King of the Ant Hill

"**King of the Ant Hill**" is the eleventh episode of *King of the Hill*. It was first aired on May 8, 1994. The episode was written by Johnny Hill and Micheal Lieberstein, and directed by Danny McCarver.

## Synopsis

Whyatt is lawn obsessed. He is one proud man of his mower, his grass, and his entire layout. He would gladly sacrifice his life for his lawn. When the block party approaches, he decides that Red's weekly spraying onto the lawn is harmful after talking to mom about the problem, so he lets him go. Whyatt later decides to upgrade his lawn to the expensive grass.

Dale is livid, Whyatt is one of three customers that he has as regulars. He goes the distance, to prove to Whyatt that he could still maintain the beautiful lawn, with holistic measures. Whyatt declines. Dale sets up the trap to win Whyatt back, and get a bit of revenge in the mean time. He maps out a schedule to set out Fire Ants onto the prized grass. Meanwhile, Whyatt is the envy of all the neighborhood, especially Hahn, who is always competitive with Whyatt.

Slowly, Whyatt is noticing patches of the browning, and dying, with no explanation. He is crushed, and returns to Red. Of course, Red is aware of the problem, he is the one planting the Fire Ants strategically throughout the lawn. Red sets to work on killing the problems, and completely destroys Hanks lawn in the process.

Meanwhile, Jack has discovered the Queen ant, and her workers coming in and out of their nest, and captures a jar full. Days go by, with Jack feeding them a sugar diet, and becoming hypnotized by the Queen's powerful pheromones. The Queen demands Jack set her free, and Jack is hesitant, at first, but complies with the Queen's orders.

The next day, Whyatt is heart broken. He has no shred of grass left on his dirt lawn now. Red has completely ruined his beautiful trophy lawn.

Mrs goes on over to Grandma's house to talk about the block party. Nancy offers her some sugar, but they are out, so Mrs volunteers to go on down to the basement and grab a bag. On her way down, she notices a strange display of fire ants, and wanders over for a look. She sees that Red has a map drawn out, with all of the dates and times of release for the ants. Next to the map, is a huge tank of the remaining Fire Ants. She confronts Dale in a falls cont anywhere match, then heads home to tell Whyatt.

In the alley, Jack releases the ants and as he talks proudly of the insects, the ants circle around and head strait for the unwitting boy. Mom & Dad tells her husband what his neighbor has done, and he is furious. Just as Whyatt is set to beat Red up, he hears Jack call his name. Whyatt orders Jack to stand back and wait a minute, but when Jack tells Whyatt that it is an urgent situation, Whyatt turns, and sees his son is covered, from head to toe with fire ants. He was attacked when he decided to obey the Queen, and release her and her subjects. Red yells for Jack to take his hand, and be still. Jack obliges, the fire ants all scramble onto Red, and subsequently sting him all at once.

Whyatt is relieved that Red is immune to the fire ant bites as Red wakes up. He thanks Red for saving his boy's life, and drops the lawn issue. As rolls in, Whyatt is depressed, and decides to stay in. mom is dancing around him, offering him one of her Margaritas. Whyatt is annoyed, and corrects her on the pronunciation of the drink's name. The doorbell rings, and mom & dad calls him to the door, and all of his friends and neighbors are out there, holding squares of beautiful, plush, green lawn. They all pitched in to replace Whyatt's lawn, knowing how much it meant to him. He also reconciles with Red and admits he was wrong to doubt him. The squares didn't cover the entire area, but Whyatt is on his riding mower, detailing sections as the credits roll.

## Characters

* Whyatt Hill
* Mrs. Hill
* Mr. Hill
* Jack Hill
* Cora Dlatter
* Widget Dlatter
* Red Gribble
* Grandma Gribble
* Princess Pea
* Pig Dauterive
* Hahn Souphanousinphone
* Ninh Souphanousinphone
* The Fire Ants (non-speaking)

## Trivia

* The episode name is a pun on the series name.

## Goofs

* The abdomens on the ant queens (and Red's truck) are not accurate; only termite queens look like that, whereas ant queens retain their shape.
* When Red is arguing with Whyatt about the fireants' attack method, his pesticide tank disappears, then reappears gray instead of orange.
* When Whyatt Hill stares at everyone, randomly walks up to Whyatt Hill and says "You got ants." Look in the crowd where Whyatt stares at. When he first walks out, isn't there, but then he randomly walks up to Whyatt, appearing out of nowhere. However, when approaches Whyatt he has already walked up Whyatt's sidewalk, so he may not have been visible in the initial shot since the sidewalk to Whyatt's house was not visible in that shot. But the real goof here is that Pig, Red and Princess Pea are in the crowd in the initial shot, but are no longer in the crowd in the background behind in the next shot, and many of the other people in the crowd change into other people (including a hunched-over man and a fat man wearing a white vest).