Cotton Hill - Death

Death

In the Season 12 episode "Death Picks Cotton," Cotton suffers severe injuries while at a Japanese restaurant in Arlen. Climbing onto a grill table, he accidentally swallows a piece of shrimp (to which he is extremely allergic), then slips and falls on the hot surface. He is taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a hip fracture, severe burns on his legs, torn ligaments in his ankle/knee joints, and an infection of his esophagus due to swallowing the shrimp. X-rays reveal that he has four rusty bullets lodged in his back and one in his heart from old war wounds. In spite of his injuries and a heart attack suffered while in the hospital, Cotton survives long enough to torment both Hank and Peggy, even slowing his heartbeat down to feign death (a trick he learned while confined to a Japanese POW camp).

The last person to see him alive is Peggy, who tells him that despite Cotton's constant torture of his son, Hank has always loved him and that she hopes he will live forever in the friendless, spiteful existence he has made for himself as the unhappy, unpleasant person he is. Cotton replies, "Do you now?" and then immediately dies. Peggy does not tell Hank of this exchange; instead, she claims that Cotton's last words were kind ones meant for Hank, when in fact Cotton's last words towards Hank were that Hank was worthless and nothing but a loser. In the final scene of the episode, Dale Gribble fulfills a request from Cotton to blow up a storage shed Hank has built. Hank initially plans to honor a separate wish, to have Cotton's head detached from his body and sent to the Emperor of Japan, but Peggy stops him by (falsely) claiming that Cotton withdrew it just before his death. Neither Didi nor G.H. appear in "Death Picks Cotton," nor is his funeral shown.

In the Season 13 episode "Serves Me Right for Giving General George S. Patton the Bathroom Key," Hank received from Didi, a box containing Cotton's personal possessions and a list of embarrassing requests. Cotton also left Hank a rude message on his tape recorder telling Hank that he wanted all the embarrassing requests completed. Peggy did not want Hank to do the list, but Hank said that fulfilling Cotton's last requests was the best gift Hank ever received from his father. Hank completed every single one of the humiliating requests, which was in a way, Cotton's way of humiliating Hank one last time. The last request Cotton left was to have his cremated remains flushed down a bar toilet that General George S Patton once used, it was also a tradition in Cotton's platoon, and all of Cotton's deceased war buddies were also flushed down the toilet. Hank and his friends respectively honored the request and flushed Cotton's remains down the toilet. Peggy claimed at the end of the episode that even though Cotton is dead, he will always find a way to disrupt their lives. Cotton's spirit and memory lives on for the rest of the King of the Hill series.

Fox published the following obituary for Cotton:

Cotton Hill, age 82, World War II veteran, died Sunday in a Texas VA hospital. Hill suffered from several injuries ranging from four rusty bullets lodged in his back (one in his heart) from his military service, a broken hip and torn ligaments in his ankle-knees, to an infection in his esophagus and severe burns caused by a freak shrimp accident that occurred earlier this week at Tokyaki's Japanese restaurant. Hill leaves behind sons Hank Hill and G.H. (short for "Good Hank"); daughter-in-law Peggy Hill; grandson Bobby Hill; ex-wife Tilly; second wife Didi; first love and former Japanese lover Michiko; an illegitimate Japanese son, Junichiro; and nephew Dusty Hill (of band ZZ Top).