A Change of Heart

TV Season: 1 Episode: 7.1 Writers: Warren Graff David Winn Jeff Biancalana Kenn Navarro Ken Pontac Director: Kenn Navarro Episode list: TV Season 1 Previous Episode: Gems the Breaks Next Episode: A Hole Lotta Love "A Change of Heart" is episode number 7.1 of the Happy Tree Friends television series.

Starring Roles

 * Lumpy
 * Disco Bear

Featuring Roles

 * Giggles
 * Petunia
 * Cuddles
 * Cro-Marmot

Appearance Roles

 * Handy
 * Flaky
 * Mime
 * Toothy
 * Nutty
 * The Mole

Plot
It's time for Disco Bear to shine by playing one of the songs in the cafe's jukebox and dancing in his grooviest way. Petunia turns the lights back on, however, to inform him that his breakfast is ready. As he sits at the bar, Disco Bear thanks her by blowing her a kiss, but she rejects it by blocking the heart-shaped kiss. He is grateful of this kind of breakfast as he gobbles down some fried chicken, eggs, and bacon. Suddenly he sees a stick of butter, which he picks up with a chicken bone and deep fries. He then eats it in one bite and suffers a heart attack, falling unconscious to the ground. Petunia sees Disco Bear's condition and gasps in shock.

Back at his house, Lumpy makes a sandwich using hospital equipment. As he's about to eat it, his pager beeps which means he's needed at the hospital. He arrives at the hospital on his bicycle and with the help of his nurse, Giggles, he cuts Disco Bear's chest open with a scalpel. Disco Bear opens his eyes and screams in pain, apparently having not been anesthetized prior to the operation. Lumpy fixes this by konking Disco Bear on the head with a mallet. Lumpy then opens Disco Bear's chest, removes his heart, and takes the fried stick of butter out of one of the heart valves. This causes the heart to deflate and Disco Bear begins to flatline.

Lumpy hands Giggles the air pump for his bicycle's tires and tells her to pump. This succeeds in keeping Disco Bear alive, so Lumpy goes to look for a new heart in the hospital's refrigerator. Lumpy finds various organs and a moldy old sandwich, but no heart. He gets a call about an emergency and hurries to the scene of the accident where Handy somehow crashed his plane into a whale, killing them both. Lumpy sees Handy's exposed heart and decides to take it for Disco Bear.

Unfortunately, the heart slips out of Lumpy's hands and as he tries to pick it up, he keeps kicking it away. He eventually kicks it onto a soccer field, where Cuddles takes the heart from him and kicks it around like a soccer ball. Lumpy eventually gets the heart back but, forgetting his mission, he kicks it over Cuddles' head and into the goal. He initially celebrates his goal, but he realizes what he's done when he sees the heart has splattered against the net. Meanwhile, Giggles is getting tired from pumping Disco Bear and stops for a breather. Disco Bear begins flatlining again and Giggles quickly resumes her task.

Lumpy sadly walks away from the soccer field, when he comes back across the scene of the accident. He looks at the whale and gets an idea. He begins pedaling back to the hospital with the whale's giant heart strapped to his back. He gets stuck when he rides into a narrow tunnel, prompting him to untie himself from the heart and push on it. A semi truck drives through the tunnel, however, and knocks the heart loose. The heart rolls with the semi truck and Lumpy runs on top of it, trying not to fall. The semi crashes with his bike, however, forcing Lumpy into the wrecked remains of his bike while the heart and truck move out of sight.

Once more, Lumpy sadly walks away, dragging his now mangled bike behind him. He passes by a butcher shop, however, and finds a fresh heart in the window. He runs in, only to find there is a long line of customers ahead of him. Giggles by this time is out of breath and looks pale and exhausted. Back at the butcher shop Lumpy finally gets served, but he decides to purchase a few other items while he's there.

Lumpy arrives back at the hospital eating a sandwich and holding a brown paper bag. He sees Giggles passed out on the floor and Disco Bear lying dead on the gurney. Lumpy uses the defibrillator on Giggles to wake her up and yells at her to keep pumping. While Giggles begins pumping again, Lumpy uses the defibrillator to heat up his sandwich. He then unwraps one of the items he's purchased, surprised to find it's a rack of spare ribs. He then opens the other bags, only to find two steaks and some sausages. Lumpy realizes he's been eating the heart as a sandwich.

There's suddenly a loud crash outside and Lumpy goes to investigate. He sees the truck that was pushing the whale's heart has crashed into an ambulence. Even though the heart is dirty and there are probably injured people in both vehicles, Lumpy happily takes out his scalpel. Later we see Lumpy listen to Disco Bear's heartbeat. Sadly, the whale heart is way too big for Disco Bear's body, causing his skin to bulge out and leaving him bedridden. Giggles, still looking sickly from before, arrives with a tray carrying two meals on it. She lifts up the lid to one revealing a cheeseburger, which Disco Bear happily reaches for. Lumpy, however, pushes him back and lifts up the lid to the other plate, revealing a slice of tomato on a piece of lettuce much to Disco Bear's disappointment. Lumpy picks up the cheeseburger and takes a bite out of it. He begins having a heart attack, but, undeterred, he continues eating burger.

Moral
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder!"

Deaths

 * 1) Handy dies in a plane crash involving a whale (death not seen).
 * 2) A whale dies in Handy's plane crash.
 * 3) Two Generic Tree Friends possibly die when a truck and ambulance they are driving collide with one another. Their deaths are debatable, however, because if they did die, Lumpy would likely have placed one of their hearts, rather than the whale's heart, inside Disco Bear. On the other hand, knowing Lumpy, he would not have been that wise, adding more humor to the situation.
 * 4) Lumpy may have died from a heart attack after the episode ended.
 * 5) Disco Bear may die after the episode if the stitches holding in the heart break and eject the heart out of his body, without much time this is likely possible that another heart could not be found in time.
 * 6) Giggles possibly dies of exhaustion.

Goofs

 * 1) Disco Bear moonwalks directly backwards from the jukebox to his seat. When he sits down, however, one can only see tables and the entrance behind him.
 * 2) Lumpy's antlers change directions numerous times, sometimes during continuous shots.
 * 3) Lumpy only throws three organs out of the fridge before it is empty, even though there are four organs on the top shelf alone.

Trivia

 * 1) While playing soccer, Cuddles' bunny slipper have cleats and an angry expression.
 * 2) In the butcher shop, Cro-Marmot has blood on his apron.
 * 3) Among the garbage attached to the whale's heart at the scene of the crash is a newspaper with an article about Lumpy on it.
 * 4) The storyboard originally had Toothy in the truck that crashed at the end of the episode. Lumpy checked Toothy's pulse, found none, then noticed the whale heart. Though he could've used Toothy's heart, Lumpy took the whale one instead.
 * 5) Since all of the deaths in the episode occured before and (debatably) after the episode, this episode is one of only a few that contains no deaths witnessed in it.