Summerween

Directed by:	John Aoshima
Written by:	Zach Paez Alex Hirsch Michael Rianda
Release date:	October 5, 2012
Running time:	22 minutes
Rating:	TV-Y7
Available on:	iTunes DVD Blu-ray Disney+

"Summerween" is a Halloween-themed episode of the Disney Channel animated series Gravity Falls, aired as the twelfth episode in the show's first season. It premiered on October 5, 2012 and was viewed by 3.478 million people.

Synopsis

The Summerween Superstore.

Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Grunkle Stan drive to the Summerween Superstore to prepare for Summerween, a holiday that the locals of Gravity Falls created so they could celebrate Halloween twice a year. Soos finds punny cackling skulls in the store and he keeps turning them on, much to his amusement. Mabel and Dipper are trashing the store in a wheelbarrow, while Stan gets some material for scaring trick-or-treaters. The cashier calls security due to the disturbance they're making, so Stan throws a smoke bomb at the cashier and runs away with the gang, paying with "Stan Bucks," Stan's poorly drawn counterfeit money.

The Summerween Trickster forces the kids to trick or treat.

Later, Dipper and Mabel are planning out Summerween when Soos tells Dipper and Mabel about the Summerween Trickster, a creature that supposedly eats children if they do not enjoy their candy. However, Dipper begins throwing out candy that he deems as trashy "loser candy" that Stan had bought to hand out, unaware that the Summerween Trickster is watching him from afar. Just then, the doorbell rings and Dipper goes to finds Wendy and Robbie Valentino at the door. When Robbie asks Dipper if he is going trick or treating, Wendy tells him that Dipper isn't because that's for kids. Dipper, trying to look cool in front of his crush, reluctantly agrees with her. Wendy invites Dipper to Tambry's Summerween party, and Dipper says he will go. However, Mabel has invited her friends Candy and Grenda to go trick or treating with them, so Dipper fakes being sick so he can go to Tambry's party. However, the doorbell rings again, and this time it's the Summerween Trickster. Dipper mistakes him for a normal trick-or-treater, says he is too old for trick-or-treating, and slams the door on him. Mabel scolds Dipper for this and opens the door again, but the Trickster breaks into the Mystery Shack and tells the kids that if they don't bring him 500 pieces of candy by the time all the Jack O' Melons in town have gone out, he'll eat them, proving his threat by eating a random trick-or-treater named Gorney who arrives at the shack.

Dipper and Mabel's costumes.

The kids, joined by Soos, head over to Lazy Susan's house to trick-or-treat. Because Dipper refused to get dressed up, they only get one piece of candy each, and he receives none. Mabel decides to dress Dipper up in his peanut butter costume (to match Mabel's strawberry jam costume) and act cute whenever they go to houses, which greatly increases their candy yield. Eventually they end up with 499 candy pieces, and Mabel decides to go get the last piece with her pals while Soos goes and gets his truck so they can deliver the candy. Unfortunately, Wendy and Robbie arrive in their van, so Dipper takes off his costume and pushes the supply of candy behind a bush. Dipper tells them he will be at Tamby's party soon, but Mabel overhears their conversations and realizes why Dipper faked being sick earlier. Things get worse when they find the candy has fallen off a cliff behind the bush and into a river because Dipper had not been paying attention, and everyone begins blowing out the candles in their Jack O' Melons. Dipper, Mabel, Grenda and Candy manage to stop Old Man McGucket from blowing out his Jack O' Melon, but when they breathe a sigh of relief, the Jack O' Melon goes out.

The kids are temporarily captured.

The Summerween Trickster then arrives and prepares to eat Dipper and Mabel, but out of nowhere, Soos drives his truck straight through the monster, smashing him to pieces. The kids get into the truck, but Mabel gives Dipper the cold shoulder for not wanting to trick-or-treat with her. Unfortunately, the Summerween Trickster comes back to life as his pieces re-assemble, and he pursues the truck. Dipper, Mabel, Grenda, Candy, and Soos hide in the Summerween store, and Mabel reveals she was upset with Dipper because she was worried this will be the last time they'll trick or treat.

The Trickster reveals that he is made of "loser candy" that kids threw away.

