King of the Hill has given us a lot of heartwarming and memorable episodes. But the
show has also given us more than a few stories that got surprisingly dark. But which of
these situations that occurred in Arlen, Texas were truly the most unsettling or
disturbing? That’s what we are looking at today.
I’m kyle with WickedBinge and these are The Darkest King of the Hill
Moments.
For this list we’ll be covering episodes with content that was darker than the average
King of the Hill episode. While the series does cover a lot of real world struggles and
can steer into the depressing or frightening, these are the 10 times that we felt made the
most lasting impression and, in some cases, were downright horrifying.
First up on our list is Hilloween. This was another early story in the series.
Halloween is typically seen as a time of mischief and good times, but in this special the
Hills came face to face with another type of ghoul. This one came in the form of Junie
Harper, a radical believer that condemned anything she considered to be against the
Bible. Now having beliefs is perfectly fine,
but Junie was a horrible example of it. The woman was irrational, always blowing things out of
proportion. She tried outlawing Halloween, tried coercing a bunch of children into
joining something called the Hallelujah Club by using fear tactics, and got Luanne to join her by
using the same methods a cult would use to condition someone.
Junie was a fairly delusional and obsessed woman. She blamed the death of her cat on
Satanists to prove her arguments, disregarding the fact that she clearly ran over the
animal while hunting down Bobby and Hank. She called Peggy and Hank terrible
parents for letting their son act like a normal kid. She hired a bunch of men to help
influence kids to join her club. She even set up weird skits that taught children the
wrong information about evolution and sex to make them frightened enough to believe
her ideaology. Without a doubt, people like Junie
are dangerous. When you allow yourself to believe anything, you put yourself in a position of being
able to be manipulated like Luanne was shown to be through the episode.
That might not seem as scary as some other Halloween specials, but it’s a message to
take into consideration. Next we have Mrs Wakefield.
This was one of those episodes that has different levels of disturbing all throughout it
and is not what you’d expect from a Christmas episode of an animated series.
While making preparations for Christmas and the Eve party, the Hills meet an old
woman by the name of Mrs Wakefield who tells them about her time growing up and
residing in the house before they moved in.
It sounds sweet enough, but it soon becomes darker as she recounts how her sister
died, describing how she dragged herself from what was now Bobby’s room to a spot
down the hall. Once the Hills are ready to have her out of their home, Mrs Wakefield
reveals her true intentions: to die in the house she grew up in.
The rest of the episode shows Mrs Wakefield trying various methods to get into the
home so she can die in the house. She tries forcing her way in by using her walker. She
taps on all the windows, urging Bobby to let her in by offering him candy. She tries
locking herself in the bathroom. She hides in the hedges from the family to sneak inside.
It even gets to the point that she fakes her death by submitting a false obituary to get
the family’s guard down. We had to include this episode for a few reasons.
The first is the clear discussion of death all throughout. Mrs Wakefield
makes more than a few comments about simply slipping away if she held her breath long
enough. On top of that, Dale gets the idea to try and turn his house into a haunted bed and
breakfast and is seen trying to convince Mrs Wakefeild to die in his home instead of
Hank’s. He even tries to offer a dog to keep her company in the afterlife.
The second reason we added it is because of the lengths the old woman goes to
accomplish her goal. Frail senior citizen or not, she flat out harassed the family and
even terrified Bobby. She had to have the police called on her and played the role of a
victim when the officers appeared, meekly asking what she did wrong.
It was a relief that she was able to finally reach some compromise with the Hill family,
but it was a stressful time up until the very end. Next on our list is King of the Anthill.
One of the earliest episodes of the series, it took a very drastic turn.
It begins simply enough with Hank looking to improve his lawn before a block party. The
dilemma of figuring out why his grass is looking worse for wear than Kahn’s leads Hank
to the conclusion that Dale’s bug spraying is a factor and so fires him.
