The first season wrapped up in early August, and many fans have been buzzing about secrets that were revealed in the season finale....but we'll get to that. Also spoilers.
Gravity Falls is the first time Disney has really ever made a satirical cartoon show that was both entertaining for kids and most likely their parents (let's not kid ourselves, you have no children and you're still avidly watching).
Seriously though this show is hilarious, if you enjoy Adventure Time, then you will really love Gravity Falls. It provides a stable sub plot of the mysterious book that Dipper finds, while still providing hilarious per episode story lines.
The show follows two young twins Dipper and Mabel who are dropped off on their Grunkle Stan's doorstep for the summer in the small town of Gravity Falls.
Grunkle Stan owns a tourism site called the 'Mystery Shack' (however the S continually falls off making it look like 'Mystery Hack'), and is primarily a grifter, pawning off false items as mysterious objects and creatures from the woods of Gravity Falls.
However what Grunkle Stan seemingly doesn't know is that beneath the cozy exterior of Gravity Falls, lies a dark paranormal secret of mysterious creatures and happenings.
During his first day there Dipper discovers the 3rd edition of three journals written by an unknown person concerning the mysteries of Gravity Falls.
During most of the episodes Dipper uses the book to explore the area and try to solve the mystery behind it.
Aside from this there are various hilarious happenings including (but not limited to), gnomes dressing up as teenage zombie boys, time travelling to save pigs, wax people coming to life, a 'Summerween' candy man who eats children who don't obey the rules of 'Summerween', and much, much more.
Now onto the good stuff...SPOILERS!
So for those of you who are avid watchers you know that Gideon the boy psychic had the 2nd edition of the journals and used it to raise 'Bill Cipher' the mysterious and demonic little dream creature that invaded Grunkle Stan's mind.
Gideon later was able to steal the deed to the Mystery Shack from Grunle Stan and take over the plot of land in order to search for the 1st edition, unaware that there was also a third.
Hilarious events ensued, yadda yadda yadda, but what was most interesting was that Grunkle Stan appeared to have built the device that was teased in Dipper's 3rd edition of the journals.
The episode ends with Grunkle Stan saying '...her we go" while staring up at the machine which had come to life, and while this may have been ripped off from a number of different movies, it was the most epic thing ever. I mean Alex Hirsch you know how to make a cliffhanger look good man!
So what's next for Season 2? Well we know for sure that Grunkle Stan knows more about what's happening in Gravity Falls than he previously let on. Bill Cipher also told the kids that there would be a darkness coming that he could use their help against. Clearly that darkness must be tied to whatever the machine does that Grunkle Stan put together.
But who was the original author of the books and where did the idea for that mysterious machine come from?
There was a video dropped on youtube in July that MIGHT tell us something about it, but you should take it with a grain of salt, because its completely unverified.
Take a look:
So Old Man McGucket...could he possibly be the mastermind behind all of this? Even if this was fake, the video creator makes a good point. The old coot has constantly made references to being watched and Bill Cipher says a number of times 'I'm watching you'.
So in that case who is good and who is bad. Is Old Man McGucket some kind of sinister evil mastermind or was he trying to protect everyone in Gravity Falls from some evil darkness. And if so why is Grukle Stan supposedly tapping into that force?
One thing I've noticed (and I'm sure a few others have as well) was during the second last episode with Bill Cipher, when Soos and the twins first meet Bill he refers to them as "Pine Tree, Shooting Star and Question Mark". Now yes these are symbols that appear on Dipper, Mabel and Soos, but they also appear in the circle of symbols around Bill Cipher in the 2nd edition of the journal. So they are clearly connected to Bill but how?
Well we'll have to wait until 2014 accord to creator Alex Hirsch, but until then there will be some shorts dropped here and there starting in October, just to keep our Gravity Falls tastebuds satisfied.
What did you think of the first season of Gravity Falls? And are you for sure checking out Season 2 when it hits next year? Also what are some of the other hidden mysteries and 'Easter Eggs' you've noticed that I've missed so far?
For now you can check out some great interviews with Alex Hirsch and Kristen Schaal taken at D23 by Sandrine from HappyCool.
By: James Bowler