Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back The Falls

I'm Alex Hirsch, and this is the last commentary. I'm Rob Ranzetti. Uh yes, this is the last commentary. That's correct. Uh I'm Jason Ritter and this is the second commentary. No, it's the last comment. It's the last episode, guys. I feel like, you know.

People are gonna miss these commentaries. Like they're gonna be like, Give us a third season of commentaries? Um if you've made it all the way through all of our sort of anecdotes and rambling and patting ourselves on the back and complaining about how it was hard to write stuff. I applaud you. Thank you. Here's some more for joining us. Here's the 44 minutes more of it. Get ready for the longest one of them all. Um so yeah, this is uh Weird Mageddon Part Three, Take Back the Falls.

Uh this episode was as as I often say quite a challenge um to write. I think I've said this before, but you know, probably the hardest challenge in television is to write a pilot because you're convincing people to fall in love, and the second hardest challenge is to create a finale. Because you are trying to break up with the person that just fell in love with you. And you're trying to do it in a way that they don't completely hate you if possible.

Um Rob, what are your sort of memories of the early days of discussing the culmination of the story? I remember we couldn't fitted into a normal episode. That was why it ended up being forty-four minutes. Um I mostly remember the struggle between ending Weird of Mageddon and then the issue of whether we were gonna have an episode after that. That would include the the kids leaving Gravity Falls. Because that was the hardest that was really the hardest thing to do was to come up on the episode.

A a storyline after this was over,'cause this really is the end of the story. It well it it culminates the emotional arcs of all the main characters, um and the that's that's that's accurate. Um there was um Originally we imagined that there was going to be you know, because it's so hard to end something and because it's so hard to do it in a way that's satisfying, we thought what what are all the things we can do to be satisfying in this ending? Um let

Have it be a multi-part ending. Let's have it be a three-part ending. Um let's have it be the biggest action and biggest weirdness we've ever seen. Let's bring back all the characters. Let's uh culminate the turns in the relationships between Dipper and Mabel and Stan and Ford. Let's uh see Bill at his craziest. Let's make it the most you know uh Comedy the weirdest, action the most violent, um and

One of the things we thought of was maybe one way to make it satisfying would be to have a real protracted denouement, right? Like let's have a full episode's worth of just goodbyes essentially. And so we planned it was gonna be weird one, weird two, weird three, and then Some kind of goodbye story. Right. Um, and we didn't know what that story would be. I remember something vaguely about some sort of other tr time travel

Uh bringing Blendon back because we kind of just lost he just kind of vamoosed in the middle of this big story. Well the yeah, the challenge maybe going back to the first day there was that discussed, like time traveling back to the first day when the kids arrived.

Yeah. Yeah. So like each episode needs to have like a new problem and a new resolution. And I was trying to brainstorm what's something that could feel valuable for like a final, final episode after the apocalypse, after Stan's mind has been erased. Um and he's in the process of getting it back. And the the thing I I remember I wrote one out, it was like it's different it's the last day of school, or it's the last day of summer, Dipper and Mabel are packing.

Uh they're planning to go home. They're feeling Like nostalgic, like they kinda don't wanna leave. And Blendon shows up and he explains that there's all these time bubbles left over. Um these weird anomalies because of all the time business and what what what Bill has done and just to watch out and be careful. And the Dipper and Mabel actually accidentally trip into one of these bubbles and are sent back to the very first episode.

Um and somehow this was meant the the their character arc was to go from being like a little sad about missing that that they're gonna leave Gravity Falls to seeing what it was like on the first day when they were scared to be in Gravity Falls. Like the idea is like their first day they're like, Oh

Grunkle Stan, he's this weird old man and we hate living in this house and like we miss our place of comfort back home and this is a kind of scary new adventure that we don't like. Right and the kids see their own growth and realize like oh The way we felt about going to Gravity Falls, like we don't think we can handle it, is how we feel about leaving. Like

Like it that feeling of going into a new experience means that something new and exciting's going to happen. You're going to grow. Like that was the broad idea. Yeah. And there was some thought that maybe over the course of that episode Stan would get his memory back and something that the kids had done in the past would help him in the present get his memory back, but it was

It just was slippery. It never quite worked. We couldn't yeah, we couldn't quite crack it. I remember the the writers had pitched A totally different idea that involved like uh the clones. Remember Dipper Three and Four? Coming back and it was like, Oh, how about the final episode is Dipper Three and Four knock out Dipper and wanna go back in his stead and be Dipper?

Um and then like, you know, n as as always, no lack of great ideas. Yeah. Um and funny ideas and interesting ideas, but it it never quite made sense. It never quite fit.

