Northwest Mansion Mystery

"Northwest Mansion Mystery", also listed as "Northwest Mansion Noir", is the tenth episode in the second season of Gravity Falls, and the 30th episode overall. It premiered on February 16, 2015.

Official overview
Pacifica enlists Dipper’s help to rid the Northwest Mansion of a ghost before he wreaks havoc on her fancy party.

Synopsis
The Northwests' are preparing for their yearly fancy party, however they are interrupted when silverware and utensils begin levitating and attempting to fly into them.They duck under the table for cover. A newspaper falls by Preston Northwest, showing Dipper fighting a giant bat with a police taser. Northwest says he thinks he's found the perfect person to help with the ghost problem.

Pacifica knocks at the door of the Mystery Shack and tells Dipper to help them get rid of the ghost. In exchange for agreeing to help out Pacifica, Dipper asks for 3 tickets to her fancy party for Mabel, Candy, and Grenda. She agrees and they go to the mansion. They enter a room with animal heads while Dipper looks at the journal and states that it's probably a 'level one' ghost. A deep voice suddenly beings muttering in a "Ancient Sins" repetitively. The ghost then begins making things float in the air and the animal heads start oozing blood. A skeleton exits the fire place and grows flesh, revealing itself to be a lumberjack with flaming hair and a flaming beard. Dipper consults his Journal for guidance, but the only advice he can find is a suggestion to "pray for mercy".

Using knowledge from the journal, Dipper quickly traps the ghost in a silver mirror, and he and Pacifica hug. After the Northwests thank him and he goes to dispose of the ghost he learns that the ghost is that of a lumberjack who was previously promised attendance to the Northwests' parties in exchange for his help with building Northwest Manor, but was denied what he was promised and was subsequently killed by a mudslide that was a result of the construction. After Dipper discovers this, he angrily confronts the Northwests, accusing them of manipulating him to catch the ghost so they could escape justice. He also accuses Pacifica as being just as bad as her parents and says that she's "just another link in the world's worst chain". Pacifica is desperately attempts to apologise but is cut off by her father. Dipper then leaves angrily to dispose of the ghost.

The ghost, however, manages to trick Dipper into releasing him by asking Dipper to allow him to see the trees for one last time, makes Dipper drop and break the mirror thereby releasing him, and goes back to haunting the party.The ghost brings the taxidermy animals to life, attacks the party-goers, and begins turning all the attendees to wood. Dipper rushes back to the mansion, and upon hearing that the only way to break the curse is for a Northwest to open the gates to the townsfolk, goes to find Pacifica. When he finds her, she ashamedly shows him a hidden collection of paintings showing previous, famous Northwests doing terrible and dishonest things. She says that he was right about her being just another link in the world's worst chain. They share a tender moment when Dipper, upon seeing her regretful, reassures her that she doesn't have to be like her parents and that it's not too late to change. They are interrupted by the ghost however, who begins shouting that he has turned everyone into wood.

Dipper and Pacifica run back to the main room and Dipper immediately gets turned to wood as he attempt to stop the ghost. Pacifica becomes enraged at this and yells to the ghost that she will open the gates if he will turn everyone back to normal. The ghost agrees but just as Pacifica is about to pull the lever to open the gates, her parents emerge from a trap door and forbid her from doing so, afraid that it would ruin their reputation. After looking at Dipper and struggling to disobey her parents, she eventually opens the gate, causing the townsfolk to flood in. In order to break the curse. Pleased that Pacifica upheld her ancestors' promise, the ghost restores the people to normal and leaves peacefully.

McGucket enters and tells Dipper that he fixed the laptop and that something big is coming. Dipper brushes it off for the moment saying to enjoy the party, leaves, then McGucket takes out the laptop and shows that it has a timer counting down from 21 and thirty minutes. There is also a tapestry on a wall behind McGucket depicting with people hailing Bill Cipher as some sort of apocalypse occurs. In the end credits scene it is revealed Agent Trigger and Agent Powers were at the party disguised as a couple. They retreat to a closet to radio HQ, but Tambry walks in on them, only to immediately leave again.

Credits

 * Written by:
 * Mark Rizzo
 * Jeff Rowe
 * Alex Hirsch
 * Directed by:
 * Matt Braly
 * Storyboarded by:
 * Emmy Cicierega
 * Alonso Ramirez Ramos
 * Vaughn Tada
 * Luke Weber
 * With the Voice Talents of:
 * Kristen Schaal as Mabel Pines
 * Jason Ritter as Dipper Pines
 * Brad Abrell as Agent Trigger
 * Jackie Buscarino as Pacifica Northwest
 * Matt Chapman as Marius von Fundshauser
 * Jennifer Coolidge as Lazy Susan Wentworth
 * Jessica DiCicco as Tambry
 * Carl Faruolo as Grenda
 * Keith Ferguson as Deputy Durland
 * Nathan Fillion as Preston Northwest
 * Will Forte as Tyler
 * Nick Offerman as Agent Powers
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Sheriff Blubs and the Ghost of Northwest Manor
 * Gregg Turkington as Toby Determined
 * Niki Yang as Candy Chiu
 * Additional Voices:
 * Alex Hirsch as Old Man McGucket and Mayor
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as the Basketball Player
 * Kari Wahlgren as Mrs. Northwest
 * John DiMaggio as Manly Dan (uncredited)

