It: Welcome to Derry Recap: Buried Past

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You can watch this episode on HBO Max right now! It also airs on HBO this Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern Time.

So, what’s the point of Welcome to Derry? It’s a valid question. Most prequels explain how established characters came to be, but this show hasn’t even shown us Pennywise in his familiar form yet, and we know his history goes back further than the 1960s. Plus, there are built-in story limitations – we know Pennywise won’t be finally defeated until 2016, and we already know how the Black Spot storyline ends. This isn’t to say the show can’t be good, but it feels crowded and makes you wonder what story it’s actually trying to tell. The second episode spends a lot of time introducing characters and revealing information without a central focus, resulting in a confusing hour, even though it has some strong moments.

“The Thing in the Dark” immediately follows the first episode, opening with the terrifying sight of the monstrous flying creature killing Phil, Teddy, and Susie at the Capitol Theater. This turns out to be a flashback experienced by Lilly, revealing the extent of her past trauma. Everyone is deeply shaken by the recent disappearances of three more children, and the large amount of blood found suggests they likely won’t be found alive. Despite his mother providing an alibi and a lack of evidence, Hank Grogan, a Black man in Derry, is still the police’s main suspect. Ronnie, who is being raised by a single parent, fears for her father’s safety and tries to find some normalcy by returning to school. Lilly, the only witness to the killings, is also attempting to adjust to life after the horrific event. At school, Marge shows some concern for Lilly, but she’s mostly focused on impressing Patty and her friends, leading her to warn Lilly to avoid Ronnie.

New to Derry is Will Hanlon, along with his mother, Charlotte. Will has a rough first day at school – his teacher isn’t understanding about his lateness, and another student plays a mean trick on him. He does manage to connect with a boy named Rich, who has a crush on Marge. (The scene where Rich watches Marge walk by, set to music from Carousel, is one of the film’s quirky musical moments – director Andy Muschietti is known for unexpected song choices, like using “Angel of the Morning” in It: Chapter Two.) Charlotte also struggles to fit in, quickly realizing she’s seen as an outsider in the predominantly white town. Her neighbors are polite but distant. At the butcher shop, she’s shocked to discover that the adults in Derry seem to ignore bullying. When she witnesses a group of kids attacking another boy and tries to intervene, she’s met with disapproval and a dismissive “boys will be boys” attitude from the butcher and other onlookers.

Honestly, watching Leroy and Will treat Charlotte is just heartbreaking. They shut her down immediately when she tries to help, even telling her to stay out of it after she just wants to find the boys’ parents. The movie slowly reveals bits and pieces about why they left Shreveport, and while Leroy claims it was for his job, it’s clear there’s more to the story. It seems like Charlotte was involved in the civil rights movement – making signs, protesting… and it looks like their neighbors in Shreveport really didn’t appreciate it, even throwing a brick through their car window. I’m worried that moving to Derry won’t solve anything, even with people there saying it’s not the same as the South. And things aren’t looking good for Leroy at work either. This guy Masters admitted to breaking into his room and threatening him with a gun, but the whole story feels off, like something isn’t adding up.

Meanwhile, Ronnie is still deeply worried about her father being wrongly accused of murder, but she’s about to face a much more terrifying experience. While hiding from an argument between Hank and his mother, Ronnie is shocked to find herself trapped inside a strange, pulsating sac that fills with fluid and stains her sheets red. She violently breaks free, only to discover her bed has transformed into her deceased mother. The ghostly figure accuses Ronnie of killing her, just as she believes Ronnie will harm her father. The mother’s torn-open stomach becomes a menacing, tooth-filled mouth, and an umbilical cord pulls Ronnie toward it, revealing Pennywise’s eyes within the darkness. This is the series’ most impactful and frightening scene so far. Ronnie manages to bite through the cord and escape, but her now-demonic and decaying mother lunges toward her, until Hank bursts into the room and intervenes.

Hank is in serious trouble, even though he isn’t facing the same immediate threat as his daughter. At a local bar, Police Chief Clint Bowers is pressured to arrest him despite having no proof. Bowers argues that due process should be followed, but Councilman Tibbs points out that they’re in Derry, where rules seem different. While Bowers can’t arrest Hank right now, he uses his authority to have three Black soldiers removed from the bar. One of the soldiers asks where they’re supposed to go to relax, which leads to the creation of the Black Spot – a safe place for Black soldiers to gather. However, this scene primarily serves to introduce Dick Hallorann. The soldiers quickly learn, upon being easily readmitted to the base, that Dick has special access. This is because he uses a unique ability – a kind of psychic power, referred to as ‘the shine’ – to find important archaeological sites. The military isn’t revealing what they’re searching for, but the episode promises to reveal the full story.

