Finally Some Answers!!! Gravity Falls 2x12 Episode 12: Tale of Two Stans Reaction

[@racermigs1]

Stan has trouble saying Please, and Ford has trouble saying Thanks.

[@flintslip8621]

Oh i get it ,"please and thank you" thats a fun little connection you found there 😄

[@Lloydoestuff]

@@flintslip8621 and the finale 🤐

[@jaxcraft2848]

I never noticed. Good observation.

[@gryphonvert]

Stan also has huge trouble saying "I'm sorry" to people he's wronged.

[@stanpines9011]

@@gryphonvert i mean, IS he sorry?

[@kae9793]

Codes: "BACKUPSMORE UNIVERSITY: YOU TRIED" "A STUBBORN TOUGH NEW JERSEY NATIVE, FILBRICK WASN'T TOO CREATIVE. HAVING TWINS WAS NOT HIS PLAN, SO HE JUST SHRUGGED AND NAMED BOTH STAN." "BILL CIPHER TRIANGLE"

[@Omniscient87]

"SO HE JUST SHRUGGED AND NAMED BOTH STAN" is probably one of my favorite codes in the series (up there with Sailor Giffany).

[@chilibreath]

Backupsmore University makes up for it with BUG-FREE DORMS!

[@residentfan1521]

Stan in this episode:”ooh splinters” Mabel in the first episode:”this attic is amazing, look at all my splinters!”

[@HotDogTimeMachine385]

Pines tradition 😄

[@gutscross9706]

sssshhhhhhhhhhhh, don't tell her the stan she sides with is the mable of their pair XD

[@ElmKyh]

It runs in the family

[@TheHatGuy1500]

Stan - Mabel Ford - Dipper

[@tahraethestoryteller6079]

This also explains why Stan knew Gideon was a fraud Since he called him Stanford not Stanley

[@cptbabyface9804]

I was about to say that but wanted to see if someone already did.

[@RhysGamingPro]

That's me in most situations.

[@Janoha17]

"That's not what I call myself in my mind."

[@HotDogTimeMachine385]

Not to mention Stan is a total skeptic, who also knows a lot about Gravity Falls' mysteries and made a living creating fakes. 😄 Gideon: "I'm magic..." Stan: "I can give you 5 different reasons how he's a fraud, 3 of which I've done myself"

[@izabela4801]

Wait when did that happen? Or is it the fake spoiler or smth because i really can't tell right now and i'm intrigued

[@DanGamingFan2406]

One of my favorite little details in this episode is that you can see a growing pile of Physics and Chemistry books next to Stan during the montage of him standing in front of the mirror over the years after taking over the Mystery Shack. Despite his whole family lambasting him as a good-for-nothing idiot, and despite it taking him 30 years, he put in the time and effort to actually learn enough scientific knowledge to figure out Ford's portal and get it working again. He may not have as much natural talent/intellect as Ford, but damn if his determination isn't amazing.

[@adamhinton3441]

huh wow never really thought about that but ya I guess there is more to it than just reading a manual especially if you don't know what your reading

[@exomancer3632]

​@@adamhinton3441 I would also note that Ford's notes were theoretical notes. The engineering notes would have been in McGucket's laptop. Stan was working with 1/6 of the notes of the project and no prior knowledge. And from that he got everything working well enough that all it seemed to need was the software notes in Journals 2 and 3.

[@alexjewett7455]

He did spend most of his life as a semi successful con artist. That probably takes a good amount of intelligence.

[@theAstarrr]

He was already my favorite character after I changed it from Dipper. This just ensures that's never changing again!

[@cravdraa]

A very sad detail. When Fiddleferd went spoke gibbrish after being pulled back from the portal, it the same thing he said at the end of his lost memories video in society of the blind eye. It was the one thing he he could never forget.

[@gryphonvert]

What Fiddleford says backwards is YROO XRKSVI GIRZMTOV. Decoded with Atbash, it is: BILL CIPHER TRIANGLE. (When he says it in his memories in SOTBE, he also makes the triangle shape over one of his eyes.)

[@racermigs1]

I remember how we had to wait for MONTHS in between this episode and the last one.

[@victorlannister5606]

Nostalgia!!!!!!!

[@christianschoff2490]

Property of F is Fiddleford. The laptop was Mcgucket's.

[@decomposedcorpse5186]

Pretty sure she was referring to the journal.

[@decomposedcorpse5186]

Nevermind, went back and watched episode 1. The journal only says "Property of", so yeah, I guess she was referring to the laptop.

[@siriadias4020]

Oh. So maybe that's why he got the password right for the laptop

[@baileycox6847]

The reason Ford checks Stan’s eyes is because he’s checking to see if Stan is possessed. When Bill is possessing someone, their pupils appear as slits (like we see in Sock Opera).

[@22Tesla]

This is confirmed in the lost pages of journal 3 which are included in The Book of Bill. Ford put a retinal scanner on his portal room door to prevent Bill from opening the portal by puppeting Ford when he was asleep. And that was because the pupils of possessed people stretch out.

[@GenuineMachine307]

It's always great to hear people theorize about bill, especially with the hindsight that everything was orchestrated by HIS twin brother Tad Strange!

[@selkie76]

Indeed, "Strange Tri-Angular Demon" - 'tis amazing how so few people picked up on that at first!

