Gravity Falls: S1E5 "The Inconveniencing" (Ep-By-Step #6) · 9:12pm Nov 20th, 2022
In which even hardened teenage delinquents are but lambs to the slaughter.
SPOILERS
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Well, now that we've established an ongoing mystery and introduced our overarching antagonist... let's go back to the monster-of-the-week format! Because we haven't properly introduced Wendy yet!
Despite how I just phrased it, in reality I like this arrangement. The show's in no rush, and there are still elements of the setting and members of the cast it hasn't explored yet. This early on, it makes perfect sense to delay the plot for a while. Later on, I'll make more impatient noises, but - for the meantime - we're in comfortably paced territory.
So what is there to say about Wendy, the lumberjack teen who tends to bail out when the plot shows up?
A.K.A. The Anti-Soos.
Well, only that Gravity Falls isn't flawless.
As much as I like Wendy, there's no getting around the fact she's the weak link in the main cast. She's not part of the Pine family drama, nor does she get properly fleshed-out the same way Soos or even Old Man McGucket are. With Soos, we get a look at his poor family life and his struggles with dating, a proxy for his difficulties in moving out of the giddy manchild mindset. Even Old Man McGucket proves to be a more complicated figure and an essential piece of the central puzzle.
With Wendy... we get a late-series throwaway couple of mentions that Manly Dan's her dad - which should be more of an eye-opener than it is - and maybe one line indicating she's more stressed than she looks.
It's not that the ingredients aren't there, but they're not cooked, so we end up with the old "show, don't tell" problem. The fact that a Wendy episode was planned for Season Two (but ended up canned) only makes her peripheral role more obvious.
She's not much for protagonist duties. Unlike... this guy!
The other impediment is that, when she does get more attention in an episode, it's often overshadowed by Dipper and the problems he suffers with his precocious crush on her. Which isn't a bad arc in its own right, but it is unbalanced: Dipper gets plenty more eps showing different sides to his character, so it ends up making the bias more apparent.
It's all the more of a shame to me because the potential is there, and this episode doesn't take long to show it. Whereas Soos is the energetically dutiful employee who comes running when he's called, Wendy doesn't even look up from her magazine, shirks anything harder than "sit at desk and try not to fall asleep", and bails out on work at the first opportunity. And while Soos shows his awesome more through devoted loyalty than any actual skill (give or take occasional moments), Wendy's got plenty of skills that she throws away on random delinquency.
As the anti-Soos, she's a good workplace foil, occupying another useful comedy role. The resulting anarchic hedonism of her teenage group even makes something of a social commentary out of it, giving Hirsch et al plenty more scope for pointed jokes.
Such as "teens are insensitive jerks". I never said it was complicated social commentary.
Inevitably, this episode's about Dipper. Mabel is either the weird Greek chorus or written out on a G-rated drug trip, Soos is too conscience-ridden to go trash a convenience store, and Grunkle Stan...
"You're watching the black and white period piece old lady boring movie channel! This is our subplot now!"
It should be easier to spot after the show's over, but Grunkle Stan's parallels with Mabel are often obscured by his greedy, crusty cynicism. Yet think about it: he's not only the most emotionally expressive and individualistic of the bunch (basically, his "nuts to you, I'm doing things my way" attitude), he even has a kind of arts and crafts interest (see: the exhibits of the Mystery Shack), is a lot smarter and more insightful than most give him credit for, and here, he gets distracted and totally invested in a random movie. Tell me Mabel wouldn't manage that either.
Basically, Grunkle Stan is Mabel if she grew up jaded. That's my working theory, and I'm going to see how long it lasts.
Anyway...
Inevitably, this episode's about Dipper. And peer pressure. And saving or losing face. And pride. And all that other thematic junk.
Speaking of losing face...
As a neurotic who wants to appear more mature than he really is, Dipper works really well within that framework. The irony is that he's trying it with a bunch of teenagers who are even more immature than him.
