"I finally won this time!"
Part 2 of the season 1 finale.
When we last saw the gang, Gideon has taken over the Mystery Shack and blasted it with a wrecking ball. Since then, the Pines family has been staying at Soos' grandma's house. At a press conference, Gideon announces his intentions to turn the Mystery Shack into his own personal theme park, Gideonland. The Pines try to out Gideon as evil, but the rest of the town are too caught up in Gideon's charm to pay them heed. When he realizes there's nothing else he can do, Grunkle Stan gives up and decides to send the twins back home.
Meanwhile, Gideon reveals to his father why he wanted the Mystery Shack; whoever wrote the journals discovered secrets too powerful for one man, and so hid the journals to protect them. If both journals are brought together the ultimate power would be unleashed. Gideon believes that the other journal is somewhere on the Mystery Shack property. Dipper and Mabel try to take the deed back with help from the gnomes, but Gideon is able to turn the little men against the Pines twins with his pig whistle. During the struggle Dipper's journal is taken by Gideon, who thinks he has what he's been searching for. Defeated and demoralized, the twins take the next bus out of town. Stan, having hit rock bottom, wonders how Gideon always seems to be one step ahead. His hearing aid acts up and the old man has a realization.
Back at the Shack, Gideon takes a closer look at Dipper's journal and sees that it's actually #3. Thinking Dipper must have the first journal, Gideon activates his Gideonland statue (actually a giant robot built by Old Man McGucket) and chases the twins' bus down. Gideon demands Dipper hand over Journal #1, but Dipper has no idea what he's talking about, so Gideon takes Mabel to be his queen. This is the last straw, and Dipper throws himself into Gideon's cockpit and fights Gideon. The battle sends the robot off a cliff, and the twins are able to survive the fall thanks to Mabel's grappling hook. The townspeople gather at the crash site, and Gideon claims that the twins blew up his statue. Before the police arrest Dipper and Mabel, Stan shows up to reveal the truth; Gideon's so-called 'psychic visions' are actually from a surveillance system he uses to monitor Gravity Falls; all his Li'l Gideon pins are cameras, whose feeds he gleans information on the town. Gideon is arrested, but before he's hauled off Stan shakes him down for the deed (and discreetly snatches Journal #2 as well). "The Mystery Shack is back, baby!"
After rebuilding the Shack and settling back in, the twins show Stan their journal, explaining that Gideon was after it. Stan laughs them off, but takes the journal claiming he wants to create new attractions with it. Dipper is upset at this, but Mabel assures him he'll get it back; what could an old man like Stan do with the journal?
That night, Stan enters his vending machine passageway and takes an elevator into a mysterious room full of computers. Reaching a desk, he pulls out another journal...1. "After all these years...finally, I have them all." With journals 1, 2, and 3, Stan activates a strange machine...
"Here we go."
*Cue ominous-sounding credits*
Tropes in this episode:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The Giant Gideon robot is obviously CGI.
- All for Nothing: Gideon fought Dipper to give him Journal 1. Not only did the fight make it possible for him to be confirmed as a fraud, but Dipper never even had the journal in the first place.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Sheriff Blubs arrests Gideon for "conspiracy, fraud, and breaking our hearts".
- Artistic License – Physics: The wooden bridge on which the final battle takes place should not have been able to withstand Gideon's Humongous Mecha jumping onto it from such a height.
- Big Brother Instinct: Technically "Little Brother", but Dipper gets a ton of this once Gideon corners them in his Humongous Mecha. When Gideon picks them both up with it, Dipper demands that Gideon "let go of her" (even though he was grabbed too), and then Gideon tosses Dipper aside and tries to leave with Mabel, declaring that she'll be his queen while Mabel shouts for help. Cue Dipper jumping off a cliff onto Gideon's robot and winning a fistfight with him while shouting "Let go of my sister!"
- Big "NO!": Soos when Dipper, Mabel, and the giant Gideon robot all fall off the train tracks (which would have been the twins falling to their deaths, if not for Mabel using the grappling hook to save them).
- Bilingual Bonus: What does that machine do? If you decipher the encoded text in the Journals, you'll find that it's a "Universe Portal".
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: Gideonland is an obvious parody of Disneyland, right down to the logo font, and a work sign reading "We're building the magic".
- Blatant Lies: Grunkle Stan gets a phone call from Dipper and Mabel's parents, and tries to assure them Dipper and Mabel are being taken care of... while rummaging through the dingy kitchen of Soos's abuelita for something to eat.
