Have a Heart

Dion Farkus, the bully who made Buddy Norman's life miserable, has been missing from school for four months - and now he's back, cheerfully apologizing and asking for forgiveness. Buddy smells a trap, until Dion reveals the truth: a failing heart, a transplant, and a donor he knows almost nothing about. Convinced that Dion's niceness must have come from someone else's heart, Buddy and Zoe dig through old news reports and trace the donor to Jensen Dunlap, a quiet thirteen-year-old who drowned the day before Dion's surgery. But Jensen, it turns out, wasn't especially sweet at all... so where did the new Dion come from? Mr. Whittaker helps Buddy see that God changes hearts from the inside, and that a bully might be a real person after all. Buddy finally forgives Dion, and at Whit's End, Dion offers Jensen's mother a stethoscope so she can listen to her son's heart beat one more time.

Found on Up in the Air Album 63 · 6 episodes

The run See every episode

2 of 4 0823 There and Back Again While vacationing in New Zealand, Whit and Jason set out to unravel the mystery of a dazed young woman who gave a false name, vanished from the hospital, and carries a crochet piece stitched with a single strange word.

3 of 4 0824 There and Back Again A retired pastor's chance reunion with an old seminary classmate in New Zealand leads to an unforgettable hike - and a story that shaped a nation's faith.

4 of 4 0825 There and Back Again A vacation in New Zealand turns purposeful when Whit, Jason, and Wilson try to reach a young woman drawn into a manipulative group - armed with little more than a rare Maori Gospel and a mother's last words.

1 of 2 0826 Find a Penny Fresh from his honeymoon, Wooton returns to Odyssey with no memory of the past three weeks - and no idea where his new bride Penny is.

2 of 2 0827 Find a Penny Fresh off his honeymoon with no memory of it, a drugged and phone-less Wooton must piece together clues from his own trip to find his missing bride before a criminal ring does.

0828 Friend or Foe When new-in-town Jules falls in with a flattering classmate who loves her taste - and her dad's credit card - she learns that not everyone who acts like a friend is one.

0829 Have a Heart When the school bully returns from a mysterious four-month absence acting suspiciously nice, Buddy Norman is determined to figure out what could possibly change a person's heart.

0830 B-TV: Revenge Connie Kendall joins the caped crusader Wombatman for a sketch-comedy broadcast exploring why revenge never pays - just as a puzzle-obsessed villain invades the lair seeking payback of his own.

0831 Crash Course A newly licensed teen driver and a hopelessly nervous student behind the wheel send two Odyssey families swerving toward secrets, crashes, and one very badly kept surprise.

0832 Your Honest Opinion, Please When honesty and kindness collide, Wooton learns that a little white lie about his wife's artwork can snowball into a house full of trouble.

0833 The Secret of the Writer's Ruse When a never-before-seen novel by a long-dead mystery author surfaces at the library, two young detectives follow its cryptic inscription into a decades-old puzzle of vanished writers and hidden identities.

0834 Sir Buddy's Snowy Day When a snow day pulls a book-loving daydreamer out from under the covers, his storybook imagination collides with a scheming rival, a runaway sled, and his first confusing brush with a crush.

1 of 2 0835 David and Absalom When a sibling squabble over hero worship lands two kids in the Imagination Station, they meet King David in his twilight years - and discover that the most dangerous charm in Israel belongs to his exiled son, Absalom.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 8 more roles

8 supporting roles

Dion Farkus Alex Polinsky Eric (b) Nik Shriner Kermit Scott Whyte CIA Agent Scott Whyte Mad Scientist's Assistant Actor Unknown Mrs. Dunlap Abby Craden Harvey the Lizard Alex Polinsky Mad Scientist Actor Unknown

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Marshal Younger Writer Phil Lollar Director Jonathan Crowe Sound Designer Nathan Hoobler Producer Dave Arnold Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 3 min

Buddy Norman is having the best stretch of his life. School is going well, and best of all, Dion Farkus, the bully who once declared the first Thursday of every month "National Flick Buddy's Ear Day," has been mysteriously absent for four months. So when Buddy and his friend Zoe Grant find Mrs. Meltsner hanging a welcome-back sign on Dion's locker, Buddy feels like his sunshine has just turned into a tornado warning. Nobody will say where Dion has been, and Buddy's imagination runs wild, picturing everything from jail to a secret mission for the CIA. Mr. Whittaker knows the real story but refuses to betray Dion's trust. He simply urges Buddy to give Dion a chance, because Dion is going to need friends right now. Zoe decides to find out the truth the honest way: she will interview Dion for the school newspaper.

Dion returns the next day, and he is strangely, unsettlingly pleasant. He cheerfully agrees to the interview and explains that he was diagnosed with myocarditis, a serious heart condition, and that medicine was not enough to keep him alive. He received a heart transplant on November 8, and he overheard that the donor heart came from Connellsville General Hospital. Then Dion does something even more shocking: he apologizes to Buddy for years of meanness and asks for forgiveness. Buddy can only stammer, "Uh, is this a trap?" Dion asks him to think about it and heads off to apologize to more people.

Buddy cannot accept that Dion has really changed. During a science-class dissection, he daydreams that a talking lizard begs him for a frog's heart so he can jump, until the lizard and frog team up to scheme for Buddy's human heart instead. The daydream convinces Buddy of a theory: Dion must have received the heart of a nice person, and the niceness came with it. Curious about the donor, Zoe and Buddy search old news reports and find that a thirteen-year-old Connellsville boy named Jensen Dunlap drowned in a boating accident on Pierce Lake the day before Dion's surgery. Zoe decides her article should be about the importance of organ donation, and the two ride along with the volleyball team to Connellsville to learn more about Jensen.

Jensen's cousin Eric describes the family's painful days at the hospital, then surprises them: Jensen was not especially sweet or friendly. He was quiet, a little awkward, funny once you knew him, and lonely by choice, preferring video games to people. Yet when the time came, his parents easily chose to donate his organs, sure that Jensen would have wanted to help someone. When Eric asks whether the boy who got the heart is nice, Buddy answers, "He is now."

Back in Odyssey, Zoe tells Dion what they learned, and he is visibly moved, asking for Jensen's picture and for a chance to talk with Jensen's mother. Buddy brings his theory to Mr. Whittaker, along with a verse he found, Ezekiel 36:26, about God replacing a heart of stone with a heart of flesh. Whit gently untangles Buddy's thinking: a physical heart is just a muscle, and swapping one cannot change a personality. When the Bible talks about the heart, it means a person's spirit and character, and God can change that kind of heart through circumstances, through other people, and through his love. Perhaps nearly dying softened Dion. Whit also points out that Buddy has been seeing Dion only as an enemy, forgetting he is a real person with feelings, a family, and even a favorite basketball team. The next day, Buddy compliments Dion's Chicago Bulls shirt, admits the Bulls are his favorite team too, and tells Dion that he forgives him.

Dion invites Zoe and Buddy to Whit's End, where he nervously waits to meet Mrs. Dunlap, Jensen's mother, hoping she will like him. They trade stories about Jensen, who ran cross country so he could be alone and drew his mom the cutest birthday cards, and about Dion, who loves noise, puzzles, drawing, and his black Lab, Sonny. When Dion tries to thank her, she tells him it is enough just to look at him. Then Dion pulls out a stethoscope and asks, "Would you like to listen to your son's heart?" Mrs. Dunlap listens, marvels at how strong it sounds, hugs Dion, and asks to listen once more. Watching them, Buddy quietly tells Mr. Whittaker he was right about God changing hearts: "I think he just changed mine."