That shows itself not just in the sheer pointlessness of their wild antics, but in how his favouritism depends almost entirely on whether or not he's amusing or entertaining in the moment. For instance, his fantastic break-in at the convenience store doesn't distract from the fact that the whole gang are just breaking in to waste time, and probably shouldn't be in there to begin with.
I should think "DON'T BREAK INTO MY GODDAMN STORE" would count as a reason.
Dipper goes back and forth throughout: he mucks up his introduction, yet turns the group around on a dime by accidentally humiliating Robbie, mistaking his "explosion" graffiti for a "muffin". He loses points getting stuck on the fence-climbing, gains them with a vengeance by breaking into the store for the gang, then loses points again when the increasingly freaky supernaturalism makes him overcautious, cramping their style. Then, once everyone realizes the haunting is serious, Dipper's alone in trying to figure out how to deal with it: they just want out, and screw their friends who just got trapped behind screens.
You can tell Wendy knew her crowd when she exchanged the story of Dipper's humiliating dance for a story of him whaling on the ghosts with a baseball bat: for what little sense that makes, it's definitely hardcore delinquency. Never mind that the dance is surprisingly Dipper's most awesome moment in the episode.
Yep. Now is the time to talk about the Lamby Lamby Dance.
"Oh no, this is gonna be mutton but trouble."
Firstly, the comedy speaks for itself. Doing this in front of Wendy is torture on Dipper's soul, and you can practically hear him dying as he sings the Lamby Lamby Song. It's amazing.
The subversive foreshadowing also speaks for itself... so here's some explanation anyway. Mabel brings it up early in the episode as some kind of Noodle Incident (TV Tropes term, for those who don't know, hinting at but never delving into some past offscreen event), because it's her duty to embarrass Dipper. It's a minor blink-and-you'll-miss-it thing then, but unexpectedly turns out to be a Chekhov's Gun later in a totally ridiculous context (apparently, the two deceased store owners absolutely hate teens but love 'ickle kids doing 'ickle kid things). The writing continues to throw us silly curveballs.
The two most interesting aspects, though, are what it reveals about Dipper and what it reveals about Wendy.
Dipper first: considering his new "friends" are the definition of "fair-weather", merely being willing to confront and/or placate the haunting spirits alone - and on their behalf - is a sign of what a big damn hero he is, to say nothing of trying to make sure he can rescue the gang into the bargain. Once he's figured out where the ghosts' prejudices lie (because "figuring stuff out" is Dipper's main job now, especially with Mabel away with the sugar plum fairies), he's the only one who manages to negotiate, even if it involves exposing his own lie about being a teen.
Thing is, in a sense it's easy to be a hero by performing awesome and impressive feats (like, I dunno, whaling on an enemy with a baseball bat). Dipper has a harder job here: he has to knowingly and willingly humiliate himself in order to save someone else. That's... actually much, much more impressive, because it's the opposite of a self-serving moment. It's a personal sacrifice. As hilarious as Dipper looks, as mortified as he feels doing it, he still does it, and it says a lot about him that he's willing - however reluctantly - to do this for someone else.
It's subtly but strongly admirable, and damn does he deserve a break after what he's put himself through.
Wendy next: she gives him that break, because even she can see the poor devil has suffered enough. Even better: far from being a spur-of-the-moment thing, it's the end point of how she's largely treated him throughout this episode.
She's also the first person to notice that Dipper is surprisingly mature for his age.
Terrible employee though she is, and as questionable as her clique's attitude becomes, Wendy at times shows an almost motherly concern for Dipper and Mabel. She's fine goofing off with them on the rooftop when Stan's not around (turning Dipper's accidentally weak pine cone throw into a "bonus point" when he sets off a car alarm), but warns them early on that her friends are a bit "intense" and apparently checks their ages as some sort of test. She mostly goofs off with them when things are more relaxed: as soon as any kind of tension or conflict stirs among the gang, she slips right back into guardian mode. Well, as "guardian" as she can be breaking into an abandoned convenience store.
