By: Kelly Kearney
The penultimate chapter of “It: Welcome to Derry” plunges us deeper into the town’s darkest history — and the kids’ unraveling sanity, Delivering one of the show’s most chilling hours yet, we finally get that background story on Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and who is responsible for drawing him out of the sewers–hungry for Derry’s youth.
Tension, Trauma and a Dangerous Divide
We open in the 1930s, in stark black-and-white.A colorless memory of a young Nurse Ingrid (Tyner Rushing) silently waking a child patient named Mabel (Madeleine Cox). Under the cover of night, Ingrid allows Mable to lead her down to the hospital basement’s boiler room and the secret meeting spot Mabel claimed the clown told her about. The second they reach the boiler room’s corridor a red balloon floats into view. It’s the only pop of color in the scene and it feels ominous. On sight Mabel recoils behind her nurse hoping for protection. However, Ingrid seems more curious than afraid. She whispers that Mabel is safe, but that’s when the balloon shifts…and glowing eyes ignite the darkness. Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) is there, lurking between pipes, teeth bared and hungry.
Cut to present-day Derry where Will (Blake Cameron James) is still trapped inside the terror of the sewers. His father Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) paces and rages, furious that Will disobeyed orders to stay at the base. Because of Will, Leroy’s closest friend and co-pilot is dead — another casualty of this unseen war beneath their feet. Desperately, Will tries to explain how real this evil in Derry is and how it won’t stop hunting them until he and his friends end up like those missing kids from the theater. Leroy doesn’t want to hear it as he wants control and order–two things that make the soldier feel safe after his own harrowing experience with It. In an attempt to keep his family safe, he bans Will from leaving the house or seeing his friends until “the mission” is complete. Unfortunately for Leroy’s peace of mind, Will can’t do that. The evil will come for him no matter what rules his father lays down. When he refuses to abandon his friends to die, Leroy lashes out with a brutal slap that knocks Will to the floor. Everything in the room freezes. Charlotte (Taylour Paige) is horrified, but Will sees something worse — an emptiness in his father’s eyes. Has the evil clown infected him, too? Is it already inside his father? Will isn’t waiting around to find out. He bolts out the door, grabs his bike, and races to the lookout tower since it is the only place he still feels safe.
The Group Fractures
At the tower, the Losers are unraveling. Lily (Clara Stack) insists the supernatural dagger-like shard she recovered is the key to killing “him” once and for all. She has an idea on how to stop him but no one wants to go back into the sewers to try and kill this thing based on a theory she has. They are barely holding on as it is. When Will asks to inspect the shard, Lily clutches it like a weapon and refuses to let him get a closer look. Her trauma comes out sharper than the weapon she grips, turning possessive, panicked and downright mean. She trembles with a mix of fear and rage and it radiates across the friends’ group. That’s when Ronnie (Amanda Christine) snaps out of her daydreamed haze and accuses Lily of causing all of this. If Lily had stayed at Juniper Hill, maybe Ronnie’s father and the others would still be alive. These words hit like a dagger of their own and Lily starts to shake. Rich (Arian S. Cartaya) steps in, ever the realist as he recognizes this is exactly what the clown wants. The group is weaker apart than together and this division, distrust, fear, only feeds that clown. Lily isn’t listening as she is convinced that the only way to end this is the magical weapon she is never sharing with anyone else. Ronnie storms off as Lily’s grip tightens. If they all can’t put their differences aside and come together, not only is the friend group broken but each of them won’t survive what’s coming.
After making his way out of the sewer and the lockbox of his mind, Dick Halloran (Chris Chalk) retreats to the Black Spot clubhouse, hoping alcohol and familiar faces will quiet the horrors in his head. Instead, he finds someone unexpected: Hank (Stephen Rider)— Ronnie’s father — hiding from the town’s rampant racism and the wrongful manhunt tightening around him. Charlotte helped smuggle him here…something her husband definitely does not know.
Back on the street Will catches up to Ronnie who is raging over the selfish Lily. Grief and rage soften into fear; a fear of Pennywise, fear of the armed townspeople eager to find and kill Hank and, lastly, fear that “safe” might no longer exist for kids like them in Derry. Will hugs her as relief washing over them both. Their feelings for one another have been growing and just as their faces drift closer towards a first kiss, the moment of comfort is interrupted by Will’s mother. She pulls up in the family’s station wagon and orders them both into the car. She has something to show them.
