Recap / Gravity Falls S2 E12 "A Tale of Two Stans"

"When Gravity Falls and earth becomes sky, fear the beast with just one eye."

— Fiddleford McGucket

Continuing from the previous episode, the Author of the Journals has appeared from the Universe Portal— and is revealed to be Stan's long-lost twin brother. Stan warmly greets his brother but gets a punch to the jaw in return. The Author is furious that Stan used the portal, citing the destruction it could cause. Stan is in turn upset that he's not being thanked for saving his brother, to which the Author brings up a past incident 30 years prior. The fighting is interrupted by Mabel, who speaks on behalf of herself, Dipper and Soos (and the audience): "What the heck is going on!?" Stan introduces the Author to his niece and nephew ("Shermy's grandkids"). Dipper is stunned that he's finally meeting the Author of the Journals. While the Author would love to get to know his new family, he wants to know if anyone else knows about the portal. Stan admits that perhaps the entire US government might know, as Agents Powers and Trigger search the surface for the Pines family. The twins and Soos demand answers from Stan. The Author would also like to know what Stanley has gotten himself into, but wait—isn't the first Grunkle's name Stanford? "Wait, you took my name!? What have you been doing all these years you knuckledhead?!" The Author, who reveals to be the real Stanford, cries angrily. With nowhere to go, Stan explains:

Stanley and Stanford Pines grew up on Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey. The two were best friends, but very different—Stanford was a genius with a love of weird things, while Stanley was a goofball who frequently got into trouble, getting through school by cribbing his brother's notes. One day in high school, the principal told the Pines family that Stanford's latest science fair project could get him into West Coast Tech, a first-rate college where Stanford's brains could make him, and the rest of the family, rich. Stanley, on the other hand, was unlikely to even graduate from high school. While Stanley was still set on their childhood dream of sailing and treasure-hunting, Stanford was genuinely interested in West Coast Tech. Dismayed that he was going to be separated from his brother, Stanley found himself fuming in the school gym where the projects were kept. In a fit of rage, he punched the table where Stanford's project was, damaging it. While he tried to fix it, by the time the admissions team from West Coast Tech arrived, the machine was broken, ruining Stanford's chance of enrollment. Stanford confronted his brother and accused him of purposely sabotaging his project to keep him from leaving. Hearing what had happened, the brothers' father threw Stanley out, telling him not to come back until he could prove he could make something of himself. After a false start with treasure hunting ("Apparently, gold is some kind of rare metal.") Stanley got into sales. However, his shoddily made products and self-enforced no-refunds policy forced him on the run. To keep ahead of the law, Stanley was forced to change his name multiple times.

Stanford, meanwhile, enrolled in second-tier college Backupsmore University. Through hard work, he earned his PhD years in advance, along with a huge research grant. Inspired by his six-fingered hands, Stanford decided to study anomalies, and went to a place with the highest concentration of anomalies—Gravity Falls, Oregon. He catalogued his findings in a trilogy of Journals. Despite his studies, the question of what caused the anomalies remained unanswered. Stanford determined that there might be a dimension of weirdness leaking into the Earth's and decided to discover it. Enlisting the aid of his college friend Fiddleford McGucket, the two of them created the Universe Portal to help investigate this other dimension. During the first test, McGucket was almost pulled in. Babbling gibberish and a prophecy about a "Beast with just one eye" when rescued, once McGucket regained his senses he implored Stanford to dismantle the Portal, as it could destroy the world. When Stanford refused to give up, McGucket left the project to forget what he had seen. Stanford tried to continue his research, but soon realized that he was in over his head. Unsure of who to trust, he decided to call upon the one person he thought he could depend on; his long-estranged brother.

When Stanley arrived in Gravity Falls, Stanford was unhinged with paranoia. Stanford showed Stanley the Universe Portal and explained its purpose, and how the only way to operate it was kept in his Journals. 2 and 3 were already hidden, and Stanford wanted Stanley to have 1. Or rather, to hide 1 somewhere far away so no one could find it. Stanley was outraged that after their long separation, all Stanford wanted of him was to go even further away and decided to burn the remaining Journal. Stanford didn't want his research to be lost that completely, and a scuffle for the book ensued. Their brawling spilled into the Portal's control room, causing the Portal to activate. When Stanley shoved Stanford away, Stanford was pulled completely through the Portal, which then ran out of power. Horrified at what he had done, Stanley tried to reactivate the Portal, but could only do so much with just Journal 1. When he went out for food, the locals mistook him for his brother, "The mysterious science guy." When they expressed an interest- a paying interest- in what was in the shack, Stanley came up with a plan. He couldn't leave Gravity Falls without saving his brother, but needed to make ends meet in the meantime, so he began giving tours of his brother's lab, eventually turning the house into the Mystery Shack. To complete the deception, he faked his own death by car crash. Every night since then, he would tinker with the Portal, trying to bring the real Stanford Pines back.

Dipper, realizing that all Stan wanted was to save his brother, apologizes for not trusting him before, but Stan assures him that Dipper had every right not to believe his word. Just then, the agents are heard talking- they've discovered the passage behind the vending machine in the Mystery Shack gift shop! Soos bemoans having forgot about the agents, which reminds Dipper about the Society of the Blind Eye's memory eraser. Ford hooks the device to the lab's wiring and sends out a pulse that erases the recent memories of Powers, Trigger, and their men. Posing as a higher-ranked official, Ford tells The Men in Black that the energy surge they detected was caused by an unreported meteorite shower, and sends them home, taking their collected evidence for the case. With the G-men disposed of, Dipper is ready to ask his new Grunkle a million questions, but Stan decides it's time for bed and sends the kids into the house. Soos shuffles off to fill Wendy in.

