It is just happening too often and too convienently. For example, the previous week Nick and Vick were delayed by a 6 hour penalty that caused them to just miss the flight to Korea, effectively making them a non-starter for that leg. I never heard of a non-completion penalty before that point, but the producers needed this to be a non-elimination round so they got the correct number of programs. Thus a penalty just long enough to put the team out of it.
I started wondering 2 years earlier when they pulled that passport stunt with the mother son team. They dragged the kid out of the taxi for an interview and shooed the cab away. Made for good TV, but I felt it was highly manipulated.
The point with this last set was that the producers obviously provided those cabs since the location was private, and suddenly a Los Angeles cab driver didn't speak any English? And they couldn't get him to stop and ask for directions? And the cab company was unwilling to help the driver find the location? And the driver just kept heading into the sunset without a clear destination? C'mon!
