We all knew this day would come, but we didn’t think it would come so soon. It’s the end of an era in cartoons. Gravity Falls is over.
Alex Hirsch, creator of Gravity Falls, a show and world where the impossible is possible and the possible is pretty extraordinary. Alex, who feels like a best friend by this point, has not only given us the best and most epic of send offs in the hour long finale “Weirdmageddon: Take Back The Falls,” but he has given us a show that we can hold onto for the rest of our lives. During the course of a summer, he has taken us on a journey with the Pines Twins that they, and we, will never forget. He made the summer as cool and as weird as he can possibly get away with, and personally, I can’t thank him enough.
Before we get into the review of “Weirdmageddon: Take Back The Falls” and a grand farewell to Gravity Falls. Let’s catch up on some events. Warning for all, there will be some slight spoilers from here on out.
Before the events of Weirdmageddon, the Pines Family were at odds with one another. The twins’ thirteenth birthday is approaching and the fate of the world is within Ford’s six fingers—literally. He carries around with him a small sphere that contains the rift in dimensional space time from his machine.
There are a couple of things that each member of the family have to deal with before they leave this summer behind. After saving his brother from the inter-dimensional vortex machine, Stanford just wants a little recognition for the things he’s done right from Ford. Ford wants to find that special someone that he can trust and work with in his odd findings and realizes Dipper is the only person for the job. Dipper is too in awe of Ford and wants him to be his new assistant. He’s making a huge deal about it, and ends up hurting Mabel’s feelings in the process. Mabel’s emotions are up and down by this point. She realizes that being a teenager isn’t going to be all she thought it would be and has a very hard time when Dipper tells her that “summer ends” and that they have to grow up. It’s a blow. Mabel runs off and does something that can cause harm to Gravity Falls to have summer just last a bit longer. She hands over Ford’s small sphere that holds the rift in dimensional space-time to Blending Blandin, who acts as a vessel for Gravity Falls, ONE of the many stops on his list for ultimate disguised Bill Cipher. Pretty intense, right?
This catches us up to the larger events of Gravity Falls called: WEIRDMAGEDDON. The events of Weirdmageddon are what happens when Bill Cipher shifts his world into our reality, which is honestly, just as fantastic and strange as it sounds. He brings the “criminals and nightmares that he calls his friends” into the world to help run the town for a “party that never stops.” Gravity Falls is ONE of the many stops on his list for ultimate take over. Our “unholy triangle fella” dreams just a bit bigger. He wants to spread his weirdness and chaos all throughout the world. There’s only one teeny, tiny thing stopping him. Gravity Falls has a “natural law of weirdness magnetism,” which basically means Gravity Falls is the space where weird things are bubbled inside. If things get too weird, it will basically be confined into one giant dome around Gravity Falls where it can’t escape. This is where we are now in our very last Gravity Falls episode: “Weirdmageddon: Take Back The Falls.”
Just in case you haven’t seen the episode yet, there will be no EXACT spoilers, but some highlights instead.
“Weirdmageddon: Take Back The Falls” is the finale to end all finales, and it starts exactly where “Weirdmageddon: Escape from Reality” leaves off. The Twins, Wendy, and Soos are finally reunited with their Grunkle Stan and the remaining townspeople. Ford is still captured by Bill and getting tortured for information to get the weird to go global. There were so many little things within the episode that makes us Gravity Falls fans and theorists squee with joy.
There has always been parallels between Stan and Ford to Dipper and Mabel, mainly because they’re both twins, but also in the way they act and treat one another. Dipper and Mabel find out that they are going to be alright together whatever comes their way. Just when you think all hope is lost for Stan and Ford, there’s something that always pulls them together, then apart, then back together again. It’s almost a shame that we only get to see little glimpses of how they work well together, but in the end they take a lesson from Dipper and Mabel’s relationship. Knowing that, they can stick with each other through thick and thin like Dipper and Mabel, encouraging one another and never parting even when things get rough. In realizing how they should have been acting towards one another instead of how they have been, the show wraps up Stan and Ford’s sibling arc with amazing grace and rounds out the message that family is forever.
If there’s one thing you can take from Gravity Falls it is that it is insanely character driven. This episode has almost everyone coming together, and in some shows, that might not be a good thing, but in this case, it was damn fine. Everyone in Gravity Falls holds a piece of a puzzle and connects to each other in a huge way. It’s almost not fair how perfectly honest Alex made these characters appear while still connecting them to something as strange as the town Gravity Falls.
The reason I mention this is because there was a mystery that a lot of people have been trying to figure out since the beginning of the show. I’ve even spend countless amounts of Tumblr time trying to figure it out. In Bill Cipher wheel, there are symbols displayed all around him. Most of the symbols are taken literal to connect with the characters such as: Soos’ question mark, Mabel’s shooting star, Dipper’s pine tree, Robbie’s heart, etc. But there were three symbols that people could not figure out. This is where the revisitation of symbolism throughout Gravity Falls becomes brilliant as well. There’s no way you could miss the heavy amount of symbols scattered throughout the show, but to round them all up and make them work, even towards the end is nothing short than awesome. The Gravity Falls team not only made those symbols become a relevant source of hopefully defeating Bill, but helped us complete a puzzle that has been boggling the mind ever since.
Overall, in my own opinion, I couldn’t be happier with the “Weirdmageddon: Take Back The Falls” ended the series. It was a success, bringing all of the elements and weirdness that we loved in the show to a final close. They threw in the humor, the sadness, the weirdness all into one jam packed and wonderfully done finale. The last scene of having the kids board the bus back to California with Kyle Maclachlan of Twin Peaks fame (Alex Hirsch loves Twin Peaks) as their bus driver nearly had me in tears. I don’t want to leave Gravity Falls, but this is the perfect way to send me off. This episode did an amazing job in wrapping up some of the epic family drama, story arcs for each characters (SOOS), some mysteries, and overall made it an emotional weird trip that no one will ever forget.
Thank you so much Alex Hirsch and the Creative Team behind Gravity Falls. For being a show that has not only pushed the limits of what you can do or think of, but for being yourself in the face of all the stuff that comes with it. You stayed true to yourself and didn’t try to force anything that you didn’t want. You gave a show that boggled the mind, but also made us know that our weirdness is okay. You guys made a vacation for one summer the most than anybody can possible image. You guys introduced us to a town full of the greatest people imaginable and gave us a family that we will never ever forget. I tip me pine tree snap-back to you guys. Thank you so much for everything and thank you so much for Gravity Falls. Stay weird. ♡
