Recap / Gravity Falls S2 E17 "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future"

The future is coming for us all.

The end of August is approaching, and so is Dipper and Mabel's 13th birthday. Mabel is eager to begin party preparations, but Stan refuses to hold the party at the Shack, as the last one ended in a Zombie Apocalypse. Soos suggests that they see if they can use the high school gym, but before the Shack crew can leave, Ford calls for Dipper; the Rift's container is starting to break! If the Rift becomes exposed, Bill Cipher will be able to merge his dimension with Earth's, creating a disaster called "Weirdmageddon". However, Ford has also found an answer to the problem. It's a super-powerful extraterrestrial space-adhesive strong enough to seal up the Rift for good. Ford asks Dipper if he would like to come along, and while Dipper is ecstatic to go on an adventure with the Author, he also doesn't want to leave Mabel behind. Mabel, however, tells Dipper to go on whatever important mission Ford needs, and that they'll stay in contact with walkie-talkies.

Mabel and Soos arrive at the Gravity Falls high school to find the student body signing up for classes. Mabel is disturbed to see how miserable all the teens are, having been taught by TV that high school was like a musical. Wendy asserts that TV's depiction of high school is a lie, and Mabel finds herself needing to talk to Dipper about the future. However, due to the distance, the walkie-talkie's signal doesn't reach.

Ford shows Dipper the hanging cliffs, and explains that the cliffs as well as the valley were created when a flying saucer crash-landed millions of years ago. It's where he and McGucket got the parts to build the Universe Portal, and it's where the space-adhesive is. They enter the craft, with Ford assurances that the UFO is defunct and all of the aliens inside it have been dead for eons. "Probably." Or probably not...

Mabel goes to invite her gal-pals Candy and Grenda to the party, but is told they won't be able to make it. Candy is being sent to music camp, and Grenda is being flown to Germany to spend the weekend with Baron Marius. Mabel is broken to learn that not only will her two friends be unable to make the party, but they won't even be around to say goodbye when she and Dipper leave Gravity Falls.

Inside the UFO, Ford and Dipper find the space-adhesive. There, Ford tells Dipper that he's getting too old to deal with weirdness on his own, and that he needs to train a successor—and if Dipper would like the job. After reading Dipper's own contributions to the Journals, Ford feels his great-nephew would be the perfect apprentice. Dipper is amazed to learn that he's won the Author's respect to such a degree, but also worried. Being Ford's apprentice would mean leaving his family behind in California... including Mabel. He and Mabel have never really been apart, but Ford questions if Dipper is really happy with such an arrangement. Before the discussion can go further, a security probe shows up: the spaceship was still active! Ford tells Dipper that the security works by detecting fear, but Dipper cannot suppress his emotions. Ford gets captured, and the probe prepares to leave the galaxy and take the Author with it. Ford gives the Rift to his nephew to seal, but Dipper, refusing to lose his uncle, brings down the craft in a high-flying adventure. Ford takes what just happened as evidence that Dipper is capable of great things, and could be even greater.

Back at the Shack, Mabel voices her laments and worries to Stan, who tries to assure her that growing up doesn't mean losing everything, and that she at least has her brother to go through with it. Mabel is comforted, until the walkie-talkie activates, allowing her to hear Dipper agree to be Ford's apprentice. When Dipper returns, Mabel is heartbroken at the idea of having to leave Dipper behind. Dipper tries to explain his decision, and that he'll still visit and keep in touch, but that ultimately things can't remain the same; "Look, things aren't gonna stay frozen this way. It's part of growing up. Things change. Summer ends." Unable to accept this truth, Mabel grabs a backpack and flees. Dipper, feeling a bit bad over Mabel, goes to help Ford seal the Rift. But his backpack only has party supplies and flyers. It's Mabel's! Which means the backpack she has belongs to…!

