Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24597765-20150909003444

Howdy y'all! Random critic, Vérité et Masques (VeM, for short) here to review the rather disapointing episode that was The Last Mablecorn.

Where to begin? The episode actually starts off well; nightmare of Bill, Stanford setting up the plot and then comes the issue: while Dipper and Stanford are off doing the more plot heavy stuff, the focus gets shifted off into Mabel's adventures for unicorn hair. This would be a perfectly acceptable episode plot if it didn't throw off the tone so much. However, even on it's own it has flaws. Particularly the rather glaring one at the end.

Two unicorns appear out of the bush (which, btw, was a really stupid reason for why they weren't there earlier) and explain to Mabel that unicorns can't see into hearts and that it's all just them being jerks cause they like flaunting their magical hair, while getting on the first unicorn's case for doing that. Ok, so those two unicorns are good guys? Alright then- BUT WAIT. Nope. They're jerks too. They stood by the first unicorn BEFORE she got hit which means they likely do the same thing to others. So why did they come to explain that it's just a prank? The real reason is that the writers needed a way to get Mabel to punch out a unicorn without being OOC, but man the execution is off.

Meanwhile, there's my biggest problem with the episode: Dipper vs Stanford. Stanford passes out and Dipper, feeling a bit too curious, decides to use the mind machine on Stanford to see what he's hiding about Bill. Cue the screen flashing images of Bill possesing Stanford and Stanford calling Bill his friend and Dipper fears that Bill is Stanford (or that Stanford is helping Bill). Stanford wakes up, and his glasses lens begin to glow yellow from the glare of the screen. In a creepy and monotonous voice, he asks Dipper what he's doing. Dipper grabs the rift and the mind erasing gun which he aims at Stanford. Stanford demands the rift all while marching towards Dipper, who eventually shoots Stanford. The beam bounces off Stanford's face due to the metal brace, bounces off several walls and then destroys the machine. Stanford grabs Dipper and calms him down by adjusting his glasses and revealing that he's himself. Then explains his connection to Bill, Mabel shows up with the Unicorn hair she obtained offscreen, we get a gag from Stanley and roll credits.

So what was wrong with this? Everything. First, Stanford was just so happening to be dreaming about those exact moments and nothing else. He wasn't having another dream conversation with Bill, he wasn't fantazing about his life had his project not been ruined, he wasn't having nightmares about the things he saw across dimensions, he was dreaming about snipets of his time with Bill. Conviently, only the moments that would raise suspicion.

Next comes Dipper's response: grabbing the rift and walking off with it. He does this cause of the dream, Stanford's glasses, his voice and his walk. Of course, it never crosses his mind that if Stanford really was Bill, that would mean breaking the rift open wasn't his true goal. If it was, Stanford/Bill would've just done it already. Also, he's suspicious of a lens glare he should've already seen from the lighting prior? We also have Stanford doing a really poor job of trying to convince Dipper he's not Bill.

Then there's Dipper shooting Stanford. The beam bounces off his face and then bounces across the room becuase for whatever reason, a beam that's supposed to wipe minds can take a more physical form and bounce across anything that isn't someone's face (even though when it hit the walls/floors in The Society of the Blind Eye, it did no such thing; I guess they're made of plot). It then conviently stops when it hits and smashes the screen, which, ironically, would've been the most believable thing for it to bounce off of. Despite the machine being destroyed, there's still the glare in Stanford's glasses until he readjusts them into the exact same position, only now the glare is gone for some reason.

This is when Stanford decides to explain his connections to Bill and why he's been keeping it a secret: so that Dipper wouldn't get tricked like he was. Wait. You mean to say that in order to keep Dipper from getting tricked by Bill, you wouldn't tell him a cautionary tale of when you got duped into thinking Bill was your best friend? How exactly does keeping that secret away from him when he asks makes him less likely to be tricked?

Honestly, that scene sums up my biggest problem with GF: almost all logic will be thrown away if the plot demands it. This episode was more extreme with that flaw than most and that's not even adding in the shift in tone it takes on top of it.

Do remember, this is a critical viewpoint of one episode of the show. Latah.  