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 flying towards them. They duck under the table for cover. A newspaper falls by Preston Northwest, showing Dipper fighting a giant bat with a police taser, and Northwest says he thinks he's found the perfect person to help with the Northwests' ghost problem.

Later, Dipper prepares for a marathon of Ghost Harassers at the Mystery Shack when Mabel, Candy, and Grenda interrupt him to watch the news coverage of the Northwests' party. After all three girls express interest in going to the party, Pacifica Northwest knocks at the door of the Mystery Shack, seeking Dipper's help in getting rid of the ghost. In exchange for agreeing to help out Pacifica, Dipper asks for three tickets to her party for Mabel, Candy, and Grenda. She agrees and they all go to the mansion, with Mabel and her friends in homemade dresses.

Once there, Dipper gets changed into a fancier outfit and he and Pacifica head to the room with the most ghostly activity after a brief chat with Pacifica's father. Dipper examines the journal, stating that the Northwests' ghost is probably only a "category one" on a ten-category scale. A deep voice suddenly begins chanting "ancient sins" as things start floating in the air and mounted animal heads on the walls start oozing blood. A skeleton exits the fire place and grows flesh, revealing itself to be a lumberjack with flaming hair and beard. Dipper consults his Journal for guidance, but the only advice he can find is a suggestion to "pray for mercy." Meanwhile, at the party, the guests begin to arrive, including Marius von Fundshauser, whom catches the attention of Mabel, Candy and Grenda. For the best, the girls promise each other that none of them are to try and date him.

Elsewhere, using his knowledge from the Journal, Dipper quickly traps the ghost in a silver mirror, causing Pacifica to hug him in gratitude, only to soon separate in awkwardness once the elation wears off. After the Northwests thank Dipper and he goes to dispose of the ghost, he learns the ghost's story. When he was alive, he was of one of a group of lumberjacks who were previously promised attendance to the Northwests' yearly parties in exchange for their help with building Northwest Manor. After years of hard work and sacrifice the mansion was finished, but the Northwests broke their promise, locked the townspeople out of their party, and he was subsequently killed in a mudslide that was a result of the construction. Cursing the Northwest family with his dying breath, the lumberjack swore to return in 150 years and exact vengeance on them unless they keep their promise. A curse that Nathaniel Northwest heard, wrote down, and has since been passed down through the Northwest family until now. When Dipper discovers this, he angrily confronts the Northwests, accusing them of manipulating him to catch the ghost so they could escape justice, and choosing to endanger everyone rather than break the curse themselves, despite knowing exactly how to do so. He also accuses Pacifica as being just as bad as her parents, saying that she's "just another link in the world's worst chain." Hurt by this, Pacifica desperately attempts to apologize but is cut off by her father. Dipper then leaves angrily to dispose of the ghost.

At the party, Mabel and Candy decide to flirt with Marius, leaving Grenda out of it, as her outrageous personality might only scare him.

The ghost manages to trick Dipper into releasing him by asking Dipper to allow him to see the trees one last time, then overheats the mirror causing Dipper drop and break it, thereby releasing him and allowing him to go back to haunting the party. The ghost brings the taxidermied 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, reveling in their mistreatment of others. 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, apologizes for what he said and 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 attempts 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 opens the gate, causing the townsfolk to flood in. Pleased that Pacifica upheld her ancestors' promise, the ghost restores the people to normal and leaves peacefully.

Despite Candy and Mabel thinking Grenda would embarrass herself, Marius approaches her and gives her his number.

Old Man McGucket grabs ahold of Dipper to tell him that he fixed the laptop and that it shows something big is coming. Dipper brushes it off for the moment, saying to enjoy the party and relax for once, leaving McGucket alone. McGucket takes out the laptop, which shows on its screen a timer counting down from twenty-one hours and thirty minutes. Behind McGucket a tapestry on a wall depicts some sort of apocalypse, with people suffering and screaming in agony as Bill Cipher hovers over them.

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. Seeing the two men in the closet, one of them crossdressing, she states that she's "not even gonna ask," and leaves.

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 Befufftlefumpter
 * as Soos and Grunkle Stan (credits only)
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as the Basketball Player
 * Kari Wahlgren as Mrs. Northwest
 * John DiMaggio as Manly Dan (uncredited)

Character revelations

 * Pacifica is 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.
 * Pacifica was once crowned as "Miss Gravity Falls."
 * Dipper and Pacifica have formed a friendship as of this episode.
 * The Northwest family has a secret history of fraudulence and deception, besides the town founder conspiracy, possibly including a connection to Bill Cipher.
 * Grenda does not have a phone.

Series continuity

 * Since the defeat of the Blind Eye Society in "Society of the Blind Eye," the citizens of Gravity Falls finally begin to notice the paranormal activity in their town, as Dipper's defeat of a Giant Vampire Bat makes the headlines of the Gravity Falls Gossiper.
 * 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.
 * 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."
 * The town's mayor is clearly dying, alluding to a cryptogram found in Dipper's and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun!.
 * 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 from "Into the Bunker" reappears, having been fixed by McGucket since the events of "Society of the Blind Eye."
 * Agent Powers and Agent Trigger discuss more readings from the Universe portal they began tracking in "Scary-oke."
 * The episode's ending cryptogram reverberates the cryptogram hidden within the show's title sequence.
 * The giant bat which Dipper was fighting in the newspaper image is a reference to one of the creatures shown in Journal #3 in the first episode.
 * McGucket warns Dipper of 'the end times'. This may have been hinted in "Into the Bunker" when the gang discovers supplies for an upcoming disaster in the Author's bunker.

Trivia

 * A painting of a llama in the secret room of the Northwest Mansion is briefly shown.
 * This is the first episode to use a shortened version of the theme song.
 * This is the first episode to be listed with two different titles.
 * In addition, the second name of the episode Northwest Mansion Noir, was changed to the regular Northwest Mansion Mystery on the Watch Disney XD website.
 * 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 episode slot was originally set to be an episode about Gideon breaking out of jail, but said episode was pushed back till at least the episode slot of S2E12.
 * The timer on the laptop shows 21 hours to disaster, referencing the respective number of days between this episode and the next.
 * Throughout the episode Pacifica began dropping her regular speech pattern which has always been present in the previous episodes, further showing character development.
 * According to the Official Tumblr page of the Gravity Falls Art and Design Team, Pacifica was made to wear red gloves along with her gown to be symbolic of how her family has blood on its hands.
 * Preston Northwests role in the story can easily regard him as one of the darkest human villains in the series given his disregard for human life, traitorous personality, psychologically conditioning his daughter to obey every command regardless of its consequences and overall psychotic methods of preserving the family name.

Cryptograms

 * The 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.

Тайна особняка Нортвестов