And and while we were struggling with it, we also noticed that this episode number three was almost the length of two episodes. Yeah. And we weren't gonna be able to do it justice unless we made it long. Right. So the decision was made, okay, we're going to take that sort of seven minutes worth of Denouement from that concept that we never actually wrote um and have it be the end of this episode. Yeah.

Right. Um which I I think was a necessary choice'cause we couldn't cut this story down and we couldn't plump that one up. Right. Um there's th the one lingering, I think, negative from that choice is that And and I think it was necessary given the choice we had to make, but like Some f some audience members who watch this episode and they feel

Well Stan's memory came back awful quick. Yeah, that's what I knew you were gonna say that and I felt the same way and I feel that is the only weak part of this which is that we had to rush that a little bit. If if I could have made one adjustment I would have made it clear and I'm not sure it is clear. Uh reappears in an instant.

A couple days of work and we're kinda it's it's we see the beginning of that process when he looks at the um scrapbook and then we're kinda jumping ahead a few days, uh you know, maybe a week. of just like intensive memory therapy with Stan before he gets there. Right. Um and there's scenes that we wrote out and started to board out sort of suggesting that and again, just couldn't do it for time.

Well and also like when we were trying to crack the half hour episode after Weird Mageddon, it felt like we were just kinda wallowing in Stan not having his memory. It was a very depressing bummer of an episode to have Stan for the last episode, which was also like It's a great it's great. I think you get the emo what you want out of the emotion of it. Like in this episode, it tears you apart when you see it.

You could last a little bit longer on it, but going much longer, then you just feel like, Well, what are we doing? Why are we just we're just kind of wallowing In her own sorrow. No good reason. To me it lasted exactly as as long as it needed to. It like I I got emotional watching it and then there was a m a minute where you think, Oh, it's not actually gonna get better. And so it it lasts past that first little moment of denial uh for me and then I was

That'd be like this smiley face. The smiley face on the US. Well, and I think, you know, like Gravity Falls is a show that's always meant to have a bittersweet feeling to it. Um and I think everyone has a different personal barometer on how th their ratio of bitter to sweet. Yeah. You know, I I love these characters so much that for me I was like, I wanna What was valuable to me and and was sort of a trump card in making these decisions was

I need to see Stan saying goodbye to the kids at that bus. Of course. Like and I don't want him to be some guy who isn't Stan who doesn't even remember the kids. Like that would be really dramatic. It might make you cry more, but to me it doesn't actually mean anything. Yeah. Like their relationship which they've built, he was you know, he was willing to sacrifice his memories to save them. That's how much they meant to him. But

Because he was willing to do that, I think he deserves to get him back. I I agree.

I wanna take this moment to say I really love post apocalyptic Toby Determined. One of those characters you don't know what to do with and you say let's just Let's just do something weird. I just love you know, the there are those people who are waiting for the apocalypse to let their true color shine. And Toby Determined is one of them. I think Toby is the person who got the most out of Weird Mageddon. He came out a better man somehow. Exactly. I could guess he couldn't come out much worse.

One of my favorite things about Seuss is that he is a a a pop culture savant and so he's the one who usually hangs a lampshade on obvious references. You know, Seuss talking about like, Oh, we have much to discuss about anime, old man McGucket. Like we we felt like The Shack is sort of a character in the show and if all the characters are fighting back, the Shack being part of that, building the Shacktron would be a really fun, big conclusion.

Um I remember we had a number of gags that more specifically made fun of Pacific Rim in this. We're like it was the gucket's like explaining the thing. He's like, Alright, and the only way the biometric brain machine works is if two twins control it with their minds concurrently. And Dibber mailed like Why?

Why would you build a machine like that? What it seems incredibly complicated. He's like don't think about it too hard, you'll ruin the whole thing. Um and then I learned Guilmore Toro was a big big fan and I felt like actually a little grateful that we cut some of the gags that like kinda went hard on Pacific Rail. Um I l I do love that Seuss's love of anime. helps save the day. Um this is we try in these stories to if we can give every character some kind of hero moment.

Um and you know, if if sort of Weird One is all about the is all about sort of a dipper and Wendy's hear a moment, and weird two is kind of this sort of Group hero moment and you know, like Mabel standing up to her own fantasies. Yeah. You know, this episode is supposed to show the town's hero moment and you've got each character having their bit, but also Stan and Ford. Of course. Um

This well and more Stan than Ford. And w more more Stan, yeah, actually. Even though we we sort of do a a misdirect. We think Ford's gonna be the big hero. We set this whole time is about them wanting to save Ford and Stan feeling really put off about it. I just noticed that Dipper has a W now. Wow. It was his deep.

