- This page is for the episode. For the holiday, see Summerween (event).
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"Summerween"[3] is the 12th episode of the first season of Gravity Falls and is the first Halloween special of the series. It premiered on October 5, 2012 on Disney Channel.
Official overview
It's Gravity Falls' version of Halloween that takes place in Summer with Jack-o'-melons and lots of trick-or-treating. Dipper and Mabel are excited to join in on the fun, but when Wendy casually mentions that trick-or-treating is for kids, Dipper's whole outlook on the evening changes. The night gets even more complicated when a monster that Dipper accidentally insulted makes them fulfill his candy quota by the night's end or else he will eat them.[3]
Synopsis
The Summerween Superstore.
Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Grunkle Stan drive to the Summerween Superstore to prepare for Summerween. Stan explains that the locals wanted to celebrate Halloween twice a year, so they created Summerween, a Halloween in the middle of the summer. Soos finds funny cackling skulls in the store and he keeps pressing them, much to his amusement. Mabel and Dipper are trashing the store costumes riding a wheelbarrow while Grunkle Stan gets some material for scaring trick-or-treaters. The cashier calls security due to the disturbance they're making, so Grunkle Stan throws a smoke bomb at the cashier and runs away with the gang, paying for the things with "Stan Bucks," Stan's poorly drawn counterfeit money.
Dipper and Mabel are planning out Summerween when Soos tells Dipper and Mabel about the Summerween Trickster. If the children do not have Summerween spirit, the Summerween Trickster eats them alive. However, Dipper begins throwing out candy that he deems as trashy "loser candy" that Stan had bought to hand out, unaware that someone is watching him from afar.
The Summerween Trickster forces the kids to trick or treat.
The doorbell rings and Dipper goes to answer it. Dipper is surprised to find Wendy and Robbie at the door. When Robbie asks Dipper if he is going trick or treating, Wendy tells him that Dipper isn't because trick or treating is for kids. Dipper reluctantly agrees with her. Wendy invites Dipper to Tambry's Summerween party, and Dipper says he will go. However, Mabel has invited Grenda and Candy to go trick or treating. 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. The Trickster knocks on the door again, but Dipper slams it in his face, angering the Trickster. Mabel scolds Dipper and opens the door again. The Summerween Trickster now breaks into the Mystery Shack and tells him, Mabel, Grenda, and Candy that if they don't deliver 500 pieces of candy to him by the time all the jack-o'-melons in town go out, he'll eat them, proving that he will keep his promise by eating a random trick-or-treater named Gorney who arrives at the shack.
Dipper and Mabel's costumes.
They 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. Because of this, Mabel decides to dress Dipper up 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 everyone but Dipper while Soos goes somewhere to get his truck so they can deliver the candy. Unfortunately, Dipper sees Wendy and Robbie arriving in their van, forcing him to take off his Summerween costume and hide the supply of candy behind a bush.
When Dipper tells them he will be at the party soon, Wendy and Robbie take off but in doing so, Mabel (who came back from the last house with the last piece of candy and overheard everything) discovers why he faked being sick earlier, leaving her upset that her brother was going to ditch her on Halloween. It doesn't get any better; the supply of 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 Summerween Trickster then arrives.
Meanwhile, Grunkle Stan is having a difficult time trying to scare two kids. He even has Waddles burst out of his chest in an attempt to scare them, but the kids are not scared due to watching horror movies ever since they were two years old. The kids scare Grunkle Stan with a "screamer video," and Stan runs back in the Mystery Shack in disgrace.
The kids are temporarily captured.
Soon, the Summerween Trickster tries to eat Dipper and Mabel, but suddenly, Soos comes out of nowhere and 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 and lying to 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. While hiding in the shelves, Mabel reveals she was upset with Dipper for choosing to go to a party with Wendy 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.
They are almost in the clear when Soos turns on a cackling skull that he was playing with earlier and the Summerween Trickster finds them. The Summerween Trickster is revealed 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.
Grunkle Stan finally manages to scare the two kids after they sneak into his house and accidentally see him half-naked in his bathroom to "wash off the shame," and the kids drop their huge sacks of candy while running away. Dipper, Mabel, Soos, Grenda, and Candy finally made it back to the Mystery Shack and found Wendy back early from the party. Dipper confesses to Wendy that he was trick-or-treating, but she has no problem with it, replying that the party was lame anyway and that Robbie went home early because he ate a lollipop-stick first, causing Dipper to laugh. In the end, everyone watches TV eating the candy Grunkle Stan got from the two kids. Grunkle Stan explains that Summerween isn't about candy or scaring others, but a night to celebrate pure evil. After shared maniacal laughter, Soos confesses, "I ate a man alive tonight," and everyone glances strangely at him.
