"Not What He Seems"[1] is the 11th episode of the second season of Gravity Falls and the 31st episode overall, serving also as the mid-season finale of Season 2.[4] It premiered on March 9, 2015 on Disney XD.
After agents Powers and Trigger take Stan into custody, Dipper and Mabel begin to wonder how much they actually know about their Grunkle Stan.[1]
Synopsis[]
The episode opens with Stan working on the machine. He rigs up some drums with toxic chemicals, as he exclaims on how he does not care how dangerous it is. He sets off a timer and syncs it up with another one on his wrist. As he looks in Journal 1, he learns that a side effect of the machine is temporary gravity anomalies.
Stan is arrested.
The next day Mabel wakes Dipper up to show him a closet full of fireworks, and Stan invites them to set them off on the roof. While the twins are playing around, Stan attempts to tell them his secret but fails. As he resolves to tell them the truth later that day, a heavily armored operator proceeds to tackle him, and Agent Trigger comes up behind him to signal the rest of the tactical team to secure the Mystery Shack. Worried and perplexed, Dipper and Mabel inquire what is happening, before they notice Agent Powers and Trigger, whom Dipper thought had been eaten by zombies. The agents tell the children that an unknown person stole toxic chemicals the night before, and they suspect the culprit to be Stan. They then proceed to put Stan in their car, sending him away to be interrogated. They also take Dipper and Mabel and inform them that they will be going to child services.
Stan escapes custody.
Dipper and Mabel decide to clear Stan's name by finding the security tapes from the night before. They force Trigger's car off the road, break out, and head back to the shack. The agents try to interrogate Stan, but Stan insists on using his one phone call. Stan uses it to talk to Soos through the walkie-talkie in his car, telling him to guard the vending machine with his life. Dipper and Mabel return to the Mystery Shack, and after Dipper nixes Mabel's aggressive initial plan to attack the security forces guarding the front entrance, use Mabel's grappling hook to sneak into the attic. They find the security tapes in Stan's office and review the footage. They are able to find video surveillance of Stan restocking the shelves. Seemingly proven innocent, they start to celebrate, when the tape shows Stan suddenly leave the shack. They fast forward the footage to see that several hours later, Stan, in full hazmat gear, is the one that stole the chemicals.
"WHAT?! Stan Pines Dead?" -Dipper
After realizing the truth, they find a hidden box in the office full of fake IDs and passports, as well as a newspaper clipping with a headline saying "Stan Pines Dead." Another clipping has a picture of Stan with a caption identifying him as an unnamed grifter. Mabel and Dipper, now totally unsure if Stan is really who they think he is, find a paper with the combination to the vending machine door inside the box. Meanwhile, Stan manages to escape the agents by taking advantage of a gravity anomaly being generated by the machine. After exiting the building, Stan misleads the agents hot in his pursuit by using the cash stolen from an agent's wallet to pay a taxi cab driver to act as a diversion and drive his cab as far away as possible from the Mystery Shack.
When government forces pull out of the Shack to assist in the search for Stan, the way to the vending machine is now clear. The twins head down to punch in the code, when they are stopped by Soos, who has been ordered by Stan to guard the vending machine with his life. After a brief struggle, Dipper finally manages to input the code, revealing the secret bunker under the Shack. Inside Mabel, Dipper, and Soos find Stan's secret lab. Upon discovering the other two journals, Dipper is enraged at the fact that Stan has been hiding them and lying to them all summer. He puts the books together to form the blueprints of the machine. He uses his black light to reveal a hidden message by the author. They find out that, if the machine is activated, the entire universe could be destroyed. Dipper then finds out how to engage the manual override.
Mabel doesn't know what to believe.
Right when they're about to hit the override button, Stan shows up begging them not to push it and says that he will explain. Dipper refuses to believe him, and then another gravity anomaly occurs, lifting everyone up into the air. Mabel makes it to the shutdown button, with Dipper telling her not to trust Stan and push it. Stan begs Mabel to trust him and attempts to approach her only to be restrained by Dipper and Soos. After another fluctuation pins them against a wall, Stan begs her again to not press the button, asking her if she really believes he's a bad guy. MabeI cries at the decision she has to make. Finally, Mabel tearfully decides to trust him and lets herself float away from the override, much to Dipper's dismay.