Out in the woods away from the Shack, Mabel is approached by none other than Blendin Blandin. Blendin claims to have overheard her woes, and offers a solution: to freeze Gravity Falls in a "Time Bubble" that will keep summer there from ever ending. All he needs is some weird thing her brother has…the cracking Rift. Mabel, tempted by the opportunity for "Just a little more summer" gives the Rift to Blendin- who shatters it! Laughing maniacally, Blendin takes off his goggles to show that he has Bill Cipher's eyes! With a snap of his fingers, Bill knocks Mabel out and leaves Blendin's body. He then tears open a hole in the sky, ecstatic that the day he's waited for has finally arrived.

Dipper and Ford hurry out of the Shack just in time to see the tear between worlds widen. "It's the end of the world."

TO BE CONTINUED

*cue silent and ominous credits*

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Tropes in this episode:

• A Birthday, Not a Break: Mabel gives permission for Dipper to go off and help Ford "save the world" instead of planning their celebration. Ironically, she ends up accidentally causing the end of the world just a week before their birthday.
• Aesop Amnesia: All of the Aesops Mabel should have learned are being ignored here; not much "If I love them, I should let them go" (from "Boyz Crazy"), "I can't expect my brother to give up everything for my sake" (from "Sock Opera") or even "Using strange weird things to interfere with people's lives is wrong" (from "The Love God"). Her emotional state is in the gutter after having everything she thought she could count on (TV's depiction of high school, and Stan's assurance that Dipper will always be there) shot down in the space of a day. She only hesitates a second before giving up the weird thing in her brother's backpack if it means not facing the future, and inadvertently allows Bill Cipher to bring about a World Gone Mad.
• Always Save the Girl: When the alien pod captures Ford, the latter orders Dipper to seal the rift rather than save him. Dipper defies orders and manages to save his uncle without breaking the rift. Ford, rather than lecturing him about The Needs of the Many, is impressed.
• Ancient Astronauts: A spaceship crashed on the present site of Gravity Falls millions of years ago. Ford speculates whether the crash caused the anomalies in the area, or whether the anomalies caused the crash.
• Apocalypse How: The rift finally breaks free of its containment sphere, and boy does it turn everything from bad to worse.
• Apocalypse Maiden: To everyone's surprise, Mabel. In a moment of emotional instability, she makes a sympathetic but incredibly destructive mistake, which ends up turning the world into Hell on Earth.
• Arc Words: The words "future" and "time" are mentioned often... which turns out to be foreshadowing for who Bill's chosen vessel is.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When Dipper is unsure of being Ford's apprentice, particularly since he and Mabel have never really been apart, Ford asks, "And isn't that suffocating? Haven't you ever felt you were meant for something more?"
• Badass Fingersnap: Bill knocks Mabel out just by snapping his fingers, which shows how powerful he is now that the Earth and the Nightmare Realm are merged.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The episode ends with the rift being broken and Bill starting Weirdmageddon. The credits scene showcases the terrified screams of citizens while Dipper and Mabel's birthday card blows in the wind.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • Mabel is excited to go to high school next year, and confides in Dipper that they'll be taught about "You know..." Dipper eagerly replies "Trigonometry?" It turns out that was indeed what Mabel meant.
  • At the end of the episode, Mabel planning to have Blendin freeze time for all of Gravity Falls has enough terrifying implications that it could realistically be the 'wham' that was promised. There was even some ominous-sounding Foreshadowing (like "growing up is optional") that supported it. Then Blendin takes off his goggles...
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Mabel makes a wish for time to stop so she would never have to face her problems and Dipper would never be able to grow up and leave her. "Blendin" offers her a "Time Bubble" to do just that, if only she'd hand over a mysterious item in her brother's possession. She does and gets her wish fulfilled — by Bill.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: Mabel inadvertently rips into one of her own network's biggest cash cows when she realizes TV lied about what high school is really like.
