Sock Opera

"Sock Opera" is the fourth episode in the second season of Gravity Falls, and the 24th episode overall. It premiered on September 8, 2014.

Official overview
Mabel decides to put on a sock puppet rock opera to impress a local puppeteer but her show goes away when Dipper's drive to uncover journal secrets leads to a supernatural disaster.

Synopsis
In the Gravity Falls Library, Mabel and Dipper finally access the laptop first seen in The Bunker, but are stopped by an 8 letter password (possibly the name of the author). Annoyed, Dipper begins to attempt cracking the password with Mabel, but she is distracted by a puppeteer, Gabe. She chats with him mentioning her love for puppets and decides to organize a puppet show to win Gabe's affection. She requests the help of Dipper, promising to help him crack the password once they finished the preparations. Dipper agrees, eager to finally discover what the laptop holds as he leaves the library with Mabel, unaware of a floating being following them...

Over the next few days, Mabel, Wendy, Soos and the rest of the Pines family (excluding Stan) make many puppets. Dipper attempts to crack the password during the night, depriving him of sleep, but fails repeatedly. Frustrated, he considers finding a faster way to gain access to the laptop when he is surprised by none other than Bill Cipher. Bill toys with Dipper before offering to give him hints on how to unlock the laptop: if he would make a deal with him. Dipper refuses, the events of Dreamscaperers fresh in his mind. Bill tells Dipper that his offer would still be open to him before scaring him awake.

Dipper informs Mabel of his encounter with the "triangle guy" and is reassured by Mabel that she would help Dipper that day after passing her puppets to Candy and Grenda. However, this plan falls through when Gabe expected a quality performance by Mabel. Mabel, watching her team suffer from mishaps, decides to continue working on the puppet show, neglecting her promise to Dipper and instead telling him that she would help him after the show. Furious and disappointed, Dipper heads to the attic to crack the code himself.

However, the laptop, having been entered the incorrect password too many times, prepares to initiate a data wipe in 5 minutes. Dipper flys into a panic. Bill Cipher reappears,giving Dipper an ultimatum: Accept the deal, or have the laptop's secrets erased forever. Dipper continues to reject, so the sly Bill reminds Dipper of all the times he had sacrificed himself to Mabel. Moreover, he tells Dipper that he just needed a simple puppet,of which Dipper had a huge number of from Mabel's preparations. The temptations push Dipper over the edge and he agrees. Bill now turns against Dipper, possessing his body and leaving the latter a ghost and proceeds to destroy the laptop, revealing that Dipper was the puppet he wanted and that his plans would not be foiled by Dipper who had come very close to revealing the secrets key to this plan. He continues, planning to use the body of Dipper to destroy Journal 3 and never allow Dipper to foil him again. As he experiments with the body of Dipper, he attempts to find the journal. Mabel eventually reveals the location of the journal: inside the makeshift wedding cake she designed for the show. Bill, equipped with this knowledge, follows the gang to the show, mocking Dipper and gloats in the fact that he would not be stopped from executing his plan.

Dipper follows them to the show which had received a huge audience. Bill's plans are further aided with Mabel's help as he took the role of the Reverend in the play, allowing him firsthand acsess to the book. Dipper attempts to warn Mabel of the imminent danger, but as a ghost he was invisible to Mabel. He realises he needs a body to possess to interact with others and thus possesses sock puppet Dipper.

The first half of the play goes successfully and Mabel washes up in the bathroom. She is frightened by the puppet of Dipper, who reveals his true identity and warns Mabel of Bill's plans. Mabel wants to stop Bill, but she risks losing the success of her show and Gabe's affection. This is further shown when Gabe, impressed, invites Mabel to join him after the play. She compromises, attempting to retrieve the book as Dipper carries out the second half of the play.

She climbs to the top of the stage and reaches out for the book, but falls into the cake and plummets to the stage below. She is caught, saving the show from a failure. However, Bill, in the body of Dipper, hoists her up and threatens to ruin her play if the Journal was not handed to him. Mabel relents, giving him the book. Bill gloats about how anyone would sacrifice their hard work for their sibling. Mabel now realizes what her sibling had done for her the things he had to give up to help her. Indebted to Dipper, she repays the favor, dragging Bill into the cake and interrupting the play. Bill attempts to stop her, boasting about he could never be beat. However, knowing Bill in Dipper's body possessed Dipper's weaknesses, Mabel exploits them, first tickling him and then forcing Bill to chase her. The sleep-deprived body could not keep up with Mabel and collapses, forcing Bill out of Dipper's body and allowing Dipper to reclaim it.

Bill, now in the body of Dipper's puppet, laughs menacingly and warns of bigger plans that would unfold in time. Mabel ultimately ends this boasting by lighting the pyrotechnics, destroying all the puppets she had created and silencing Bill.

Mabel assumes that like most cartoons, the audience would believe it to be part of the play. This did not work for her, as the audience leaves with a crowd of boos and hisses. Gabe, heartbroken at Mabel defacing his art form, makes out with his puppets as he leaves, disgusting Mabel and Dipper.

Dipper now apologizes for his actions, but Mabel ends up apologizing for wasting a week on a horrible guy. They make up and leave.

As the credits roll, Mabel has a dream of an actual play starring the Pines Family with Stan and Mr McGucket as the audience. Frightened, she turns her puppet away from her upon awakening and returns to sleep.

