A Vicious Cycle

A Vicious Cycle is an episode of Happy Tree Friends, the fifth episode of Internet Season 4, and the 83rd episode overall.

Plot
Cub is riding a green metal tricycle in front of his house when the camera dramatically zooms in to the bushes, where the scene quickly changes to night and a flipped out Flippy covered in scratches pops out from the bush. A police siren attracts his attention and he turns to see policemen Lumpy and Disco Bear emerge from the police car, wanting to arrest him.

Flippy pushes Cub off the tricycle and holds it over his head as an attempt to use it as a weapon. However, before he could do anything, a bolt of lightning strikes the tricycle and instantly reduces Flippy to a pile of ashes, which is then blown away by the breeze. Cub, Disco Bear, and Lumpy stare intently at Cub's tricycle when Pop suddenly bursts into the scene, carrying a bowl of nachos and several bottles of beer, and he invites the officers in for a snack.

As Pop and the policemen are eating in the living room and watching TV, Cub happily rides his tricycle inside the house. However, Pop doesn't approve of Cub riding the trike indoors, so he proceeds to place it back outside, much to Pop's standards and Cub's disappointment. Back inside, as Pop tells Cub not to do such a thing again, the power suddenly goes out. A tricycle bell rings, the light on the bicycle turns on, and it jumps towards Disco Bear, making him scream. Lumpy quickly turns on a flashlight, and is shocked to discover blood and skidmarks on the couch. He becomes even more shocked to discover Disco Bear's severed head on the coffee table, with his brain exposed, and nachos embedded all over. As Pop leaves the scene, Lumpy closely examines the severed head.

Pop goes into the basement, and discovers the power box has been tampered with. The cover is blown open, and the switch is down. Pop proceeds to switch the power back on, and everything is normal. Happy and content, Pop climbs up the stairs to exit the basement, however, at the top of the steps, the tricycle stands there. The trike lightly taps on Pop, making him lose his balance. Pop eventually falls down the basement steps, which breaks an arm and a leg, and eventually into the control box, electrocuting him until his head pops off from his body.

Inside the living room, Lumpy is enjoying the blood-covered nachos inside Disco Bear's disembodied head, when all of a sudden the lights turn off again. Lumpy turns on his flashlight once more and sees the tricycle with Pop's severed head on the seat, the bell still ringing. Lumpy, still clutching Disco Bear's head full of chips, runs into the hallway closet to hide. The tricycle slowly rolls by the closet, oblivious to the fact that Lumpy is inside. However, Lumpy blows his cover by making a loud crunching noise as he devours another chip. The tricycle skids to a stop, opens the closet door, and attempts to tackle Lumpy, but Lumpy tries to fight back by holding the pedals. Unfortunately for the moose, the tricycle spins around and hits Lumpy's face five times, decapitating and killing him.

Sometime later, in the blood-covered living room, Cub contently rides the trike indoors once again. Just before the episode ends, Cub rings the trike's bell, which is stuffed in an eyeball.

Moral
"A wheel that turns gathers no rust."

Deaths

 * 1) Flippy is struck by lightning and burns to dust, though his spirit continues to live in the tricycle.
 * 2) Disco Bear is shredded and decapitated by the tricycle. (off-screen)
 * 3) Pop is knocked down the stairs by the tricycle and is electrocuted. He is decapitated soon after this.
 * 4) Lumpy's head is torn off after being hit multiple times by the tricycle.

Injuries

 * 1) Flippy was bruised and scratched (off-screen, probably from a victim or the policemen).
 * 2) Pop breaks an arm and a leg while falling down the stairs.

Goofs

 * 1) The description for the teaser misspells "Look" as "Ook".
 * 2) The design of Flippy's beret changes three times.
 * 3) Lumpy's antlers change places a few times.
 * Cub, Disco Bear, Lumpy and the police car are nowhere to be seen when the lightning strikes Flippy.
 * 1) Pop should have died from electrocution, not decapitation.
 * 2) Cub was able to ride the tricycle without touching the pedals, even before Flippy possessed it.
 * 3) When Disco Bear steps out of the car, he is shown much taller than he is supposed to be.
 * 4) When Pop walks out of the house there are three beer bottles in the bucket. When everyone goes inside, Lumpy is holding an extra bottle. (It could have been an extra though)

