The Order of the Straight Arrow

The Order of the Straight Arrow
Air date	February 2, 1997
Written by	Cheryl Holliday
Directed by	Klay Hall
Featured music	"Free" by Phish
Episode guide
Previous	"Square Peg"
Next	"Hank's Got the Willies"

"The Order of the Straight Arrow" is the third episode of King of the Hill. It was first aired on February 2, 1997. The episode was written by Cheryl Holliday and directed by Klay Hall.

Summary

Hank, Bill, Dale, and Boomhauer take Bobby and his friends out camping, but their plans on playing the "snipe hunt" prank go awry when Bobby kills a whooping crane and a camp full of hippies rat them out to the park ranger. Meanwhile, Peggy drives out to Lubbock, Texas to buy special shoes for her large feet.

Plot

Hank, Boomhauer, Bill, and Dale decide to take Bobby's scout troop, the Order of the Straight Arrow, into the wilderness in an effort to "make men out of them." The foursome, who were members of the same scout group when they were children, approach John Redcorn for "Indian stuff" for an initiation ceremony. Redcorn tells them of a ritual involving the sacred Wematanye. The men love the idea and decide they will use it. Later, Hank Bobby, Joseph, Randy, and Garth are in Peggy's Buick with Dale and Boomhauer in Dale's truck. Both cars leave to begin the journey. The moment her family leaves, Peggy hops in Hank's truck and heads out for places unknown. As the journey continues, Hank tires of the boys' incessant talking. He orders a twenty-four-hour oath of silence, using Slim Jims as "silence sticks." Unfortunately, Bobby forgets he is to remain silent throughout the test, and his Slim Jim is nibbled away to almost nothing. Concerned, Hank warns his son that he will not make Straight Arrow if he loses one more bite of Slim Jim.

The group pulls into a campground populated by environmental activists led by a woman named Mona. That night, Hank and his friends gather the boys around a campfire. Hank, using the title "Kicking Elk" for himself, tells the boys of the spirit Wematanye, and how it respects all of God's creatures. As a final test, Hank sends the boys out into the wilderness to hunt down the dreaded snipe. Taking the assignment very seriously, Bobby accidentally wallops a Whooping Crane, a rare and protected bird on the endangered species list.

Hank hides the animal's carcass inside a beer cooler. Afterward, Joseph tells Bobby that his father invented the story about the snipe. But Bobby maintains his father is the Arrow leader, and would never lie. In the morning, a park ranger enters the campground. He explains that a Whooping Crane tagged with a transmitter has disappeared. Hank covers as best he can and the ranger leaves the camp. Meanwhile, Peggy meets up with Brock, a handsome Texan...and owner of a shoe store for the "large-footed lady." Peggy purchases Italian loafers. Back at the camp, Hank assembles the boys and speedily drives towards the park exit. As the ranger closes in, Hank makes a desperate attempt to bury the crane. But before he does, Hank admits to Bobby that he lied about the snipe hunt, explaining it is part of the experience of becoming a scout. Suddenly, the ranger arrives. As he prepares to arrest Hank for killing an endangered species, the bird suddenly springs to life. Realizing that the bird was only knocked unconscious, the ranger lets everyone go.

In the stinger, Peggy changes her size 16 Italian loafers to size 6. When Hank comes in to tell Peggy about the camping trip, Peggy tells Hank that she bought a new microwave. Hank comments that the family goes through microwaves the way most people go through shoes. Peggy chuckles sheepishly and agrees.

Characters

• Hank Hill
• Peggy Hill
• Bobby Hill
• Luanne Platter
• Dale Gribble
• Joseph Gribble
• Bill Dauterive
• Jeff Boomhauer
• John Redcorn
• Cotton Hill (flashback)
• Brock
• Randy Miller
• Eustace Miller
• Garth
• Park Ranger
• Hippie Woman
• Mr. Dauterive (flashback; non-speaking)
• Dr. Boomhauer (flashback; non-speaking)
• Bug Gribble (flashback; non-speaking)
• Leanne Platter (mentioned)
• Lenore Dauterive (mentioned)

Quotes

• Dale: Hey, Useless.
• Bill: I'll take that jerky, now.
• Bobby, Bill, Randy, Joseph, & Garth (in sync): You didnt say Wematanye!