• Break the Comedian: After everything the episode throws at her, Mabel is in no position to be funny about anything.
• Break the Cutie: This episode is just one broken dream after another for Mabel. High school turns out to be much less glamorous than she thought, her friends won't be able to attend her birthday party, and Dipper is planning to become Ford's apprentice, so she won't even have Dipper to rely on when summer ends. Mabel is left emotionally vulnerable to the manipulations of Bill Cipher.
• Call-Back:
  • Stan refuses to hold a another party after the Zombie Apocalypse that was caused in "Scary-oke".
  • The rift container Ford showed Dipper back in "Dungeons, Dungeons, & More Dungeons" returns, now starting to crack.
  • Blendin recalls that Mabel and Dipper did a favor for him back in "Blendin's Game", which he cites as the motivation for offering her a deal.
  • Dipper and Mabel have finally grown apart the way Ford and Stan did, as Mabel feared after hearing the tale of her uncles.
  • Bill's ominous warning in his first appearance was that "A day will come in the future where everything you care about will change." Besides being a theme throughout this episode, the journal cryptogram calls back to the specific wording.
    The prophecy seemed far away, but finally we've reached the day. Give up the past. Embrace the strange. Everything you care about will change.
  • The words Bill said to Ford in "The Last Mabelcorn" are unconsciously repeated by Dipper to Mabel just before she breaks down: "Things change." And as implied then, those words now are the prelude to Bill's triumph.
• Cast as a Mask: While the audience heard Bill's voice the last time he possessed someone, it was implied Bill was capable of disguising his voice to sound like whoever he's possessing, because no character noticed the difference. This become explicit in this episode, as Bill-possessed-Blendin speaks with Blendin's voice until he reveals his identity.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Aside from a lighthearted intro with Dipper and Mabel goofing around, this episode is played completely seriously, ending on the darkest note in the entire show.
• Cliffhanger: Bill has opened the portal to the Nightmare Realm and things are about to get hairy. The credits sequence leaves us with red lightning and people screaming in the background, but those are the only hints of what's to come.
• Cloud Cuckoolander:
  • Mabel wakes Dipper by standing over him and using her chin as a puppet. Given Dipper's reaction, this is not the first time.
  • Ford's method of shaving involves setting his face on fire because it's faster.
• Commended for Pushback: Dipper is initially unable to control his fear in front of the security droids, resulting in Ford getting captured. Dipper chases after the droid and stands up to it, refusing to let it take Ford. The droid takes Dipper's lack of adrenaline as a sign that the threat was neutralized, and disables itself.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Grunkle Stan refuses to host Dipper and Mabel's birthday party after "that zombie incident" in "Scary-oke".
  • Grenda is still in a relationship with Marius from "Northwest Mansion Mystery".
  • Ford has read the new information Dipper has been adding to Journal #3, like the Gnomes' weakness being "leaf blowers" all the way back in the first episode.
  • Tyler Cutebiker is wearing a Mayor sash.
  • Mabel returns to Sweater Town.
  • Bill is possessing Blendin Blandin, who was seen as one of his possible suggestions outside the Mystery Shack during The Stinger of "The Last Mabelcorn". The possessed Blendin also brings up the favour Mabel did for him in "Blendin's Game".
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • Mabel visits the school gym just as Wendy feels like ranting about how awful the future is. The non-functioning walkie-talkie suddenly starts working just in time for Mabel to hear Dipper's acceptance of Ford's offer. Really, everywhere she goes during the episode, someone's implying or directly stating how unhappy Mabel's future will be.
  • The way Bill gets to open the portal to his dimension depends on pure chance, as it wouldn't have worked if Dipper hadn't fixed the orb as soon as he could, if Mabel hadn't accidentally picked up Dipper's backpack, and if Mabel hadn't been kept in the dark about what the orb is.
• Cross-Referenced Titles: With "Dipper vs. Manliness".
• Darker and Edgier: Not only is this episode devoid of jokes and lighthearted moments, the ending marks this as the darkest episode in not just the season, but the entire series.
