When Gravity Falls came out in 2012, what seemed at first just a nostalgia-inducing yet goofy show about twins having to stay with their great-uncle (or grunkle) in the woods became much more than just that. It became a show boasting one of the most complex plots ever to come from Disney XD, with twist after twist adding up to show why the city of Gravity Falls was just so weird.
Even just one rewatch can show how showrunner Alex Hirsch had been planting clues to help savvy viewers solve the plot themselves—or just to have some fun—throughout the show’s entire run. Here are ten hidden clues and referencesthat will blow your mind and show you just how smartly set up the series is when you re-watch Gravity Falls. And in case it wasn’t clear, below there be spoilers.
1. The ‘Stan o’ War’
While this is a smaller clue, in the second episode of the series,“The Legend of the Gobblewonker,” Stan has the twins board a wrecked old fishing boat named Stan o’ War. While viewers probably paid no attention to this at first, we actually see a different Stan o’ War again in the season two episode “Tale of Two Stans.” The Stanford/Stanley origin episode shows the twins fixing up an abandoned boat and giving it the same name while making plans to go on adventures in it. It’s no wonder why Stan wants to desperately go on a fishing trip with the kids when he never got a chance to with his brother.
2. Blendin Was Here
As we saw in our introduction to Blendin Blandin in “Time Traveler’s Pig,” the recurring character with the crazy voice can travel anywhere in time. This is something he does frequently, which eventually leads to his arrest at the end of this episode for breaking the Time Traveling Code of Conduct. The thing is, Blendin can be seen throughout the entire series, even before the audience meets him. For instance, he’s shown in the background of three episodes before his introduction in “Time Traveler’s Pig”: as part of the audience in “Headhunters”; watching Old Man McGucket in “The Legend of the Gobblewonker”; and hiding in the bushes in the show’s very first episode, “Tourist Trapped”. You can also see the words “Blendin Was Here” written on the wall Stan breaks to find the Stan O’War in a “Tale of Two Stans.” From the looks of it, that seems pretty accurate.
3. Lots of ‘Rick and Morty’ Easter Eggs
s/o to Mabel and Dipper!
Alex Hirsch and Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland are good friends in real life—which explains why both those cartoons have made references to the other. Examples of this include the Rick and Morty episode “Morty’s Mind Blowers” where one of the stored memories in Rick’s room are labeled “Stanford” and “Bill C.” Another is an image of Bill Cipher, which appears on the computer monitor in the episode “Big Trouble in Little Sanchez,” and Stan’s mug, notepad, and pen—which were sucked into a portal in the Gravity Falls episode “Society of the Blind Eye”—coming out of a dimensional portal in the show in “Close Encounters of the Rick Kind.”
This, naturally, invites a question: Does Gravity Falls exist in the same universe as Rick and Morty? Well, it’s not confirmed. But according to Justin Roiland, due to infinite realities, “Everything is canon.” Take that for what you will.
@CurveTheChicken they're canon in a self contained alternate reality. Infinite realities. Everything is canon.
4. Cryptograms
One thing that makes Gravity Falls more enjoyable is that, unlike when watching any other show, you have to do a bit of investigating to get the full experience. Throughout its run, the show added in cryptograms and other mysteries that gave viewers a more interactive experience.
What are cryptograms? Well, have you ever seen the word symbols or lettering at the end of each episodes? Those symbols are actually messages that either make for some really good trivia or foreshadow something that’s going to happen later in the show.
For example, the code above, featured in the season two episode “Not What He Seems,” is positioned underneath a shot of the younger Stanley and Stanford Pines, and says “The Original Mystery Twins.” Another is the ending cryptogram in “Boyz Crazy,” which are the numbers “ 8–1–16–16–25 14–15–23, 1–18–9–5–12?,” which mean, “Happy now, Ariel?” This is a reference to Hirsch making an episode featuring his twin sister’s childhood obsession, NSYNC’s Lance Bass, as the voice of all five members of the pop band Sev’ral Timez .(According to a Tumblr post she has since deleted, she was, indeed, happy).
5. The Opening Itself
While at first the opening of “Gravity Falls” seems to just be a cute introduction with a catchy theme, it turns out it’s filled with foreshadowing.
Going back to cryptograms, the one featured in the opening theme says “Stan is not what he seems.” This is a recurring theme in the show, as Stan is shown to be hiding something already in the very first episode, when he walks into a secret room. Not to mention that the opening sequence’s Polaroids feature all the villains the twins meet in the show, including the hand witch, gnomes, the Summerween monster, Gideon, and once again Blendin Blandin. (Alex Hirsch makes an appearance behind the witch’s hand—not that he’s a villain, but the show’s numerous tearjerkers do make you wonder.)
