A Tale of Two Stans

 is the twelfth episode in the second season of Gravity Falls and is the 32nd episode overall. It premiered on July 13, 2015.

Official Overview
Cornered underneath the Mystery Shack, Stan must finally reveal the secrets of his past and his mysterious portal to Dipper and Mabel.

Synopsis
Grunkle Stan, cornered under the Mystery Shack, greets his brother with a hug. However, Stanford responds by punching him. He says that Stanley took a risk that he shouldn't have. Stan asks if he will thank him, to which Stanford replies that he has no intention of doing so when Stan was the reason that he was in the Universe Portal in the first place. Mabel interrupts, asking what is going on. We soon learn that the Stan that Mabel and Dipper know is actually named Stanley and he stole his brothers name; Stanford. Stan says that he has a lot of explaining to do, and starts to explain his life's story.

It starts back when they were children exploring a beach around the 1960s. They come across a cave that holds a broken ship which the twins then make their goal to fix it up and sail across the world together to hunt for hidden treasure. Throughout his life, Stanford was bullied for having six fingers, but Stanford knew he always had his brother beside him.

The twins could not be any more different. Stanley was a trouble maker barely able to graduate while Stanford was a straight A student who won most or all of the science competitions. One day, Stanford gets an opportunity of a life time to go to his dream college, West Coast Tech. The college's admission team come to see Ford's most recent science experiment. Although Stanley still has his dream of sailing around the world in their boat, Stanford has his mind set to get into the college.

One night, Stanley goes into the gym to look at Stanford's experiment, he hits the table in frustration, and accidentally destroys his brother's prize experiment, ruining his chances of getting into the college. His family believes that he did it on purpose to try to prevent Stanford from going off to college without him and kicks him out of the house for ruining their chance of becoming rich. Stanley then dedicates his whole life to getting enough money to prove his family wrong by becoming a businessmen but he becomes unsuccessful and gets banned from several states and countries in the process. He uses fake identities in order to go to new places. Meanwhile, Ford gets accepted into Backupsmore University and is able to graduate and a grand for his scientific research.

Stanford gets too anomalous and decides to move to Gravity Falls due to several anomalous there. At Gravity Falls, Ford builds his home and researches and writes his findings into a journal. Ford wonders where all the anomalous had come from and decides to create a portal with his collage friend, Fiddleford McGucket, but once the portal is built and tested, Fiddleford sees it as a danger to the world and quits helping Ford. Ford believes he's losing his sanity and asks Stanley to come to Gravity Falls.

As the two meet after ten years apart, Ford asks Stan to hide the first journal far away from Gravity Falls to prevent atone from being able to operate the portal. Stan gets angry at his brother for pushing him away to go hide a book far away after being apart for so long. The two fight but Ford ends up getting sucked into the portal after accidentally turning it on. Stan tries several ways to get Ford back but fails to do so. When he runs out of food, he sets out to the store to go buy some but finds that he has no cash. When the people inside the store notice him and believe he's Ford, they ask if they could pay and visit his home due to the curiosity of his strange findings. Stan agrees to let the people into the shack in order to gain money and goes under his brother's identity, Stanford Pines. The shack becomes a success over the years but every night, Stan tries to find ways to open the portal which he kept a secret from to everyone.

As Dipper apologizes for not trusting Stan, the U.S. government agents overhear the gang talking downstairs. Soos claims that he forgot about the government agents, which reminds Dipper that he still has Old Man McGucket's memory wipe ray. Ford uses the device to make a sound wave that wipes the memory of the government agents. Stanford then pretends to be a government official and tells the government agents that the readings they got was just radiation from an unreported meteor shower, and tells them to leave. After the agents are gone, Dipper and Mabel express their gratitude towards Ford, and Dipper get prepared to ask the "2 million questions" he has for Ford. Stan then tells the twins to hit the hay, much to the twin's disapproval. Soos then slides off to call Wendy. Later that night Ford proposes a deal : Stan can stay for the summer to watch Dipper and Mabel, while Ford stays in the basement, but when the summer is over Stan must give Ford the house and his name back and the Mystery Shack must be closed for good. Stan bitterly agrees on one condition: Ford must stay away from the twins as he doesn't want them in danger as he claims them to be the only family he has left. Mabel who was eavesdropping is concerned and asks Dipper to promise that they won't turn against each other which he does, but Mabel is still uneasy about as she lies awake as Dipper goes to sleep. As the credits show up, Wendy is seen still talking to Soos on the phone about the two Stans.

