The Time Traveler's Pig

"The Time Traveler's Pig" is the ninth episode in Season 1 of Gravity Falls. It debuted on August 24, 2012.

Overview
When Dipper wishes he could go back in time and undo a mistake he made with Wendy, he discovers that there is a time machine that can help him go back in time. Meanwhile, it's love at first sight for Mabel when she wins a pet pig at the fair.

Synopsis
Dipper and Wendy are walking around the low budget and dangerous Mystery Fair when Wendy sees a duck/panda looking hybrid stuffed animal prize for a milk bottle game. She expresses a huge desire for it and Dipper attempts to win it for her. He hands the carnival attendant a ticket for one ball and the man reminds him he only has one chance. Wendy smiles and shoots him a thumbs up for luck. Dipper throws the ball and misses, hitting the crate the bottles are standing on. The ball ricochets and hits Wendy, giving her a black eye. Dipper assures Wendy that everything is going to be fine and not to worry before running off to get her some ice.

He retrieves a bag of ice but crashes into Blendin Blandin on the way back, spilling ice everywhere. Blendin runs off without apologizing and Dipper manages to gather up the ice just in time to see Robbie soothing Wendy's eye with a snow cone. Robbie then asks Wendy if she would like to go out with him. Wendy says, "Yeah, I guess so," the same words she used when she agreed to hang out at the fair with Dipper. Mabel, unaware of what just happened, runs up to Dipper and gushes about her new pig, Waddles. When she realizes he's not paying her any attention, she asks what's wrong and sees Wendy and Robbie run off to ride the The Tunnel of Love and Corndogs.

Dipper spends the remainder of the fair heartbroken, staring up at the sky on a skee ball game. Mabel tries to use Waddles to cheer him up, but Dipper is much too busy dwelling on the fact that his one mistake caused him so much pain. He spots Blendin, on whom he now blames his misery, and accuses him of spying on them. After using advanced technology in a very feeble attempt to escape, Blendin confesses that he is a time traveler. Dipper sees Wendy and Robbie on the Ferris wheel and asks if he can borrow Blendin's time machine, which appears to be a simple tape measure. He denies the request, claiming the device is far too complicated for them to use properly After the twins dismiss the machine, Blendin travels back in time twice, slightly aflame on the second return. He then explains that he is on a mission to prevent a series of time anomalies from happening at the fair, but for whatever reason he has been unable to find them. Mabel gives him some tickets for the fair, claiming that he deserves a break. He happily agrees, but swears that he'll be keeping a close eye on them and the machine.

Blendin then arrives at a barrel ride, where Soos says he has to take his tool belt off to prevent it from potentially flying off and accidentally fixing a ride. Soos promises he will watch the belt like a hawk and Blendin gets on the ride. Dipper steals the device while Soos is distracted by the ride and runs back to the Mystery Shack with Mabel and Waddles. The twins then travel 6 hours back in time so Dipper can undo his mistake with Wendy and Mabel can relive the best moment of her life (winning Waddles). Dipper finds Wendy and she again says that she wants one of the stuffed animals of indeterminate species. Dipper tries again but, due to time paradox, his actions involve her eye being injured yet again. Robbie still comes to her aid with the snow cone and everything happens the way it did last time, excluding Dipper's involvement with Blendin and Mabel causing an angry mob because she said she was a witch.

Mabel and Dipper keep repeating their actions, Mabel bonding deeper with Waddles and Dipper keeps failing harder every time. Finally, Dipper comes up with a long and complicated plan that requires Mabel's assistance. This time, Dipper intentionally aims for the tent's roof, where it eventually makes it's way to the storm drain atop the Mystery Shack. Mabel moves the drain to that the ball flies back to the fair, hits the target on the dunk tank (and still fails to dunk Grunkle Stan, much to the disappointment of the carnival goers), knocks the pizza out of the unnamed fat man's hands, removes the top of Robbie's snow cone, and successfully takes down the milk bottles without damaging Wendy's eye. The carnival attendant awards the stuffed animal of indeterminate species to Wendy, who gleefully shows it to Robbie while proclaiming Dipper won it for her. Robbie becomes flustered and pulls up his hood, walking away without asking Wendy out. Unaware of his intentions, Wendy shrugs and expresses her delight at being able to spend the day hanging out with Dipper.

