They call him Mermando... because Mermando is his name.
In the midst of a Heat Wave, the Mystery Shack crew go to the Gravity Falls public pool to beat the heat (except for Wendy, who's already working there as a lifeguard). There Mabel meets Mermando, a merman trapped in the pool, while Dipper volunteers to be a lifeguard to get close to Wendy.
Tropes in this episode:
- Artists Are Attractive: Mabel says "and you can play at least one chord on the guitar" to Mermando after she tells him he's the coolest guy she's ever met.
- Artistic License – Child Labor Laws: In Real Life, 12 year old Dipper would not be able to work as an assistant lifeguard and especially not on night patrol for presumably the entire night.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Between Mabel and Mermando, of course.
- Blackmail: Not used, but Mabel's photograph of Dipper giving Mermando reverse CPR is blackmail-worthy, and Mabel knows it.
- Bookends: The episode begins and ends with Stan getting his back stuck to something (the wooden floor at the beginning, the pool chair at the end).
- Brain Bleach: We get a shot of McGucket applying sunblock onto his exposed body. It's... memorable to say the least, both to the audience and the citizens at the pool.
- To Dipper, witnessing his sister get her First Kiss from Mermando is this.
Dipper: Whoa! Okay! That's gross! - Cardiovascular Love: It helps that Mermando has seventeen hearts.
- Continuity Nod:
- We see Wax Stan from "Headhunters" melting at the beginning of the episode.
- When Stan catches on fire in the intro Mabel says "he'll be fine" like she did when Stan fell into the pit in the previous episode.
- Mabel recalls having dated a zombie and some gnomes.
- Cue the Shooting Star: The first time Mabel attempts a First Kiss with Mermando in the pool, a shooting star goes by.
- Disproportionate Retribution: We don't know exactly why a child is kept in a jail under the pool for around one year, but in the worst case scenario he just broke several pool's rules.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Invoked by Mabel to get Mermando out of the pool - when Dipper catches her, Mabel distracts him by claiming Wendy's in a bikini.
- Dramatic Wind: One blows Mermando's hair when he announces his name.
- Elephant in the Living Room: You'd think someone would've noticed sooner that a merman is swimming in the pool, even though he's trying to hide his tail under a floating mattress.
- Evil Is Petty: Lil' Gideon spends the episode trolling Stan over his favorite pool chair.
- Fan Disservice: Old Man McGucket lotioning himself. It's acknowledged in-universe too.
- First Kiss: Mabel wants hers from Mermando, and ultimately succeeds at the end of the episode. As does Dipper.
- Foot Popping: Mabel does this when she kisses Mermando.
- Free the Frogs: Soos thinks the pool floaties are alive and want to be set free.
- Freudian Excuse: The fact that Poolcheck had lost his hand in a pool accident is probably why he is obsessed with the strict respect of the safety rules.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Mabel offers Mermando the loudspeaker from the pool so his family can hear his calls, but if she does so, Dipper will get fired from his job working alongside Wendy all summer. Dipper ultimately allows her to give Mermando the loudspeaker as he knows what it's like to be in love with someone you'll do anything for.
- Gratuitous Spanish:
- Used by Mermando a few times. Also, the cryptogram during the end credits translates to "VIVAN LOS PATOS DE LA PISCINA" ("Long live the Pool Ducks").
- In some of the non-English and non-Spanish translations of this episode (for example. the French one), Mermando is renamed "Sireno", the masculine version of "sirena", the Spanish for "mermaid".
- Heat Wave: Gravity Falls is in the throes of one, with the temperature reaching 110°Fnote , and what better way to deal with it than a day at the pool?
- Human Outside, Alien Inside: Merpeoples' top halves look human, but they've got seventeen hearts, concealed gills on the sides of their head, and apparently start undergoing puberty at three years of age.
- Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: When Dipper gets fired, Mr. Poolcheck rips his whistle off his neck and eats it.
- Interspecies Romance: Between Mabel and Mermando.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: This is why Mabel was so eager to bust Mermando out of the pool: She loves him and he loves her, but he deeply misses his family and the sea.
- I Was Told There Would Be Cake: Wendy took the lifeguard job because she heard they got free snack privileges. Mr. Poolcheck realizing how much she's been abusing said privileges is what gets her fired at the end of the episode.
- Kiss of Life: Mabel forces Dipper to give Mermando "reverse CPR" to keep him from suffocating. When Mermando comes to, he asks why Dipper didn't just roll him into the lake.
- Latin Lover: Mermando, of course, although the "Latin" part seems to go over Mabel's head.