• Deal with the Devil: A concealed version of this occurs when Blendin offers to put Gravity Falls in a Time Stop "bubble" if Mabel would give him the orb containing the Rift. Mabel finds it among Dipper's things (without knowing its true significance) and gives it to him, only discovering afterwards that Blendin was possessed by Bill, who had likely ambushed Blendin beforehand.
• Divided We Fall: Mabel and Dipper end up drifting away due to their conflicting interests, which made it easier for Bill to take advantage of Mabel.
• Downer Ending: Mabel and Dipper end up in an argument that ends with her running off into the woods crying, unwittingly taking the rift with her. But that's not the real bad part. Blendin Blandin shows up offering to help her have an eternal summer in exchange for the rift. She obliges... only for him to smash it open, laugh maniacally and remove his goggles... REVEALING BILL CIPHER'S GOLDEN EYES BEFORE HE KNOCKS HER OUT. He then pops out of Blendin, rises up and projects the rift into the sky, laughing maniacally while Ford and Dipper can only watch in horror as Weirdmageddon begins.
• Dramatic Irony: Mabel's tearful talk with Stan invokes a bit of Misery Poker for the viewer, who knows that Stan is going to be homeless in a week while Mabel will be returning home. Stan doesn't bring up that subject because he doesn't want to worry her, though he's been doing Retail Therapy through mail-order catalogs.
• The End of the World as We Know It: The dimension of Earth has begun merging with that of nightmares, giving demons like Bill just as much power there as they have in dreams.
  Ford: It's the end of the world.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Mabel, thinking Dipper's company is the one thing she'll be able to rely on once summer ends, overhears Dipper accepting Ford's offer to become his apprentice. Because Dipper's presence was something she counted on being with her forever, she regards his decision as a huge offense against her and runs away when he tries to talk with her.
• Evil Laugh: Bill lets out a bone-chilling one when his plan to merge Earth and the Nightmare Realm finally comes to fruition.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Mabel walked in on Dipper and Ford just in time to miss them talking about the rift. Later, she begins listening to the walkie-talkie Dipper is holding exactly when he decides to become Ford's apprentice.
• Failed Attempt at Drama:
  • Dipper can't take Mabel seriously when she yells "The future!" because of the face on the chin.
  • Dipper tries to run dramatically after Ford, only to run into the wall and then trip on his way out.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Blendin's camouflage gear works perfectly when he approaches Mabel. He's not in his normal state of mind...
• Fly-at-the-Camera Ending: The final scene has Bill flying towards the screen, eye ablaze.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: After Bill succeeds in destroying and freeing the rift, we get an extreme close-up of his eye front and center as he rambles, almost as if he's staring at the audience.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • The alien ship is full of writing on the walls in Bill Cipher's secret code from Dipper and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun, including "BETTY AND BARNEY WERE HERE" and, more chillingly, a message written in blood that seems to be a reference to the Shape-Shifter from "Into the Bunker" ("SPECIMEN HAS ESCAPED IS CHANGING FORM").
  • The flier for the Mystery Twins' birthday pins it as August 31, making them Virgos.
  • When Mabel flees the twins' room in sadness, she can be seen grabbing Dipper's backpack without even knowing it.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: Ford offers Dipper an apprenticeship in Gravity Falls, which means Dipper wouldn't be returning home to Piedmont with Mabel. Dipper decides to accept the apprenticeship, which Mabel learns via the walkie talkie Dipper left at the Mystery Shack, to her chagrin.
