Written & storyboarded by Deena Beck, Anatola Howard, & Amish Kumar
The trio meets a frisky hamster named Cookie, with Kelsey meeting his owner Sun Chun. But when Cookie is killed, Kelsey tries to help Sun however she can.
Tropes:
- Abnormal Ammo: When the Stump Trio confronts Sun for stealing everyone's hamsters, due to how many hamsters are swarming in her coat, she could shoot waves of hamsters from her sleeves.
- Art Shift: Two instances. First, Sun's account of how she and Cookie live in the Hamster Dome is done as crayon drawings. Then the epilogue is shown as still pastel paintings.
- The Bus Came Back: Mortimor is seen again after spending the winter indoors.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When Craig is startled by a cat, J.P. assures him that it only eats small things. Partway through listing said small animals, realization strikes and Craig looks inside the bush to see what’s left of Cookie.
- Five Stages of Grief: Sun ends up going through this.
- Denial: When she sees Cookie's remains, she's left speechless and has to take time to process this.
- Anger: After burying Cookie, she angrily stomps on the cookie that marks Cookie's grave and leaves in tears. She even snaps at Kelsey, who's trying to help her (although insensitively), and tells her she wants to be alone.
- Bargaining: She ends up taking all the creek kids' hamsters because she doesn't want to feel alone anymore.
- Sadness: When she sees Cookie's grave again and sees a sunflower growing out of it, she finally breaks down into tears, saying she really misses Cookie.
- Acceptance: After helping the sunflower grow with the aid of Kelsey, she finally comes to terms with Cookie's death and is smiling again.
- Flower Motif: The titular sunflower fittingly represents healing and comfort. Sun helping to grow the sunflower that sprouts from Cookie's grave is meant to encapsulate her healing from her loss, but also taking comfort in Cookie's memory.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: While Sun's grief at Cookie's death is never portrayed as anything less than valid, Craig and his friends don't think that justifies her stealing the other children's hamsters.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Cookie’s body is never shown.
- Innocently Insensitive: Kelsey is pretty used to losing and replacing pets, so she has a coping routine all lined up for when it happens. The problem comes when she forgets that grieving takes time, and she's too quick to suggest that Sun can get another hamster when her first one is barely in the ground. She gets better when she soberly acknowledges that she was in the wrong for rushing Kelsey's grieving.
- Symbolism: During their intense confrontation over whether she should replace Cookie or not, Sun has everyone's hamster in her coat, as though representing her bundled up feelings of grief. When they escape from her coat at her declaring she wants to stop feeling awful about losing Cookie, it aptly represents she's finally letting herself feel sad for Cookie's untimely death.
- Very Special Episode: This episode deals with grieving the loss of a beloved pet, something unusual for this show's tone.
