Gravity Falls: S1E1 "Tourist Trapped" (Ep-By-Step #2) · 10:29pm Sep 15th, 2022
In which we are shown all the typical tropes of summer vacation: parents fobbing their kids off, everyone rushing to get to the good parts, and one really, really weird boyfriend.
SPOILERS
GENERAL SPOILER POLICY: "While this particular blog post is written to be vague about future content, the official position I'm taking is that blogs in the Ep-By-Step series may or may not spoil content found in later episodes. Viewer discretion is therefore advised."
"Tourist Trapped" doesn't hang about, does it? Summer vacation, monster encounters, and the Mystery Shack! Bam! Bam! Bam! All that within the first couple of minutes.
It's almost too stuffed, but what's there does its job of whetting your appetite and even reassuring us that yes, the comedy absolutely will take the mick out of idiot tourists who can't tell the difference between rocks and faces.
Altogether, the basic premise is that two twins are sent to their Great Uncle "Grunkle" Stan in the Mystery Shack for summer vacation, then stumble across a mysterious book written by an unknown Author. Really, though, the first ep treats this quickly, almost tangentially, lightly skipping over all the implications (like what Dipper and Mabel's family life must be like for Grunkle Stan to seem like a responsible stand-in) in favour of the zombie boyfriend twists and turns. Dipper even narrates to us directly - the only time he does so in the series - apparently as a convenient way to drop exposition into our laps and run.
This "rush through the premise to get us to the good stuff" approach is something I've seen in a few other Disney shows too: Amphibia does it; The Owl House does it; Star Vs The Forces of Evil does it in a near-lightspeed montage. Some do it better than others, and the obvious reason why I still keep watching is because A) the good stuff is usually pretty good enough to justify it, and B) I tend to binge easily.
Still, it gives parts of the first episode a rushed feel, perfunctory and functional but with the slight feeling that the creators couldn't think of what to do with these starting details, or else didn't much care for them. No elaboration required. Which is a shame because, given how they tackle family drama and spooky exploration adventures later, I feel the staff could have pulled it off early and even done an amazing job.
What we mainly get is our first official introduction to Dipper and Mabel via getting us to the first monster encounter, even going so far as to throw us an In Media Res opening just to make clear early on what we're really aiming for. So let's talk about the Mystery Twins first.
Unsurprisingly, Mabel proves to be... exactly what a kid let loose would be: random, morbid, easily entertained, open-minded, slightly pushy, and approaching "epic romance" like it's some party prize she read about from books (and believes you get for shouting the loudest cliches in the room). So what's the eye-opening detail here?
She may or may not be saner than Dipper.
There's a rather on-the-nose point in this ep about Dipper trusting Mabel, whether it's trusting her with the discovered journal, trusting her judgement in boyfriends (ha, yeah, that one turns out well), and trusting her to know what she's doing at the end. It's one reason why I wish we could get a solid idea of what they were like in their normal habitat before arriving at Gravity Falls, because at one point Mabel asks him to trust her "for once". Add in a point during Dipper's investigation where she accuses him of running off with "one of his crazy conspiracy theories", and it almost totally inverts the most obvious interpretation of which twin has their head screwed on right.
What does it say about Dipper that he comes across as the sane one when he's in an environment full of dangerous secrets and horrible monsters? Even outside of that, Dipper proves to be a tad neurotic, which may or may not be a symptom in and of itself.
Stan's exasperated reaction (during the "Eenie-Meenie-Minie-You" scene), for all the irony the series will put on it later, gives a good idea of what it would be like to have to deal with a kid constantly being paranoid. Maybe Dipper's parents wanted to get rid of him for that exact reason?
In Mabel's favour too: give or take her specific methods, is her chasing after boys really that "crazy", per se? For all her bad luck and occasional outright bad taste in boys, Mabel's ultimately a young girl on vacation who's looking for a bit of fun (note that she's perfectly capable of treating the serious stuff seriously when called upon to do so, something demonstrated to surprising effect here). Some of the problems she ends up getting into are largely because that vacation happens to be in Gravity Falls.
Heck, she's going through that decade of her life when dating is increasingly going to be of interest to her, so it at least makes a kind of sense for her to meet a lot of boys early on, getting an idea for what works and what doesn't. Whether or not she's aware of the logic, or in the right place to try it, Mabel's happy-go-lucky instincts may well be on to something here.
The ultimate takeaway, of course, is that the Mystery Twins become co-conspirators sharing Journal 3 between them. How well future episodes stick to that is another matter (for one thing, it becomes increasingly obvious Dipper's the go-to journal enthusiast), but here they're a good team and that's what the episode absolutely had to show us.
