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"Gideon Rises" is the twentieth and final episode of the first season of the animated television series Gravity Falls. It originally aired on the Disney Channel on August 2, 2013, and was directed by John Aoshima and Joe Pitt, and written by series creator Alex Hirsch, Matt Chapman, and Michael Rianda.[1]
| "Gideon Rises" | |
|---|---|
| Gravity Falls episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 20 |
| Directed by |
|
| Written by | |
| Editing by | Kevin Locarro[1] |
| Original air date | August 2, 2013 |
| Running time | 24 minutes |
The series follows twins Dipper (voiced by Jason Ritter) and Mabel (voiced by Kristen Schaal) as they spend their summer vacation at their great uncle's tourist trap, where they are introduced to the paranormal side of the town of Gravity Falls. The episode is the second part of the two-part finale, following "Dreamscaperers", and sees Dipper and Mabel, and their great uncle Stan (voiced by Alex Hirsch), and friend Soos (voiced by Alex Hirsch) as they try to get back their stolen house from their nemesis Gideon Gleeful (voiced by Thurop Van Orman).
The episode was watched by 3.2 million viewers in its original American broadcast. It was released for digital distribution as part of the series Volume 2.[2]
Gideon Gleeful has taken control of the Mystery Shack, forcing the Pines Family to move in with Soos at his grandmother's house. At a press conference, Gideon announces his intentions to turn the Shack into his own personal theme park, Gideonland, which the Pines Family sees on television; while attending another conference in person, they also discover that Gideon has the family's pet pig, Waddles, as a hostage. After failing to convince the town of Gideon's true nature, Mabel worries about where they are going to stay if they don't get the Shack back. Meanwhile, at the Shack, Gideon reveals to his father, Bud, the true nature of his book; the story reads that it was written a long time ago by an unknown author who learned the secrets of Gravity Falls and hid the journals where no one could find them, knowing that when the journals are brought together, it will lead to "a gateway to unimaginable power". Gideon says that the codes and maps from Journal 2 have led him to believe that the remaining one is hidden somewhere on the Shack's property.
Meanwhile, Dipper and Mabel are told by Stan that they are heading on the next bus out of Gravity Falls and back to their parents in Piedmont, as he is unable to watch over them. With advice from Journal 3, they devise a plan to assemble the gnomes that had tried to kidnap Mabel at the beginning of the summer to try to take the Shack back, but the gnomes are stopped by Gideon's pig whistle, causing them to defect over to Gideon's side. The gnomes restrain Dipper and Mabel, causing the former to drop the journal, which Gideon takes, leaving Dipper despondent and ashamed. With no other option left, Dipper and Mabel then leave town on the bus. Back at the Shack, Gideon is overjoyed to have the journal he stole from Dipper, but he ends up discovering that it is actually the third journal, having originally believed that there were only two of them. Believing that Dipper is keeping the first one as well and trying to get it out of town, Gideon takes a giant robot look-alike made by Old Man McGucket and goes after their bus.
Upon seeing the Gideon-Bot coming their way, Dipper and Mabel tell the bus driver, who happens to be a recently hired Soos, to speed up, but Gideon chases and corners the bus at the edge of a cliff. Dipper and Mabel escape the bus by crossing an old railway bridge, but Gideon corners them at a dead end. As Dipper denies having the first journal, Gideon grabs Mabel and throws Dipper aside, planning to rule the town with Mabel as his queen. Dipper jumps off the cliff into the Gideon-Bot, where he and Gideon start to fight, with Dipper defeating Gideon. However, during the fight, the robot loses balance and falls off the bridge, but Mabel and Dipper are saved by the former's grappling hook, and the latter retrieves Journal 3. A large crowd surrounds the robot, to which Gideon tries to blame Dipper and Mabel for trying to kill him and blow up the "statue". As the police prepare to arrest Dipper and Mabel for this, Stan shows up and reveals Gideon's deception; Gideon had been using cameras hidden inside the pins he had handed out to the townsfolk at the press conference in order to spy on them (hence his "psychic abilities"), which Stan had figured out due to his hearing aid picking up the feedback. The town, appalled and heartbroken at this, turn on him, and the police arrest Gideon for conspiracy and fraud (and breaking their hearts), allowing Stan to take back the deed (and secretly grab the second journal), finally getting the Mystery Shack back. Dipper and Mabel show Stan the third journal, stating their trust in their great-uncle, but Stan laughs it off, crediting everything the twins told him to be a result of reading the journal, and takes it to Dipper's disappointment, but Mabel cheers him up by reassuring him that he doesn't need the journal to be a hero, citing how he saved her from Gideon without the journal's help. The twins then have a water fight with Soos, though Dipper still wishes for Stan to give Journal 3.
Later that night, Stan, revealed to be faking his disbelief, takes the third journal and later opens a hidden passage door behind the Shack's vending machine. He walks into a hidden laboratory and goes down an elevator. Revealing that he was the one with ownership of the first journal, he places the three books together, with each opened at a specific page, revealing the blueprint for a machine of unknown purpose. He uses codes from the pages to activate the machine in question.
A credits scene shows brief glimpses of the journals (with Stan saying "Gravity Falls will return"), ending with the "TRUST NO ONE!" page from the start of the season. During the end credits, there is a cryptogram that reads "5-19-23-6-21-16 18-9-6 4-16-19 22-12-15-10-20-19-25-19". Once decoded, it reads, "SEARCH FOR THE BLINDEYE".
"Gideon Rises" isn't perfect, at least in the sense that it doesn't solve some of the issues, potential or otherwise, around the supporting cast. But it doesn't need to do that, and the reason it earns the highest grade is because it so perfectly executes the story it sets out to tell.
—Alasdair Wilkins, from The A.V. Club[3]
"Gideon Rises" premiered on the Disney Channel on August 2, 2013, as the final episode of the first season of Gravity Falls and received a viewership of 3.2 million and a 0.5 18-49 rating in the United States.[4]
The A.V. Club gave the episode a grade of "A", concluding "No single half-hour could wrap up all the questions Gravity Falls has raised over this season, but this episode shows an impressive knack for knowing which questions need answering and which can be safely ignored. And the biggest question it answers isn't even really on the radar until the final minutes of the episode, as Stan finally reveals just how much he's been fooling everyone all this time. Alex Hirsch nails Stan's reaction to being presented with Dipper's journal, as he can't quite mask his initial, genuine excitement before returning to his oblivious disguise. It's still not at all clear where this is all headed towards, but the show appears on the verge of changing irrevocably."[3]
The episode was nominated for a Golden Reel Award under the category Best Sound Editing - Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR Animation in Television.[5]
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