[@HotDogTimeMachine385]

She said "fake spoilers" not actual spoilers 😆 I remember the Tad Strange theories!

[@Omniscient87]

Nah, Tad Strange is too much of a square to pull off that kind of evil plot.

[@jasmine9581]

(lol _Will_ ?)

[@magicalhq7569]

A thing that I really like is the way that Stan knows that Gideon is a fraud since the beginning, Gideon always calls Stan “Stanford” while saying he’s a kind reader, so Stan always knew he was lying, this show is so amazing.

[@jaysea3690]

Yeah, some of Stan and Ford's exchanges hit hard when watching as an adult. And I love how so many scenes are completely recontextualised after this episode, like Stan's reaction to Wax Stan's murder in S1E3 and Stan finding Ford's glasses in S1E16. "Chef's kiss* Alex Hirsh and the team knocked it out of the park with this show!

[@HotDogTimeMachine385]

Yeah, the wax murder went from "Silly Stan has a big ego lol" to "Imagine a waking nightmare moment where you think you see your dead sibling". And Stan longingly staring at Ford's glasses feels like the most real, intimate moment Stan has in the whole season.

[@aaaaaaaa-tz7tu]

"Haha Stan's crying over his wax double and throwing him a funeral? Lmao." "Stan never got to throw his brother a funeral and he's doing it now because there's a part of him wondering if he'll ever be able to bring him back." just another goofy episode filled with silly jokes for kids!

[@worldpeace6322]

The moment Stan says "stay away from the kids, because as far as I'm concerned, they're the only family I have left"... That broke me every single time I heard it

[@OculusObscurum]

One of my favorite things about this is the INCREDIBLY subtle detail of Stan's car. Even as early as The Legend of the Gobblewonker and The Hand That Rocks the Mabel they've been setting up the Stanley/Stanford reveal. Stan's license plate is STNLYMBL (Stanley-mobile) whereas Gideon and Bud Gleeful always refer to Stan as Stanford. Very impressive.

[@jaxcraft2848]

So, when Ford was shining the light in Stan's eyes, it was just to see if he was possessed by Bill. Bill can only shapeshift into a human in the mindscape.

[@gryphonvert]

I was a little surprised that she immediately thought of Bill impersonating Soos in Dreamscaperers... but not Bill *possessing* Dipper in Sock Opera. (I mean -- heat of the moment, trying to take in a LOT of info, not a big deal! It's just funny, because there is that more-recent example of what Bill can do, and how the possessed person's eyes have slit pupils like Bill.)

[@jaxcraft2848]

@@gryphonvert And also the eyes being yellow.

[@BlazeRKGK]

@@jaxcraft2848 i think the eyes being yellow is only there to show the audience whos possessed, I feel like it would be harder to see in the gravity falls canon (explaining the need for a flashlight when ford checked stans eyes and why nobody realized bill is possessing dipper in sock opera)

[@iLiketoLaugh123]

@@BlazeRKGK In Journal 3 the eye thing is described as follows: "Look at him [possessed Dipper] sideways and you can see a quick flash of scary cat eyes"; so the slit pupils (and possibly the yellow) is only visible for a moment from the corner of you eye (or, as demonstrated, by using a flashlight/looking closely at the pupils).

[@Hyper_Fixation]

I appreciate the complexity of Stan and Ford's relationship; you really can see both sides: separation anxiety vs. a search for identity. They each let their own desires outweigh the needs of the other -- Stan still clinging to their childhood dream of being inseparable forever, to the point that he lashed out in insecurity (no thanks to the parents and teachers for instilling that in him), while Ford had a new dream of forging his own path as his own person rather than half of a duo and let his hurt over Stan's supposed betrayal become the nail in the coffin to shut him out. Too much hurt and not enough clear communication!

[@Zach-Reacts]

Someone who was born with six fingers, the first time I saw this, I kind of felt validated in a way I don't think I knew I needed. Technically speaking, I am a mutant. Mutant & Proud. So I claim Stanford. Edit: Correction on the name. Mosco ain't the only one having trouble with these, aight, dang.

[@ReallyNotATurtle]

High six!

[@Zach-Reacts]

@@ReallyNotATurtle 🫸🏿🫷🏽

[@Brasswatchman]

Wow, really? Was it functional or vestigial?

[@Zach-Reacts]

@@Brasswatchman it was amputated at birth. Doc tied a little string around it and it fell off. Though I do still get Shadow finger syndrome.

[@Brasswatchman]

​@@Zach-Reacts Neat. What's shadow finger syndrome?

[@jaredwasserman1092]

He was checking the eyes because when bill is possessing a body his pupils are different. When he was Soos that was only because they were in a dream.

[@bailey6304]

This episode does a great job at being an exposition dump without actually feeling like an exposition dump. Also, J.K. Simmons has a great voice, so it's always a joy to hear him voice act in shows like this.

[@jbleichman]

That “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, A KISS ON THE CHEEK?” was such a J. Jonah Jameson line.

[@Brasswatchman]

15:42 Fun fact - we actually get Bill's perspective on this incident in supplementary materials: "ONE PEEK INTO MY DIMENSION AND THIS BUMPKIN LOST HIS WEAK LITTLE MIND. ALL HE SAW WAS ME REMOVING MY EXOSKELETON TO FEED. IF YOU CANT TAKE THE HEAT GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN JACK."

