Spoilers: Welcome to Derry Episodes 1-7.
The Auger is approaching us: hide your children, hide your wife.
Each Pennywise cycle ends with a horrific mass casualty event, and of all of these events, the burning of the Black Spot is probably best known to fans thanks to its connection to the Hanlon family and prominent mentions in Andy Muschietti's It: Chapter One. Muschietti returns to the director's chair this week at a critical moment for the series, and as befits King's bizarre alchemy of horror, drama and fan service, what works best in the penultimate episode of the first season may surprise you.
Although The Black Spot has to make it to last week's cliffhanger finale, the episode opens with another significant flashback to 1908 and a traveling circus that visits Derry, where local children enjoy the style of one Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård). But this isn't your grandfather's were-monster: after a very brief appearance last week, Welcome to Derry finally gives It fans their first real look at Bob Gray, the performer whose entire vibe It decided to take on years ago. And what an atmosphere it is.
Bill Skarsgård's performance as the human Pennywise is itself a rousing balancing act that not only evokes the frightening intensity for which the character is famous, but, even more impressively, transforms the demonic dancing clown form into a believably human turn-of-the-century performer whose glory days are long gone. Skarsgård cavorts with Pennywise's signature ragdoll fluidity, but tones down the guttural voice, maintaining Pennywise's aesthetic form while imbuing him with a sensuality that may still seem out of place, but probably no more out of place than some of the other clowns running around in 1908. A special mention should be given to the costume design and makeup department: the images of Bob Gray's Pennywise big. Even though the outfit is cleaner, it's the ill-fitting hairstyle and lighter makeup that really shows what a reality-based Pennywise would be like.
This entire dynamic is captured when Pennywise performs an Up-style pantomime for a group of assembled children, alluding to the early death of his wife and a performing partner who happened to be passing by, say it with me now: Periwinkle. Young Ingrid (Emma-Lee Cullum) helps her father by pulling some strings backstage, giving Pennywise/Bob a chance to grab the growing flowers (some beautiful, clean themed imagery right there) before saying a tearful goodbye to the floating dress puppet and collapsing in tears on his wife's grave. You know, kid stuff! Although the children are fascinated by Pennywise's play, they still attack him and try to beat the snot out of him, which really reveals Bob's resentment towards his current circumstances.
But in perhaps the most shocking twist of the entire season… Bob Gray seems to be a genuinely loving father to Ingrid, even if he drinks the bottle a little too often. Bob enjoys the face paint and costume Ingrid presents him with, awkwardly passing on his late wife's nickname, Periwinkle, to her before realizing that Ingrid might want to choose a name for herself. But Ingrid likes the idea and enthusiastically takes on the mantle. The sensitivity and affection between these two creates a moment where Bob experiences a surprising sense of tragedy as a poorly lit stray child leads Pennywise the Dancing Clown to his death in the western forest. As Dick Hallorann once said: “All this is happening. Ka – wheel“
The action moves to 1962, when Clint Bowers (Peter Outerbridge) leads his armed, masked lynch mob into the Black Spot, demanding Hank Grogan (Steven Ryder) in exchange for the safety of the rest of the patrons. Although Hank is ready to give up, the black airmen aren't going to let those good ol' boys take Hank without a fight… but that's exactly what they get, and it doesn't go their way. Chaos erupts as Bowers and his gang lock the doors and bomb the place, giving way to tensely choreographed long takes of Muschietti catching glimpses of the airmen and their dates being shot through windows, doused with Molotov cocktails, and dying of smoke inhalation. And that's all before Pennywise enters the fray and starts feeding while the place is still burning.
Amidst a quagmire of adult patrons dying by fire or gunfire, the children (minus Lilly) struggle to find their way to safety, and we say goodbye to Rich Santos (Arian S. Cartaya), who emerges as the brave knight he always dreamed of becoming, protecting his “fair girl” Marge with his life. Rich uses the old “there's enough room for both of us on the door” trick to drag Marge into the only shelter left in the Black Spot – the refrigerator – as the roof begins to collapse. Their final goodbye through the door, where they declare their love for each other, shows Cartaya and Matilda Lawler at their best, each completely vulnerable and tied to their dire circumstances. Now is a good time to note that the legacy of Rich's sacrifice will reverberate in Derry for years to come: “Marge” is short for Margaret, Margaret is the name Richthat is, Tozier's mother and all that…
Immediately after the fire, Derry's resident nightcrawler Ingrid Kersh/Periwinkle shows up just long enough so she can introduce her “dad” to her idiot husband Stan Kersh, and Pennywise chops Stan's head in half with his own cleaver. Here, the lack of genuine love that Bob showed for Ingrid finally hits home, but she comes to this realization too late to not allow herself to be enchanted by Pennywise's dull light. Madeline Stowe plays this dawning horror beautifully, but the moment doesn't really make much sense in the context of how much she seems to know about his violent tendencies. It feels like “Welcome to Derry” has been kicking the Periwinkle can all season, and as strong as the “Black Spot” prologue is on its own, Muschietti doesn't connect the dots very well.
There's still some hope for Periwinkle in the finale, though: that creepy, catatonic look at Will (Blake Cameron James), Ronnie (Amanda Christine) and Marge (Matilda Lawler) as she's taken away by paramedics suggests she's ready to hit it. new family matter. Lilly (Clara Stack) better keep that ceremonial dagger close. When all is said and done, Augery proves to be extremely terrifying and difficult to watch, but in all that fire and fury there isn't much room for many impressive scares.
Even though the augerium is now complete and has apparently had its fill, General Shaw's (James Remar) decision to “leave the cage door open” by melting the column they found (encased in turtle shell, no less) seems like a twist that's more based on squeezing one last big standard out of next week's season finale than keeping Shaw's motives believable, as most twists in this storyline are. Remar was a steady hand throughout Welcome to Derry, at times the only part of the war machine that kept this corner of the story worth revisiting, but even he can't contain the chaos that ensues when Leroy pulls a gun on the soldiers melting the convoy on the tracks. By the time Shaw tries to explain why America's “internal enemy” must be defeated by striking fear into the hearts of homegrown degenerates, his reasoning is no longer very interesting.
“Welcome to Derry” had some interesting directions to take this theme with Shaw and Rose's (Kimberly Guerrero) shared history in the city, but unless there's an all-out conflict next week that completely upends Shaw's thought process here, it's hard to imagine that you can look back with approval on this rambling war storyline next to the much more interesting events going on in Derry itself. The exception to the general weakness of the military plot, of course, remains Chris Chalk's Hallorann, whose muscular performance continues to transcend Hallorann's otherwise limited role as Shaw's column detector. Hallorann will play an important role during the Black Spot fire, surviving a face-to-face encounter with Pennywise and helping Hank, Will and Ronnie escape under the guidance of the spirit of Seska (Morning Star Angelina). But while we get some beautiful images of invading ghosts haunting him now that his mental safe has been opened by Pennywise, Hallorann is mostly in the background this week – here's hoping Welcome to Derry puts Hallorann's (and Mel's) Shining to good use in the finale.
With the pillar destroyed, Pennywise has woken up for a quick mid-hibernation snack, with Will already in the dead light and on his plate. Did you know that Pennywise slept in a pool of blood and entrails? I didn't do it! Looks damn cool!
