Smoke is rising from the Vanuatu volcanos as Thursday (Sept. 23) night's "Survivor: Vanuatu" begins, but the men of Lopevi would kill for that kind of warmth. One player down and freshly returned from Tribal Council, they're looking pretty glum. How desperate are the guys? They're munching on live earthworms and even those writhing critters are in short supply. They're using their machete to dissect the invertebrates. It's just like eighth grade science crossed with a really meager buffet.

The men want fire and figure that flames could only boost their morale. After much friction, an ember emerges. But the Gods of the Island are mocking Lopevi. Rain begins to fall in large drops. Even the picture of Bob Barker on Bubba's shirt looks ready to cry.

Meanwhile, the women of Yasur are working as a team, climbing trees and chopping down huge bushels of unripe plantains. The plantains have the unforeseen culinary bonus of containing little squirmy maggots. Despite having food and fire, they're full of complaints. Eliza says that as pretty as their camp is to look at, you wouldn't want to live there.

Dolly, if you'll recall, was the first cloned sheep, and the Dolly of Vanuatu looks like she was cloned from the pre-skanky Britney Spears-Alexander-Federline. Despite her resemblance to music's most regularly married pop tart, Dolly is miserable. She isn't enjoying the comfort-level of the camp, nor the flavor of overcooked maggots.

Twila isn't impressed with the sorority girls or their disgust with the squishy grubs. She figures they're just pure protein -- the maggots, not the sorority girls. She figures the bow-heads are mostly empty calories.

"If they want to be pampered, they need to go back to the Holiday Inn," she declares. Twila probably figures that Red Roof Inn is total luxury.

The Reward Challenge, which involves a series of balance beams and a lot of really close hugging, is for blankets, pillows and a hammock. The men aren't comfortable with the clutching aspect of the challenge and host Jeff Probst isn't helping things by mocking the dudes who spend too much time in their cinches. As we learned last week, women do better with balance challenges, but if you throw in the extra element of homophobia, it isn't a contest. Yasur wins in a rout.

Rory comes back to the camp on a jag. He tells anybody who will listen that he didn't appreciate the way the woman danced and celebrated after their triumph. He expected a bit of respect and solemnity from the other tribe and he goes wandering off into the woods talking to the only person who shares his opinion. Rory, in a tizzy, leaves by himself. All of that kvetching rubs Sarge the wrong way. He was under the impression that when you win a game, you're sometimes allowed to seem happy.

Some sort of wild bird is in the forest near Yasur and Leannn and Dolly go in search of poultry. They finally corner the bird in a thicket laying an egg and stop to debate the merits of different killing strategies. Wait. I know that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, but in a free market economy does a single bird in the bush have any sort of in-hand value? Surely it ought to be worth at least a drumstick.

Anyway, it's left for Twila to do the stabbing, but she misses, leaving the bird flying off into the jungle. Instead, they come away with five eggs. If killing the goose that lays the golden eggs is a bad idea, probably slaughtering the chicken that lays the tiny eggs is also bad karma.

Ami (seen gratuitously splashing herself with water and busting out of her bikini) explains that the gals have split off into the younger pack (Dolly, Eliza, Julie, Mia and, for some reason, 44-year-old Lisa) and the older women (Twila, Scout, Leann and, for some reason, 31-year-old Ami). Like a reality show Potsdam, though, Dolly and Twila come together for a pow-wow and reach a truce, agreeing that Eliza is actually the most expendable player.

It's Immunity time, the always popular challenge in which every player is blindfolded and stumbling for puzzle pieces except for one set of eyes on each team. Sarge and Scout are selected as the eyes for their teams, and Dolly sits things out for Yasur. Sarge's orders are full of precise directions and pace counts, while Scout is more prone to yelling "Keep going." It's no surprise that Sarge sounds like he could shout all day. Lopevi begins with a big lead, and despite all of Jeff's urging, the women can't catch up. The men win their first challenge and also finally pick up flint.

Julie is trying to bring Dolly back into the Sorority Girl fold. The shepherdess still wants to vote for Eliza, but Julie convinces her that the pre-law student is malleable and will follow orders. Julie urges her to boot Leann off. This perplexes Scout, who wants to keep Leann around and tries pushing Dolly back toward Eliza.

"It's a cluster-you-know-what," Dolly says, torn and baffled.

Down by the beach, Ami narcs to some of the other gals that Dolly is deliberating getting rid of all of them. Dolly's inability to choose sides has taken the heat off of Leann and Eliza and made her into a target.

"I think I'm getting along almost too well with everyone," Dolly says at Tribal Council. "It's kinda becoming a problem for me. I feel kinda like Dolly-in-the-Middle."

By a vote of 5-4, Dolly-in-the-Middle becomes Dolly-on-the-Outside. Four of the young women voted for Leann. The four older women voted for Dolly. Eliza switched sides and cast the deciding vote, pulling the wool over Dolly's eyes.

"I'm way too simple and I just belong on the farm," Dolly tells the camera as the credits roll.

Well, good-bye Dolly. It's so nice to have you back where you belong.