When Jeff Varner outed fellow contestant Zeke Smith as a transgender man during tribal council last night, Survivor fans were shocked—and not just by Varner's stunningly desperate decision to sell out an ally in such an ugly and unfairly personal way.

The greater shock came from the fact that, much like the show's signature tribal council move, we were hit with a #blindside of our very own courtesy of CBS' decision not to work the shocking event into any of the promotional material leading up to the episode. There was no tease of the most dramatic tribal council ever, no foreshadowing in the episode itself—hell, even the episode's logline avoided any passing reference to tribal council.

At a time when the Bachelor franchise can't stop bending over backwards to pat itself on the back for finally casting its first non-white lead in 33 combined seasons with Rachel Lindsay's upcoming stint as The Bachelorette and The Real World has completed its transformation from thought-provoking social experiment to tawdry voyeurism, Survivor's refusal to exploit and capitalize on such a raw and personal moment is downright revolutionary and belies a progressive spirit that can't be overlooked.