Inside the house, Ford lays down the line; Stan can stay until the end of summer to take care of Dipper and Mabel while Ford stays in the basement to contain any other damage the Portal might cause. But when summer's over, Stan has to give the house, and Ford's identity back. Hurt that he still isn't going to be thanked, Stan makes it clear that Ford is to stay away from the kids for their own safety. Up in the attic, Dipper and Mabel ponder these new events. Mabel is especially worried that she and Dipper might end up as bitter and estranged as their Grunkles are. Dipper feels that they should be fine as long as they don't act stupid, but Mabel remains concerned.

Meanwhile, Soos keeps Wendy up all through the night with his rambling exposition.

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A Tale of Two (or more) Tropes:

• Abusive Parents: Stan and Ford's father, Filbrick. He disowned Stan (who was still old enough to be in high school) after he accidentally ruined Ford's chances of going to a good college, and he didn't even do so because it crushed Ford's dreams but because to him Ford was the family's "ticket" out of New Jersey, and he would make the family "millions". The episode's cypher reveals that he never even planned on having twin children in the first place, and basically called them both a variant of 'Stan' out of sheer disinterest.
• An Aesop: Don't take your family for granted. Stan did nothing but clown around through his youth, believing his family would be okay with it and always have his back. Ford, after years of separation, called Stan out of the blue for a weird errand he wouldn't properly explain. Look how well that turned out.
• Aesop Amnesia:
  • Stan is trying to keep Dipper away from finding the secrets of Gravity Falls, even while knowing that Dipper once summoned zombies to prove his point to federal agents.
  • In his backstory, Stan spent years running scams and get rich quick schemes. Despite the fact that none of them worked and they frequently got him in trouble with the law, he just kept on trying to con people. He never did learn his lesson, as his eventual job at the Mystery Shack was just him conning people in a setting where it was expected of him,
• Ambiguous Situation: The episode doesn't make it clear if Dipper and Mabel overheard the conversation between their uncles at the end of the episode, where at the end of the summer their Grunkle Stan is going to lose the Mystery Shack and be kicked out. Mabel says she overheard getting "puppies made of ice cream" but admits it might be "wishful thinking". A conversation in the next episode confirms that Dipper didn't know, but it's never revealed if Mabel either also didn't know or does know but chose not to tell her brother.
  • It’s not revealed if Ford and their parents knew that Stan was right outside the principal's office and thus heard everything they were saying.
  • It's left unclear if Stan's angry outburst genuinely damaged Ford's invention enough to cause its breakdown, or if it was always unstable enough to break from the strain when in motion. Stanley put everything back as it was before and even if it was damaged from his indirect blow, something so delicate would have been unlikely to withstand the forces involved in enacting perpetual motion. If true, Stan was kicked out of his family for something that was not actually his fault in the end.
• ...And 99¢: A flashback shows Stan's mother as a psychic charging 99 cents per hour. Another flashback shows Stan trying to buy a loaf of bread at Dusk 2 Dawn and being charged 99 cents for it.
• Another Dimension: Where Ford was trapped, and where the weird stuff of Gravity Falls comes from.
• Anti-Climax: The federal agents get quickly booted out of the plot thanks to Ford weaponizing the memory ray against them, causing mass amnesia.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Mabel asks Dipper if they'll ever become like their Grunkles at the end, Dipper perishes the thought, but Mabel is seen still thinking about it.
• Artistic License: It would be unrealistic for Stan to get banned from different states all because he made cheap products. In real life, he would've been charged with money or give his customers a refund for it.
• Artistic License – University Admissions: Stanford's admission to West Coast Tech hinges entirely on a single science fair project which he presents personally to an admissions officer. When the showpiece of the project doesn't work as planned, the officer rejects the student immediately without looking at any of the student's documentation of his work or giving him a chance to explain what's wrong. Apparently, Ford must have seriously intended to follow through with Stan's plan to sail after high school, because how else could you explain how an academic prodigy and a lover of science, apparently hadn't even considered college prior to being told about it so close to graduation.
• The Atoner: Stanley Pines, after a heated argument with his brother. He spends days, maybe weeks in isolation, then spent 30 years trying to find a way to get his brother back.
• Audience Surrogate: Soos, Dipper, and Mabel represent the ways different parts of the fandom could react to the reveal.
  • Soos is the fans who had already grown attached to the "Stan twin" theory, with him hoping everything "lines up" with his fanfiction.
  • Dipper is the theorists who are losing their minds about finally discovering the Author and want everything there is to know about him.
  • Mabel is anyone who might make They Changed It, Now It Sucks!-esque complaints, with her acknowledging she liked how things were before.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Ford pulls this on the federal agents after wiping their memories, reading a fake report from Mabel's drawings and sending them on a Wild Goose Chase after meteor showers.
• Becoming the Mask: While posing as Ford, Grunkle Stan was able to get to know his family, including his baby brother's kids and grandkids. He really does love his family even if he's the Black Sheep.
• Bittersweet Ending: Ford manages to get the federal agents off Stan's back and things are mostly back to normal at the Mystery Shack... but there's still a lot of bad blood between the Stans, Stanford wants his house back when the summer's over, and Mabel is starting to worry about her relationship with Dipper.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Stanford and Stanley get into what is effectively an argument over whose situation is worse. Stan has had it rough with his constant poverty and frequent run ins with the law, but most of those were due to his own attempts to scam and con people. Ford has become a paranoid recluse from his dealings with the supernatural, but he actively sought out those supernatural beings of his own volition. So, both sides have legitimate grievances, but also reasons to dismiss the other side's problems.
• Brains and Brawn: As kids, Stanford the brains, Stanley the brawn. Or, as Stanley puts it: "Brains and Punching".
• Broken Pedestal: Downplayed about Grunkle Ford, but at the end of the episode Dipper and Mabel agree that while they're happy to have found the Author's identity, they think things were easier when it was just the two of them and Stan living in the Mystery Shack and when they didn't know who Ford was.
