Whoa, let's not take this line. There's an old person in it.
OK, a couple of things here. First off, Robbie is back to being his old, jerky self. (And his arm is wrapped around Tambry.) Second, notice that in what was NOT foreshadowing, Tyler is in front of Stan. Third, this dialogue (and the scene in general) was unbelievably slow, and it felt very forced. And last, smooth move, Stan. Most people are smarter than the tourists you deal with every day.
...possibly starting WWI...
Yeah, that's feasible because the mayor is 102, meaning he was born c. 1910. But the best explanation for that is that a 4-YEAR-OLD BOY shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Also, in Gravity Falls, the mayor holds the position for life, considering that this is the first mayoral election in almost a century. And while I'm on that note, I should probably remind you of who wrote the town's charter laws.
You get half off a used car! You get half off a used car!
Vote buying.
Hi guys. Tad's the name, and being normal's my game.
First, who brings a loaf of bread to a town hall meeting? Second, episode that doesn't have time for the full theme song somehow has time for that.
I was gonna let bygones be bygones, Stan, but you just made a powerful enemy.
I think half of us figured out right away that Bud was lying, and the other half figured it out on the second watch-through. I mean, come on! He planted the used car coupons under everyone's seats before anyone got there! His plan all along was to run for mayor and pardon Gideon.
Besides, Stan has a kind of charisma. How hard could getting him elected be?
1. "Characters inexplicably changing clothes for the sake of plot" cliche. 2. "Saying 'How hard could ___ be?'" cliche. But on the plus side, I love how much detail went into decorating the "Mayory Shack."
Dipper reading the election procedure
I love this scene because it shows off just how kooky the town laws can be, and just how... normal they are.
Stan's campaign
I think this is a decent time to talk about politicians speaking their mind. Most politicians just don't do it. (Sidenote: I honestly expected more politics humor from this episode. But it was better this way. They had just enough of it.) Anyway, when a politician DOES tell the truth, the crowd can have two different reactions. Either they will hate it because that's not what they want to hear (as happens here) or they will love it because they recognize the honesty (as is apparently happening with Donald Trump at the time of this review.) Both are valid perspectives and make for good stories. But what really makes this part shine is when Stan is saying all the right things, and the townsfolk are announcing that very fact.
On a related topic, Stan IS known to be very candid with his family (except announcing his secrets to them) but in public we know him as a fantastic liar and manipulator. I guess I'm wondering what happened.
And he's insisting on speaking his mind!
Not about the quote, but note that Ford is reading the page on Blood Rain.
A long time ago I designed a prototype for Ronald Reagan's masters.
The design was apparently rejected because they found that they could do just fine using jellybeans.
Guys! Something weird just happened. I'm really freaked out!
I have to ask why Soos was really freaked out by this tie, while Stan didn't seem to realize what was happening. My best guess? Writing slip up.
Newspaper articles
"Stan's the Man!" say local lumberjacks
Farmer Sprott drops out of race
This article also lists the keyword in the upper left hand corner: "WORKINIT"
Stan a Hit With the Elderly
Promises Tough New Lawn Laws
...re Race ... pouts (cut off)
Stan Gets Beaver Endorsement
Could Shrews and Voles be far behind?
It's worth noting that in DaMGtMaNF, it says that Gravity Falls gave beavers the right to vote in 1922.
Underdog is Over, Dawg
Stan Pines Takes Lead!
Gideon's speech
First, note the two books whose titles we can read: "Prison Break" and "Plotting for Babies." Second, remember that Bud can no longer forget about Gideon's tantrums. So now, he may be building up anger, and maybe, just maybe, that anger will cause Bud to side with the Pines against his own son.
Also, the backwards message. He is saying "Spooky evil spells! Spooky evil spells! Spooky spells!" backwards.
"You've been controlling Bud." "And it seems you've been controllin' Stanford."
Hard to admit, but part of me actually WANTED Bud to win here. Dipper and Mabel weren't running for mayor (although come to think of it, they could have) so they should have supported Stan. (On that subject, Gideon could have run for mayor as well, if the ring was brought to his jail cell.)
I guess being the town's hero wasn't enough. I wanted to be yours too.
Sure, this makes sense. But it feels like Stan's storyline was painfully fast-paced, even for a Gravity Falls episode. This was due mostly to the fact that Gideon took up several minutes with his own plot, which also felt like it was missing something. If I were writing this episode I might have turned it into a two-parter (both 22 minute episodes), with part one focusing on Stan trying to be the kids' hero and finally succeeding with the mayorship (before losing in the end) and part two focusing on Gideon and Bud, with a lot of the same scenes thrown in.
We will dedicate the rest of this broadcast to listing Stan's crimes.
I'm finally ready to make a deal!
A couple things here. First, as many have already pointed out, the symbols are in the wrong places. A few have theorized about this wheel being the targets of Bill's deals (with the original wheel representing who he makes deals with). I personally do not buy this theory, mainly because even if we're being generous, Bill has only made deals with 4 of these characters, and the show is more than half over no matter how you look at it. So I would simply chalk it up to Gideon not remembering the exact order of the symbols. Also note that, as per Bill's AMA, any image of him in the real world acts as a peephole from his dimension to ours. By completing the image of Bill, Gideon completed the peephole.
Cryptograms
Ah, the last part of any Gravity Falls episode. The Vigenere cipher, with the aforementioned keyword WORKINIT, translates to GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTT 'EM!
The end page is again decipherable by the A1Z26, to atbash, to Caesar cipher set 3 letters back. It reads "Be wary of whom you belittle" and "Big problems can start out widdle." I think this is pretty self-explanatory.
