose and bravely downed the first shot. And then she grabbed the barf bucket and quit. She said it "tasted like death." Well, there's a mystery solved. Now that Kristin had quit, all Vanessa and Allan had to do was complete the stunt. If they couldn't do it, Allan would win $25,000 and everyone return for day three to compete for the remaining $25,000. Allan had a slower trigger finger than Eric, but it didn't help much. He left 21 bottles standing. Allan took Eric's approach and just downed everything in an equally impressive fast time. Meanwhile, Eric could barely watch without getting nauseous. No sooner had Allan finished his time than he was clutching the barf bucket and getting rid of the wretched concoction. Vanessa, who was inexplicably wearing a bathing suit top, was next. The boys were impressed with Vanessa's shooting; however, she still had 25 bottles remaining. Vanessa held her nose and started guzzling. Joe said, "She's definitely done some shots before." That Joe! Unfortunately, by like the fifth shot, Vanessa couldn't stop herself from the projectile vomiting so familiar to her competitors -- and she was eliminated.

The next stop for Eric and Allan was a speedboat zipping towards that $50,000 prize. Once safely ashore, they saw their harrowing final stunt: sky surfing. But not the drop-you-out-of-a-plane-on-a-snowboard-with-a-parachute type of sky surfing. An actual surfboard was rigged up directly under a helicopter. The guys had to balance on it (not strapped on) for as long as possible before falling into the lake below. After losing a coin toss, Eric went first. He straddled the board while the helicopter lifted him off the dock. After getting the signal, Eric popped up into a surfer squat stance, holding the leash with his hand for support. But as the helicopter began to sway, Eric lost his balance. He hit the lake with a final time of just over 40 seconds. During his turn, Allan got up but was unsteady from the get go perhaps because he didn't squat as low as Eric. Like Eric, as soon as the helicopter started to bank, Allan lost his balance. Allan fell in less time than Eric - making Eric the newest Fear Factor champ!