We are told there's an "out-of-control" fire in the outback. It started last week but we forgot to mention it, what with all the excitement about the chickens. Turns out it's a real fire.

The Ogakor tribe is engulfed in smoke. We think this might be one of those cheap metaphors.

At the last tribal council, remember, the Heather Coalition -- a budding voting bloc comprising Jerri, Amber, Mitchell and Colby -- was busted when cowboy Colby turned coat and nixed the whining Mitchell. The tribe had repeatedly lost reward challenges and, more important, three immunity challenges in a row.

OK, let's unpack the image: The members of Ogakor have been getting burned by the Kucha tribe. They need to put out the fire. But smoke has been getting in their eyes. And now all of the budding alliances are a little bit hazy.

The camera pans over to chef Keith and Colby, playing backgammon in their tent.

"I love this game," says Keith, who is probably talking about backgammon but who is edited in such a way that he appears to be talking about the game of "Survivor."

Meanwhile, Jerri -- ruling Heather and dowager empress of a puddle of evil from which all Ogakor's ills flow -- and her factotum Amber are rehashing what went wrong at the last ousting. Keith and Tina are a bloc, they figure. The two of them are another. That makes the big boy the swing vote.

Just in case we didn't get that, Colby picks up a white tile and says, "I'm playing from the center, dude."

"I'll squash this one," says Keith.

Two metaphors!

Colby and Jerri end up talking about the vote. Both of them gnaw on sticks throughout the conversation.

Metaphor -- or outback toothbrushes?

Jerri's still trying to sway his vote. Colby says he's not concerned about alliances, only about the team and winning the next two immunity challenges. He leaves.

The camera pulls back, centering on Jerri. In front of her, smoke lingers over the fire pit and flames appear to lick over her entire body.

That Jerri -- she's going to hell!

The first shot of Kucha starts with Kimmi, the Ronkonkoma bartender, leaning into the little chicken coop that contains three of the hens the team won in last episode's reward challenge.

"Good morning, stinkies," she says. "We gotta clean you out because you all so stink."

It's a quote that manages to weave together two of the three skeins of Kucha's issues in this episode: the chickens -- and Kimmi's own hygiene problems.

The third one is the cold. It's chilly at night and Kucha's fire pit is too close to its shelter. Last night, the fire popped and sent an ember onto New York Jeff's fleece jacket.

We'd like to think that this is another portentous metaphor and that Jeff, who is a sniveling, lazy, know-nothing complainer, is merely invoking God's wrath and liable to burst into flames at any moment.

The tribe members read it another way. They move the fire pit.

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