Well I'm not sure he's exactly the anti-christ, but he certainly is pretty evil. You could say most of what he does is the most generally evil stuff associated with pure evil. Black/Dark red color scheme, fire, shadowy, glowing eyes etc. I guess its certainly a way to interpret it though.
This is one of my top 3 favorite episode not of just Season 4, but of the whole series in general. It was just the funnest so far, and imo it was also the least-KNDish. The overall atmosphere, the way the characters acted, the moments of seriousness thats actually somewhat "real" feeling. All of those moments came from Hoagie, in fact the overall episode's atmosphere is mostly due to him.
A perfect example is the scene where he's floating downstream with the leaves over the camera, no over the top drama music playing..its mostly silent with some slight tunes, and he's still trying as fast as his body can go but he begins to despair. Now usually someone like him who just seems to ignore/be in denial about his loser status in a cartoon like this wouldn't have a moment like this, but the scene showed that Hoagie knows everything thats being said about him and starts to let it hurt him. Emotionally KND has been relatively light, but that one particular scene felt a little more emotionally tugging and real than usual. Not like anything immense mind you, but for this show it made you really feel and relate to him. There isn't a single human being on this board or anywhere that can't relate to those simple and real times where you're alone, and sometimes you just feel like no matter how hard you try its just not good enough for everyone and you just can't understand why. Those moments where you just lie down quietly, and have to figure out how to reafirm yourself because your just about ready to call yourself a loser. Regardless of weither you are or not, or how good or bad you are at something it aways happens. And although I saw his father's voice literally speaking to him coming a mile away (I would of personally prefered it if it was
implied that he heard his dad rather than hearing this godlike voice, but we gotta keep the kids in on this too I guess.
) and I know this is a lot to pick out of a mostly slapstick show like KND but I believe simple and subtle scenes like this can say all of that. Thats only added by the fact the show
strongly implies that Hoagie's dad is indeed dead, so I dunno..I felt like I related to that one scene a lot. We can't win everything, but we'd like to to make our loved ones proud. But thats not the way of things, and it shouldn't be anyways.
When I say its strongly hinted that he's dead, I think there's two reasons for this. One is like you guys said, his reaction to father's verbal beating very much gave the impression of someone resenting comments made about a dead loved one, especially one as close to you as either your Mother or Father. I've seen it before, and its hard to imagine Tom wasn't at least thinking something like that when doing this storyboard. Its that long pause and the slow narrowing of the eyes man! There's a difference between the annoyed look thats what usually happens when someone insults someone you can still see, and that just..downright spiteful and hurt look someone gives you when insulting someone they
can't see anymore. Like reopening old wounds and spitting on graves man..but I was really surprised seeing that kind of expression from Numbuh 2 of all people.
That, and the fact that did anyone notice that Hoagie's mom always spoke about his dad in the
past tense? Like was, he did, etc. Even if parents are separated for whatever reason, if the other is still alive they won't refer to them as a past tense usually unless they're just really wanting to pretend that parent is dead..which I doubt this show would go to. I could be wrong, I'll have to see it again but I'm pretty sure.
Now we all know realistically that this subject would never be brought up in KND directly, its not Tom's style and it may be a bit too dark for the series, but I think that Tom is very much implying that Hoagie's got a single parent family because daddy died somehow. Its not impossible, because if Tom is appealing to many different types of kids in this, then he's also gotta appeal to the kids who have a parent who's died so they can relate with something, even if they have to use they're imagination to do it.
Well, whatever the reasons this episode has really raised my opinion of Hoagie far beyond before, at first he was a favorite of mine because I found him to be an amusing and whimsical innocent character. XD But this makes him my undisputed favorite because I think this episode has shown that he has by far, the most
integrity of all the KND. I know how bloody painful the lack of a parent can be, much less a death if you believe it. So having him buck up those feelings not only to not let Father get to him too much, but also everyone's snickering and putting aside his own needs to help the other kids. Any KND member would of stopped the race (I agree though he was too close to the finish line to really make it that much of a sacrifice to go like..4 feet forward and back, but thats mostly technical stuff, its the thought that counts.
)to save they're friends and the kids, but after all that stuff he went through and dealt with, all the snickers it just felt like so much more of a gutsy thing to do And even in the end when he saved EVERYONE, and no one stood up for him even once (Now THAT pissed me off, damn ungratefuls, but maybe they just didn't see him. Still..) in the end, thanks to his Mom he was able to remember why he sacrificed the race and he knew he wasn't a loser. I dunno, but that just showed that even though he has the awful pun thing, he really is a hero inside.
I could even go as far to say that because of this one episode, if you think about it..Hoagie may be the deepest character among the main cast. I know its not saying much in a show like KND, but I mean, this episode has shown a lot of his inner qualities we've never seen. His feelings of inadequecy deep down despite what he puts on the outside, his love of his inconspicuously missing dad, and his good intentions and real self..under all the trying to act cool stuff. We've all had some surprises from the characters but when you think about everyone's first impression of Hoagie when we first saw him in Season 1, I think this is the biggest.
So he's a total introvert, he thinks about things like his dad when he's alone, and also notice when he was alone...he was distinctively different acting than when he was with everyone else. I don't know if the animator's planned any of this stuff but its hard for me not to notice, I'm a stickler for little hints of personality. I dunno, but it makes you think how everyone thought he was a relatively 1 dimensional character at first, but now we see maybe thats just what he puts on the outside. Oh our Hoagie, little man of mystery. lol
And about Hoagie's "man boobs", I don't see what was so disturbing about them myself..the fact that Hoagie showed all this plus the fact he's what some would call a physically flawed character like that I think just adds to his charm more and more. Hell, I can't imagine Hoagie being thinner, its part of his charm, almost an artistic quality. XD Also..anyone notice there was a LOT of jabs at Hoagie's weight in this episode? A lot more than usual but it was in an actual realistic way rather than a "lets pick on the fat character!" thing. It was all subtle aside from the Delightful's comments.
I don't wanna go on too much longer because this is already novel length, but another little detail that made this somewhat edgier than the usual KND episode is the badguy's plan was really...
genuinly disturbing as hell!. Now THAT is rare for a cartoon like this. You really wanted Hoagie to stop that...cause I mean..eating the kids? Thats on par with old school Brother's Grimm stuff, totally warped. o.O I like it! Evil stuff needs to be downright disturbing once in a while, I think it needs to be more often than usual.I love it when evil is really..really EVIL.
well..there's my views, sorry about the long post. ^^; I haven't posted in a bit though so..its making up for it.
. Well, maybe one day he'll get his just desserts. 
)to save they're friends and the kids, but after all that stuff he went through and dealt with, all the snickers it just felt like so much more of a gutsy thing to do And even in the end when he saved EVERYONE, and no one stood up for him even once (Now THAT pissed me off, damn ungratefuls, but maybe they just didn't see him. Still..) in the end, thanks to his Mom he was able to remember why he sacrificed the race and he knew he wasn't a loser. I dunno, but that just showed that even though he has the awful pun thing, he really is a hero inside.