[@Moonstriker2514]

Asking for fake spoilers has been the best decision for your reactions, you can't tell what's real and what's fake. We also get to troll you HARD....crikey

[@emobirb2302]

IM FINALLY ON TIME LETSGOOO And for more heartbreak: stan's boat in the second episode was called the stan o' war

[@Sab-yk7mg]

So glad you see how traumatic this was for Stan. I always felt so angry when Ford was saying about shutting down the mystery shack and giving me my house back, as if Stan hasn't spent the last 30 years, while he tries to rescue Ford, paying off the mortgage (probably more money than Ford put into it) and with this as his only job. I get why Ford is mad but at the end of the day, they both contributed to the problems. Like yes Stan messed up but Ford tended to make everything worse with his arrogance. Also really gotta feel bad for Old Man Mcgucket, dude had the chance to be a billionaire with a laptop company and instead got scared so bad he went insane.

[@Finkeren]

Is it starting to make sense why this show is so legendary? Remember: At the time this aired, we had never really seen Disney make anything like this. The character conflicts are sooooo well written. Simple enough that a child can grasp it, yet completely realistic and deep enough to be compelling to adults.

[@distantmind956]

The way the two redheads are doing the exact same gesture at 28:00 is freaking gold! Also, get ready for a lot of Ford. He's in all but two of the remaining episodes. There was supposed to be a season 3, but Hirsh got burnt out after the first one, so the remaining two got fused. 'Not what he Seems' was supposed to be the season 2 finale. I'm kinda upset we only got half a season with an amazing character like Ford who changes the series so profoundly, but at least it wasn't Disney who sabotaged the series for LGBT representation or something, like it usually is. Oh, and regarding the "Is Ford Bill?" thing... You're gonna have to wait and see.

[@onionwielder9728]

Now that Stanford's been introduced, there'll be big twist after big twist coming your way. I can't wait to see your reaction to the flashback of Stanford joining the Cosmic Axolotl Society to stop the Unicorn uprising and save the Mayor of Gravity Falls. And of course, the reveal that Soos has been a sleeper agent for the Time Baby since the beginning of the show. Shocking stuff.

[@inkblooded1058]

I love this comment. You know why.

[@itsdouglas2610]

I simply love the Cosmic Axolotl Sociaty with all my heart

[@mufinboi975]

Omg why did you have the spoil the best part of season 3!

[@onionwielder9728]

@@mufinboi975 My bad. At least I didn't spoil season 4, when Dipper and Mabel go back and time and accidentally create Bill Cipher.

[@alllittlethingzz]

More interesting is that Dipper and Mable’s parents have sent them to stay with Stanford for the summer since Stanley apparently “died” from the car accident.

[@birdiejett3163]

I was more inclined to sympathize with Stan too. Stan lost more from their first falling out than Ford did, so Ford always came off as kinda petty in comparison. Looking back, however, they both have issues that stem from their upbringing. Stan has an inferiority complex and puts all his worth in being able to make money (the only thing his father cared about). Ford feels like an outcast for his deformity and puts all his worth in his intelligence (the only thing that ever impressed their father). It’s why he’s so protective of his research and his career at the expense of his relationship with his brother. It sucks because him seeing Stan as a threat to his self worth ends up reinforcing Stan’s feelings of inferiority, which is what drives him to act out in the first place.

[@gryphonvert]

I would also say that it's not just that Ford sees Stan as a threat to his self-worth (as expressed through intellectual achievement) -- it's that, as Wee Lass also comments, for all of their childhood up to that point, they were each other's only friend, and Stan always had Ford's back. The idea that Stan would sabotage the project that Ford worked so hard on, and also sabotage something that Ford said he really wanted, would really have to rock teen Ford's worldview. He thought he could count on Stan... and then Stan betrayed him. (As far as Ford knew! They didn't have long to talk about it, and if Filbrick hadn't come in, maybe they would have gotten through their argument. Part of the problem is that Stan doesn't apologize -- he offers an excuse that, to be fair, sounds fake, and then he immediately pivots to talking about how this has a "silver lining" -- for HIM. So unfortunately, everything Stan says at the time only kind of makes it sound like he DID do it on purpose, trying to be manipulative. During this ep when Stan is telling his story is the first time that Ford would have heard a full explanation of what happened... and he'd still have to decide if Stan was telling the truth.) While the ep uses "costing me my dream-school" as the shorthand for what drove them apart, it could have been "you destroyed my science-fair project". Both could sound a bit petty... but it's what's underlying both that's important: the sense of betrayal that Ford felt, and that never got fixed. Even while Stan was telling his life story, as far as we can tell, he still didn't apologize for it. (It's hard to tell if he included, word-for-word, his dismayed reaction to the project breaking after he hit the table.) So... Ford can't bring himself to thank Stan. Stan has never brought himself to apologize to Ford (or, seemingly, acknowledge how much he must have hurt his brother's feelings and trust in him.) For his part, Stan feels betrayed by Ford, too. I think, by Ford abandoning their dream of sailing away on the Stan 'o War (something Ford was likely having second thoughts about, but clearly never talked to Stan about). And by Ford believing the worst of him, and rejecting him / not standing up for him when Filbrick throws Stan out. (There's been tons of analysis about Filbrick as an abusive father, and Ford's own reactions around Filbrick in that scene and in the principal's office suggest that both boys were afraid to stand up to him -- Stan doesn't fight back, either.) As lots of people have said, though, it really just ends up as a layered, complex conflict that feels very real, and understandable. You can see that it was a lot of individual things building up that resulted in the fractured relationship.

