Summer vacation just drew to an end for some, even in the middle of February. Last Monday, "Gravity Falls" aired its last episode, an hour-long intense emotional roller coaster of a final battle against the coming apocalypse. "Weirdmaggedon 3: Take Back The Falls" as the perfect, heartwarming and action-packed end to two seasons and one summer of weirdness. The world of "Gravity Falls," which started as such a quirky, sweet comedy, if surrounded by slightly off-putting imagery and creepy themes, has become a clever puzzle of suspense and dark mysteries. Yet, even as the tone of the show turned on its head, though, the show has never forgotten the foundation it finds in the importance of trust, love, and family, all of which was especially prominent in its final hour.
From this point on, this article will have major spoilers for the finale, so if you haven't seen it yet, go watch it and come back.
Of all the things "Gravity Falls" does well, it is, without a doubt, a master of climaxes. Just look back at the final moments of season one, where the show combines the answers to a season's worth of foreshadowing with a plethora of new questions, or the suspense that builds throughout the entirety of "Not What He Seems," as the show forces its audience to question everything they know to the last second. It uses color and animation, musicand detail to craft heart-racing moments filled with tension and emotion. And its final episode, as the climax of the entire show, did not disappoint.
The show's finale features its biggest moment yet, as the Pines' move forward with one final attempt to destroy Bill. Unsurprisingly, this scene is filled with secrets you may not have picked up on the first time around:
1. Clues about Stan and Ford's plan that even Bill missed are dropped moments before the climax.
Some people were eagle-eyed, able to pick out the character design differences between the two in the quick shots they were shown in together. Most, myself included, were not. Upon a second viewing, though, their switch is pretty easy to spot. Ford's iconic six-fingered hands and the cleft in his chin paired with the bumps on Stan's nose give them away. Don't feel too bad about missing it, though. An all-powerful mind demon from a separate dimension couldn't figure it out, either, even with that one, big eye.
2. Bill's last words can only be heard when played backward.
The moments before Stan defeats Bill are unbelievably satisfying. It only makes sense that the trickster could only be beaten by the main con-man himself. But before shattering and disappearing, Bill starts saying something that is a bit indecipherable at first. Fans know that if you hear something on this show that you can't fully understand, it's normally not just your hearing going bad. As Bill finds himself coming apart, his garbled final words can only be understood when played backward:
"(A-)X-O-L-O-T-L MY TIME HAS COME TO BURN. I INVOKE THE ANCIENT POWER THAT I MAY RETURN."
In the days since the episode premiered, there's been some debate over whether or not Bill is spelling "Xolotl" or "Axolotl." Not only is Xolotl the Aztec god of fire and lightning, but he is also the god of twins and monsters. Clearly, a very fitting "ancient power" for Bill to call on in his last moments. However, Alex Hirsch, the creator of "Gravity Falls," said that he would answer any "spoiler questions" during an AMA on Reddit a while back with a picture of an axolotl, as in the small creature Stan keeps in a tank near his armchair. The "A" may be part of the word he spells, or it might just be a part of the scream that is heard before he reaches for Stan. The axolotl is one of the spirit animal forms of Xolotl, though, so the difference between the two is not as distinct as it may seem at first glance.
3. Bill knew exactly what was coming for him in his final moments.
This show has always liked to tease us with flashes of images that allude to what is to come later on. Blendin Blandin's suit changes to a scene from the beach Stan and Ford grew up on in "Blendin's Game," and Bill's body changes to an image of Ford and the mark that would later cause Stan's "tattoo." Bill's body does this one last time as it begins to glitch, changing to this:
An image that is kind of hard to make out until you see this image, moments after Bill is defeated:
4. You may actually be able to find his body.
Not just in the cartoon. In real life. If you watched the finale on television, you might have turned it off during the credits as a new show began. If you stayed until the end, you would have caught a glimpse of this:
Bill, no longer animated, in the same position as he is in the show. When combined with the decoded message found on the bus as Dipper and Mabel go home - "Hidden deep within the woods a buried treasure awaits / Secrets lost and statues found beyond the rusty gates” - it starts to sound like this isn't just a quick gag to make you feel like the events you just witnessed are real. "The rusty gates" is too odd a detail for that, considering there are no rusty gates worth noting in the cartoon. Fans have already begun searching, checking tourist traps around Oregon like the Oregon Vortex and the Temple of Oculus Anubis. The show was able to turn its viewers into conspiracy theorists, and makes sure to take its final moments to make them into explorers, essentially making them into honorary members of the Pines family.
BONUS:
5. The episode features two very special guest stars.
"Gravity Falls" isn't the only odd town out there, as the show was extra aware of that when casting this episode. Cecil Baldwin, the narrator of the "Welcome To Night Vale" podcast, a series focusing on a small desert town filled with odd creatures and anomalies, made a return appearance in the episode as Tad Strange, the only normal person in all of Gravity Falls. He only has one line, but it is exciting to see the two towns collide for a moment. The episode also had a guest appearance by Kyle Maclachlan, otherwise known as Special Agent Dale Cooper from "Twin Peaks," a show that has been an influence on "Gravity Falls" since the beginning. He voices the bus driver who takes Dipper and Mabel back to California.
It's all very fitting, to say the least. The voice of an inspiration for the show carrying the Pines twins to the end of their journey while they watch "Gravity Falls" flick past the bus windows, a nostalgic version of the cartoon's opening theme playing as Dipper opens the letter to find the words, "See you next summer!" ties the entire show together so cleanly that it's almost impossible to finish the episode without feeling 100% satisfied.