They fare admirably well against a foe that caught them off-guard a few times, and even come out of it with a (new?) appreciation for each other. First awkward sibling hug well-earned!
So.
The gnomes.
Rewind a bit to when we just thought "Normal! MAAAN!" was... well, a zombie donning a terrible disguise. With this variety of oddities and horrors, Gravity Falls inevitably does better with some than with others. Starting with the supernatural (in this case, the zombie) and using it in Mabel's romance arc gives us a good intro.
It's multifunctional: a genre mockery (because of that infamous supernatural romance series named after a unicorn called... Sparkle); a vehicle for character comedy (how is Mabel this oblivious!?); a thematic taste-test for the rest of the series (this won't be the last time supernatural horrors, or even zombies, enter the franchise); a setting/worldbuilding clarifier (yes, expect this sort of stuff in Gravity Falls, Stan's plausible deniability notwithstanding); and an excuse to take blindingly obvious zombie tropes and give them a funny twist (the lengths they go to solely to e.g. have him rise from a grave are just weirdly funny).
Best of all, Gravity Falls makes it clear it's not going to be shy about bizarre twists.
Hence the gnomes.
On the one hand, I kind of love how hilariously out-of-nowhere this is while still being clear what to expect from Gravity Falls. You can't accuse "Tourist Trapped" of not clarifying where the show's willing to go, however stupid or weird that seems (just think of the logistics of a gnome "totem pole" in a hoodie, for one thing).
It even manages to wring some creepiness out of the set-up (not by siccing the Mega-Gnome monster on the twins, that's more creative than creepy; I mean Jeff the Gnome basically being an implied paedophile). Jeff's attempts at being casual, then at being threatening, all while stealing/tying up Mabel or getting his ass handed to him by a leafblower, add up to a pretty flexible early monster that runs the gamut of reactions the audience can expect from future ones.
On the other hand... well, it's gnomes. Call me a dullard, but it's kind of underwhelming to admit the first major enemy in a much-beloved show involves frigging gnomes. I said it in the previous Ep-By-Step, and I'll say it again: the show delights me more with its supernatural horrors than with its outright fantasy creatures, which come across as a bit too silly to be impressed by.
Future monsters will do more for me, and the Twins will be facing more complicated and engaging threats than golf cart chases and forced child marriage. At least the gnomes achieve more than they don't, and that's not a bad way to start a series as weird as Gravity Falls.
Minor points of interest:
- It's intentional, but I'm still weirded out by those two "summer vacation" kids play-chasing each other in the cold open. They're such obvious clones of Mabel and Dipper.
- Mabel Sweater #1: I have no idea if they've been named, but I'm calling the first one The Shiny. Of course, we also see Mabel's "Shooting Star" Sweater too. This will be important come the finale. Maybe.
- Grunkle Stan isn't given a ton of focus yet, mostly being used for odd gags (my favourite is either the "Rock That Looks Like A Face" argument or the perfectly terrible timing of the "Most Distracting Object"). I'm not sure what to make of the fact that his first ever appearance involves a prank with a Creature From The Black Lagoon mask.
- Apparently, Gravity Falls has lax child labour laws if Grunkle Stan really is making Dipper and Mabel work for him. Or else he's disguising it as chores: would you expect anything less from Stan?
- So where do the Simpsons comparisons come from? Want an obvious example? The Mattress King kid is an almost perfect recreation of Squeaky-Voiced Teen from The Simpsons.
- There's some "Early Instalment Weirdness" going on with Soos, who comes across more as a non-hostile version of the Janitor from Scrubs: someone who appears when he feels like it, is randomly intense and funny, and then vanishes. You can tell Hirsch hadn't quite nailed his character/voice down yet.
- Speaking of "Soos", an idiot moment from me: it took me roughly half the first season to work out that his name was not Zeus. I'm sorry! They just sound so similar!
- As for Wendy, it's made clear she's not bothered about rules. Whether it involves apathy at work or outright handing over the keys to the golf cart to Dipper just for the heck of it. Pretty indicative of her character in the show.
- She's also barely in this... um... which is also indicative!
- You'll see a lot of background references to folklore creatures and objects in the Mystery Shack gift shop. My personal favourite is the Fiji mermaid in the tank, largely because that's a cryptid I'm familiar with (I did some research on mermaids way back when, and horrible stuff like that tends to stick).
- I love the "BEWARB" gag. Like Stan is literally dismissing what's right in front of him, all on a technicality.
- "Eenie-Meenie-Minie-You": that'll get a heck of a callback later.
- It's not given a lot of attention here, but this is also Exhibit A that Stan has it out for Dipper, if only subconsciously. But we'll discuss that more when we get to "The Dreamscaperers". (Poor Dipper!).