The author revealed.
After the device activates, what seems like an explosion occurs as light engulfs the entire town. When the light fades, the anomaly shuts down, with everyone seemingly okay, including the main characters. With the portal still functioning amidst the wreckage of the lab, a mysterious hooded man with a rifle over his back walks out of the portal. He places his hand on the first journal, revealing that he is, in fact, the six-fingered man implied to be the author of the journals. Stan reveals that he is the author of the journals. The man then removes his hood to reveal he is also Stan's long lost brother, noticeably angry.
In the end credits, Stan and his brother are seen as children, quietly swinging on a swing set on Glass Shard Beach as the sun sets.
Stan attended Glass Shard Beach Elementary and Glass Shard Beach High.
Soos wishes to be legally adopted by Stan and change his name to "Stan Junior."
Every fingerprint on Stan's right hand is a double loop whorl.
Stan has a twin brother, who happens to be the author of the journals.
Series continuity[]
The title of the episode is an allusion to the cryptogram at the end of the opening sequence which states, "Stan is not what he seems."
This episode takes place a few hours after the events of the previous episode. The laptop timer for the end of the world reads 21 1/2 hours at the end of that episode, and the cold open for this episode switched the timer to 18 hours.
Numerous prior episodes have alluded to the events of this episode and the existence and importance of Stan's brother.
In "Headhunters," Stan's mourning of the decapitation of his wax doppelganger was alluding to the disappearance of his brother.[4] He was also initially shocked when he first saw the wax figure.
During "The Time Traveler's Pig," Blendin Blandin's time watch (which Dipper and Mabel stole earlier) suddenly malfunctions from continuous overuse, and sends them back in time near the Mystery Shack (then just a normal shack) in the winter, before disappearing with a flash. The author sticks his head out of the door and looks out curiously before going back in the house.[5]
In "Carpet Diem," Stan takes a lone pair of glasses, without anyone else's notice, from the hidden room and cleans the lenses with a melancholy air later when he's alone.[4]
In the end credits of the episode, Stan and his brother are on the same set of swings near the sea as the broken swings in Stan's Dreamscape and Blendin's suit malfunction.
In "Dreamscaperers," a young Ford can be seen in the background of Stan's memory at boxing school, wearing boxing gloves and hiding his face behind a book.[5]
"Into the Bunker" reveals that the author predicted a catastrophic event and prepared enough supplies to last him several decades.
In "Sock Opera," Bill tells Mabel, "I mean, who would sacrifice everything they've worked for just for their dumb sibling?" which is what Stan does (the sacrifice being possibly the world, based on Ford's warning of what's on the other side of the Universe Portal) for his sibling, Ford.
The nuclear waste used to power the Universe portal from "Society of the Blind Eye" is mentioned to have been stolen by Stan.
Stan continues to sport the bandaged wound he first acquired in "Society of the Blind Eye," which was consecutively seen in "Blendin's Game" and "The Love God."
Agent Powers and Trigger's survival of the zombie attack in "Scary-oke" is mentioned.
Dipper's birthmark is seen again.
Old Man McGucket's raccoon wife is likely the raccoon that McGucket mentioned he kissed accidentally in his "weird, personal story" in "Land Before Swine."
The "Rock that looks like a face"-rock is seen again and argued about like in "Tourist Trapped."
Dipper mentions the Author's bunker from "Into the Bunker," and how similar the one under the shack is to that one.
In "Blendin's Game," Blendin steers his suit-watch, and two of the camouflages that appear are the Gravity Falls Police Station, and the beach seen during the ending credits.
The graffiti "McSuck It!" that Lee and Nate spray painted on Old Man McGucket's shack in "Society of the Blind Eye" can still be seen.
A scene similar to the one in the theme song is seen, in which Dipper and Mabel float off of their beds. A magic 8 ball can be seen in both the episode and the theme song.
On Agent Powers and Trigger's bulletin board is a report card, labelled "Fake?" and "Unlikely", with A+'s in every subject except Physical Education, which has a "D-" on it. This alludes to the report card belonging to Stan's brother.
The Author's notes about being betrayed about the pursuit of knowledge most likely alludes to the cryptogram in "Gideon Rises" which says "THE PORTAL WHEN COMPLETED WILL OPEN A GATEWAY TO INFINITE NEW WORLDS AND HERALD A NEW ERA IN MANKIND’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE UNIVERSE. PLUS, IT WILL PROBABLY GET GIRLS TO START TALKING TO ME FINALLY."
