
The episode begins with a flashback to a 1908 carnival. We might expect to see Pennywise appear, but instead, a young boy dressed as a clown is shown watching from afar. It hints he could be a younger version of Pennywise, though the timing feels a bit strange. A boy named Francis is frightened at a freak show by an old man with one eye, then finds his father who dismisses his fear and gives him a slingshot he won. Francis quickly trades the slingshot to some Indigenous children for water, and he becomes friends with them, especially a girl named Rose. We learn this is the same Rose who now runs the secondhand shop the Hanlons visit. Later, Francis ignores Rose’s warning and goes into the forest, where he encounters the same old man. The scene starts out unsettling, with the creature hidden among the trees, but it quickly becomes a generic chase sequence with a poorly rendered CGI monster – and surprisingly, not a clown. Rose saves Francis by shooting the slingshot at the monster’s head, allowing both children to escape.