Review: Gravity Falls – “Northwest Mansion Noir”
Spoilers Ahead
Pacifica’s family is getting ready to hold their annual party. Since only rich people are invited, Mabel and her friends long to attend the fancy shindig. And they aren’t the only ones. The rest of the townspeople camp outside the Northwest mansion, in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the rich and famous.
The day before everyone is set to arrive, the Northwest family find out that their mansion is haunted. Preston Northwest, Pacifica’s father, asks his daughter to get Dipper to get rid of the ghost. Dipper reluctantly agrees to catch the ghost, as long as Mabel, Candy, and Grenda can get invitations to the party. Pacifica hands over three invitations and the gang sets out for the mansion.
Dipper and Pacifica search the rooms of the mansion for the ghost. Eventually, they come upon a rather scary looking room with animal head trophies on the walls. Suddenly, blood starts pouring from the animal mouths and they start some ghostly chanting. Just when they think it can’t get any worse, a huge lumberjack ghost manifests from the fireplace. For some reason, he is furious with the Northwest family. He tries to kill Pacifica but she runs away with Dipper.
In the pages of his journal, Dipper finds out that he can trap a ghost in a silver mirror. As they try to escape the ghost, Dipper finds a silver mirror in one of the rooms of the mansion but Pacifica won’t let him go in there with mud on his feet. The two struggle and fall into a hidden room. Amid the various portraits, Dipper finds a silver hand mirror and traps the ghost.
When Dipper goes to banish the ghost, the ghost tells him the true story of the Northwests. Back when the mansion was being built 150 years ago, they promised the lumberjacks that they would invite the entire town to a party. However, when the mansion was finished, the Northwests went back on their word and refused to let the townspeople in. The head lumberjack died in a landslide, cursing the Northwests. Of course, Dipper is angry that Pacifica lied to him. He unwittingly releases the ghost, who heads back to the mansion to enact his revenge.
While Dipper and Pacifica are ghost-busting, Mabel and her friends are hob-nobbing with the rich party guests. The girls make a pact that they won’t flirt with the Austrian prince in attendance. However, Candy and Mabel agree to flirt with him together because they think Grenda’s form of flirting is too aggressive. When Grenda finds out the girls have been hitting on the prince without her, she decides to get even by flirting with him on her own.
Just then, the ghost attacks the party. He turns everyone into wood, including Mabel and the girls. When Pacifica sees him turn Dipper into wood, she opens the gates, allowing the rest of the town into the mansion. The ghost sees the townspeople rushing into the party and releases everyone from their wooden prison.
Pacifica realizes that she does not have to be like her parents. Mabel and Candy realize that some boys, including the prince, actually like Grenda’s flirting. And Dipper realizes that Pacifica might actually be an OK person.
But then Old Man McGucket appears, telling Dipper that he fixed the laptop. Dipper brushes the hobo off, unknowing that there is a countdown on the laptop. A countdown to what, though?
I had high hopes for this episode, since we had such a long break between episodes. However, I was pretty disappointed in it. They wanted to spend more time on redeeming Pacifica as a person instead of solving any of the mysteries of Gravity Falls. Sure, they left us with the cliffhanger but it would have been nice if they spent a little more time on the town and less on specific people. We don’t need Pacifica to be redeemed really. It’s OK if she stays a rich bitch.
