2x07 Society of the Blind Eye

[8.5/10] I’m a big fan of the film Inside Out, and not just for its fantastic performances, imaginative fantasyland, and crackerjack plotting and structure. I love its message, that even sad or painful memories can be a good thing, helping to give our lives meaning and let us know when we need help.

I’m a big fan of this episode for the same reason. “The Society of the Blind Eye” accomplishes three goals at the same time. One, it provides a practical reason why the townsfolk aren’t constantly reporting all the insane stuff that goes down in Gravity Falls. It turns out, they’re having their memories erased after they witness something unusual. Two, it provides a plausible, and amusing explanation for why everyone in town is a little eccentric or dopey or both -- a side effect of repeated uses of the memory device.

Third, it provides just as potent a thematic message, that it’s easy to dream about being able to wipe away all our bad memories, but those memories help us to learn from our mistakes and are a part of who we are. I don’t know if it’s quite as masterful as Pete Docter’s masterpiece, but it’s still a hell of an outing for Gravity Falls.

I appreciate the fact that Mabel is the emotional center of that storyline. Her letter from Mermando explaining that he’s struck in an arranged marriage is the melancholy cherry on top of her bad luck in love this summer. You feel for the poor girl, who started the show off dreaming of winning the heart of her dream boy, and now feels like the whole effort is a failure. Using her romantic highs and lows that the audience has witnessed gives her lovelorn funk extra oomph. So when they find a machine that can get rid of any memory, including bad romantic ones, we understand why she wants to use it.

I also really like that the episode pairs up her and Wendy. Despite both lurking around the Mystery Shack, the two of them haven't interacted all that much. Seeing Wendy provide a bit of wisdom and support to Mabel, about how Mabel’s great, and dating stinks, and just generally commiserating is really wholesome. The two have an endearing sisterly dynamic with one another that blossoms here, and I’d love to see the show lean into that in the balance of the season, especially since it’s firmly dealt with Dipper’s crush.

It’s also a nice chance to dive into some of the lore and general overarching mystery of the show. Dipper unlocking a major piece of the conspiracy and not merely chasing his own tail is a welcome thing. For such a conspiracy-focused show, there’s something about a secret society full of guys in hidden robes conducting shadowy business in the lair beneath a history museum that fits the brand so well. Even before the reveals, the simple acts of chasing clues through pneumatic tubes, piecing bits of the mystery together, and having to hide from shadowy figures is some cool business.

Plus god help us all, this is a great Old Man McGucket episode! I didn’t believe for a second that he would be The Author, but between his pre-established mechanical prowess, his name being on the inside of the author’s laptop, and the fact that his first name begins with an “F” makes him a plausible red herring at least. Again, Dipper getting some actual clues as to the author’s identity and hunting them down feels exciting in a “We’re getting closer to the meat of this thing” sort of way.

But it also pulls an Adventure Time and turns a ridiculous character into a tragic figure. Even before you learn what happened to him, the simple fact that McGucket can’t remember what happened to him before a certain time is already sad. Sure, he’s a goofball, but he’s lost a part of himself. And the fact that, even before the gaps are filled in, he shows up to rescue Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Wendy by bringing them hillbilly weapons is an unexpectedly rousing moment.

It’s also a funny one! Despite the big deal stuff that takes place in “The Society of the Blind Eye”, the show doesn’t forget to add in the laughs. McGucket’s antics remain worth a few yuks. He, Soos, and Dipper masquerading as a frontier diorama got a good chuckle out of me. And the very concept of a mysterious cult leader named “Blind Ivan” whose head looks like an old phrenology chart is a pleasantly absurd concept.

Ivan explains that he and his cohort (a who’s who of tertiary characters on the show, some of whom are even pulled from the between-season shorts!) consider themselves the glue holding the town together. The idea that they’ve been wiping memories in the town for ages, with what they think is a noble goal to keep people from being perpetually freaked out by all the weird stuff that happens here, is one hell of a reveal.

But the bigger deal is that they take advantage of using the “perk” on themselves, to the point that they’ve forgotten who their own founder is, and seem to have scrambled a few other things in their noggins as well. As ridiculous as these members are, they’re also a cautionary tale, of how turning off your bad memories at the drop of a hat (or the flow of a hat through a pneumatic tube) would leave you missing something essential. It’s too easy of an out, and seems to take away good parts of their pasts as well.

Hell, it’s hard to imagine something with bigger stakes in the show than Blind Ivan’s threat to erase the foursome’s memories of this summer. Yes, the group's confessions when they think this is their last chance to say something are hilarious. I can’t even pick a favorite, but Wendy admitting she’s stressed all the time and her laid back attitude is a pose runs neck and neck with Soos saying he thought the young girl in their party was named “Maple” and even says it again a second later. But despite the lunacy, the threat matters, because it would erase all the endearing adventures and bonding the audience has witnessed to that point.

Of course, our heroes triumph, and their prize is an important detail. McGucket wasn’t the author of the journals. But he was the assistant to the person who did. It gives the audience a tremendous tease, with the suggestion that The Author built the machine in Stan’s basement with the idea that it could help all mankind, but that in fact, it turned out so scary that it’s what spurred McGucket to use the mind-wiper in the first place.

That’s right! I love the clockwork, poetic reveal that McGucket is helping to bring down an organization that he himself founded. It is, again, tragic to see that McGucket was once an intelligent, put together individual who was haunted by something horrifying and wanted to forget, only to lose himself in the effort. His gradual decay makes an outlandish side character into an object of pathos. He too is a cautionary tale, about how taking the easy way out of difficult memories can lead to ruin.

But he’s also a cause for hope, because with the help of the Mystery Shack crew, he’s regained this part of himself, and even if it’s hard to contemplate, they’ve also given him his self back. It’s enough to inspire Mabel to accept her painful romances as a step to something greater on the horizon, and even let Wendy live with having to deal with a lazy earworm rolling around in her brain for god knows how long. It’s a wonderful cocktail of plot, character, and theme that ends on a heartening and amusing note.

Overall, this is another big winner of an episode for Gravity Falls, which presages one of Pixar’s best films by paying tribute to the value of even our harder memories that help make us who we are, while delivering one hell of an adventure in the process.

(Two quick asides: 1. Between running into a mysterious collection of baddies in hooded robes, and the guy our heroes are chasing turning out to be the mind-wiped assistant of the guy they’re really after, I’m starting to wonder if Gravity Falls is at all influenced by fellow Disney property Kingdom Hearts. 2. My current tinfoil hat theory about The Author is that Stan and Cipher Bill conspired to trap him in the body of the goat that hangs around the Mystery Shack, so that Stan could steal his machine. The thought occurred to me since in the puppet episode, the possessed Dipper has funky eyes not unlike the goat’s. We will see!)