Dale, infamously vindictive, decides to get back at Hank by sneaking fire ants onto his
brand new lawn. So far, it doesn’t sound like much of a setup of a dark story, right?
Well, that all changes when Bobby and Joseph decide to play with the ants and Bobby
brings a queen inside. In typical Bobby fashion, he tries as hard as he can to smell the
pheromones coming off the queen that Joseph had told him about, and the result is
disturbing. While Hank is trying to deal with getting
rid of the ants and trying to revive his lawn, Bobby is seen becoming almost mindless.
We even get a scene where he crams a bunch of sugar in his mouth before we
see him dropping from his mouth into the bowl where he is keeping the queen and other ants.
That dead-eyed stare he gives as he addresses the ant as “my queen” is something
that sticks with a viewer in the worst of ways.
The end of the episode ties in both stories when Bobby, after trying to free his ants, is
attacked by a whole colony. We then see a terrified Bobby, looking more like a mass of
fire ants, slowly moving towards his father for help. Luckily Dale is there to save the day,
latching onto Bobby so the ants crawl onto him and for a brief moment, we are unsure
whether Dale is still alive. A hell of a ride for a first season episode.
Next on our list is Pretty, Pretty Dresses. Bill is already established as one of the
most depressed members of the show. He’s always seen struggling, stating that it was his
divorce that made him lose his confidence and self-worth.
The episode begins on a pretty somber note, with Bill bursting into tears as they drink in
the alley, and it doesn’t get easier from there. We learn that Bill spent the holiday
season having dinner with Hank and his family, and that Peggy, Bobby and Luanne
were not very impressed with the decision. We see that Bill has a habit of making their
dinners uncomfortable, bringing up Buckley’s death and Bobby’s ex-girlfriend Marie. It
forces Hank to have to choose between inviting Bill to dinner again or following his
family’s wishes. When Hank tells Bill that he wants a family
dinner without him present, Bill ends up not taking it well, and decides to jump off of
his own roof in an attempt to end his own life. What follows is seeing Hank, Dale, and Boomhaur
attempting to juggle watching Bill to be sure the man makes no more attempts
on his life. But this episode didn’t make our list just because of its talk about depression.
We see Hank, the man who normally has all the answers to everyone’s problems, in
unfamiliar territory. He tries getting through to Bill in a way that makes sense to him,
but since Hank had no real understanding of depression, he was little help and unknowingly
pushed his friend closer to the edge. After Bill begins dressing up pretending
to be Lanore and crashes the Hill’s Christmas party, Hank is finally able to figure out a way
to give Bill closure, learning that Bill had to confront Lanore on his own after being deserted.
We mentioned this episode when covering our list for Bill, and we have to admit that
while it's hard to watch Bill spiral, it is an episode where he eventually shines through.
The episode didn’t end with Bill magically getting over all of his problems. We know by
the time the credits roll that he’s still going to be in pain over his divorce. He’s still going
to be bitter about how Lanore left him. But that’s what makes it such an important
message and such a great episode. Next on our ranking, we have Propane Boom Part II.
In the previous listing, we mentioned how we’re not used to seeing Hank not be the man
with all the answers. There’s something about seeing someone who has a lot of control
over their life be at the mercy of a very normal problem.
At the start of this story, Hank has to face losing the job he loved at the hands of
Mega-lo-Mart after the superstore gets a propane department. Not only did the
corporation kill off Strickland Propane and countless other privately owned stores, but
they did it in a way that didn’t even come close to meeting the bare minimum of safety
and quality standards. Even after being scolded by Hank to not drag propane tanks by
their valves, Buckley still did, being too lazy to lift them properly. A mistake that cost him
his life when the tanks began leaking and the Mega-lo-Mart exploded.
