Blendin's Game

Blendin's Game is the eighth episode in the second season of Gravity Falls and the 28th episode overall. It premiered on November 10, 2014.
==Synopsis==
In the year 207̃012, Blendin Blandin escapes the Infinitentiary and is pursued by the Time Paradox Avoidance Enforcement Squadron. Invoking "Globnar," a futuristic gladiatorial game controlled by the Time Baby, upon capture, he names Mabel and Dipper as tributes to challenge him in said arena, fueled by his hatred towards them after the events in "The Time Traveler's Pig."
Rewind to the 21st Century, where Dipper and Mabel are in the Mystery Shack attempting to purchase Yumber Jacks from the Mystery Shack's vending machine. When the tidbit gets stuck, Soos helps them out by doing a special "trick", opening the machine and using the candies inside to shower the twins with a "candy blizzard." Mabel tries to eat the candy without taking the wrappers off, being her mistake as she chokes on the candy and spits it out quickly. Soos then puts coins in the machine to pay for the candy he just took out, explaining that he'd do anything for the Pines family. Stan calls Soos over to help him scratch two places at once to which Soos happily goes, leaving his wallet behind. The twins look through it, pulling out a membership card for Big Gunz Laser Tag, emergency salami, and his license. They realize that it is Soos' birthday, and decide to throw him a surprise party. While discussing this, Mabel says that she's been waiting for a surprise party her whole life. Immediately after, Candy comes over and throws some confetti over her head saying "Surprise," to which Mabel responds "Too little, too late, Chiu."
Dipper and Mabel quickly throw together a surprise party with the assistance of Candy and Grenda. With Soos being blindfolded, Candy guides him outside, with him expecting to see a gigantic hummingbird, instead he sees a birthday party. The twins have a banner, cake flavored pizza, pizza flavored cake, and The Razz Dazzler, which is Toby in a sparkly outfit dancing. Upset, he sulks back inside. Wendy tells the twins that Soos has always hated his birthday and neither she nor Stan know why. Stan said he petitioned the government to get that day (July 13) removed from the calendar, but as a result is now banned from airplanes.
The gang (Mabel, Dipper, Soos, Stan, Wendy, Candy and Grenda) soon enough decide to go to Big Gunz Laser Tag. Everyone enters the game, but Soos stops to tie his shoe. As he does so, Mabel and Dipper run through a portal into the future and get trapped in a room made of timetanium. Blendin shows up with Lolph and Dundgren from the future and brings them to Globnar. They are told that if Blendin wins, then he chooses the fate of the twins (which he swore to wish they were never born) and, in addition, would be granted any wish he so desired, paradox free. They take the tape measure time machine off of one of the time officials escorting Blendin, and travel back in time, but accidentally ten years back. The twins dive under a bed when the three arrive in the same time period. They land in the mattress store, where the laser tag had been rebuilt many years later. Blendin said he was gonna keep stammering until Lolph and Dundgren found Dipper and Mabel, right before Dundgren says "I hate that guy." The time device is broken, but Dipper claims he can fix it.
Dipper needs tools, but is unsure of where to find them. They spot a sign for the Mystery Shack and make a run for it. On the way, they see little Tambry and Wendy riding tricycles. Wendy whispers to her friend that Dipper is cute, and she blurts it out to which Dipper blushes. Continuing onwards, they find a screwdriver and a 12 year old Soos at the Mystery Shack, with food stuck in the vending machine. Mabel shows him the trick he had shown her ten years in the future. Dipper fixes the time traveling device with a screwdriver. Even when the machine is fixed, they head over to Soos' birthday party to see if this is the birthday where "all the personal biz went down."
At Soos' birthday party, it is learned that Soos' dad would constantly promise to visit his son, only to go back on his promise at the last minute every time. That year he got a postcard from him, and it was the year he realized that his dad was never coming back. Dipper and Mabel develop an idea to grant Soos whatever wish he wanted if they completed and won Globnar. The twins give themselves up to Blendin and do the games. Not much of a fighting scene is given, but there is a race, chess, and a cyclops. Dipper and Mabel are scratched up completely. In the end, the final task is laser tag. The twins win and grab the wishing orb. The fate decided for Blendin is that he will be spared, and as a bonus, given him some nice hair. They give up the wish to Soos and recommends that he wishes to see his father. Soos instead wishes for them to be cleaned up and for an "infinitive slice of pizza." He says that they were always there for him and that his dad was not, so that they were his family. Soos throws the last postcard from his dad in the trash.
