By: Kelly Kearney
As the military mobilizes to locate the mysterious pillars on Neibolt Street, the kids launch their own mission beneath Derry. After a surprise reunion leads them to believe Phill might still be alive, the Loser’s Club arms themselves with flashlights, “Mommy’s Little Helpers” and a stubborn determination as they climb down into the sewers to look for their missing friend leading them to a moment that leaves them paralyzed with fear.
The Losers’ Club’s Shocking Reunion
When Dick (Chris Chalk) wakes up from his mind bending dreamscape, he finds Taniel (Joshua Odjik) sitting across from him in the Airforce’s interrogation room, foaming at the mouth. General Shaw (James Remar) and Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) arrive just as a team of soldiers carries Taniel away for treatment. Hanlon demands to know what’s going on and Dick explains that they finally have what they need. Taniel told him the story of the evil that lives beneath Derry and described the shards of the evil’s transport vehicle that crashed into Earth and the powers they hold. The local tribe calls them “pillars” and they not only cage the evil in, but they can be used to pinpoint its location. Shaw is getting closer to poking that sewer beast.
Over at the hospital Marje (Matilda Lawler) is bandaged and apologizes to Lily (Clara Stack). She admits she didn’t believe her before—about the visions or the story of what happened at the theater—but now she does. She saw things too and those visions dragged her to that tablesaw and partially blinded her. She can’t tell anyone what she saw as they would never believe her and probably send her to Juniper Hill. She is frightened, isolated and terrified it will happen again, but Lily hugs her and reassures her she’s not alone.
Across town at the Losers’ Club hangout, the kids discover they’re not alone either. When they climb to the observation deck, they’re startled to find an orange tent with a sick and trembling Matty (Miles Ekhardt) inside, begging for help. Where has he been and where are Teddy (Mikkal Karim Fidler), Phil (Jack Molloy Legault) and Susie (Matilda Legault)?
Back at the base General Shaw briefs Major Hanlon on the mission to locate the thirteen pillars. Dick’s involvement is now essential, and so is Taniel’s. The story Taniel shared in last week’s flashback is the closest Shaw has come to tracing this so-called super weapon the military wants. According to Shaw, Taniel belongs to a secret order tasked with keeping It contained, which means he has been working against the mission and, by extension, the United States.
Hanlon finally asks the question he’s been holding back: once they locate the pillars, what does Shaw plan to do with them? Shaw explains that the goal is to shrink the size of Its prison and capture it. They’ll begin at 29 Neibolt Street, ground zero for the pillars buried beneath a shaft accessible through the basement of an abandoned home. He assigns the Major and Captain Pauly Russo (Rudy Mancuso) to lead the mission, but Leroy hates being kept in the dark. Shaw is the one who allowed him to move his family into a town this creature uses as its hunting ground. Shaw brushes off responsibility and blames Hanlon for choosing to live off-base. Until the entity is captured, Shaw suggests moving Charlotte (Taylour Paige) and Will under the Air Force’s protection.
A 27-Year Cycle is Coming to a Bloody End
After gulping down a drink, a pale and filthy Matty tells Lily, Will (Blake Cameron James), Rich (Arian S. Cartaya) and Ronnie (Amanda Christine) that he’s been trapped in the sewers beneath Derry by an evil clown. It sleeps during the day, which gave him just enough time to escape. He explains that he and a handful of others were kept alive as meals, their fear sustaining the creature. Matty confirms that Teddy is dead—It ate his brains—and that Susie was left to bleed out slowly from her severed arm. Phil, he says, is still down there alive but unable to talk or move. Ronnie suggests going straight to the police, but Matty panics. No police. They’ll send him back to his father and he says he would “sooner go back to the sewers than that.”