We’re giving special attention to the second part of the story because after the
explosion, Hank is in complete denial about being traumatized by the event. He refuses
to barbeque or return to the now open Strickland Propane, now afraid of working with
propane at all. Of course, Hank isn’t the only one struggling after the incident, as we see
a formerly bubbly Luanne start to reject anything remotely beautiful or optimistic and a
worried Bobby who clearly doesn’t understand why his father isn’t doing well.
There’s also Khan who is seen throughout the episode, expressing that he saw Buckley
as a sort of son after getting to know him, enjoying how much Buckley being around
annoyed Hank. While Khan is often seen to just make jokes or vindictive comments in
episodes, he was a large part of this plot. Khan speaks at Buckley’s funeral, telling
the story of a man on the verge of death who took the time to enjoy a strawberry before
being devoured by tigers. While the story was brushed off as a bad joke by Hank, it gave
the important message of being able to enjoy life, even when facing death. A message Hank
didn’t see until he was trying to comfort Bobby. Khan also helps to get Luanne to
start grieving, demanding to know why she was suppressing her sorrow with pointless anger,
leading to Luanne reflecting on the loss in a healthy way.
Next on our list is Another Manic Khan-Day. Speaking of times where Khan really shines,
this next listing is far more focused on the Laotian man.
After Minh leaves with Connie to visit family in Lao, Peggy asks Hank to check in on
Khan for Minh, with Minh claiming that Khan hadn’t been left alone in years. While
things start off well enough, with Khan and Hank taking on a project together for
Grillstravaganza, we learn that Khan was on medication that “evened him out.”
When Hank tells Khan not to worry about filling the prescription, it leads to Khan soon
spiraling into a series of highs and lows as we learn that he suffers
from manic depression.
As we saw when Hank was dealing with Bill’s breakdown, Hank is not the best person
to help in times of depression since he doesn’t fully understand how it works. After he
gets the pills from Mexico with the help of Dale, Bill and Boomhauer, Hank is reluctant
to give them to Khan, not wanting the Laotian to lose motivation for building the grill,
justifying that Khan is plenty happy and wasn’t hurting anyone. What’s more, Hank
showed he didn’t understand how the medication really helped. He initially thought Khan
would need to take all of the pills at once to get back on track and when Khan did take
the proper dosage, Hank assumed they would work right away.
The episode was another great example of how depression can affect a person and
how little it’s really grasped because of so many years of stigma. Khan going from
laying on the couch to suddenly having way too much energy left Hank and Boomhaur
scratching their heads while Dale and Bill were able to point out what Khan was
suffering from. In fact, Dale is the one to inform Hank as to what pills meant to “even
someone out” usually translates to and Bill was the one to hide anything remotely
dangerous from Khan, making the comment that “people forget about the drawstring.”
Next we have the episode High Anxiety. Being centered around the murder of
Debbie Grund, this story held back no punches. Like the Propane Boom, this was a two-parter
episode. It started with Buck undergoing divorce from his wife Ms Liz, who had found
out about Debbie and Buck’s relationship. Losing his house, his company and much of
his money, Buck is forced to reside with Debbie while the homemaker is left to deal
with Ms Liz’s wrath at Strickland Propane. Hank then gains a lot of unwanted advances
from Ms Liz and Debbie, finding himself being blackmailed by Debbie to have an affair
and leading Hank to be in her apartment when everything begins to go wrong.
Debbie’s body is discovered in the Sugar Foot’s dumpster by Peggy, leading to an
investigation that placed Hank as a suspect. As if that wasn’t bad enough, even Buck
tried using Hank as a scapegoat, planting false evidence in Hank’s truck and recording
an out of context conversation. It’s a very real problem that a lot of
people face: the death of someone close to them. The episode was made even more suspenseful
when even Hank himself was unsure of his innocence, his last memory being
that he mistakenly smoked pot with Gayle, thinking it was just a homemade cigarette.
In the end, we do find out that Debbie had unintentionally ended her own life when
carelessly handling Buck’s gun as she crawled into the dumpster, but the story is well
received among fans. Taking the bronze medal is Lupe’s Revenge.
