Snappy dresser.
Isosceles iconoclast.
Three sided monster.
Welcome to Deciphering Cipher.
A mini series dedicated to delving into the secrets of the 2015 Bill Cipher AMA.
I’m your host, Douglas MacKrell.
In Bill Cipher’s AMA, Bill was quick to toss out insults and verbal barbs, but unexpectedly
he also made several references to real world conspiracies, secrets, and ciphers.
In this episode, I’ll be breaking these references down and shedding some light into
what these possibly reveal about the triangular maniac.
A good place to start is from a question asked by Reddit user primal-meridian: “Are you
at all interested in human pop culture?”, and Bill replied: JUST THE GOOD STUFF! and
added a link.
That link lead to a black and white broadcast of the song 96 tears by Question Mark and
the Mysterians.
Thematically it makes a lot of sense - the band’s gimmick is steeped in Mystery Shack
style question marks plastered over everything.
They’re also credited as being the very first Punk Rock band, which goes with Bill
Cipher’s anti-establishment tendencies - But a little more digging provides some interesting
details.
Question Mark and the Mysterians partially took their name from the 1957 Japanese sci-fi
film, The Mysterians - which told the story of a group of aliens who arrive and try to
conquer the Earth with the aid of a giant robot.
Theoretically, there is a spaceship buried somewhere under Gravity Falls - so this reference
may have been a clever way for Alex Hirsch to tip his hat about why that spaceship is
there and what it’s Alien inhabitants want from Earth!
And speaking of covert alien references, Reddit user CheckMatingSeason asked: “What should
be beware of?” and Bill replied with a link to the theme song of the 1958 film, The Blob.
The Blob’s theme song famously begins with the chorus “Beware of the Blob”, but for
those who don’t know - the blob is a slime monster that crashed on Earth in a meteorite
and terrorized a town by gooping about and eating people.
The original film is a lot of fun and was really one of the very first successful independent
films ever made.
If you’re looking for a fun way to spend an afternoon I suggest you look it up - just
be careful that you find the 50s version.
The movie was remade in the 80s, and that version can be a bit too graphic for my younger
or sensitive viewers - so beware that blob.
Now, there are two reasons why this could be an important reference to the future of
Gravity Falls.
In the film, The Blob had only one weakness.
Cold temprature.
The protagonists of the film are only able to escape The Blob by flash freezing it with
liquid nitrogen!
In Gravity Falls’s second season we’ve been introduced to a character whose only
weakness is being cryogenically frozen.
The Shapeshifter.
Is this link Bill’s playful way of warning the audience that we should be wary of the
Shapeshifter’s inevitable return?
Secondly, The Blob was part of a double feature.
Meaning it was packaged and shown with another movie which audiences only had to pay once
to see - in this case, a movie called I Married a Monster from Outer Space.
Now, we know that Grunkle Stan is a man with a troubled past when it comes to marriage.
Theoretically, he’s now the legitimate grandfather of Dipper and Mabel, which means we may soon
learn more about their grandmother.
While we don’t know anything about this theoretical woman - what if this is link was
a clever way of letting us know that the mother of Stan’s children was an alien?
That would make Dipper and Mabel part extraterrestrial, which might just explain the birthmark on
Dipper’s forehead!
Reddit user seersucker_socks asked Bill: “Heya Bill, what's the best/worst deal you've ever
made?” and Bill replied, “NEVER DO YOUR BANKING WITH A MAN NAMED THOMAS J BEALE.”
This makes reference to an 1885 publication called The Beale Papers.
A pamphlet that contained three blocks of ciphertext and letters claiming to be from
a man named Thomas J Beale.
As the story goes, Beale discovered a MASSIVE treasure in a mine just north of Santa Fe,
and over the course of a few cross country trips, buried that treasure in a vault somewhere
in or around Bedford County, Virginia.
To safeguard that treasure, Beale created three encoded messages.
One with the location of the treasure, one detailing what the treasure fully contained,
and a final code that acted as a will - detailing the names and locations of his inheritors.
Beale supposedly entrusted these codes in a locked box that he gave to his friend, a
local innkeeper with instructions to only open it if he didn’t return within 10 years.
Now before you break out your shovels and run to Virginia, there’s a few things you
should know.
The Beale Papers was published by a man named James B. Ward - the purported friend of the
unnamed innkeeper.
This already makes the story as reliable as an urban legend - a twice removed story about
a friend of a friend.
In the years since, no one has been able to decode the remaining two ciphertexts that
detail the location of the treasure, or the identities of the inheritors of that treasure.
Also, no one has ever lucked into a massive vault of iron pots filled with gold and precious
gems - so there’s much evidence to the fact that this was all a massive hoax designed
by Ward to sell copies of his book!
Bill Cipher also made reference to three of the the CIA’s biggest secrets.
Reddit user ufo_breakdown asked “Are there any magical symbols that you hate?” and
Bill replied, “KRYPTOS”.
KRYPTOS is a statue designed by Jim Sanborn that stands in front of the CIA’s main office
in Langley, Virginia.
This twelve foot tall statue contains four encoded messages, and so far only three of
the messages have been publically decoded.
