THE BIGGEST PLOT TWIST!! | Gravity Falls Episode 2x11 Reaction 

It's believed that Mabel only trusted Stan and didn't press the button because he said “Please." As we and Mabel learned in S1E13, “Boss Mabel” Stan has a very hard time saying “Please.” That's how she knew he was serious, what this meant to him. It's such a great callback that gives more meaning to a so-called "filler" episode.

Fun Fact!: Alex Hirsch, creator of Gravity Falls, made a whole fake leak where a screenshot was uploaded onto 4chan of a production set with the screen showing a young McGucket writing the journals. When the post went viral, Alex then tweeted something along the lines of "Well I'm fucking pissed" making fans think the leak was real. Fast forward to Society of the Blind Eye where the actual reveal was McGucket was only the assistant. All this to throw fans off the loop on who the author really was... until this episode aired.. TLDR; this fuckin creator's a troll and we all love him

Fun fact: When this episode aired, the series went on break for four months. Imagine being there when this bombshell was first dropped, and seeing Stan and his brother as kids on the swing set, only to have to wait for a third of a year for any explanation or closure for such a revelation. XD

If you’ll recall- Stan’s lisence plate says "Stanley". But Gideon called him Stanford. Neither was a mistake.

Fun fact: you actually see the brother twice in S1 E19. Once when bill is flashing when apparently looking up Stan, and again during Stan’s flashback at the boxing ring. You see him in the bleachers reading a book.

1. Remember when the Shapeshifter said "that 6-fingered nerd hasn't been himself in years" At first its a weird comment and an intentional misdirect at Mcgucket, but the reveal that Grunkle Stan and the Author are *brothers* has that comment make WAY more sense. 2. What I love about this episode is how neither we nor the characters know whether to trust Stan. We've seen him fool and swindel so many people over the course of the show its tough not to see this as maybe just another con. A con he's gotten to enjoy, but a con nonetheless. Plus, the scenes we as the audience got with him acting borderline sinister when it came to the portal really reionforces that. Even Mabel, the most optimistic character in the show, has her faith in him shaken over the course of the episode as they uncover his shady past and that he *might* not even be related to them. Meaning they've spent their entire summer with a total stranger who took their uncle's identity. Making her decision to trust him *a lot more meaningfull.*

So for those who are new to Gravity Falls or weren't watching as it aired, allow me to make note of something. This episode, 'Not What He Seems', first aired on 9th March, 2015. The next episode, 'A Tale of Two Stans', first aired in July 2015. We had to wait FOUR MONTHS for the follow up to this and that was just for the US airing. The UK airing wasn't until September!

Man, Not What He Seems is ALWAYS a freaking EVENT, no matter when or how you watch. Even all these years later, it’s STILL peak television.

the hints were very carefully laid, and even heading into this episode, we weren't sure if we were reading too much into things or not, but. this reveal is insane my personal favorite tidbit: he always knew just how much of a fraud Gideon's mind-reading antics were. because Gideon only ever called him by his brother's full name.

the interesting thing is that twins actually run in the family, there is a genetic component to it. I remember reading about way before watching this show. When this happened I was "oh, that makes sense", but I remember some people being "oh not the twin trope".

Can't wait for her to hear his voice next episode

Nobody really talks about how dark this episode actually is when you think about it. The idea that the uncle they have been living with all summer is might actually be an evil mastermind who killed their actual uncle in order to use the shack for his secret plan of destroying the universe. That would be a horrifying thing for a kid to grapple with. I feel like the only reason Disney even let that fly was because it obviously turned out to not actually be the case

And now that we know Stan had a brother, the wax statues episode suddenly makes a lot more sense He was so attached to his statue cause it reminded him of his long lost brother

_THIRTY YEARS AND NOW HE'S BACK_ _THE MYSTERY IN THE MYSTERY SHACK_

Fun fact, People guessed who the author was in season one. Alex had to gaslight and cover up to fans so much just for this reveal to work. He even leaked fake animation stills of young mcgucket writing the journals on a throwaway account and pretended to be pissed about it on twitter

There was SO MUCH FORESHADOWING to this! My favorite was: in that hidden room from the body-swap episode, we see a calendar marked for 30 years prior! And on the table was a pair of glasses, that Stan sneakily picked up. And later, he's staring at those glasses intently, clearly thinking about something. There was also Time Traveler's Pig where the Stan we see in the Mystery Shack of the past had a cleft chin, where our Stan doesn't! I was there when the fans started to piece this together so neatly, Alex had to falsify leaks to throw us off the trail. It was the most wild ride of my childhood, I swear. And I'm glad you got to enjoy it too.