[@residentfan1521]

13:54 not so fun fact: in the first episode there’s a jar of eyeballs in the gift shop. Implying that after Ford disappeared they died, their wings decomposed and now Stan is selling their corpses.

[@gryphonvert]

Not quite! Notice that the eye-bats all have yellow (or gold) colored irises; and they're all pretty much the same size. But the jar of eyeballs in the credits has eyes of differing sizes, and many different colors. So those aren't the eye-bats. (I agree, it's confusing the way the eye-bats are shown stuffed into a jar, just like that one in the credits.) Not particularly a spoiler: in the published Journal 3, Ford (in his research days) writes about "Floating Eyeballs" that might be able to see the future ("they just hover there, staring"). That might be meant to explain the jar of eyeballs -- although, I think it's still uncertain, because Ford writers that they are "visible only at night"... but we can see the jar full of them during the day.

[@residentfan1521]

@@gryphonvert oh ok

[@rickymoranjr9609]

Dipper fanboying about Ford creating the journals is still hilarious to this very day 🤣

[@arcum42]

This episode in particular is one I tend to feel like Dana might've had in the back of her mind when coming up with the Owl House. You have the line about weirdos that don't fit in, a portal to another dimension, and there are definitely parallels to be drawn between the two Stans and Eda and Lilith...

[@reneevandyck7017]

I decided to keep the extras until after this episode for obvious reasons. There's a lot to cover. (don't worry, still spoiler free) 1. When Mcgucket fell into the portal, Alex Hirsch said he saw "the kids of places Bill Cipher likes to hang out." There's a hidden code in the journal that says he saw Bill "removing his exoskeleton in order to feed." eugh. 2. people theorized Stan had a secret twin YEARS before he actually showed up. All because the licence plate on Stan's car said stnlymbl. 3. The boat in Legend of the gobblewonker has "Stan o' war" painted on the side of it. Just in case you needed some emotional damage. 4. his explains why Stan got so emotional over his wax figure's death. All the way back in the 3RD episode! 5. in dreamscaperers, in Stan's boxing match memory, you can see Ford in the background reading a book. 6. also note Ford is voiced by J. K Simmons. He can do no wrong :) See ya soon!

[@EmpathNaga]

Ohhh the payoff of telling you Stan doesn't have a tattoo and never elaborating and seeing your look of realization felt good! =)

[@memelord7567]

Even though Stan was doing it out out of anger or whatever, burning the journals was probably the best course of action. I mean if they contain information that could cause a WORLD ENDING threat, you better get rid of that, or at least the pages that refer to it. Journal 3 dives deeper into this, but Ford really was arrogant and blinded by his own success

[@gryphonvert]

Well, there was some... other stuff going on with Ford right around that time, that had an impact on his ability to make rational decisions. It's just not quite as clear in this episode (although the whole "Have you come to steal my eyes?" and how disheveled he looks, with the bags under his eyes, are meant to give some indication about his state of mind by that point. (It's not good!) You're absolutely right that he should have just *torn out those pages* and burned them. (Again, though, there are some reasons why he didn't try to do that himself. But it's what he should have told Stan to do, the moment Stan walked into the house. "Take these books, and rip out these specific pages, and burn them.")

[@ryanshatford1729]

A few additional little notes from earlier episodes in the series: Episode 2, Stan's fishing boat was the Stan o'War 2, and the boat he was fixing with Ford to sail the world was the Stan o'War. Episode 3, ever wonder why Stan reacted so heavily to the "death" of his lookalike? His wax twin?

[@gryphonvert]

Small correction: Stan's little boat in ep 2 is just the "Stan o' War", no "2". (He also has a great little throwaway line in there at the end, when the kids come back, and he says he's been having a great time, "talking to my reflection" among other things.)

[@aaronduenas1258]

Ford is voiced by J.K. Simmons, who played Tenzin from Legend of Korra and also J. Jonah Jameson from the Spider Man movies

[@MacTechG4]

And Cave Johnson from the Portal series

[@HeenaScribbles]

I love how balanced both Stan and Ford's issues are. They both have done bad things to each other, intentional or otherwise, and you can't really side with one of them. You just feel bad for both of them and what they've been through.

[@gryphonvert]

Yeah. I love Ford, he's my favorite character -- but he does NOT make a great first impression in this one, because he's so, SO GRUMPY. And that last scene between him and Stan ends on a pretty dire note, after an episode filled with some really heavy conflict stuff. It makes sense that most people tend to sympathize more with Stan -- we've gotten to know him over the course of 30 episodes, and we've seen him in all kinds of situations. With Ford, we've only gotten a few minutes in this episode to get to know him. We've seen what Stan's been through, both lately, and in the last episode; but we really have no idea what Ford has been through during his 30 years beyond the Portal. His state of mind in this ep doesn't have as much context for the viewer. Even so, I think you do get a sense of mistakes on both sides, and understandable grievances on both sides. If only they could sit down and have a good, mediated conversation about it!

