New King of the Hill revival makes necessary changes to the character of Bill, details explored in depth

The Hill family finally made their comeback, not only to our screens for a revival season of King of the Hill, but also to Texas, their old neighborhood, and friends. A lot has changed since the last time Peggy and Hank hung around with their neighbors. Even the Hills have changed in the years that Hank spent at his job in Saudi Arabia, including Bobby, who has grown up quite a bit and now works as a professional chef.

The rest of the neighborhood and friends that the Hill family lived around for the many years that King of the Hill ran have also changed a lot in the time that has passed. One of Hank's old high school friends, Bill Dauterive, always had one of the saddest stories among the characters, and even though fans had hoped he would be doing better off in the revival season, the trailer for the season showed he might be worse off than before.

However, the episodes of the revival season, which were released earlier this month, show that King of the Hill has made some very necessary changes to Bill's character moving forward. The episodes bring forth a Bill who is actually taking conscious steps to move on from his tragic past and break its hold on him instead of wallowing in it.

Keep reading to find out how this change came about in Bill's character in King of the Hill.

Bill was always troubled in The King of the Hill

Even though Bill was an extremely kind man, there were a lot of things about him that led to him being one of the more troubled friends in Hank's King of the Hill group. Bill has a fear of abandonment, which causes him to be very clingy towards his friends. The clinginess usually drives away the people around him, further leading to his abandonment issues. Additionally, he has bad eating habits and is spotted stuffing himself with an unhealthy amount of junk food, causing him to be overweight.

While his personal life and habits are not ideal, his love life might just be worse off. It is well-known that Bill used to be married, but Lenore, his ex-wife, decided to leave him. The end of his marriage is not something that Bill has ever moved on from, and his issues in life show up in his behavior towards every woman he has dated since his divorce, leading to no stable relationships.

Bill is a loyal friend, but he was intensely depressed and a bummer to be around for most of his friends in King of the Hill. The trailer for the revival showed signs that Bill might have been affected by COVID, leading fans to believe that Bill might be even worse off than before in the revival series.

While that might be true for the start of the fourteenth season, as the episodes progress, we find out that Bill is doing so much better.

A new side of Bill appeared in the King of the Hill revival

While fans were convinced that Bill would be doing so much worse in the revival of King of the Hill, the episodes had something better in store for fans. The sixth episode, "Peggy's Fallout," featured Bill doing much better in his life until he ends up getting severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. He ended up getting stuck in his home for a few years and gained a lot more weight in the meantime.

In this time being, however, Bill ends up finding new friends who are very different from those he is used to. In front of these new friends, he assumes Hank's name and lies about being married to Peggy. Nevertheless, he is able to vent some of the problems in his life to these friends and make some progress in terms of healing from the tragic past.

Additionally, in the episode "Any Given Hill-Day" on King of the Hill, Rainey Street takes it upon herself to burn all the books that Peggy had collected to start a neighborhood book club because they were spreading bedbugs. Later, we spot Bill throwing something in the fire. It is assumed that he's also throwing a book into the fire, but it is later revealed that he actually threw his wedding album with Lenore into the fire.

Bill is finally making efforts to move on from his tragic past, and throughout King of the Hill, he has actually made a lot of progress when it comes to his mental health. Even though Bill's character has a ways to go, considering his new support system is built on lies, this is a great sign for a brighter future for him.

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