Society of the Blind Eye

"Society of the Blind Eye" is the seventh episode in the second season of Gravity Falls, and the 27th episode overall. It premiered on October 27, 2014.

Official overview
Dipper, Mabel, Wendy, and Soos along with Old Man McGucket's help, discover there is a secret society in Gravity Falls.

Synopsis
Lazy Susan finishes up for the night at her workplace, Greasy's Diner. While walking home, she comes across Jeff and the other Gnomes as they steal a pie off a windowsill, and is understandably shocked. Before she can use a payphone to report the strange phenomenon she's just witnessed, robed men appear from nowhere and drag her away screaming into the night.

Back at the Mystery Shack, Dipper Pines is once again trying to discern the identity of the author of Journal 3. Mabel is more focused on a message she just received from her former crush and pen pal Mermando. However, she is devastated to learn that he is to be wed in an arranged marriage to the Queen of the Manatees. Disheartened, she reflects on how all of her summer crushes (Norman, Gideon Gleeful, Gabe Bensen) have ended in failure. Dipper empathizes with her in the fact that he's failed to find any solid clues, but the two then notice that the smahed laptop bears the insignia "McGucket Labs." It seems unlikely, but the duo conclude Old Man McGucket is the most likely writer of the journals.

Meanwhile, Wendy finds herself plagued by the latest summer chart-topper, "Straight Blanchin'" despite Soos' insitstance that it's a good song. Dipper and Mabel collect the two and they rush over to McGucket's junkyard to confront him with the evidence. He is confused by their assertions and argues that he's never done anything worthwhile in his life. He claims amnesia to everything before the year 1982, but as Dipper flips through pages in the journal he suddenly has memories of The Society of the Blind Eye. They conclude that McGucket learned something important and his mind was altered somehow by the cult.

The five of them head to Gravity Falls Museum of History, the earliest thing McGucket can remember, for some answers. They uncover a secret chamber and arrive just in time to see Lazy Susan having her mind erased of her memories of the gnomes by the Blind Eye Society. The ray gun used for the process stores the removed memory in a glass container which the is then sent to "The Hall of the Forgotten" via a pneumatic tube. Once the meeting adjourns, Dipper, Soos, and McGucket go in search of the memory cache in the Hall. They find it and realize that the society has been removing the whole town's memories everytime something supernatural occurs. Mabel and Wendy keep watch and discuss Mabel's romance troubles. Wendy tells her to put her worries out of her head which Mabel interprets as removing the memories using the device so she won't feel said anymore.

An alarm is triggered and the kids are caught. The society members reveal their identities and the reason for their organization. Because of Gravity Falls' higher-than-normal supernatural occurrences, the populace was tormented by exisential questions and disturbing possibilities. The Society formed to help the citizens forget the otherworldly phenomena using the memory-erasing device. Thus the townspeople live in a state of blissful ignorance, albeit with some minor side effects. The leader of the cult, Blind Ivan, then intends to use the gun on the children, but McGucket appears and rescues them. After a minor struggle between the groups, Ivan is in range to wipe everyone's memories. McGucket takes a full blast, but it has no effect on him as his mind was fried long ago. He headbutts Ivan, the heroes gain McGucket's memory canister and the ray gun, and tie up the members.

Dipper wipes the society members' minds of their organization and has everyone leaves believing that they spent the evening at the museums' "Gold Miner Appreciation Night." Mabel gives Ivan a new identity as a happy banjo troubadour. The five watch McGucket's memories and learn that he was a genius scientist. After collaborating with the Journals' author on cataloguing the mysterious nature of Gravity Falls, he voluntarily built the ray gun and wiped his own memories of the experience because of the disturbing nature of the project. Futher memories show that he created the Blind Eye Society and continued wiping his memories for every conceivable incident rather than face his experiences. The process drove him to become the "local kook" he is today.

Mabel apologizes for McGucket having to face what he learned, but he states that he's happy to have regained the memories of his past, even if they were painful, so that he can continue on with his future. Wendy asks whether Mabel really wants to erase her memories of her crushes. Mabel follows McGucket's example and posits that it's better to hold onto her experiences and learn from them than to deny them. Dipper questions whether McGucket can remember who the author he worked with is. McGucket postulates that the memories will return eventually, but for now, they're too blurry. Meanwhile Grunkle Stan continues to work in secret on the enigmatic machine beneath the Mystery Shack.

Credits

 * Written by:
 * Matt Chapman
 * Alex Hirsch
 * Directed by:
 * Sunil Hall
 * Storyboards by:
 * Sabrina Cotugno
 * Sunil Hall
 * Chris Houghton
 * Luke Weber
 * Vaughn Tada


 * With the Voice Talents of:
 * Kristen Schaal as Mabel Pines
 * Jason Ritter as Dipper Pines
 * Alex Hirsch as Stan Pines, Soos and Old Man McGucket
 * Jennifer Coolidge as Lazy Susan
 * T.J. Miller as Robbie
 * Linda Cardellini as Wendy
 * Stephen Root as Bud Gleeful
 * Peter Serafinowicz as Blind Ivan
 * Additional Voices:
 * Dee Bradley Baker
 * Matt Chapman
 * Jennifer Coolidge
 * Alex Hirsch - Jeff
 * T.J. Miller
 * Michael Rianda
 * Kevin Michael Richardson

Character revelations

 * The Blind Eye Society erase the memories of those bearing witness to the supernatural.
 * Lazy Susan's full name is Susan Wentworth.
 * Soos always thought Mabel's name was "Maple."
 * Wendy is in actuality incredibly stressed for her family's condition.
 * Dipper often uses large words he doesn't understand.
 * McGucket worked as a research assistant to the author of the journals.
 * Blind Ivan, Bud Gleeful, Toby Determined, Skull Fracture bouncer, Sprott and the Woodpecker's husband are all part of the Blind Eye Society. Old Man McGucket was also the founding member.
 * McGucket's middle name is "Hadron."
 * Robbie was once taken by the Blind Eye Society to erase his memories of Rumble McSkirmish.
 * Blind Ivan has a misspelled tattoo on his head, "REELEX".
 * People who have had their memories erased include:
 * Mrs Gleeful
 * Pacifica
 * Robbie V
 * Lazy Susan
 * Old Man McGucket (on a shelf by the altar)
 * Preston Northwest (on a shelf by the altar)
 * Jefrey Cannock (on a shelf by the altar)

Series continuity

 * The cryptograms at the ends of "Gideon Rises" and the Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained shorts reference the society.
 * The society's symbol, a crossed-out eye, appears in graffiti in, "The Golf War" and "Soos and the Real Girl."
 * Several of Mabel's love interests appear in photographs, including:
 * Norman from "Tourist Trapped."
 * Gideon Gleeful from "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel."
 * Sev'ral Timez from "Boyz Crazy."
 * Gabe Bensen from "Sock Opera."
 * Soos' license plate, "FIXINIT1," is a reference to his self-produced series of shorts and computer password in "Soos and the Real Girl."
 * Dipper mentions the destruction of the laptop in "Sock Opera."
 * Mabel gets a message from Mermando pertaining to their relationship in "The Deep End."
 * Robbie mentions the events of "Fight Fighters."
 * Agent Powers and Agent Trigger can be seen when Wendy is throwing the disk out the window of Soos's truck.

Cryptograms

 * The 3|Journal 3 entry on The Blind Eye has a symbol cipher that reads, "IF MY SUSPICIONS ARE CORRECT, THIS IS THE WORK OF FIDDLEFORD. DOES HE REALLY HAVE TO GO TO SUCH GREAT LENGTHS TO FORGET?"
 * At the end of Old Man McGucket's memories, he says "YROO XRKSVI! GIRZMTOV", and forms a triangle over his eye with his fingers. He is actually speaking in Atbash, and when translated he says "BILL CIPHER! TRIANGLE", hinting that Bill Cipher may have had something to do with McGucket's past.
 * During the ending credits, there is a cryptogram that reads "MXNGVEECW MW SLAWW. SUL FPZSK MW SOJMRX." Using the vigenère cipher, it translates to "IGNORANCE IS BLISS. BUT BLISS IS BORING."
 * Keyword:ERASE
 * The page section revealed at the end of the episode says, "17-15-20-19-9-10'5 4-23-10-4-6-3-11-5, '11-15-5-5-8-19-12-12-19-20, 4-23-4-4-9-9-5," on the top left, "23 18-19-23-6 9-18 1-15-4-21-16-19-5, 23 12-15-18-19 9-18 6-19-17-6-19-4," on the top right, "5-16-23-10-20-6-23'5 6-19-14-19-21-4-15-9-10-5, 5-9-21-15-19-4-25'5 2-15-19-1-5," on the bottom left, and "4-16-19-5-19 23-6-19 18-9-6-17-19-4" on the bottom right. After being put through all of the ciphers, it translates to "GIDEON'S TANTRUMS, MISSPELLED TATTOOS, SHANDRA'S REJECTIONS, SOCIETY'S VIEWS, A FEAR OF WITCHES, A LIFE OF REGRET, THESE ARE THE THINGS THAT THEY TRY TO FORGET. 

Trivia
.
 * During the end credits, Stan's coffee cup and notebook get sucked into the universe portal in the basement of the Mystery Shack. They can be found hidden in the Adult Swim animated show Rick and Morty during the episode "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind", which aired April 7, 2014. Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland voices Blendin Blandin in Gravity Falls.

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