September 29, 2023

Gabbing Geek

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Gravity Falls “Summerween”

Season One, Episode Twelve.

It seems the people of Gravity Falls love Halloween so much, they celebrate it twice a year.

In the summer, there’s Summerween where they carve out jack o’melons from watermelons and go trick or treating.

And, since this is Gravity Falls, there’s something evil involved.

See, as Soos explains, anyone not showing the Summerween spirit can be tracked down and taken down by the Summerween Trickster.  Now, Mabel loves trick or treating, and normally she and Dipper do dual costumes and make out like bandits.  And with her two friends Candy and Grenda along, what could go wrong?

Plenty since Dipper hears Wendy (and, by extension, Robbie) are going to a party instead of trick or treating, so he’d rather impress her than anything else.  It doesn’t help that Grunkle Stan got cheap knock-off candy to hand out at the Mystery Shack.  No one really wants a Mr. Adequate-Bar.  Dipper thumbing his nose at Mabel’s plans and Stan’s candy gets the Trickster’s attention.  At first, Dipper and the girls refuse to believe the Trickster is real.  Then it eats a little boy in a pirate costume.

They have a choice:  acquire 500 pieces of candy for the Trickster, or he’ll eat them too.  They have until the last jack o’melon goes out.With Soos’ help, and eventually getting Dipper into a costume (a jar of peanut butter to Mabel’s strawberry jam), the kids succeed with time enough to spare for Dipper to get to the party.

Then Wendy and Robbie drive by and Dipper hides his costume and the candy in some bushes until they leave.  Bad news:  the candy went into the river.  No time left, the Trickster comes back and is morphing all over the place.  There was a slim respite when Soos ran it over with his truck before it could eat anybody, but the creature soon reformed.  Hiding in the Summerween shop, with Dipper and Mabel having their standard small argument and reconciliation over the whole party thing, the group might have escaped in disguises if Soos could just keep his hands off the talking novelty skulls.

Soos can’t keep his hands off the talking novelty skulls.  He even gives one fresh batteries.

That would be when the Trickster eats Soos.  The kids got some weapons from somewhere, attack, and notice…the Trickster’s legs are an awful lot like salt water taffy.

Yeah, the Trickster then loses its mask.  It’s made of discarded cheap candy like the kind Stan hands out.

Meanwhile, Stan spent the whole episode trying to scare a pair of kids and only succeeds when they see him in his underwear.

All the Trickster really wanted was to be enjoyed, not tossed out.

Cue Soos eating his way out.  Soos liked the crappy candy.  The Trickster can die happy.  And that kid in the pirate costume was also OK, though he says he is traumatized.

So, back to the Shack, where Wendy reveals the party was lame and Robbie hurt himself, so it’s bad scary movies with Stan and reveling in all-around evil as is appropriate for such a day.

Be kind to your candy, people.