And best part are the small details that was setting this moment up. That like that moment when they went into Stans memories, we saw kid Stan and someone right next to him reading a book. Or those two kids on the swing set.

I swear my favorite moment in the whole series is Wendy walking up to see the shack being raided and just goes.... nope and walks away. 100% zero fucks given

23:24 And mind you, Dipper and Mable are the grandkids of the Stan- twin’s younger brother.

Remember all those times you asked why the parents would send Dipper and Mabel to an irresponsible uncle for the summer....To be fair to them he stole the identity of his responsible brother.

Stan fighting off the US Agents in zero G as if he’s had plenty of experience (he hasn’t) AND picking one of their wallets just so he can pay off a cabbie to lead them on a wild goose chase for as long as possible is such a Stan move.

“Is this the part where one of us faints?” “Oh, I am so on it, dude.” Soos again being my spirit animal.

I know there's a lot of heavy stuff going on, but I love how Stan instinctively avoids swearing because the kids might hear. He really is responsible when it matters.

Sometimes Mable’s sweaters relate to something in the story, here it’s a key because she decides to switch to leave on. Bill calls her Shooting Star which was her debut sweater.

One reason, I think that may have added to Mable believing Stan instead of Dipper. Throughout the series, one of the recurring plots is that Dipper gets in over his head because he believes he's smarter than everyone. Not in an arrogant mean way. But he has a hubris that (as he is still 12), he hasnt outgrown. He's wants to be the one to solve and fix everything. He jumps to conclusions a LOT, which has gotten them in trouble before. And yeah Stan is cheap and shady. However, his upfront attitude, even his direct rudeness, can be seen as him being brutaly honest. Edit: Also, the twin reveal can explain why Stan was so distraught about the wax duplicate being "murdered".

of all the memes that came out of gravity falls. the ONE she points out is one that i have never seen.

9:13 Hey! It's not a kid's meal, it's a HAPPY meal. Adults deserve some happiness too 😭

STANLEY: EVERYTHING CHANGES, TODAY!!!

I remember watching watching this episode the day it aired my 12 year old jaw dropped to the floor

23:36 Twins tend to be a hereditary factor after all...

Here it is boys! One of the greatest episodes of any cartoon and the one that solidified Gravity Falls as one of the greats

fun fact now that the reveal happend i can say that in the episode where they first time travel and go to the past the guy that was looking outside the mystory shack in the winter was this guy and not grunkel stan

Arguably the most pivotal reveal in the series. The sheer magnitude of the portal's shockwaves, the hidden past of Stan, and finally the appearance of THE AUTHOR. The plot thickens. Some questions were answered, yet so many more are left. As for the ciphers, these may be my favourites yet: Credits: "THE ORIGINAL MYSTERY TWINS" Page: "THIRTY YEARS AND NOW HE'S BACK. THE MYSTERY IN THE MYSTERY SHACK"

"I trust you". Three little words that changed EVERYTHING.

The "I trust you" scene wouldn't have been as impactful if it wasn't for all the bonding Mabel and Grunkle Stan shared together

This episode really goes crazy making you doubt everything you know about the story so far. And then it ends with THAT.

God you have no idea how hyped this episode was back in the day. A lot fo the secret codes from the shorts emphasizing the sentence "Not what he seems" so when the title of this episode was dropped everyone was so ready to see what was going on.