• From Bad to Worse: This episode marks this in both the series and the episode itself. While Dipper has what he considers the best day in a long time, Mabel has her worst; her naïve ideal of high school is destroyed and her friends can't come to her birthday party. She's inconsolable until Stan tries to cheer her up by reminding her that she'll always have her brother — right before Mabel hears that Dipper's agreed to become Ford's apprentice and stay in Gravity Falls after the summer is over. When Dipper comes in, happy and oblivious to Mabel's despair, she starts crying at the thought of him taking Ford's offer without her permission, and then runs out after becoming more upset when he tries to explain, because his reasons all have to due with what upset her in the first place — summer's ending, the future is coming, and Dipper's got to decide his life for himself. Mabel becomes so upset she retreats to Sweater Town, wishing that summer would never end, until Blendin Blandin finds her, offering to grant her wish by freezing time for all of Gravity Falls forever. Too emotional to notice the warning signs, Mabel follows his instructions to search her brother's bag for the rift — which Blendin, revealed to be possessed by Bill, smashes to pieces. He puts Mabel to sleep and starts the apocalypse, and the episode ends with the terrified screams of the unseen Gravity Falls townsfolk.
• Generation Xerox: After being a major theme throughout the second half of the season, this episode finally Deconstructs it. Ford's belief that Mabel weighs Dipper down is a reaction to his own upbringing (and the crushing weight of being both the sole outlet for his parents' dreams and the sole emotional support for his twin), not an honest assessment of Dipper's situation. Dipper may have similar talents and interests as Ford — but he doesn't see having a twin as a burden, and this episode shows that he doesn't quell fear with logic like Ford does, either. Dipper can use his brain well in a tight spot and has a dangerous curiosity for the strange, but when things get deadly, his courage comes from passion and protective instinct, not cool logic. In this way he's not at all like Ford in personality, despite being like Ford in interests. Dipper and Mabel are their own unique individuals, not Stan and Ford 2.0. Ford just can't see this over his own assumptions.
• The Glasses Come Off: A truly epic variation, when "Blendin" takes off his goggles to reveal he's under the control of Bill Cipher.
• Growing Up Sucks: Mabel feels like her next birthday will be the end of her life as she knows it, what with seeing the teenagers fretting over the upcoming semester, her two best friends in Gravity Falls leaving before the birthday party for various reason (Grenda being invited to spend some time with the Baron from "Northwest Manor Mystery" and Candy being forced to go to music camp) and the final straw of overhearing Dipper accepting Ford's offer to be his apprentice, meaning he won't return home with her once the summer ends.
• Hell Gate: The rift creates a vast cross-shaped hole in the sky that allows the Nightmare Realm through.
• History Repeats:
  • An intellectually gifted boy is given what he considers to be the chance of a lifetime, but it will require him to live separately from his twin sibling for long periods of time. Out of fear of being separated, his twin has an emotional outburst and attempts to stop the brother from taking this chance so he can never leave them, only for the attempt to go way further than they intended. Instead of just blocking the opportunity for separation, this sibling accidentally undoes all their twin's hard work, leaving disaster in their wake. Dipper and Mabel (and the latter's attempt to freeze both of them in time forever), or Stanford and Stanley (and the latter's fit of anger at his brother's science project)?
  • Once again the fate of the world lies in Mabel's hands, and she goes with her heart rather than with her mind. This time, though, it comes back to bite her in a world-ending way.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Ford not realizing how much Dipper leaving would hurt Mabel when offering Dipper the apprenticeship leads to Mabel unknowingly giving the rift to Bill. Dipper's love for Ford and his exploits into the paranormal also contributes to Mabel's departure. Mabel's paranoia about the future and growing awareness of the problems in her relationship with Dipper (which, despite being briefly brought up in nearly every episode since "A Tale of Two Stans", is a topic Mabel has avoided) contributes to her Heroic BSoD during the episode and her unwillingness to talk it out with Dipper towards the end. Her following drastic attempt to avoid the problem by force everyone she knows to stay the same forever causes the apocalypse.
• Is This Thing Still On?: Dipper's walkie-talkie turns on when Ford makes his deal for him to become his apprentice, and Mabel hears the whole thing through her own walkie-talkie.