The final event of the episode alludes to the cryptogram in Into The Bunker which says "IMPROPER USE OF MACHINERY COULD LEAD TO UTTER CATASTROPHE."
The "Free Pizza" poster from "Headhunters" is seen on the agents' record of Stan.
When Stan is telling Dipper and Mabel to not shut off the portal, he uses the word "please," a lesson he learned in "Boss Mabel." (It's hinted that this was why Mabel willingly listened to Stan's request)
Trivia[]
Viewership: The episode received 2.1 million viewers on its premiere night, breaking that of "The Golf War" record as the most viewed Disney XD premiere.[2]
The theme song is once again shortened due to a longer episode length. The whisper at the end is also different. It says "Not What He Seems."
The countdown.
A countdown leading to this episode could be viewed at the fansite The Mystery of Gravity Falls, which was supported by Hirsch.[6]
However, due to the website's author not accounting Daylight Savings Time, the countdown was off by an hour.
After the countdown finished, it was replaced with the image from "Ker-Prank'd," a gag from this episode.
The working title of the episode in Storyboards was "Return of Stan," and had a Star Wars themed opening credits crawl.
A page in Journal 1 suggests that the giant fissures at the floating cliffs in Gravity Falls aren't naturally occurring. This is foreshadowing to "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future" where it was revealed that those fissures were made by a crashed alien's spacecraft.
According to the countdown for the portal, its anomaly pattern seems uncertain, but occurs at a time when the minute and/or second reaches zero, although not for all possible times.
As with the rest of the series, certain scenes are animated specifically in the United States, rather than overseas in Korea. The scene in which the author was revealed was animated by Dana Terrace, although the keyframes were done by Matt Braly.[7]
Alex Hirsch gave a copy of the script of this episode to the winner of a Gravity Falls Toys video contest. [8]
Alex Hirsch confirmed the identity of the author had been planned since the show was initially pitched to Disney.[4]
According to Alex Hirsch in Between the Pines, Mabel wears the sweater with a key on it because she is the key to unlocking the portal.
The original title of this episode was "Stan Returns," but it was changed because Hirsch thought that that title would give away the ending.[9]
In the UK, the TV guide mistakenly refers to this episode as "The Return of Stan."[10]In actuality, this was the name of the episode during its storyboard phase.
Alonso's thank you art for when he won an Emmy for his work on the episode
Alonso Ramirez Ramos won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation for his work on "Not What He Seems."[11]
This episode was nominated for two 2016 Annie Awards: one for Best Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Children’s Audience and one for Outstanding Achievement, Writing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production for Alex Hirsch, Shion Takeuchi, Josh Weinstein, Jeff Rowe, Matt Chapman. It lost to Wander Over Yonder for the episode "The Breakfast" in the former, and to Bob's Burgers for the episode "The Haunting" in the latter.[12]
The newspaper article headlined "STAN PINES DEAD" reads:
"The flaming wreckage of a wrecked car was found in a ditch 4 miles from Highway 618 at 6 a.m. Monday morning. The cut brakes and odd location of the car suggest that this was no accident. Says a rookie cop, "Mighty suspicious. Mighty suspicious."
In other news, leg warmers are all the rage this week and we predict this style will go on forever."
When Dipper reads Journal 3 for codes, the Caeser and Abtash codes which are used frequently in the cryptograms through the series are seen.
Alex Hirsch considers this episode the best of the series.[9]
The ending of the episode with the whole town being lifted off the ground was partially inspired by the ending of "FLCL".[9]
Originally, Dipper and Mabel were going to escape from the government agents by using the President's Key, but had to be changed to make the episode fit the time constraints.
This is the only episode to have an exact timeline of events in it down to the hour. In the cold open, the count down starts at eighteen hours for the portal to activate and the episode ends moments after the portal is activated.
When the portal's final countdown begins, Soos shouts "It's the final countdown! Just like they always sung about!" This is in reference to "The final Countdown" by the band Europe.
