The Father, the Son, and J.C.

"The Father, the Son, and J.C." is episode 108 in the Fox animated television series King of the Hill. This episode is rated TV-PG.

Plot

Hank receives a page for a propane emergency, and quickly responds. He finds that the emergency is that Buck Strickland is in jail, and needs to be bailed out and driven home. For his punishment, Buck is assigned a community service project in the form of a Habitat for Humanity house. Hank is floored to find that this is a punishment, as he had been on the waiting list for 2 years, and would love to take Buck's place. Buck allows him to do just that.

After Hank takes charge of Buck's punishment, Buck promotes him to the manager position, followed by a speech. Hank is choked up, and overtaken by emotion, and blurts out that he loves Buck in front of all of his friends and family, including Cotton. After the initial shock, Buck demotes Hank, back to his original assistant manager position.

Meanwhile, Cotton, surprisingly, is jealous, hurt, and angry. Hank never tells his father that he loved him. Hank is embarrassed, his friends are teasing him at every chance they get. Cotton un-invites Hank for Christmas, and Hank is shocked. Instead of reconciling, he decides that the Hill family will just start a new tradition of eating Christmas dinner at the home of Gniewko and Alla Lubecki, the couple for whom the house was built. While the couple's last name is Lubecki, Hank says that the new tradition will be "Christmas with the Gniewkos."

Peggy and Didi try to bridge the gap in the father-son relationship, and all eat at the Lubeckis' home. Hank tries to show Cotton his handywork around the house he built, and Cotton, still hurt and angry, starts to rip apart the place, showing Hank his shoddy work.

Bobby sets out walking, trying to gather his thoughts after his grandfather and father just had a heated argument, and crosses paths with former president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, a frequent Habitat for Humanity volunteer. He asks Bobby why he is so sad, Bobby tells him the story of the father-son battle, and 'J.C.' offers to help.

After a few words from Jimmy Carter, things settle, and he promises Cotton that he can shoot at his bulletproof limousine if he were to listen, Cotton accepts his offer. After all was straight, Cotton reminds him of the deal, and Hank backs him up. Bobby thinks that he has witnessed a true Christmas miracle performed by Jesus Christ, because Jimmy Carter is a carpenter and has the same initials, and was able to bring them together. This amuses Hank and Cotton, neither of whom think he was a very good president, giving them one thing they agree on.