before the final pre-merge tribal council, varner tried to convince lacina, wanner, and boehlke to vote out lusth, by saying that smith was deceiving the tribe about his relationship with lusth. at tribal council, varner asked smith, "why haven't you told anyone you're transgender?". varner said he thought that smith had been honest about his identity with everyone back home, but was trying to conceal it to his tribemates in the game. however, this backfired as it became evident that smith had never revealed his being transgender publicly. all of the other tribemates disregarded their alliances for the evening to admonish varner and support smith. many were in tears as the tribal council played out, and even jeff probst came to smith's defense. varner eventually realized he made a huge mistake and tearfully expressed shame and remorse for what he had done. in the end, probst asked the rest of the tribe if they are set on voting out varner, and they said yes, thus sending him out of the game without the usual written-vote style of elimination.