Remember in episode 3 when Stan was weirdly attached to the wax figure of himself? He was seeing his brother in it

I’m not sure if anyone said it yet but I wanted to wait till now, but the creators of the series noticed people were speculating that Stan had a brother, so to lure them off the trail they released “spoilers” on other web sites then took them down knowing people would screen shot them and spread them around to confuse the theorists until the big reveal, the character they used for this was actually Mcgucit.

I distinctly remember watching this episode and feel elevated becasue one of my top theories was proven right. There were hints thrown around the whole show to hint at this reveal and when it happened it was just the best feeling. It all started whith being born with a cleft chin, or more comically know as a butt chin. A minor genetically hereditary marker caused yb the jawbones not fusing completely. Having one always made me realise it when other peopel have it or in this case cartoon characters have one. You see its not something you gain or lose with time its a part of your facial structure. So back to Gravity Falls. Season 1 Episode 9 "The Time Travellers Pig": When the kids run around going through time, in one scene they run past the mystery shack and a young Stan opens the door to look out? he has a butt chin. I then was confused looked back at the present Grunkle Stan and lo and behold there was no longera butt chin. This started a long and fun online hunt regarding the mystery of Stan.... Other big hints others brought to my attention where the license plate name, the hidden room with experiments and different glasses he looekd at the end of that episode, the obsession with wax Stan, the pictures inside Bill cipher when asked about Stan Pines, some scenes from Stans Mind in the Dreamscapers episode, and his avoidance to ever call himself Stanford only ever "Stan", despite others callign him that...

That "i trust you" absolutely made the fandom explode when it happened. The sheer amount of fanart that came out of that moment. I was only in the fandom tertiarily at the time, but most of my friends were super into it, and the energy they and everyone else had was absolutely electric. There are so many little details in previous episodes that build up to this reveal. Rewatch this show on your own time, you're sure to grow even more attached when you spot something with this new context!

Hints to this were throughout including the broken swings when Bill invades Stans mind.

the most villainous thing was making us wait 4 months before the episode after this released

Alicia, you don't understand just how wild the fandom went for this episode! The thing is that there were clues from the very beginning that Stan had a twin brother and some fans pieced it all together, but most of the fandom treated it like a dumb conspiracy theory. I watched the episode when it aired in a livestream and there were people celebrating that they guessed it right and there were people all 'ugh, he's pandering to those fans, no way it was planned.' It was so much fun to be there when it happened :D. The clues that the fans gathered (that I can remember) are: -The license plate on Stan's care says 'Stanlymobil' when Stan's full legal name is Stanford -Stan's reaction to the wax figure of himself and how upset he was when it 'died' -During the time travel episode where Mabel got Waddles, the person who looked out of the Shack had a dimple in their chin that Grunkle Stan doesn't have -In the mindswap episode, Stan acts like he's never seen the room but he secretly grabs a pair of glasses that was inside and looks at them later in the episode all sad like I can't remember any other clues but Alex was amazing at leaving these hints for fans to find!

There were actually a TON of easter eggs before this that pointed towards the big reveal that stan has a twin brother. My favorite is the family car's licensplate says "StnlyMble" which is strange as his name is supposedly stan-ford not stan-ly.

This episode perfectly illustrates the element of Mabel's character that makes me love her. She has a good, pure heart and always wants to believe the best of people. And there are times in the show where that gets used against her and there are other times, like in this episode, where Mabel is the only one who can do the right thing precisely because of that tendency.

4:01 Yeah throwing it a second time is peak DAD energy right there! 🤣😉

Alicia, I watched this episode when I was a kid. do you know how INSANE that was to experience? i was there when it happened and it blew my little mind away. so glad you get to experience it too

I saw this when it dropped on Disney XD, I rewatch it w/my kids, and even rewatching your react now, I STILL tear up in the last five minutes. 😭 This was such a good show! I'm sad that we only got two seasons, but it was exactly what the story needed to be told.

I really hope she sees all the fan art that was made of Mabel in front of the portal. So many of those images were amazing.

