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Context Recap / GravityFallsS1E19Dreamscaperers

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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dreamscaperers_bill_cipher.png]]
2''[[caption-width-right:350:"'''Eat nightmares!'''"]]''
3
4->'''Dipper:''' Get ready, guys. We're about to journey into the most horrifying, disturbing place any of us have ever been... our uncle's mind.
5
6One rainy day, Stan catches Lil' Gideon trying to crack his safe where the Mystery Shack's deed is kept. Stan chases Gideon out, confident that the combination to the safe is secure in his head. Gideon decides to call upon his journal 2's greatest secret...a cycloptic 'triangle guy' called Bill Cipher. Gideon summons Bill, and orders him to find the safe combo in Stan's mind. Upon hearing the name Stan Pines, Bill agrees, stating that in return Gideon can help Bill out with his own plans. With the deal made, Bill goes off to invade Stan's mind. All this was witnessed by Mabel and Soos, who heard Gideon's summoning spell. The two report this to Dipper, who reads in his own journal 3 that Bill is the most dangerous creature in Gravity Falls. However, there is a spell that can be used to enter the mind Bill invades to prevent his chaos. With Stan showing signs of nightmares, the trio go in.
7
8They find themselves in a spooky area similar to the Mystery Shack. Bill appears, and as a display of power zaps a (Non-fatal) hole in Dipper and summons Xyler and Kraz, two fictional characters from the movie ''Dreamy Boy High''. Bill explains that the Shack of Stan's mind has doors leading to different memories; one of which has the memory of Stan entering his safe's code. Bill flies off, and the gang goes to searching. Dipper gets separated from the others and finds a door leading to Stan's 'Dipper memories'. Interested on what his uncle truly thinks of him, and why he always gives Dipper the hard chores, the boy enters. There, he finds a memory of Stan and Soos talking over the old man's treatment of his nephew. Stan says, "The kid's a loser. He's weak. He's an utter embarrassment. I just want to get rid of him." Heartbroken, Dipper leaves.
9
10Meanwhile, Mabel finds the memory of Stan's combination, and Soos offers to destroy it...levitating the door into the air! It's actually Bill, who took Soos' form while the real Soos was distracted. With the memory in hand, Bill races off. Mabel, Soos, and the dream boys give chase and bump into Dipper. But by this time Dipper is no longer interested in helping his great-uncle, and just wants to leave. Bill contacts Gideon, but before he can relay the combo, Mabel knocks the memory into another memory, this one of the Bottomless Pit. At this failure Gideon breaks off the deal, and an enraged Bill attacks Mabel and Soos, transporting them to a floating arena in space and tormenting them with nightmares.
11
12Dipper runs into the memory of Soos and Stan talking, and hears Stan add to his earlier comment, "...Those are things said about me when I was a boy." Stan used to be a wimp as a child, until his father made him take boxing lessons. This is why Stan is so hard on Dipper; he's trying to toughen his nephew up so that he can fight back against the world, and he's actually quite proud of him. At this point Dipper is pulled into the memory. Stan undoes the hole Bill made, and reveals that anything is possible in the mind. With this knowledge in hand, Dipper races off to help his sister and Soos fight Bill. The three do a great job, but before they can finish Bill off, the demon puts a halt to the battle. Impressed by the three, Bill decides that they will be useful in the future and leaves them with this warning; "A darkness approaches. A day will come in the future where everything you care about will change."
13
14The gang wakes up. And while Stan wonders why he dreamed of two impossibly handsome men, the twins and Soos celebrate.
15
16But then the celebration was cut short when all of a sudden, the wall explodes! After Bill's failure, Gideon reveals he switched to Plan B and used dynamite on the safe and now has the deed. Ordering the Pines family out, he has his father take a wrecking ball to the Shack...
17
18'''[[Recap/GravityFallsS1E20GideonRises To be continued...]]'''
19----
20!!Tropes in this episode:
21* AnachronismStew: Stan's date, which would have taken place in the seventies, features Carla wearing a poodle skirt, which were much more popular in the fifties. However, there was a revival of 1950s culture in that time period due to things such as ''Series/HappyDays'' and ''Theatre/{{Grease}}''.
22* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed.]] Dipper's incantation uses actually Latin words, but they make absolutely no sense in regards to the situation, both together and individually.
23* ArtShift: Mabel's two dream boys are drawn with semi-realistic 80's cartoon-level human proportions.
24* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Played with. Normally, having the paper deed to a property doesn't automatically mean owning said property. However, [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary material reveals]] that Gravity Falls still abides by President Quentin Trembley's "Finders Keepers" law, therefore Gideon ''can'' in fact legally own the Shack simply by stealing the deed.
25* AsYouKnow: The episode begins with a short conversation where the cast talk about Gideon's history and goals so that people who hadn't seen previous episodes (particularly "[[Recap/GravityFallsS1E4TheHandThatRocksTheMabel The Hand that Rocks the Mabel]]" and "[[Recap/GravityFallsS1E11LittleDipper Little Dipper]]") will have an idea what's going on.
26* BigStupidDoodooHead: When Bill gets his hands on the safe combination, Mabel calls him a "stink face".
27* BilingualBonus: Gideon's Latin chant very roughly translates to "''Triangle, entangled. Lord of Minds, arrive. All-seeing one, arrive!''"
28* BrickJoke: While Dipper looks through the many doors that represents Grunkle Stan's memories, one of them just so happens to hold the Colombian prison memory that Stan off-handedly mentioned back in [[Recap/GravityFallsS1E4TheHandThatRocksTheMabel The Hand That Rocks The Mabel]].
29* CandlelitRitual: Gideon {{summon|ingRitual}}s Bill Cipher with a MagicalIncantation in front of a circle of candles with a picture of Stan in the middle. Unusually for the trope, he does it in a [[SceneryDissonance sunny meadow]].
30* CanisLatinicus: Dipper's incantation includes the phrase "Inceptus Nolan Overratus!".
31* CaptainObvious: Soos, naturally.
32-->'''Bill Cipher''': Do you have ANY idea what I'm like '''when I'm''' '''''MAD?!'''''
33-->''(cue Bill going OneWingedAngel and warping the group to a starry battleground)''
34-->'''Soos''': So, uh... I guess he gets really mad when he gets mad.
35* CareBearStare: Directly parodies Franchise/CareBears when Soos shoots a question mark shaped beam from his stomach at Bill:
36-->'''Soos:''' Soos love stomach beam staaare!!!
37* ChekhovsGun: A twofer. First is the NYARF toy gun: Dipper is seen using it to shoot a picture of Grunkle Stan to vent his frustrations. It then pops up again when Mabel uses it to shoot the memory door that holds the safe number into the [[Recap/GravityFallsS1E14BottomlessPit bottomless pit]] memory.
38* {{Cliffhanger}}: The episode ends with Gideon in the process of destroying the Mystery Shack.
39* CueTheFlyingPigs:
40--> '''Stan:''' Please, the only way Gideon's taking over the shack is by breaking in and stealing my deed.\
41''crash''\
42'''Wendy:''' You mean like, right now?
43* ContinuityPorn: Where does one begin?
44** First, the majority of the episode takes place in Stan's mind so bits and pieces of previous episodes are scattered throughout.
45** As Bill disappears to invade Stan's mind after being summoned, he tells Gideon that the world is ending soon and to "buy gold", the same thing Stan told Robbie two episodes prior.
46** There's TheUnreveal involving the [[Recap/GravityFallsS1E1TouristTrapped soda machine from episode one]].
47** We see Stan on his date with Lazy Susan, after he successfully asked her out in "[[Recap/GravityFallsS1E6DipperVsManliness Dipper vs. Manliness]]". We also see how Stan changed his mind about her, leading to that episode's CreditsGag where she bombarded him with calls that he refused to answer.
48** [[NoodleIncident We get to see]] Stan in a [[Recap/GravityFallsS1E4TheHandThatRocksTheMabel Colombian prison]].
49** When Dipper opens Journal #3 to the page on Bill Cipher, the credits ciphers used thus far - "CAESAR", "ATBASH", and "[=A1Z26=]", are listed in the top-right corner. All three are crossed out, which also acts as a hint that the credits cipher will be changing soon.
