RECAP: Luanne, looking to get back into the barber’s game, is informed by her boss that he’s going to be holding her chair, as Gracie’s feeding and sleeping schedule is uneven, and Luanne can't stand to be parted from her baby.  Since Lucky’s looking to get out of the insurance fraud game, the couple are stumped as to what they should do for money.

Luanne gains inspiration one morning when, while in the cry box at church, she uses her Manger Baby puppets to quiet Gracie’s tears.  Peggy helps Luanne promote her puppet act; though they try passing out fliers at free vaccination day at the Mega-Lo mart, ultimately a live performance gets her a gig at a birthday party.

John Redcorn witnesses her act and decides Luanne’s the next big thing in children’s entertainment.She makes a DVD and becomes a locally popular performer, which gives her a swelled head and takes her away from Gracie for long stretches of time.

Inspired by Luanne’s success, Dale creates a children’s book about an AK-47 named Bunny, who loses one of her bullet - children.   Though Hank informs him that the idea’s asinine, Dale pitches it to Luanne, who reacts coldly.

Meanwhile, Luanne learns that her audience is a fickle one when she has a Spinal Tap-level experience at a live show.When she learns John Redcorn’s auditioning other acts for her replacement, she asks him for another chance at relevance.  After desperately trying to think of a way to break into another market, she takes Peggy’s advice and decides to toughen and age up the Manger Babies for a new audience – she’s able to think up new backstories for every character but one, her octopus, which she tosses into the trash.

While the discarded octopus experiences an odyssey and passes through many days lying in an empty alley, Luanne plagiarizes Dale’s idea and creates her own talking gun with a ‘tude, pairing the group with a Bratz-style doll.Though the image makeover works, Dale predictably goes ballistic and steals the puppets, then “kills” them by sticking them in a dryer and causing them to burst at the seams.

Luanne goes into hysterics, holding a funeral for the puppets and reffering to Dale as a murderer.Hank intervenes and forces the twosome to apologize to each other, which they grudgingly do.

Peggy and Hank take Luanne to a Chuck E Cheese type of children’s establishment to cheer her up.When this fails to relieve her sense of loss, Hank reminds her that no matter her career path, she’ll always be a mother first, just as Hank's a father first no matter what.  Luanne hugs her uncle, teasing him that he’s an uncle second (“fourth”, he corrects her).In the banquet room,she sees a juggling act using her octopus puppet.She snatches it back, tells off her audience and settles down to parent her daughter, using her octopus puppet as a teaching tool for Gracie.

TAG: Bill: “Puppets saved my life once.”

REVIEW: This is just the sort of King of the Hill episode I love watching; tongue-in-cheek dramatic, with real character humor and an emotional core.It’s a bittersweet farewell to the Manger Babies, who were a big part of Luanne’s character arc, and they get the sort of send-off they deserve.  The group of puppets came to Luanne when she was at a low point in her life, and it's a poetic turn of events that they exit the picture when she's a full-fledged mother and wife with a job. 

The conflict between motherhood and career fulfillment has been previously examined by the show in “Peggy’s Turtle Song”, and it’s interesting to note that Peggy realized her time as a stay-at-home mom didn’t mesh with her choice of lifestyle, while Luanne learned that stardom isn’t for her.  Manger Baby Einstein did a good job examining why Luanne's a good, attentive mother, and why she'd make a better mom than a businesswoman.

Dale’s paranoia often leads to destruction, and this instance was no exception to the rule.It’s surprising that Luanne, innocent as she is, would allow Dale the opportunity to steal her Manger Babies after ticking him off.

Hank was, of course, a perfect voice of reason in the plot.Lucky had a few funny moments (the best was his amazement over his “rolling baby”).

A solid, sweet, (some might even say touching) outing.Highly recommended for KOTH fans.

RATINGS: Manger Baby Einstein drew a 4.1, fourth in its timeslot and third highest of the night for Fox.Last week’s episode pulled in a 4.9.

NEXT EPISODE: King of the Hill’s Finale, “Uh-oh, Canada”, is scheduled to air May seventeenth.Check back here on the eighteenth for a full recap!