Gravity Falls Review: The Deep End

I was a little bit disappointed with Bottomless Pit!, but Hirsch and company bounce right back with "The Deep End".

A heat wave has struck Gravity Falls, so the kids scrape Stan off the floor and head to the local pool. Once there, Mable instantly falls for yet another boy, and Dipper continues crushing on Wendy, who's working there as the lifeguard.

The pool is looking for an assistant lifeguard and Dipper jumps at the chance, because it means sitting next to Wendy all day, even if his boss is the rather intense Mister Poolcheck.

(Interestingly, Mister Poolcheck was part of the angry mob in the previous episode.)

Dipper gets the job and he and Wendy have a ball making mischief.

Stan finds the perfect pool chair, but Lil' Gideon steals it out from beneath him. I'm no fan of the two Gideon-centered episodes, but he works great here. I just feel like his schtick wears too thin as the focus of an entire episode, but as in "Irrational Treasure", he's pretty entertaining in a supporting role.

Mabel gets closer to her mystery boy, who is actually a trapped merman by the name of Mermando. He became seperated from his family and trapped in the pool and can't escape on his own. Mabel vows to rescue him.

"You're like the coolest guy I've ever met. And you can play at least one chord on the guitar."

Things are falling apart for Dipper. Stan's fight with Gideon escalates and he serves a short stint in pool jail, though, thankfully, not in solitary.

Dipper is tasked with restoring order and has to work a night shift. Unfortunately, that's the night that Mabel (among others) breaks in to the pool to orchestrate Mermando's escape.

She abandons her first plan, which was to build him artificial legs out of fish sticks and

instead, steals a cooler and a cart and sticks Mermando in it.


Dipper catches her in the act, and though Mabel tries to bluff her way out,

Dipper notices something amiss. She flees and he takes off in hot pursuit.

She makes to the lake, but the cart overturns. Dippers asks her "Why do you even need the cooler?!"

"I needed the cooler to save my new friend because he needs to go home and he's really nice and we combed each others' hair and he needs to be in the cooler because he breathes water because he's a merman!"

And that's what I love about the show, because the characterization for those two is so great, that those lines seem exactly how they should respond.

But, with the cooler overturned, Mermando is suffocating on land. Mabel begs Dipper to give him reverse CPR,

and Mermado comes around. The first thing he asks is "Why didn't you just roll me into the water?" which is something I really like in entertainment. People make mistakes or don't always make the optimal choice in an emergency, even when that choice should be obvious.

Mabel appeals to Dipper's basic decency and he gives Mermando the megaphone, even though it will mean his job. Before, he goes, he bids farewell to Mabel.

Mermando: I have never met anyone like you.

Mabel: Same here. Except for a zombie, a gnome and a couple of cute vampires.

Dipper: I don't remember the vampires.

Mabel: I don't tell you everything.

and then they kiss.

"awwww..."

And then we get a Free Willy leap on the way to freedom.

In the end, we learn that, even though Stan snuck in overnight to claim the chair, Gideon anticipated this and coated it with glue, thereby getting the last laugh. The closing credits roll on the poor boy in pool jail.

Wonderful characterization, funny lines, physical comedy (I still giggle thinking of Mermando getting pecked by that woodpecker), solid subplots that intersect with the main story.

I liked this one a lot.