• It's All About Me: Dipper possibly leaving to become Ford's apprentice and chase his dreams by himself actually scares Mabel into admitting that she doesn't care if it's a good opportunity for him, what matters is if it's a good opportunity for her, because she'll be alone for the first time if he does this and that terrifies her. Granted, she was under extreme emotional stress and definitely wasn't thinking clearly.
  Mabel: Ford's apprentice? Seriously?
  Dipper: Look, I was thinking, and... this is a huge opportunity for me—
  Mabel: Well, it's a horrible opportunity for me! I had the worst day of my life! When we turn thirteen, summer ends, and I have to leave everything behind. You're the only person I can count on, and now you're leaving me, too!
  Dipper: Look, I've been thinking about it. I won't be gone forever, okay? I'll still visit you at home, and we'll chat online. We'll make it work.
  Mabel: I don't want it to work!
• Impact Silhouette: The strange crack on the gorge near Gravity Falls was caused by the crash of an ancient spaceship, as Ford demonstrates to Dipper by dangling his UFO keychain in front of it.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While he could've worded it in a nicer way, Ford is unfortunately right in saying that the twins will have to part eventually. The problem lay in that he phrased it as giving Dipper everything he'd ever wanted while brushing Mabel off as "suffocating", projecting his own troubles on the younger Pines twins, at a time when Mabel needed reassurance.
• Just Ignore It: The security droids. Since they react to adrenaline, the most effective method is to control your fear and ignore them, but Dipper can't. Dipper eventually faces one down, but since he no longer fears it, it simply shuts off.
• Knight of Cerebus: Bill. When he takes off Blendin's goggles to reveal his eyes, it is terrifying.
• Large Ham: Bill. He's a little enthusiastic about finally destroying the rift.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Of a dark sort; Ford was dismissive of Mabel in this episode when offering Dipper the apprenticeship. Mabel ends up undoing his and Dipper's work to keep the rift safe.
  • Mabel's selfishness also caused her to unintentionally help Bill destroy the rift and end the world.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Had Mabel simply been told what the rift was and what Bill would do to get it, she would never have handed it over.
• Manipulative Bastard: Bill, as usual, but at his most successful yet.
• Menstrual Menace: Wendy implicitly refers to this when listing off the awful things about entering adulthood at the high school.
• Moral Luck: Dipper chases after the alien pod to rescue Ford, even though he risks breaking the rift or leaving no one behind who can seal it, thus endangering the whole universe. Ford told him to prioritize sealing the rift, but after Dipper narrowly succeeds at saving both, Ford doesn't question his actions.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Ford offering Dipper an apprenticeship in Gravity Falls after his thirteenth birthday unknowingly forces Mabel to confront one of her deepest fears. Her escapist attempt to freeze time leads directly to Bill getting his hands on the rift.
  • Dipper and Ford keeping the rift a secret from Mabel leads to her giving it to Bill without knowing what it is.
  • Mabel's attempt to bargain with Blendin so he'll freeze time in Gravity Falls causes Bill to win since she gives him the rift, unknowingly allowing an Apocalypse How.
  • In retrospect, if Dipper had done what Ford asked and sealed the rift with the adhesive earlier instead of chasing after the probe that took Ford, Bill wouldn't have been able to shatter it.
• Nothing Is Scarier:
  • The episode ends before we find out how Bill manipulated Blendin, and what deal they made. And Blendin was happy in his last appearance.
  • The last scene before the credits is Bill turning Earth into a nightmare. The credits clip is just a shot of a crumpled-up invite to the party as the screams and lamentations of the entire town can be heard in the background, alongside various explosions and a helicopter flying past.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Dipper has it when he realizes Mabel took the wrong backpack.
  • Mabel has it when she realizes she was actually dealing with Bill, not Blendin Blandin.
  • Lastly, everyone in Gravity Falls when they realize it's the end of the world as they know it.
• Passing the Torch: Invoked by Ford; he's aware that he's getting old, and Gravity Falls will need someone to keep track of its weirdness. He offers Dipper a chance to be that someone, noting that Dipper's past experience makes him the prime candidate.
