Gravity Falls Review: "Irrational Treasure" (Season 1, Episode 8)

Airdate: August 17th, 2012

Full Synopsis (Spoilers): It's Pioneer Day in Gravity Falls. At an event to commemorate the day, Pacifica Northwest, the descendant of the town's founder, goes up and makes a rather egotistical speech. Pacifica catches Mabel, and criticises her on her wackier behaviour. This makes Mabel question her prior Genki Girl tendencies.

Dipper, meanwhile, manages to catch a line in his journal that says that the town founder, Nathaniel Northwest, may have been a fraud. Mabel takes up on solving this with Dipper, to try and prove that she can be serious. Ironically, due to Mabel's quirky tendencies (including folding a map into a paper hat, amongst other things), the two find a cave contains many top secret documents, as well as revealing the truth... Northwest was NOT the town founder. In fact, Northwest was a complete and utter dullard! The town founder was, in fact, some wacko named Quentin Trembley.

You think your leader is insane? Try Quentin Trembley

Deputy Durland and Sheriff Blubs, the two idiot cops, track them down and reveal that they are working with the American government. They also reveal that the Trembley took the job after being kicked out of the presidency for being street-rat deranged (he banned people from wearing pants, declared wars on pancakes, and appointed babies to the Supreme Court). Trembley encased himself in peanut brittle, thinking it had life-saving properties, and was "buried" in the cave. Durland and Blubs caught the Pines twins thanks to candies dropped by Mabel. The Pines twins are captured and sent via train to DC.

Whilst on the train, Mabel mopes about the fact that maybe she IS too goofy. She eats the peanut brittle in depression... freeing Trembley. The three escape, and Trembley calls out Blubs and Durland, declaring that he never resigned, and thus is still technically president. He makes Mabel a congressperson, and Dipper reveals the facts to Pacifica.

Review: God, I LOVE this episode!

This episode brings together history (something I love), conspiracy-style episodes, and even a bit of science fiction. The development that the characters get is some of the best in the show. Mabel realises that her goofiness is actually a good thing, Dipper gets his first act of revenge against a villain, Pacifica is revealed to be a fake, and Blubs and Durland are revealed to be more then just two incompetent cops that are VERY close friends (if not more... hey, there's plenty of subtext!) This show also introduces one of my favourite characters, Quentin Trembley. Imagine every crazy world leader, with their insanity cranked up to 11, and goofy. That's Quentin Trembley. He is quite possibly, the most badass character in the history of the show.

I must admit, as a fan of History, this episode did confuse and frustrate me a bit. For example, Trembley was elected in 1837, which was not a US presidential election year (Martin Van Buren was president during this year). Also, they say he was replaced with William Henry Harrison (who, in reality, took office and died in 1841). Also, since Trembley was feared dead, he was technically not president in 2012. The episode also contradicts itself at least once (how come Santa Claus is the president of the US one moment, and Trembley the next moment?)

Still, ignore the historical logic (or lack thereof), and you have a VERY enjoyable episode, which has very few faults (possibly Pacifica still being a Jerkass and Gideon having a useless role are the only flaws in the episode). And besides, the next episode's logic is SO screwed up.

Favourite Scene: ANYTHING WITH QUENTIN TREMBLEY!

Score: 9. 6.5 if you take in the historical logic. I will not, this once.