Spoilers for It follow: Welcome to Derry Episodes 1-3.
Well it didn't take long IT: Welcome to Derry to get into what appears to be its first filler episode. The first two installments of this IT prequel crammed a lot of plots and characters into two hours, so this week's episode has a sense of inevitability, as if it needs to stop the process to figure it all out. Unfortunately, however, Episode 3 (“Now You See It”) resets the status quo with elements that aren't all that different from the status quo it already had, leaving it feeling like “Welcome to Derry” is spinning around a little earlier than anyone would have liked to see.
This episode feels like the first real failure of the children's side of the story, which was undoubtedly the stronger element of the first two installments, immediately returning to one of the more disturbing events of last week: Lilly (Clara Stack) is reanimated in Juniper Hill after meeting Pennywise at the grocery store. Even though this episode spends emphasizing how terrified she is about being sent back to this place, Episode 3 opens with her being discharged and after that, barely any time is spent exploring what impact the return has had on her.
Lilly is still the most well-drawn of the young characters, so it was a shame to see such a big development take a backseat to the plot of Lilly, Ronnie, Will and Rich coming together to clear Hank Grogan's name for the murders that ended. premiere. Ever since that brutal brawl wiped out three of the Losers' Club stand-ins, Welcome to Derry has been working to rebuild a gang of brave kids to fight Pennywise. But by the time Lilly brings this new gang to the Derry Stand hideout to discuss the source of their torment, it's starting to feel like déjà vu again, and three episodes in, that's not a promising sign.
At the airbase, we get more context for Shaw's General James Remar and why he is the one leading the campaign to learn more about Pennywise. This week, Shaw takes center stage as he deals with the delicate politics of local indigenous people digging up sacred burial sites in search of Pennywise's “beacons.” With the Cuban Missile Crisis looming, Shaw's interest in this mission has so far seemed entirely focused on national security, so the revelation that Shaw has many more personal ties to Derry than we realized is a welcome one. Remar plays Shaw with more gentleness than one might expect from a royal military man (say, Major from “The Long Walk”), which makes his more aggressive actions, such as ordering an attack on Leroy to prove his bravery, or continuing to dig despite the protests of his old friend Rose (Kimberly Guerrero), even more intriguing…almost as intriguing as the character's name.”Rose” in a story by Stephen King.
As the manager of Derry's Secondhand Rose pawn shop, Rose has been on the periphery of things up to this point, but it is clear from her role here as a trusted member of both her community and Shaw that she is a force for good. The 1907 flashback to Shaw and Rose's childhood that opens the episode reinforces the idea that Welcome to Derry was implicitly aiming for: that Pennywise's cycles of terror are regularly opposed by a group of brave Derry children. “Welcome to Derry” has been at its most thematically interesting so far when exploring generational differences in how children and adults have dealt with Pennywise/evil over the years, and at least in the third episode, Shaw and Rose remain deeper characters than when we met them.
Chris Chalk is again excellent as Dick Hallorann, and through him we get one of the few highlights of the third episode: a psychic glimpse through the Shining into the tank outside Derry that Pennywise calls home. Chalk really impresses with his performance here, skillfully using Scatman Crothers' recognizable tics and mutterings to great effect as his psychic visions lead him down horrifying paths. We have a pretty good understanding of the rules of how Pennywise operates on our physical plane of existence, but since we are visiting the tank through psychic vision, Dick's encounter with Pennywise seems much more dangerous. This is emphasized by Chalk after Dick's vision is complete, when his words to Leroy Hanlon “it shouldn't have seen us” land with the gravity they should.
However, the Hanlons have little to do this week. We learn a little more about Charlotte's desire to be more involved in the civil rights movement and Leroy's concerns about it, and Will develops closer bonds with Rich, Lilly, and Ronnie. But episode three focuses on unraveling the mystery of Pennywise's presence in Derry over time, so the Hanlons' place in that tapestry is on hold for now.
Scary events are sorely lacking this week, and it seems safe to assume that the visuals that bring them to life will be an episode-by-episode grab bag. The baby monster from the premiere? No, thanks! Lilly's dead dad with the pickles last week? Shiny, salty, beautiful… but the skeleton of a man running through the woods in broad daylight this week? It wasn't Welcome to Derry. There are some good scares as young Shaw nervously walks through the carnival haunted house, as well as during the aforementioned meeting between Dick Hallorann and Pennywise, but the payoff here in Episode 3 largely misses the mark.
Episode 3 falls apart during the finale, which takes place in a graveyard as the kids try to get Pennywise to take his photo in hopes of exonerating Hank. But instead of ratcheting up the tension and truly building the moment, all hell breaks loose shortly after the kids begin the ritual, and the subsequent jumble of hilarious surprises knocks all the air out of the eerie setting. This is where the episode's visuals are at their worst, as the kids drive through an endless cart scaling cemetery, and the ground beneath them opens up. Whether it's the boring drawings of their ghostly dead friends or the obviously framed shots of the kids riding at full speed on their bikes, nothing about this scene works, and for all its chaos and scope, it's a complete disappointment in the ending. However, the plan seemed to work, and the children received several photographs of the supernatural attackers, which I Certainly adults in Derry will believe they are real.
Speaking of which, the 1907 prologue that opens the episode ends with a sharp shot of a female clown in Pennywise-style makeup. I wonder if the character “Young Periwinkle” in the episode credits knows anything about this… Who is Periwinkle anyway!?
