It’s Hank Versus Mister Strickland when Buck refuses to toe the line..yes again…but this time it involves the environment! Can he succeed in turning around Strickland’s public image?

We open in the Hill’s kitchen – Hank’s pouring coffee and wistfully talking about his coffee filter. That’s a subject that Peggy doesn’t want to go over again. Hank catches sight of Joseph and Bobby digging up the front yard and rushes out to stop them.

It turns out that the boys are planting pecan trees as extra credit for their earth science class. “I just limit myself to trees that can make pies,” Bobby announces. Hank’s surprised and impressed by the idea – he finally agrees to help them fertilize the plants.

At Strickland, Buck’s passing out Strickland stock. Hank knows that means something’s up – and, as it turns out, he’s right. The Bystander’s about to claim that Strickland’s been dumping used propane tanks into the Cottonwood River. Hank’s aghast at the very notion that someone would think such a thing and tries to come up with a defense for the company; of course, it turns out to be true. Buck claims he’d been trying to create his own coral reef! Hank makes a quick, easy decision – the company’s gonna go green.

Back at the Hills’, Joseph and Bobby are happily tending to their tree. Hank approaches and asks Bobby if his earth science teacher ever talks to them about the green lifestyle. “Do you ever talk about propane?” Bobby replies. He promises to show Hank a bunch of brochures his teacher’s given him.

At Strickland, Hank’s leafing through the pamphlets Bobby’s given him – he’s surprised that most of the tips contained within actually makes a lot of sense. Buck, meanwhile, is aghast at the idea of shutting off his computer and losing his constant companion, the flying toaster screensaver.

Buck’s enthusiasm wanes and wanes as he deals with the concept of carpooling (and a chatty Enrique). He pours raspberry lemonade mix into the watercooler after his individual bottles of water are taken away and eventually drops trou when Hank refuses to turn up the air conditioner.

In the alley, Hank is dismayed by Buck’s lack of commitment to the green movement. Dale responds by cluing Hank in to the concept of carbon offsetting – the act of buying and planting trees (or building windmills) to offset one’s carbon footprint. Hank considers that “cheating” – he points out the boys’ tree and points out that they’re happily working away on it for free, because they love it. Dale, who realizes that Joseph doesn’t work for free – ever, has a lightbulb moment.

When Hank shows up at Strickland the next day, Dale’s shaking hands with Buck – Hank hopes that Dale’s here for business, because “he’s taking up two parking spaces.” Dale announces that he’s gotten into the carbon offsetting business – he’s just sold Buck a passel of trees to plant on a passel of land he owns – Buck’s calling it Strickland Woods - which Dale’ll be planting with Joseph and Bobby’s (free) labor. Strickland drives off in his gas guzzler, leaving Hank to choke on the pollution and Buck’s hubris.

Dale, Joseph and Bobby are soon planting trees out in the sweltering sun. Dale manages to weasel out of doing any physical labor, though the boys are naive and eager to help. Quickly becoming overwhelmed by the labor, he calls in Octavio to help out. (Though he manages to make contact with Missus Octavio first.)

At Strickland, Hank tries to sell a new customer on the company’s turning green, but Buck steps in and begins talking up the carbon offset part of the deal. The woman is impressed: “(carbon offsets are) the next best thing to us never having existed!” she chirps. Since the customer’s an attractive woman, he swoops in for the kill and ends up making a date, leaving Hank disgusted.

Back at Dale’s house, Joseph, Bobby, Dale and Octavio are busy loading the Bug-a-Bego with saplings and soil. Dale sends the two of them out to sell carbon offsets door-to-door, promising that he and Octavio will go ahead and plant the trees. Though Octavio says they’ll need more trees soon, as soon as the boys are out of sight, Dale immediately shirks off his duty.

Bobby and Joseph, meanwhile, successfully sell carbon offsets to Kahn, who can now feel better about his forty minute showers. That evening, Bobby is pleased with himself, Hank is dismayed by the whole carbon offsetting situation, and Peggy is amused by the fact that Bobby believes he’s changing the world.