• Brutal Honesty: The principal of Stan's high school bluntly tells his parents that while Stanford could be rich and successful, Stanley is an idiot who is likely never to graduate, or leave New Jersey, loud enough that Stan can hear him through the door.
• The Bully: As kids, Ford and Stan were picked on by a mean boy named Crampleter, who mocked the former for having six fingers and the latter for being a "dumber and sweatier version" of Ford. A later episode reveals that Ford still thinks about his taunts even in the present day.
• By "No", I Mean "Yes": Ford asks Stan if anyone else knows about the existence of the portal.
  Stan: No, just us. Also, maybe the entire US Government.
• Call-Back:
  • The episode picks up where we last left the Pines in the previous episode, and we hear the full story of what Stan's been working on.
  • Dipper pulls the memory wiping gun from the Society of the Blind Eye, and Stanford, recognizing it immediately, uses it against the agents.
• Call-Forward:
  • We see Biker Tyler as a child with his mother saying "Get out! Get out!"
  • The married couple that ran the grocery store in "The Inconveniencing" serve Stan a loaf of bread.
  • Lazy Susan got her eye messed up by Stan showing her a tiny radio that gave out electric shots.
  • Grunkle Stan's mysterious tattoo, alluded to in one of the "Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained" shorts, is explained.
  • One of the things Ford finds is an egg which hatches into the Shapeshifter from "Into the Bunker".
  • McGucket witnessing the "beast with one eye" was the thing he wanted to forget so bad.
    • And he also winds up spouting "YROO XRKSVI GIRZMTOV" (albeit backwards), just like in one of his memories from "Society of the Blind Eye"...
• Cerebus Retcon: Practically the theme of the episode, as Stan’s entire character becomes this trope:
  • Back in "Little Gift Shop of Horrors", Grunkle Stan told a lighthearted story about Waddles becoming an Uplifted Animal and getting isolated from his best friend Mabel, who wanted him to be fun and dumb. Now he retells the tale—with his brother as Waddles and himself as Mabel. Suddenly, the story isn't so funny...
  • Remember when Stan was hilariously overreacting to The Duchess Approves? Specifically, that scene where he sobs "It's just like my life!" as the Duchess ends up disagreeing with her mother? There's a chance it's bringing up painful memories of being disowned.
  • Stan becoming temporarily horrified upon seeing his wax double now appears to be him mistaking it for Ford having returned, and when he takes the loss of Wax Stan so personally (even giving the dummy a funeral), it's him using a surrogate of his brother to express his grief.
  • Stan running the Mystery Shack. He's not just doing it to scam stupid tourists for a quick buck and nothing more; it originally started as front so he could have a way to pay the bills until he got his twin back. Plus, knowing the Mystery Shack was the only successful business Stan had in ten years can shed a different light on how he views it.
  • Stan's interest in the Sad Clown portrait from "The Hand That Rocks The Mabel" falls into Cerebus Retcon for two reasons: Stan had overheard his principal actually call him a clown and hammered down with Brutal Honesty about Stan's bleak future, and Stan’s spontaneous dark response about life in the "Bottomless Pit!" short, "Trooth Ache," happened while he, Dipper, and Mabel was watching a certain someone juggling and riding a unicycle on the television. Although Stan doesn't admit it, it's safe to assume that he liked the portrait because he relates to it—he feels as if he's the Sad Clown.
  • Stan's obsession with money. Turns out, it's because his father told him "And don't come back until you've made us a fortune!" upon kicking him out. Stan believes money is the only way his life can be worthwhile or mean anything to his family. Ouch.
  • Remember when Stan was in Colombian prison? And that joke from the Gravity Falls Gossiper podcast that said he was in Gravity Falls because it was the only place the police didn't know where he was? It's now revealed that he engaged in a lot of illegal activities that got him put in jail three times, and he managed to break out every time. Even the line where he says the two convicts are the best friends, he could have had is harsher in hindsight now, considering The Reveal of his Friendless Background.
  • Stan's tattoo. He wasn't lying when he said he didn't have a tattoo. He has a burn scar. It's the mark of his final argument with his brother.
  • Stan telling Dipper he's grounded after the party in "Scaryoke" now makes sense, seeming like a light punishment at the time, and a punishment that Dipper and Stan both forget after the former summons zombies; Stan knows what it's like to get Disproportionate Retribution for a huge mistake in the family.
  • "Stan Pines Dead": all his life, Stanley is told he's useless and that the only one worth anything is his brother. When only one of them is left, Stanley decides it should be Stanford.
  • What's the dream Stan is having right before Dipper, Mabel, and Soos enter his mind in "Dreamscaperers"? He mimes pushing someone and says "No..." He's been reliving the nightmare the whole time.
  • Stan's boat in "Legend of the Gobblewonker" was the Stan-o-War. All he wanted was to spend time with his family on the Stan-o-War.
  • The "Two" Mr. Mysterys gag in the Mystery Shack ad becomes less funny after this episode.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Ford weaponizes the memory-erasing ray from Society from the Blind Eye to cause mass amnesia in the federal agents.
• Chronic Villainy: A variant: despite his multiple scams getting him into trouble and imprisoned three times, Stan continues to be a charlatan in the hopes of getting rich quickly. He finally compromises with the Mystery Shack, which while a tourist trap causes less moral hazard than his previous scams, relatively speaking. He also uses it as a decoy to make sure Gravity Falls doesn't ruin any chance of getting the portal working again.
• Consummate Liar: Stan's mom, according to Stanley.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Stanford (The Author) is seen studying Schmebulock the Gnome (Senior).
  • The portal and research on it in the flashback seems similar to the machine that Waddles invented in Stan's made-up story "Abaconings".