[@TheHatGuy1500]

What McGucket acually saw was Bill Cipher without his exoskeleton

[@MetaLatias5]

I love how they used Soos as a stand-in for the fans this whole episode XD I'm not sure if you caught it or not, but "Property of F" actually stood for Fiddleford aka McGucket, not Ford, because Fiddleford's the one who build those computers in the first place Also, Bill turning into Soos and pretending to be him was only possible because they were in Stan's head, in the mindscape. He can POSSESS people if they make a deal with him though, if you remember the Sock Opera episode, where he possessed Dipper's body, that's why you have to be cautious and always check the eyes

[@zebbailey1727]

Fun-fact: Stanford Pines is voiced by J.K. Simmons who played J. Jonah Jameson from Marvel and Omni-man from Invincible, Whiplash and Juno and so much more

[@christianvictormariano1283]

Thank you!!!... You are prolly the only or one of the few reactors who point out that Stanley(Rought and tumble Stan) didn't intend to break the project... And after watching all this the saddest moment to me is in the Dreamscapers, where you see there's a pair of swing, and the other sit was broken T^T.

[@thaumaturgeslit7759]

It was a small mistake that ruined Stans life, but atleast Football Bot will return soon, reborn through the power of McGucket Labs.

[@dracoangelrojo]

Honestly, the person who ruined Stan's life was Filbrick. Poor Stan did a mistake, but his punishment was completely disproportionated.

[@TheBigE9999]

The big code at the end is just explaining that Stan's dad wasn't expecting twins, so he just named them both Stan

[@chilibreath]

It was actually while watching Not What He Seems with my niece & nephew that got me hooked on this show. After watching S1 & catching up on S2, I got to join everyone else to watch the remainder of S2 & join the hoopla of it all. There's actually additional info about Ford's adventures in the Journal, which became an actual published book after the series finale. Also, did you see Wendy's dad as a younger lad building the Shack in the background before the giant hand took away Ford's car?

[@gryphonvert]

But definitely DO NOT buy the book and read it, until you've finished the series! (I'm sure she's been warned about this by now, though.)

[@soup.._]

after being a Gravity Falls fan since I was young, i’ve only just noticed this Standford says that the portal is a punched hole through a weak spot in the universe or something. at the beginning in the episode, at the beach, young Stanley punches a hole through the wood barrier to expose the cave, and it’s in the shape of an upside down triangle. just like the portal. i dunno if this has any significance or meaning, but i think it’s a cool detail

[@baileycox6847]

Fun fact, the house that Fiddleford is in is pretty much 1 to 1 the house that Steve Jobs started Apple in 😆

[@gryphonvert]

Literally! If you do an image search for Jobs' house in Palo Alto, you'll find a photo that they faithfully redrew for that shot of Fiddleford's house. Also, on the wall above Fiddleford (when we first see him from behind), there's a big poster of a strawberry colored with rainbow stripes, with a bite taken out of the upper right, and the slogan "Ponder Alternatively". That's a take-off on the first Apple logo, which was rainbow-colored (the present-day logo of course still has the "bite" out of it), and the original Apple slogan was "Think Different".

[@omalleycaboose5937]

ive seen other reactors do this show, but your the only one that gets deep enough into the theories and analysis that makes me feel like the old days when the show first came out. even when your wrong your saying things I remember seeing theory videos on.

[@mothids]

AHHH IM SO GLAD WE’RE FINALLY GETTING TO THIS

[@Captain_Char]

the building computers in a garage is a jab at how steve jobbs started

[@omalleycaboose5937]

Murder hut changing to mystery shack probably reflects that Stans got over a lot of the initial guilt of feeling he killed his brother and had complete faith he could solve the mystery and get him back

[@HotDogTimeMachine385]

I appreciate how humble Mosco is 😄 21:40 When Fiddleford's head comes out of the portal he says YROO XRKSVI GIRZMTOV backwards, which decodes into "Bill Cypher triangle" The ending cryptogram is "A stubborn tough new jersey native filbrick wasn't too creative, having twins was not his plan, so he just shrugged and named both stan". The code at the end is "Backupsmore University: You Tried". And during Ford writing about the Floating Cliff the code is "My compass goes haywire the closer I get to them, does this mean what I think it does? The answer may be underground."

[@Smartie234]

I mean, you're not that far off from Bill being in Ford. In the finaly Bill is send back in time as a punishment by the time baby and he becomes Stanly's twin brother Ford. As predicted by the all mighty Platypus Bear!

[@maxthorn7308]

Stanford? ‹puts on top hat› Bill Stanford‽

[@DesMuttYS]

When this episode came out, there was speculation that Stanley did not actually break Stanford's machine, and was essentially blamed for it unfairly. The theory was that it was actually Blendin Blandon -- or someone else from the time agency -- that sabotaged it, making sure that events would happen as they are supposed to.

[@gryphonvert]

Important to add here: that isn't just a complete crack theory. When the two as kids are standing outside of the "boarded up cave", if you freeze-frame at the right spot and really study all of the graffiti there, one of the things written is "BLENDIN WAS HERE". So, why would Blendin Blandin have visited Glass Shard Beach, NJ when Stanley and Stanford Pines were little kids? And if he visited then, maybe it's because he over-shot the year, and was trying to visit at the point in time of the Science Fair, to make sure Ford's project got ruined. (The other thing that people point out is that when Stan banged the table, that little grate fell off. But it doesn't make sense that it was that loose -- it was held in with screws. Why was it that loose? Stan clearly didn't loosen it. So who did?) (I wish it was easier to do spoiler-text in comments here! If it was, I'd add something else about "Blendin"; but as it is, I won't.)