Alicia's voice dropped a whole octave for like 10 seconds from the shock

I've been waiting for this one. It's such a good episode, and completely out of nowhere during your first time watching. Mabel saying she trusts Stan still makes me cry, cause it's such a peak line. Everything about this one is fantastic

Now imagine watching this episode and then finding out this was the MID SEASON FINALE! The rest would take a YEAR TO COME OUT! We ended on one of the biggest build up reveals in cartoon animation (besides steven universe). Not What He Seems still gives me chills on the build up to the ending, not to mention looking back on the rest of the series to see how everything built up to this moment from the obvious to the well hidden background details you couldn't do 10 years ago. Fun fact of ALL THE EPISODES in the series this episode has more Fan Art of Mabel letting go of the switch then any other moment as it's considered one of the biggest moments of the franchise.

It's actually hinted at pretty strongly. Like when this came out, a lot of people weren't that suprised because online theorists, using all the hints and cryptic stuff from prior episode deduced he had a brother.

A few fun facts about people with extra fingers. The extra digit being an extra thumb or an extra pinky depends heavily on the country. One is more common than the other (I forget which) in Asia and the Middle East, and the opposite is true in the rest of the world. The finger can also either be functional or not, my stepmother's one granny has an extra, non-functioning thumb. There's a moderately famous family in the Middle East where nearly every person in their family has 12 fingers, with an extra pinky on each hand.

Finally, Stanford and Stanley, the Twins that started it all

This episode gave me an aneurysm when I was younger 😂 this was the ultimate cinematic masterpiece

Since you started this series "Not what he seems" and "A tale of two Stans" have been the ones I've wanted to see you, and all reactors I've seen watch this series, react to the most. The two episodes are my absolute favorites from Gravity falls and the reveal that Stan had a Twin brother really shocked me since before I rewatched the show I didn't even know he had a brother (I stopped after season 1 because I didn't have time to watch it)

"Not What He Seems": Grunklestan has been on a mission for 30 years...

The fight about Stan Twin theory was the stuff of legend back in the day. Having a conspiracy like this be confirmed, there's really nothing like it.

Grapes is a nice, healthy stress-eating food. I once literally stumbled to my car, drove to KFC in a haze, and bought a jumbo bucket of popcorn chicken when 9-11 happened, and just parked and ate it there in the parking lot. Just trying to process. This was EARLY KFC popcorn chicken, too, before the "popcorn chicken ain't got no meat in it" scandal turned popcorn chicken into basically glorified chicken nuggets. It was $20 worth of deep-fried breaded skin scraps. Possibly the least healthy thing I have ever consumed in my life. But it got me through the first of what would become an endless cavalcade of many crazy upheavals that we now regard as the new normal. Fried chicken. I won't claim it saved my life. If anything, it was probably slowly killing me. But it was my rock in uncertain times. But yeah, if you're going to stress-eat, grapes are a lot smarter. 🍗🤔🍇

WE'RE HOPING FOR STEVEN UNIVERSE NEXT 😬

I forgot about the callback to the rock that looks like a face in this episode. That apparently only Stan understands is just a rock that happens to look like a face. ...Oh, oh yeah, and the guy from the twist at the end. Pretty dope. ... [dramatically spits beverage on device screen to reenact initial shock]

Ah yes, the reveal i waited for. This show blessed me with not only one, but TWO daddies to drool for (maybe three, if Dan weren't so angry all the time)

The episode we have all been waiting for. LET'S GO!!! 🎉

Hi Alicia, Im not usually this early. Really enjoying this series, cant wait to see you at the finale :) Have you ever thought of watching Doctor Stone by any chance ? Really suggest it.

I needed this video today, thank you so much

I've somehow managed to etch fictional swears from old old cartoons into my brain. I may not remember much of the planet fantasy masterpiece Pirates of Dark Water, but I remember "Noy Jitat," and mutter it under my breath with frequency.

my power is the biggest opp for going down for 8 hours the day alicia uploads this reaction

30 years and now he’s back the mystery in the Mystery Shack.

Mabel has and always will listen to her heart. Or her impulses and emotions. Sometimes those are the same thing.

I have been waiting for this episode since you started this series. Also I'm pretty sure this is part of Dipper and Mabel's parents never visit, they'd know.

i cant believe we're finally here!! ive rewatched this episode so many times its not even funny. SO hype for you to meet the other grunkle. hes actually the one we see poking his head out the door in the time travellers pig!