The episode ends in the past with Soos picking up his screwdriver and returning it to Stan, who hires him as a handyman. Soos then feels accepted. A code image of an hourglass is then presented.
==Voice Cast==
*Kristen Schaal - Mabel
*Jason Ritter - Dipper
*Alex Hirsch - Stan Pines, Soos
*Justin Roiland - Blendin Blandin
*Linda Cardellini - Wendy Corduroy
*Carl Faruolo - Grenda
*T.J. Miller - Robbie
*Niki Yang - Candy
*Matt Chapman - Abuelita
*Gregg Turkington - Toby Determined
*Genesis Ochoa - Young Tambry
*Kari Wahlgren - Soos' cousins
*Amory Watterson - Young Wendy
==Trivia==
*Moral: Birthdays are about spending and celebrating your time with your true family — as in, those who truly love and care about you, not necessarily just your blood relatives. Additionally, showing mercy to your enemies and burying the hatchet can have its benefits, and you should take responsibility for the consequences of your actions (even if they were unintentional).
*Chronologically, the present-day scenes in this episode take place before "Dreamscaperers", because this episode is set on July 13, and Journal 3 officially states "Dreamscaperers" taking place on the 15th.
**This would create a continuity error, since Stan still has his right hand bandaged from the wound he got at the end the previous episode, "Society of the Blind Eye" which takes place after "Dreamscaperers".
*Soos' house is located on "Chambrot Drive." This is a reference to Soos' character inspiration and Alex Hirsch's friend, Jesus Chambrot.
*When Stan gives Soos his job at the Mystery Shack, he sports his new fez design, rather than his old one.
*When Dipper and Mabel are in the past Mystery Shack, there appears to be a glove with six fingers stuck on a post on the wall. This glove is similar to, or may be the same one that Stan puts on in "Scary-oke."
*The title of this episode is a reference to Ender's Game, which features a similar story revolving around the challenge and combat.
*The vehicles in the game are similar to the Light Cycles from Tron.
*When Dipper and Mabel win, Blendin’s hands are free, but in the next shot, there are timecuffs around them
*This episode picks up after the events of "The Time Traveler's Pig" because of Blendin's large absence from Season 1 and is sent to 10(0) sentences in time prison and has spent his time their plotting his vengeance on him for using his time tape and messed up several rules of time.
* Soos' full name is revealed to be Jesus Alzamirano Ramirez ("Jesus" is pronounced as "Hay-Soos").
* Young Soos says he hasn't seen his dad for eight years, and Mabel says that was his 12th birthday which the twins visited, meaning Soos was four years old when he last saw his dad.
** Soos' driver's license says he was born on July 13; the birthday Dipper and Mabel travel to was his 12th birthday 10 years ago, putting him at 22 at the time of the episode. If this episode were to take place in 2012, then he was born in the year 1990.
* Soos is revealed to be an organ doner.
* It is revealed Dipper dropping a screwdriver in the past is what led to Soos getting a job at the Mystery Shack.
==Cryptograms==
*During the end credits, there is a cryptogram that reads "FOC'T FW MVV VIBE EZBAV KF NOW KTB'K FO IHG BBAV VIBE." Using the vigenère cipher, it translates to "DON'T DO THE TIME CRIME IF YOU CAN'T DO THE TIME TIME."
*Keyword: CAPACITOR, found on the ticker behind a statue of the Time Baby in the cold open.
*The page section revealed at the end of the episode says, "14-9-15-10 4-16-19 4-15-11-19 8-23-6-23-20-9-26 23-2-9-15-20-23-10-21-19 19-10-18-9-6-21-19-11-19-10-4 5-7-3-23-20-6-9-10!" (top), "17-6-19-23-4 16-9-3-6-5!" (middle right), "5-9-12-15-20 22-19-10-19-18-15-4-5!" (bottom left), and "5-15-17-10 3-8 25-19-5-4-19-6-20-23-25!" (bottom right). After using the combined cipher, it translates to "JOIN THE TIME PARADOX AVOIDANCE ENFORCEMENT SQUADRON! GREAT HOURS! SOLID BENEFITS! SIGN UP YESTERDAY!"
nl:Het Spel van Mono
pt-br:O Jogo de Blendin
Category:Gravity Falls episodes
Category:Birthday productions