THE REUNION
At the Black Spot Hank promises Dick he won’t leave the hidden backroom until Ingrid finds an escape route. That’s when Charlotte walks in and Ronnie runs into her father’s arms. Her relief at seeing her father safe from the angry townsfolk is palpable and it puts a smile on Will’s face. With a heavy heart, he can’t look away from the father-daughter bond–not after what happened between him and his own dad that morning.When Charlotte approaches Dick with her reasons for putting the Black Spot in the middle of this town tragedy, he is angry and storms off. After all, he is still a soldier and keeping things from her husband–his superior, only adds to his already worried mind.
Back at the lookout, the injured Marge (Matilda Lawler) gets help from Rich with her eye bandage. She is too embarrassed to let him see her disfigurement but he promises he is not squeamish. Then, he licks his finger to moisten the tape and peels it off, announcing her wound is the “coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” His reaction makes Marge smile and settles her nerves enough to allow him to change the bandage. As he applies the new tape he tells her how he thinks the evil isn’t done with them yet. Maybe Lily is right—they need to fight it together, but to do that they will need her and Ronnie to put away their differences for good. Ronnie is the one who needs the most convincing and the two decide that is their next mission. It’s a sweet moment between the budding young loves that ends with Rich tossing a paper airplane off the tower–gliding straight into the sewer below.
“WE BOTH HAVE SKIN IN THE GAME…”
On base Dick can hear the sounds of the sewer haunting his mind, and no amount of booze seems to numb it. When Major Leroy Hanlon stops by for a visit with new orders from General Shaw, Dick can’t concentrate as he is too busy trying to block out the dead man standing in the doorway. Of course, the Major can’t see the apparition, but for Dick, this is just more evidence that their trip to the sewers did nothing but anger the beast. It is obvious something happened to Dick in that sewer and when Major Hanlon demands answers about why Dick failed to follow them out of the tunnel, the truth about what he saw comes out. Dick was trapped for hours down there and he retells the story of his grandmother and that box. He explains his “gift” of sight–the same one his grandmother had begun as a child. As a boy he never slept, awakened by visions of the dead who tormented him. Over time, he forced all of them into a mental “box” where he could hear them, but not see them.Inthe sewer that box was forced open and now the contents haunt him wherever he goes. “The dead always wander back,” his grandmother warned.
Hanlon tries to understand, but he still wants payback for Pauley and he thinks that will come with another visit down under the town. He wants to know how to catch it and assumes Dick, who also has “skin in the game” will help him. Just the opposite; Dick calls him Shaw’s bootlicker who doesn’t care what happens to him as long as he finishes the mission. He refuses to help and when Hanlon tries to convince him further, Dick screams at him to get out.
At home, the frustrated Leroy returns to find Charlotte packing her bags. He laid hands on their son so she can’t stick around for any more of that. She hugs her husband but says he put them all in a cage with a monster when he agreed to this military assignment. Even after losing Pauley and almost shooting their son, he still pledges loyalty to the cage. That’s when she tells him about Hank and her role in protecting him. Leroy is livid, but just like Will he’s lost his grip on controlling what his family does.
At school Lily still clutches the dagger but it doesn’t keep her safe from seeing the clown masquerading as her dismembered dad. She has a breakdown in class and walks out, heading straight to the only person she feels she can rely on–Ingrid Kersh.
After Lily’s crashout, the whole lunchroom is talking about it. Rich and Margie sit together and talk about their trauma where he confesses his embarrassing pee jar issue and his night terrors. He is too afraid to get up at night to use the bathroom, so he is storing it in his room until morning. Marge appreciates his honesty and that’s when he hands her an heirloom eyepatch from Cuba he found at his house. The two have bonded and even share a similar sense of humor. Marge straps in and wears it proudly–all smiles, until the Pattycakes checks in with her. They try to convince her to ditch Rich and sit with them but Marge isn’t budging. When the popular clique starts to ridicule her, Marge uses her “freak eye” to scare off the bullies–revealing it to a shocked and grossed- out lunchroom. One of the girls even starts vomiting which puts a smile on both Marge and Rich’s face. She chose him over her reputation and he is beaming with adoration for his funny-freaky girlfriend. Later they meet up with Will and take their bikes to the Black Spot to try to convince Ronnie into helping them before she escapes town with her father.