- Bookends: The grappling hook and the gnomes from the first episode come back. Both the first and the last episode of the season ends with Stan entering his secret lair, though this time, we actually get to see what's inside. Also, Dipper saves Mabel from a villain who tries to make her his "queen".
- Brain Bleach: Soos's Abuelita reacts this way to Grunkle Stan kissing her during his "Eureka!" Moment.I vacuum face now.
- Break Them by Talking: Gideon attempts this on Dipper. It seems to have worked, until Dipper comes leaping off the cliff straight into the cockpit of Gideon's mecha to deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
- Breaking the Fellowship:
- Wendy notes that without her job at the Mystery Shack, her dad's shipping her off to her cousin's logging camp for the rest of the summer.
- Mabel and Dipper wind up being put on a bus back to California after Stan realizes he can't take care of them anymore.
- Broken Pedestal: The entire town is heartbroken to learn that Gideon has been a fraud the whole time.
- Buses Are for Freaks: The bus Mabel and Dipper are sent home on is pretty rundown and gross. Mabel makes a game out of looking at all the seat stains, identifying one as simply "miscellaneous fluid".
- Call-Back:
- Mabel uses the grappling hook from the first episode a few times (with Dipper lampshading how she hadn't used it since then), and Dipper and Mabel try to use the gnomes against Gideon.
- Old Man McGucket's ability to build gigantic machines of mass destruction gets one when it's revealed that he built Mecha Gideon.
- Stan entering his secret lair behind the vending machine ala "Tourist Trapped".
- Catapult Nightmare: Dipper has one at the start of the episode as he relives the events of the previous one.
- Chekhov's Gag: Stan's hearing aid ringing is at first played as a joke, but later makes Stan learn of the cameras in the Gideon pins.
- Chekhov's Gun: The grappling hook manages to save Mabel's and Dipper's lives in the end.
- Chekhov's Skill:
- It's a good thing Dipper received Training from Hell in "Dipper vs. Manliness" which included jumping from cliffs. That helps him make a large leap into Gideon's robot from a cliff.
- Overlapping with Chekhov's Gunman, and stretching the definition of "skill" slightly, Soos offhandedly mentions to Stan that one of his part-time jobs following the Mystery Shack's closure is as a bus-driver. Guess who turns out to be driving the bus on which Mabel and Dipper try to leave town?
- Cliffhanger: "Here we go."
- Companion Cube: Mabel names a mold spot in her room Darryl.
- Continuity Nod:
- The commercial for the Tent of Telepathy from "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel" labels Stan as a fraud. When Stan exposes Gideon's surveillance system, he rhetorically asks, "Who's the fraud now?"
- In "Dreamscaperers", Wendy said that she'd once caught Gideon stealing her moisturizer. In this episode, when Gideon tells the gnomes he's not a girl, they reply "But your skin is so soft. Do you moisturize, or...?"
- Bud Gleeful can be seen carrying the sad clown painting Stan stole from him in "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel" before he asks Gideon why he is reading Journal #2.
- Darkest Hour: The episode starts with the Pines having been evicted from the Mystery Shack, and Gideon planning to convert it into a theme park dedicated to himself, but things don't truly reach their bleakest point until midway through the episode, when Gideon has stolen the #3 journal from Dipper and the twins are reluctantly taking the bus out of town.
- Dartboard of Hate: In her short cameo, Pacifica can be seen trying to throw darts at a picture of Mabel.
- Deadly Nosebleed: After being thrown up onto a cliff by the Gideon mecha, Dipper is shown with a nosebleed
◊. - Description Cut: Double Subverted. Mabel wondering "What would a boring old man like Stan want with that book anyway?" is followed by Soos popping up and squirting her with water, making it look like a fake-out as the twins and Soos begin playing... but then it fades into night-time, and we find out exactly what Stan would want with the journal.
- Despair Event Horizon:
- Dipper and Mabel (and Stan) come pretty close when Gideon forces them out of the Shack.
- Dipper seems to hit it for a second when Gideon has grabbed Mabel, but it turns out to be a subversion.
- Didn't Think This Through: Dipper and Mabel assemble the gnomes to force Gideon to give the deed back to them. However, they should've expected that Gideon has a pig whistle that also has an affect on gnomes.
- Domino Revelation: Stan owns Journal #1. He also managed to get the 2nd and 3rd Journals from Gideon and Dipper, respectively, and is using them to power some mysterious machine he has built under the Mystery Shack.
- Dramatic Irony: Two examples involving the journals.
- Gideon initially believes that there are only two journals, while the audience knows there are actually three.
