"Crunchy," Ian noted, trying to mask his disgust while munching on an embryonic duckling called balut. "There was some egg shell in that one."

"Are you sure that was the crunchy part?" asked his buddy Tom, his own breath rotten with the same taste. "I don't know," replied Ian [Rosenberger] ominously. Penn State's 2003 Homecoming King was feeling anything but glamorous during this balut-eating challenge on last night's episode of Survivor: Palau, but his persistence paid off and helped win a basketful of much-needed toiletries for his tribe, Koror.

"I particularly like the citrus splash," Ian said later, regarding the tribe's fresh new supply of mouthwash. Having sufficiently detoxed their palates, Ian and Tom reconvened secretly for what Tom called a "state of the union."

"The only concern we have is Gregg and Jenn," Ian said, aware now of the threat posed by that romantic duo, who have indeed planted the seeds of a counter-alliance against Ian, Tom and Katie. Tom revealed that, on the second day, before being split into tribes, the trio made an alliance with Steph, one of only two members of the rival Ulong tribe still around at that point of the episode.

After Koror defeated Ulong in the immunity challenge -- a combination of deep-sea diving and extreme word search -- Steph won Ulong's next challenge, making her the last surviving member. But even if she does stick to the three-week-old plan and joins Ian's micro-alliance upon merging with Koror, that alliance will still be endangered if the five people outside of it can get organized enough to take out one of its legs. "We are on the urge of utter ridiculousness for sure," Ian said of the looming intrigue. "I can't wait."