[@tahraethestoryteller6079]

26:01 Stan’s other sibling and nephew: are we a joke to you?

[@sortascouseace]

Well Stan was disowned by the family after breaking the science project, so he probably doesn't see them as family anymore.

[@tahraethestoryteller6079]

@@sortascouseace considering his nephew sent his kids to stay with them for an entire summer I’d say they must have some kind of relationship

[@gryphonvert]

@@sortascouseace While it's not very strong "canon", in that it was mentioned in one of the video games -- Shermie invited "Stanford" to come visit when Dipper and Mabel were born. And yeah, Dipper and Mabel's father was okay with sending his kids to live the entire summer with his uncle -- you don't do that if the guy is a stranger. While it's true that Shermie and his son thought their relationship was with Stanford, and not with Stanley, and Stan might be wondering how they'll take the news that he lied to them for 30 years about who he was, he did clearly have a relationship with them and saw them as family.

[@jasmine9581]

00:00 so STNLYMOBL was his license plate-- NLY was obscured until he fell off I noticed only during your reaction pause that Bill's memories/search for the name Stan Pines -- the first one he actually looks a little more like S'ford 1:00 Alaphatically 3:24 just like 1x1 Mabel...? :) 3:43 (well omission) 4:04 Pines Pines Pines (like 2x1 Scary-oke) 7:20 Stan O War 10:20 aaa _and_ it was still moving when he covered it up so he wouldn't have known unless he stayed to look at the mistake he made 10:21 also crazy that they're not like -- you say something must've happened, will give you 15 minutes 11:07 pain 12:42 we saw....wht's the cow's name Octavia Is in a GF short I think 14:24 I mean-- probably in terms of "he could've been building even bigger/more difficult things" 17:03 oof Stan has brain damage that explains the 17:51 US + Columbia at least -- jail 22:42 I didn't have this thought before, but it could almost be seen as _even I steal his life and name, I'm not stealing the credit for his work_ (though I know it's more, if anyone knew I was Stanley, I'm getting arrested.... and can't get my brother back 24:50 Now both characters have said "What (else?) do you want, a kiss on the cheek?" -- Stan(ley) in 2x1

[@thea.mgamer]

Who is gonna tell her that the F stands for Fiddleford... Mcgackets first name xDD

[@milesparker557]

I'm pretty sure that was suppose to be the mislead. The laptop is actually Ford's.

[@salemkitty5786]

No, it was McGuckets cause he actually *made* the laptop

[@gryphonvert]

@@milesparker557 I think the consensus is that it really is McGucket's, but yeah, it's unclear. These aren't really spoilers for anything in the show, so: in the Journal, it sounds like Fiddleford did give a laptop to Ford, but that Ford didn't use it very much. We also found out - VERY non-canonically - that the actual password to the laptop? Was STANFORD. (Alex revealed this at a convention in Russia in 2016; but, it was also put into the blacklight special edition of Journal 3 -- which, while difficult to get ahold of, does have sites that have photos of all the blacklight pages online.)

[@gryphonvert]

@sodascoda I know that. Why would you think I didn't know that, when you're replying to my comment in which I go into depth about things we learned about the laptop IN JOURNAL 3? You're missing my point. In Journal 3, there is a drawing of the laptop, complete with the "PROPERTY OF F" label on it. Ford's note, with an arrow pointing to it, says "He's made one for me that has extra orange master keys for my extra finger." In the show, we can see that the laptop that Soos picked up has some orange keys. Ford appears to be talking about the laptop that Fiddleford made *for him*, but that Ford didn't really want to use (since the note in the journal goes on to say, "Honestly not sure why I would use this thing - it's just a heavy, slow journal"). If it was meant to be Ford's, why does it say "PROPERTY OF F" on it? That's why my earlier comment was saying that it's UNCLEAR whether this was Fiddleford's laptop, or the one he made for Ford. While, yes, Ford refers to Fiddleford as "F" throughout Journal 3, in this case, this could be Ford's laptop. Or, it could be labelled "PROPERTY OF F" because Fiddleford created it. It further makes sense to think that this is the laptop that Fiddleford gave to Ford, because its password is STANFORD.

[@Otokichi786]

When Disney XD plays this episode, it spills over both ways. I had to reset the DVR to finally see the complete tale of "Stanley" and "Stanford."

[@radicaladz]

If you enjoy this series, I highly recommend the rebooted DuckTales from 2017. It features a bunch of the same crew and had a similar ongoing mystery arc to each season.

[@badluck9749]

Stanley is actually really smart himself. The portal was made to free Bill from weirdness dimension, but Stan managed to locate his brother and bring him back.

[@kateorgera5907]

I think it's less that Soos writes fanfic but that Soos is basically the voice of the fans, since the writers knew people had been theorizing up the wazoo leading up to this episode.

[@alexandruulesan7009]

The Journal #3 gives SO MUCH context to this episode, srly, get it on the first chance fun fact, the Journal also reveals that Ford had a really bad impression of Dipper, finding him obnoxious and getting mad that he "scribbled" in his Journal (even though he didn't read Dipper's notes)

[@gryphonvert]

Well, a bad first impression. He changed his mind about that pretty quickly. Ford was... NOT in a good mood when he came through the Portal. (That's putting it mildly!)

