Into the Bunker

"Into the Bunker" is the second episode in Season 2 of Gravity Falls, and is the 22nd episode overall. It is set to premiere on August 4, 2014.

Official overview
Dipper's secret journal pages lead him and the gang to the author's hidden bunker where they find themselves face-to-face with a mysterious figure from Gravity Falls' lore.

Synopsis
The episode begins with Dipper over at Wendy's house to watch a scary movie, which Dipper points out is a lot less scary due to the group being actually attacked by zombies in the previous episode. Dipper discovers that Robbie is still unable to get over the his and Wendy's break-up, and Dipper attempts to but ultimately fails to admit his true feelings (which he wrote in a note) towards Wendy, instead inviting her to explore with him and Mabel. Wendy agrees to accompany them, Dipper lies down on her bed (accidentally on her bra, to his horror.

The next day. Dipper, Mabel, Soos and Wendy meet up at the tree where Journal 3 was found, and Dipper informs them of a secret passageway into an underground bunker. Wendy points out a lever disguised as a branch, and as Dipper tries to think of a way to reach it, Wendy climbs the tree and activates. The gang discover an old decrepit and possibly abandoned fallout shelter with rations and supplies labelled from 2015 to 2070 (over 60 years according to Dipper), as if the person who lived there was preparing for a disaster. Dipper finds an open can of beans and suspects the shelter was used recently, and that the person who resided there may have answers to the journal. After traversing through a secret tunnel behind a map of gravity falls, the land themselves into a cubical chamber surrounded by tiles with unknown symbols. Mabel, playfully pushing Dipper, makes him accidentally set off the security system, and each of the tiles rapidly close in on them, nearly crushing them. Through teamwork, they open a door by pressing four of the symbols as revealed by the journal and blacklight. Dipper, who emerges last, has his vest caught in the tiles. Mabel, who recovers his vest, discovers the note Dipper wrote to Wendy, and discovers that Dipper still has feelings towards her-meaning that Dipper's denial outside the metal tree was a lie. Mabel traps Dipper and Wendy in a metal chamber so Dipper may reveal his secret to Wendy and he shall then feel better about himself. However, a monster shows up and Wendy and Dipper scream for Mabel to let them out. After she says no, Dipper tries to say what he needs to say, but can't, so they go to find a way out. A guy comes and beats the monster by ripping it's tongue out. They believe he's the author, and he says he's been looking for the journals. Dipper gives him the one he found, and Wendy is shocked by an opened can she found, and shows it to Dipper. Dipper asks the man for the journal back, but he refuses. They go to look for a way out, and the monster-man shapeshifts into a creature that can roll fast. Dipper throws the flashlight into a different hole, and the monster follows it, thinking that's where they ran. Meanwhile, Mabel finds a screen with tubes showing on it, and she presses the red button below it multiple times. Mabel then looks down to see a clipboard with a paper that mentions the Shapeshifter, Soos remembers that Dipper said there was a monster. They go into the room to search for them, and they run into them, but Dipper thinks they could be the Shape-shifter. Mabel pokes Soos in the stomach which shows they aren't the monster. Dipper and Mabel walk into another tunnel where the monster is, and he transforms into Mabel, then Dipper, then decides to be both, and chases them. Soos and Wendy are trying to turn a valve connected to a pipe, then Wendy heads to the monster with her axe to beat him down. Soos gets the valve to turn, and liquid pours out of it which goes through the tunnel. After the liquid is gone, Dipper finds an unconsious "Wendy." He attempts to wake her up, but to no avail. Realizing that this all could have been averted if he just told her the truth, Dipper tearfully confesses his love for Wendy. However, it turns out that "Wendy" was actually the Shape-shifter, and the real Wendy is behind Dipper with the journal the whole time. Wendy and the Shape-shifter wrestle, and Dipper grabs the axe, but doesn't know which Wendy to hit, so he asks for a sign. The fake Wendy winks nicely, but the real Wendy gives the throw-away-the-key gesture, so he hits the fake one in the stomach with the axe. They then push the monster into a shape-shifter tube, and Mabel presses the button to freeze the inside of the tube before the monster can try to break out. The monster says that Dipper doesn't know what he's messing with, and he transforms into Dipper, and the inside of the tube finishes freezing. They then have left the bunker, and Dipper says that they should forget about the dumb stuff he said earlier, and Wendy confesses that she knew that Dipper liked her, by knowing what he says under his breath. They shake hands and stay friends. Mabel comes and asks how it went, and she says she heard everything. Soos' head pops up in the back and he says that he "isn't there". He then sits on the end of the log, making the other side lift up. The case Soos has opens, and it's a laptop. Dipper thinks it's their next clue to finding the author. Soos says it will take him a few days to fix it up. The writing on the top of the laptop reads, "Property of F" and discontinues, revealing only the first letter of the author's name. In the credits, Wendy and Dipper are watching movies on Gravity Falls TV, saying that they are the worst movies. The movies in the list are "The Widdlest Wampire", "The Planet People of Planet Planet", "Help! My Mummy's a Werewolf!", "Attack of The Exclamation Points!!!!!!!", "The Man With No Taste", "Ghost Turtle", and "Help! My Mummy's a Werewolf! 2: This Again", then Dipper suggests they stop watching the channel.