Mabel, now having come down from the roof, is thanked by Dipper before she goes to win Waddles. However, Pacifica Northwest has already won Waddles, before Mabel can win him. Mabel screams until she finds Dipper disembarking the Tunnel of Love and Corndogs with Wendy. Mabel tells Dipper that she has lost Waddles to Pacifica and that they need to go back and fix the timeline. Dipper says that this timeline is the only one where he can avoid harming Wendy and they can't go hopping through time anymore. Upset, Mabel fights for control over the time machine and accidentally sends them back to the Oregon Trail. There, she intentionally messes with the people's knowledge of future inventions and advancements, such as braces, light up shoes, calculators, women's suffrage, and high-fives. Dipper then sends them to the Age of the Dinosaurs for a few seconds before Mabel takes them to the distant future (wherein the Time Baby is going in a destructive rampage). The pair then hop through some of the earlier events of the summer, leaving behind various items. The time machine starts shorting out while they run by a snow covered Mystery Shack, wherein a much younger Grunkle Stan resides. They disappear before he can see them, reappearing in the successful Dipper timeline. He tells Mabel that it's over; this timeline is the one they have to keep.

Dejected, Mabel begins banging her head on a totem pole. Dipper says that she'll soon forget about Waddles, traveling further and further into the future to prove his point. When he goes a month into the future, he sees that her condition has worsened to the point where vines have begun growing over her disheveled body. She has now been turned into a tourist attraction for the Mystery Shack. He regrettably travels back to reinstate the original timeline, telling Wendy that people make mistakes and should always be forgiven before setting in motion the events that started it all. Wendy walks off with Robbie as Dipper looks on sadly. Mabel and Waddles then appear and express their gratitude, Dipper admitting that he couldn't break her heart and there was still time for him to win Wendy's heart later in the summer. Blendin realizes what has happened and takes the time machine back seconds before the Time Paradox Avoidance Enforcement SquadronmembersLolph and Dundgen appear and arrest him for violating the Time Traveler's Code of Conduct. Blendin then promises to mess up Dipper and Mabel's life by making their parents never meet.

Thanks to Soos' welding, Grunkle Stan has managed to avoid getting dunked at the dunk tank. He happily taunts one of the Time Paradox Avoidance Enforcement Squadron members, resulting in his firing "a futuristic laser arm cannon" at the target and successfully dunking Grunkle Stan. They disappear and Dipper and Mabel realize that they were the cause of all the time anomalies. Dipper groans as he sees Robbie and Wendy sharing a caramel apple on a stick. Mabel then sends Waddles (who had earlier expressed a love of caramel apples) off to the pair. Startled, Robbie drops the apple and spills a barrel of hot water on his pants, causing them to shrink painfully. All the carnival goers laugh at his expense, including the still submerged Grunkle Stan.

The episode ends with the Time Baby punishing Blendin to clean up the time anomalies, hence why he is in the first three episodes of the series.

Credits

 * Written by:
 * Aury Wallington
 * Alex Hirsch
 * Directed by:
 * Aaron Springer
 * Joe Pitt
 * Storyboards by:
 * Erik Fountain
 * Mark Garcia


 * With the Voice Talents of:
 * Kristen Schaal - Mabel Pines
 * Jason Ritter - Dipper Pines
 * Alex Hirsch - Grunkle Stan and Soos
 * Jackie Buscarino - Pacifica
 * Linda Cardellini - Wendy
 * TJ Miller - Robbie
 * Justin Roiland - Blendin


 * Additional Voices:
 * Diedrich Bader
 * Dee Bradley Baker - Waddles
 * Grey DeLisle
 * Alex Hirsch
 * TJ Miller
 * Justin Roiland
 * Tara Strong
 * Dave Wittenberg

Production notes

 * See also: List of allusions and List of goofs.

Series continuity

 * The Time Baby was mentioned in the document in episode 8, "Irrational Treasure". The document says that the Time Baby is frozen in a glacier in Antarctica.
 * Quentin Trembley is referred to when one of the settlers says, "By Trembley!"
 * Because of Dipper and Mabel leaving belongings in past episodes and Blendin Blandin having to go back and clean it up explains why he was in those past episodes ("The Legend of the Gobblewonker", "Headhunters" and "Tourist Trapped") in the first place.

Cryptogram

 * During the end credits of this episode, there was a cryptogram that reads "MLG S.T. DVOOH ZKKILEVW." Once decoded, it reads "NOT H.G. WELLS APPROVED.".

Trivia

 * Viewership: This episode was watched by 4.14 million viewers, making it the second most watched premiere, just behind Double Dipper.
 * In this episode Mabel is wearing a flower on her head instead of her headband, and is wearing pink sneakers instead of her usual black shoes with white socks.
 * When Dipper first uses the Time Machine, he goes back six hours, however, later, in the other attempts, he goes back five hours.
 * Dipper and Wendy go thru the Tunnel of Love (and Corndogs) three times, but there is no actual term spoken that they are dating or in a relationship.
 * When Mabel and Dipper go back in time over 100 years, Dipper says "When are we?" which is a reference to many time traveling senarios.
 * In this episode, one of the settlers on America says "By Trembley!". This is a refernece to Quentin Trembley, the eighth 1/2 president of the United States, discovered in the episode "Irrational Tresure".