When the rest of the group admire Dipper's break-in, Wendy's (briefly) more concerned with him risking his neck climbing to the rooftop (if anything, Dipper's whole stunt is motivated by her defending him from the gang's teasing by saying the pride-stinging line "he's just a little kid"). And when the supernatural influence becomes unavoidable, instead of trying to bail out at the first opportunity, she basically ends up acting as Dipper's support. Her response to his dance? Her face lights up with genuine delight, as if this is the most adorable thing she's ever seen.
Yet, of course, she changes the story later to protect Dipper's feelings.
What this all adds up to is a surprisingly affectionate friendship buried under all the dudebro teenage antics. It's a shame we never get much of a deep dive into Wendy's headspace for the rest of the series: whether her rebellious attitude or affection for the Mystery Twins is the result of having a male-dominant family (we never find out what the deal is with her mother), or the fact that her school life sucks so much, or what. Heck, she isn't even a major focus again until Season Two, whereupon the ep will predictably focus on Dipper's crush for her.
Nevertheless, as a first test of their friendship, Wendy and Dipper come out of this one with flying colours. There are some things you just can't do together without becoming good friends, and having a dance-off against a cheerful pair of teen-hating ghosts is one of them.
Minor points of interest:
- Lore-wise, there isn't a ton to comment on with this one. The convenience store couple appear later in a flashback during "A Tale of Two Stans", and maybe a cameo in "Blendin's Game", and that's it as far as I'm aware. Their ghostly presences don't factor into anything else - ironically, apart from one lumberjack ghost monster-of-the-week - even though the dead being able to come back as ghosts seems like a detail that should get more focus.
- So right off the bat, Mabel's in "it's funny to abuse Dipper" mode, replying to his inoffensive question about believing in ghosts with "I believe you're a big dork!" Mabel, come on. You're not in good form this cold open.
- I love not just the dialogue contrast, but the nonverbal contrast, between Soos and Wendy when Stan calls for attention. I wish they'd played it up more often, though, because it's not that noticeable outside this one ep.
- According to Wikipedia, this is the third episode by production code. "The Legend of the Gobblewonker" was first, followed by "Headhunters" as second. I bring this up because some of the comedy in the cold open makes me think "Early Instalment Weirdness". Case in point: apart from the hallucination scenes, Mabel's comedy feels even less mature than usual (like: why is licking Dipper's hand when he tries silencing her supposed to be funny? It just comes across as random).
Another case in point: what was with that hand thing Wendy was doing that freaked Soos out so much? I don't get it.
- Wendy's rooftop retreat does not operate 24/7, as we've already seen that spot in "Headhunters", and the provisions definitely weren't set up then. Nor was the target taped to the totem pole in other appearances. I'm just imagining Wendy going out of her way to smuggle all that stuff in once a day.
- Knowing in hindsight that Wendy's fully aware of Dipper's crush on her, I have to wonder what she's thinking when - for instance - Dipper pauses in apparent awe before high-fiving her. If she finds it awkward, she does an impressive job of hiding it.
- Also knowing in hindsight that Wendy took survival training in her youth (from her dad, no less), her ability to lower herself to the ground via convenient tree seems like some kind of subtle foreshadowing. Very subtle, as she never shows comparable skills again this episode: you'd think it would've been an asset when breaking into a building.
- First appearance of the "I'm zipping it" gesture. That this literally saves their lives next season makes it a lovely ongoing "between friends" signature.
- The show still loves its visual playaround gags. Dipper literally writing down "I am pretending to write something down" is a dumb paradox, and I love his pointless attempt to pass it off with his overdone "satisfied pouting" face.
- Anyway, the teen gang. While the gang are well-observed depictions of teens... in fact, probably because of that, I tend not to like them very much. The way they (mis)treat Thompson is something I've long learned to regard as a red flag, as they neither show him any respect nor miss an opportunity to mask their humiliation of him as more hedonistic fun. (Wendy isn't exempt from that judgement either, and for all my talk about her protective instinct towards Dipper and Mabel, it's a reminder that she's still a dodgy teen herself).
- This is also our introduction to Robbie. It's not played up all that much here, despite his prominence, but the seeds are successfully planted for his future rivalry with Dipper. Not just the "explosion/muffin" issue, but the way he consistently acts as Commander Contrarian to Doctor Funtimes/Captain Buzzkill.
