Review: Gravity Falls ‘The Deep End’

Spoilers Below

It’s realllllllllllly hot in Gravity Falls, but thankfully the pool opens so the Pines crew decides to head on over to cool off. While there, Dipper learns that Wendy is a lifeguard and coincidentally there is an opening to be her assistant, but he’d have to get passed the hard-nosed Mr. Poolcheck. Surprisingly enough, despite Poolcheck’s Marine like leadership skills, Dipper does get the job but is often at odds as to whether he should cause mischief with Wendy or be good for Poolcheck. Eventually, Dipper gets in some heat with Poolcheck after Mabel breaks the pool’s one and only pool skimmer, and if one more item gets destroyed Poolcheck will terminate Dip’s employment once and for all.

Meanwhile, Mabel meets a cute guy named Mermando of whom never leaves the pool…ever….does that include winter? Not sure…anyway, she eventually finds out that the dude is actually a merman. Ordinarily, this would probably scare off other people BUT Mabel seems fine with it so long as he doesn’t have a girlfriend.  They agree to meet later in the night after the pool closes and its here where Mabel finds out that Mermando longs to reunite with his family, but he is forever trapped in the pool. Dipper is on night watch after Mabel’s earlier break-in, but thanks to Grunkle Stan she is able to grab Mermando and take off in a golf cart, but Dipper is hot on her tail. However, once the twins get to the lake they team up to revive Mermando and set him free in the lake so as to eventually reunite with his family. BUT, not before he gives Mabel her first kiss…and Dipper his first kiss as well. As a result of all this calamity, Dipper and Wendy both get fired, Mabel keeps in touch with Mermando, and Soos frees a whole bunch of rubber ducks into the woods.

Not surprisingly, Grunkle Stan is only at the pool for a few minutes before he gets in trouble by lifeguard Wendy of whom sends him to pool jail. Granted, it was Gideon’s fault for stealing his lawn chair, but the rules are the rules and Grunkle is on the other side of the law. After he gets out, his feud with Gideon continues and just when we think Grunkle gets the upper hand, GLUE! Yep, Gideon ends up gluing Grunkle to the lawn chair!

Tonight’s episode was pretty awesome and half way through I kinda knew this was getting a good score, but it was the ending that made it perfect. In a plot that was almost a reverse Splash, the writers show that Mabel doesn’t always have to be a sour puss, that she can hold her own on dramatic elements that yes were clearly inspired by other nautical inspired films like Flipper and Free Willy. In contrast to those movies was Mermando of whom was so damn funny, I felt like the Family Guy writers were putting his deal together. From the dolphin sounds, to him flip-flopping outside of the pool whilst getting pecked by birds, to his one chord guitar skills, Mermando was perfectly executed by Home star Runner’s Matthew Chapman.

On the other side of the coin we have Mr. Poolcheck played by Michael Rianda, and this is also a character I hope we see again a bunch more times. In a style almost reminiscent to Powdered Toast Man(Ren & Stimpy), Poolcheck might have been one of the most extreme characters this series has ever employed, which was great because it helped keep the episode balanced opposite the romantic-comedy that was Mabel-Mermando. Add in the fact that the writers seem to have just a great time coming up with gags, like the Gideon/Stan feud, the prison kids, and even all the little shit like the jokes about public pools, this week’s episode was all class. Gravity Falls just got picked up for a second season, this episode proves why.