Review: Gravity Falls “The Golf War”

Spoilers Below

Dipper and Stan are watching television as Mabel bursts into the room. She is super excited about being in the newspaper. However, Dipper is a little too quick to point out that Pacifica beat her. Depressed, Mabel starts doing orange juice shots to lift her spirits.

That is when a new commercial flashes on the TV for the local miniature golf course. Dipper notes that Mabel is awesome at mini golf and maybe a round would make her feel better. Once Stan and Soos get on board, the family heads off to the Putt House.

For 17 holes, Mabel is happily beating the pants off of everyone. However, once they reach the 18th hole, Mabel misses the hole-in-one shot. Pacifica happens to be playing right behind them and she makes the shot. Of course, Pacifica makes fun of Mabel, which pisses her off. Eventually, the rivals decide to hold a competition at midnight after the course closes.

Once again depressed about the likelihood of losing to Pacifica again, Dipper decides that they need to break into the golf course so Mabel can practice before the competition. Grunkle Stan all too willingly helps them get in. For some reason, he elects to stay in the car with Soos, who is cutting all of his shirts into a W-collar thanks to an article in the newspaper. Yes, it gets weird.

As the twins make their way around the course, they find out that all of the obstacles are controlled by Lilliputtians. The Lilliputtians, a reference to the Gulliver’s Travels novel, are tiny little ball-headed people. Each obstacle has its own “race.” The windmill has clog-wearing people, the pirate ship has pirates, the mine shaft has miners, and so on. Unfortunately, they do not get along with each other. If only there was an award they could win to prove that one of them was the best…..

Of course, Mabel is wearing a U DA BEST sticker. Dipper convinces Mabel to get the Lilliputtians to help her beat Pacifica. Whoever helps her the best wins the sticker. At first, Mabel is hesitant. Then Dipper reminds her that Pacifica cheats at life because she is rich.

As Pacifica and Mabel make their way around the golf course, the Lilliputtians help Mabel while impeding Pacifica. While Pacifica suspects something is going on, she couldn’t possibly imagine little ball-headed people. Until they kidnap her, anyway.

See, the windmill people saw Mabel praising the miners. The windmill people decide to help Mabel even more by kidnapping Pacifica and tying her to the ramp up to the windmill, which obviously turns into a spinning blade. Mabel, seeing Pacifica in trouble, gives into her moral compass and tells the Lillputtians that they should all just get along. When the little people turn on her, Mabel rescues Pacifica and the two of them putt the crap out of their ball heads.

Once everyone is safe, Mabel notices that Pacifica doesn’t have a ride home. She offers a ride in Stan’s car and the two girls start to get along. This may just be the beginning to a beautiful friendship. Or not. We’ll see.

Considering how awesome the past two episodes have been, I was kind of expecting this episode to fall flat. How silly of me. Even though I am usually bored by episodes featuring Pacifica, I found this one to be delightful. Even though I don’t want Mabel to lose her uniqueness, I would like to see her teach Pacifica how to be a little more unusual. I can’t wait until the next episode!