Welcome back to Gravity Talks, our review series for Gravity Falls with a release schedule that’s just as sporadic as the show’s. This week, we talk about “The Society of the Blind Eye” and continue the week-long freakout about that Rick and Morty crossover. Heavy spoilers ahead, y’all.
One thing that’s always served Gravity Falls is its refusal to dumb down characters for the sake of plot. For the most part, everyone has believable motivations for everything they do and a sensible pathos that makes you believe this could be a real town. A town where men can marry woodpeckers, but a real one nonetheless.
Of course, there has been the case of everyone in the town acting like everything’s completely normal in a town where a small boy caused a rampage in a robot suit last year or another child was possessed by a demon and caused a massive explosion in a sock puppet show attended by the entire town. Until now, the ongoing explanation was that everyone in the town was pretty used to child abuse. But with “Society of the Blind Eye”, Gravity Falls offers a solid reason for why the townsfolk aren’t screaming all the time: a secret society exists in the town and erases the memories of the weird things in Gravity Falls from the townsfolk’s memories.
Here’s where I think Gravity Falls proves itself as a cartoon specifically designed for the era of the internet. Normally, a twist like this would be complete throw from left field, yet with all the cryptograms and conspiracy theories, many fans had suspected there was something going on with an “eye” motif for years. Hell, before Bill Cipher, a lot of fans had posited that floating eyes were the main threat in the town since they were mentioned by the journal and the moving eyes in a jar from the opening credits. Not only does “Society of the Blind Eye” call back to these theories, but with the hidden messages in this summer’s webisodes and sites like searchfortheblindeye.com (which came out a year ago and was never officially associated with Disney), Gravity Falls clearly establishes the threads of a conspiracy that have been brewing for years. What could have been a cheap retroactive saving throw is now just another creepy layer of the mystery of Gravity Falls, and one whose seeds can be spotted in previous episodes (Blind Ivan makes an appearance in one of the journals; also note that when Cipher possessed Dipper in “Sock Opera”, he even notes how having two eyes is “deluxe”.)
Thankfully, “Society of the Blind Eye” doesn’t just add more mysteries onto the already convoluted show, but reveals one of the greater ongoing puzzles: the origin of Old Man McGucket. For a show that’s aware of other cartoons enough to have a crossover with Rick and Fucking Morty, the parallels to Adventure Time‘s infamous “Holly Jolly Secrets” are almost unnerving. Both McGucket and Ice King are two scientists who went crazy through different existentially terrifying means (ancient artifacts or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind machines). I can’t help but feel there’s more to McGucket’s story. There’s still a chance he does remember who his former research partner (the author of the books) could be and is just waiting his time. After all, the origin story he had prepared for the kids was just a repackaging of one from Adventure Time. It’s honestly pretty likely that this is McGucket’s origin to some extent, but the uncanny similarities to Ice King still create a large feeling of doubt.
What isn’t doubtful though is how “Society of the Blind Eye” explores the most underutilized pairing on the show: Wendy and Mabel. I’m a huge supporter of Wendy being a large part of the show, especially over Soos, and it’s great to see her be a part of the gang without Dipper federoa-ing all over her. Seeing Wendy hang out with Mabel was a delight, from their positive conversation about Mabel’s inability to find a boy to the two of them teaming up to defend Lazy Susan. If the rest of the season is just alternating episodes of mysteries and Wendy and Mabel chilling, I will personally break into the Emmy warehouse and throw three of them at Alex Hirsch. Whichever ones. He can have best makeup for all I care.
Continued belowOverall, “Society of the Blind Eye” was a great episode for both its admittedly simple humor and the overarching consequences it has for the rest of the season. Now that there’s no more Blindeye Society, will Gravity Falls have to face up to the monsters that populate the town? And speaking of implications, the post-credits scene with Grunkle Stan is probably the most horrifying episode yet: Stan, with a bloodied hand working on a portal and claiming “no one will get in my way” with a photo of his family prominently displayed in the foreground is the type of image the show would never have gotten away with in season one.
Also, it did lead into the aforementioned crossover with Rick and Morty which is one of the balls craziest things to happen on TV this year. Not only did it create the chance of Stan meeting Rick Sanchez, but it establishes that Stan’s working on a multiversal portal. The implication by McGucket at the episode’s end seems to place Stan as his research partner, but I will bet my bottom dollar Stanford is using the portal to find the actual author.
His twin brother. Stanley Pines.
If that does not happen I will eat my shirt.
Final Verdict: 8.8 – One of the best, most genuinely scary episodes of the season. Seriously, if you’re not watching Gravity Falls you are not a real person.
