I feel like it happened because he’s a gay man who has transgender friends. He knows so many people who are open about it, that in that moment he saw it more like revealing Zeke is secretly a cop or a professional football player.
Not that it absolves him of anything.
I had the same thought about how it’s going to play out for Zeke, especially now with the merge coming up because they will all be together so the other tribe is going to be in the loop as to what went down at TC.
It was an inconsiderate, beyond stupid move on Varner’s part, but I disagree with the cop, her name isn’t coming to mind, that said it was an act of malice. Varner was stupid and uncaring, yes, but imo he just got too caught up in the idea of playing a game for a million dollars. The Probst angle hadn’t even crossed my mind, that’s something to think about, I’m not sure what I think.
AND tells another contestant on the show… I think Varner is an ass, but believe that he only thought the other Survivor contestants did not know about Zeke’s trans status. He appeared to have the tribe swayed to vote out Ozzy and then lost it “like that”
We thought the same thing here.
I was half expecting Varner to just vote himself out as an act of contrition. BTW, Probst and the crew all know who has an idol. I assume he wouldn’t have had the open vote if Varner had one. Boy that would have been an awkward trip back to camp.
You almost had me there, but then it occurred to me: the uncertainty about whether someone has an idol is part of the game as well (since people don’t want to be targeted by the rebound). I don’t think Varner was suspected of having an idol, but let’s say he had somewhat successfully bluffed that he might. Then Probst doing what he did denies the chance for the bluff to give people cold feet (or even waste an idol of their own).
No, that did not happen.
To a degree, I suppose. I have a hard time though seeing Varner making that pivot. Outing Zeke, everyone hating on him and then “well, doesn’t matter since I’ve got an idol”.
Eta: I guess you mean if he had worked that angle beforehand. Still, his desperation was palpable. Probst overstepped perhaps but the writing was pretty clearly on the wall.
I agree, but there’s no reason not to play it out. You play out football games even when they are blowouts, and then every so often (like the most recent Super Bowl) someone surprises you.
On another forum, someone pointed out another reason why it’s bad form to just conduct a public straw poll, the way Probst did. What if there was a faction who wanted to get someone out without letting their larger alliance know? That happens fairly frequently, but you can’t just admit to it in front of everybody.
Then there is the basic factor that if the producers later decided that they wanted to leave out the whole outing nastiness, they didn’t have a regular voting sequence to show. It just seems to me to have no real upside. It’s not like Brandon, who had to be gotten out of there before he got violent with someone.
I’m dancing that he missed Ponderosa. Varner is the only person in Survivor history who has missed out on making the jury three times.
Yep, that’s exactly what happened, except Varner said “there’s deception on levels these guys don’t even understand”. At that point, I think it’s fair to say that Probst should have had some inkling about what the “deception” was. And I don’t need to look in a dictionary to know what “continue” means. Hint: It does not mean “stop”.
Here’s the video. It’s at about 1:55.
It certainly doesn’t mean “egg on” in any way.
You act as if it was Probst’s responsibility to stop it from happening. It wasn’t. Everyone complains about (supposed) manipulation by the producers but the instant something controversial happens, people jump all over them for not intervening. The show is barely half over and the amount of editing required to remove any mention of this going forward would be huge.
Oh, for crying out loud. When you watch the video, it’s clear that Probst is telling Varner to keep going. Now, Jeff is an expert at steering these TC discussions in directions he wants them to go in, so he could have either said nothing, or tried to get it going in a different direction. He’s the master of ceremony, and the contestants take their cues from him. All I’m saying is that he wasn’t an innocent bystander. He was in the mix, and maybe got a little carried away himself.
I think you’re completely wrong. There’s no way you could expect Probst to have known where Varner was going in the next 5 seconds. Up until then, he’d been talking about Zeke deceiving them about what place they had in the alliance - he pointed to 3 of them and said they were on the bottom. When he said “there’s more”, it could have been a dozen normal things people say at tribal - that Zeke had floated a plan to take Tai and Sarah out, that Zeke had an HII, that Zeke had a secret advantage. Expecting Probst to figure out Varner was going completely off the reservation with his very next sentence is insane.
Probst probably should have just done the normal vote. That said, there was no way they were editing that bit out. It was TV gold not to mention all the future discussions they’d have to edit out. They would probably have to skip the whole return to camp stuff because you know that would be about all they talked about.
I think we can assume they edited out the part where Zeke confided in Varner, too, so they’re milking this for all it has got. I’m sure the producers are shocked, SHOCKED that a not-openly-trans contestant got outed on the show.
The good news is that Zeke isn’t so much into hiding his trans status as not wanting it to define him (which makes sense). But again, I hope he isn’t really shocked, SHOCKED that his privacy was breeched by his participation (for the 2nd time) in a reality show.
Probst is not my favorite part of Survivor. But blaming him for this is not fair.
Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t do that then.
Fine, I will reword. Calling Probst “in the mix” and “not an innocent bystander” is an unwarranted and unfair smear. He can be dinged for plenty of other stuff.
OK, if “innocent bystander” isn’t good phrasing, let me just say that I’m not buying his “I’m shocked” response. He knew Zeke was trans, and I’m assuming he knew Zeke had confided in Varner, too. But anyway, it’s just an opinion, and I can’t prove it, so if you don’t agree that’s fine with me. I’m just making an observation. I won’t comment on it anymore.
But just to be clear, that doesn’t excuse Varner. Had someone whispered in his ear “why don’t you out Zeke”, it still would have been 100% his fault for doing so. Personal responsibility is all that matters, and he made the choice to out Zeke. He didn’t have to do that.