Uh I think you're seeing more than this there, Jason, but thank you. No, it's just a little tear, but you know it works. Pay attention to you see you gotta watch the show c closely and carefully. Um did a phenomenal job on this episode. I mean we've just breezed by a bunch of standout sequences. I believe S Sabrina Catunio did a lot of the um Uh I I think a lot of this scene. Uh I think uh the Pyramid

scene uh was I think that was by Luke. Um we had uh Dana Terrace storyboarded I think a lot of the opening with them in the Shack. Just really great memorable moments. Who did the sh the building the Shactron montage? I think that was a lot of people working on it because that went through a lot of changes. Um the uh Bill singing We'll Meet Again was something that just felt Yes. Like the perfect reference because this is kind of an ending about endings in a lot of ways and

We know we know Bill's leaving like we know that Bill's going to be defeated as the writers of this story. And we know that people like Bill and have grown attached to him and and for him to sing We'll Meet Again. Is sort of the perfect mysterious way to say, like, I might be going, I might not be going. Right. You know? I only recently realized that that was a song not

For gravity. Really? Wow. You must think you must think well of us. That's catchy. It's also a you know a reference to Doctor Strangelove uh movie that famously ends with nuclear apocalypse and the song we'll meet again. So it's it's for for those pop culture savvy, it's already tinged with a kind of a fear and an irony and the apocalypse built in. So it's perfect on a number of levels. Hey do you hear that? WHAT?! I just fixed that door!

When did you guys decide and was it hard to uh like what did you get any pushback on uh you know taking the time to do a new opening credit sequence. I think it was something that I think everybody thought that's gonna be really hard and then one of our artists storyboarded out, I think Sunil, and when people saw it they're like

We're doing it. Like it's so crazy. Once you've seen it, it's just so cool. It's so cool. They were you're right. You I remember they were a little skeptical. They're like, It's this is already really hard, but then they saw it. I think we put it in animatic screening and they're like, Oh yeah, we gotta do this and

I mean most of it was done almost all of it. Well no that's we did send some of the animation overseas, but a lot of it was done by Ian uh Yeah. A lot of our in house team really put in the extra hours. It's so great. It really is like everything.

is different. Speaking speaking of extra effort, we have to give a shout out to Rough Draft uh Los Angeles for doing the Shaktron uh three D animation. They did an amazing job. Yeah. Oh yeah. CG Stuff like this when it's sort of this elaborate and it's not part of the regular pipeline is very difficult and we made a concerted effort to reach out to uh the local team of of Rough Draft.

and really work with them closely to try to make this stuff look good and satisfying'cause on T V budget, this stuff can look very rough and we really wanted it to live up to the great work that our design and board team have done. I mean there was no way we were gonna be able to animate this success. I guess we could could have done it in two D and there's a couple of scenes there in two D but it's so complicated in

Uh you really want to make it. Gotta give a shout out to uh also our composer Brad Breek doing this awesome like hard rock cover of the Gravity Falls history. Um just You know, Gravity Falls is always a mix between the normal and the weird and this is as weird as we ever get. Everyone That like you know everyone's using the Shaktron, she just does some leaps and some Wing pulling and some eye shooting. The animation on this scene is completely out of this world. Uh yeah, this is so great. The uh

This scene used to be way, way longer. Um we had board artists do lots and lots of fighting with shacks and monsters through the city and uh just again, there are certain time restrictions that we had to follow, so we hoped we get a little taste of the chaos. Um Yeah, and it feels it feels about right.

So I'd say, you know, one of the biggest challenges of this sort of three part apocalypse was It had originally actually been conceived as I did have some discussions, I I'm not sure if I talked to you about this, Rob, but with with the channel about can we make the whole thing, all three parts, just one actual proper movie. Yeah, no I remember that I remember the discussion of that. Because I knew that certain parts set up other parts and I didn't want them to be separated. Um and

Their comment was yeah, we could do it as one proper mo movie, but we'd need to do three additional episodes to add to the season. I don't know. I think it works well as three episodes. Um I mean Now here we are what, through two years? Three years later from when this aired. Um and you know

binge watching is is the order of the day. A hundred percent. So the idea that like you can't tell a big story if it's not all presented at one time is kind of obsolete. And uh it is nice that we get to concentrate basically on one set of character story arcs at a time.

Uh whereas in a movie we would have been interlacing all these different characters true character stories and having them all come to fruition at the same time. Which we had discussed and we kind of had roughly mapped out. We looked we tried to see how it might work, but um you know I'm I'm really happy with The scale and the chaos and ultimately sort of the conclusion and choices of these characters. Man, it looks even worse up close.

He's golden! But not in the good way! Great! Grab him and let's get out of here! But how are we going to unfreeze them? I know!

I think originally this was a little bit more like um he was like uh salacious crumb to jabba, like he was like sitting on Bill Cypher's shoulder like with a chain around his neck like like he was like wearing a loincloth or something. Um but uh I I like this. I like this version. I like that his own his own cute shtick has been used against him and now even he is sick of it.

