If things were getting predictable week to week as the Koror tribe kept trouncing the Ulong tribe challenge after challenge, last night's episode of Survivor: Palau featured quite a few surprises.

The first of these came when host Jeff Probst announced that Koror -- the tribe that includes Ian Rosenberger, Penn State's former Undergraduate Student Government president -- would finally have to vote someone off the island.

Both tribes would be ditching a member, he explained, and the day's challenge -- a St. Patty's Day-appropriate deep-sea dive for sake bottles -- would not be for immunity, but a cooked dinner, along with the voyeuristic thrill of watching the other team's tribal council in person.

Koror won (surprise) thanks, in part, to Ian who, after a brief moment of confusion, found his bearings and delivered the last two bottles to clinch victory for his tribe.

The tribe decided instantaneously that they would vote off Willard, Koror's curmudgeonly grandpa, at that evening's tribal council. The day's interesting development was not this vote, but a clandestine allegiance shift that occurred just before it.

To recap briefly, firefighter Tom is the tribe's muscular father figure, and Ian the foremost breadwinner, er fishwinner. Tom, Ian and Gregg, the curly-haired business consultant, bonded instantly during their testosterone-fueled feats of adventure early in the series.

Cheerleading them along the way were the tribe's requisite hotties, Katie and Jenn, while the other four quietly sneered in the background at this five-person-strong alliance.

But in last night's episode, this all changed. Bitter in a second-favorite-son kind of way and emboldened by his recent alliance-of-the-flesh with Jenn, Gregg sneakily approached black sheep Coby about forming a counter-alliance to topple unsuspecting Ian and Tom. After knocking off Willard, of course.

"I'm in a good situation," Gregg confided conspiratorially to Coby about his relationship to Ian and Tom. "I can gather information for us."

Later, at the tribal council, Ian and Tom joked good-naturedly about their father-son bond and Probst cornered Gregg on the issue of "trust." But Gregg, a smooth criminal responded evasively, no doubt maintaining the confidence of his would-be pals.

After axing Willard unanimously, Koror munched on beef stew and root beer and, with Probst's permission, prevented Ulong from voting out their weakest link.

Ian may have enjoyed a nice meal (or, in his words, "a party in my mouth") and skated through the first tribal council, but it looks like the counter-alliance of an island Iago may stand between him and that million-dollar prize.