Trivia

 * The phrase "Vicious cycle" means a situation has a negative effect on something else, which negatively effects the first situation back, creating a cycle.
 * This episode and Pet Peeve are released in the same month (October). A similar occurrence also happened last year with the episodes Breaking Wind and All In Vein, which were also coincidentally released in October.
 * Rudy (The winner from the Halloween Video Bomb contest) makes an appearance in this episode.
 * This is the first time that Fliqpy interacts with Cub.
 * This is the first regular episode where Cub survives while Pop dies and the second in all of the episodes.
 * This is the only Halloween episode to have Pop die.
 * This is the first Halloween episode that Disco Bear appears in, meaning that Splendid is the only main character who hasn't appeared in a Halloween episode yet.
 * This is the third episode where Flippy isn't shown in normal mind state.
 * This is the first Halloween episode to not feature the paper ghost's wailing at the end.
 * There are no female characters in the episode just like in the previous episode, Pet Peeve.
 * This episode is a reference of Child's Play.
 * This entire episode may also be a reference to the Stephen King novel, Christine, by having a mode of transportation getting possessed by supernatural forces.
 * This is the first time Ellen Connell voices Cub, since Wrath of Con, back in 2009.
 * This episode is similar to an episode of "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy", Tricycle of Terror, and an episode of "Codename: Kids Next Door", Operation T.R.I.C.Y.C.L.E. Both episodes also featured a possessed tricycle.
 * Disco Bear is the first character other than Lumpy to be a policeman.
 * Oddly, Flippy doesn't try to kill Cub (though this may be because he was just trying to escape from the police).
 * Lumpy drinking beer as a police officer in charge shows his stupidity in the episode, because you are not suppose to be intoxicated while on duty.
 * Fliqpy's death is similar to Flaky's death in the "Bat" option of her Smoochie and Toothy's deaths in Stealing the Spotlight and Easy Comb, Easy Go.
 * This is the first Internet Season 4 episode where Cub survives.
 * This is the first time Fliqpy kills Lumpy onscreen. (His kill in Keepin' it Reel was off-screen)
 * This is the fourth time Disco Bear has a job.
 * This is the first episode since Easy Comb, Easy Go that Disco Bear has a starring role. This is also the first episode since Sea What I Found that he appears without females, and coincidentally, Lumpy, Pop, and Cub appear in both.
 * Pop and Lumpy don't show any concern or shock when they see whats left of Disco Bear's body.
 * This is the first time Pop socially interacts/hangs out with other characters.
 * All of the characters Fliqpy kills in this episode are characters he's only killed once in the past. (Unless one counts the possibility that he might have killed Lumpy at the end of Remains to be Seen).
 * This is similar to how all of the characters Fliqpy didn't kill in By The Seat Of Your Pants are characters he's only killed once. (except Cro-Marmot)
 * This is the first time since A Change of Heart that Lumpy and Disco Bear interact.
 * This is the first episode since Just Desert that Cub survives.
 * This is the first time since Class Act that all the four main bear characters (Pop, Cub, Disco Bear and Flippy) appear. Pop is the only main bear character to not see Flippy.
 * This is the first Halloween episode where the first death has no blood or gore involved (a lot like In a Jam; coincidentally, Flippy's death is similar to Russell's death in that episode).
 * This episode is Pop's first regular episode death since See You Later, Elevator.
 * Lumpy's injury before death is similar to his snout injury in All Flocked Up.
 * This is the second Halloween episode without females, the first being Can't Stop Coffin.
 * This is the first episode where someone tries to stop and catch Flippy when he is flipped out.
 * Interestingly, this is the first episode where Flippy's actions cause police attention.
 * The way Pop falls down the stairs is similar to how Mime did in Home Is Where the Hurt Is and Giggles in Idol Curiosity.
 * Disco Bear seems out of character in this episode, instead of being "funky and cool", he seems to be calm and normal. However, this can be due to the nature of his job in this episode, or the fact that there are no female characters around.
 * Disco Bear's scream is the same from when he used a hose filled with gasoline in Who's to Flame?.
 * Cub is much out of character in this episode: he didn't cry after being pushed by Fliqpy and wasn't scared when the lights went off or when Disco Bear was found beheaded.
 * Although for his age, he simply doesn't understand the concept of death.
 * This is Disco Bear's only starring role without Giggles, Petunia, or Flaky.
 * Pop's death is kind of similar to Petunia's death in Stayin' Alive.
 * This is the second Halloween episode after All In Vein where Lumpy dies.
 * Just like Out of Sight, Out of Mime, Flippy is flipped out for an unknown reason.
 * This episode marks another instance where a character speaks English. In this case, after Flippy is killed, Pop says "Hey, way to go!" (or possibly "where'd he go?"). Another instance where Pop speaks English is when he is about to turn the power back on; he says "Mm-hmm, here we go."
 * All the deaths in this episode involved decapitation (Flippy didn't count, since his soul was linked to the tricycle).
 * Technically, Disco Bear's body was shredded to pieces and the only part of him that wasn't was his head.