Gravity Falls: S1E4 "The Hand That Rocks The Mabel" (Ep-By-Step #5) · 3:21pm Nov 3rd, 2022
In which, after an angry tribe, a lake monster, and a would-be waxwork murderer, we finally get Gravity Falls' creepiest enemy: the evangelical version of Georgie Porgie.
SPOILERS
GENERAL SPOILER POLICY: "Blogs in the Ep-By-Step series may or may not spoil content found in later episodes. Viewer discretion is therefore advised."
One of the trickier balancing acts in storytelling is making an antagonist who's both funny and threatening at the same time. Usually, there's an obvious bias one way or the other. Some villains are deadly serious customers who occasionally make an offhand punchline or act as the Straight Guy to some other clown's antics; others are laughable jokes who occasionally convince you that this time, this time, they're not messing around.
Enter Li'l Gideon.
Secretly a brony.
Gravity Falls laid the groundwork for each of the two aspects already: even the Gobblewonker - so far the most straightforwardly no-nonsense monster threat - was ultimately one big prank with a delayed payoff. Li'l Gideon, however, is the inverse: a complete joke who - it becomes clear - is far, far more dangerous than he has any right to be.
From the start, he's a character concept so ridiculous that you spend most of his debut ep looking like this:
To an antagonist who looks like this:
And yes, it turns out the show is completely serious. This is our threat, ladies and gentlemen. Bear with me.
BatwingCandlewaxxe made a more interesting point than mine, so I'll quote it in full here:
Li'l Gideon isn't really a middle finger to child celebrities in general; but rather, is mainly a reference to one specific child celebrity: Larry Larimore, a traveling evangelical child preacher from the 1960s. Obviously there's more to the character than that, but the image of Gideon and his "Tent of Telepathy" is a dead ringer for Larimore and his "tent revival" style of preaching (something that seems to be distinctly American). Not surprised that most people don't know that, especially non-Americans; since he was never particularly well know outside American Evangelical circles; but he's become one of the go-to images of the "child preacher" phenomenon, along with more well-known examples like Marjoe Gortner.
Seems fishy.
As it happens, I was vaguely aware of Marjoe Gortner prior, if only from the horrific circumstances that came out in the 1972 documentary film bearing his name. Which he helped with, I should point out: Marjoe - rather understandably in my view - did not appreciate the abusive way his parents groomed him to be a child preacher (frankly, I find the very concept of foisting that sort of adult role on a child horrific). It would be fair to say that much of his "act" was a carefully engineered scam... which is very appropriate as inspiration for a Gravity Falls character.
Regardless of how you spin it, though, a little nine-year-old celebrity preacher - squeaky-voiced, baby-portioned, almost literally too big for his boots, with a Napoleon Complex* and a hairstyle that looks like a bleached peanut - is instantly a joke character.
* I'm duty-bound to mention that Napoleon wasn't actually short: that perception of him owes more to British propaganda than to documented fact.
His joke concept even works in the broader context of Gravity Falls. Child villains are impossible to do in a grounded series, and are terribly easy to get wrong with that balancing act I mentioned prior. But Gravity Falls has long since made clear it's full of improbable odds and ends, so we don't throw a stupid child villain into a series where he doesn't belong: he simply becomes one more perverse oddity in a world full of 'em.
"Michael Jackson ain't got nothin' on me!"
Sure, other signs and aspects poke through early on. A very unsubtle musical sting in the cold open, and a shot of Gideon watching the Mystery Twins from the flap of his tent, alert us right away that he's got something sinister up his sleeve. It just doesn't get in the way of the silliness, not yet.
Combined with his charming Southern Gentleman behaviour (faked, of course), his obvious parallels with Grunkle Stan as a shifty fraud with few scruples, as well as the clever-if-obscure bit of real-life context for his character type (Marjoe Gortner and Larry Larimore), and we've got a good all-rounder of a villain here. It's legitimately impressive.
And that's before he starts sniffing Mabel's hair or threatening Dipper with shears.
Lost in all this - of course - is Bud Gleeful, possibly one of the most underused and underappreciated antagonists in the entire series.
"I see the wife took over interior decorating."
"Now, Stan, y'all did notice this here shirt I'm wearin' when you walked in, right?"
The thing that makes Bud stand out to me is just how affable he is. Where Gideon quickly degenerates into using force - first social, then paranormal - to get what he wants, Bud takes a "friendly corruption" approach (or it may just be a genuine desire for a business merger: there's no indication his attitude to Stan is anything like his son's). Everything he does here is above-board, even though Stan shows up specifically looking for a fight. And oddly, that makes him ambiguously fascinating.