He's like, oh god, I got it. This design for the Throne of Humans Stephanie Ramirez gotta give her credit. Probably the most ambitious design in the history of the series. So much work went into it. Such an ins like this is the kind of thing that two D animation is not meant for a throne of a million humans. Uh that would be a lot easier in CG. But uh they did a great job with it. I mean animation wise and whatever we had a couple rough scenes but overall they um

They got they hit it pretty well on the first the first time around. Here you go. Here's the most important important relationship has been resolved. Little little tidbit for people online. Um that uh That scene where Blubs uh Pacifica says, Mom, Dad, um, that used to be a little bit longer. There used to be a bit more of a meal of the fact that like even though Pacifica's mom and dad are like they're not good parents, they're they pressure her very hard, like

You know, they're at the end of the day, like she does love them. She hopes that they are capable of better and But there was a version where she spoke longer and then I realized we had to cut it for time and it was shortened by the storyboard artist too.

Blubs literally shoves Pacifica's head out of the frame. Mom, Dad, and there's like a loud like and it was it was really funny, but I remember I was watching the animatic for this episode and I was I was seeing some people on like Twitter just be like, Oh, I really love Pacifica. I hope we get to see more of her in the finale and I was like

Well then she we reformed her too much and everybody loved her. Yeah, I know. It's like one of these things where we we did we went did more with her than anyone predicted and then people were like, Yeah, but why not more though?

Here's a little. That's fine. Here's a little. That's fine. Here's a lot more. But what about way more? A prophecy. Although it would be a pretty fun game of hopscotch. Many years ago I found ten symbols in a cave. Some I And here we get the Zodiac which we had no idea what we were gonna do with. There was I mean to be clear, there was never a plan for the Zodiac. Zodiac was invented as a little Easter egg for the intro and the symbols were chosen more or less at random. Um

because it becomes such a symbol of the series and people cared about it, there's an outsized interest in it relative to its single frame of time on the series. I was I was always a big advocate of of it ending up meaning something. Not that I had a clue as to what that would be, but I remember pushing for us to try and like do something with it. And I like that I like how we use it. Like it it's a possible way to defeat Bill, but it's not the way they defeat Bill because it's just mechanical.

Well the all of if they just all held their hands and then he went poof it wouldn't mean anything. Right. I mean a as always the decision always comes down to what Storytelling we're working backwards from what Unearths the most interesting and most important changes in our characters. So when we were having these discussions about let's have the finale include the Zodiac, the question is, okay, well clearly it's a reference

To many of our characters, and and and characters who've been friends and enemies. So this is the concept of the Zodiac as as existing in our current canon: is this idea that the prophecy was that.

Friends and enemies would need to come together. It seemingly impossible alliances would need to be made to stand up to Bill um for this prophetic moment and you know that characters like Uh like Gideon, who was who used to be an enemy, characters like Pacifica, characters like Robbie, that we've reached the point where thanks to the kids' kindness and growth.

They are now fans with Pacifica. They they've they've resolved Robbie's jerkiness. They've helped McGucket with his memory. Um, they've even overcome this issue with Gideon in Weird McGuin part one and so It seems like friends and enemies have all been restored, leaving one only one thing, which is standing forward have to shake hands. Um and their pride once again is what dooms the entire world. Oh, but they get so close. Yeah. Well and it's cle like

Stan uh even though he's being stubborn here and and holds things up, he's he's ready to do it. He does. He clasps Ford's hand and then Ford can't Ford can't help but correct his ignorant brother. With at something that doesn't matter at all after professing like how important all this is and how important it is to put pettiness aside, he's the one who ends up being petty in the end. Well uh sta stan here, Stan Pines. Um the original line was I said, um, you know, between you and me

We're not always the between you and me, I'm not always the bad twin. And then Ford said between you and I and then Rob Ranzetti here said that's wrong grammar. Yeah we had to reverse it. Oh really? Yeah, between you and I is incorrect. Well there's a real That's right. F the real life for it is Rob. That's right. So I insisted that and it

It stayed wrong for a long time through the production project. So this is just live footage of me and Rob fighting over I am actually not great at grammar. And Rob was like And I was like, but it sounds wrong. The right one doesn't sound right for some reason. This is just too perfect! Didn't you brainiacs know the Zodiac doesn't work if you don't all hold hands?

And what's better, you've brought every threat to my power together and one of the things that I've done. The one way I was able to get the channel to agree to letting me make this an extra long episode was that if they could chop it in half on reruns. Um, but there was some kid who only saw this episode The first half and then it went to credits and he thought that was the end. Yeah.