50* CuttingTheKnot: Gideon, after seeing Bill's failure, goes to Plan B: "dynamite".
51* DarkerAndEdgier: Definitely the darkest episode in the series up to this point. Symbolized by the picture on Mabel's sweater -- [[RuleOfSymbolism a sunset over water.]]
52* DealWithTheDevil: Gideon summons Bill to go into Stan's mind and get him the combination to Stan's safe. Bill agrees, in return for Gideon's promise to help him with a currently unknown thing. When Mabel prevents Bill from delivering the combination, Gideon calls the deal off.
53* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: The memory of Stan describing the bottomless pit.
54-->'''Stan''': ...and none more bottomless than the bottomless pit! Which you can see here is bottomless.
55* DreamWalker: Bill can enter the minds of others while they're asleep and influence their dreams.
56* EldritchAbomination: This is the first episode to feature Bill, who is definitely one of these. Gideon summons him from another dimension to make a deal with him.
57* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Bill's first act upon being summoned is to psychically pull all the teeth out of a deer's mouth and offer them to Gideon as a ''present'', with a genuine sense of joy. Even Gideon is freaked out by this, showing off Bill's depraved sense of humor, and that he is definitely ''not'' just another wacky MonsterOfTheWeek.
58* EvenEvilHasStandards: Gideon is horrified at Bill's afore mentioned EstablishingCharacterMoment.
59* EvilIsHammy: Bill is extremely cartoony and more or less insane.
60* ExactEavesdropping: Dipper overhears Stan talking about him, but misses a key bit of context.
61* {{Foreshadowing}}: The sweater Mabel wears at the beginning of the episode has the picture of a sun setting over a lake; note that this signals that this is the episode where the show turns DarkerAndEdgier.
62** Bill refers to Dipper, Mabel, and Soos as "Pine Tree," "Shooting Star," and "Question Mark," respectively. These are their symbols on the Zodiac Wheel that has the power to banish him.
63* FreezeFrameBonus: Two for the price of one! When Bill first hears the name "Stan Pines," he summons an image of him in his body; pausing the frame will reveal the Stan that appears has six fingers, meaning that it's Ford, the Author. Similarly, during the flashback to Grunkle Stan's boxing lessons, there's a boy built identically to him sitting in the bleachers, his face concealed by a book. That's Ford, too.
64* GlowingEyesOfDoom: When Stan is possessed by Bill, his eyes glow blue and [[MagicalEyeStreamers stream violently]]. Also happens to Gideon as he finishes the incantation to summon Bill, and to Dipper, Mabel and Soos as he chants the incantation to enter Stan's mind.
65* {{Gonk}}: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Bill when he starts fighting Soos and Mabel. He turns the latter into a horrifically ugly version of herself because she fears losing her cuteness.
66* IAmNotLeftHanded: Just when Bill seems to be on the ropes during the dream battle, he abruptly decides that they've had enough fun and immediately whites out the dreamscape, in the process nullifying the ability of his opponents to manipulate it to their whims. He then congratulates them for putting up a good fight and warns them that big changes are coming.
67* IKnowWhatYouFear: Bill is able to summon people's worst nightmares with ease. For Mabel, it's losing her cute appearance; for Soos, it's a "British dog man."
68* ImpactSilhouette: Bill leaves one as he crashes into the shack.
69* INeedToGoIronMyDog: One of the memories found by the Trio is of Stan going on a date with Lazy Susan and deciding that he needs to bail. The best he can muster as a reason is "Non-specific excuse!"
70* InsultBackfire: After being called insane by Gideon, Bill gleefuly replies with "Sure I am. What's your point?".
71* InsultMisfire: Bill delivers a not-so-subtle insult involving Soos. Because it's Soos, he mistakenly believes said insult is aimed at someone else.
72-->'''Bill:''' You're a lot more clever than you look. Especially the fat one!\
73'''Soos:''' ''{to Mabel}'' He's talking about you!
74* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Dipper, Mabel, and Soos journey into [[MentalWorld Grunkle Stan's mind]] in order to confront Bill Cipher.
