Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for IT: Welcome To Derry S1E3, “Now You See It” (written by Guadalis Del Carmen & Gabe Hobson and directed by Andy Muschietti). Spoilers also include plot points from the films IT (2017) and IT: Chapter 2 (2019)
Episode 3 of IT: Welcome to Derry largely level-sets us with the new, established group of main characters that will carry this story through to the end of the first season. The second episode of the season introduced us to many of the new pieces on the Derry chessboard, while this latest episode begins to move them around to where they will be deployed for much of this season.
The Losers Club 2.0
Ever since the surprising deaths of Teddy, Phil, and Susie in Episode 1, the question of which kids would form a new Losers Club has remained. The idea of a Losers Club, a group of mostly outcast kids who are being terrorized by Pennywise, coming together to fight and hopefully defeat Pennywise, is the core of the Stephen King text and the strongest part of the Muschietti films.
Ronnie Grogan (Amanda Christine) and Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack) always made sense as members of this new group after they survived the attack on the movie theater in Episode 1, but they needed more help on their side. Enter Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James) and Rich (Arian Cartaya), new friends who have bonded over being overlooked and an interest in science.
After Lilly spends a few miserable days at Juniper Hill, she gets back in Ronnie’s good graces by promising to tell the police and everyone she can about what she really saw that night at the Capitol Theater. Ronnie accepts this, but also thinks they need proof of the monster, or everyone will just think Loony Lilly Bainbridge has gone crazy again, and they’ll send her back to Juniper Hill. What they need, apparently, is a picture.
From here, their plan seems a bit harebrained, but it’s the path that gets them to partner with Will and Rich, so we will go with it. They think that if they photograph the monster, they can’t have a store or film developer process the pictures, or they will turn them over to the government or police. OK, I guess that could happen. But neither Lilly nor Ronnie knows how to develop film themselves.
This leads them to Will, who they think will know how to develop a picture because he is smart and likes science? I guess out of all the 13-year-olds at school, he probably is the best bet. He doesn’t know how (and is also reluctant to believe Ronnie and Lilly’s stories), but he and Rich decide to help anyway.
This leads the quartet to the local cemetery, because Rich’s uncle, back in Cuba, used to be able to conjure an Orixá—a being that can summon the spirits of dead people—and Rich’s cousin taught him how to do it. In the Poor CGI Scene of the Week (seriously, there is now one a week in this show), the four of them encounter a series of ghosts in the cemetery while trying to capture a picture of the monster.
It ends up looking like our group is on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World, more so than in a terrifying predicament. But back at the school, Will reads the manual on how to develop pictures, and the episode ends with a fuzzy picture of a clown with glowing eyes. Does this mean we will finally see Pennywise in Episode 4? Tune in next week to see.
Leroy Hanlon and Dick Hallorann
After the military dug up a car and weapons used in the Bradley Gang Massacre 27 years ago, they think they are closer than ever to finding the weapon that will help them end the Cold War. Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) convinces his superiors that he is very close and just needs to have some more exposure to the area to find what they are looking for.
This means Major Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) and his partner Pauly Russo (Rudy Mancuso) are given a mission to fly Hallorann close to the site to see if he can use his abilities to get closer to what they are looking for. Using an artifact that Shaw gave him from five decades ago (more on that below). Hallorann, Hanlon, and Russo take to the skies.
While airborne, Hallorann has a vision of a place underwater that is filled with items belonging to children, and has truly horrific sights inside. He sees what has become known in the story and in the films as the Deadlights, a place that holds the victims of Pennywise and keeps them suspended in a state of unconsciousness and decay.
Hanlon and Russo are finally able to get him to break free of the vision, but it’s clear now that Hallorann is closer than ever to discovering the reason why he and Hanlon have been brought to this military base.
Francis Shaw and Rose
This episode opens with a flashback to what must be 54 years ago (because two of our characters are children and this is a period when Pennywise is active—as a reminder, he only comes around every 27 years). Young Francis Shaw (Diesel La Torraca) goes through a horrifying fun house at a carnival, and his dad wins him a slingshot as a prize (the same slingshot Hallorann uses on his mission). On the way home, Francis trades it to young Rose for water to help their overheated car. After Rose saves Francis from an encounter with a version of Pennywise in the woods, the two develop a young, innocent summer love before Francis tells her his dad got orders to be redeployed away from Derry.
Flash forward more than five decades, and the two meet again, but this time on very opposite sides of a controversial issue. Lieutenant General Francis Shaw (James Remar) is the head of the Derry Air Force Base and is responsible for the digs that are searching for the “Weapon” they hope to use to end the Cold War (and why Leroy Hanlon and Dick Hallorann are so important). Rose is a pawn shop owner, but is also an older, respected member of the local Native American tribe who owns the land where the military is digging.
Her community looks to her to help solve the problem, and she confronts Shaw about it. But it appears they will remain on opposite sides despite a clear affection that still remains between them. Because Shaw left Derry all those years ago, his memories have largely faded of the fear and the danger he faced. And it’s clear even when Rose reminds him of their past, Shaw is a military man now, and will follow his orders to the bitter end. That end is likely coming for most of these characters. The biggest question is, how soon will Pennywise arrive to usher in that end?
