The Buck Stops Here

The Buck Stops Here
Air date	November 5, 2000
Written by	Norm Hiscock
Directed by	Mike DiMartino
Episode guide
Previous	"The Perils of Polling"
Next	"I Don't Want to Wait..."

"The Buck Stops Here" is the eighty-sixth episode of King of the Hill. It was first aired on November 5, 2000. The episode was written by Norm Hiscock and directed by Mike DiMartino.

Summary

Bobby lands himself a summer job as Buck's personal assistant, but Buck's crude behavior begins rubbing off on Bobby. Meanwhile, Peggy and Minh become obsessed with donating blood for the chance at getting a coffee mug.

Plot

Hank is annoyed with Bobby's attitude of treating summer vacation as a time to loaf. Buck Strickland hires Bobby to work as a caddy at the Everwood Country Club, a job he is fired from quickly after riding a block of ice down a hill due to peer pressure from his fellow caddies and accidentally colliding with Corky Raywood, the club's membership chairman. After this mishap, Hank drags Bobby to Buck's house to apologize, but Buck not only forgives him after finding the outcome hilarious but hires him as his personal caddy. Although Hank is glad Bobby has been put to work, some of Buck's negative traits begin to rub off on Bobby as the two begin to bond in a father-son relationship.

Meanwhile, Peggy and Minh race against each other to reach the milestone of a gallon's worth of blood donated to earn a coffee mug from the McMaynerbury Chamber of Commerce. However, after both were deemed ineligible to donate (due to having to wait several weeks before donating again), they are sent home. Peggy travels to Houston to donate and gets the mug, enraging Minh. However, this comes at a cost as Peggy suffers from weakness due to loss of blood.

After one game where Buck convinces Bobby that "it is only cheating if you get caught", he gives Bobby his watch as a tip. Hank, fed up with Bobby copying Buck's attitude and profanity, orders Bobby to return the watch. Hank says that there is no cheating in the Hill residence and declares if Bobby wants to cheat, then he should go to the Strickland residence. He figures Bobby will learn his lesson, surmising Buck does not run a daycare center and will refuse to invite Bobby the night over. However, Buck welcomes Bobby, backfiring on Hank. The next morning, he goes to get his son, only to learn from Lupino that he left with Buck for Hot Springs, Arkansas. An enraged Hank then makes the long trip from Texas to Arkansas in order to retrieve Bobby from possible danger.

While in Hot Springs, Buck takes Bobby to a dog track and orders him to hold onto his wallet. Later, both Bobby and Buck are relaxing in a mineral bath. Buck says that Hank is too uptight to have a good time like them, to which Bobby agrees. However, when Buck bribes an attendant for information about Rooster's crap game, he throws the money into the mineral bath and laughs as the attendant retrieves it, causing Bobby to feel uncomfortable about Buck's attitude. At night, Hank also travels to Hot Springs and tells a police officer that his car's tail light was out. Things only get worse as Buck has Bobby hold onto half of his money as the former leaves him outside alone in an alleyway. Soon, Buck loses big time at the crap game and Bobby is threatened by some of Rooster's enforcers to hand over the money and Buck's wristwatch. Bobby pretends that he is worried about his "daddy" Buck having an infarction, but the enforcers know that he is lying. Although he gives the money to them, he refuses to let go of the watch and flees. Learning that Bobby did not hand over the watch, Buck fakes another infarction in an attempt to free himself.

Near the illegal gambling parlor, Bobby runs from the enforcer but soon tires out. As the enforcer walks toward him, Hank arrives in time to rescue Bobby. The boy tells the enforcer that Hank is actually his father, and the latter threatens to use a golf club as a weapon against the enforcer if he touches his son. Deciding that fighting them is not worth it, the enforcer leaves, but not before Bobby changes his mind and voluntarily tosses the wristwatch to him. Buck is thrown outside the backroom parlor and uses a broken beer bottle to stave off Rooster's enforcers. At that point, Hank drives by in his pick-up truck and yells to Buck to let him embark the vehicle. Buck jumps into the back as the truck leaves, but not before Hank briefly slows down to let the locals briefly maul Buck. In the morning, close to home, Hank punishes Bobby by disallowing him from caddying for Buck and grounds him for the remainder of the summer, to which Bobby thanks him for looking out for him.

Characters

• Hank Hill
• Peggy Hill
• Bobby Hill
• Dale Gribble
• Jeff Boomhauer
• Bill Dauterive
• Minh Souphanousinphone
• Buck Strickland
• Lupino
• Bradley
• Corky Raywood
• Rooster
• Rooster's enforcers
• Vargas
• Carla
• Carla's boyfriend (voiced by Toby Huss)
• Everwood Country Club security guard (voiced by Toby Huss)
• Unnamed boys
• Lane Pratley (non-speaking)
• Elizabeth "Miz Liz" Strickland (mentioned off-screen)
• Jody "Rayroy" Strickland (mentioned)

Stinger Quote

• Buck Strickland: "MISS LIZ! TWO HOT TODDIES!!"

Trivia

• The episode title is a play on the phrase "The buck stops here", which was popularized by U.S. President Harry Truman.
• The way Buck treats Bobby as his son resembles the way Mr. Burns treated Bart Simpson as his son in the 1994 Simpsons episode "Burns' Heir", though their father-son relationship ended in Mr. Burns' office rather than during an out-of-state road trip.
• This episode is the first time Buck Strickland mentions that he has a son. The later episode "What Happens at the National Propane Gas Convention in Memphis Stays at the National Propane Gas Convention in Memphis" is partially centered around and revealing him to be Jody "Rayroy" Strickland.
• Peggy's and Minh's blood types are revealed in this episode. Minh's blood is Type O, which is highly valued as applicable to any blood type as O+ and especially O- are universal donors and the two blood types most commonly used during critical situations (O- being the truest universal blood donor that all blood types can accept but O+ being able to be received by the positive blood types and contributing to about 875,000 users a year as O- is slightly less common). Peggy's blood is Type AB Negative that she claims is liquid gold but in truth can only be accepted by other AB blood types (positive and negative) and actually has one of the smallest recipient groups (about 25,000 users per year). It is, however, universal in terms of plasma and platelets.
• When Hank enters Hot Springs, he locks his car doors (just like on the episode "Peggy the Boggle Champ" when Hank drives into Texas). While those days are long gone, Hot Springs' portrayal of a town of ill-repute is historically accurate. In the 1800s and early 1900s, it was a hotbed of gambling, prostitution and bootlegging, as well as a well-known spot for numerous mobsters, including Al Capone, Frank Costello, and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. However, Hank locked the car doors after seeing that Hot Springs is home to then-U.S. President Bill Clinton.
• This episode marks the first appearance of Rooster.
• Buck and Bobby go to the dog track in Hot Springs, Arkansas. However, Hot Springs is actually home to a horse track instead.

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