There's so much to love about this episode that it's hard to whittle it down. The creativity unleashed by the show becoming totally unmoored was truly astonishing to see, from the retrofitted title sequence to the menagerie of creatures including (but not limited to) a monster that is a giant head with an arm growing out of it that has the voice of Hirsch. (Hirsch is just the kind of fearless creator who you could imagine actually doing something like that.) This was a true apocalypse, and for much of the running time, you get the sensation that none of your favorite characters would escape from this alive. It wasn't clear just how serious this whole 'end of the world' threat was going to be until the first part of the season (and series) finale, which saw Bill Cipher escaping from his prison and unleashing phantasmagorical nightmares on our favorite Pacific Northwestern town.

'Weirdmageddon Part 1' (Season 2, Episode 18) But the main takeaway from the episode is that Dipper decides to stay with Ford and explore the unexplored, which means that he and Mabel wouldn't be living together, a decision that ultimately almost triggers the end of the world. There's lots of cool stuff in this episode, although it's kind of a bummer that there aren't any aliens on the craft (instead, Dipper is chased by robotic sentinels).

Ford posits an incredible question that never gets fully answered: did an ancient alien spacecraft crash in the valley surrounding the town because of the area's inherent weirdness, or was the weirdness created by events like the crashed UFO? We never fully get an explanation but gee is that a tantalizing question. This pre-Weirdmageddon triumph had Dipper and Mabel planning for their 13th birthday party/going away bash (since it would happen at the end of summer, right before they head home) and Dipper investigating the extraterrestrial origins of Gravity Falls.

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