- Right off the bat, Wendy's the cool and competent one. See: her landing the belly button shot on Thompson, to Robbie's initial confusion (look at the way he examines his own fingers in puzzlement, as he initially assumes he somehow threw the shot without meaning to).
- And while we're rattling off the teen gang introductions, I totally forgot about Lee and Nate, and I still can't keep the two straight. Tambry somehow leaves more of an impression, and all she does is text and look vaguely goth.
- The old-timey movie Stan ends up watching makes me feel nostalgic: my own grandparents used to watch old movies, and it therefore feels like something old people do in general. Stan getting invested in the Duchess's romance ("IT'S JUST LIKE MY LIFE! Kinda...") is somehow both sweet and hilarious.
- The ridiculously long British names for the characters and actors is even funnier to me because the odds are their pronounciation would be shockingly short: most of the long British placenames, for instance, have silent syllables.
- Although while we're speculating, maybe Stan's finally cottoning on to the benefits of defying parental authority. Either that, or he thought he was doing it in the first place and hasn't realized he's played right into his father's game by doing exactly what he was demanded to do.
If you needed more Simpsons shout-outs:
- There is so much I like about the Dusk 2 Dawn convenience store that it'd take a whole blog post in its own right to do the place justice. Even allowing for the secret brilliance of Gideon Gleeful, this is my favourite antagonistic force so far depicted. It's also one of my favourite horror episodes of the show, not so much making specific shout-outs to other franchises as giving the whole "haunted house" genre its moment to shine. The imagery is a lot more creative than any other episode (barring the Bill Cipher ones) - freed as it is by the blatant introduction of a locally unrestrained supernatural force - and some of it is outright hardcore, like the mysterious brain manifestation in the freezer and the way one of the teens is dispatched by a "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs" expy (fortunately, he gets better). Best of all? The explanation is textbook Gravity Falls: utterly ridiculous and silly, yet never fully losing its menace and even thematically tying into the broader episode (in this case, with its exaggerated "battle of the generations" motif).
- I gather the show's broadly supposed to be "modern day" as of 2012, but based on the 1995 newspaper Dipper checks out, 17 years seems a long time for an abandoned convenience store to be ignored. Seriously, no one wanted to buy the property?
- Also, it apparently still has power? Why? Is this part of the subtle supernatural influence, or did the electricity company genuinely overlook the fact that two of their clients had been dead for two decades?
Speaking of that newspaper, this front page headline is 100% justified:
- As much as I've been giving the teens grief over their fair-weather delinquency, they're affable enough when they're in plain fun-loving mode. Plus, of all the places they could have broken into, an abandoned convenience store is arguably one of the more inoffensive. They just had the bad luck of disturbing the spirits of the dead by doing so.
The sheer insanity of Mabel's smile dip hallucination is impossible to capture in the humble written word, so I won't even try. All I'll say is that you should make notes for when we revisit Mabel-land in the series finale: some of the imagery will come back later.
- "The future is in the past! Onward, Aoshima!" OK, OK, I had to quote that, at least.
- Although, according to the Wiki, what the Flavor Pup says is apparently: "Elknurg...tsurtsid...tsum..." Now read it backwards.
- I've seen the freezer brain discussed online as if it was a separate entity, but it just seems to be one of the many freaky manifestations the two ghosts deploy. Heck, it might even be one of the ghosts: when they possess Mabel, their possession voice is completely different from their normal ones, and the man later turns into a fiery version of himself, so self-modification is a viable option.
Also, look at this thing. Remember it? In the ep itself, it comes the hell out of nowhere, so imagine watching some low-key high-jinks and then having this thrown at you:
- God knows what the kids in the audience thought.
- Question: if the convenience store couple hate teenagers for playing video games, then why do they have a video game in their store?
- It's funny that it fails for such a dumb reason, no question, but you'd think Grunkle Stan would be constantly on the alert for phone calls. Between his criminal activities and his interests in keeping the Mystery Twins safe, being cautious seems like it should be the default behaviour. Especially since you could explain the failed telephone line by saying the ghosts had something to do with it, and still show Stan irrevocably wrapped up in his black-and-white movie fixation.