- When Mabel and Dipper plan to take back the Mystery Shack, Dipper claims that they have one thing Gideon doesn't: the journal. The audience, of course, knows that Gideon owns Journal #2.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Stan, despondent over losing the Mystery Shack and having to send Dipper and Mabel home early, orders "your strongest, most expired cider" at Greasy's Diner.
- Elaborate Underground Base: The ending of the episode reveals that Stan has this under the Mystery Shack that's entered through the secret passage behind the vending machine. Among a bunch of machines, it houses Journal #1 and a mysterious machine that Stan activates using the three journals.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Stan's hearing aid picking up feedback clues Stan as to Gideon's Psychic Powers ploy: he's hearing the feedback from the microphones disguised as pins!
- Eye Awaken: Dipper does this when he awakens from his nightmare from the previous episode.
- Finding the Bug: Stan's hearing aid keeps picking up feedback from an unknown source. He figures out that what his hearing aid kept picking up on were the hidden cameras Gideon had bugged everyone in town with, disguised as free Gideon pins, and was using the things he overheard to support his Phony Psychic scam.
- Forced from Their Home: With Gideon having taken the Mystery Shack's deed and kicked the Pines' out, they are forced to move in with Soos and his grandmother.
- Foreshadowing:
- Right before Gideon enters the cop car, Stan grabs and shakes him to empty his pockets; among the items that fall are Journal #2 and the deed to the Shack, which lands on top. You can see Stan grab both at once.
Stan: [makes a point of showing the deed] I believe this belongs to me!- When discussing what he knows about his Journal, Gideon explicitly refers to "the other journal", with his Imagine Spot showing Journals #1 and #2, foreshadowing that he was unaware of the existence of Journal #3, the very thing that leads to his downfall.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Blendin Blandin can be seen before Stan arrives at the robot crash scene.
- Funny Background Event: Just before Grunkle Stan knocks over another car with his, Blendin is calmly walking away from the incoming accident while the other people there run terrified as it happens.
- Heroic Second Wind: Dipper gets this after Gideon uses his giant robot to steal away Mabel and toss Dipper onto a cliff, taunting Dipper that without the book he's useless. At first, it seems Dipper is retreating in despair... then we see him running on the cliff and making a fantastic leap into Gideon-bot's eye, smashing into the real Gideon.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Gideon might have gotten away with the whole thing had he not decided to go after Dipper in the mistaken belief that he knew the location of Journal #1.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Continuing from previous episodes, the whole town towards Gideon.
- Humongous Mecha: Old Man McGucket builds one for Gideon...of a giant version of Gideon.
- Immediate Sequel: This episode picks up right where "Dreamscaperers" left off.
- Infernal Background: Stan is depicted as wearing a devil costume with a flaming background in a news report.
- Informed Flaw: Despite what Gideon claims, Dipper doesn't always use the journal to defeat whatever creature is causing trouble. In fact, many episodes don't feature him using the journal at all. Even Dipper, in his depression, forgets that for a while.
- Kick the Dog: Gideon was cruel towards Waddles during this episode, forcing him to stand in a corner at all times and yelling at him if he ever strayed out of it.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Double subverted with Soos, who comments on Dipper's crush on Wendy.Soos: Yeah, especially Dipper. Because of his huge crush on...(beat) yooouuu- [several seconds of awkward silence] -calyptus trees! The kid loves eucalyptus trees! Heh heh! Heh heh! Heh heh! Saved it.
- Motion-Capture Mecha: Gideon's robot, which he controls with a mo-cap suit with ping-pong ball sensors.
- Near-Villain Victory: The title of the episode makes that clear.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: After the Mystery Shack closes, Soos starts taking other jobs, including cooking at the diner and driving the bus taking Dipper and Mabel back home. It is implied that he isn't very good at them.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: As Dipper lampshades when the Gideon-bot is chasing after their bus: Gideon basically won. Stan figured out the trick to Gideon's secret surveillance on his own, so the latter still may have gotten arrested, but the Pines Twins were on the bus home at this point, so even if Stan had done so, it may have been too late to bring the twins back by then. However, Gideon's (false) paranoia that Dipper secretly had Journal #1 led to him chasing down the twins' bus in his giant robot, which in turn led to Dipper fighting and defeating Gideon, the robot being destroyed, and the twins getting to stay in Gravity Falls after Gideon is arrested.
- Furthermore the reason Stan figured out how to expose Gideon as a fraud is because of a pin Gideon slaps on him when mocking him.
- Noodle Incident: The newscast of Gideon taking over the Mystery Shack contains a picture of Stan dressed as a devil and dancing around flames. Stan claims the photo is "taken out of context" when he sees it.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Stan knew that the journals existed, and had been searching for them.
