My Top Ten Episodes of "Gravity Falls"

The episodes below are unranked and ordered by airdate.  Moderate spoilers ahead.

"Double Dipper" - The one with the Dipper clones.  I like how "Gravity Falls" always plays the kids' personal quandaries completely straight, and uses them to anchor the supernatural hijinks.  Dipper's worries over trying to impress Wendy result in a clone army that eventually needs to be dispatched in some disturbing ways.  Also, Wendy finds her peer group - two friends and one rival.  

"The Time Traveler's Pig" - The first Blendin Blandin adventure, but crucially not his first appearance in the show.  Dipper abusing time travel to keep Wendy and Robbie apart is just wrong enough that it feels like there are real stakes here, even before we learn Mabel's happiness also hangs in the balance.  The other major character introduced in this episode is, of course, Waddles, everyone's favorite pig.  

"Summerween" - I love that we get a Halloween episode in the middle of summer, because Gravity Falls is the kind of place where they'd celebrate it twice a year.  While there are scares galore, the episode also gets points for getting the actual experience of trick-or-treating right - the discussions of loser candy, Dipper feeling weird about matching costumes, and the bittersweet inevitability of outgrowing the activity.   

"Carpet Diem" - It's a body switching episode!  Mabel and Dipper fight over a newly discovered room in the Mystery Shack, and learn that the rug has body-switching capabilities.  There are so many good gags in this one, especially as the body swapping madness soon expands to everyone else in the Mystery Shack, including Soos and Waddles.  Dipper's distaste for sleepovers is also completely reasonable and hilarious.

"Blendin's Game" - Blendin returns with revenge in mind, but it's not the main event.  This turns out to be my favorite Soos episode, really the only one that seriously explores him as a character and reveals a big, sad, absence in his life.  Soos works best as comic relief, but the episode really earned its tear-jerking payoff.  Of course Soos values the Pines as his real family because of their actions, and of course he'd use the greatest power in the universe for their benefit in the end.

"Northwest Mansion Mystery" - It's always nice when a kids' show redeems its villains, and "Gravity Falls" devoted several episodes to showing the better sides of Dipper and Mabel's first season rivals.  Here, we've got privileged Pacifica Northwest breaking the cycle of generations of horrible deeds committed by her family, with a little help and encouragement from the Pines.  Mabel and Candy learning not to underestimate Grenda is also  pretty sweet.

"Not What He Seems" - We finally find out what Stan has been up to since the end of the first season, and more importantly so do the kids.  The gravity fluctuations are exciting to watch, and animated beautifully.  The law enforcement characters have never felt like more of a real threat.  And the finale with the portal on the verge of opening is probably the most intense sequence in the entire show.  Ford eventually thanked Stan, but did he ever thank Mabel?    

"Roadside Attraction" - First, I love the road trip aspect of this episode, and all the different, wacky tourist traps that the Pines visit and prank along the way.  Second, I appreciate that Dipper gets a chance to really grow and learn here, actively working on talking to girls until he gets to be pretty good at it.  Finally, what other show is going to have a giant spider lady luring Stan into her clutches with an over-tanned human disguise? 

"Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future" - Good grief, Bill Cipher is a scary villain, even if he only shows up here at the very end.  The rest of the episode shows a realistic rift developing between the twins, and Mabel getting a harsh wake-up call about her impending future.  The show never seemed so bleak, setting up the big three-part finale that will find the twins confronting the fact that they really could end up just like Stan and Ford. 

"Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back the Falls" - The final battle ensues, and summer comes to an end.  It's a little rushed, even though it's a double episode, but I so appreciate a good ending where everything gets wrapped up, and "Gravity Falls" delivers.  The mecha Mystery Shack with a T-rex for a hand is so nuts and so very "Gravity Falls."  And the bus driver being voiced by Kyle McLachlan is the final cherry on the cake.

Honorable mentions:  "Tourist Trapped," "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel," "Land Before Swine," "Dreamscaperers," "Gideon Rises," "Love God," "The Last Mabelcorn," "Weirdmageddon: Xpcveaoqfoxso"

---