Credits

 * Written by:
 * Josh Weinstein
 * Matt Chapman
 * Alex Hirsch


 * Directed by:
 * Sunil Hall


 * Storyboarded by:
 * Sabrina Cotugno
 * Alonso Ramirez Ramos
 * Stephen Sandoval
 * Dana Terrace
 * Luke Weber


 * With the Voice Talents of
 * Kristen Schaal as Mabel
 * Jason Ritter as Dipper
 * Alex Hirsch as Grunkle Stan and Soos
 * J.K. Simmons as Ford
 * Nick Offerman as Agent Powers
 * Brad Abrell as Agent Trigger
 * Linda Cardellini as Wendy
 * Declan J. Krogman as Young Stan
 * Jonathan Banks as Mr. Pines
 * Jennifer Coolidge as Lazy Susan
 * Christian Mardini as Young Ford
 * Ken Jenkins as Pa Duskerton
 * Kari Wahlgren as Mrs. Pines
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Young Sheriff Blubs
 * Gregg Turkington as Young Toby Determined
 * April Winchell as Ma Duskerton
 * Additional Voices
 * Jeff Bennett - Judge
 * Matt Chapman - Crampelter
 * Alex Hirsch - Young Fiddleford, Shmebulock Sr., Principal
 * Kevin Michael Richardson
 * Kari Wahlgren - Receptionist, Tyler's Mom
 * Casting by:
 * Sara Jane Sherman

Character revelations

 * Grunkle Stan's real name is Stanley Pines, while the Author's name is Stanford Pines.
 * Soos writes fanfictions about Stan.
 * Stan has been banned from at least thirty two states in America: New Jersey, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, Arizona, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Texas, Maine, Massachusetts, Wyoming, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Missouri, Pennsylvania , North Carolina, and South Carolina.
 * Ford and Stan are about sixty years old or at least in their early sixty's.
 * Stanford was/is a recluse in Gravity Falls.
 * Grunkle Stan's tattoo is actually a burn mark from the portal control console.
 * Lazy Susan got her eye burned in an accident at the first tour of the Mystery Shack which explains why her left eye is always closed.
 * Stanford and Stanley's father is named Filbrick.
 * Stanford and Stanley have a younger brother named Shermy Pines, who is Dipper and Mabel's paternal grandfather.
 * Stanley is the outcast of the family due to accidentally breaking Stanford's device which would of made a made a fortune for Stanford and the family.
 * Stanley and Stanford were unexpected twins at birth.
 * Blubs' first name is Daryl, as revealed by his name tag at the convenience store.

Series continuity

 * This episode continues where "Not What He Seems" left off.
 * The science project next to the Ford's "|Perpetual Motion Machine" is a "Footbot 1000," apparently a prototype of the Footbot in Stanley's story he tells during "Bottomless Pit!."
 * The memory eraser from "Society of the Blind Eye" returns.
 * Shmebulock's father, Shmebulock Sr., is shown being examined by Ford.
 * Ford is featured briefly in "The Time Traveler's Pig," during the scene where Mabel and Dipper time travel to the house in the snow.
 * The Dusk2Dawn convenience store from "The Inconveniencing" is seen before it closed and Ma and Pa Duskerton are seen alive.
 * The Shape Shifter from "Into the Bunker" is seen hatched from an egg.
 * Octavia, the eight-legged cow from "Mabel's Scrapbook: Petting Zoo" appears as an illustration in Journal 1.
 * On 'the very real report' Stanford is reading the Agents, Mabel has drawn the possible outcome of the Snake's and Badger's lovechild, a snadger. This couple was brought together previously in "The Love God."
 * The same mask Stan uses to scare Dipper in "Tourist Trapped" is shown on Stan's bed in the flashback.

Trivia

 * The episode is thirty minutes long and its debut airing with no commercial breaks. For reruns, the run time of this episode will be 38 minutes including ad breaks.
 * Since Ford and Stan are the twins' great uncles, the two brothers have another sibling, considering the fact that neither of them are Dipper and Mabel's grandfather. The other sibling is Shermy Pines, the baby that Ma is seen holding when Stanley is kicked out.
 * In this episode, a new photo is added to the theme song, where Ford is putting the journal in his jacket.
 * This is the first episode where Mabel does not wear a different sweater.
 * When Stanford is looking at a map of the United States, a box nearby him can be seen reading Dungeons, Dungeons, and more Dungeons. This is the same title as the episode that follows this one.
 * In the cold open, on the boards that block the cave there wrote "BLENDIN WAS HERE"

Cryptograms

 * After Young Fiddleford has his head through the portal, he says YROO XRKSVI GIRZMTOV backwards. Once this Atbash cryptogram is decoded, this reads BILL CIPHER TRIANGLE. (Old Man McGucket said this previously in one of his memories in "Society of the Blind Eye.")
 * The ending cryptogram is 23 5-4-3-22-22-9-6-10 4-9-3-17-16 10-19-1 14-19-6-5-19-25 10-23-4-15-2-19 18-15-12-22-6-15-21-13 1-23-5-10'4 4-9-9 21-6-19-23-4-15-2-19 16-23-2-15-10-17 4-1-15-10-5 1-23-5 10-9-4 16-15-5 8-12-23-10 5-9 16-19 14-3-5-4 5-16-6-3-17-16-19-20 23-10-20 10-23-11-19-20 22-9-4-16 5-4-23-10. Once decoded it reads 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, TIZOLHAJSIW CKMMWZPMKQ: GLY KJQBH can be decoded using the Vigenere cipher, and the key SIXER, to reveal the message BACKUPSMORE UNIVERSITY: YOU TRIED. The key to the cipher can be found on the map in the Stans' room all the way to the right.

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