Credits
- Written by:
- Directed by:
- Storyboards by:
- With the Voice Talents of:
- Kristen Schaal as Mabel Pines
- Jason Ritter as Dipper Pines
- Alex Hirsch as Grunkle Stan and Soos Ramirez
- Jeff Bennett as Summerween Trickster
- T.J. Miller as Robbie Valentino
- Linda Cardellini as Wendy Corduroy
- Gregg Turkington as Toby Determined
- Carl Faruolo as Grenda Grendinator
- Niki Yang as Candy Chiu
- Keith Ferguson as Deputy Durland
- Jennifer Coolidge as Lazy Susan
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Sheriff Blubs
- Grey DeLisle as Gorney
- Additional Voices:
- Dee Bradley Baker as Waddles
- Grey DeLisle as Summerween Superstore worker
- John DiMaggio as Manly Dan
- Alex Hirsch as Old Man McGucket and Cackling skulls
- Leo DeNar as Screamer video on Soldier Kid's phone
- Joshua Rush as Soldier Kid
- Blake Bertrand as Mummy Kid
- Casting by:
Production notes
- See also: List of allusions and List of goofs.
Series continuity
- Robbie and Wendy are still dating after starting their relationship in "The Time Traveler's Pig."
- Candy and Grenda continue their friendship with Mabel as started in "Double Dipper."
- The Explosion muffin that Robbie spray painted on the water tower, first seen in "The Inconveniencing", appears once again.
- The '90s teenagers that caused Ma and Pa's death in "The Inconveniencing" are shown again as contributing factors to the creation of the Summerween Trickster.
Songs featured
Trivia
- Moral: Remember to cherish the simple joys of community traditions (even if you feel too old or awkward to celebrate), include others in the fun, and not let pride or peer pressure get in the way of shared experiences.
- Viewership: This episode was viewed by 3.478 million people on its premiere night.[2]
- The Summerween Trickster can be seen among the pictures in the theme song, albeit with an apparent orange skin color.
- The Summerween Trickster is bright purple in the promo for this episode. [4]
- This is the first Halloween episode in the series.
- This episode takes place on Friday, June 22, 2012 as seen on Stan's calendar. It is notable that the summer solstice (Midsummer or St. John's Night/Day) falls on or around this day each year; in many European countries this day was associated with the same sort of witchery and tricks that modern Americans associate with Halloween (though due to changes in the calendar the day was formerly calculated on the 23rd/24th).
Soos eating the Trickster's heart.
- After Soos bursts out of the Summerween Trickster, the piece of the Trickster that he is eating is anatomically heart-shaped.
- Candy's photo of the Trickster has the equivalent of the English term, "awesome" in Korean on it, according to Niki Yang.[5] It's actually closer to "OMG" or "What the heck."
- This is the final episode to be aired in 2012 as no episodes aired in November and December. The show took a 4-month hiatus, and the next episode, "Boss Mabel," aired February 15, 2013.
- In the LOLcat-style slideshow, Waddle's pie chart only adds up to 98%; Two of the percentages are 6 and 18, right next to each other.
- The bottom of the poster for Tambry's party says, "Not S+P approved". S+P refers to Standards and Practices, an entertainment department that is in charge of censoring inappropriate jokes and lines. Alex Hirsch wrote this line to replace a reference to spin-the-bottle that Standards and Practices did not approve.[6]
- This is despite a "spin the bottle" reference slipping through in "The Legend of the Gobblewonker".
- In the cold open, Dipper and Mabel pass by a shelf of masks that includes faces of crew who worked on the show.
- From top left to bottom right, Matt Braly, ?, Larry King?, John Aoshima, Matt Rowe?, ?, Erik Fountain, ?, ?, ?, ?, and ?.
Cryptogram
- 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." Homework: the Candy is one of the brands of candy in the Mystery Shack's bowl of "loser candy."
Influence on real life Summerween
In June 2025, the Summerween holiday began seeing a real world spike in popularity through social media and retail interest, with many pointing to the Summerween episode as the origin of the term and concept. Summerween has become a holiday celebrated beyond just the fan community of Gravity Falls, and has seen an influx in attention, celebrations and events around it occur, with retailors selling Halloween items earlier in the year as a result of it.[7][8]
Gallery
Click here to view this page's gallery.
References
- ↑ Breeck, Brad (March 29, 2015). GF E114 Sumerween FUN Outro (MP3). SoundCloud. Retrieved on April 5, 2015.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kondolojy, Amanda (October 8, 2012). Friday Cable Ratings: MLB Wins Night + 'Friday Night SmackDown', 'Ultimate Fighter', College Football, 'UFC Fight night' & More (broken link). TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on October 10, 2012. Retrieved on November 14, 2020.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Disney on Demand (broken link). Retrieved on November 13, 2020.
- ↑ hadamsj (September 28, 2012). Gravity Falls - Summerween Promo. YouTube. Archived from the original on April 12, 2016.
- ↑ Summerween Trickster Camera Picture Production Artwork
- ↑ Alex Hirsch in regards to Disney Channel's Standard and Practices (The Nerdist Writer's Panel). Tumblr (September 29, 2014).
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BpfpdQOEu0
- ↑ https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/shop/story/summerween-2025-halloween-decorations-122454311