Elsewhere in town the Council of the Sqoteawapkot tribe meets to discuss the growing unease in Derry. They believe the behavior of the townspeople is being stirred up by the augury—a grim omen signaling that another cycle is beginning. Much like the Bradley Gang shootout and the Ironworks explosion, these events echo the bloody pattern that returns every twenty-seven years. Rose (Kimberly Guerrero), one of the protectors of the pillars, gets word that Taniel has been apprehended and decides she must intervene. She travels to the Air Force base to confront Shaw about interrogating her nephew.
Shaw lays out the scope of Operation Precept. To him, it’s a military initiative to locate and contain a dangerous entity. To Rose, it’s a deadly decision that she knows her childhood friend Francis cannot give up on. The only way to regain some control of the situation and bring her nephew home alive is to strike a bargain: in exchange for Taniel’s freedom, she will bring a shard from one of the pillars—an artifact her people once used in their battles against the Galloo. Shaw agrees and allows Rose to see Taniel. She quietly hands him the dagger, instructing him to lead the group into the sewers. With a subtle look, she makes her real hope clear: he should use the dagger to protect himself and escape once the military is underground and vulnerable.
Meanwhile, we catch up with Hank (Stephen Rider), who has been sent to Shawshank without a trial or the slightest hint of due process. Charlotte witnesses the transfer as he boards the bus, and that’s when chaos erupts. Phil and Susie’s father lunges from the crowd of onlookers and points a gun at Hank, ready to avenge his children. Before he can pull the trigger, the police intervene and wrestle the gun away. In the midst of the commotion, Charlotte notices a guard standing behind the precinct door with an eerie grin plastered across his face—a smile she can’t shake. Later that day, she sees a breaking news report: the Shawshank bus has been run off the road. Hank is missing, and the local police assume he fled into the woods.
The Sewer–Where Derry’s Evil Lurks
Knowing her mother won’t be much help, Lily heads to the Kirsch home where Ingrid (Madeleine Stowe)—her adult friend from Juniper Hill—is hiding from her husband Stan (Larry Day) long enough to talk. Lily tells her about Matty’s escape and weighs the impossible options of what to do next. Their moment is cut short when Stanley, drunk and shouting for his dinner, stumbles into the kitchen and orders Ingrid back to her duties. She does leave Lily with some advice to stay out of the sewers.
The next morning Ingrid slips out of the house, but when she climbs into her car she finds Hank hiding in the back seat. She doesn’t scream, she simply drives – heading into the cover of the woods. The two eventually pull over in a secluded area, get out and embrace. Ingrid was the white married woman Hank was with on the night the children went missing. Both are terrified, uncertain of what comes next, but Hank insists she take him to Charlotte—he believes she’s the only person he can trust now.
With the mission finally set, the Air Force team—led by Major Leroy Hanlon, Dick and Pauly—enters the abandoned house on Neibolt Street and descends into the sewers through the basement. Now that Leroy understands exactly what this creature feeds on, he warns everyone to keep their fear in check. He also gives one crucial instruction: shoot anything that shouldn’t logically exist in these tunnels.
Taniel takes the lead, gripping the dagger hidden beneath his sweatshirt as he remembers the plan he made with his aunt Rose. He guides the soldiers through the twisting passages in near silence, but the group suddenly drops into a deep pocket of water. The current pulls Dick away from the others and in the chaos Taniel seizes his chance to run. He tries to slip away into a side tunnel, but a panicked soldier fires at him and Taniel drops the dagger. Without its protection, Pennywise wastes no time. It begins picking the soldiers off one by one, dragging them into the darkness with terrifying ease.
Leroy and Pauly get a taste of Pennywise’s powers when It materializes in the tunnel, taking the form of Charlotte. Pauly can’t see her, but Leroy can and even though he knows better—knows exactly what this thing can do—he hesitates. For a split second he lets himself believe, until the figure rushes him and Leroy is left with no choice. He shoots the vision of his wife, watching as “Charlotte” collapses into the water and is instantly pulled beneath the surface by something unseen.