• Picking Up The Wrong Bag: A distraught Mabel picks up Dipper's bag by mistake when she runs off. Sadly, she pays the price for it, since she isn't aware of the extreme importance of Dipper's belongings while handling them.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Mabel having all of her unrealistic expectations of the future shot down in one day, plus her paranoia over Dipper leaving her and her fear of growing up, plus Dipper's lack of knowledge of this fear due to him being distracted by Ford and the possible end of the world, plus Dipper getting the opportunity of his dreams requiring him to live separately from Mabel, equals one damaged relationship, two broken hearts, one horrifying attempt at freezing Gravity Falls so everything is the same a little longer, and one broken rift.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Because Mabel wasn't informed about the dangers Ford and Dipper were dealing with, she used the rift as a bargaining chip in a deal with Bill-possessed Blendin, never realizing what a horrible mistake this was until Blendin took off his goggles.
  • For the last few episodes, Mabel has become more and more aware of the flaws in her and Dipper's relationship, and more and more afraid their relationship will collapse. However, besides a brief mention of them at the end of "A Tale of Two Stans", she's avoided discussing these fears with Dipper. While Dipper knew Mabel might get a little lonely without him, Word of God says they weren't nearly as close at home as they have been in Gravity Falls, meaning he probably assumed she'd just go back to how she was without him. Because Mabel avoided talking about her concerns, Dipper didn't know how exactly how sensitive she was to discussing the future and their possible separation until she was already crying and furious. Basically, they both stopped communicating for fear of damaging their relationships, and that exact lack of communication is what destroyed them.
• Psychological Projection: Both of the older twins project their baggage about their own relationship onto the younger twins to some degree.
  • Ford interprets Dipper and Mabel's closeness as suffocating codependency because (fairly or not) that's how he remembers his childhood with Stan, and he fails to recognize that other siblings might have a healthier relationship.
  • Stan tells Mabel that she has no reason to fear the future because her brother will always be by her side, projecting his wish that he and Ford had stayed together forever onto the younger twins.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: In the cold open, Mabel announces that her chin puppet has a message. Dipper asks if it's the message that they're getting too old for this. While intended sarcastically, Mabel admits that he was right and that she meant their upcoming birthday.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Ford and Dipper's quest to find adhesive for the rift. After nearly getting launched into outer space and facing killer droids, not to mention getting a few head injuries, they lose the rift thanks to a misplaced backpack, an informational lock-out, and Mabel's emotional breakdown.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Soos disappears after the second act of the episode, which makes way for the dramatic part of the third act.
• Shout-Out:
  • Mabel's idea of high school:
    Mabel: TV taught me high school was like some sort of musical.
  • The prison pod looks like the ship from Flight of the Navigator.
  • The Weirdmageddon begins with a giant cross-shaped rift in the sky.
• Silent Credits: Rather than a gag, the credits hold a fixed angle on a discarded poster for the birthday party with screams, rumbles and crashes of thunder heard in the background.
• Stealth Pun: A rift occurs in this episode figuratively between Dipper and Mabel, and literally between dimensions.
• Stepford Smiler: Stan when Mabel talks about how she doesn't want to leave Gravity Falls. Although he has his own problems — namely Ford kicking him out and leaving Stan without a proper identity or home — he prioritizes cheering up Mabel, partly out of envy for how well she and Dipper get along.
• Take a Third Option: Ford believes that to get the rift, Bill would resort to either deception or Demonic Possession. Turns out he uses both.
• Take That!:
  • Mabel asks what about the old Disney Channel adage of following your dreams. Particularly about a certain musical set in high school. Wendy retorts with:
    Wendy: TV lied, man!
  • One of the ciphers in the alien spacecraft reads, "Thetans, half price".
