Hank joins the city council in order to fight back against the installation of low-flow toilets during a drought. Meanwhile, Bobby blackmails Kahn into letting him take baths at his house.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Politics: Hank's filibuster runs into several potential roadblocks. First, under Robert's Rules of Order (Peggy is holding a copy of said rules in the episode), there's a basic speaking time limit of ten minutes (after which Hank would have been cut off under Roberts Rules). Other debate times are often used (bodies can set their own limits; Robert's just sets that as a debate). More damaging, however, is that since the vote had been called, the question was no longer being debated - since the question was already before the Board (they were debating it), and since Hank had already called the question (in so many words), a non-debatable motion, it would have been quite easy for Hathaway to have simply cut Hank off when he tried to speak (or, really, at any time afterwards) and simply declare that he had refused to vote. The fact that some stray dialogue had already happened was beside the point (this often happens) - Hank was out of order. The fact that he stopped for an extended period of time at one point also gave Hathaway room to claim that Hank had yielded the floor (something that an exasperated chair is very likely to do in such a situation).
- Having said that, Hank could have made a parliamentary inquiry and tried to drag that out, but at some point it would have been within Hathaway's power to cut him off for being dilatory. Another trick would have been for Hank to vote aye, then move to reconsider (which would have reopened debate), but Hathaway could have deemed that to be dilatory (or more properly, allowed the motion and then quickly moved to close off debate).
- Blackmail: When Bobby finds out that Kahn's new "secret Asian watering technique" that lets him have a green lawn during the strictest water conservation period while Hank's is drying up just involves bribing the man who reads the water meters on a daily basis, he agrees to not rat Kahn out in exchange for being allowed to use his shower and enter his house through the front door instead of being forced to climb through Connie's window to visit her. Later, Bobby trades away his shower and front door privileges for being allowed to water Hank's lawn early in the morning when it's nearly dead.
- Corrupt Politician: One member of Board of Zoning and Resources, Nate Hashaway, is a smaller-scale version of this: he pushed through the law that forces everyone to switch their toilets to a low-flow model in order to allegedly help the drought and mandates the old ones to be destroyed, but the new models are so ridiculously bad at their jobs that even though a single flush only takes half the water of the older models, they need to be flushed anywhere between 4-8 times for them to get rid of all the waste, meaning they waste at least twice as much water as the old models, and he's the main supplier of the new types of toilets. Even when Hank points this out to the other board members, they still refuse to have the law repealed since they blindly trust Nate and think what he decides is good for everyone, and none of them plan to use the new types of toilets anyway, forcing Hank to resort to a filibuster as described below.
- Easily Elected: Hank is upset by the policies of the town's Board of Zoning and Resources. When he learns that he must be a member in order to propose certain topics at their meetings, he declares that he's going to run for a seat. When he goes to apply, he's informed by the clerk that he automatically gets the seat because one has been "open for years". The board naturally turns out to be corrupt and, once he accomplishes his goal, Hank resigns by the end of the episode.
- Potty Emergency: Weaponized by Hank and Peggy. Peggy convinces Hank to stage a filibuster by reading her musings, keeping the city council at bay and reasoning they'll eventually need to use the bathroom. This means everyone on the council has to use the low-flow toilets and experience firsthand just how shoddy they truly are.
