Buck Strickland

Would have by a code.

Yeah, Baby T, with, with Moss I could hear, I could hear Bill, but I could also hear Buck Strickland, too.

Yeah.

I just hear Stephen Root I'm not your nerd.

Heard

... we have in this episode, Propane Recall, Hank, Peggy, and Bobby Hill, Dale Gribble, Bill Dauterive, Boomhauer, the return of Joe Jack, Enrique, Roger Buttesack, Buck Strickland, Jody Ray Roy Strickland, Jimmy Witchard, my friend-

Ooh

...

Okay, I'll just...

I'm gonna get back to my notes here, 'cause that's the only way I can stay on track.

Mark, I find that Buck leaving, Buck officially giving up Strickland because he f- was afraid of the Me Too movement is really gross and very on brand for Buck Strickland.

And oh, good Lord, if he had just even a ball hair's more money, he'd be in the Epstein files, and we both know it.

The show doesn't pretend small businesses are morally pure.

Buck Strickland is evidence against that fantasy.

Local owners can exploit people just as enthusiastically as corporations.

The distinction is not small equals good and large equals evil.

He spends his life practicing responsibility because responsibility is good, but also because somewhere inside him, the child who could not please Cotton, still submitting revised applications.

We can see that pattern in Hank's devotion to Buck Strickland.

Buck is dishonest, he's selfish, and frequently destructive, but Hank keeps separating the noble institution in his head from the flawed man standing in front of him.

That is exactly what he does with Cotton.

For most of the series, King of the Hill, Hank believed loyalty would eventually be rewarded.

You work hard, you respect the chain of command, you protect the company, and one day Buck Strickland will finally recognize the man who kept his business alive.

Season 15 reveals the truth Hank spent decades refusing to face.

Buck was never going to reward him, so Hank does something more radical than quitting.

Propane gives Hank a moral vocabulary, clean fuel, proper procedure, customer service, and respect for equipment became ways to talk about dignity.

The problem was always Buck.

For years, Hank treated Buck Strickland as the human embodiment of that moral order.

The audience knew much better.