Then there’s the quick scene in the intro in which Dipper, Mabel, and the other objects in their room begin to float, as if gravity—get it?—has been suspended. That’s exactly what happens in the episode “Not What He Seems,” so this bit of the intro is, in fact, nodding to the show’s continuity.
There’s actually one more important cryptogram that appears in the opening theme—or, in this case, instructions on how to solve them. At the end of the theme a whisper can be heard, which fans decoded (by playing it backwards) to find a way to understand the cryptograms. There are three different whispers in the first season—and other in the second—with the first whisper saying “three letters back,” the second saying “switch A to Z,” and the last saying “26 letters.” It’s pretty eerie, but it shows Alex Hirsch’s attention to detail—and clues his sharpest fans into some of the show’s secrets.
6. The Zodiac
While the opening is filled with so much symbolism that an entire story can be written about it, one more important thing to note is the zodiac that flashes briefly on the screen at the end. I may, at first, feel like just some creepy, one-second shot, it makes a comeback in the finale come Weirdmaggedon, when Ford reveals the symbol as a way to defeat Bill.
If you were to to really look at the Zodiac prior to the episode, however, you would immediately see the connection all of the characters had to one another. For example, the question mark on the Zodiac clearly represents Soos, who is always wearing a question mark shirt, and occasionally sports a question mark costume while working at the Mystery Shack. The llama and shooting stars are both designs stitched to sweaters Mabel has worn, while the pine tree represents the Pines twins and the hat that Dipper wears. The symbol on Stan’s hat’s appears as well, as does Robbie’s broken heart hoodie icon. From the beginning, the show was telling us that these characters had a special bond to one another—a bond that would later save them from the monster bent on ruining their lives.
7. Agent Trigger and Agent Powers
Similar to Blendin Blandin, we’re first introduced to Agent Powers and Agent Trigger in a later episode, in this case the season two entry “Scary-oke.” The two agents make it clear they’re also interested in investigating the mysterious activity in Gravity Falls—which becomes pretty clear once their presence is known, since you can actually see them hidden in the background wherever the twins are throughout much of the show. They’re hiding behind playbills during Mabel’s show in “Sock Opera.” They’re taking a walk at the mall in “Soos and the Real Girl.” They’re behind Soos’s car in “Society of the Blind Eye.” They’re at the music festival in “Love God” (with a guest appearance by two members from Sev’ral Timez). They’re…everywhere.
8. A Serious ‘Twin Peaks’ Influence
Spoiler alert for Twin Peaks.
If you’re a fan of both Twin Peaks and Gravity Falls, it’s not hard to see the similarities between the two. From the red room in the restaurant Gideon takes Mabel to on their date to the close resemblance Tad Strange bears to FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, the inspiration is clear. (Not to mention that all of the references to Stan being “not what he seems” form one big Twin Peaks reference.)
At the same time, there are a lot of plot similarities between Agent Cooper’s odyssey and that of the Pines twins. Like Cooper, the twins have to deal with a possessive dark entity who wants to control the world. Both Cooper and Dipper Pines hold the same dangerous curiosity about the town they have found themselves in—and it usually leads both of them into trouble. Who knows—if Twin Peaks ever gets an animated adaption, maybe there’ll be a crossover.
9. Bills Everywhere
Just like the agents and Blendin, Bill Cipher, the main antagonist of Gravity Falls, is hiding in plain sight all over the place throughout the series. One particularly spooky instance of Bill’s presence comes when he appears as a reflection coming from the red stained glass window in the attic of the Mystery Shack while Dipper is reading the journal. He also appears on the back of a playing card in “Irrational Treasure.”
This is far before we’re made aware of his villainy, and even once we are, he continues to make appearances in season two in a similar fashion. Appropriately, one of the whispers in the opening sequence is changed during the Weirdmageddon arc to Bill saying “I’m watching you nerds.”(Fun fact: once the series ended, Alex Hirsch invited fans to participate in a scavenger hunt to find an actual statue of Bill Cipher that was located in Oregon.)
CipherHunt
10. Number 618
Lastly, the number 618 is another recurring background feature seen throughout the series. The show’s main production code is G618; Stan’s prisoner number in “Not What He Seems” is #061800, the Mystery Shack is located at 618 Gopher Road, and the introduction page in Journal 3 is dated June 18 (6/18). Even during the special “Old Man” McGucket’s Conspiracy Corner Marathon run, the segment titled “6–18” has him talking about a recurring number that’s been haunting his dreams, that it comes from a “creature from another dimension,” and that all the characters in the show are “just drawings on a page.”
The importance of these three numbers? They’re the birthdate of Alex Hirsch and his twin, Ariel—whose summers with their own great-aunt (or graunty) Lois in her cabin in the woods inspired the show.
What else could we expect?
Do you have a hidden clue that wasn’t mentioned on this link? Let us know what clues you caught on in the comments.
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