Taking places after the events in "Propane Boom", Hank survives the explosion and ends up having to deal with a fear of propane.
Tropes in the Episode:
- Appeal to Worse Problems: Luanne makes it clear she is not sympathetic to Bobby running away as she goes on to rant about how Irish children are forced to make shoes. This proves to be the final straw for Kahn as he calls her out on the Soapbox Sadie act and holding in her grief for Buckley.
- Art Shift: Kahn's story at Buckley's funeral is done up in a highly Asian calligraphy-inspired Limited Animation style.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: After a fireman informs Hank that Buckley didn't survive the explosion, Luanne appears to be on the verge of tears, about to grieve Buckley, only for her to yell out "I'm bald!".
- Baldness Angst: Luanne has her hair singed by the explosion and it falls apart when she combs it and she screams after she pieces everything together.
- Bookends: The episode begins and ends (not counting the stinger scene) on the playground with the rocket jungle gym. The beginning with Bobby and Connie talking about their dreams and the end with Hank talking to Bobby about how he should just enjoy life.
- Comically Missing the Point: During Buckley's funeral, Kahn tells a Buddhist story about a man about to be killed by tigers and before awaiting his death, he reaches out for a strawberry and eats it, then stating it was the sweetest strawberry he ever had. Hank and the guys think he was telling a joke and are offended (though Bill finds it funny).
- Delayed Reaction: The Buddhist story that Khan tells at Buckley's funeral, about the man facing death from either being eaten by a tiger or falling to his death and believing the wild strawberry he ate at the moment was the most delicious food, had a moral of how facing death makes a person appreciate the world around them more. Hank thinks its offensive how Kahn decided to tell a joke at a funeral, while Bill believed the story to be funny. At the very end, when he finds Bobby in the playground, Hank consoles him by saying that he won't be dying anytime soon, and they have many years to enjoy each other's company, which is when Hank finally gets what Khan's story was all about.
- Emotion Suppression: Luanne denies grieving for Buckley as they had just broken up seconds before his death, but she hides it under a Soapbox Sadie act. But she eventually breaks down and grieves him after Kahn tells her off.
- Hidden Wire: Buck does this at Buckley's funeral when talking to Hank about how he (allegedly) blew up the Mega-Lo-Mart. Hank of course denies it, and Buck then turns off the cassette, saying he was wearing a wire for unrelated purposes.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Kahn, of all people, is the one who finally gets Luanne to mourn for real instead of hiding behind her "strange Sinead O'Connor" act. He rather bluntly tells her off for hiding her emotions behind her obnoxious Soapbox Sadie tendencies, and points out even he was willing to cry for Buckley.
- Killed Off for Real: The episode reveals the fate of the characters. Hank, Luanne and Chuck Mangione survive the explosion. Buckley, however, isn't so lucky.
- Last Disrespects: Buckley does not get a fitting send-off at his funeral. Dale throws up into his coffin after seeing his remains and Luanne raves about starving Irish kids by showing a picture of Bobby in his underwear. The only person who mourns him is Kahn, mainly because of how much he annoyed Hank.
- Mistaken for Terrorist: A Running Gag is Hank being praised like a hero by Buck and the rest of Strickland Propane for blowing up Mega-Lo-Mart. Hank has to repeatedly tell those praising him that no, he did not blow up the store.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Defied by Luanne, who initially refuses to mourn Buckley due to how awful he was to her. However, after being called out by Kahn for suppressing her emotions, Luanne finds she really does need to grieve for Buckley despite what an ass he was.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Peggy has a scrapbook containing newspaper clippings of fatal accidents (including Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crash and a chess club that gets hit by a train) that she archives herself as a hobby and shows Hank in an attempt to help him get over surviving the explosion.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Hank and the guys are drinking in the alley a few days after the explosion, the guys keep asking Hank if he's really alright considering that he has made excuses as to why it's too soon to go back to the reopened Strickland Propane office, and Hank insists he's perfectly fine. What makes the guys worry that Hank is in denial of being traumatized by his experience, which Hank vehemently denies, is the fact that instead of drinking his Alamo beer straight from the can, Hank instead pours it into a glass.
- Oh, Crap!: Hank's reaction when Peggy tells him Bobby has ran away.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: The Strickland staff keeps making jokes about Hank blowing up the Mega-Lo-Mart throughout the episode and in The Stinger, despite his repeated denials.
- Only the Leads Get a Happy Ending: After the explosion, Mega-Lo-Mart rebuilds the store but shuts down their propane department which gets Hank and the rest of the Strickland staff their jobs back. Since the other departments weren't affected, the other former business owners Hank befriended in the last episode are still stuck working for the store that killed their businesses, and since Mega-Lo-Mart continues to be a prominent business in Arlen, their protests against it were All for Nothing.
- Pet the Dog: While the people at Arlen Beauty Academy aren't that fond of Luanne, they did think well enough to make her a wig. Subverted on account of they made the wig from hair scraps collected off the floor, and it's shown that Luanne looks awful with it.
- Previously on…: Following the episode, Mega-Lo-Mart no longer sells propane after the accident due to relying on less-experienced workers like Buckley who died from mishandling it and thus Strickland Propane is back in business due to being more reliable. As a result, in later episodes, Mega-Lo-Mart becomes a big client for Strickland Propane, which is a big reason Hank eventually warms up to them.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Tiring of Luanne's Soapbox Sadie act and why she's not grieving for Buckley, Kahn rips into her:Kahn: I heard enough from you! The more you hold in, the more you put on strange Sinéad O'Connor act. I cry river of tear for Buckley. Why not you?
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At Buckley's funeral, Bobby and Connie run off to play in the cemetery, as Connie finds it "depressing."
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: More like "shell-shocked propane salesman". The explosion leaves Hank afraid of propane, which results in him not returning to Strickland right away, not willing to grill and refusing to check out a broken water heater, to the point where he dives to protect Peggy when she attempts to check it out herself.
- Skewed Priorities: While waiting around the Mega-Lo-Mart, Hank asks a fireman about Buckley, and is told there were no other survivors. Luanne (Buckley's former girlfriend) then appears on the verge of tears, exclaiming "I'm bald!!!". Justified, as she's holding her grief in.
- Soapbox Sadie: Luanne takes something of a cynical ball in the episode and becomes one, talking about the injustices of famine and starving children. Of course, her being Luanne, her activism includes taking pictures of ravished countries off CNN and during Buckley's funeral, rants about starving Irish children by showing a picture of Bobby in his underwear in the kitchen getting food.
- They Have the Scent!: Hank tries to do this by having Ladybird to smell a fruit pie to track down Bobby after he's run away. It doesn't work as she leads Hank around and around the block and ultimately is only able to find his son once a neighbor tells him where Bobby is.
- Wham Episode: Just like the last episode, this episode leads to some drastic changes for the series: Luanne and Hank now have trauma from almost dying (and initially have terrible reactions to it), Luanne loses her hair and now needs to also come to terms with Buckley dying. Notably, Luanne's hair remains growing for some of the season.