Oh He thought the end was Bill shows up and he just saw it was called Weird Magedin' Three. Well you got yeah, you're done. You're done for. Um and like and you know, the parent was like, Oh, so how is the ending? And he's like, I guess they all just lost and

Yeah, did they call this the fourth half hour we were been getting for when they split'em up? I think they called it um they they we wanted a new title from me. I think they I think they called it um Somewhere in the Woods. Yeah, that's right. Okay. It's a subtitle that I gave the sort of clip.

Second half. Um regard I'm hoping that kid eventually saw the real end. I'm I'm hoping he did. It's been years. Save your family. Last chance. Tell me how to take Weird Mageddon Global and I'll spare the kids. No, don't do it! Bad deal! Me shooting star. I see everything Ow! Not again! Why? You know, a lot of the symbols was very obvious who would be who, um, but then we had to make some choices late in the game. Um

Wendy had been associated with two scenes involving Ice in uh Blenden's uh no um Time Traveler's Pig and Inconveniencing, so that seemed appropriate. Um Stan could have been uh Stan could have been You mean Stanford Stanford could have been the glove or the or the six finger hand or the spectacles. Or the spectacles. Um and we felt like

six nobody else could be the six fingered hand and then you know McGucket could be the spectacles. He he does put end up putting on glasses. Right. Um, you know, when he gets more intelligence so that felt appropriate. Pacifica is the llama was just she was left over. One of our writers, Jeff Rowe, had had this great line about like uh you know llamas are Famously.

Like they they they have long blonde hair, they're beautiful, but they're stubborn and they spit or something like that. Some long some line about how to make a Pacifica. Uh this scene is pretty scary. It is really scary. R uh uh Jason, how did you feel when you actually you know,'cause we're deep in the trenches, when you watched all this for the first time, what what what was your reaction?

I was blown away. I mean,'cause I you know, I had heard about uh you know, I had read about all these things that happened, but the the specific visuals were so beautiful and incredible and uh I was I was so into it. And I also by the you know, it's such a funny process because by the time it aired I had forgotten a lot of the plot points. Yeah. So I was sort of on the ride with everybody in the audience. for it. Um and I did not remember how they got out of this predicament.

When you're watching Dipper, do you recognize it as your voice or do you get lost and just think that's Dipper and disassociate from the voice performance? Or do you or does that or is that you kind of Ride the line. It I sort of ride the line. Yeah. There is a there is a uh you know, it's it's strange to hear your own voice coming out of another

Face. Yeah. You know, I mean it's it's a s it's a strange thing'cause with any other acting job you you're sort of or you're like, oh I was there that day. I remember that. Yeah. So it it's like, you know, this is my voice then being taken in a little bubble and being put into an entirely different universe, especially in Weird Mageddon when everything is so weird. But uh Yeah, it is it is it's super bizarre.

Uh I loved it. Because all my voices don't sound anything like me, I have less of that I'm just like, oh that's Stan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But every now and then there'll be like an incidental, it's just my regular speaking voice, and I always feel briefly exposed.

Like it suddenly feels like somebody like is playing like like home movies from me being a kid or something. I'm like, Whoa, wait, what am I doing? Get me out of there. Yeah, but I think I think that's why. I think his Dipper is basically my voice just ha a little bit higher. It's very much you.

Um, th this this whole sort of conclusion here is what we needed to happen in this scene was we needed pressure to be at the point where Stan and Ford recognize their lifelong rivalry and Ford does the Ford does a sincere apology to Stan. And and almost more importantly, he he acknowledges Stan's Stan's intelligence. Yeah. Like he says, you wouldn't have fallen for Bill's nonsense.

Like like he recognizes that his brother has a kind of intelligence he doesn't. Right. Um and you know, I always imagined that as kids, Stan and Ford, were like dis. dynamic duo. Like that they were like were getting into scrapes and like planning pranks and that like with Stan's creativity and Ford's genius that they were an unstoppable awesome team um before you know before life

Turn them against each other. Um and I imagine that as kids they were always swapping glasses and tricking their parents so that they could get double presents or whatever. Um and that this is a move they did back in New Jersey constantly. Um we had to figure out You know who who's gonna make a sacrifice and hand and and and and how? Um and even though it's Stan who agrees to be, I'll be the one, erase my mind, it's fine, it's worth it.

Like it's a sacrifice for both like Ford at this point is is willing to get his brother back and he has to lose him again. Like both of them are Yeah. Wow. Just doing what they have to do here. I like that Stan is just thinking Alright, think white, think white, think white. And then think living rooms. He's like think about nothing but sitting on your on your lazy boy. Um Stan and Bill had never interacted in the series up until this moment.