Meanwhile, topside Lily ignores Mrs. Kirsch’s warnings and convinces her friends they need to go down into the sewers to save Phil. She’s managed to steal more of her mother’s “little helpers” and she believes that if each of them takes three pills, their fear will dull just long enough to rescue him. Rich questions whether tripling the dose is a terrible idea and he might be the smartest one in the group because it absolutely is. The pills hit fast, turning their terror into bubbly, manic confidence. Their judgment is shot, but their nerves are steady enough that Rich and Marje—who insisted on tagging along—end up holding hands, a romantic spark of something new between them.
As they all wander deeper, they discover several bodies drifting in the murky water. One of them looks terrifyingly like Phil. Panic ripples through the group and that’s when Matty suddenly spins around and starts singing, his voice warped and eerie. The kids freeze. When Lily looks down, she sees another body floating past them… and it’s Matty. The boy standing in front of her isn’t Matty at all.
Their realization comes too late. “Matty’s” head splits open, peeling back like wet paper and Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) crawls out of the shell, grinning, ravenous, hungry for all of them. The kids scatter, screaming, running blindly through the tunnels. In the scramble, Lily is separated from the rest of the group. She finds herself trapped behind a series of metal gates that slam shut around her. Pennywise corners her, shifting into the mutilated image of her father to drive her fear higher than any pill can suppress.
Just as the clown advances, something glowing in the water catches its eye. Pennywise recoils. The light is coming from the dagger Taniel dropped earlier. The creature refuses to go near it as Lily realizes what’s protecting her. She snatches the dagger from the water and slips it into her pocket, watching as Pennywise retreats just out of reach, hissing with frustration.
Pandora’s Box
Meanwhile, in another part of the sewers, Leroy and Pauly freeze when they hear something echoing down the tunnel. The sound grows louder, bouncing off the damp concrete until it’s impossible to tell where it’s coming from. Leroy raises his gun, ready to fire at whatever steps into view. His nerves are shot and his mind is racing with every horror story he’s heard about what lurks beneath Derry.
When Will and the others appear around the corner, Leroy can’t believe what he’s seeing. It feels impossible, like another illusion meant to lure him in. Pauly; however, recognizes the kids instantly. He shouts at Hanlon not to shoot, but the warning is swallowed by the roar of the tunnel and Leroy’s own fear. He squeezes the trigger just as Pauly leaps in front of him, sacrificing himself to save Hanlon’s son.
Pauly’s final words are soft but steady. He reminds Hanlon that years ago Leroy nearly died protecting him and this is his chance to return the favor. It’s enough to shake Leroy back to reality. He and the kids scramble out of the sewer system, but their escape is hollow. Pauly’s body remains behind in the dark and Dick is still missing, too.
Speaking of Dick, while separated from the group, he’s dragged into a nightmare of his own. Deep in the recesses of his mind, he encounters his grandmother who tries to soothe him the way she did when he was little. The moment barely settles before his grandfather bursts through an imaginary door, firing a shot that hits his grandmother in the leg. He sneers at them both and presents Dick with a locked box pulled straight from his psyche. Fans of “Doctor Sleep” will recognize this mental lockbox, but here we never learn what’s inside.
Dick panics, begging the man not to open it but his grandfather just laughs. He mocks him for sharing the same psychic abilities as his grandmother, taunting him as if the box contains the proof. Then, channeling Dick’s own powers against him, he tears open this mental Pandora’s box unleashing a blast of psychic agony searing through Dick’s mind. He collapses, screaming and clutching his head as the nightmare folds in on itself.
A moment later he emerges from the sewer tunnels looking shaken to his core. What he saw has left him rattled, but not nearly as broken as Pauly, whose ghost now lingers along the edge of the tunnel, watching the living flee. Dick might have new insight into Pennywise, but the clown has rooted through his mind and uncovered the exact fears it can use against him.
The episode cuts to black as the credits roll over the song “Satan Never Sleeps.” The final image lingers on the glowing lockbox, pulsing like a heartbeat in the dark.