Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for IT: Welcome To Derry S1E6, “In the Name of the Father”(written by Jason Fuchs & Cord Jefferson & Brad Caleb Kane and directed by Jamie Travis). Spoilers also include plot points from the films IT (2017) and IT: Chapter 2 (2019)
Ever since last week’s IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 5, I can’t stop thinking about one specific conversation. The Native American tribe, of which Rose (Kimberly Guerrero) and Taniel (Joshua Odjick) are a part, is talking about 1962’s cycle of events and how this time it has not been as bad as others. The monster (or Pennywise, as we know him) appears every 27 years and introduces carnage and death to Derry before hibernating again. And while they may not have seen the level of death that was seen in past cycles, one of the tribe members reminds them that the “augury’ hasn’t happened yet, and is likely to take place soon.
Augury is a term not used in the IT novel by Stephen King, nor is it used in the two IT films of the last decade. But while the word might be a new way to describe the end of a violent cycle, the events that have been a part of these cycles have a long history in both the book and references throughout the movies.
The opening credits pay homage to some of these augury events, including some we may see in future seasons of the show, if the plan to keep going back in time materializes. The car with corpses inside that the army finds at the end of Episode 2 is a direct tie to one of these events, and it is visualized in the opening credits of the show.
As this first season of IT: Welcome to Derry comes to a close in two weeks, it’s becoming clearer what this cycle’s augury event is going to be, and book readers will realize its connection after seeing the name of a new location in this week’s episode.
Episode 6, in a broad sense, significantly intensifies the building racial and supernatural tensions in Derry, Maine, as the town continues to wrestle with unexplainable violence and mysterious occurrences. It focuses heavily on the repercussions of the previous episode’s climax and then sets the stage for what we are likely to see next week at the Black Spot.
The beginning of the episode centers heavily on the aftermath of Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) in the sewers, as his ‘Shining’ abilities become both more potent and more unpredictable. The lockbox he used to contain traumatic memories and evil spirits in his mind—a technique familiar to fans of Doctor Sleep—has been forced open by Pennywise (in the form of Dick’s grandfather), despite his grandmother pleading for him to keep it closed. This change means Hallorann is now flooded with decades of suppressed horrors and a barrage of new, terrifying visions.
He sees dead people, and his abilities have graduated from just being able to read minds. How this might be used in the final two episodes of the season remains to be seen.
He is haunted by memories of his abusive grandfather, the source of much of his early trauma. He sees the ghost of Pauly (Rudy Mancuso), who recently sacrificed himself to save Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James). These visions are not merely flashbacks but psychic assaults by the entity, which uses Hallorann’s fear as a way to shape events in Derry.
The opened lockbox compromises Hallorann’s ability to focus and advise Major Shaw (James Remar), proving to be a major setback for the military’s plan to trap Pennywise. Hallorann understands that the entity is using his weaknesses, leaving him vulnerable and isolated in his struggle against an unseen force. Major Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) says they have direct orders to finish their mission of containing the weapon, but Hallorann refuses because of what has happened to him.
The social powder keg surrounding racial tensions in 1962 Derry is finally about to explode. With Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider) having escaped from his prison transport bus in Episode 5, a vengeful mob, known as the “Legion of White Decency” (Derry’s version of the KKK, which we saw on a sign in Episode 1), gathers to try and find Grogan. They meet at a local bar, convinced that Hank is hiding at the Black Spot, a Black-owned jazz club built by Black soldiers.
Pennywise, in its role as a catalyst for the augury, subtly influences and directs the mob’s actions, ensuring the violence, and could be preying on their fear as the match that lights the fuse of what could happen next. The men don masks and march toward the club.
Hallorann, using his shining, sees the impending disaster—a vision of the Black Spot engulfed in flames. The episode builds tension as the mob arrives, setting the stage for what could follow, especially since the 1962 Losers Club has managed to make their way to the Black Spot so that Ronnie (Amanda Christine) can see her father.
The kids, deeply affected by the traumatic events in the sewers, seeing Pennywise (Bill Skarsgaard), and what happened to Marge’s (Matilda Lawler) eye, continue their own investigation despite what they know they may find as they hunt for the monster. Leroy Hanlon, traumatized by the near-death incident where he almost shot his own son Will (mistaking him for a manifestation of the monster), decides the only safe option is to move his family out of Derry entirely. Charlotte (Taylour Paige) says she is going to take Will and move back to Louisiana, but Leroy believes he has to finish his mission first.
Meanwhile, Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack), who survived her terrifying solo encounter with Pennywise in the sewers by utilizing a glowing artifact the military was looking for —an artifact given to Rose by the local tribe and linked to the entity’s ancient imprisonment—carries the weapon into school despite not knowing what it is or what it does. The other kids don’t believe Lilly should have the artifact, and struggle with what to do next. They have knowledge they’ve about Pennywise’s nature and know more than the military and most adults.
But perhaps most crucially, this episode also weaves in interesting connections to the broader IT mythology and some of the past events we may see in future seasons. The character of Ingrid Kersh (Madeleine Stowe), who has been Lilly’s confidant anytime she is at Juniper Hill, is confirmed to be having an affair with Hank Grogan.
We also see, in a flashback to open the episode, that Kersh has been working at Juniper Hill for decades. Her father was Robert “Bob” Gray, who also used the persona of Pennywise the Dancing Clown during fairs and carnivals around the turn of the 20th century. Her father was killed near Derry, but Ingrid began seeing visions of her father at Juniper Hill. He wanted her to keep bringing him the children that were in the asylum, and she would oblige so that she could see her father again because it would “make him happy.”
Ms. Kersh, it appears, has been helping Pennywise feed for several cycles now, and Lilly uncovers this after visiting her house and seeing pictures of her father. As the season comes to some kind of violent and mysterious close, it appears the children not only have the entity known as Pennywise that they have to deal with, but also Ms. Kersh, who has served as a kind of human avatar of the monster, who makes sure it has what it needs to feed.