• Teens Are Monsters: When Wendy is telling Mabel why high school is terrible, the thing even worse than super hard classes or your body turning against you is that everyone hates you.
• That Came Out Wrong: Dipper defends his choice to become Ford's apprentice to Mabel, and while he's right in that change is part of life, his wording couldn't have hit Mabel's fears more on the nose if he'd tried.
  Dipper: Look, things aren't gonna stay frozen this way. It's part of growing up. Things change. Summer ends.
  (Mabel yells and runs away)
  Dipper: Ah! Mabel, wait! I didn't mean it like that! Mabel, come back!
• That's No Moon: Ford shows Dipper that the hill they're standing on is the remains of the spaceship that crashed millions of years ago.
• Troubled Fetal Position:
  • Thompson crawls up in a ball, unable to cope with high school coming.
  • Mabel lays on her bed this way, over the sheets, until Dipper returns.
  • Saddest of all, Mabel returns to Sweater Town at the episode's end, leaving her the perfect target for Bill.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Mabel and her friends fought and obtained unicorn hair to protect the Shack, something even Ford couldn't do, but this episode shows that he still doesn't understand how Dipper could possibly need her. In large part, this is him projecting his and Stan's relationship onto Dipper and Mabel, where Stan's attempts to keep Ford at his side probably felt restrictive due to everyone in Ford's life emphasizing how Ford was responsible for the family's future and Stan was just "riding on [his] brother's coattails."
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: According to Ford, while Dipper's reaction to the confirmation of aliens still has a punch, to him it's 'meh'.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • By refusing to host the twins' birthday at the Shack, Stan is responsible for Mabel going to the high school and learning how "terrible" it will be, starting her breakdown. He seems to realize it when she confides in him afterward, given his worried, guilty expression, though he doesn't relent on the matter.
  • Wendy ranting about how terrible high school is while not realizing how it would affect Mabel's psyche. It stands out given how protective Wendy is normally of Mabel. Likewise, neither Candy nor Grenda suggest having the party a day or a few days before the twins' actual birthday when they reveal they have scheduling conflicts.
  • Mabel became so frightened by the idea of growing up and being separated from her brother that she gave the rift her brother and uncle tried so hard to protect over to Blendin Blandin, who promised he would use it to freeze time for her so she and the rest of Gravity Falls would never change. Instead, Blendin revealed himself to be possessed by Bill, who promptly broke it and began the apocalypse.
• Walkie-Talkie Static: Mabel tries to contact Dipper but all she gets is static, first from the distance and second because they're inside the spaceship.
• Wham Episode: In one of the most shocking twists yet; Bill achieves his goal of unleashing the dimensional rift, opening a hole in the sky that will end the world. And how does he achieve it? Through Mabel.
• Wham Shot:
  • Dipper reaches into to the bag for the rift, only to take out Mabel's birthday flier, realizing she took the wrong backpack.
  • Blendin smashes the rift and removes his goggles, revealing he's been possessed by Bill.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Mabel tearfully confronts Dipper after learning he accepted Ford's offer to be his apprentice without bothering to talk it over with her.
  "I had the worst day of my life! When we turn thirteen, the summer ends, and I have to leave everything behind. You're the only person I can count on and now you're leaving me too!?"
• With a Foot on the Bus: Ford is captured in an alien pod which tries to take him into space, but Dipper saves him before he takes off.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: Grunkle Stan says he's nearly seventy. Given he and Ford were children in "nineteen sixty-something" and that Stan was a young man sometime in the 1970s, he should be much closer to sixty. Of course, as his whole point was to make Mabel feel better about growing up, he could be exaggerating.
• You Are Too Late: Ford concedes "We're too late" when he and Dipper see that Bill has opened the gate to his world.

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ETX CPI ASTD GI? ^note Did you miss me?

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