[@xmant8842]

While i empathise with stan, Ford literally wrote in his book not to open the portal or the universe could be torn apart. So him being mad at stan for opening the portal makes total sense

[@baileycox6847]

To be fair, it was written in INVISIBLE INK

[@xmant8842]

@Bailey Cox true. But last episode literally started with stan reading it and going "can it"

[@gryphonvert]

@@xmant8842 To be fair, what Stan is reading when he says that is the warning about "minor gravity anomalies".

[@gryphonvert]

@@baileycox6847 But, he found out about the invisible ink in "Scary-oke". While he'd already given Journal 3 back to Dipper, he still had J1 and J2. There's no way he didn't immediately go and look at all of their pages in blacklight to see if there was more info he could use. And what's written on the pages in one of those two is: "TEAR OUR UNIVERSE APART!" and "I WAS WRONG THE WHOLE TIME!" It's hard to tell (in that scene) which of the other two are J1, but basically he would have seen the above warning, plus EITHER: ""The machine was meant to create knowledge but it is Too Powerful, The device, if fully operational, could..." ("Tear our universe apart"), OR: "If the clock ever reaches zero our universe is DOOMED" "TOTAL GLOBAL DESTRUCTION". So even if he was missing 1 of those 3, it doesn't matter -- the other two that he had contained enough of an explicit warning to tell him what Ford was afraid would happen.

[@xmant8842]

@@gryphonvert true

[@michaelmiller2418]

so this was episode 12, and Season 2 has a total of 20 episodes. Are you ready for the end of it all, Miss Mosco? "When Gravity Falls And Earth Becomes Sky Beware the Beast With Just ONE EYE!"

[@annde99]

"it doesnt feel like disney" YES, I had that thought too when i watched it. alex hirsch really paved the way for other creators like dana to be able to run with TOH 💜

[@heatherkirk6265]

End credits cipher (vigenère cipher with key= SIXER) “Backupsmore University: You tried!” Journal cipher (combination of a1z26 and Caesar cipher) “A stubborn, tough, New Jersey native, Filbrick wasn’t too creative. Having twins was not his plan, so he just shrugged and named both Stan.” other cipher (seen when Ford is writing in the journal about floating cliffs, Symbol substitution cipher) “My compass goes haywire the closer I get to them. Does this mean what I think it does? The answer may be underground.” Also, when McGuckett comes out of the portal, he says “yroo xrkvsi! girzmtov!”, which when decoded using atbash is “Bill Cipher! Triangle!” This is also something he says in Society of the Blind Eye, at the end of his memories video.

[@desterea]

one thing you might notice is quite a few of the jokes from this point on are pretty meta, making fun of the way the fandon acted at the time. soos' comment about his fanfic and dipper freaking out about the author and creation of the journals are just the start.

[@hh-bluedynamite]

Maybe its because Ford's one of my favorite characters, but I'm of the belief that he never intended to kick Stan out like what their father did. All he said was that he wanted his name and house back. *However*, I will not blame Stan for thinking that it is what Ford intended. At this point, Ford wasn't sparing Stan's feelings on the matter, so of course Stan wouldn't think that Ford would want him to stick around. Edit: Ford…kinda did. He said: *you can stay here for the summer* That…kinda does sound like he’s kicking him out. Even if he didn’t mean it (like he’s still mad, maybe furious, at Stan and it’s clouding his judgement), not cool Fordsie.

[@stephenjones4397]

They end up defeating Bill by tricking him into Waddles' mind and launching the pig through a portal.

[@Babbleplay]

Panic. Sheer mortal terror on a mind unhinging level is what happened to McGucket's pupils.

[@Kokudou_Risa]

*"This doesn't feel Disney"* Yeah and look how this show gave way to Owl House and Amphibia, both shows doesn't feel like Disney as well

[@Travis_D_Travesty]

Shmebulock Senior. The one we usually see is Shmebulysses Q. Locke the third, owner of the fourth journal and cursed to only be able to say his name. For one night every millennium he can speak normally and can break the fourth wall. He's smarter than Ford.

[@UncleExpendable]

You know what's sad? Dipper and Mabel had no idea they even had a second uncle. Their parents thought they were sending them to Stanford. Stan really was erased from his family. Shermie never knew they had another brother.

[@meganhammer7857]

Soos in the credits scene is me trying to explain the kids' shows I watch.

[@Una1]

A note on the extended timing: Disney normally limits animated shows to a max of 24 minutes. But after trimming down the story as much as they dared, they begged the executives to keep the full length at 29 minutes. This led to issues and delays, but they got their wish. The downside is that, while it premiered at full length, it is trimmed further in syndication.

[@vincegamer]

Now I can say it and it's not a spoiler. In the beginning they were calling him Stanford, but the license plate on his car says Stanley.

[@theswedishdude1]

it's crazy how everything in Gravity Falls boils down to sibling relationship, we got Dipper and Mabel, Stanley and Stanford, Fiddleford and Fiddleley and of course Bill Cypher and Tad Strange who are true main characters that the story revolves around and in the end it will turn out Bill just wanted to get along with his brother.

