"Gravity Falls" is a Disney Channel cartoon created by Alex Hirsch. The series is known for its unique and entertaining sense of humor, as well as its deep storytelling and intriguing mystery elements. Beginning on June 15, 2012, the series now draws to a close with the finale airing today, Feb. 15, 2016. With the end of such a fantastic ride, here is the story so far.

The show begins with twins, Dipper and Mabel Pines, visiting their great uncle Stan for the summer. Dipper quickly finds a mysterious journal that speaks of wild and paranormal secrets of Gravity Falls. The first few episodes depict the twins exploring the town and the oddities that occur there. They encounter a lake monster, living wax statues and a child psychic with strange powers. At this point, the show is fairly light-hearted, focusing on adventure and the excitement of the unknown. The journal provides the characters with a frame of reference, giving them a leg up against their opposition. The initial episode implies that there is more to Stan than is seen and the child psychic Gideon is a recurring rival.

The episodes continue their relative light-heartedness, with creatures such as ghosts, minotaurs, a time traveler and an arcade game come to life making an appearance. The arcade-themed episode, in particular, has some fantastic humor and allusions. References to Donkey Kong, Street Fighter, Pac-Man and even those poorly-dubbed Japanese movies everyone knows about but haven’t actually seen. Jokes about idle animations and other somewhat unrealistic video game elements highlight the amount of care put into the humor in the show to keep it entertaining to a broad audience, but not slide into the grating, obnoxious humor that many other shows have.

The first season concludes with the introduction of the series’ main antagonist, Bill Cipher. Bill is introduced in the second to last episode, which has the most serious tone of later episodes. The final episode of the first season features Gideon and does a fantastic job of showing the audience how much they have grown to care about the characters, as well as how much the relationships between Dipper, Mable and Stan have progressed.

The second season takes the mystery and runs with it; many more plot elements are given focus and loose ends are tied up. Early on in the season, Dipper and Mabel find a hideout belonging to the enigmatic author of the journal. The author is not present, but he is given a bit more depth. There are still light-hearted, “for fun” episodes, but as the season progresses, darker themes emerge — stories dealing with a secret society of mind-erasers, a full-blown demonic spirit, the mid-season cliffhanger revealing Stan’s secrets and the author himself all captivate the audience and build up the wonderful atmosphere of the world.

The last run of episodes, with the author joining the cast of main characters, wastes no time laying the groundwork for the three-part series finale. With a captivating lead-in episode, the finale begins with the apocalypse raining down and Bill returning at its front. The humor doesn’t stop and neither do the shenanigans; Alex Hirsch has done an absolutely fantastic job creating an enticing world, lovable characters, and an all-together brilliant TV show. The end is nigh, but it is rare for such a show to have a definite arc to it; not running on into mediocrity.