As they try to escape without being noticed, Soos turns on a cackling skull that he was playing with earlier and the Summerween Trickster finds them. The Summerween Trickster reveals to be an amalgamation of pieces of "loser candy" no one wanted and tossed in the dump. It eats Soos and then tries to eat Dipper and Mabel. However, Soos eats the monster from the inside out, and the Trickster collapses. The Summerween Trickster then confesses that all he wanted was someone to enjoy his candy, and he starts crying tears of candy corn as Soos happily eats him.

Everyone celebrates pure evil.

During all this, Grunkle Stan has been having a difficult time trying to scare two trick-or-treaters. He even has Waddles burst out of his chest in an attempt to scare them, but the kids are not scared because they have been watching horror movies ever since they were two years old. The kids scare him with a 'screamer video', and Stan runs back in the Mystery Shack in disgrace. Stan finally manages to scare the two kids after they accidentally see him half-naked in his bathroom, and the kids drop their huge sacks of candy while running away. Later that evening, Dipper, Mabel, Soos, Grenda, and Candy arrive back at the Shack and find Wendy back early from the party. Dipper confesses to Wendy that he was trick or treating, but she replies that the party was lame because Robbie ate a lollipop stick-first and had to go home early. In the end, everyone watches TV eating their candy. Stan explains that Summerween isn't about candy or scaring, but a night to celebrate pure evil. After some maniacal laughter, Soos confesses, "I ate a man alive tonight" and everyone glances strangely at him.

During the credits, Mabel takes some pictures of Waddles in his boss costume with funny captions, similar to the style of LOLCats, with "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton playing in the background.

Availability

"Summerween" made its home video debut on the Gravity Falls: Even Stranger DVD, released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on August 26, 2014. It was made available again, along with the rest of the series, on the Gravity Falls: The Complete Series DVD and Blu-ray sets, released by Shout! Factory (under license from Disney) on July 24, 2018.

Trivia

Summerween Trickster Camera Photo Production Artwork

The cover to the storybook adaptation.

• The episode's opening scene originally had Stan burst into Dipper and Mabel's bedroom with his "face melting off" prank (which he uses later in the finished episode) to introduce them to Summerween.
• The Summerween Trickster can be seen among the pictures in the theme song, albeit with an apparent orange skin color.
• This episode takes place on Friday June 22, 2012 as seen on Stan's calendar.
• Candy's photo of the Trickster has the equivalent of the English term, "awesome" in Korean on it, according to Niki Yang.
• Stan's car, when he gets to the Summerween Store, says El Diablo on the side, which means "The Devil".
• In the part when the kids battle the Summerween Trickster, Dipper's shield has a pyramid with an eye on it.

Soos eating the Trickster's heart.

• After Soos bursts out of the Summerween Trickster, the piece of the Trickster he is eating is in the shape of a heart.

Homework: the Candy and several other disliked brands.

• During the end credits, the cryptogram says "YILFTSG GL BLF YB SLNVDLIP: GSV XZMWB." Once translated it reads: "BROUGHT TO YOU BY HOMEWORK: THE CANDY.", referring to one of the "loser candies".

Allusions

• In the scene where the boy pair shows Stan a video of a kitten about to sleep but unexpectedly changes into a demon screaming, it resembles Regan's demon face from The Exorcist, which got infamous from Scary Maze Game and unusual pranks from YouTube videos and many other tricks.
• When Waddles jumps out of Stan's stomach, it is a reference to the Ridley Scott film Alien, in which the aliens impregnate the humans by laying their eggs in the human's mouths. When the eggs hatch, they pop out of the human's chest, killing them. (Ironically, Disney now owns the Alien franchise.)
• The Summerween Trickster's first form and the overall events are a reference to the movie Trick 'r Treat where people are killed by a little monster if they do not respect Halloween's traditions.
• The Summerween Trickster is a reference to Spirited Away's No Face.
  • The Summerween Trickster may also be a reference to Slenderman, a monster created over the internet that even has his own video game called Slender.
• At the end of the episode, the pictures of Waddles with text are a reference to the I Can Haz Cheezburger meme pictures.
• The sword and shield that Dipper fights the Summerween Trickster with is a reference to the Master Sword and Hylian Shield that Link uses in The Legend of Zelda. The shield has the Eye of Providence on it as well.
• Dipper sliding between the Summerween Tricksters legs and attacking his back is a reference to the final boss in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, where Link must roll between Ganondorf's legs and attack his back to defeat him.
• During the credits, the phrase "I hate Mondays" is a reference to the famous newspaper comic strip Garfield.
• The Summerween Trickster being made of candy is an allusion to the The Nightmare Before Christmas villain Oogie Boogie, who was made of bugs.
• Waddles' costume is similar to Animal Farm where, at the very end, the pigs start wearing suits.
• Stan calling himself the "Master of Fright," along with the little hand motion, is another reference to The Nightmare Before Christmas in the song "Jack's Lament"
• A candy called Blorch makes several cameos. This sweet shares the same name as the planet of rat-people in Nickelodeon's Invader Zim.
• The candy Mr. Adequate-bar is a reference to Mr. Goodbar.