[@heytallman]

I can't wait until you get to the finale to find out that Bill is a third brother of theirs who they just conveniently both used the memory eraser for, and he just wants to give them both a hug

[@st4rri_ari]

it’s soooo sad tbh 😭 i got my dad into the show and while rewatching the gobblewonker episode i saw that his boat was called “stan o war” and almost cried and my dad was like “are you okay??”

[@johnbowersox738]

The shear number of levels to a goofy cartoon are astounding. I never would have thought that a Disney cartoon would get me to think so much or make it so that you usually need to re watch episodes just to make sure get everything. Especially when the episodes are so short.

[@TinkaDreamChaser]

I keep thinking of some of your earlier videos where you kept saying that you were probably wrong with your theories or that you felt like you overlook a lot of important stuff. It was KILLING ME being unable to tell you how fricken smart you are! You managed to figure out the biggest plot twist in this series based on a SINGLE LINE on a characters face! I have watched a few theory videos on GF and none of those had mentioned that detail, your reactions were the first time I even saw that. Anyways, it's great to see your excitement for all this exposition and just as great to hear your new theories!

[@RhysGamingPro]

The only time an episode was slightly longer. I'll point out Ford asked for Fiddleford's help (Who becomes Oldman McGuckit), The McGuckit labs chip, Property of F - Fiddleford, 8 letter password for the laptop - STANFORD. Alex even revealed the laptops password, and it is. And in the real life journal 3, every mention of Fiddleford, Ford refered to him as F.

[@tobiasschwarzberger2267]

Damn, Mosco with her prediction skills about "Fords" "Glass eye" and true identity on point. I am really impressed with her once again.

[@obsidianwolf1999]

In a deleted scene there was an eye coming out of the triangular shaped portal, watching the family reunion

[@FullmetalNinja25]

That's JK Simmons as Ford. :)

[@peachesplums]

no, the Property of F was fiddlefurb McGucket. we solved that 5/6 episodes ago

[@salemkitty5786]

Yeah it was literally spelled out in the cult episode

[@Fuzunga]

This episode originally aired commercial free because it was so long.

[@starlightso]

This is off topic and idk if you will read this but I love the goomba plush you have back there its so cute!

[@residentfan1521]

17:50 no he’s been around the world. Remember he was locked in a Colombian prison.

[@gryphonvert]

Also, it takes obsessive studying of screenshots, but -- the passport that the kids find with all of his fake IDs has a stamp for "LONDON", which is presumably supposed to mean the U.K.

[@R0ary]

17:49 I mean, just earlier in this episode, Stan stated that he traveled outside of America, too during his years of scams and failed ideas, and we know that he was imprisoned in Columbia for a time. Sure, that's technically "America" in that it's on South America, but he's definitely traveled more than just the US. Wouldn't be too surprised if he'd traveled through some of Europe, too, honestly.

[@gryphonvert]

If you look very closely at the passport that they find in that box of fake IDs, there's a stamp for "London", that is probably meant to be the U.K.

[@residentfan1521]

Apparently one of his passports says London on it and I assume that’s not a reference to Canadian London.

[@bobmanperson599]

This really doesn't feel like a standard Disney cartoon episode, but that's exactly why the series stood out so much. This show aired on Disney XD and Family channel in Canada, so everything else was low budget live-action or episodic cartoons trying way too hard to be cool a decade too late. This was the one Disney show that felt like it respected the audience's intelligence. The only other shows that gave me that feeling were shows like Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Mystery Inc. (Nickelodeon was just bad that whole decade)

[@anothermiddleschoolburnout8816]

The end credits scene with Soos and Wendy was literally the entire fandom after this episode aired.

[@itsoreshek2505]

How could Ford know about the memory eraser if he was in another dimension when McGucket invented it?

[@LilyTheSmol]

It's interesting to see you siding with Stan here when he's supposed to represent Mabel in the twin parallels.

[@Travis_D_Travesty]

Does anyone else crave M&Ms or want to hunt down Spider-Man when Ford speaks? JK, JK 😂

[@JustAJinx-ci6hg]

Also never apologize for not pausing every 3 seconds.

[@cherrybombwaffles518]

according to sources, what Fiddleford saw on the other side of the portal was Bill removing his own exoskeleton and eating it. I'd be traumatized too if I saw that.

[@cherriblossom0825]

28:17 “now you underSTANd” I see what you did there

[@bjp4869]

That's what I was gonna say

[@samseahorse]

16:50 2015- Woah why has Ford’s gotten so much more paranoid in between Fiddleford leaving and Stan arriving? 2024- You know what he’s probably more coherent than I would be. (IYKYK)

[@Omniscient87]

I can't wait for the reveal that Ford and McGucket built Robot Ronald Reagan!

[@leavealoner]

Grunkle stan is Mabels personality, but with Dippers character flaw (not that academically inclined and not really serious, always sacrificing personal goals to help a sibling out) and grunkle Ford is Dippers personality with Mabels character flaw (academically inclined and serious, but relies too much on the sibling to get the, out of trouble). The difference between the grunkles and the mystery twins is that Dipper and Mabel are always willing to make up and forgive eachother, always say please and thank you, while Stanford and Stanly took eachother for granted and grew resentful. I really hope you'll start liking mabel more now that it's easier to see that she's a puzzle piece in a four part puzzle, now that the puzzle is finally complete. all four of them have some growing to do, and they all need the other three for that growth.