It: Welcome to Derry Series-Premiere Recap: We’ve Got Trouble

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The title Welcome to Derry immediately highlights that this story revisits familiar ground. Whether you first encountered the tale in Stephen King’s 1986 novel It, the 1990 miniseries, or the recent It films from 2017 and 2019, the town of Derry, Maine, is well-known. HBO’s new series aims to build on this existing recognition, bringing viewers back to the world of Bill, Ben, Beverly, Mike, Richie, Eddie, Stan, and Pennywise the Dancing Clown. (The series establishes Pennywise’s origins are extraterrestrial, but that’s a detail for later.) This new show jumps back 27 years before the events of the 2017 film, taking us to 1962 and an earlier period of Pennywise’s attacks. It’s a “welcome” to Derry because it’s a prequel, showing events before the story we already know, while still hitting many of the same key themes and moments from the original It.

The episode begins with a shocking scene: the death of 12-year-old Matty Clements. Unlike the story of Georgie, Matty is a younger-looking child who still uses a pacifier. He’s at a showing of The Music Man when he sneaks in, and the song “Ya Got Trouble” becomes a recurring theme. After being kicked out, Matty tries to leave Derry by hitchhiking with a family – a man, his pregnant wife, and their two children. However, he quickly realizes something is terribly wrong. The family’s behavior is disturbing: the daughter is eating raw liver, the mother uses harsh language, and the son spells out frightening words. When Matty discovers they’re driving back to Derry, he tries to take control of the car, accidentally bumping the mother’s stomach and triggering a premature birth. She delivers a monstrous, winged demon baby with empty eye sockets. The baby flies around the car and ultimately kills Matty, becoming the episode’s first victim. While Pennywise is missed, the show deserves credit for creating a new and terrifying form for It.

The film starts in a strikingly odd and unsettling way, reminiscent of Andy Muschietti’s It: Chapter Two. However, the rest of the story feels more like a familiar echo of his first It movie, lacking some of that original spark. We’re introduced to a new group of young outsiders: Lilly, nicknamed “Loony”; Marge, who craves popularity; Phil, obsessed with aliens; and Teddy, Phil’s friend. It’s revealed that Lilly and Matty had a past connection. A flashback shows Matty taking Lilly to the Derry Standpipe, where she shares the painful story of her father’s death in a workplace accident. While she avoids his advances, Lilly clearly feels a connection with him. Phil and Teddy were supposedly Matty’s friends, but their relationship wasn’t very strong – Matty’s mom even had to bribe them with candy to come to his birthday party. Unlike the first It, where Bill was motivated by the search for his missing brother, this story doesn’t have the same strong personal drive. However, like before, Matty’s body hasn’t been found, leading his old friends to wonder what happened to him and to feel guilty about how they may have contributed to his isolation and eventual departure from Derry.

Strange things start happening to the kids. Like Beverly Marsh, Lilly hears a voice coming from her bathroom sink – it’s Matty, singing a song, and he claims he can’t come home because “He won’t let me!” She even sees two bloody fingers emerge from the drain, but no one believes her. Her mother warns her not to talk about it in front of their friend Patty. Phil and Teddy also dismiss it, though Teddy is a bit more open-minded and later asks his father if someone could be trapped underground. His father quickly shuts down the idea, sharing stories of his grandparents escaping the horrors of Buchenwald, where they turned human skin into lampshades. He reminds Teddy that as Jewish people, they understand real horror. That night, Teddy experiences something truly terrifying: his bedroom lampshade transforms into the faces of death camp victims, their mouths sewn shut and desperately trying to scream. While the beginning of Welcome to Derry focuses on setting things up, these genuinely creepy and original moments are particularly effective.

Phil quickly believes Teddy’s story about the lampshade, which also makes Lilly’s tale about the bathroom drain seem more believable. Realizing no one will take them seriously – the adults in Derry are incredibly unhelpful – the three friends decide to investigate on their own, mirroring a scene from the movie It. With Phil’s younger sister, Susie, joining them, their research leads them to a news article about Matty’s disappearance. The article mentions Veronica “Ronnie” Grogan as the last person to see him. Ronnie, a girl their age, works at the Capitol Theater with her father, Hank. She’s annoyed when Lilly, Phil, Teddy, and Susie ask her about Matty. She explains that the police heavily questioned her after Matty disappeared, trying to blame her father, Hank, who is Black and therefore an easy target for suspicion in Derry. However, when Phil scolds Lilly for following up on a strange sound she heard in the sewers, Ronnie becomes interested. She too has been hearing voices – children screaming and calling her name – coming from the pipes. And she recognizes the song “Ya Got Trouble” as the one Matty was watching when he disappeared, from the movie The Music Man.