Trivia

• Victor Aaron, who originally voiced John Redcorn, had died on September 4, 1996, 5 months earlier. This episode was dedicated to his memory.
• This is the first time Dale's Green Ford truck is shown, although Boomhauer is the one driving.
• This episode first establishes the fact that Peggy has large feet (size 16-triple EE, according to the shoes she bought) and the fact that she is ashamed of it (which would be touched on in multiple later episodes, most notably "Westie Side Story", "The Peggy Horror Picture Show," and "Transnational Amusements Presents: Peggy's Magic Sex Feet", which has her shoe size at 16-and-a-half and growing).
• The flashback of Hank and his friends as kids has Dale's dad, who looks exactly like Dale today. The episode "My Own Private Rodeo" would have Dale's dad as looking nothing like him (and being a closeted gay man).
• Hank is already shown to be interested in propane as a child. Later seasons would establish that he only discovered the world of propane after Buck Strickland was impressed with his salesmanship skills at a jeans shop and consequently offered him a job.
• The shot of Peggy driving through to Mexico on the road was reused in "Next of Shin" for Hank, Bill and Dale traveling to Las Vegas.
• The Order of the Straight Arrow is a play on the Order of the Arrow. Wematanye is the KotH version of Wimachtendienk. The Ordeal from the Order of the Arrow is shown as the 24 hour oath of silence. In the Order of the Arrow, a stick from a fruit-bearing tree is to be worn around the neck by all pre-Ordeal members until they have finished the Ordeal. This is seen in the Order of the Straight Arrow. There are many inconsistencies, whether they're placed there on purpose or just due to a miscommunication about the actual Order of the Arrow, but this episode is probably one of the only popular culture references to the Order of the Arrow.
• When Dale was jumping out of the tent and falling down, his hat falls off, revealing a full head of hair, despite being bald.
• In real life, a snipe is a small bird native to the North America that is prized for its elusive and hard-to-kill nature, leading to the term "sniper" to refer to a sharpshooter.
• In the forest, Hank and crew are seen as kids drinking an alcoholic beverage mixer labeled as Captain Colonel's Bloody Mary Mix, under the false assumption it itself is an alcoholic drink.
• Bobby reveals to have earned a sewing badge. However, it is stated that he has never been in the Order before.
• This is the first time the offensive word "fuck" is almost used in the series. The word is also said by Dale in "Father of the Bribe", but he censored himself on his radio station.
• In a deleted scene, after Eustace drops Randy off at Hank's house, he is seen getting into a Ferrari and driving off, showing that he is quite successful.
• The character Garth resembles the "Wayne's World" character of the same name.
• The Order if the Straight Arrow would again be focused on in the episode "Straight as an Arrow".
• Although Dale rolls the truck window down to moon the group (thus performing a "hang"), Boomhauer refers to his ass as a "pressed ham", which would be pressing a bare butt onto a rolled-up window.
• Eustace is revealed to be a patent lawyer.
• This is the first episode to reveal Hank's disgust for hippies.
• Hank's Indian prayer includes portions of Psalm 23, the lyrics of Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit In The Sky," and the United States Pledge of Allegiance.
• Peggy checks into a "Motel 7", which parodied the real-life Motel 6.
• Peggy checks into the hotel and buys shoes under the alias "Gracia Ibanez", a combination of the Spanish word for "Grace" and the guitar manufacturer Ibanez.
• Hank wants to "honor the bird's sacred spirit" in a dumpster behind a restaurant called Stuckey's, which was a real-life truck stop chain.
• Bill's request for the group to return Lenore's socks shows his strong but unhealthy emotional attachment to her.
• Hank ironically states that the family goes through microwaves quicker than most families go through shoes.
• The name "Wematanye" is said 39 times in this episode, leading to an average of almost twice per minute.
• During a flashback in the episode's opening, Hank's dad, Cotton, was the only father who does not bear any resemblance to Hank's older-self in contrast to how Dale, Bill and Boomhauer's dads look similar to their older selves.
  • This early appearance is different from the later design of Dale's father Bug, though he would have another similar appearance in "Now Who's the Dummy?".
  • This marks the first and only appearance of Bill's father.

Goofs

• When Peggy's car fails to start, it is sitting in the driveway, facing the alley. In the next shot, Peggy is pushing the car to get it started, and the car has magically moved to the alley, which can be seen behind Peggy as she pushes. Hank took Peggy's Buick because it had more room for the other scouts than his pickup truck.
  • In this same scene, when the battery is dead, Peggy suggests that they pop the clutch, a method commonly used to get vehicles with manual transmissions started. Peggy's car has an automatic transmission.
• This episode depicts Dale's dad as looking like Dale would in adulthood, but "My Own Private Rodeo" showed that Dale's dad is shorter and was actually a closeted gay man.

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