Not What He Seems

"Not What He Seems" is the eleventh episode of the second season of Gravity Falls. In the episode, Dipper and Mabel begin to question who Stan really is after officers arrest him for stealing chemical waste. The episode, which breaks the show's status quo by revealing Stan's brother, is a cliffhanger to the second part of the season. Aired on March 9, 2015, two million people viewed this broadcast, the most of any on Disney XD ever.

Plot

In his laboratory under the Mystery Shack, Stan rigs drums of chemical waste to power his machine. He sets a timer to go off in eighteen hours, at which time the machine will activate. During the activation period, temporary gravity anomalies occur as a side effect. The next day, Stan watches as Dipper and Mabel launch illegal fireworks off the roof of the shack. As the twins put out the fires they caused with a water balloon fight, law enforcement officers arrest Stan for stealing the chemical waste the night before. When child services take hold of Dipper and Mabel, the twins decide to clear Stan's name using footage from the shack's security camera of the night before.

As the twins are being driven off, Mabel distracts a nearby driver into road rage, sending the child services car off the road. The twins then head back to the Mystery Shack. Much to the twins' dismay, the videotapes prove Stan's theft of the chemical waste. Shortly after, Dipper finds a box of fake identity documents and clippings from newspapers reporting Stan's death. In the box, Dipper finds a password on a slip of paper. Mabel identifies this as a button combination for the shack's vending machine.

Meanwhile, Stan is being interrogated by Agent Powers. Stan asks for a phone call, which he uses to call Soos, and instruct him to guard the vending machine. A few hours later, a gravity anomaly occurs, which Stan uses to escape from the interrogation room. Outside, he pays a taxi driver to distract the agents, so that he can run back to the Mystery Shack.

Back at the Mystery Shack, Dipper and Mabel find the vending machine being guarded by Soos. During a brief fight, Dipper inputs the password, revealing the entrance to Stan's lab. Inside, Dipper is in disbelief that Stan was hiding the first two journals from him. He then puts the three journals together, revealing the blueprints to Stan's machine. Under a black light, a secret message reveals that the entire universe could be torn apart if the machine is fully activated.

Dipper decides to override the machine, but Stan comes in to stop him. At that moment, another anomaly occurs, causing everyone to levitate. Mabel makes it to the override lever as another anomaly occurs. Forced to decide between trusting Stan and stopping the machine, Mabel tearfully sides with Stan, enabling the activation of the machine and engulfing everything in a flash of light.

When the anomaly ends, Dipper, Mabel, Stan, and Soos are left unharmed. A mysterious figure comes through the machine's portal, and puts a six-fingered hand on the first journal, revealing himself to be the author. Stan then reveals that the author is his long-lost brother. The episode ends with a flashback of Stan and his brother as children, swinging on a swingset as they look out to the ocean, playing over the end credits.

Production and themes

This half-hour episode is the eleventh of the second season of Gravity Falls, which Alex Hirsch created. He wrote it with Matthew Chapman, Jeff Rowe, Shion Takeuchi, and Josh Weinstein. Nick Offerman guest stars as Agent Powers.^[1] Hirsch described this character, in addition to Agent Trigger, as devices to divide the protagonists and have them face their allegiances to one another. The episode, which halves the season, is a cliffhanger to the second part. The writers did this so a hiatus would fit and they could write the episode sooner.^[2]

According to Hirsch, half the fandom had guessed Stan had a brother—revealed in the episode as the author of the three journals Dipper owns—before the episode aired.^[3] In particular, fans wrote "Zapruder film"-level exposés in the form of "PowerPoint presentations, flow charts, timelines", rare for a Disney Channel show.^[2] Hirsch had the character in his pitch of the show to the network, with the writers placing clues of his existence from the first episode.^[4] Still, he and the writers took this element as a risk,^[4] and Hirsch said that the ending would be shocking to some.^[1] They found it necessary in the end to keep the characters interesting and break the status quo.^[5] Calling Gravity Falls about characters "first and foremost", Hirsch said that would be Mabel forgiving of Stan, while Dipper would be unforgiving of both Stan and himself, for the rest of the season. With Dipper, Hirsch described Stan being a con as "a huge blow to his ego, a huge betrayal, and I think it will leave him feeling isolated from his family in a way he hasn't been before".^[2]

Broadcast and reception

Over two million people (1 million on the Internet) viewed "Not What He Seems" on its original air date on March 9, 2015, the most of any broadcast on Disney XD ever.^[6] Wilkins graded the episode an A for its dealing with the relationship between Stan and Dipper and Mabel. He described the warm color scheme of the animation as complementary to the melancholy of the episode, as were the gravity anomaly scenes to the action. He wrote that the blend of comedy and drama made it an "instant classic".^[7] Hirsch said the second half of the season is scheduled to air in the summer of 2015.^[2]

References