  • We see how Stanford discovered the Shapeshifter.
  • Octavia is seen in Stanford's book of anomalies.
  • McGucket was working on personal computers when Ford asked him to work on the portal. This explains how the twins found a laptop about twenty years ahead of its time, averting Anachronism Stew.
  • Stan-Vac can be seen in Stan's motel room.
  • Ford's "report" to the government agents are crayon drawings of "The Snadger".
  • The booth next to Ford's perpetual motion machine showcases Stanley's crude prototype of "Footbot 1000" — a toaster with a throwing arm and a taped-on paper face.
• Cooldown Hug: Averted; Mabel suggests that the two Stans do this, but they glower at each other for a long time instead.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Dipper asks Stan "Why did you keep this all a secret?". Though Stan does reveal that he didn't want the secret getting out before the portal was finished and risking his operation. Considering how close the agents were to finding it, he had a point.
• Cutting the Knot: Stan tries to destroy Journal #1 by setting it on fire instead of just hiding it.
• Did Not Think This Through: Stan taking his brother's identity and trying to bring him back. Even if it was to make amends, he didn't consider that Stanford would want his identity, life and property returned in due course. Not to mention having the kids around for the summer while doing this made for a risky venture, with Dipper and Mabel being a Spanner in the Works duo.
• Disproportionate Retribution: For accidentally sabotaging Ford's attempt to get into his dream college, Grunkle Stan got kicked out of the house with only a car and his backpack.
• Distant Prologue: The episode begins with a flashback in the Cold Open with Stan and Ford as kids during the '60s. Cue many years later to the present day when we see them again as adults.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: During Stan and Ford's final argument before the latter is sent into an alternate universe. Stan angrily accuses Ford of “selfishly hoarding” his grant money rather than helping out Stan or their parents. However, that’s not how grant money works, and Ford’s expenditures would’ve been very closely monitored so as to make sure that they didn’t get abused in any such way. Of course, Stan couldn’t be expected to know that as a high school dropout, and it makes sense that if he (albeit incorrectly) thought that Ford just refused to help him despite being able to, then that would further contribute to his resentment.
• Dub Name Change: In Brazil, Backupsmore is called Qualquernota^note Anygrade.
• Dysfunctional Family: Stan and Ford's side of the family. The mom was a pathological liar, while the dad was a pawnbroker who saw Ford as the family's ticket to the high life.
• Easily Condemned: Ford readily assumes that Stan, who had up to that point been his only friend, deliberately sabotaged his project, and doesn't give him the benefit of the doubt. It can't help but raise questions about the health of their relationship beforehand.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Dipper forgives Mabel for trusting Stan over him, and they even have a sweet conversation at the end of the episode about if that status quo will change, leaving Mabel unable to sleep on it.
  • After hearing Stan's side of the story, Dipper apologizes for doubting his uncle. Stan in turn forgives him since he knows he's invoked Not Helping Your Case many times over.
  • Averted with the two Stans, who can't let go of their bad blood - well, Ford can't; Stan really wanted to reconcile with his twin but seems to have given up by the end of the episode. Ford fully intends on throwing Stan out of the house at the end of the summer.
• Epic Fail: Dipper's attempts to make a good first impression on the Author. Half the time he's squeeing, the other half he's trying not to throw up.
• Establishing Character Moment: Ford makes his mark by punching Stan in the face for opening the portal against his warnings, asking Have You Told Anyone Else? and taking a moment to realize that two kids are watching the fight. However, it's then quickly followed by him cheerfully welcoming both Dipper and Mabel and expressing concern for their safety.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Dipper figures out how to get rid of the federal agents by using the memory-erasing ray when Soos mentions that he completely forgot about the agents due to being spellbound by Stanley and Stanford's story.
• Evil All Along: Turns our Filbrick was just an Abusive Parent instead of the practitioner of Tough Love Stan thought he was.
• Extra-Long Episode: Thirty minutes compared to the usual twenty-three.^note Both without commercials.
• Eye Scream: Stan accidentally caused Susan's eye to be lazy due to the static coming from the broken radio.
• Failed a Spot Check: Stan and Ford are both so busy fighting each other over Journal #1 that they don't even notice they have accidentally reactivated the portal until Ford ends up getting sucked through it.
• Faking the Dead: Turns out the news article Dipper and Mabel found in the previous episode about "Stans Pines Dead" was due to Grunkle Stan faking a car crash to kill his real identity so no one will come looking for him while he's Stanford.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Grunkle Stan's temper got him in trouble with his brother both times, and he regrets it.
  • Ford likewise lets his obsession with work drive away any person he could care about, including his twin. In the end, him getting sucked into the portal is because he wouldn't let Stan destroy one of his Journals.
• Fictional Counterpart: "West Coast Tech" for Caltech.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Ford is completely out of touch with everything since he was stuck in Another Dimension for the last 30 years, even asking the federal agents for their "floppy disks and 8-tracks" during his Bavarian Fire Drill (Agent Powers hands him a single flash drive).
  Stanford: Greetings! Do kids still say greetings? I haven't been in this dimension for a very long time.
• Foil: Stan and Ford are both this to Dipper and Mabel. While Stan was an artistic and extroverted goofball the way Mabel was, he was also fiercely protective of both Ford and the bond they share. Dipper, like Ford, likes the supernatural and is more introverted than their twin, but Ford is more callous about achieving his goals and isolates themselves from other people.
• Flash Back: Countless ones to both Stan and his brother Ford's pasts.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • When Stanford is recounting his time at college, pictures of what appears to be Nikola Tesla and Carl Sagan could be seen in the background.
  • Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons was a game that Ford played in college.
  • The Rubix Cube spotted in "Sock Opera" when Dipper makes his deal with Bill is in Dipper's backpack along with the memory ray. How did it materialize out of the Dreamscape?
