King of the Hill is going to be making a ton of changes with its new revival series coming to Hulu later this Summer, but there’s one episode of the original series that perfectly explains some of the big changes it’s teasing for Boomhauer. King of the Hill is returning for a new series set nearly a decade after the events of the original, and the characters of the series have aged in a lot of ways as a result. Things have dramatically changed for Arlen in that time, and the characters have all reached much different points in their lives.
While the promotional materials for the King of the Hill series have teased some dramatic changes for each of the characters, one surprise reveal during the opening credits teases that Boomhauer is in a fully committed relationship with a mother. It’s not revealed the extent of what this relationship entails, but it seems like a big move for the swinging bachelor fans saw him as in the original series. But there’s one episode that perfectly explains the shift in Boomhauer’s priorities, Season 8’s “Patch Boomhauer.”
King of the Hill Teased Boomhauer’s Desire to Settle Down
King of the Hill laid down the groundwork that Boomhauer desired love and a family with the likes of Season 6’s “Dang Ol’ Love” that saw him realize that his bachelor style and his usual dumping of women lead him down a path of loneliness. He eventually goes back to his usual ways, but this was the first real shift in Boomhauer as a character. The real change starts to come with the debut of his brother (voiced by Johnny Knoxville) in Season 8’s “Patch Boomhauer.” It’s revealed that not only is his brother pretty much exactly like him, but his brother is also getting married to one of Boomhauer’s previous flames, Katherine.
It’s revealed that Boomhauer and Katherine dated one another when the two of them were young, but it ended poorly. It was made clear that the two still had feelings for one another with Boomhauer noting that she was basically the one that got away. Patch bringing her back into his life then brought all this back to the forefront, and Boomhauer realized that he outright loved Katherine. It didn’t work out this time either as things got even messier with Patch, but the end of the episode teased that Boomhauer would always carry a flame for her heading into the future.
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Why Is This Important?
It’s unlikely that the woman Boomhauer is spotted with is Katherine, but the opening does make sure to hide her identity as much as possible to further tease who Boomhauer ultimately ends up with. The important take away from “Patch Boomhauer” is the fact that Boomhauer indeed does want to stop his bachelor ways and wants to settle down. It doesn’t really happen during the original series, but the original show only scratched the surface of Boomhauer as a character overall (not even revealing his career until the final episode).
Things have changed so much in the years since the original series, it does stand to reason that Boomhauer himself eventually wanted to settle down completely and decided to do so with someone who has already begun putting the pieces together for a family. It makes a lot of sense for the person who was always dealing with his age (like Season 12’s “Four Wave Intersection” where he realizes he’s not cool anymore), and coming to terms with that seems like a good place to explore further.
Now it’s just a matter of seeing who Boomhauer settled down with in King of the Hill’s revival when it premieres with Hulu on August 4th.
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