Errors

• When Stan pulls up to the Summerween Superstore, he parks in front of a handicap parking sign. However, the sign is facing away from the parking spot instead of toward it.
• When Mabel opens the door for the Summerween Trickster, Dipper was standing near. However the door never hit Dipper, nor was he there after, but appears later on.
• In Mabel and Dipper's music number for Halloween at the biker's house, the treat bag disappears. When he gives them the candy, after it ended, it reappears in their hands.
• During a few frames, the strawberry on Mabel's costume leaned in a different direction.
• When Soos' truck was recklessly driving through town, it had a blanket draped on the back end of the car. After the car crashed into the store, it disappears.
• When Soos hits the Summerween Trickster with his truck, Gorney can not be seen. But in the store when Soos is eating out of the Summerween Trickster, Gorney comes out.
• In the Summerween Superstore, the skulls in the bowls are in different areas when they first get there and when Soos crashes his truck into the store.
• In one of the opening frames, the lettering on the water tower that usually reads "Gravity Falls" is gone. Also, the walkway where Mabel took Stan in the previous episode(s) isn't there.
• When Candy says she took a picture of the Summerween Trickster, she never pulls her phone out when she first met him.
• Waddles has a light brown/tan spot on his left eye rather than his right eye.
• When you first see children Trick-or-Treating, Waddles is with a random child, Candy and Grenda walking by themselves, and Gorney appearing on the top-left even when he was eaten.
• The Summerween Trickster's eyes are peppermints, but after when Soos was eating him and he was screaming in pain and he fell on the ground his eyes are just yellow dots.
• When Dipper is shocked to see Wendy with Robbie, he drops some candy from the bowl on the ground. When Wendy comes in the Mystery Shack with Robbie to get her jacket, no candy is seen on the floor.
• In the promo for this episode, the Summerween Trickster was a brighter shade of purple than in the actual episode.
• When the Summerween Trickster is talking about "every discarded bar of chocolate with that white, powdery stuff" he's explaining it with both hands, even though he only had one free hand.
• The Summerween Trickster said Dipper, Mabel, Candy, and Grenda had until the last jack-o-melon goes out to get 500 pieces of candy. Yet when the Summerween Trickster came to get his candy, Stan's jack-o-melon was still lit.
• Twice in the episode, the Summerween Trickster shows its mouth: when he eats Gorney and when he is searching for Dipper, Mabel, Candy, Grenda, and Soos. However, when the Trickster reveals his full face, his mouth was under his mask.
• When the Summerween Trickster first goes into the store for the kids, he tears the door off of Soos's car. When it shows the kids running around behind the Trickster, the car still has the door.
• Dipper's watch disappears when he first opens the door to the Trickster then re-appears when Dipper closes the door.
• Waddles's light brown/tan spot has been replaced with pink spots instead of light brown/tan spots, when he's eating the candy in a bowl.
• Waddles' fake suit is stiff when he first appears; but later it folds when he goes to eat candy.

Cast

Voice actor/actress	Character
Jason Ritter	Dipper Pines
Kristen Schaal	Mabel Pines
Alex Hirsch	Stan Pines Soos Ramirez Old Man McGucket
Jeff Bennett	Summerween Trickster
T.J. Miller	Robbie
Linda Cardellini	Wendy Corduroy
Gregg Turkington	Toby Determined
Carl Faruolo	Grenda Grendinator
Niki Yang	Candy Chiu
Keith Ferguson	Deputy Durland
Jennifer Coolidge	Lazy Susan
Kevin Michael Richardson	Sheriff Blubs
Grey DeLisle	Gorney Summerween Superstore clerk
Dee Bradley Baker	Waddles
John DiMaggio	Manly Dan

External links

• Gravity Falls Wiki: Summerween