'The Last Mabelcorn': Gravity Falls Review

Another episode of Gravity Falls! And we only had to wait two weeks for it this time!

Okay, right away (and before I get into spoiler territory) ‘The Last Mabelcorn’ is frickin’ fantastic. If you’re some kind of lunatic who reads reviews before going to watch a show, break that habit right now, because the time you are wasting here is time you could be spending watching what is arguably the best episode since the hiatus.

Have you gone and watched it? Good.

Crop triangles never took off in the same way as crop circles.

Alright, so the basic premise of the episode is that Ford is worried about Bill possessing a member of the Pines family, and wants to demon-proof the mystery shack. Unfortunately, to do that he needs unicorn hair, something that can only be obtained by the pure of heart – and cue Mabel and friends going on a magical adventure to acquire some! While Mabel, Wendy, Candy and Grenda are unicorn hunting, Ford introduces Dipper to his mind reading device, as they attempt to encrypt their thoughts so that Bill can’t access them. Sounds legit, right?

Only Grenda could have pulled off
that sting operation.

The first thing that struck me about ‘The Last Mabelcorn’ is how on-point the humour is. We’re talking laugh-a-minute here, ranging from simple physical comedy to an extended butterfly-trafficking skit. Mabel Mabels as much as it is possible to Mabel – and that is a strange sentence to type – and the whole main plot of acquiring unicorn hair is masterfully executed so that no point of it feels sluggish or rushed. And after three episodes of near absence, it’s great to see some more Wendy!

The secondary plotline with Dipper and Ford works fantastically too, revealing a lot more about Ford’s links with Bill Cipher. We already knew that they had some kind of connection, of course (else why would Bill even be in the journals?) but a confirmation and explanation of that connection is something that Gravity Falls fans have been wanting for quite a while. We also get a further explanation of what Ford thinks Bill’s plan is – and therefore a much better idea of what ‘big things are coming’.

Despite this, I do have a few niggling complaints about ‘The Last Mabelcorn’. The Dipper/Ford storyline feels more like a b-plot than a fully-realised story, and as a result feels a bit rushed in places. I’m okay with episodes following different characters along different plots, but when one is pushed aside to make way for another, it’s a little disappointing. And for an episode built upon the idea of ‘we need to keep this family safe’, we get surprisingly little Stan – though the few moments he does show up are hilarious.

With the threat of Bill growing, and Gideon’s desire to make a deal with him in the previous episode, this is shaping up to be an even better season than the first, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Looks like Bill and Cthulhu are pals.

Pros

• Another Bill episode (we're up to three now!)
• Humour is completely on-point
• More backstory of the portal, and how Bill was involved with its development
• Butterfly trafficking
• Unicorns

Cons

• Dipper/Ford storyline was a lot weaker than the main Mabel plot

8/10