Revenge of the Lutefisk

Revenge of the Lutefisk is the twenty third episode of King of the Hill Season 3, 58th episode overall.

Plot
The pastor of the Hills' church, Reverend Thomason is retiring, and is due to be replaced. Much of a surprise to the town, the new reverend is a woman, Karen Stroup. At an introductory potluck supper the next Saturday, Hank is surprised upon first meeting her, but soon he comes to accept Rev. Stroup when she holds services before the football games, herself being a Vikings fan from her native Minnesota. Reverend Stroup, meanwhile, attempts to get the congregation to try a homemade dish from her native Minnesota called lutefisk, which most of the churchgoers politely avoid. Bobby, however, absconds under the table with the dish and eats the lot, surreptitiously chucking the empty platter in the garbage when Reverend Stroup discovers the lutefisk's disappearance. Upon discovering the platter, a hurt Stroup along with everyone else assumes that someone was so disrespectful they directly threw all the lutefisk into the trash, and Bobby is too ashamed to admit to his gluttony.

The following day, Bobby has such an upset stomach from all the lutefisk, that he quietly rushes off to the bathroom in the middle of Reverend Stroup's first sermon. Meanwhile, Cotton arrives on scene from Houston, having been informed of the new minister by Dale. When Reverend Stroup asks the congregation to hug one another, Cotton loudly voices his objection to a female having authority in the church, and storms off to "the one part of this church that's still men's-only". Entering the restroom, where Bobby is still holed up in a stall, Cotton is overwhelmed by the stench; he lights a match in an attempt to mask the odor, but finds the gesture futile and leaves, dropping his matchbook as he goes.

Bobby finally finishes and, after locking the door, goes to wash up, but panics when someone attempts to enter the bathroom. In a desperate attempt to get rid of the stench himself, he lights more matches to try and cover the smell, then throws the smoldering matches into the wastebasket and the matchbook in the toilet and then flees through the window out of embarrassment; unknown to him, the matches then cause a small fire in the wastebasket. When Bobby returns to the sanctuary, Hank comments on an odd smell, but identifies it as smoke just as the fire alarms go off. The congregation evacuates the building, watching in horror as the church burns to the ground before their eyes.

As the ensuing police investigation goes on, details of a suspected arson emerge: the fire started in the bathroom wastebasket, with a book of matches from a strip club in Houston. Given his Houston residence, openly misogynistic character, and declaration of going to the location of where the fire started just beforehand, Cotton becomes the obvious prime suspect in the apparent hate crime, compounded when he attempts to flee Arlen in the middle of the night upon realizing that all of the evidence points to him; however, only he and Bobby are certain of his innocence - even as the police arrest him on the Hills' front lawn, he still screams for them to look for "the man with the terrible smell" in the stall who must have set the fire after he left.

With the whole town, including Hank himself, out for Cotton's blood, Bobby feels incredibly guilty about letting his grandfather take the blame, but at the same time is too scared to come forward about inadvertently setting the fire. Both feelings become so overwhelming that he tries to flee to Mexico in shame, but when a despondent Didi arrives by bus, saying that Cotton believes in owning up to one's mistakes and had hoped that the baby she's expecting would turn out as good as Bobby, his guilt finally overcomes his fear.

Meanwhile, Hank and Peggy are at the police station with Cotton, begging him to just admit to the arson, but Bobby bursts in, admitting the truth at last. Hank demands that Bobby confess to the police, but Cotton decides to take the blame anyway, citing that he is already an old man, but Bobby has his entire life ahead of him and doesn't deserve to go to jail. Hank and Peggy are touched by Cotton's decision and agree to along with it. Cotton ends up getting away with it by declaring that he had in fact lit the matches, but only to hide the smell of his own, age-related digestive issues, and that he made up the other "smelly man" to cover his embarrassment thereover. Reverend Stroup forgives Cotton, and invites all the members of the church to show Cotton their forgiveness with a hug, much to Cotton's barely-concealed revulsion.

Other Languages

 * Revenge of the Lutefisk/Other Languages

Quotes

 * Revenge of the Lutefisk/Quotes

Stinger Quote

 * Cotton: "But not in the face. That's how I make my livings."

Trivia

 * Bobby said that the Lutefisk stunk, yet he continued to eat it.
 * Cotton goes to seek help from Dale telling him that "They found my girlie bar matches. It's only a matter of time before I'm accused of church burnery." "Burnery" is not a proper word.
 * Cotton, in police custody, declares that he will tell the truth about the church fire. When Hank tries to object Cotton tells him, "I'm an old man. Everybody already hates me. But Bobby's just a child. He's got his whole life ahead of him."
 * After Bobby locked the bathroom door, a man voiced like Hank was speaking, but the captions do not match what the man says.
 * This episode aired the same day of the events of the Columbine High School shooting.
 * Lutefisk is a Scandinavian whitefish recipe where the fish (cod or haddock) is soaked and treated with lye before cooking. According to Wikipedia, "Lutefisk prepared from cod is somewhat notorious, even in Scandinavia, for its intensely offensive odor." It is traditionally served with boiled potatoes, peas, and a cream sauce.

Goofs

 * When Bobby gets up to go to the bathroom, he is missing one shoe. However he has both shoes on in the next shot when he's walking down the hallway.