Uh wow, I guess not. He was asleep and that was that was also part of this is we'd seen a lot of Ford and Bill, but Stan and Bill has never happened. Um and Bill is sort of Stan's the kind of Stan Bill sort of represents all the mystery and weirdness and Stan is the guy who just wants to have a good life and protect his family and He's the one who never invited Bill in, but he's willing to take Bill out. This this whole Bill uh final kind of uh raging transforming sequence is

So rad. Well this was Dana, right? This is Dana again. I gotta give huge credit to this the sequence I believe is storyboarded by Sabrina and then this part where Bill transforms um Where he thrashes. I always imagine that if you're a character who can transform yourself and you're being destroyed, you're gonna try to transform your way out of it. We see it with the shapeshifter and bunker, and uh I drew a lunch a bunch of sketches of how Bill might try to

Bill his way out of this and um we s Dana was willing to animate and she did that whole thing herself. Her animation is mind blowing. Um and originally actually this was originally animated and complete and Stan didn't punch. Bill? It used to just be that Bill has his transformation and then he's just gone. Yeah. And then Stan picks up the thing and is like, Yeah, I did it. And watching that, I just had this feeling like

This is Stan's hero moment and he's about to potentially lose it all and and it doesn't feel enough like a hero moment. So he at the last minute added the idea that he punches Bill. Um'cause it just felt more satisfying. Bill probably would have died without it, but it definitely is nice.

He's so putting that exclamation point on the uh my theory about this'cause there's a lot of folks who say, Oh well Stan's mind was erased and Bill was in Stan's mind but then Stan got his mind back so then maybe he got Bill back. The way that I'm imagining this is that Bill, genuinely believing he's about to be destroyed, um, is trying to change in any way he possibly can, and actually is invoking a very rare rule of the universe.

um a sort of uh well if you listen backwards to what Bill screams, he's invoking a very rarely rare y rule of the universe that is actually not sending him it's it's not it's putting him somewhere other than where we saw him. Right. You know what I mean? That he's he's he's thinking, oh no, I'm about to melt. I'm about to die. So I'm gonna invoke this this desperate plea to put me somewhere else. Um and

And as a result, the idea that he's I I'm not sure he's necessarily instill in Stan's mind. What does he say backwards? You're just gonna have to play it backwards and find out. Okay, all right. You know give that stuff away for free. What are you talking to? Come on, it's me.

Uh but yeah, I mean well there's a statue of him in the forest and this is a heartbreaking statue. W when we had discussed the idea of an episode beyond this episode, um You know, a a fourth episode. It was basically twenty minutes of this scene and it was it was brutal. Yeah.

It was this is so intense. You might think you want it, but good lord. Yeah, this is enough. It's really intense. This was all storyboarded by uh Dana Terrace. Um we would often give her some of the sort of just most heartbreaking scenes. really good with getting a sort of pathos of the characters. Um we like this idea of them sort of returning to the shack, this familiar thing. It's also hard to see Stans so kind

Vulnerable and yeah, vulnerable. That to see him sort of in his own mind, yeah. Yeah. Hey, this is the right thing. Uh still until he started to get his memory back. Until he gets his mind back that sort of he starts adjusting the hat and he starts looking like himself. Seuss Seuss kills me in this too. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, that's the worst. Well I think I think if any of any of them, Seuss would have the hardest time recovery from this if if Stanley was a good thing. It's his the dad that never showed up basically. I think it would be I think it would be hardest on Seuss, second hardest on Ford, but Seuss would show it. Yeah. Yeah. Probably third hardest on Mabel, fourth hardest on Dipper just'cause you know, of where their hearts are.

Dipper's not heartless. Well no, I mean I think he would feel really bad. I mean that's a testament to just how heartbroken those other characters are sure. Um so we we really like this idea that Mabel's Mabel's scrapbooking and her constant love of every moment, her need to record every moment, has this surprising necessity to it, which is

it has the ability to bring stand back. And in Society of the Blind Eye, we see McGucket's memory begins to return by watching this old video. That the that the way these memory rays work is they don't actually delete a memory. They they deeply, deeply, deeply sublimate it.

Um but if if if you're able to look at something personal enough and I I it particularly quickly um that the effects can begin to be reversed. Show him the chest hair. Show him the chest hair I also like that uh Waddles is the first one that he recognizes. I know, I love that too. Like, And you know this is this is like a real thing for, you know, Alzheimer's patients is like that something you don't expect.

maybe a song or a pet or something, you know what I mean? Can like can begin to trigger a memory that might have been lost just by, you know, face to face conversation. Um so this this final I think it's around seven minutes maybe. Um all this was written all all this was something that was sort of written as a these were ideas that we had for a potential Danimont episode. Right.

