(Underemphasized but important is that there’s never a sense that Mabel’s being emotionally manipulative, as Dipper briefly accuses her she’s given til it hurts with no reservations up until that moment, which is why we can buy into her utter despair over Waddles despite how new the relationship is).ĭipper’s always been protective of his sister, something the writing and animation emphasize in little ways throughout the series (note how he takes her hand during the dart sequence in “Irrational Treasure,” or steps in front of her when they face down the gnome monster in “Tourist Trapped”), and this is a great culmination of that. The time travel plot plays perfectly to his anxious, obsessive nature, a match of supernatural-reflecting-interpersonal that characterizes the show’s best episodes, and the fact that Dipper and Mabel are so willing to help each other until it comes down to one or the other losing what’s most important to them both makes their bond something we don’t want to lose and raises what’s at stake here-not just Waddles or Wendy, but a willingness to put someone you love before yourself. I’ve railed a lot on the whole crush subplot, and while it’s still not my favorite here (while it’s arguably down to Dipper’s flawed perspective and the fact that he and Robbie both run off after their respective “losses” rather than actually being frank and talking with Wendy, she’s still pretty much a nonentity in the script), everything around it is a wonderful chance for Dipper to show off his depth as a character. So, it boils its conflict down to a single moment, the completely relatable do-over that we all wish we could take, and both smartly constrains itself and taps into a perfect heart for the storyline. Fortunately, this episode knows all of that and also knows that it isn’t up to taking on the scope of a big, far-reaching event. Few are the “Roswell That Ends Well”s of the world, and particularly in a universe with as dense a mythos as Gravity Falls, there can be a danger of loose threads that never pay off or outright contradict each other. It’s a common adage that time travel episodes, while appealing, are pretty well impossible to pull off. But endless tries reveal that the only way for Dipper’s shot to go right is for Mabel to lose Waddles forever. When the twins cross paths with time traveler Blendin Blandin, Dipper sees an opportunity for a do-over in Blandin’s time machine. Dipper tries to impress Wendy by winning her a prize at Stan’s dangerously cheap fair but accidentally hits her in the eye with a ricocheting baseball (which also gives sullen fellow teen Robbie a chance to ask her out) meanwhile, Mabel wins a pig that she names Waddles.
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