Before we get to the big finale of the first episode, I want to talk about another really compelling storyline: the arrival of Major Leroy Hanlon and Captain Pauly Russo at the Derry Air Force Base. It’s a clever move to title the premiere “The Pilot,” playing on Leroy’s job and the fact that this is just the beginning of the series. Both guys are Korean War vets, but Leroy, being one of the few Black soldiers on base, faces immediate coldness. This quickly escalates when another airman refuses to salute him, forcing a confrontation with a general. Honestly, none of this felt shocking, considering the time period and Derry’s history of racism – something we definitely saw hinted at in Muschietti’s It films, like with the bullying of Mike Hanlon and the tragic murder of Adrian Mellon. It was clear Pennywise just amplified the hate that was already there. But the show seems to be promising something deeper, really focusing on the Hanlon family and telling the story of the Black Spot, a nightclub for Black soldiers that was burned down by a white mob. That event was touched on in the 2017 It, and it’s one of the historical events Mike Hanlon dives into in the book. And apparently, those dark chapters of Derry’s past are going to be explored as separate seasons of Welcome to Derry – which I think is a brilliant idea!

Leroy learns more about General Shaw, who’s trying to present himself as a decent leader (though it seems likely that’s not the full story). Shaw tells Leroy that Masters is being punished for his racist behavior and then praises Leroy’s courage in battle. Leroy, however, avoids talking about the Korean War, feeling it wasn’t properly resolved. Shaw reveals Leroy will be piloting the new B-52, potentially on a dangerous mission to complete what he began in Korea. While the military plot is developing, I’m more curious about Leroy’s personal life, which we haven’t seen much of. Something strange is definitely happening at the Derry Air Force Base. One night, Leroy is attacked in his room by masked men who demand the B-52’s technical details, threatening to shoot him if he doesn’t cooperate. It’s unclear if this is a test or if they’re spies, and the base’s secret project area seems connected to the season’s main storyline. Before we can get answers, Pauly intervenes and fights off the attackers, leaving this part of the story unresolved.

The investigation into Matty’s disappearance takes an unexpected turn for the Derry kids. Under the cover of night, Lilly, Teddy, Phil, Susie, and Ronnie go to the Capitol Theater, hoping to find clues within the film The Music Man. They believe Matty might have been trying to send them a message through the movie. During the “Ya Got Trouble” scene, they’re shocked to see Matty in the film, holding a baby and singing along with the characters. He seems to notice them and breaks the fourth wall, stepping forward as the movie fades. He accuses them of lying and not being there for him. Then, with a chilling smile reminiscent of Pennywise, he throws the baby through the screen. The baby emerges as the terrifying creature from the beginning, now gigantic and even more violent. From the projection booth, Ronnie can only watch in horror as the creature rampages through the theater, brutally attacking the others. In a shocking twist, it becomes clear that most of these kids aren’t the heroes of the story. Only Ronnie and Lilly, the latter still holding Susie’s severed arm, seem to escape the theater alive, delivering a stunning and unexpected turn of events in Welcome to Derry.

Losers Club

As a huge Stephen King fan, I’m excited to be writing about It: Welcome to Derry for Vulture this season. I’ll be sharing interesting details, like hidden references and nods to the book, that don’t quite fit into the regular episode recaps – plus anything else I find noteworthy.

The Hanlon family is a key connection to the story of It. Leroy Hanlon, Mike’s grandfather, appeared briefly in the 2017 film, and the upcoming Welcome to Derry will introduce Will Hanlon, Mike’s father, as a young man.

Teddy Uris, sometimes mockingly called “Teddy Urine” as seen in graffiti, is probably Stan’s uncle – or would have been, had he lived to be an adult. The episode doesn’t state this directly, but Teddy’s older brother is likely Donald, who is Stan’s father and will eventually become a rabbi in Derry.

The character Veronica Grogan appears briefly as a friend of Beverly’s in the original book. While our story is unfolding differently, I’ve kept her in, just in case the show decides to draw on more details from the book later on.

Matthew Clements is another character from the book who is killed by Pennywise at the age of three. Later, Beverly hears his voice seemingly coming from her drain.

The turtle charm Matty gives to Lilly is important, especially because she believes turtles bring good luck. Turtles actually play a big role in the world of Stephen King’s stories, and director Andy Muschietti has included many references to them in his adaptations of It. In King’s Dark Tower series, Maturin the Turtle is a powerful, ancient being who helps protect the universe. In It, Maturin is depicted as the creator of everything and a force for good – essentially the opposite of Pennywise, whom Maturin considers his brother. While the novel It explains this backstory to Bill Denbrough during a scene called the Ritual of Chüd, Muschietti didn’t fully explore this connection in the movie It: Chapter Two.

Derry is famous for claiming to be the home of the legendary Paul Bunyan. Leroy learns that a giant statue of Bunyan has been approved, which is troubling news for Richie. This is because the statue will eventually come to life and attack him, acting as another form of the evil entity known as It.

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2025-10-27 04:59