75* LatinIsMagic: Gideon's spell to summon Bill Cypher is in Latin, as is the spell Dipper uses to enter Grunkle Stan's mind (except the "[[Film/{{Inception}} Inceptus Nolanus]] [[TakeThat Overratus]]" part).
76* TheMadHatter: Bill and he knows it.
77-->'''Gideon:''' Ah! YoureInsane\
78'''Bill:''' Sure I am. What's your point?
79* MagicalEyeStreamers: Happens to anyone who gets GlowingEyesOfDoom.
80* MagicalIncantation:
81** Gideon chants one to summon Bill Cipher:
82--->''Triangulum! Entangulum! Vene foris dominus mentium! Vene foris videntis omnium!'' [[note]]In English, this means: Triangle! Entangled! Lord of Minds, come to the door! All-seeing one, come to the door![[/note]]
83** Dipper chants one for himself, Soos and Mabel to enter Stan's mind:
84--->''Videntus omnium! Magister mentium! Magnesium ad hominem! Magnum opus! Habeas corpus! Inceptus Nolanus overratus! Magister mentium, Magister mentium, Magister mentium!''
85* MiseryBuildsCharacter: Seems to be a thing with the Pines family. Stan's father was pretty rough on his son and even made him take boxing lessons when he was bullied. This mindset has left quite the mark on Stan which is why he's so tough on Dipper.
86* MundaneHorror: Soos's greatest nightmare is a "British dog man" who speaks in incomprehensible Cockney slang.
87* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Bill shots a hole in Dipper's chest, which Stan later fixes. This is how Dipper learns you can manipulate reality in the mindscape, which leads to the group getting the upper hand on Bill.
88* OnceMoreWithClarity: While inside Stan's mind, Dipper sees a memory that has Stan describing him as a loser. Once he sees that memory a second time, it's revealed that Stan was actually recalling how other people used to feel about him.
89* OneWingedAngel: After Mabel successfully knocks the safe combination memory out of Bill's grasp, Gideon calls off their deal. Bill is ''furious'', starts glowing red, and takes on a hugely monstrous form to attack the heroes.
90* PennyPinchingCrab: One of the many oddities that live in Stan's mindscape is a crab with his features. While not upfront about it, it definitely brings this trope to mind.
91* APlotInDeed: After his [[Recap/GravityFallsS1E11LittleDipper prior attempts]] to get the Mystery Shack by trickery or coercion failed, Gideon attempts to steal the deed. Supplementary material explains that it works because Gravity Falls is based on the law of "finder's keepers".
92* PoorCommunicationKills: Stan deliberately acted harsh on Dipper as he wants him to toughen the latter up. However, since Stan never properly explains why he is doing it, it ends up giving Dipper the impression that his Grunkle truly hated him which almost caused Dipper to abandon Stan to his fate when he encounters one of his memories.
93* RealityWarper: As shown by Bill and revealed to Dipper by Stan, in the mindscape anything is possible.
94* RedIsViolent: Once Mabel thwarts his plan and causes Gideon to break his deal with Bill. The triangular demonic figure quickly shows what happens when he gets very angry.
95* SdrawkcabSpeech: Gideon's incantation to summon Bill ends with him repeatedly saying "Backwards message!" backmasked.
96* SeasonFinale: This serves as Part 1 of the 2-part Season 1 finale.
97* ShoutOut: The tag that plays over the end credits is an homage to the ''Series/TwinPeaks'' intro.
98** The battlefield where they showdown with Bill is rather reminiscent off a boss fight in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'', taking place on a giant planet, sillhouetted against a starry, multicoloured sky
99* ShapedLikeItself: Soos when Bill TurnsRed.
100-->'''Soos:''' So I guess he gets really mad when he gets mad.
101* ShapeshifterShowoffSession: The search for the safe combination ends with Mabel and the others locating the door it's hidden behind; Soos even offers to destroy the door so that Bill Cipher can't get a hold of it... and then the ''real'' Soos appears, having wandered off to investigate another memory. Immediately, "Soos" transforms back into Bill with unearthly flourish, takes a moment to laugh at the team, before stealing the door and flying off.