Cut Scenes[]
Revealed in the Complete Series Box Set, there were several cut/deleted scenes in this episode:
Stan has a poster in the shack next to a security camera which says "Big Uncle is Watching," which is a reference to "Big Brother is Watching," from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
According to Powers, the zombie ate the part of his brain which contained his sense of humor.
According to Mabel, Stan has let the twins drive his car on occasion.
Stan is patted down, during which a bunch of magician scarfs are pulled out of his sleeve, as well as cards and a dove.
Rather than using his phone call to call Soos, Stan instead uses a radio located in the interrogation room to contact him.
Rather than Manly Dan running them off the road, Dipper and Mabel are transported to a government owned historical learning institution, which is an abandoned one room schoolhouse (that predates insulation) where they are detained until Child Protective Services arrive. There are toys in the room which are at least a century or more old.
Triggers tries to get them to confess about what Stan is hiding but both refuse, saying they'd rather die (but also cause they genuinely don't know what Stan is hiding/don't believe he is).
Mabel ends up enjoying the toys, mainly the hoop and stick.
Stan being arrested ends up on the news, where details on his arrest are kept secret by the feds.
Dipper comes up with the idea to check the gift shop surveillance tapes after seeing a VCR and cassettes below the TV they were watching the news on.
The president's key Trembley gave Dipper is used to unlock the door of the schoolhouse so that the two of them can escape.
Triggers and another agent debate about if their agency had anything to do with the assassination of John F. Kennedy (concluding they weren't due to them being slow at issuing him a new ID and thus can't do anything right).
Dipper and Mabel subdue the two by dropping the schoolhouse's bell on them and tying them up using an American flag.
When confronted about Stan by the agents, Mabel originally was going to say, "But Grunkle Stan's not dangerous! He's a sweet old man who lets us blow up fireworks and sometimes drive his car and ... I'll stop talking now."
A cut scene was included which would involve Stan taking a lie detector test. After repeatedly lying, the lie detector would explode from not being able to handle so many lies.
Before telling Mabel that everything he was doing was for their family, Stan was to have said, "I wanted to say that until you twins showed up this summer, I didn't know if my stupid life was worth living."
The original reveal of Ford as the author would've seen Dipper already realize who he was by saying, "It can't be...The-the author of the journals??" to which Stan replies saying, "You're finally back."
Cryptograms[]
In the promotional video entitled "Gravity Falls Police Station Audio: Grunkle Stan Laments (Part 1 of 3), the cryptogram "PQXJIBV FP OBXI" can be seen. Decoded using the caesar cipher backwards (i.e. taking "PQXJIBV FP OBXI" as the decoded word, and the result as the cryptogram), it translates to "STAMLEY IS REAL."
In the cold open, a page in Journal 1 on the topic of floating cliffs has a symbol cipher that says, ".." Decoded using the authors symbol cipher to "MY COMPASS GOES HAYWIRE THE CLOSER I GET TO THEM. DOES THIS MEAN WHAT I THINK IT DOES? THE ANSWER MAY BE UNDERGROUND."
Key: STNLYMBL
The license plates on the government vehicles all read "JXYDPHQW." Using the caesar cipher, it translates to "GUVAMENT."
The end credit cryptogram reads "LAR ZPUHTFTY XWEUPJR GHGZT." When translated using the vigenère cipher, it reads "THE ORIGINAL MYSTERY TWINS.", referring to Stan and his brother.
Keyword: STNLYMBL, the license plate on Stan's car.
End page.
The page section revealed at the end of the episode says, "4-16-15-6-4-25 25-19-23-6-5 23-10-20 10-9-1 16-19'5 22-23-21-13." (left) and "4-16-19 11-25-5-4-19-6-25 15-10 4-16-19 11-25-5-4-19-6-25 5-16-23-21-13." (right). After using the combined cipher, it translates to "THIRTY YEARS AND NOW HE’S BACK. THE MYSTERY IN THE MYSTERY SHACK."
↑Hirsch, Alex (March 17, 2015). Tweet Number 577949737422209024. Retrieved on March 19, 2015. “Congrats to the WINNER of the #GFToys2015 contest, @AppStory95! Behold your prize script!”
↑Disney XD UK (May 1, 2015). Tweet Number 594177916478562306. Retrieved on May 1, 2015. “@Sonicyay4 Hey Jak! We can clear this up "He's Not What He Seems" will be here Thursday @ 5pm”