- I don't know if it's just me or what, but I swear the size of the store fluctuates. One minute, it's the size of a normal room; the next, it's almost as big as a giant department store, with long aisles and everything. Am I reading too much into the perspective?
- Continuity issue? The chalk outlines are behind the counter, but the flashback shows the couple were behind the shop window when they suffered their double heart attacks. It isn't much of a stretch, as the counter is close to the window regardless, but it still seems a tad off to me.
As for the chalk outlines - yeah, actual death is now unambiguously front and centre in the show. This can only be a good sign.
- The teens daring each other to lie down in the chalk outlines is one of those things that feels horribly believable as a depiction of modern teens: they literally just realized something heavy happened here, and their first reaction is to use it for a stupid macho game. You half-wonder if Dipper's reservations were also partly triggered by this blatant disrespect for the dead (never mind this being Gravity Falls, where the dead are actually able to come back and complain about it).
- I was gonna say they realize someone died here, but the episode makes clear they already knew someone got murdered at that very site (Mabel's response? "This town has such a colorful history!"). It just rings a little differently when the chalk outlines are discovered.
- As another sign of Wendy not being 100% on the same page as the other teens, they're openly disapproving of Dipper's "Captain Buzzkill" behaviour, while Wendy's awkwardly rubbing her arm and looking away when she weakly agrees with them. Given her later series comments about how much high school sucks, I do wonder if even she's struggling slightly with the peer pressure herself, and therefore more like the neurotic Dipper than she lets on. Feels like a missed opportunity, if that was the intention.
- The way the teens are teleported out of one reality and into another is horrifying: they're on-screen being torn in half!
- Feels like I should be less forgiving of Robbie's explicitly bailing on the others and trying to escape, but since he doesn't have a helpful journal of plot convenience on him (and in any case has no real means of dealing with a then-voiceless supernatural force of vengeance), it comes across more like harsh but reasonable pragmatism. Plus, who wouldn't freak out in that situation? No, there'll be plenty of time to hate Robbie later.
- I do wonder if Mabel was used as the host vessel simply because she was in a suggestible frame of mind at the time. That or the ghosts recognized her as a child and therefore not as an age-appropriate victim.
The convenience store setting also enables some more anti-business humour, most blatantly with the Lee's cereal mascot being a dead ringer for the Cocoa Puffs bird.
- Oh, yes. That guy's called Lee. I remember now. Which means Nate's the one who gets turned into a hotdog.
- Geez, the sounds used for Lee's offscreen torture/possible death. It just goes to show how not showing something can make it more horrific than putting it onscreen.
- I praise the horror of the setting, but it doubles down on the comedy too. The ghost faking them out with an insincere "OK you're free to go", followed by trying to sell hotdogs on the way out, not only works as a bit of foreshadowing (in life, the store owners were normally a lot less menacing, for one thing), but allows us a breather before the madness goes one step further.
- The way Dipper and Wendy (mostly Dipper) figure out the reason for the ghost's animosity always felt a little forced. Not the list of "normal teenage things", as such, but the way Wendy has to point that out before the penny drops for Dipper feels off somehow. Like, who'd really talk like that in such a crisis? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that's how it comes across to me.
Exorcist head from possessed Mabel. Nice. I've been itching to use "Exorcist head" somewhere in these reviews.
- That the store owners terrorizing the teens are such a square old married couple is honestly the cherry on top of this comedy sundae. It's perfect just how inoffensive they come across once they reveal themselves. Listen to the rap that finally did them in. It's impossible to take seriously!
- I don't normally praise the voice acting because, honestly, the whole show is spoiled for choice in that regard. But while I'm talking about the Lamby Lamby Dance, I gotta give props to Jason Ritter for nailing the "dead inside" gusto of Dipper's singing voice.
- Ah, I see we favour the Wile E. Coyote response to gravity.
