"I'm wondering how others feel about the big penalty given to the two brothers for bartering with their cab driver when they ran out of cash? I didn't know there was a rule against that. Why is that not allowed?

The two sisters begged for free rides, apparently using the presence of the videographer as leverage. That's allowable, according to the rules but WHY? In my opinion, it shows more resourcefulness and concern for the local person to barter than it does to beg. "

"Not to put too fine a point on it but I believe that they made a barter, not a trade for money. They mentioned to the cab driver(s) that they were short of funds, before they got into the cab, so it seems to me that the driver(s) were satisfied with the barter arrangement. It wouldn't surprise me at all, to learn that bartering for cab fare is common practice in other countries so why not allow it in this case? A lot of the fascination in watching reality TV shows comes from the resourcefulness of the players, under unusual circumstances. IMO, begging is the last resort for a resourceful person."

"OK. I accept that interpretation. It's the first time I've seen that rule enforced so it took me by surprise. And the penalty is so harsh that it almost guarantees that they will be eliminated on the next leg. All in all, I believe that if begging is allowed, bartering should be also. "

"Me too. It's not fun watching teams beg for money."

"But M&M got a four hour penalty plus an additional task to perform during the next leg. Unless some other team(s) really screw up, M&M are goners.

So what's a fair penalty for breaking a rule which didn't give them any time advantage over the other team? IMO, they should only be given an extra task, no time penalty.

A penalty of four hours, particularly when there are so few teams left, is a guaranty that they're out next. That takes away from the suspense for us viewers too so it's neither fair nor entertaining. "

"They could get bunched up at the airport then they'll only have their speed bump to worry about. Maybe they got the 4 hours for getting 4 penalties in the last two legs."

"unfortunately, you were right. you could tell that there was no way they were catching up. But the rest of the episode was good."