The final code is just 97 letters long - and just last year Jim gave a clue that the final
encoded word translates to Berlin - but even with this clue, no one has publicly come forward
with the answer.
Although there’s nothing “magical” about the symbols used in Sanborn’s sculpture,
there is something magical in the fact that one man was able to craft a code so cryptic,
that the world’s best minds have yet to fully solve it!
Reddit user artisticbliss asked, “Are you planning anything particularly exciting in
the future?
Like the end of the world?” and Bill replied “IM THINKING OF BRINGING BACK MKULTRA”
MK ULTRA was a secret project run by the CIA from the early 1950s until roughly 1973 - at
least according to official documents that have been released to the public.
The main goal of MK ULTRA was to discover new ways to torture captives and to develop
mind control methods in order to obtain secrets from captured foreign operatives.
The problem with MK ULTRA beyond its sinister goals was the fact that the US Government
mostly experimented on unwitting subjects, and their experiments usually lead to long
term psychological problems, medical disorders, and even death.
Worse yet, the true scope of MK ULTRA may never fully be known because the then head
of the CIA, Richard Helms, ordered that all of the documents from the project be destroyed
before they could be discovered.
If not for the aftermath of the Watergate scandal in the 70’s, we may have never known
about MK ULTRA, and they might not have stopped their experiments!
Reddit user arekayrk asked “What's the worst that could happen?” and Bill replied, “OPERATION
NORTHWOODS”.
In case you weren’t completely skeeved out by how shady the CIA is, consider Operation
Northwoods - the CIA’s plot to plant False Flag attacks on the US in order to trick the
American people into a war with Cuba.
Basically Cuba really wasn’t much of a visible threat, so CIA wanted the American Government
to stage fake terrorist attacks on itself - that way to Americans, and the entire world,
it would be the proof that Cuba was the bad guy and America would have the moral high
ground to go to war.
Thanks to President John F Kennedy who stood up against the CIA and it’s powerful allies,
Operation Northwoods did not go past the planning stages, and the Missile Crisis slowly fizzled
out.
Operation Northwoods shows just how much terrifying power the Government has and how little transparency
the public actually has.
These references to CIA conspiracies against the citizens of the United States may have
been a tip of the hat to Agents Powers and Trigger who seemingly take orders from a highly
covert group within the Government.
It may be ultimately revealed that Powers and Trigger are unwitting pawns in a larger
conspiracy against the people of Earth!
Though there are more references made by Bill, the final one I’ll focus on was made in
regard to a question left by Reddit user Jonarobin, who asked “WILL THE PLAIN OF YOUR EXISTENCE
LAST LONGER THAN 2 SEASONS OR IS THIS THE END OF OUR CONNECTION WITH YOU” and Bill
replied with a link to the theme song of Eerie Indiana.
For those who don’t know, Eerie Indiana was a live action TV show that ran from 1991
to 1993 for just 19 episodes.
It followed the adventures of Marshall Taylor, a New York City transplant whose family moves
to the seemingly boring and normal town of Eerie, Indiana.
But things are not as they seem, and Marshall and his best friend Simon Holmes investigate
the bizarre and paranormal elements of the town.
The show was created by José Rivera and Karl Schaefer, but much of Eerie Indiana’s amazing
look, feel, and production value can be attributed to one of my favorite directors, Joe Dante
- who was not only the chief creative consultant for the show, he also personally directed
the best episodes of the series.
Despite the show’s critical praise and high ratings for its timeslot, it proved to be
too expensive for NBC to produce for their children’s block of Saturday Morning programming,
and the show was cancelled after just one season.
But that’s not the end of the story - you see, Eerie Indiana was syndicated by the still
relatively young Disney Channel, and later by Fox - which re-aired the show in 1997 for
a halloween promotion.
Interest in the show EXPLODED, and Fox acted quickly on that by buying the rights and making
a new series called Eerie Indiana: The Other Dimension.
This new series was remarkably cheaper than the original series, and it suffered from
poor and uninspired writing.
It was a resounding flop, and Fox only aired the single season of just 15 episodes once.
Since Eerie Indiana only ran for a single season, and Gravity Falls has already run
for a season and a half, this link does not directly answer Jonarobin’s question, but
it could possibly be a clue about the future of Gravity Falls!
It could be Alex’s clever way of letting the audience know that much like Eerie Indiana,
Gravity Falls will live past when Fans expect the show to be over.
There has been a lot of speculation about the future of the show, and if a third season
is possible - this may be the proof we need to lay to rest fears about an unexpected and
abrupt end to the series.
Or, this may be a more overt clue to the future of Gravity Falls.
We already know that interdimensional travel is not only possible, but several of the show’s
big mysteries are directly tied to other dimensions.
What if - much like Eerie Indiana - Gravity Falls third season takes place in an alternate
dimension?
What if Dipper and Mabel end up in a place that’s very similar, but filled with new
mysteries and even higher stakes?
But these are just my theories.
If you agree or disagree, then be sure to sound off in the comments below.
And until our next episode, share, subscribe, and keep cracking those codes.
Bill Cipher reveals a surprising amount of information about his friends, family, and
the place where he’s from - and I’ll be delving into these secrets in the next episode
of Deciphering Cipher!