But uh we couldn't think of a story for it. Robbie's parents kill me. Yeah, they were They would love to kill you. They would love to generate new business like that. Oh, the mayor's back. Yeah, briefly. This was this was the last thing I wrote for Gravity Falls was all these all all this this this sequence, this this runner. Um and I I have a very clear memory of being in my office and you know hitting period on the end of that and just like Feeling really, really good.

Like I I wasn't it was less like oh no these characters that I love. I felt like they all got a they all got to where they needed to get. Yeah. Including amazingly those two. Including Blubs and Durlin. Blubs and Dured some somehow. Yeah, I feel like I can sort of speak to that now. I mean, this was one of these things where Blubs and Durlin were were originally conceived just as best friends, as we've talked about in other episodes, and then a lot of people saw it as more.

Um and it felt like well if that's the feeling then maybe that's the conclusion they deserve and I I I remember speaking to one of my board artists um because I felt like he had a valuable perspective on this saying, you know More respectful or less respectful for them to have this moment? Is it too silly? Um and you know, I think his reply was like, I think this is this feels true to them. Yeah. Yeah. And it feels like they've earned it. Yeah. Um

So I th that was definitely one of like listening. I'm like, let's talk to the crew. How do they feel? Is is that the right is that the right move and everybody liked it. Here's the right move for Toby. To stay to stay in that persona. Exactly. Right next to Shonda. She might have a chance with Chandra now. Honestly. Now that he's accepted his true self. Yeah. Remember Josh Weinstein worked on this section and a lot of this sort of this the concept behind these speeches and stuff.

I like that Gideon's mom is Smiling here. Yeah. She even she has uh she's uh a little upswing. Her little boy is gonna try and be a better human being. Yeah, exactly. I mean he's gonna try. In my mind these are not last long. Well yeah. I mean he still has his two henchmen that he uses to beat up that boy that just dissed him, so yeah. I mean, we show that it's you know, it's a work in progress.

Dude, make a wish, dog. You know, on my first day here, if you had asked me what I wanted, I would have said adventure, mystery, true friends. But looking here at all of you, I realized that every wish came true. Oh and this is kind of accurate, is like Dipper is pretty satisfied. Like, you know, he originally he had briefly flirted with this idea of being Ford's apprentice, um, and I think seeing Stan and Ford and the life of just

you know, them kinda going off in their own, you know, purely selfish directions and kinda and and both being isolated, right? Yeah. You know, Ford being isolated, Stan being isolated, and it Dipper briefly had a choice to be like, I'm gonna spend the rest of my life in a basement catalog cat cataloging abnormal flies and moths with an old man. And it's like maybe I need to live my life. Yeah. And also. I think he's not going to be able to do

He just can't stand to be away from Mabel. It takes him a while to realize it, but it's like as nuts as she drives him a lot of the time. Uh I mean that's his that's really the central relationship of the show and and the central relationship in his life, at least for now. Well and the and they do you know, w when when the show is firing on all cylinders, they bring out the best

Absolutely. Um and Stan and Ford when you know, when they can finally work together, do bring out the best in each other. They just have been missing it for so long. Yeah. I I love their coda, uh these two brothers out on the sea finally together. Yeah. Fighting a big crazy thing. I like that I like that Ford has this photo with him. I know, that's sweet. I d I never thought about that. I mean if you really kinda track it. All the way through the his Yeah, exactly.

Um, you know, I I almost imagined if McGucket found that photo in his, you know, coat while they were working on the portal or something, he'd be like What is this? What's this here? And Ford would say, Oh yes, that's a that's a photo of a very important moment. That's when I um

That's when I first decided I wanted to be an inventor. Like like just e there would be no reference to the real reason he's keeping it. This is me and my brother. It would be like, Oh yes, uh thinking about uh science as a as a horizon, a frontier to reach towards, you know, like a boat, like a ship, like her like science. It's about science. Um we always I I always knew what I wanted Seuss's end to be.

Um Seuss runs the mystery shack. Like to me it's clear, like I I imagine that Seuss is actually way better at giving tours than Stan is. Because he loves all that stuff. Yeah. Truly. And he believes it. Yeah. Like that's part of the difference in Stan's like.

Suckers, this uh stagnant puddle is the befuddle puddle. And when Zeuss is like, Yeah, one time I looked in there, I I think I saw like a Cyclops dude. Like I really think I saw one, like might have been a reflection combining my pupils, but uh like people are like, Whoa, really? I love all the hat swapping that happens in this episode. The Fez gets passed around. The Fez gets passed around, Dipper and Wendy a little

Trade. Well i the first episode had hat swapping, dippers you know, losing a hat game. Mabel picking up a a weapon this idea of like some visual way to show a a change. Well that's the thing. That's the thing that uh you always insisted on this Alex in the show and I remember we would struggle sometimes to watch. Well let's talk about something else.

The the idea that there's a visual uh component to it, some kind of story point about like uh you know, uh something's gonna change this summer. Dipper gets a new hat. This is his Gravity Falls hat.

It's interesting that he you know, it's it makes sense that he leaves it behind and gets a new hat. Yeah. You know what I mean, when when his Gravity Falls uh mission is over. But we were like always struggling, like we need something. We need a picture, we need a poster, we need something that is a visual

signal of or symbol of what's going on this episode and you always insisted on that when we didn't have it. They've changed can we ha if we're changing them inside, this is animation, it's a visual medium, can we change them outside? Right. Um if Mabel's going home with a pig, Dipper's going home with you know this

This symbol of his friendship with Wendy. I bet he never takes that hat off. I bet I bet people in his new class are like, what is that weird hat? And he's like, Don't worry about it. Well and even Stan, he's wearing that Mabel sweater. It's like he that's a visual symbol of like he's softened up, he's

He's embraced family. He doesn't need to be the tough guy all the time. Um the the Wendy Dipper hat swap specifically was I think I'd seen a storyboard artist had done a sketch of that, just like a goofy sketch sometime during like season two. It's a doodle and I saw it and I was like, That feels right. He's like a little holdin' coffee.

Um that's uh Kyle McLaughlin, the voice of uh uh eight um uh Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks. With the visuals of our editor Kevin Locara. Yeah, designed after our editor Kevin. Um a mixture of I I wrote a personal letter to Kyle just saying like

You know, Twin Peaks is such a huge influence and you know, Dipper and Mabel are kind of Agent Cooper's babies, you know. Like they they're going off to a place we don't know where they're headed and we'd like to know they're they're gonna be in in good hands and I like the idea that, you know, Agent Cooper is taking'em home.

There was even a time th their their hometown is referred to as uh Piedmont here, which is my hometown. But there was a draft of the pilot where I referred to their hometown as Cooperdale, which is just Dale Dale Cooper switched around. That's so funny. Strictly prohibited by W welcome aboard. You can sit in the front robe, Pig. We wanted to see something else we wanted to see in this in this episode.

i is that post post mind return that Stan and Ford get along and like that's just that scene where they both threaten the bus driver is like just to give a hint of Yeah what would happen if their powers were combined. We've never seen them working together as adults. They would be a really formidable duo. That moment with Stan really uh Got me emotionally going in the when I

Saw this episode. This whole last part was just like feeling one crying jag after another. St Stan and the kids is for me the most emotional. Of course, and that's why it had to be last. Stana did a great job of storyboarding that. Um and that was a tough line to read. Um I remember when I was writing this scene, I I thought back to a lesson I had learned from Pat McHale, uh who's a great writer and who I worked with on Flapjack, where there's an episode of Flapjack where um

Uh Captain Kenukles, who's sort of a s uh stand like character, briefly briefly seems to die and then comes back to life and I couldn't think of a line of dialogue for him. Um and he suggests he's like, Well what if he just says Captain I thought you were dead and his reply is I'm not like oh sometimes a little can say a lot. Like I thought Grunkle Stan's a tough character, he would just say you're a nuisance. Get out of here.

Um Jason, you did a wonderful job of this closing monologue. Um I felt like the show started with Dipper's narration and it should end with it. We should get a glimpse of where everybody wound up Stan Brothers' friends. Awesome. Uh you know Seuss has got this rad new life running the mystery shack, his ultimate dream. With with his girlfriend. And this this scene is a it's it's kind of an ambiguous scene. To me, this scene is about

Two things. Like one, it's about mystery. We wanted there to be locked a final question in Dipper's head. Um and and two, it's just about like it's about endings. Like it feels like Did something just die here? Is it over? All these things we loved, are they just gone? Um and you know, that's how you feel at the end of the school year or at the end of the end of a summer, at the end of a job, at the end of a relationship.

And it's like endings are opportunities for beginnings. And the completion of this one summer is, you know, the invitation to a whole new life full of new summers for Dipper and Mabel, you know, changed by these adventures. Fiddleford and his uh son have uh reconciled. Hanging out together. Hanging out this is uh there was uh I think Three and four and f dipper three and four there there was this there used to be this gag about a place called Camp Loose Ends.

It was Dipper Dipper three and four were there, um and uh Quentin Trembley was there. Um This show's such a labor of love. Yeah. And everybody works so hard on it. Yeah. And everybody's single name needs to be read. And everybody's name runs past you so quickly at the end of a normal episode. Um and a special special shout out to And you get all these little vignettes of all these

These were storyboarded by Emmy Susriga. She did a wonderful job. I just asked her, like, give us a bunch of sweet moments with the characters. And uh Ian World, our art director, composited the whole thing in After Effects. And it's nice to see the kids. They're back safe and sound in Piedmont. Bye everyone.