Where Gideon's Southern Gentleman mask is transparently a ploy, Bud's is far more convincing, if only because we never have it confirmed how sincere or insincere he really is. His entire plan - if such it could be called - is to seize a business opportunity from the date and get Stan on his side with a contract. He even tries being polite when Grunkle Stan steals his clown painting. His blasé approach to his son's temper tantrums add to the general sense that he's strangely grounded and sensible in a world completely off its gourd.
"You know, Gideon, I read once how psychic temper tantrums is more a teenage thing, but whatever works for you."
Admittedly, it's possible the idea to get Mabel and Gideon married was his idea rather than Stan's, which would paint him in a much worse light. But since we only hear about this from Grunkle Stan's announcement (and geez, does he comes off really badly and unsympathetically at that moment), Bud onscreen maintains that general air of easygoing Southern Fried common sense. Which ironically stands out in this world gone mad. He's so affable, he almost reminds me of the Mayor from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
To make the obvious point: such a character is limited. For one thing, a lot of his ambiguity here is as a result of being under Gideon's thumb, so he could only shine once he's out of his son's shadow (Season Two missed an opportunity there), which automatically means finding some other way to keep his intentions uncertain. Also, pink shirt notwithstanding, he's obviously not that remarkable: "used-car salesman and unflappable gentleman" is less a genius character concept than "tent revival meets creepy little psycho kid".
I just think ambiguous evil has its own fascinations too.
"All I'm sayin' is: the Dartboard of Hate could be a marvellous business opportunity just a production model we picked the photo at random so let me show y'all where to sign the contract..."
Yet for all the parallels between Grunkle Stan and Li'l Gideon, the episode's focus is really on Mabel. Who does work as a point of comparison in her own right, being an emotionally extravagant, childish charmer with a crush fixation.*
* In that respect, Gideon the multi-faceted monster also works as a parallel to Dipper and his crush on Wendy. Although both boys handle it completely differently, the obsessive overoptimism is present in both cases.
Despite all my gushing about this episode, I find it's not one I immediately go for on a casual rewatch. The reason's simple: what Mabel goes through is a bit too painful for me to enjoy it.
Adorably painful.
Jokes-a-minute and the sinister intrigue are largely (if not completely) put on hold for a while so that Mabel gets put in a position even adults would struggle with: an unhealthy, clingy relationship they're being manipulated into staying with, for fear of the consequences of having their say.
It's a testament to Gravity Falls that it's willing to go through this kind of abusive territory (and let's be clear: steamrollering over someone to get what you want is abuse, psychological and emotional abuse). Although thankfully it's not above softening the blow by occasionally exaggerating it to parody. This is a comedy series, after all.
The one joke that sticks out to me is when the crowd at the restaurant is fawning over the cute couple, completely oblivious to Mabel's discomfort. Then an old lady quavers in the most feeble and pathetic worrying treble that she'll up and die if Mabel says no. Whereupon a doctor comes into the shot solely to confirm with sudden and improbable authority that this will indeed happen, completely straight-faced, as if this was some kind of cheesy commercial.
9 out of 10 doctors recommend this joke for acute depression.
Mabel's stuck in the middle of some horrifically suffocating public pressure, so dumb little moments like that (which also highlight just how dumb all the public pressure is to begin with) are pretty much obligatory to keep things remotely lighthearted. It softens the blow. But it doesn't eliminate the effects entirely.
When we get to the point that the normally cheerful Mabel is stress-pacing, mumbling the dilemma over and over to herself, or outright freaking out and hiding in Sweater Town (it's a lovely reminder of how close they are that Dipper automatically recognizes the symptoms), a lot of the fun sort of vanishes for a while, and I just find it a bit too hard to watch. Not literally unwatchable, but that vicarious discomfort is why I don't go for this episode so readily when I come back to the series. It's too efficient at its job, to the point that it gets a bit too real for its own good.
And the worst part is that - despite Mabel's awesome comeback later - no one involved really gets much in the way of immediate correction. Gideon loses his amulet, but that's only a small setback in the overall scheme of someone hell-bent on causing trouble. Meanwhile, the townsfolk get off scot-free. Unless I want to wait till the end of this season for a comeuppance, I find it mildly unsatisfying in the moment.
"Avenge me. Please oh please, avenge me."
Thankfully, there are saving graces, and plenty.
Dipper, for one thing: he's pretty great in and of himself, but also ends up being the catalyst for Mabel's greatness later.
"VENGEANCE WILL BE MINE!"