  • Dipper and Mabel's grandfather Shermie is most likely the baby held in Stan's mother's arms as he's being thrown out of the house.
  • Looking carefully at Ford's science project will have it be looking much more broken and screwed-up than what should've likely happened from the damage Stan accidentally inflicted on it the previous night.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Stan's desire for money is because his family threw him out after he accidentally destroyed Ford's perpetual motion machine and cost him the chance to go to his choice college and told him that he had to make up the money Ford would have made that he lost.
  • Ford's unhealthy self-isolationism and Mad Scientist habits are born of him being mercilessly mocked as a child for his six-fingered hands, with these negative traits only getting worse and worse over time due to him losing his two closest friends (his brother and Fiddleford, respectively).
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: A variant; Stan agrees that at the end of the summer he gives the Mystery Shack and Ford's identity back to his brother. It's more important to him that Ford stays away from the kids, since Dipper is attracted to trouble and Gravity Falls's mysteries are too dangerous for Stan's "only family" to explore. He makes it clear that he'll only leave if Ford follows that condition; if not...
• Friend to All Children: At least human children; see What Measure Is a Non-Human? below. Ford is pretty ecstatic to learn that he has a niece and nephew and gets along quite well with Mabel.
• Generation Xerox:
  • Discussed; Mabel worries that one day she and Dipper will fight the way their great-uncles did.
  • When they were kids, Stan was a goof-off like Mabel, though he wasn't a Genki Girl like her, and Ford was more like Dipper in his interest in the supernatural.
• Get Out!: Stan got kicked out of his parents' house after accidentally messing up Ford's project, costing him his dream college.
• Gilligan Cut: When Ford shows Stan his lifelong project for the first time.
  Stanley: Looks, I've been around the world, okay? Whatever it is, I'll understand. (cut) There is nothing about this I understand!
• Go Mad from the Isolation: After McGucket quit the portal project, Ford was alone for at least a year. By the time Stan reaches his brother's place, he's dragged inside and inspected with a flashlight.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: McGucket was accidentally pulled into the portal, but when he was pulled out, he witnessed something frightening involving "the Beast With One Eye", driving him to quit.
• Good is Not Nice: Ford. It says a lot when the first thing you do after seeing your twin brother after thirty years is to attack him, and not care that he spent three decades trying to bring you home. He was concerned about the damage the portal could have done, and he does unbend a little after meeting Dipper and Mabel.
• Good-Times Montage:
  • Stan and Ford's preteen and teenage years are showcased with various scenarios establishing how they always had each other's backs. Stan even remarks that "those were the days."
  • Ford has one when he studies the weirdness of Gravity Falls and creates The Journals.
  • Stan also gets one as he settles into town and builds up The Mystery Shack. However, it's more somber as he’s also working to save Ford.
• Hate Sink:
  • Considering how vile he is, Stan and Ford's father Filbrick definitely counts as this.
  • Crampelter, who only exists to be a jerk to Stan and Ford.
• Hearing Voices: Ford hears unintelligible whispering when his sanity begins to plunge.
• Historical In-Joke: Fiddleford was working on personal computers in his garage in Palo Alto when Stanford called for his help with the portal. That is, it might have been him rather than Steve Jobs who ended up bringing us the technology.
• Honor Before Reason: We're shown that after he grew extremely paranoid and decided to discontinue the portal project, Ford tried to hide its existence alongside the existence of his research. However, he just couldn't bring himself to actually destroy any of it just to be absolutely certain it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands or doom the world. Ford's ego was ultimately his undoing because he couldn't stand the thought of his mark on the world being erased for good.
• Hope Spot: The Stan brothers share a nice moment while discussing how much time has happen and how Stan looks like their dad; it seems they're finally mending their relationship but soon the bad blood between them returns and Ford gives Stan until the end of summer to live in his house.
• Hypocrite: Stan's dad chewed him for "riding on his brother's coattails", while ranting how his mistake cost the family "millions" and their "ticket" out of New Jersey.
• I Have No Son!: Stan's father threw him out of the house after he accidentally sabotaged Ford's project. Ford himself wanted nothing to do with him after that incident. Even in the present day, Ford wants Stan out of the house by the end of the summer, while Stan regards Dipper and Mabel as his only real family.
• Immediate Sequel: Begins immediately after Ford walks out of the portal at the end of the previous episode, "Not What He Seems".
• Impossible Task: Filbrick's demand that Stan earn back the millions losing Ford's scholarship cost the family before he would be allowed to come home. Stan was thrown out before he'd even finished high school, was always derided by everyone around as the "dumber" twin, and self-deprecitavely admits he had no marketable skills whatsoever. Filbrick might as well have just said "Get out and don't bother trying to come back."
• Innocently Insensitive: Ford doesn't realize how hurt Stan would become by the former being called a genius and the latter a clown.
• Irony: Stan initially tries to destroy Journal #1, and his and Ford's fight over it results in Ford being dragged through the portal. That same aforementioned book and the other two Journals Ford wrote would turn out to be instrumental in bring Stan's brother back from the portal.
• It Will Never Catch On: Ford claims Fiddleford was "wasting his talent" attempting to make personal computers.
• Ivy League for Everyone: Subverted; Ford went to his second choice of college which was definitely NOT an Ivy League. He still got a respectable PhD, however.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • When Dipper apologizes for not trusting Stan in the previous episode, Stan admits that, all considered, he wouldn't believe himself either.
  • Being an actual genius, Ford has several moments such as the very beginning with telling off Stan with how much damage the portal could have done and is pretty much committing identity theft by using his name. It's also implied that one reason for his order to hide the journal is because after everything he's learned, Stan could be in danger if he stays by him long enough.
