Weirdmageddon Part I

I know I have already blogged before about Gravity Falls, but the newest episode, episode 18 of season two, called "Weirdmageddon Part I" is an episode that deserves to be blogged about. Thus, the rest of this post will be my reaction and review to this episode, and obviously, spoilers for normal people who don't fangirl over a cartoon...

As soon as the episode began we knew we were in for something different, as the first thing on screen was Bill Cipher, laughing manically with the rift behind him overlooking the fire-painted town. We then get one heck of an opening scene, with Bill showing his true form and an unconscious Mabel getting trapped in a bubble with her shooting star. Bill then assumes control over the dimension and unleashes his hench-demons, who have some very original and slightly terrifying designs, as well as total madness and weirdness, in the form of weird bubbles that alter reality and even scarier monsters, as well as distorting and mutilating people. The show even pokes fun at capitalism. Inanimate objects become animate. The once small grow to stories high, and people are taken captive. And this is all before the theme song. All in all, it is a brightly colored, psychedelic, nightmarish apocalyptic scene that suits its name of 'weirdmageddon' (weird + Armageddon) well.


The theme song itself is altered, with Bill and his henchmen taking the place of the Pines family and everything being adapted to fit the apocalypse theme. The music is also distorted, helping to create the sense of delusion and madness of the entire episode. Personally, I like this altered theme. It was fun to see the creators even go so far as to manipulate the show's opening. It is very uncommon to see, and it is something that helps prove how unique and fun Gravity Falls is. Plus, for an episode that has no artistic laws and was purposely made to be as weird and unorthodox as possible, it really fits.

The video used is the alternate theme and can be found on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWvdqkl2UH4

The rest of this episode is just a freight train of weirdness and shocking, awesome moments to the very end. Dipper is strained to the very edge of what he do, after Ford and Mabel are taken by Bill and the journals are destroyed. These moments left the audience on the edge of their seats and rooting for him. Fortunately, Dipper meets up with Wendy and Toby who team up with him. Wendy is the character that has the most awesome moments in this episode. She frees Dipper, helps him free Mabel, and inspires him to do so in the first place in a very touching and emotional theme. Dipper explains what had happened between him and Mabel and Wendy knocks some sense and fight into him. She has the most empowering quote in the entire episode, and is the entire reason Dipper keeps fighting. Wendy also demonstrates how awesome, she was when she escapes from Gideon's men and drives away in the truck.  

Finally, Gideon has a 180-degree turn of character when he switches sides. It shows he actually cares about Mabel and has a sense of morality. An aspect of Gravity Falls that I really like because it excels at it is in character development. This show can take a hated character and in one episode turn them into a sympathetic, likable character. This was seen with Robbie in "The Love God", Pacifica in "Northwest Mansion Mystery", and now, in "Weirdmageddon Part I", Gideon. In a scene that is only a couple minutes long, Dipper convinces Gideon to fight for Mabel and be her hero, which causes Gideon to fight Bill's minions and help out Dipper.

All in all, this is a very different and strange episode, albeit a good episode, that stretches the animators' and artists' capabilities and imaginations. Bill is just as awesome as ever, but a couple of the lead characters, namely Dipper, Wendy, and Gideon, get notable moments that further develop their characters.