- Our first clue that Mabel's not a fool: Dipper's attempt to hide Journal 3 - which in another cartoon would probably work - completely fails, and she even laughs at the idea that he really wouldn't trust her with it, as if she'd already read the script and knew full well where this was going. Compare that with Grunkle Stan, who openly sees him reading it later and watches while Dipper openly and guiltily swaps it for Gold Chains For Old Men magazine (though Stan might have been faking being fooled?).
- We never get an explanation in this episode for why "Norman" (love how awkwardly they get to that name) has jam on his face. The wiki suggests there is one, but I'm going with what's shown onscreen.
- So... no one bats an eye about the fact that Mabel's date is apparently much older than she is? Are the standards different for her and Dipper, or is this another case of "Early Instalment Weirdness"?
- Look out for triangles around the Mystery Shack. You have to wonder if the decorator knew what they were doing when they put them in...
- Love how Mabel really is having a nice time with "Norman" at first. If it wasn't for the massive amount of dark context leaking into the picture, it'd be a pretty sweet scene in a vacuum.
- An obvious clue that Mabel is a bit of a fool: trying to kiss a leafblower. Also, how does getting it stuck on her mouth end up giving her a "smooch mark" only on her right cheek?
- Mabel gets very angry with Dipper when he keeps insisting "Norman" is a zombie. As easy as it is to remember her as a constantly cheerful child, it's nice to see her react with a realistic range of emotion over the course of the series (again, depending on the episode). She's a real child, not a Pinkie Pie clone ("FUN!").
- How on earth did Dipper miss the hand falling off? Wouldn't he have rewatched it at some point? Did he even pay attention when he filmed that in the first place?
- The Twilight comparison is inevitable, though, when Mabel's mentally begging "Norman" to admit he's a vampire. This show ain't subtle all the time.
- Shmebulock is such a weird and ugly little gag of a gnome, but damn do I want to pat his back and assure him it'll be all right. He's just too pathetic, even here.
- The rainbow-barfing thing is funny as a quick sight gag. Not so much for a solid minute over the credits.
- The Mega-Gnome reminds me of Robot Santa from Futurama. A big, red, bearded killer who should be loveable rather than murderous...
- Damn, Mabel's got a mean right hook. Dipper gets two black eyes during the fight!
- The continuity in these episodes is pretty fun. Not only are there plenty of hints in Journal 3, but we get a sighting of a certain grey-suited guy when the Mega-Gnome fends off Dipper's shovel throw. I never noticed that until recently, and it won't be his last cameo either.
- Does Grunkle Stan count as tsundere? He goes from cheerfully mocking to awkwardly generous to "DO IT KID BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND" like a pro. Either way, it's a good free sample of sheer Grunkle-Stanning.
- Is it symbolic how Dipper's first cap had a jaded star on it, echoing Mabel's "Shooting Star" motif, before he gets his own independent "Pine Tree" cap? It'll probably make more sense later. Or else I'm reading too much into it... which is easy to do in a show as jam-packed with detail as this one.
- GRAPPLING HOOK! Literally the defining moment when you realize Mabel is not your average girl.
- One of the odder things about the show's rushed opening act is that the rest of the season takes its sweet time developing the plot. The vending machine Stan disappears into? We don't even touch upon that plot point until the very end of the Season One finale.
Well, I hope you enjoyed that revisit of Season 1, Episode 1 of Gravity Falls. I'm still working out the kinks in this Ep-By-Step series, so feedback is welcome (Is this too much? I think it might be too much).
That's all for now! Impossible Numbers, out!
wow, that's a lot of minor points! :D
5686618
It's like picking chocolates: you can't stop at one... two... three... five... sixteen...
I think I've got to re-watch the series in step with your reviews!
This is gonna be good
I feel vaguely offended, but I can’t actually disagree with you!
Can we acknowledge how utterly genuis this is, even unintentionally?
The very first episode, Mabel is wrong about something. And it has real world changing consequences for the plot.
Mabel is allowed to both suffer and learn things as a character.
And it's not even a one and done thing either, to try and trick the fans into thinking she's undergone "character growth".
Mabel loses out a lot of the course of the show, sometimes justly, and sometimes not.
Sometimes the show even acknowledges it (although admittedly not always).
And it's true that Mabel doesn't always learn her lesson, but she does sometimes.
It's a big part of the reason why Amphibia and Gravity Falls caught on to my radar, where as I dropped shows like 2008's Clone Wars and the Owl House after one season.
Some have protagonists who actually suffer, and some have protagonists who cruise their way to a easy victory, whether or not they deserved it.
In fairness, I can relate. It is a bit of a cheat, though.
I imagine they get pretty invested in the good stuff and so skip over the perfunctory details to get the meat of the episode.