  • Stan of course likewise has a bit of a point when they meet again the second time in their adult lives: Ford just calls him out of the blue, barely explains anything and tries to send him off after having not seen him for years on end. You can't blame Stan for getting angry at this abruptness. Ford's ramblings and continued bitterness certainly didn't help his case.
  • At the end of the episode, Ford gives Stan until the end of the summer, then he's kicking him out of the Mystery Shack. While this will leave Stan homeless and jobless, Ford has every right to want his house and identity back. Expecting him to sleep in the basement and on couches indefinitely in his own home is absurd and he does give Stan time to make other arrangements.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Filbrick was believed to be a tough but fair father who pushed his sons to make them stronger, turns out he actually viewed Stanley as a screwup and Ford as a Meal Ticket.
• Joisey: Very much in play during the flashbacks, showing Glass Shard Beach to be rife with scam artists and get-rich-quick schemes (both Filbrick Pines and his wife, and later, Stan), industrial contamination (the "Lead Paint district" of town) and aggressive anti-intellectualism (their own State Science Fair slogan mocks the participants). Filbrick even mentions that one of his end goals in getting rich was to be able to leave the state for good.
• Just Eat Gilligan: Stan points out that Ford could have just destroyed the journals instead of going to unnecessary lengths to hide them, a plan which would always have the risk that they would be found again.
• Kick the Dog: At the end of the episode, Ford agrees to an Enemy Mine with Stan, until the end of the summer. Then Ford takes back his identity, and Stan will close his lifelong dream, the Mystery Shack, and get lost. Stan agrees as long as Ford stays away from the kids. Probably overlaps with Shoot the Dog since the later episodes explain more about Ford, who even here isn't entirely wrong about wanting back what was his property to begin with.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Pines use the memory erasing gun to wipe the agent's memories.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: After learning that the Author is Stanford and their Grunkle is Stanley, Dipper says he doesn't even know what to call his new Grunkle. Ford saves him and the audience trouble by asking to be called "Ford."
  • Soos' remark "I'm hoping all this lines up exactly with my Fan Fic, Stan. If not, I will be very disappointed" is a pretty obvious reference to the numerous fan theories and conspiracies behind the Author's identity.
  • Soos' 3 AM call to Wendy with his awkward and chaotic attempt to recap the recent reveals around the Pines family is very reminiscent of someone attempting to recap this Wham Episode to someone that isn't nearly as invested in it as they are.
• Literary Allusion Title: With A Tale of Two Cities.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Young Stan gets splinters in the opening but isn't remotely fazed.
• Match Cut: A map of the United States where Ford has marked paranormal anomalies is followed by another map where Stan has crossed off the states where he's been banned from.
• Meaningful Echo: "I don't need you. I don't need anyone". Stanford tells McGucket what Stanley told him years before.
• Mind Screwdriver: This episode is devoted to explaining the massive plot twists of the last twist, being the author and Stan's twin brother.
• A Minor Kidroduction: The episode opens with the Stan Twins as kids.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Ford's horrified reaction when he shoves Stan against the Universe Portal's control console, burning him horribly: "Stanley! Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!"
  • Stan regrets pushing Ford into the portal and possibly losing him forever.
  • Dipper apologizes to Stan for not believing him before, but Stan admits anyone wouldn't have understood.
• Never My Fault: Both Stans are pretty self-centered. Stan can't accept that he accidentally ruined his brother's chances of going to a good college, and that he was a Lazy Bum. Ford can't accept the fact that he treated his brother like the plague, causing the fight that led to his disappearance. Stan in the present has at least owned up to many of his mistakes, especially his own part in said disappearance.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Literally! Stan accidentally breaking Ford's high school project led to them not speaking for ten years.
  • The fight between him and his brother led to Ford ending up on the other side of the portal.
  • Stan also inadvertently caused Susan's lazy eye while showing her a improperly wired radio.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Ford has always been drawn to the strange because of his 6 fingers.
• Noodle Incident: Stan apparently borrowed money from a guy called Rico and hasn't paid back.
• No OSHA Compliance: The only safety precaution the portal has is a black-and-yellow caution line in front of it. Justified in that it's meant to be non-sanctioned and hidden from the government eye, but Ford may have never gotten sucked into the portal if some kind of a railing or safety net had been implemented.
• Not Helping Your Case:
  • Invoked when Stan says that in Dipper's shoes, he wouldn't have believed Stan either, given all the evidence accrued against him in the previous episode.
  • During Stan and Ford's argument, Stan choosing to complain about having a mullet while discussing how bad his life has been probably didn't win him much sympathy.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Whatever McGucket saw on the other side of the portal made him leave the project and warn Ford about "the beast with one eye."
• No, You:
  Stanford: Stanley, you don't understand what I'm up against! What I've been through!
  Stanley: No, no. You don't understand what I've been through!
• Oh, Crap!: Stan when Dipper and Mabel found out his real name was Stanley.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Ford never forgave Stan for accidentally ruining his project and costing him his dream college. When they met for the first time in 10 years and Stan called Ford selfish, Ford brought this event up to Stan, even though that shouldn't matter anymore since despite going to a lesser college than he hoped he still got a PhD and grant 3 years ahead of schedule. Even after Stan rescues him from being trapped between dimensions Ford still says he'll never thank him because of what he did 30 years ago.
• One-Steve Limit: The brothers are both named Stan (short for Stanford and Stanley); Stanford is referred to as "Ford" to avoid confusion.
• Only Friend: Stan and Ford were this to each other until the science fair incident.
• Origins Episode: This episode details where the Mystery Shack came from, how Stan came to be in charge of it, and the reason the journals were written.
• Our Slogan Is Terrible: In two of his sales attempts, Stan tried selling chamois with the tagline "It's a Total Sham!" and band-aids he called "The Rip Off".
