There was a power-grab on CBS' Survivor: Palau last night and, when the dust settled, Ian Rosenberger, the former president of the Undergraduate Student Government, came out on the winning side.
The beginning of the episode saw three new arrivals to Ian's Koror tribe: Steph, the last member of the now-defunct Ulong "tribe" along with two genuine Palauan islanders commissioned by CBS to teach Ian and the gang how to properly fish in the South Pacific. The former meant a new tribe member was up-for-grabs in Koror's dysfunctional family of alliances. The latter meant food. Both played a part early on, when hairstylist Coby complained about being left outside the entourage that went fishing with the Palauans -- a group that included Ian and his brawny pals, Tom and Gregg -- and stormed off angrily. Ian later said he thought Coby overreacted.
"Coby's developed an attitude," Ian said. "He's become the pouter of the tribe."
Ian and company reeled in a huge haul under the guidance of the Palauans, which, combined with some Palau-style coconut daiquiris, made for quite a party.
The party was over the next night when host Jeff Probst showed up and described the episode's challenge: a "will power" test where each survivor had to stand on a tiny perch in the water and outlast everyone else for immunity.
Ian's background in Thon prepared him enough to last almost two and a half hours, but it was no match for the tray of scrumptious chocolate chip cookies Probst dangled in front of the hungry survivors, enticing Ian and three others to sacrifice immunity to satisfy their sweet tooth.
"For one of you, that was a million-dollar meal," Probst announced pleasantly and sent the nine to tribal council to vote someone off.
When Ian came up to vote, he wrote down Coby's name and said all stone-cold: "It's like bein' in the mafia. This is business, not personal. It's your turn to get whacked."
And whacked Coby got. Which means, barring a Fredo-like backstab, Ian's five-person alliance is looking pretty strong, considering only eight survivors remain.