“PUMPKIN, IT’S ME—PAPA…”
When we catch up with Lily she is knocking on Ingrid’s (Madeleine Stowe) front door trying to avoid the unsettling smile from the nosey neighbor. No one answers but the door is open so Lily walks in. She calls out to Ingrid and follows the sounds of eerie music coming from the attic. Nobody is home but there are plenty of trinkets stored in the space to keep Lily occupied until her friend returns. While flipping through an old photo album, she spots a young Ingrid with her father. The man (Liam Seamus Murphy), a young carnival worker, looks just like the clown who has been hunting her and her friends!
That’s when the mood shifts and Ingrid quietly appears behind her. Lily tearfully runs into the woman’s arms telling her they went to the sewers and the evil down there is real. In the embrace, she notices a photo of the actual clown tucked behind Ingrid as well as pieces of a clown costume. Ingrid was the one in the cemetery! The nurse comes clean and admits she believed her father—Pennywise the Dancing Clown—would reveal himself to the children and she was right. The bizarre woman is thrilled they freed him. She explains how her father traveled with the carnival and left her in Derry, believing he abandoned her for years. That is, until she overheard young Mabel talking about him.
Returning to the opening scene flashback: Pennywise chases Mabel and Ingrid from behind that red balloon. Ingrid slams the boiler-room door, but Mabel falls before she can make it to safety. Ingrid can only hold the girl’s hand as her father devours her–blood seeping into the greyscale world. That’s when Pennywise appears at the locked door’s window in his natural fatherly form. He tells his daughter he’s missed her, and begs the crying woman to open the sealed door. When she does, she tells Lily, she feels whole again. Now every red balloon reminds her she has the power to free him with her love and, of course, with the blood of all the innocent kids offered up to him. She is his Periwinkle, she exclaimed with a manic smile in her face, and she promises Lily he won’t hurt her. Her friends, on the other hand, are fair game. She has no problem sacrificing them if it means seeing her dad again. After all, he’s dead—and in Derry: “No one who dies here ever really dies.” All of this information is just too much for Lily to digest. She clutches the bag hiding the dagger and when Ingrid grabs her hand, Lily slashes her with it and runs. On her way out the door, Ingrid smears Lily’s back with a bloody handprint, branded for all to see as she bikes away from the house screaming in a mix of terror and anger.
The Evil of Men
Over at the Black Spot, Rich, Will and Marge argue over their next move. Ronnie still refuses to help since she finally has her dad back and will not risk losing him if she leaves his side. She tells them they’re on their own, but maybe Will can convince her. He chases after her to the backroom where he meets her father, Hank, who knows how deeply the boy cares for his daughter. He cares too, that’s why he starts an awkward “meet the boyfriend” talk, beginning with Will’s favorite movie.
Across town in the bar, the locals argue over how to catch the missing presumed killer, Hank. That’s when Chief Bowers (Peter Outerbridge) arrives with news of a tip—but admits he can’t do much about it. All the locals’ complaints about his failure to bring justice to the families of those kids forced the Mayor to lose confidence in him. He has been fired, but as a civilian he encourages a bit of vigilante justice and he directs them all to the place they can find it.
At the Black Spot, the teens drink soda and get an eyeful of the adults drinking and dancing. It is a style they’ve never seen before and all of the bumping and grinding keeps Rich’s eyes focused on every movement. Marge is right there with him staring wide-eyed and guzzling her Coke–one she thinks tastes a bit off but the soldier pouring it promises she is tasting freedom. Everyone in the room is dancing to the swing band and having a good time while in the hidden backroom, Will works overtime to impress Hank. It works because Hank tells both kids that If anything happens to him, he’s glad Ronnie has someone decent watching out for her. Will promises nothing will happen to either of them, but as a young boy, that promise will be hard to back up, especially when we see what happens next. After one of the band members suddenly invites Rich to fill in for their drunk drummer—his drumsticks are sticking out of his pocket, the music gets the people out onto the dance floor, swinging and shaking and feeling carefree. We get a glimpse of Ingrid in her attic suiting up as the clown just as headlights surround the Black Spot. The town’s masked, armed lynch mob has arrived—ready for a standoff. The tip Bowers gave them we can assume came from Ingrid, who must think chaos and death is the lure to bring her Daddy home.