- Wendy casually mentioning she's been traumatized for life and therefore needs to rethink everything was probably meant to feed into the Society of the Blind Eye's point about ignorance being bliss? Not sure. Again, I might be reading more into this than was intended.
- Do like how Mabel's "this'll blow someone's mind" graffiti in the car ends up unintentionally backfiring on her later. But alas, yeah, it's episodes like this that push Mabel away from "one of two awesome twins" and more into "useless comic relief sidekick" territory.
- The credits scene is a great payoff for Stan's excuse-of-a-sideplot with the The Duchess Approves movie. It all started with the excuse of a missing remote, and it all ends with an excuse of a missing remote. Gravity Falls also throws in a subversion because it doesn't end with Stan's soft side getting witnessed by anyone else. He just gets mad and throws the TV out the window, instead having to make excuses for that. I love this show's sense of twisted humour.
- Although good luck paying for a new TV on your funds, Stan. Or fixing the old one. Ah well. Maybe he just stole it. 🤷
Tuo, srebmun elbissopmi! Won rof lla s'taht!
That's all for now! Impossible Numbers, out!
<<< Gravity Falls: S1E4 "The Hand That Rocks The Mabel" (Ep-By-Step #5)
It's Gravity Fall, with a presumably small population with . . . questionable mental consequences by a Secret Society.
Besides, there's a mall. I doubt what few business there are migrated to the mall and the rest are surviving on their own.
I always few that as brilliant. When I was small, I remember all the places that I had been as this big maze with big stuff and storefront. But as I grew older and revisited the place that I had previously thought to be massive, it's actually not.
I was feeling both weirded out and somewhat disappointed by it all when I begin noticing it, the magic and anticipation of exploring the place just turn out to be a mirage conjured up by a smaller me. Even now, when I am a tourist and visiting places even bigger than the ones back home, I begin to wonder that the next time I visited a place I first thought to be massive would be equally a disappointment.
The magic of a new place is just gone for me.
Nah, she's probably too drugged out to offer any resistance when the ghost is looking for a avatar to display their disapproval.
Also, the ghost kinda creeped me out and not in a good way, they're a bit too excited when Dipper do the dance for me to be comfortable.
Speaking as a sibling here, at least for us this is classic sibling behavior - they cover your mouth to stop you talking, you lick their hand because nobody likes that. I’m guessing this is the reason why it’s there :p
She's like a salad, but missing the dressing (and several vegetables)
.
But seriously, she is one of the best characters in this show.
And if that came at the expense of several solo episodes, than I'm okay with that.
It's kind of like ending a show. Sometimes the thing that separates the good writers from the bad, is being aware how far they can push things.
And a conman. Don't forget the con part, it's a essential part of the character.
I want to hear this in the voice of the fish announcer from Spongebob.
Because he's a kid. That's all it takes for some people.
She helped raise her younger brothers right? Those old instincts don't go away.
5699022
Pretty much.
I feel like Wendy exists largely to demonstrate parts of Dipper, not really as a character in her own right (a few late-series moments notwithstanding).
5699022
When I was a kid, anytime someone tried to cover your mouth like that, it was pretty much de rigeur that you had to lick it, 'cause that was the best way to get them to let go.
Replying to the OP:
Well, given that the show itself contrasts Stan and Ford's relationship against Dipper and Mabel, it's pretty clear that there's a similar dynamic, which the former lost and the latter so far hasn't (and probably won't).
That actually doesn't surprise me all that much. I've seen old commercial buildings sitting empty for years with the power on, even with the lights and signs on. In one case, there was a bakery in my old neighborhood that sat empty for the better part of five years with lights on and a big marquee sign playing the same advertisement over and over and over. Kept on that way until the building finally caught fire (never found out if it was an electrical thing, or outright arson).
For example:
Spelling: Cholmondeley
Pronunciation: Chum-lee (this is actually a real example).
And that's not even getting into the monstrosities of spelling and pronunciation that are Welsh place names.
Trust the silliness!
5699022, 5699039, 5699153
Topical stuff! 👍 Tonight's debate on "Yay, Nay, or I Guess It's Okay!"...