Lilly is avoiding her friends, the Pattycakes, at school and choosing to eat lunch alone. She’s quickly joined by Ronnie, who urgently needs her help to clear Hank’s name. Ronnie wants Lilly to tell the police what she witnessed at the theater, but Lilly is terrified to do so. She fears that mentioning the strange things she saw – a flying demon baby, specifically – will result in her being committed back to the mental institution where she was treated after her father’s death. Her fears escalate when Chief Bowers summons her to the police station. He implies that if she doesn’t support Hank’s alibi, she’ll become a suspect herself, referencing her past and the disturbing circumstances surrounding her friends’ deaths. He even suggests a short stay at Juniper Hill might ‘prove’ her sanity. Desperate to avoid re-institutionalization, Lilly reluctantly admits she can’t be sure Hank wasn’t at the theater. This allows the police to arrest Hank for the murders, but it destroys her growing friendship with Ronnie, who is furious at Lilly for giving in to the pressure.

Ronnie is utterly heartbroken, and Lilly is in a terrible, inescapable situation – and even betraying Hank doesn’t help her. While grocery shopping, Lilly has a far more frightening encounter with It than before. As she walks through the store, the aisles seem to shift, and shoppers with unsettling smiles follow her, whispering that she’s lost her mind. A voice over the loudspeaker asks, “Lilly Bainbridge, are you alright?” She then sees a display of Pennywise-branded cereal, with drawings of her deceased friends on the boxes. Suddenly, she’s surrounded and trapped by towering shelves of pickles. Playing on the rumors that her father’s factory accident left parts of him preserved in pickle jars, Pennywise appears in the jars as Mr. Bainbridge – or fragments of him. The jars crash to the floor, and he reforms into a monstrous, octopus-like creature with her father’s face. “Want to give Daddy a kiss?” it demands, slithering towards her with its tongue extended. Tragically, everyone else just sees a distressed woman having a breakdown. Ultimately, Lilly is returned to Juniper Hill, where the staff greet her with creepy, Pennywise-like smiles.

At Derry Air Force Base, Leroy learns that Masters was set up – just as predicted, the break-in was a deliberate test. General Shaw reveals he was investigating Major Hanlon, and discovered a Korean War injury damaged Leroy’s amygdala, meaning he can’t feel fear. This makes Leroy ideal for the highly classified Operation Precept. Shaw explains that a weapon buried in Derry could end the Cold War without a single missile launch. Dick, who can sense surrounding objects, is helping locate the weapon by identifying potential dig sites. These objects act as beacons, pinpointing the weapon’s location, which emits intense fear – enough to kill someone. That’s why Leroy is the only one who can retrieve it. The episode ends with the first beacon being unearthed: a bullet-ridden car containing skeletons. While a compelling cliffhanger, it feels like Welcome to Derry tries to pack in too much information, making it hard to fully appreciate the suspense.

Losers Club

The show’s new opening sequence is packed with hidden details. Fans of It will notice a reference to the tragic Kitchener Ironworks explosion, which killed 88 children on Easter in 1908. This event marked the start of a new series of murders by Pennywise, and would likely be a key plot point in a potential third season of Welcome to Derry. The show seems to be structured so that each season jumps back 27 years in time.

The episode also shows a lobotomy taking place at Juniper Hill, the mental hospital where Lilly is ultimately taken. This hospital is familiar to Stephen King fans as the place where Henry Bowers was sent after committing patricide in It, and it appears in many of his other works, including as the home of Nettie Cobb from Needful Things and Raymond Joubert from Gerald’s Game.

The show’s titles hint at the violent end of the Bradley Gang, a historical event described by Mike Hanlon in the book. The car belonging to the Bradley Gang is discovered at the military dig site, and it’s likely we’ll see their complete story explored in a potential second season set in 1935.

This installment features Dick Hallorann, a character originally from Stephen King’s The Shining. He also appears in It, specifically in the section detailing the Black Spot fire. Now, it seems his psychic abilities are being employed in a mysterious way within the Welcome to Derry story.

Let’s dive a little deeper into this. In Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining, there’s a scene featuring a can of Calumet Baking Powder with its Native American logo, which has led some to believe the movie is a metaphor for the genocide of Native Americans. Knowing that, when Lilly walks past cans of Calumet in the grocery store, it feels like a deliberate reference.

This episode introduces us to the Indigenous characters of Derry, like Rose, who runs the thrift store Secondhand Rose. It’s where Bill Denbrough later buys his bike when he revisits Derry as an adult.

Police Chief Clint Bowers is Butch Bowers’ father and Henry Bowers’ grandfather. It’s safe to say they’re not a very likeable family!

I’m watching Stan Kersh, the butcher, closely. His wife appears as the frightening form Beverly Marsh sees as an adult, and she also says she’s the daughter of Bob Gray – the man who is actually Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

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2025-10-31 10:56