102* SidetrackedByTheAnalogy:
103** When dealing with the bat:
104--->'''Mabel:''' Remember, bats are more afraid of you than you are of them...Maybe I'm thinking of ducklings...Ducklings. Quack quack! Quack quack quack!
105** Later:
106--->'''Soos:''' Dipper, Stan's personality is one of life's great mysteries. Like whether or not it's possible to lick your own elbow.\
107'''Mabel:''' I bet you can't!\
108'''Soos:''' I bet I can!
109* TakeThat: "[[{{Film/Inception}} Inceptus]] [[Creator/ChristopherNolan Nolanus]] Overratus!", which is pretty funny considering that the entire episode's plot of entering someone's dream to steal their secret from a locked safe can be seen as a WholePlotReference to ''Film/{{Inception}}''.
110* TorsoWithAView: As Bill gloats to the group while in Stan's mindscape, he nonchalantly shoots a hole through Dipper's body, thankfully because it's will not actually real life, Dipper is no worse for wear and Stan fixes it up later in the episode. Dipper is more than happy to return the favor however.
111* TurnsRed: Bill ''literally'' turns red (and his white and black colors invert themselves) when he decides to unleash his full powers against Mabel and Soos.
112* TheUnreveal:
113** Soos finds a memory in which Stan enters the secret passage behind the snack machine, but closes the door before he can reveal what's behind it.
114--->'''Soos:''' Boring!
115** Whatever Bill wanted Gideon to do for him, since the latter canceled the deal.
116* VaguenessIsComing:
117-->'''Bill:''' A darkness approaches. (''conjures an image of the six-fingered hand from the journals above him'') A day will come in the future where everything you care about will change.
118* VisualPun: When Bill answer's Gideon's message with a greeting of "Y'ello?", he turns yellow.
119* VocalEvolution: Bill Cipher's voice is more nasal and higher-pitched than later appearances. Alex Hirsch hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet.
120* WhamEpisode: Oh boy, was it ever! Not only due to the {{Cliffhanger}}, but the official introduction of Bill Cipher after a full season of hidden foreshadowing.
121* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Wendy disappears after Dipper goes into the kitchen to catch the bat and isn't seen again for the rest of the episode, not even to join the gang in entering Stan's mind. Though it is likely she went home afterwards.
122* WhatTheHellHero: Soos gives one to Dipper, in his typical "Soos" fashion.
123-->"Dipper, you're a cool dude, but this isn't cool, dude."
124* WorthyOpponent: Bill ultimately comes to see Dipper, Mabel, and Soos this way. When they actually manage to put up a fight against him, he cuts the battle off early and tells them that he'll let them live because he's impressed by their skill.
125* XanatosSpeedChess: Gideon performs this after seeing Mabel and Soos in Stan's mind and after Mabel causes Bill to lose the code to the safe; he opts for CuttingTheKnot and dynamites Stan's safe.
126* YouExclamation: Bill yells one at Mabel after she shoots the combination out of his hands and into the bottomless pit.
127* YouMonster:
128-->'''Mabel:''' You leave our uncle's brain alone, you isosceles monster!
129* YoureInsane: Gideon, [[EvenEvilHasStandards of all people]], calls Bill this when he telekinetically rips a deer's teeth out and offers them to him. Bill casually replies, "Sure I am. What's your point?"
130* YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry: Bill Cipher says this when Dipper and co. foil his plans:
131-->'''Bill Cipher:''' You! You can't even imagine what you just cost me! Do you have any idea what I'm like '''when I'm mad?!'''[[note]]Keep in mind, he's already a psychopathic demon when he's ''not'' mad.[[/note]]
132* ZanyScheme: As if it wasn't already clear that Gideon is nuts, [[CuttingTheKnot blowing Stan's safe open with dynamite]] was his backup plan... after his first plan of ''summoning an extremely dangerous demon to steal the combination from Stan's mind'' failed.
133----
134-->''[[TheStinger 20-15 2-5 3-15-14-20-9-14-21-5-4...]]'' [[note]]To Be Continued...[[/note]]

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