The following day, Buck tries to pick up a couple of pro-green girls. His bumper sticker impresses them (“without ice caps, where will the penguins dance?” one muses), but they’re headed off to Nashville for a pro-green music festival. Buck quickly cooks up a festival of his own, which will take place VERY soon in Strickland Woods.

At Strickland Propane, Hank’s forced to shut off lights and computers left carelessly on by the no-longer-devoted-to-green staff. He glances out the window to see a channel 6 news van in the parking lot, complete with Nancy and a microphone. “What else did they find in the river?” he worries. “They can’t look in my locker without a search warrant, can they, honey?” asks JoeJack. It turns out that Nancy’s been invited there by Buck, who announces the upcoming festival. Hank is aghast.
 
Later in the day, Hank, Peggy and Bobby drive out to Strickland Woods to check out Dale’s progress. “I have heard that music will make people overlook anything!” Peggy chirps helpfully. When they arrive, they find a barren field, the only trees planted being the ones Joseph and Bobby put into the ground. Bobby’s horrified, Hank’s dismayed and Peggy’s elated that this is how Buck’ll end up going down.

Hank rushes home, where he finds Dale in the alley. He threatens, of course, to kick his ass. Dale has no real excuse for his laziness, except for the notion that he feels there’s no real point to green living whatsoever. But now it’s come down to fraud, and Hank’s not about to stand for that. He drags Dale to Strickland.

At the office, Buck’s showing JoeJack a mock-up of the proposed set up for his green festival. Hank bursts in and forces Dale to tell the truth; Buck is pissed ‘cause Dale defrauded him, and now it’s up to him to find them fresh land for the festival. “What if we simulate a forest with one tree and 1,000 mirrors?” Dale suggests. Buck of course likes the way he thinks, and puts Dale in charge of getting the festival on track.

Dale’s way of fixing things is simple: he calls on an ex-fellow gun club member (he was too into guns for the club) and gets him to sell Buck his offset rights. Though they both nearly get shot, the deal is stricken.

Back at the Hills’, Bobby’s completely disillusioned with the entire green living concept. His pecan tree’s withering away – his response: “Caring is for suckers.” Peggy is horrified – Bobby’s too young to believe such a thing. She tells Hank he needs to fix it. Hank tries to encourage Bobby to care about the tree, but he’s just plain ambivalent.

Cut to the concert, where Buck seems to be poised to get away with it all. He makes a sanctimonious speech, while Hank looks on in horror; finally, when he sees Bobby carelessly toss an empty soda can into the regular trash he’s spurred to make a speech of his own. Unfortunately, Hank’s honesty only results in the crowd loving Buck all the more. Hank finally gives up and introduces Big Mountain Fudgecake. (!!)
 
Back home, Hank’s out tending to the pecan tree. Bobby’s still nonplussed about green living, but Hank explains to him that if you truly care about something you’ll make a difference. He tells his son to ignore the ones who follow causes for a profit or because it’s trendy. Bobby takes his father’s advice to heart – he asks when the ETA is on the first pecan pie. “It’s gonna be awhile,” Hank responds, as we head to credits.

Tag: “Trees! Beautiful Trees” – Mr. Strickland.

Another terrific episode! Buck/Hank battles have provided some of the more interesting moments in the show’s canon, and this one is no exception to the rule. Buck WOULD try to dump propane into a river, then take the laziest way out to save his keister.

As always, the show provides a debate-provoking opinion on going green- that it should be done sensibly, with some effort, and with true feeling. Dale representing avarice isn’t a new position for him - he once nearly damaged Nancy’s psyche to get some sort of benefit from Manitoba Tobacco, after all.

This episode is also notable for some wonderful call-backs, including the return of Octavio and the appearance (albeit silent) of Big Mountain Fudgecake (it’s worth noting that Lucky does not put in an appearance, though Elvin does). Kahn’s luxuriant showers are also a point of canon.

Another delightful entry in a season that’s shaping up very nicely.

The show pulled a 6.5 in the ratings, on-par with American Dad.

The next new episode of King Of The Hill will be “Square-Footed Monster”, set to air on October nineteenth. Be sure to check back here on the twentieth for a full recap!