Sock Opera

In the Gravity Falls Library, Mabel Pines and Dipper Pines are finally able to open the laptop they found in the bunker after Soos Ramirez had fixed it. Unfortunately, they are stopped from accessing the contents because it's protected by an eight letter password. Annoyed, Dipper Pines begins to attempt cracking the password with Mabel Pines, but she is distracted by puppeteer Gabe Benson, who is performing for children on the wonders of reading. Mabel Pines chats him up, telling him she has a love for puppets as well. Gabe is glad to find someone who is as "puppet crazy" as he is and asks her when her next puppet show is. Put on the spot, Mabel Pines makes up a quick story and details the show in next week.

Mabel Pines requests Dipper Pines's help, promising she'd help him crack the password once they finish the preparations for the last minute show. Dipper Pines reluctantly agrees, eager to finally discover what the laptop holds as he leaves the library with Mabel Pines, unaware that a familiar shadow is following them.

Over the next few days, Mabel Pines, Dipper Pines, Wendy Corduroy, and Soos Ramirez make numerous puppets. In the meantime, Dipper Pines continues to attempt cracking the password at night, depriving him of sleep-- failing repeatedly. The night before the show, while Mabel Pines is content with her puppet progress, Dipper Pines continues to grow frustrated. As she gets ready for bed, Dipper Pines decides to head for the roof and try a little longer. Furious with the constant error sound the computer makes with every wrong entry, he considers that there must be a clue or shortcut to make the laptop work, when he is surprised by none other than Bill Cipher! Bill toys with Dipper Pines before offering to give him hints on how to unlock the laptop. Bill would help Dipper Pines if he agrees to "a small favor." Dipper Pines refuses, the events of "Dreamscaperers" fresh in his mind. Bill tells Dipper Pines that the offer will still be open, and he'll be ready to make a deal right before Dipper Pines wakes up screaming.

In the kitchen, Stan is ignoring Mabel Pines who is trying to get his attention with the puppet version of him. Stan continues to purposefully be oblivious to what she's been doing all week. Dipper Pines tiredly takes Mabel Pines aside and informs her of his encounter with the "triangle guy." Mabel Pines reassures him that she's ready to help Dipper Pines that day after passing along her puppets to her production crew, Candy and Grenda. However, this plan falls through when Gabe unexpectedly shows up, nitpicking a puppet show of another girl's he attended the night before. Feeling a rise in quality and pressure, and seeing her team's mishaps, Mabel Pines decides to continue working on the show. Dipper Pines angrily points out her promise and how breaking it isn't worth her obsession with her crush-of-the-week. However, Mabel Pines throws the phrase back in his face and tells him that he's the one who's obsessed. She insists she'll help him after the show, but fed up and disappointed Dipper Pines heads to the attic to crack the code himself.

However, the laptop, having apparently received the incorrect password too many times, prepares to initiate a data wipe in five minutes, giving him only one more chance. Just as Dipper Pines flies into a panic, Bill Cipher reappears, giving Dipper Pines an ultimatum: Accept the deal, or have the laptop's secrets erased forever, and all Bill wants is a puppet. Dipper Pines suspiciously continues to reject the offer, telling Bill that Mabel Pines worked really hard on those puppets. Bill slyly reminds Dipper Pines of all the times he has sacrificed his wants for Mabel Pines (like preventing Robbie and Wendy Corduroy from going out so she could have Waddles or his job at the public pool so she could help Mermando), who has never returned the favor. Moreover, he tells Dipper Pines that he just needs one puppet, of which there is a surplus of anyway. As the laptop continues to count down the seconds, the temptation pushes Dipper Pines over the edge and he agrees.

As they shake hands (closing the deal), Dipper Pines asks Bill which puppet he wanted. Bill mockingly ponders his answer before turning on Dipper Pines and takes possession of his body and kicking Dipper Pines's consciousness out. Dipper Pines, now in a ghost-like form is shocked as Bill stomps on the laptop, smashing it to pieces. He reveals that Dipper Pines was the puppet he wanted and that Dipper Pines "had come way too close to figuring out some major answers," and wanted Dipper Pines out of the way. He proclaims that now all he has to do is destroy *Journal 3* and Dipper Pines will be unable to stop his "big plans."