Which is... Okay.
It's a valuable skill to aquire shorter attention spans, by emphasizing the most unusual or incredible features of your show.
On the other hand, you potentially miss out on a lot of good premises that way. So it's a potential win-lose tradeoff.
In fairness we don't really know how old Jeff is, or if Gnomes in this world procreate differently than humans.
Of course the implication is that she's marrying the entire family, so there's that.
Probably. It's funny just how often generic triangles make it into the show.
I think Mable has a sweater with a bunch of generic shapes on it, and then of course there are infamous yellow earrings in founders day.
I think this is two things: cartoon laziness, and a not so subtle acknowledgement of the fact that Mabel has only ever been seen interested in older men.
Oh does it ever.
There's a joke later on, which implies not only is Stan infinitely smarter than fans give him credit for, but he is also a very good faker.
Ya, that was a awkward moment.
5687172
With Mabel, it definitely depends on the episode. I mean, we're only three episodes away from the Li'l Gideon debut, and boy oh boy do I feel terrible for her in that one... and so pleased with how she fights back at the end (will tell more when I get there, but that's the gist).
I think they could have handled it similar to how they handled Grunkle Stan's history: either feed us bits and pieces over time so we get to put together the jigsaw puzzle, or devote a later ep specifically to fleshing out their backstory. Or both, as the case may be.
I probably wouldn't have noticed, except for the point Wendy makes to Dipper in Season Two (and later, Dipper himself briefly experiencing it the other way round during Blendin's second appearance) about the age difference. You'd think someone here (either Dipper or Stan) would have at least made a similar comment to Mabel.
I think this is the first time I've encountered someone who doesn't like that show, unless I'm inferring too much from your comment here.
5687183
She works best when she has a rival to test her.
The bullying she endures at the hands of Pacifica, and the creepy interest by Gideon, may be the most redeeming factors for Mabel's character.
Kind of like how Pinkie Pie was at her most likable when given the challenge of overcoming other people's preconceptions or cruelty.
Cranky being the exception not the rule.
Or how they handled Ann and the girls in Amphibia.
That being said, I'm not too upset about it. The emphasis of action over drama was always a highlight of Gravity Falls.
Plus if I'm being honest, I think a montage of Mabel cruising through school, while Dipper struggled to keep his head above water, would have probably made the show's final even less enjoyable.
Mabel with her bullies or the Mystery Shack gang is great.
Mabel and Dipper? Not so much.
Even in the Gideon episode, she basically has Dipper do her dirty work for her.
I think if that had been their dynamic from the start, it would have been much harder to tolerate her as a character.
At least in Gravity Falls there's enough going on to distract us from the fact that Mabel basically dictates the course of Dipper's life, whether you see that as a bad thing or not.
I think that outside of the obvious fluctuations in writing, it's important to remember that Dipper is a serious kid, who sets goals and pursues them.
Mable is flighty and jumps from obsession to obsession on a dime. Maybe they just thought it wouldn't go anywhere.
Plus Dipper's crush was obvious for most of the show, even before anyone called him out on it.
As I recall, it only really comes out when he confesses to Wendy.
Maybe they all thought he would get over it, until it was obvious that he wouldn't.
Plus he himself only really sees the issue with his crush until much later in the show, perhaps because Mabel's behavior has conditioned him not to think too much about it.
You do not miss the mark.
I hated 2008's Clone Wars.
It single handedly killed off all emotional investment I had in Star Wars.
I watched some stuff afterwards (mostly because it was free, or someone else had already paid) and was at best mildly distracted, and at worst totally indifferent.
And yes, I am well aware that I am in the minority in that front.
I know it's way later, and I don't know if you already know this, but Shmebulock has a expanded backstory in the post-canon GF comic book, "Gravity Falls: Lost Legends".
5690259
No, I didn't know that. I'm not sure where I picked up the idea, though ("somewhere on the Internet" is the best I can guess), but I thought he was cursed or something?
5690264
Yup, he's cursed. Anything more than that would spoilers.
It's been a while since I watched this show, so there are episodes I don't remember all that well. And even of those I do, I don't always have particularly strong opinions on them, so I probably won't comment on every one of these episode reviews. But if I don't, you can generally assume that I find your insights and opinions both interesting and generally agreeable, because I find that they usually are.
5698473
Counting down to when I say something totally evil and beyond the pale... 😈
😘 Oh, yes! Tee hee, I'm quite staggeringly nasty! 🤗
At the moment, I'm making a point of rewatching episodes nearer the time of blogging, if only to make sure I don't flub too many details in my memory. But it's easy for me because I naturally like rewatching something I've already had a good time with, and Gravity Falls is one of those shows that rewards a second watch.