Sadie Hogg Day is all about girls. It starts with Bo observing that they've come to the job drawing to see all the pretty females, and ends with the boys pulling a girl apiece into the windows of the General. All the same, I was on a mission and found some things to build this off of. Perhaps the strongest was the way Luke shushes Bo at the window of the jail cell as they're watching Jesse flirt with long-suffering Miz Tisdale.
Bo has started to notice things, collecting and cataloguing them to think about later. Like how there must have been some serious in-breeding in the Hogg family; the resemblance between Boss and his great-great-grandmother is frighteningly obvious. No new blood in that family for generations.
Something else he notices is that, in a room full of women, he and Luke stand together. They always do, it's not like this space is any different from any other they've ever occupied. But if it's the girls they came to see, it would seem to be more efficient to divide and conquer. They never quite get around to doing that; they've just about worn grooves in each other standing side by side all their lives, and now one hardly seems stable on his feet without the other being right there to rub up against.
Squatting next to each other, watching Jesse flirt with Miz Tisdale (in the name of rescuing Daisy – the man doesn't really want her), Bo notices that he gets shushed for reminding Luke that their own flirting skills are descended from this. Convincing little one-act plays that get a smattering of applause before the curtain drops and everyone goes off their own way into the night.
Noticing things is dangerous, it turns out. Because after they go through the routine of pointing out to Rosco how the real bad guys are getting away, after Daisy gets freed and Boss's crooked books get revealed, after the portrait of Sadie Hogg is rolled up and stored away for another year, after the workday is done and the women of Hazzard are back on the loose, he notices that it's just habit for him and Luke to drive away with a girl apiece hanging out the General's windows. Half a pink sunset later he notices how they're both – him and Luke, that is – just marking time through their progress with the girls. It's boobs o'clock, Luke seems to be telling him. When we get to panties-thirty, it's time to go home.
It's more like panties forty-five when they drop the cheerful girls off on their front porch (at least they were smart enough to pick up sisters, which makes the delivery process that much quicker), all smiles and smooches.
Home and bed and, "Luke?" he calls across the dark room.
"Hmm?" he gets, which means Luke's pretending to be worn out. Shoot, Bo knows he didn't put a whole lot of effort into the evening, so he ought to be able to come out with words at least, if not full sentences.
"There's an awful lot of inbreeding in Hazzard, ain't there?"
Snort. "What?"
But it's as plain as the nose on Luke's face (which is rather plain, when it comes right down to it). There are other things that are just as obvious, but his cousin's playing dumb, so Bo's going to have to walk him right up to them until he either admits to the truth or trips right over it.
"Look at the Hoggs," Bo starts, because that's safe. "Purebred. Ain't been nothing but Hoggs with Hoggs for generations."
"Lulu ain't no Hogg," Luke points out, showing off his superior intellect.
"And she and Boss ain't reproduced, neither. Ain't no more female Hoggs for Boss to get with, so he ain't had no kids."
"It's a wonder you don't fall down more," Luke mutters.
"All right, well take us." There's a point here, and he can't let Luke's sour attitude make him forget it. Noticing small things has connected the larger dots that have been blocking Bo's vision for months. Could be a year. Maybe since that time when Luke's old Marine buddy and his supposed sister took the whole bunch of them for a rocky ride, and just about broke Luke's heart along the way.
"Take yourself," Luke says, but Bo can tell his heart's not really in it. If it was a genuine insult, Luke would be presenting his back for consideration and deeper study. He's still facing Bo, which means the disinterest is all an act.
"You, too. You know it ain't but two generations back…"
"That Duke married Duke. So what?"
"So, Hazzard's the kind of place that was built on people sticking with their own kind."
"Only because they didn't have no choices." For such a smart man, Luke's not putting two and two together very well. "Besides, I reckon Enos'll come back some day, so you better just get over Daisy already. You may be pretty, but he's a big-time cop now."
And this is the problem with Luke. Word-twisting, meaning-distorting fool that he is, it's impossible to have a logical conversation with him.
"You have fun tonight?" He figures that if Luke wants to compete for most illogical approach to an argument, Bo's probably got a fighting chance of winning.
"It was all right." Yeah, that about tallies with how Bo feels about it, too.
"You want to have fun tonight?" He's sitting up now. Lying around and musing about things is Luke's style. Bo's got better ways to get a handle on things.
"I want to go to sleep," Luke says. He might even mean it, but Bo's already on his feet.
"You will," Bo promises. "You'll sleep real well." And he's got a knee on Luke's bed, hand pushing at Luke's shoulder so he'll roll onto his back. "After."
His whole thesis on the inbreeding within Hazzard is osmosed through a single kiss.