As he experiments with Dipper Pines's body, harming it in several ways, they end up in the kitchen. Bill asks Dipper Pines where the journal is, which Dipper Pines immediately refuses to answer, just as Mabel Pines pops in and reveals that she borrowed the journal to use as a prop for her show. Bill, equipped with this knowledge, follows the gang to the show with Soos Ramirez and Wendy Corduroy, mocking Dipper Pines and gloating that Dipper Pines cannot stop him from executing his plan.

Dipper Pines follows them to the show which has a huge audience. Bill's plans are further aided with Mabel Pines's help as he takes the role of the reverend in the play, allowing him firsthand access to the journal. Bill learns from Grenda that the journal is being kept in the prop wedding cake, which is suspended above the stage near the catwalk. Dipper Pines attempts to warn Mabel Pines of the imminent danger, but as a ghost, he was invisible to Mabel Pines. He realizes he needs a body to possess to interact with others and thus possesses a sock puppet of himself.

The first half of the play goes successfully and Mabel Pines washes up in the dressing room. She is quite frightened by the puppet of Dipper Pines, who reveals his true identity and warns Mabel Pines of Bill's plans. Mabel Pines wants to stop Bill, but she risks losing the success of her show and Gabe's affection. This is further shown when Gabe, impressed, invites Mabel Pines to join him for biscotti after the play. She compromises, attempting to retrieve the book as Dipper Pines carries out the second half of the play.

She climbs to the top of the stage and reaches out for the book, but falls into the cake and nearly plummets to the stage below. However, someone catches the rope, saving her and the show from a failure. But it turns out to be Bill-Dipper Pines (or Bipper, as dubbed by Mabel Pines) and threatens to drop the cake, thereby ruining the play if she doesn't hand over the journal. Mabel Pines refuses at first, claiming the book belonged to Dipper Pines. But Bill tries to guilt and cajole her into giving the journal up; pointedly stating that she had no problem taking the journal for herself and ditching Dipper Pines when Dipper Pines needed her. He threatens her again to give up the book or he'll ruin the play. Mabel Pines hesitantly relents, giving him the book. Bill laughingly gloats, "who would sacrifice everything they'd worked for just for their dumb sibling?" Mabel Pines, strengthened by all that Dipper Pines's done for her, yanks the book back, dragging Bill into the cake and onto the stage - interrupting the play.

The two fight on the stage, Bill telling Mabel Pines to give up, as he's a being of pure energy with no weakness. However, Mabel Pines knows that Bill in Dipper Pines's body possesses the same weaknesses as Dipper Pines, and exploits this. First tickling him, and then making him aware of the fact that Dipper Pines's body hasn't slept in 24 hours and is, therefore, exhausted. Having become more aware of his human container, Bill also finds himself plagued with itchiness from mosquito bites, and out of breath from being forced to chase an energetic Mabel Pines. The sleep-deprived body, now completely unable to move, collapses, forcing Bill out of Dipper Pines's body and allowing Dipper Pines to reclaim it.

Bill, now in the body of Dipper Pines's puppet, laughs menacingly and warns them of his bigger plans that would unfold in time, and that Dipper Pines and Mabel Pines won't be able to stop him. Mabel Pines ultimately ends this boasting by lighting the pyrotechnics, destroying all the puppets she had created and silencing Bill.

Mabel Pines assumes that like most movies, that the audience would believe the fight was part of the play and would find it exceptional. Unfortunately, the audience realizes it's the mess it really is and leaves with boos and hisses of hatred. Gabe, heartbroken at Mabel Pines supposedly sullying his art form, makes out with his hand puppets and leaves. The twins are left weirded out, and Mabel Pines realizes she probably dodged a bullet by not becoming more involved with Gabe. Dipper Pines then apologizes for his actions, but Mabel Pines ends up apologizing for wasting a week on some dumb guy instead of supporting Dipper Pines as she should have. The two make up and leave.

As the credits roll, Mabel Pines has a dream of an actual play starring her and Dipper Pines as sock puppets with Stan and Old Man McGucket as audience members. She wakes up, unnerved, and turns away the puppet of herself which was sitting on her bedpost, and goes back to sleep.