• Papa Wolf: Stan tells his brother Ford to stay away from the kids even though Dipper has a lot of questions for Grunkle Ford, since they're the "only real family" he has, the mysteries of Gravity Falls are too dangerous for the kids to explore, and possibly because Ford could also end up putting them in danger with his research.
• Parting-Words Regret: The last thing Stan and Ford do before Ford is sucked through the portal and caught between dimensions for 30 years is get into a fight over Journal#1. At the end of this fight, Stan tells Ford "Some brother you turned out to be. You care more about your dumb mysterious than your family? Than you can have them!" before accidentally pushing him into the portal's pull. After Ford is sucked through and the portal shut down, Stan pounds on the portal, begging Ford to come back and saying he didn't mean it.
• Perpetual Motion Machine: Stanford's science fair project, which Stan then accidentally breaks.
• Persona Non Grata:
  • Grunkle Stan ended up as this after screwing up his brother's science project.
  • Grunkle Stan is seen crossing off both Kansas and Oklahoma on a map of "States I'm Banned In", which includes at least twenty other states.
• Pet the Dog: Despite still holding a grudge towards his brother, Ford acts very nice towards Dipper and Mabel.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • When Stanley learns that Stanford simply got in contact with him in order to get him to dispose of the journal, he loses his cool. Ford in turn pulls the 'you cost me my dream college' accusation but considering that Stan has spent the last ten years living a life of poverty and crime while Ford lived in relative comfort, this comes across as a bit petty.
  • Stan's father lands a pretty brutal one on him when he kicks him out of his home.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: The twins and Soos reconcile with Stan after discovering to all the things he lived through.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Stanford, after getting his PhD, got a large grant to do whatever research he wanted. He went to Gravity Falls to document its oddities, a line of research without any obvious practical applications. Then again, maybe he could have discovered something with unforeseen uses, had he not become obsessed with building a portal.
• Retcon: Younger Stan looks noticeably different than he does in "Dreamscaperers". Hirsch has stated that, since he prefers the designs in this episode, he now considers them to be the official ones, and even said this trope by name in reference to the status of the old ones.
• Rule of Cool: According to the commentary, the reason why younger Stan looks different than in "Dreamscaperers" is because the new designs they drew looked better.
• Sanity Slippage: We see how McGucket lost it, having witnessed something disturbing on the other side of the portal. Ford himself became paranoid after McGucket walked out, and he began hearing strange voices. While narrating, Stanford even lampshades this may have been happening.
  Ford [narrating]: I was in over my head and feared I was losing my sanity.
• Say My Name: STANFORRRRDDDD!!!
• Scars Are Forever: Stan's back marking is actually a burned in brand from being knocked into the portal controls during the fight with his brother.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: McGucket abandons the project after seeing the other side of the portal.
• Self-Made Man: Despite not being able to get into an impressive school, Ford was still able to work his way to a PhD and a research grant. Stan himself started with nothing but was able to turn his brother's lab into a successful tourist trap, while the portal and the journals stayed safely hidden underground.
• Shout-Out:
  • Posters for Bland-Name Product versions of Invasion of the Saucer Men and Mothra appear in the Pine twins' bedroom in the 1960s, along with a MAD-like periodical, "WUH?", on Stan's bunk.
  • When Ford is considering the alternate universes, the screen pans around his study. Here one can see a giant spiked turtle shell next to some mushrooms.
  • When discussing Fiddleford, Stanford scoffs at him making computers in his garage.
  • Mabel tells the Stans to "hug it out."
  • The establishing shot◊ of "Pine's Pawns" in beach town in New Jersey is very reminiscent of the establishing shots of the titular restaurant from Bob's Burgers, which also takes place in a beach town in (probably) New Jersey.
• Sibling Rivalry: The brothers Stan have become this, going from practically joined at the hip as kids to coming to blows as adults.
• Squee: Dipper is very excited to learn more about the journals.
  Ford: (...) I began to keep a journal-
  Dipper: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! THE JOURNALS!! (everyone stares at him)
• The Stinger: Soos at 3 AM after the madness dies down calls Wendy to inform her of what happened. Becomes an Overly Long Gag as he tries to explain which Stan is which.
• Stress Vomit: Dipper almost throws up due to shock over the events of last episode.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: How did Stan end up giving corny tours, all while pretending to be his brother? When coming to a shop to get food for the first time, the townspeople mistook Stan for Ford, and asked if he gave tours of his lab. In the spur of the moment, Stan went with it in order to get a quick buck. And the inspiration to turn the whole thing into a bogus, comedic tourist trap came from Stan making a quick, silly joke.
• Title Drop: Normally not not applicable in a series named after the setting, but it's much more notable a drop in McGucket's prophecy, "When gravity falls and earth becomes sky, fear the beast with just one eye."
• Triumphant Reprise: The music that plays during Ford and Stan’s montages of their lives in Gravity Falls is a version of "Bed: Adventure" from Season 1, but with brass and strings added.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Both of the Stans became this as the years went on. Ford calls up Stan after ten years of silence, all to just give him a journal so that he can continue his research.
• Too Strange to Show: Implied to be what McGucket saw when he was drawn into the Universe Portal. Not only is he shocked and traumatized by what he sees, but when he tries to answer Ford's question about what he saw, he speaks backwards at first!
• Torches and Pitchforks: Stan's various scams in the past typically ended with such a mob chasing him out of the state. Luckily, the first mob were using Stanco-made pitchforks, which fell apart.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Stanley seems to have been constantly eating Toffee Peanuts in high school, which is what tips off Ford to him being the one who broke the perpetual motion machine.
• Twin Switch: Grunkle Stan pulled this off, taking on the identity of his twin brother "Stanford". He faked his death via car crash to seal the deal.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Stan considers Ford to be one because Ford won't thank him for spending decades working to bring him back. Ford doesn't want to because he blames Stan for the accident that exiled him in the first place and because he thinks Stan was wrong to risk the entire universe for one person.