We all know Peggy likes to be seen as an educator that knows everything about
Mexican culture, but this was a time where her pride really didn’t do her any favours.
After being asked to chaperone a field trip into Mexico, Peggy makes a series of
mistakes. She misdirects the bus from the museum,
takes the children to a butcher when she thinks it’s a petting zoo,
and tries to cover up her lies by planning off a chicken being killed as a magic trick. But
the thing that took the cake was when she mistakenly forced a young girl to join the
students back home, not realizing until it was too late that she had kidnapped a small child.
The rest of the episode is Peggy hiding the young girl away in her office before
attempting to sneak her back into Mexico, with Peggy quickly arrested afterward.
We had included this in our video discussing Peggy’s worst deeds, and it truly is one of
the worst things she had ever done. And to top it off, Peggy didn’t seem to receive much
of a punishment for her actions. Sure, she was threatened with jail time, but she was let
off after it was clear she was mediocre at Spanish at best, showing that she couldn’t
have communicated with Lupe enough to really threaten her. But the whole ordeal had
to be on this list since this was no doubt a traumatic experience for Lupe. Being drug
onto a bus just because she was trying to sell goods to help her family. Being taken into
a strange home and forced to hide away in a small room, unable to communicate with
anyone around her to ask for help and being uncertain as to what fate awaited her.
Our second darkest ranking is Fun with Jane and Jane.
We mentioned cult-like tactics and mentality in a previous listing, but we couldn’t have a
darkest of the King of the Hill list without mentioning the Janes.
It begins innocently enough, with Luanne trying to find some friends on campus by
joining a sorority. After being mocked at by some of the more popular houses, she is led
to the Omega house where things begin to quickly go downhill.
The leader of this group wastes no time trying to get young girls to join them. The new
residents of the house undergo sleep deprivation, borderline starvation, and
brainwashing. All of their names are taken from them and any unwelcome behavior is
met with being locked in a dark closest while being yelled at.
Peggy, not realizing what the group really is, simply takes Luanne back to the Omega
house where they both are renamed Jane and almost taken off to a farm for free labour
to make jams and jellies. While it might sound like a ridiculous plotline,
this is actually a very real concern for people. Not everyone out there has your
best interests at heart. Even those that want to do harm to you or use you for their gain will
often play it off that they are the best option for you and that you really have no one else.
It’s a cautionary tale that is valuable to everyone.
And finally, taking first place, we have Pigmalion.
After Luanne loses her job thanks to her aunt Peggy’s meddling, she starts to become
close with Trip Larson. Luanne isn’t known for having the best judgement calls with
many of her relationships, and this one was no exception.
After Luanne got into an argument with Peggy over dating Trip, she finds herself now
living in Trip’s home with him where she quickly learns that he isn’t as stable as he
came off to be. Trip then begins changing Luanne’s appearance by taking over her
wardrobe and dying her hair while she sleeps. Trip’s intentions are revealed when, during
their Halloween party, he informs Luanne that he wanted her to take the role
of the Larson's Pork Product girl. The idea of marrying a man she had never met to help
Trip’s delusions and seeing the man imitate a pig to resemble the old ad sends her running.
What follows is a terrifying scene where Luanne is being chased in a slaughterhouse, a
manic Trip Larson laughing about how they could be pork products together. What
makes this even more tragic is in his final moments, Trip is shocked and brought back
to reality for a brief moment, questioning where he is and why he’s in a pig suit before
losing his life. This episode was actually banned
for some time, and we can’t say we blame the individuals that steer clear of watching this
episode more than once.
But what do you think? What are the darkest moments on King of the Hill? Let us know
in the comment section. Don't forget to hit that notification bell and binge our
Good-to-Evil playlist. Where we break down the morality of the characters in your
favorite cartoons, shows and movies. But most importantly, stay wicked!