5699107
Generally, I find satellite characters like Wendy awkward because they're usually prominent enough that I'd expect some sort of character development or intrinsic justification for their prominence, but in practice the character type is closer to "random recurring gag character" without the gag. It seems like the worst of both worlds to me, especially in context when Soos manages to rise above that and set a good precedent.
5699039
I am intrigued now as to whether that works in reverse. Any cases where Mabel "conned" or otherwise outwitted somebody?
5699007
The "diminishing perspective" theory is a really cool idea, but I meant more that it was inconsistent in the episode. Like, one establishing shot shows how small the place is, then later the aisles are massive, then later again the place is back to being a small shop you could spit across. And so on. Here, it's not a case of "starts big, gets smaller". Instead, it jumps around a lot.
Fair enough, though now I'm wondering whether Gravity Falls in general has a funky perspective thing, because some aerial shots (like in the last ep, when Gideon's looking down on the town) make it about two, three streets in size. So now I'm wondering where they hide the massive modern mall. In the forest?
5699153
Aye, someone arsin' around!*
*Blame Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit for that one.
I'm legitimately surprised. You'd think energy companies would be pretty hot on curbing that sort of loss.
i.ytimg.com/vi/k_XF-XqMudY/maxresdefault.jpg
"Ask not what your country can do for you! Ask what giant flying space pretzels are going to do to your country!"
5699529
It's just a case of understanding sibling dynamics.
Gravity Falls did a better than usual job of portraying peer dynamics (probably at least in part because it's creator and showrunner had experience and made it a focus of the writing).
Technically her manipulation of Dipper can be seen as one big long emotional con (whether intentional or not).
There's also that episode with Robbie and Tammi which carries some serious "love guru" vibes.
Frankly I can totally see a more dishonest Mabel dispensing "love advice" on a shady media platform somewhere.
I just assume that's down to reality being distorted, either in the minds of the characters or the real world.
Like with the cereal box character coming to life gag. Then again I do tend to give writers' way too much credit.
Could be. Then again, maybe they didn't know what they wanted until latter in the show. That happens a lot of the time in animated series.
I'm amazed someone knows what that is.
Yeah. Energy companies, retail companies. You'd be surprised the kind of things that go unused.
Then again, in the case of a energy company, maybe it's just cheaper to let closed properties soak up energy then actually going to the effort of unplugging them. Plus it probably looks better on the forms if you have one additional site you're pumping power to.
5699571
A perhaps more direct example would be her elaborate double-cross sting to obtain pixie dust in "The Last Mabelcorn."
5699529
Usually the cost is billed to the property owner, which is not always (rarely) the same as the former shop owner.
If they do take a loss,and the local power utility is privately owned, it gets them a tax write-off. If it's government-owned (usually municipal), and they're taking a loss, then that just means the bureaucracy hasn't caught up with it yet.
One other thing to keep in mind is that in a lot of climates, keeping the electricity on means that the environmental controls are kept on, which keeps the internal climate stable and helps prevent or slow the inevitable decay of the building. Especially in wet climates like mine, where controlling humidity is crucial to preventing mold and mildew growth; and keeping the building usable by a future tenant without costly renovations and toxic mold removal.
5699571
Or the mall could be placed somewhere well outside the Gravity Falls town center. Shopping malls in the US are commonly located a considerable distance from the downtown core; and usually much closer to major roads (like interstate freeways or state highways).
5699596
That episode honestly passed me by.
I remember the plot with Dipper and Ford, and I remember the ingredient hunt overall, but those specific scenes outside of the Unicorn fight escape me.
I do remember some shady tactics, but the details elude me.
5699624
Or it's more tax money, so why inform your boss and get your budget cut?
Certainly a possibility. It's interesting how often stores are placed far away from the communities where people work.
Although it'd have to be several hours outside of town at least.
5699529
Considering just where and when the mall was revealed, in the 3-part special finale surrounded by forest with clear entrance, yes. Apparently, either the forest hides more than the supernatural, or that it consider most of the town equally weird and help hide/obscure some part of the town as well.