I with alicia on grapes being satisfying to eat. The feel when you bite into a perfectly cold grape to get that perfect pop is just *insert the Pacha meme*

This show is up there with Breaking Bad as a peak television series

There's a lot of really cool and fun episodes in this show, have been really enjoying the ride with your reactions. And this is definitively one of the reveals I was most looking forward to see how you'd take it. Mabel really surprising everyone there, ahaa! And good on chat and the comments peeps to have kept it under wrap, as far as I've seen! X3

You have no idea how painful it was after seeing this episode, to have to wait over a year for the next one

Admit it, who else can see Alicia screaming “I am the god of destruction!”?

I love this series so much

IT’S TIIIIIIIME!!!!

4 months. 4 excruciating months, we had to wait. When i found out it was that short, i lost it. It felt like a year i was waiting for the next episode to come out.

22:10 I remember the avalanche of fanart this one scene inspired when this episode first came out. Crazy good fanart. I highly recommend looking some up.

Wait. So she doesn't get shocked at all by them saying "Stan isn't Stan?" She just does a funny "Bum Bum Bum Buuum!" 😂 22:26: THERE we go! XD 23:05: YUP!

23:01 Some fans called this twist before it happened...but the way Hirsch did this episode was PHENOMENAL. Worst thing though, this was the midseason finale & we had to wait MONTHS for it to continue.

Something that gets brought up is that the parents thought they were sending Mable and Dipper to live with the other great uncle for the summer but...did they though...sure the name is slightly different and they grew up probably being told a different backstory but Mabel and Dipper's grandmother was the baby sister of two these twin brothers, but Stanly has been there for thirty years, how old are the parents, they had to have met him at some point before sending the kids so they only ever met THIS Stan, they never met the brother he was standing in for.

Everything starts floating and the first thing i thought of was "gravity falls? More like gravity rises"

I honestly don't know what I would do in Mabel's position. At 1st I can brush off most of Stan's behavior as tv comedy but if we are taking things seriously he clearly is a criminal and even if he is not all bad it doen't mean he can be trusted or even if I believed he thought he was doing the right thing I don't know if I would have trusted his judgement. That said I do love a detail that I never noticed until it was pointed out to me. Mabel was about to hit the button until Stan said "please" and thanks to episode Boss Mabel she knows how hard it is for Stan to say please; he couldn't even do it to win money on a game show.

When I still drank pop, my stress thing was to pour a big cup of pop & chug it. Now, I guess I'd be more likely to eat chips really fast or the fries that my dad cooks all the time.

"Who is that? "The author of the journals" DUN, DUNN, DUUUNNNNN!!!!!

Me personally I stress eat ramen because when I was little my grandma made me ramen for lunch when babysitting me, but because I was a baby she would crush up the noodles so I wouldn’t choke on them. Ramen with tiny noodles is such a comfort food it brings me fuzzy warm feelings

Crazy how one of the biggest theory was the twin. I was surprised to find that out to be true.

It finally here. Thanks for this :) . So, we know Alicia isn't going to teach her nieces to swear, but when they start quoting edgy anime, everyone will know.

Hey, there’s nothing wrong with getting a Happy Meal. Sometimes you’re just not hungry enough for the whole meal. Also, you’ve GOT to get the toy, those things are the best part of getting one.

one of the best episodes of all time, this show is so good

Again. So glad I made it to this stream. This was the episode that changed Gravity Falls forever! "Ok. I don't know what's gonna change though, besties." 😈 12:54: How'd they get away with this?! 😂

And this is what people kind of guess early on which caused the creator of Gravity Falls to make that McGucket false lead to throw people off. Which I find extremely interesting and cool at the same time.

I LOVE using the emergency hug gif lol!

FINALLY I WAIT SO LONG FOR YOUR REACTION TO THIS PLOT TWIST

This entire episode is so freaking cool

Credits cipher: "THE ORIGINAL MYSTERY TWINS"