- Parody Commercial: "Are you sick of piles of owls constantly blocking your driveway?! Well then, you gotta get Owl Trowel!"
- Phony Psychic: Li'l Gideon is exposed as one, cue his Villainous Breakdown.
- Pokémon Speak: Shmebulock can only say his name (this is lampshaded by Jeff, the gnome leader).
- The Reveal:
- Gideon wanted the Shack so he could find Journal #1 (and he's shocked to find out that #3 existed) and the secret beneath the Mystery Shack.
- The town finds out Gideon is a phony.
- We find out what's in that hidden room, and that Stan had #1.
- Cute Biker's real name is Tyler.
- Running Gag: Mabel spends the entire episode trying to make the grappling hook relevant to their current adventure, but failing. She finally makes good use of it in saving her and Dipper's lives at the end of the episode.
- Season Finale: The actual last episode of Season 1, though it's the second part of a two-episode story.
- Secret Ingredient: Lazy Susan is convinced that Gideon is psychic because he knew the secret ingredient to her coffee omelette. It's coffee.
- Sequel Hook: Stan has all three journals, and uses them to activate a strange machine.
- Series Continuity Error: Shmebulock says the only thing he can say is his name, but in "Tourist Trapped", he shouted "Queen" with the other gnomes when encountering Mabel.
- Shake Someone, Objects Fall: This is how Stan retrieves the deed from Gideon at the end of the episode. For the record, he also carries around an axe and a picture of Mabel. Journal #2 also fell out, which the ending revealed that Stan also grabbed.
- Sinister Surveillance: It's revealed that Gideon was using pins with tiny cameras in them to spy on the town and seem like a psychic.
- Smash to Black: Stan uses the three journals and activates the portal...and then the episode, and the season, ends.
- Society-on-Edge Episode: Gideon takes over the Mystery Shack.
- Spanner in the Works: The mere existence of the third journal is enough to derail Gideon's plan. Up to that point, he'd assumed that there were only two, and that #1 was somewhere inside the Mystery Shack (which it was). Upon taking Dipper's journal and realizing that it's number three, he incorrectly assumes that that must have been the journal hidden in the Mystery Shack, that #1 must be hidden somewhere else, and that Dipper must know its location, setting in motion the chain of events that leads to his downfall.
- Stalker with a Crush: Robbie has been reduced to this following his break-up with Wendy.
- Stop Hitting Yourself: Dipper does this to Gideon, prompting his Motion-Capture Mecha to begin doing the same thing, pounding its own face in until it loses its balance and topples off the bridge.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: "If anyone asks, I'm not Soos."
- Tempting Fate: Gideon repeatedly taunts Dipper about being "nothing" without the journal, then kidnaps Mabel. Dipper proceeds to leap from a cliff into the Gideon robot and delivers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Gideon himself. For bonus points, he specifically said Dipper had "No muscles and no brains", and Dipper defeats him by outthinking and outwrestling him at the same time.
- That Was Not a Dream: The episode begins with Dipper waking up from a Catapult Nightmare and remarking, "I had this horrible dream where Gideon stole the deed to the Mystery Shack and we had to go and live with Soos' grandma!" Soos immediately informs him that it wasn't a dream, and the camera zooms out to reveal that they are, indeed, in Soos' grandmother's house.Soos: That was no dream, dude.Dipper: (screams)
- Took a Level in Badass: Dipper jumps off a cliff, through the eye of Gideon's Humongous Mecha, and fights Gideon. And wins.
- The Unreveal: The season ends before we find out what the secret device that needed the journals to be activated actually does.
- Villainous Breakdown: Gideon loses his shit completely when he realizes he needs one more journal, and it finally reaches his head when he's exposed as a fraud and sent to prison yelling and ranting after being arrested.Gideon: Never! I finally won this time!
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Gideon pulls one on the kids so they take the blame for what he did. Fortunately, Stan exposes the truth.
- Wham Episode: Stan's got all three of the journals, and is building something big and probably dangerous. Also, Gideon goes to jail.
- Wham Line:
- Realizing he can no longer look after Mabel and Dipper without the Mystery Shack, Stan tells them: "Kids, you're going home."
- "After all these years... Finally, I have them all."
- Wham Shot: The season ends as Stan goes to his secret room with Dipper's journal, where we see he not only has Gideon's journal, but Journal #1 as well. And he uses them to activate a mysterious portal.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: At the end of the episode, Mabel assures Dipper that he's a hero even without Journal 3, citing his defeating Gideon in the Gideon-Bot as proof.
- You Monster!: Mabel calls Gideon this after he dresses Waddles in a Gideon costume.