Credits

 * Written by:
 * Shion Takeuchi
 * Alex Hirsch


 * Directed by:
 * Matt Braly
 * Joe Pitt


 * Storyboards by:
 * Christopher Houghton
 * Sunil Hall
 * Vaughn Tada


 * With the Voice Talents of:
 * Kristen Schaal - Mabel
 * Jason Ritter - Dipper
 * Alex Hirsch - Grunkle Stan and Soos


 * Additional Voices:
 * Linda Cardellini - Wendy
 * John DiMaggio - Manly Dan
 * Carl Faruolo - Grenda
 * McKenna Grace
 * Carter Hastings
 * Alex Hirsch - Bill Cipher and Old Man McGucket
 * Jorma Taccone - Gabe
 * Niki Yang - Candy


 * Puppeteers:
 * Alex Hirsch
 * Matt Chapman

Series continuity

 * The Gravity Falls Library is first seen again since "Irrational Treasure".
 * The laptop from "Into the Bunker" reappears.
 * The poster of Candy and Grenda that was torn in "Boyz Crazy" is seen again, taped back together.
 * The 'No. 2 Mug' from Boss Mabel reappears in a scene of Mabel with all her sock puppets in bed.
 * Mermando is first mentioned since "The Deep End."
 * Mabel says Dipper looks "like a vampire, and not the hot kind." This refers to the "couple of cute vampires" she said she met without Dipper's knowledge, in "The Deep End."
 * Flashbacks to scenes from "Tourist Trapped," "The Time Traveler's Pig," and "The Deep End" appear when Bill is convincing Dipper to make a deal with him.
 * Bill refers to Dipper's mosquito bites, possibly the "BEWARB" on Dipper's arm from "Tourist Trapped".
 * Mabel and Dipper refer to themselves as the "Mystery Twins" for the first time since "Irrational Treasure."
 * Agent Powers and Agent Trigger's agency's symbol can be seen on a metal box with an antenna and a green and red light in the space between the upper and lower floors when Dipper phases through the floor into the living room.
 * Agent Powers and Agent Trigger from "Scary-oke" can be seen in the audience of the play, while hiding their faces in playbills.
 * Dipper mentions ripping his teeth out as something Bill might do to him, referencing Bill ripping teeth out of a deer in "Dreamscaperers." This is odd, as Dipper was not there when he did this.

Trivia

 * Dipper once ate his own shirt do to lack of sleep.
 * The "Welcome" screen from the laptop shows a diagram that resembles the Universe Portal shape.
 * Stan's puppet and the puppet Soos makes, are the only ones that are made from a paper bag rather than a sock.
 * The potential passwords Dipper tried out and failed are:
 * password.
 * journal3.
 * overlord.
 * thrilled.
 * crochet.
 * patootie.
 * spooking.
 * craniums.
 * reawaken.
 * vocalize.
 * Starting with this episode, the series falls under the Disney XD Original Series label.
 * The Stan and McGucket puppets that appear at the end of the credits were used by Alex Hirsch at San Diego Comic Con 2013 and 2014.
 * Bill's cane is yellow instead of black as it was in "Dreamscaperers."
 * In the theater there's a guy sitting behind Stan and Soos who looks a lot like Alex Hirsch.
 * The puppeteering for the credits sequence was done by creator Alex Hirsch and writer Matt Chapman. Chapman previously did some puppet work for the "Puppet Time" shorts on HomestarRunner.com.
 * A poster of Candy and Grenda (ripped apart in Boyz Crazy) appears again in Mabel's room taped together.

Character Revelations

 * Candy is fluent in Korean, most likely due to her voice actress' nationality.
 * Bill cannot feel pain.

Cryptograms

 * In 3|Dipper's journal during a musical montage, there is a cryptogram that reads "KFIV VMVITB MLG HPRM ZMW YLMV IRHRMT ORPV GSV HSVKZIW GLMV". Using the atbash cipher it decodes to "Pure energy, not skin and bone, rising like the Shepard tone". (The Shepard tone is an artificial sound wave that sounds like it is continually rising and falling).
 * A piece of paper in the background titled "Codes" has "ZLGGOH", "VKLIWHU", "ZKDWHYV" and "EHDUR" written on it. When decoded using the Caesar Cipher, they read "WIDDLE", "SHIFTER", "WHATEVS" and "BEARO". The first three are the keywords from previous episodes. The last word is the name of Mabel's childhood stuffed bear, as seen in "Tooth".


 * During the ending credits of this episode, there is a cryptogram that reads "YM’KL ECN PPK WFOM UBR KQVXNLK, DCI SIK’U VDA JFTOTA AYQ BWL VVCT "EBTGGB BHWKGZH" HVV: TMEASZFA LOS YCDT PRWKTIYEKGL DBV XQDTYRDGVI ." Once decoded using vigenère cipher, it reads "WE’VE ALL HAD SOME FUN TONIGHT, BUT LET’S NOT FORGET WHO THE REAL "PUPPET MASTERS" ARE: REPTOIDS WHO HAVE INFILTRATED OUR GOVERNMENT ."
 * Found in the mirror's reflection after Bill takes over Dipper's body: "CIPHER"
 * The page section revealed at the end of the episode says, "10-9 8-3-8-8-19-4 5-4-6-15-10-17-5 21-23-10 16-9-12-20 11-19 20-9-1-10" on the top left, "5-9 8-23-4-15-19-10-4-12-25 15 1-23-4-21-16 4-16-15-5 4-9-1-10" on the top right, "23-22-10-9-6-11-23-12 5-9-9-10 1-15-12-12 22-19 4-16-19 10-9-6-11" on the bottom left, and "19-10-14-9-25 4-16-19 21-23-12-11 22-19-18-9-6-19 4-16-19 5-4-9-6-11" on the bottom right. After being put through all of the ciphers, it translates to "NO PUPPET STRINGS CAN HOLD ME DOWN," "SO PATIENTLY I WATCH THIS TOWN," "ABNORMAL SOON WILL BE THE NORM," and "ENJOY THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM."