Dreamscaperers

"Dreamscaperers" is the 19th episode in Season 1 of Gravity Falls. It is the first part of a two-part season finale.

Overview
Dipper, Mabel and Soos must travel through Grunkle Stan’s mind to defeat a tricky dream demon summoned by Lil Gideon.

Synopsis
As it rains, Dipper and Mabel play a game in the attic to pass the time, and Stan calls them down to make fun of Gideon's latest commercial with him. The gang proceed to recall their past experiences and dislike of him and pay closest attention to his frequent plots to take over the Mystery Shack, and immediately after doing so hear Gideon break in and try to unlock Stan's safe. They confront Gideon, who initially does not take Stan seriously, but ultimately flees when Stan hits him with a broom. Stan checks on the deed and teases Gideon more, and Gideon plots to release a secret weapon to get into Stan's mind.

Later, as Wendy and the Pines are watching a western movie, Mabel suggests they switch films to Dream Boy High, which the others refuse to watch. Terrified by a bat in the kitchen, Soos rushes into the living room, and Stan sends a reluctant Dipper to take care of the issue; he ends up frightened and hurt. Afterwards, Mabel and Soos tend to his injuries while Dipper complains about always having to do the hardest chores. Soos replies that Stan's personality one of "life's great mysteries," and he decides to investigate another of such: whether or not it is possible to lick one's own elbow. Stan shortly after calls Dipper to fix the clogged sink, which angers his nephew even more.

Meanwhile, Gideon performs a ritual to summon the dream demon Bill Cipher, who engages in various antics before making a deal with Gideon: he will invade Stan's mind, and Gideon is to help Bill with a project of his own. Mabel and Soos, who have witnessed the entire occurrence while hiding behind a bush, rush back to the Shack to tell Dipper, in the process of sweeping while his uncle sleeps, what they saw. Dipper consults 3 and reads of the dangers of Bill, and watches the demon descend upon Stan's mind. After learning that they can prevent Bill's chaos by traveling into Stan's head themselves, they prepare and recite the necessary incantation.

Inside Stan's brain, the gang explore a bit and meet Bill, who is expecting them. Mabel tries to tackle him but instead goes into and right back out of the mysterious creature, who expresses issues a warning and his extreme doubt, because of his power. Mabel remains skeptical that he can figure out what she is thinking of, but is overjoyed when he brings her boy fantasy to life, and Bill shoots Dipper with a laser before entering the Shack in Stan's head in search of his sought out memory. After a bit of goofing around, the gang ventures into the psychological Shack to search through Stan's memories, which include time in Colombian jail, being a door-to-door vacuum salesman, his disastrous date with Lazy Susan, and more. While Dipper sneaks a peek at Stan's memories of him to find Stan's apparently disappointing, true feelings about him, the others--including Bill disguised as Soos--look for and find the proper door.

Bill reveals his true form, teases Mabel and Soos, and runs off with the memory, and when Dipper arrives shortly after, he express rage about Stan hating him. Dipper refuses to offer further help, and the others go to confront Bill without him. As Bill is about to give Gideon the code, Mabel shoots the memory of the code out off Bill's hand and into the bottomless pit. This sends Bill into a fit of extreme anger, in which he establishes an arena to face Mabel, Soos, and Mabel's dream boys with his weapon of choice: nightmares. Meanwhile, as Dipper searches for an exit, he comes across the memory of Stan expressing his actual feelings toward Dipper, and after watching the rest of the memory, learns that Stan is only hard on him to prepare him to face the world. However, he is sucked into the memory, and the Stan within the recollection makes him away of the ability to do whatever he wants within the mind.

Dipper then realizes that he must stop Bill and rushes off. As the demon is torturing Mabel and Soos with their nightmares (a British dog man for Soos, and making Mabel ugly) and prepares to finish them off once and for all, Dipper arrives with the news of being able to make dreams reality and demonstrates the ability to his comrades via laser vision. Mabel decides to give herself the ability to shoot kitten heads from her arms, Soos utilizes a question mark beam from his stomach, and so forth. Just as Soos, the twins, and Mabel's dream boys are about to send Bill out of Stan's head, he stops them, warns them of an approaching evil, and leaves. Stan wakes up and thereby forces Soos and the twins out of his head. They are relieved to have been rid of Bill, but their relief is cut short as Gideon reveals that he used dynamite to obtain the deed to the Shack and forces the "trespassers" out as he has Bud destroy the building. The credits convey the message of "to be continued."

Credits

 * Written by:
 * Tim McKeon
 * Matt Chapman
 * Alex Hirsch
 * Directed by:
 * Joe Pitt
 * John Aoshima
 * Storyboards by:
 * Matt Braly
 * David Gemmill
 * With the Voice Talents of:
 * Kristen Schaal - Mabel Pines
 * Jason Ritter - Dipper Pines
 * Alex Hirsch - Grunkle Stan, Soos and Bill Cipher
 * Linda Cardellini - Wendy
 * Greg Cipes - Craz
 * John Roberts - Xyler
 * Jennifer Coolidge - Lazy Susan
 * Thurop Van Orman - 'Lil Gideon


 * Additional Voices:
 * Stuart Allen
 * Grey DeLisle - Carla McCorkle
 * Alex Hirsch
 * Kevin Michael Richardson
 * Stephen Root - Bud Gleeful

Production notes

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

Character Revelations

 * Stan knows how to box.
 * Stan hides his arrest warrants under the carpet in the Gift Shop.
 * Stan "was the biggest wimp" on his school playground when he was younger.
 * One of Mabel's nightmares is losing her cuteness.

Series continuity

 * Mabel mentions her date with Gideon, referencing "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel."
 * The "Explosion/Muffin" that Robbie spray painted on the water tower appears again.
 * The 80's style boys from Mabel's fantasy in "The Legend of the Gobblewonker" become actual characters.
 * Mabel's dream of having a human sized hamster ball from "The Legend of the Gobblewonker" is practically realized.
 * The cloning copy machine appears in Stan's office again.
 * Memories of Stan include clips from "The Inconveniencing", "Double Dipper", "Irrational Treasure", "The Time Traveler's Pig", "The Legend of the Gobblewonker", "Boss Mabel", and "Land Before Swine."
 * We glimpse a scene of Stan's time in a Colombian prison as mentioned in "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel."
 * We get a glimpse of Stan's date with Lazy Susan that was mentioned in "Dipper vs. Manliness."
 * We see the beginning of Stan's relationship with Carla McCorckle.
 * Stan's secret behind the vending machine is shown again for the first time since "Tourist Trapped".
 * Bill knows "lots of things" related to famous conspiricies. Among those that flashed across his body was Nathanial Northwest's statue and the cave room where the Northwest cover-up was located in.
 * Also a closeup of the stamp from the opening sequence's title card.

Trivia

 * Before going into the kitchen to fight the bat, Dipper picks up a saucepan and a spoon which are nicknames of the constellation, the Big Dipper.
 * The spell Gideon used to summon Bill is "Triangulum, entangulum. Veneforis dominus ventium. Veneforis venetisarium." Which roughly translated in Latin is "Triangle — I invoke you. I come to the defensive barrier of the mind. I will see the barrier destroyed."
 * When Gideon falls to his knees and his eyes glow blue he shouts something intelligible. When played backwards you can hear he's actually saying, "Backwards message! Backwards message! Backwards message!"
 * While remembering Stan, Bill flashes an image that matches Stan's tattoo.
 * On Bill's page in 3|book 3 the words "ATBASH", "CAESAR", "A1Z26" are crossed off. The former two are the names of ciphers used throughout the show and the last is referencing the Gematria cipher which is also used in the show.
 * Bill refers to Dipper, Mabel, and Soos as 'the pine tree', 'the shooting star' and 'the question mark', which are symbols surrounding his image on his page in 2|book 2.
 * When Gideon is reading about Bill, before summoning him, 816 is written three times right beside the main image on the first page. Reversed, this is 618.
 * In Stan's mindscape, the moon looks like his 8-ball cain.

Cryptograms

 * Stan's mindspace version of the Mystery Shack had "PBVWHUB VKDFN" over the main entrance, which is Caesar cipher for "MYSTERY SHACK."
 * During the end credits of this episode, there is a cryptogram that reads "20-15 2-5 3-15-14-20-9-14-21-5-4 ..." Once decoded, it reads "TO BE CONTINUED..."