2x17 Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future

[7.9/10] Another Gravity Falls episode where I really like both halves of it. On the Dipper side of things, we get another big chunk of the mystery solved. The strange gap in the stonework of the town is the result of a crashed UFO, one that accounts for both the unique technology and parts Ford was able to work with, as well as the unique letters around town and on various key objects. While mixing aliens into the more mystical supernatural weirdness of the show could be considered a hat on a hat, I actually like the mixing of genres here, as the chicken-and-the-egg questions of whether the dimensional rift attracted the aliens or the aliens caused the dimensional rift helps make the two big pieces of lore dovetail together.

On a more individual story level, I like Dipper teaming with Ford to try to find the alien adhesive to seal up the dimensional rift that would otherwise allow Cipher Bill and his cronies to get into our world. For one thing, the pure adventure of it is fun. Seeing the grunkle and nephew spelunk together through a buried UFO in an Indiana Jones-style caper, getting around via magnet guns and combatting alien probe and defense droids is entertaining visually and provides plenty of thrills.

But it’s also a good character story for Dipper. His Grunkle Ford’s offer to take him on as an apprentice to carry on his work studying mysteries in Gravity Falls is intriguing for multiple reasons. But in the immediate term, I like the idea that Dipper worries he isn’t good enough, too nervous and scared and bungling to be able to father in his brave, genius Grunkle’s footsteps. The episode dramatizes that well with him screwing up the descent with the magnet gun and causing other unfortunate shenanigans.

And yet, it also seizes on what makes Dipper great and worthy -- his willingness to stand up and protect his family and the other people that he cares about. The defense droids who attack or relent based on what amount of fear they can detect are a sharp device to illustrate that idea. In a neutral scenario, Dipper is petrified, lacking his older relative’s calm under pressure and kicking off the threat. But when it comes time to defend Ford, as is so often the case, Dipper rises to the occasion because of his love for his family, and it gives him a clarity of purpose and strength of will that shows, despite his flaws and his tender age, he is more than up for these challenges.

(As an aside, it’s hard not to consider Ford a little reckless with his nephew’s safety through all of this. I’m not sure if the show wants us to notice that and question whether Ford has Stan’s ability to put the kids’ well-being over his own, or if it just wants us to go along for the ride and not think too hard about it, but given the prospect of Dipper joining in Ford’s work long term, it stood out to me.)

Despite that, Mabel’s side of the episode hit me harder because it’s more relatable. She and Dipper’s birthdays are hitting on August 31st, and it marks both the end of their summer and, in many ways, the end of their childhood. At first, Mabel’s excited about what’s around the corner, but between warnings about high school from Wendy, impending absences from Grenda and Candy, and the realization that all the fun and joy they’ve had in Gravity Falls will have to come to an end, she quickly shifts from being enthusiastic to being despondent.

Who can blame her? It’s easy for many folks to have a rosy-eyed view of their childhoods. I imagine creator Alex Hirsch certainly does, given that his became the foundation of this show. High school and adolescence are challenging at the best of times. Summer friends and experiences last in our memories with a golden hue. The fog of melancholy that descends of Mabel in the wake of these realizations, particularly one that breaks her innate sunniness, is both pitiable and relatable.

There’s a meta quality to it as well, which I appreciate. Mabel doesn’t want her summer in Gravity Falls to end, and we, the audience, don’t want Gravity Falls itself to end. And yet, as the episode points out, change is a part of life. I’m a fan of The Simpsons, and let me tell you, even transcendent shows lasting forever isn’t necessarily a good thing. Still, Mabel coming to terms with the end of all of these experiences mirrors the audience doing the same.

The straw that breaks the camel’s back is her overhearing Dipper accept Ford’s offer to become his apprentice and stay in Gravity Falls. As Stan consoles Mabel, he tells her that even if their summer together winds down, she’ll still have Dipper to fall back on. The two have been thick as thieves and a source of solace and support for one another. Now, this part of her normal life, this thing that’s always been there, will be taken away from her too, a kick when she’s already down.

It’s downright heartbreaking. More to the point, it is history repeating itself. Recent episodes have suggested there’s a certain concordance between Dipper and Ford on the one hand and Mabel and Stan on the other. Here is another pair of adorably close twins, set to be broken apart so that one can pursue the future they’ve dreamed of while another feels left behind and bereft of their best friend. It would be sad enough to split up Dipper and Mabel, but the fact that it points them toward the same sort of estrangement and disappointment that Stan and Ford have experienced, perpetuating that cycle, makes it that much sadder.

Which makes it that much more understandable why Mabel would be so desperate to avoid it. One of the things I like about Cipher Bill, and the moments that our heroes choose to trust him, knowingly or not, is that he preys on that sort of desperation and were emotionally vulnerable. Dipper when he ran out of time to crack the laptop code and felt put out by his sister. Ford when he’d run into a wall unraveling Gravity Falls’ mysteries and Bill filled the gnawing absence left by Stan as a partner and friend. And now Mabel, hurt by the person she’s closest too and experiencing the natural desire for all of this to last just a little longer.

The fact that it’s the time traveler who ostensibly invites her to use his talents, hiding Bill behind his glasses, is a predictable but no less effective twist. And here comes Weirdmageddon, the fate of the world hanging in the balance and a rift not only opening between our dimension and one of unspeakable demonic horrors, but between two siblings who care deeply for one another but seem poised to follow the same paths their great uncles did. The fact that Gravity Falls makes us as invested in the one as in the other is a hell of an achievement, and points the way to a momentous endgame for this engrossing show.