- Laugh of Love:
- When Wendy says that being lifeguard lets her have the best seat in the house, Dipper remarks "Yeah, you do!" and laughs for an overly-long time. Lampshaded when he says in a mortified whisper, "I've been laughing for too long."
- Mabel laughs and says "You're so funny!" when Mermando jokingly compliments her on her lack of water wings. Soon afterwards, Mermando laughs as she combs his hair, which causes her to think that he likes her.
- Look Behind You: Mabel, after being caught breaking into the pool by Dipper, distracts her brother by claiming Wendy's in a bikini.Mabel: Hey, look! Wendy in a bikini!
Dipper: Really?! At night?! - Love at First Sight: Mabel was enamored the moment she saw Mermando.
- Manly Tears: Mr. Poolchek starts crying while chewing out Dipper over the broken pool equipment. Dipper lampshades it.
- Message in a Bottle: How Mermando keeps in touch with Mabel after being freed. Parodied slightly as his first message ends with "More bottles to follow", at which point half-a-dozen bottles come spilling out of the drain at once.
- Missing Steps Plan: "Alright, Dipper, here's the plan: catch the trespasser, protect the supplies, keep job at pool, and eventually marry Wendy."
- Noodle Incident:
- Apparently, Mabel has dated a couple of cute vampires without telling Dipper. Doubles as a Continuity Nod to "Tourist Trapped", where she hoped her new boyfriend would be a vampire.
- Poolcheck lost his hand in an accident because he didn't respect municipal pool's safety rules. The exact circumstances of the accident are never specified.
- No Sense of Direction: Mermando recounts his attempts to return to the sea... including swimming up-river with salmon.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Mermando. Among other differences, he has, like, 17 hearts. "Horrifying, but true!"
- Out-Gambitted: Grunkle Stan gets the "perfect pool chair" by sneaking into the pool after hours and camping out all night, but it turns out Gideon anticipated this and applied super glue to the chair.
- Punny Name: Mermando.
- The Reveal Prompts Romance: Mabel liked him anyway, but she definitely found learning Mermando's "terrible secret" a turn-on.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Wendy and Dipper as Lifeguard and Assistant Lifeguard. Whilst Poolcheck tells Dipper that he's on thin ice after being caught throwing life preservers at the patrons, they both ultimately get fired for other things.
- Seashell Bra: Mermando's mother has one.
- Seasonal Montage: The kid in solitary experiences this over the closing credits.
- Serious Business: Mr. Poolcheck takes pool security way too seriously. He cries at one point when he thinks Dipper has been breaking the rules.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: A positive example. Dipper is desperate to stop Stan and Mabel's break-in attempts because if anything else goes wrong, Mr. Poolcheck will fire him from his job working alongside Wendy. He fails, and is fired... only to learn that Wendy has also been fired for abusing her snack privileges.
- Shipper on Deck: Soos for Mabel and Mermando.
- Ship Tease: The last scene between Dipper and Wendy at the end of the episode.
- Shout-Out:
- The scene where Mabel poses dramatically while Mermando leaps over a rocky outcropping is a reference to an iconic scene from Free Willy.
- Gideon references a famous reaction image
when he puts on his sunglasses while saying "Deal with it".
- Squick: In-universe. Dipper's reaction to seeing his sister kiss someone. Also, his reaction to giving CPR to Mermando. "I hate this!"
- Stating the Simple Solution: Mermando points out that Dipper didn't need to give him reverse CPR when he was dying. The lake was a few feet away, and Dipper could have just rolled Mermando to it.
- Status Quo Is God: Wendy is fired from her lifeguarding job, so she can go right back to working at the Mystery Shack like nothing happened.
- Stealing from the Till: Wendy is fired for taking too many free snacks.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: "Don't be silly, there certainly isn't a merman in there if that's what you're implying! Who said anything about a merman?"
- Testosterone Poisoning: Mr. Poolcheck.
- There's No Place Like Home: And Mermando just wants to go back to his.
- This Is My Chair: Stan fights Gideon for the best chair in the pool. Stan wins... permanently, as Gideon put superglue on the chair.
- Title Drop: "Welcome to The Deep End, son". Said by Mr. Poolcheck to Dipper; apparently that's the name of the pool.
- Would Hurt a Child: Played for Laughs. If Stan had been trying to blind anyone else, and/or was effective at it, there would be firm disapproval coming from both the audience and the protagonists (in addition to the witnesses at the pool), but since it's Gideon, who also manages to counter all of Stan's schemes, it ends up turning into a show where Stan ends up being made a fool of repeatedly.
- "You!" Exclamation: Mr. Poolcheck shouts this out at the end of the episode when he catches Soos throwing the inflatable ducks over the fence.