Character revelations

 * Pacifica's afraid of her parents. This is because they're revealed to be very controlling of what she does, making sure that she's in line with their standards.
 * Preston is referred to by name for the first time.
 * Pacifica's middle name is Elise.
 * Dipper and Pacifica have formed a friendship as of this episode.
 * There are hints throughout the episode of Dipper and Pacifica developing romantic feelings towards each other.
 * The Northwest family has a secret history of fraudulence and deception, besides the town founder conspiracy.
 * Dipper suspects that Pacifica isn't a natural blonde.
 * Preston Northwest has shown signs of sociopathy

Series continuity

 * Mabel and Pacifica are still on friendly terms after the events of "The Golf War."
 * Pacifica also begins to accept Mabel's friends and family, but retains some prejudice towards them.
 * The town's mayor is clearly dying, alluding to a cryptogram found in Dipper's and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun!.
 * Dipper mentions the Northwest family's false claims of being descendants of the town's founder, as revealed in "Irrational Treasure."
 * Dipper uses blacklight to read Journal 3 ' s invisible ink first discovered in "Scary-oke."
 * During the ghost's attack, Dipper is frozen in a form foretold to be his last by the Shape Shifter in "Into the Bunker."
 * Robbie and Tambry continue their relationship first established in "The Love God."
 * Grenda charms Austrian royalty, hinting at the possibility of her marrying rich as revealed in a cryptogram from Dipper's and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun!.
 * McGucket attempts to meet with Dipper regarding recovered memories, having been included in the hunt for the Author in "Society of the Blind Eye."
 * The laptop retrieved from the author's bunker is revealed to have been fixed by Old Man McGucket. It is also revealed that he broke into the computer's main frame, coming across a countdown clock that predicts imminent catastrophe linked to Bill Cipher.
 * Agent Powers and Agent Trigger discuss more readings from the Universe portal they began tracking in "Scary-oke."
 * Agent Powers and Agent Trigger are shown with the group of people which include the Mayor, dukes and duchesses, Sultans and Sports Men, and also in the ending credits.
 * The episode's ending cryptogram reverberates the cryptogram hidden within the show's title sequence.
 * Old Man McGucket is beginning to show signs that he is returning to his sensibilities and his mental state is improving. He is able to communicate well with Dipper, and wears his modified eyeglasses.
 * While turning to wood, Dipper unwittingly takes on the same pose taken by the Shapeshifter in "Into the Bunker", when the monster taunted him with "the last form [he would] ever take!". Ironically, Dipper was revived along with the other patrons, so the Shapeshifter was not quite correct.

Trivia

 * We briefly see a painting of a llama in the secret room of the Northwest Mansion, suggesting the llama on Bill Cipher's wheel might refer to Pacifica.
 * This is the first episode to be listed with two alternate names. It was originally believed to be called "Northwest Mansion Noir", and is listed as such on the official Disney XD website.
 * This is the first episode to use a shortened version of the theme song.
 * This is the first episode this season to have a different backwards message in the theme song.
 * Tyler is credited as "cute biker."
 * Neither Stan Pines nor Soos Ramirez appears in this episode, although Alex Hirsch is credited for voicing both.
 * This is the first full-length episode in which Stan does not appear.
 * This is the second full-length episode in which Soos does not physically appear, and the second in which he's not at least mentioned.
 * Marius von Fundshauser description reads:
 * "Age: 13
 * "Status: Rich
 * "After inheriting his father's cravat and epaulets factory at the age of 7, Marius Marius von Fundshauser quickly rose to prominence as the richest rich boy in Richardson Richington's Rich Boys Richcademy, Furtherrich, he richly richer rich rich rich rich rich, rich rich rich. Rich,"
 * Pacifica obeying her parents whenever her father rings a bell was probably inspired by psyhcologist Ivan Pavlov's experiments of classical conditioning with dogs, specifically, ringing a bell to associate with the dogs being given food.

Cryptograms

 * S2E10EndPage.PNG end credits cipher reads, "PYOL YS QH LLFDJW: UAH DNCVFW ZTCKW XKGWFFWW KNLLMRP? WISAGCXJ AR WKVISW! DPX WSDUKXR: LLH UBFO". When using the Vigenère cipher, it translates to "NEXT UP ON UTBAHC: DID ALIENS WRITE THE CONSTITUTION? CRAWDADS IN TIARAS! AND FLORIDA: THE SHOW".
 * Keyword: CURSED, found on every other window on the top floor of the Northwest mansion.
 * The page section at the end of the episode says, "5-4-23-10-15-5-10-9-4-1-16-23-4-16-19-5-19-19-11-5 5-4-23-10-15-5-10-9-4-1-16-23-4-16-19-5-19-19-11-5 5-4-23-10-15-5-10-9-4-1-16-23-4-16-19-5-19-19-11-5" which translates to "STANISNOTWHATHESEEMS STANISNOTWHATHESEEMS STANISNOTWHATHESEEMS" when put though the combined cipher.
 * The new short version of the theme song has a new backwards message that also says "STAN IS NOT WHAT HE SEEMS".

Тайна особняка Нортвестов