Let me count the ways. Openly disapproving of Mabel going out with Gideon, yet acts as confidant throughout. Insists on her solving this problem face-to-face, yet cheerfully opts to do it for her the moment its clear she's too stressed. Tactlessly fumbles the break-up, yet comes across as friendly enough once he's convinced Gideon won't "freak out". Is confronted by a psycho with a pendant that can throw him around like a ragdoll, yet still tries to clobber the kid (verbally and with a baseball bat).
What this all adds up to is a reminder that the Mystery Twins are a tight-knit duo who understand and support each other better than anyone else can. Mabel - hilariously with no help from Wendy whatsoever - realizes she's doing this all wrong and goes to confront Gideon herself instead of letting Dipper do all the hard work. And then?
Nearly everything awesome about this episode occurs in the 412 Gopher Road warehouse. It's the ultimate confirmation that Gideon is a totally dark-hearted bastard, the threat of the amulet becomes completely unambiguous - apart from whether or not Gideon's shears were going to be used for mutilation or outright murder - and Mabel finally gets her moment to shine. She tells Gideon where to shove it, smashes the amulet, calls the little creep out for his romantic delusions after the tricks he's pulled, and to my surprise rescues them both when I'd honestly forgive her for just sparing Dipper and letting Gideon fall to his death. Queen of Sweater Town, everyone.
"ALL SHALL LOVE ME AND DESPAIR!"
Of course, that morally impressive awesomeness means Gideon is free to come back for more, but this is an episodic series, so that's no different from Jeff's promise of revenge in the first episode, right?
Right?
Right?
Wrong.
It's easy to overstate what a big deal this twist is, but the reveal that someone else has a journal - and that it's secretly in the hands of someone with no qualms about misusing its secrets - just upped the game considerably. Now we go from having a clever one-off to having a dedicated villain, one well-designed to act as a foil for each and every member of the Pine family, and one who has established beyond all doubt that he's delusionally dangerous and a legitimate monster.
It ups the horror, ups the drama, ups the mystery, ups the suspense, ups the sense of momentum and progress.
Now the endgame is starting to take shape. Even if it's a little stubby shape with a coiffant hairdo.
Minor points of interest:
"Newman! I mean, Gideon!"
- Gravity Falls rarely misses an opportunity to pile on the random, not least in showing what a multimedia dump the town must be to have something like "Tiger Fist" and Gideon's overdone commercial on TV.
Super-fast disclaimers are always ripe for comedy, just for the weird nonsense you can smuggle in.
- Given that Bud Gleeful had a hand in making that commercial, does this mean Carla's his deranged wife, or...?
- That was a very deep dog-growl Mabel made. I could easily believe she swapped voice actors for a moment, like the ventriloquist dummy pelican a couple of eps ago.
- Grunkle Stan confusingly describes Gideon as having "rolled into town", but he's already a resident. The giant bus in the flashback implies he was on tour, but a later ep makes clear Gideon was born in Gravity Falls, so shouldn't it be "rolled back into town"?
- Devious Mabel shows up with the loophole line. But it's Mabel, so she has to make a random joke out of it.
- I love how the episode starts drawing a comparison between Grunkle Stan and Gideon almost immediately, especially with their respective "sacks of mystery/psychic sacks". Not only does it make for a great "Sitcom Archnemesis" setup, but the episode's subsequent focus on Mabel turns it into another meta-level fakeout.
Speaking of a Sitcom Archnemesis angle that never plays out:
- The star iconography around the Tent of Telepathy looks eerily like a modification of the Bill Cipher symbol. No idea if that's a coincidence or if the show's implying an earlier connection than the one we see in "The Dreamscaperers" later on.
- Do like the subtle foreshadowing of Gideon's telepathic powers during the tent song. You can see he puts his hand to his throat just before everyone mysteriously stands up, catching Dipper off-guard.
- You have to worry about Mabel becoming one of the townsfolk when she's just as impressed by Gideon's lame cold-reading trick as they are (give or take whether her name was supposed to be covered up in the shot). At least Dipper and Soos don't fall for it.
- Although the Mystery Twins playfully ribbing on each other as they leave is cute.
Disagree though they might, they get on so well. - Mabel sticking sequins all over her face including her eyelids brings us right back round to eccentric and vaguely troubling childlike behaviour again. I mean, the ep makes it clear blinking with all that stuff on actually hurts. Yikes.
- Nice reminder of her arts and crafts obsessions, though.
- I also like how it becomes an eccentric attraction for Gideon. He's in full charmer mode on their first encounter, so when she coughs up sequins all over his collar, he's apparently delighted by her forthright spontaneity. "Enchanting!"
- Really, it's the little details that sell these kinds of relationships, with all their little imperfections round the edges to stop it feeling monotonous. There's a moment where Mabel punches Gideon playfully on the shoulder, accidentally hurting him. Nothing comes of it, but in the moment it's a reminder that Mabel isn't just pure eccentric charm but, well, a kid who doesn't always know her boundaries.
- Makeover Mabel never properly emotes under all the makeup, making her look even more uncanny than she already does.
- "I don't trust anyone whose hair is bigger than their head." Dipper says this to Mabel, whose hair is bigger than her head.
- Funny how 412 Gopher Road has a mailbox even though it's nothing but a small, abandoned warehouse out in the middle of nowhere overlooking a tiny town with no obvious industry. Not your conventional makeout point, though Gideon's merchandise being strewn all over the place possibly gives it a certain egomaniacal glee to Gideon himself. Also serves as a quick way to foreshadow the climax.
- The unnerving thing about Gideon's creepiness is how gradually it grows. One scene ago, he was the charming little gentleman. This time around, he still plays the role, but the act starts to crack between him confessing a megalomaniacal buzz and treating Mabel as some kind of doll he can stroke and sniff. Later, the way he treats a waiter who's a little too ready to bow to his wishes just ups the subtle creep factor.
- Weirdly, when they're playing a video game together (sadly, we never get to see what particular pop cultural satire it's meant to be), Mabel insists she's not that loveable. This coming from a girl who's out to get a summer boyfriend. Is this just her dismissing the idea of Gideon as any kind of romance material?
I swear the newspaper photo of Gideon and Mabel is supposed to be a reference to something, but for the life of me I can't figure out what.
- Soos is a regular delight. Between his exploding microwave hotdogs and trying (but failing) to be genre savvy about Grunkle Stan walking into a closet, he's basically the loveable incarnation of that awkward random geeky millennial: has a menial job, works for a boss who'd cut his pay if he could get away with it, lives with an elder relative (in his case, his grandma), doesn't date and seems outright terrified of talking to girls, happily acts like a child if it feels good, likes random stupid stuff, is genre savvy (or tries to be), occasionally pseudo-philosophical about it (failing miserably), and by the way, have you seen his web series?
- Love Dipper's self-contradicting attempt to defend himself when Stan's on the warpath about Mabel. Classic "I wasn't there and anyway it was self-defence!" style of logic.
Oh my God, Gideon's eyes on that sign:
- Brief mention of Stan's time in Colombia. Dropped, of course, in the most casually hilarious way possible.
- Er... why is Mabel's lobster alive? I'm no haute cuisine connoisseur, but I'm pretty sure the idea is to boil the shit out of those things before serving them.
- Another delightfully imperfect detail: Gideon's parrot flubbing the "Thurbsday/Thursday" line and him shaking it irritably.
- The parrot was trained to regurgitate a letter at Mabel. Adds a whole new context to Mabel's coughing up of sequins earlier if that's Gideon's idea of "enchanting". Unless he got the idea from her and was paying some weird attention to detail, that is.
- Mabel takes the lobster home with her. Do we ever see it again in Grunkle Stan's aquarium? Keep in mind the tank boils during a heatwave in "The Deep End" eleven episodes later, so...
- I'm all for random Old Man McGucket cameos, but couldn't someone as rich as Gideon hire an actual oarsman for the gondola?
- Seriously, though. Insisting Mabel must marry Gideon as part of a business deal? What the hell is up with you, Stan?
- As usual, however, Grunkle Stan gets some great lines. "BODIES CHANGE, SWEETIE! Bodies change..."
The club is called The Club. Geddit?
Can you tell what the joke is yet?
- I was going to give Toby Determined the benefit of the doubt as he's openly angry with Gideon for making him do the dirty work of setting up Dipper, but since he was happy with the comically pathetic bribe of Shandra Jimenez's phone number, he loses sympathy points.
- Also, Toby asking Dipper about any strange activity around Gravity Falls gets downright sinister once you know he's a member of The Society of the Blind Eye. What's their mission statement, again?
- As a mark for how Gideon balances horror and comedy so well, his menace in the dark warehouse is 100% played seriously during the climax... which also involves loads of cheesy Gideon merchandise and a talking doll he treats as a lap cat.
- Wendy lists a lot of boyfriends, one of which she forgot to dump. Little red flag going up there, as either the town's full of jerks she keeps having to drop like a bad habit, or she has terrible taste in boys.
- I don't think we ever get an explanation in the show as to where Gideon found the magic amulet. Nor, for that matter, what the author's intentions for it were, if someone could simply go get it: you'd think the author would have taken great pains to hide or collect anything that valuable, whether they thought it was dangerous or not.