• Unreliable Narrator: A particularly sad example. At one point, Stan talks about how he was doing great living on his own. This was over a scene of him living out his car, reliant on scratch-cards to live, and spending his last cent on calling Ford for help but unable to bring himself to say anything.
• The Unreveal: Before Ford can reveal the mysteries of Gravity Falls to Dipper, Stan interferes and sends the kids to bed.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Ford (and, to a lesser extent, Stan) both can't seem but to leave a series of ruined lives around them wherever they go. Most obvious is Ford accidentally having McGucket Go Mad from the Revelation, but Stan also gets Lazy Susan's left eyelid ruined and scams countless people over the decades before he settles down in Gravity Falls (and even then, he just continues scamming, albeit now more focused on just tourists than before).
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid:
  • Both of the Stans, given they interact the way that Dipper and Mabel do as children.
  • The Shapeshifter was only a baby when Ford found him. It's suspected that Ford's experiments messed with his mind...
• We Used to Be Friends:
  • Stan and Ford used to be a lot closer until that one science fair when Stan destroyed Ford's project by accident.
  • Ford and McGucket were old college buddies until McGucket got sucked into the portal by accident, and then he left since Ford refused to stop his experiments/research.
• Wham Line:
  • For Dipper and Mabel, hearing Ford call their Grunkle "Stanley" instead of "Stanford." Which leads to the out of universe one:
    Ford: Wait, you took my name?!
  • Ford gives one near the end when he says he wants his name returned, the Mystery Shack closed, and Stan to give his house back when the summer is over.
  • Fiddleford gives a minor one after being pulled out of the portal, which doubles as a Call-Back to "Society of the Blind Eye". Namely that he says YROO XRKSVI GIRZMTOV^note BILL CIPHER TRIANGLE backwards... Not to mention:
    Fiddleford: When Gravity Falls and earth becomes sky, fear the beast with just one eye...
  • Another minor one is that after the events of the last episode, Stan manages to clear up at the beginning if he, and by that extent Ford, are actually related to Mabel and Dipper at all.
    Stan: (to Ford about the twins) They're your family, Poindexter. Shermie's grandkids.
• Wham Shot: The Stan twins writing their names in the cave. Not only does it reveal that the one of the twins' names is Stanley, but it has 'Stanford' written in fancy cursive writing; which is quite out of character for Grunkle Stan. It's the first hint to Stan taking his brother's name.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: When Stan received Ford's postcard, he also owed money to somebody named Rico. It's never revealed if Stan paid him or the story behind that.
  • The fates of Filbrick and Caryn Pines aren't known after Stan gets kicked out.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Grunkle Ford during his studies treated some of his test subjects and curious finds with a remarkable lack of courtesy or proper accommodations.
  • It's implied he started experimenting on the Shapeshifter right after he hatched. Makes one wonder if Being Tortured Makes You Evil comes into play...
  • He was happy to catch about a dozen "Eye-Bats" and cram them in a glass jar together to study them. A NORMAL bat would suffocate in such an atmosphere; for the Eye Bats, it must be a case of And I Must Scream.
  • He did seem to treat Scmembulock Senior with courtesy.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Stan gives this a lot to his brother Ford, and he receives a lot of it in turn from both his brother and Dipper and Mabel. The difference between him and his twin is that Stan admitted that he did wrong, while Ford brushes it off.
• When Dimensions Collide: Ford believed that a "dimension of weirdness" was bleeding into our world in the vicinity of Gravity Falls, and set out to prove it.
• Whole Episode Flashback: The primary plot of the episode is the Stan twins telling their life story and how both of them ending up in Gravity Falls.
• Writers Cannot Do Math:
  • In this episode, we learn that Dipper and Mabel's grandfather is Shermy (possibly Sherman) Pines, the younger brother of the Brothers Stan. However, when he's introduced, he's a baby in the arms of his mother, while his brothers were just about to graduate high school. This means that Shermy had to be at least 15 years younger than them. Assuming that the Stans (or, Stanford, at least) graduated when they were 18 (the average age of graduation in America), they would've been around 28 when the 'incident' happened, and 58 in the summer of 2012. That would make Shermy anywhere from 40-43, which is extremely unlikely for a grandfather of two 12-year olds. Some fans speculate that Shermy isn't the baby, but an unseen older sibling, and that the baby could even be one of the twins' parents. Alex Hirsch was notably asked by a fan for clarification on this issue and refused to give a definitive answer.
    • The principal's office features a portrait of Richard Nixon. Nixon became President in 1969 and resigned in 1974, so the episode likely occurred in this time frame. If the baby were Dipper and Mabel's father, that would make him somewhere around 40 in 2012. This seems much more likely for a father of 12-going-on-13 children than a grandfather.
  • Also in this episode, we see that Stanley and Stanford were little kids in the 1960s, which would mean they were born in the 1950s or the early 1960s. The present-day events of the series take place in 2012, so given that Grunkle Stan was most likely born sometime between 1952 and 1962, he should be in his fifties, and certainly not older than 60... Yet in other episodes it's mentioned he's in his seventies.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: After ten years of being estranged from his brother, Stan gets a postcard from Ford asking him to come. He goes, just wants to say hello and connect with his twin... and is given a callous order to take a journal that is Ford's life work. No one in the present blames Stan for losing his temper here except for Ford.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Stan never goes back to New Jersey; it's actually one of the states he's banned from. Ironically, by the time Stan makes enough money to fulfill the Impossible Task his dad set out to him, he's impersonating his brother and unable to reveal himself.

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TIZOLHAJSIW CKMMWZPMKQ: GLY KJQBH. ^note Backupsmore University: You Tried

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