Credits

 * Written by:
 * Matt Chapman
 * Alex Hirsch


 * Directed by:
 * Joe Pitt


 * Storyboards by:
 * Erik Fountain
 * Neil Graf
 * Joe Pitt


 * With the Voice Talents of:
 * Jason Ritter - Dipper Pines
 * Kristen Schaal - Mabel Pines
 * Alex Hirsch - Grunkle Stan, Soos
 * Linda Cardellini - Wendy
 * Mark Hamill - Shapeshifter

Character revelations

 * When Wendy was younger, her dad made her compete in lumberjack games, which she did very well at.
 * Wendy kind of always knew about Dipper's crush on her.
 * The author's first initial is 'F'.
 * The author has six fingers, same as the cover of the journals.
 * The author experimented, creating a shape-shifter. He also created the carpet from "Carpet Diem"

Series continuity

 * When Dipper reminds everyone that they are to keep quiet about whatever happens, Wendy does the throw-away-the-key gesture, first used in the episode "The Inconveniencing." She also uses the gesture to prove she is the real Wendy when she fights the shape-shifter.
 * Grunkle Stan hires a construction crew to repair the Mystery Shack after the zombie attack in the previous episode.
 * Tons of creatures are revisited from previous episodes when the Shape-Shifter has Journal 3, including: The Hide Behind.
 * Robbie still sends persistent text messages to Wendy, as first revealed in "Gideon Rises."
 * In the opening scene there is a tree with a heart carved into it with "R+W" in the middle.

Trivia

 * "Into the Bunker" is the first new Gravity Falls episode to premiere originally on Disney XD.
 * A small clip of this episode was shown at the 2014 LA Film Fest.

Cryptograms

 * At the end credits of Into the Bunker are OOIY DMEV VN IBWRKAMW BRUWLL, the translation is "WHAT KIND OF DISASTER INDEED. The keyword is "SHIFTER", it's marked in a barrel in the Bunker.
 * At the end of Into the Bunker, there is a picture with some number code. Here is the picture. The code on the picture, when decoded with the combined cipher, decodes to "IMPROPER USE OF MACHINERY COULD LEAD TO UTTER CATASTROPHE."
 * When Dipper is searching the security room, there is a binary code that can be translated to ASCII, it says "PUT ALL SIX PIECES TOGETHER!"
 * At the Cryogenic Tube section there are words with Symbol substitution cipher, on the right page says "AM I ME? IS HE ME?", and on next page says "ICE" "ICE" "BABY", a reference to a popular rap song from 1990 with the same name.