- Gideon tackling Dipper and sending them both smashing through the window is such a sudden bit of madness that it's almost shocking.
- Awesome as Mabel is for smashing the amulet, I do wonder if it might have been better to keep it as a form of defence, similar to how Dipper keeps (or remakes) the shrinking/growing flashlight later on. Just seems like it could come in handy.
- "I rebuke thee!" is silly enough as an inexplicably archaic avowal of vengeance, but Grunkle Stan's snarky confusion ("What, you got like a word-a-day calendar or something?") is the cherry on top of the silly sundae.
- Note that Gideon's puppets at the end suggest he has some kind of arts and crafts interest like Mabel. I don't think it comes up again, though. Just seemed like an interesting side detail.
- Over the credits, Mabel sticks sequins onto Soos and basically turns him into a living disco ball. One problem: she only covers half of him, so there shouldn't be any lights reflecting off him for the other half of his rotation time. Yet we see lights anyway. Goof!
BONUS ROUND! MABEL SWEATER TIME!
Back in Ep-By-Step #2, I started giving Mabel's sweater's names. Then I forgot. Well, let's play catch-up now, because why not!?
"'Because why not!?' is my favorite reason for doing ANYTHING!"
So let's do this!
Mabel Sweater #1: "The Shiny"
Mabel Sweater #2: "Shooting Star"
a.k.a. "Mabel Classic"
Mabel Sweater #3: "Hunk-a-Huntress"
Mabel Sweater #4: "Turtle Necking"
Mabel Nightshirt #1: "The Backup Save"
Mabel Sweater #5: "Untouchable"
a.k.a. "Co-Captain of the S.S.Cool Dude"
Mabel Sweater #6: "The Sweet Mint"
Mabel Sweater #7: "Strawberry Surprise"
a.k.a. "Mysterious Ways"
Mabel Sweater #8: "The Easily Impressed"
Mabel Sweater #9: "Nature's Greatest Warrior"
Mabel Sweater #10: "The Cat Race"
Mabel Sweater #11: "The Suspect"
Mabel Sweater #12: "The Flap of Chaos"
Mabel Sweater #13: "Li'l Shade"
Mabel Sweater #???: "The Shiny 2: The Shinening Boogaloo Strikes Back"
Mabel Sweater #???: "Dark-Hearted Dolly"
Mabel Sweater #14: "Happy Feet"
Mabel Sweater #15: "Fun Hazard"
And there's more where that came from!
That's all for now! Impossible Numbers, out!
That sweater bonus round was way more fun than I thought it would be.
But seriously: How many of those things does she have!?
I'd forgotten about the Soos/Deuce implied rivalry!
Not going to bring specific politics into this, but the Clown/Villain dynamic of an obvious fool also being capable of great harm isn't just a literary trope. Li'l Gideon is terrifying because he's hardly an exaggeration.
Kudos to the artists for Gideon's suit having that shoulder crease that gives away the pads underneath. Nice subtle detail to help sell his deception/insecurity.
To be fair, I don't think it ever shows up again after this.
Now all we need is the giant motion-capture robot. Or Quentin Trembley. Either one's good.
Good point! I love cool little character touches like that.
Senpai noticed me!
Seriously, though, that was an excellent breakdown of the episode. I'd say that there's an argument to be made for Gideon, rather than Bill, being the most serious antagonist of the series. Particularly since he's the one who eventually unleashes Bill on Gravity Falls.
After the run of presidents elected in my lifetime, I'd definitely vote for him. He couldn't possibly be any worse. Trust the silliness!
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Since when was I a senpai? I barely think of myself as a "chan".
Thanks! As for your point about Gideon, I thought it was a combination of Blendin and Mabel (with the rift long-windedly provided by unintentional actions from Dipper, Ford, and Grunkle Stan) that unleashed Bill. I still credit Bill himself with the "most serious antagonist" award, not least because of the sheer scope of his damage.
I am so looking forward to episode 8.
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Mabel and possessed!Blendin opened the rift that allowed Bill to usher in Weirdmageddon, but it was Gideon's pact with Bill in "The Stanchurian Candidate" that gave him the foothold he needed to possess Blendin.
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I honestly forgot about that. Back then, I thought it was just a sequel hook that never paid off, like an orphaned punchline?
It does sort of have that feel to it; but Hirsch did a good job with those sorts of subtle clues throughout the series. And that's how we see Gideon getting out of jail and becoming the leader of the Discount Auto Mart Warriors and being made keeper of the key to Mabel's prison. It's never spoon fed, but comments here and there make it clear that was their deal.