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\n This week\u2019s ill-advised plan to rescue their friend from the sewers is what the series needed to finally move the story forward.
\n Photo: Brooke Palmer\/HBO\n <\/p>\n
It took a minute (four hour-long episodes, to be exact), but it finally feels like Welcome to Derry is going somewhere. It\u2019s not just the arrival of Pennywise in his familiar clown form \u2014 though it is a relief to see him after all the heavy teasing. It\u2019s more the sense that the storylines are coming together in a way that gives the plot forward momentum. In \u201cNeibolt Street,\u201d the disparate characters collide in a very literal sense as they navigate the sewers beneath Derry. Even as I struggle to imagine a satisfying conclusion for a prequel that, by its nature, can\u2019t offer much closure, I\u2019m starting to feel more confident in the journey.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t still have lots of questions, like how Lilly is able to visit a convalescing Marge when everyone thinks that Lilly stabbed her in the eye<\/a> with a metal wood chisel. For her part, Marge has told a semi-believable lie about her glasses breaking, and she seems fully committed to repairing her friendship with Lilly now that she knows the monster is real. At the Standpipe, Ronnie suggests to Lilly that Marge could tell the truth and exonerate Hank, which doesn\u2019t really make any sense but I sympathize with her desperation. The kids don\u2019t have much time to debate it before they\u2019re interrupted by a new arrival: Matty, whose supposed death was the series\u2019 inciting incident<\/a>. He is filthy but alive, and he has a harrowing story to share about what he\u2019s escaped from in the sewers. \u201cThat\u2019s where it lives, the clown,\u201d he reveals, launching into gruesome details about watching Pennywise eat Teddy\u2019s brains and seeing Susie slowly bleed to death. According to Matty, Phil is still alive \u2014 something a commenter wondered<\/a> a few weeks back \u2014\u00a0but incapacitated. While the obvious next move here would be going to the cops, Matty refuses, knowing they would immediately send him back to the father he ran away from. From what we know of Chief Bowers and the Derry Police, he\u2019s probably right, and home sounds like a dangerous place. \u201cI\u2019d sooner go back to the sewers than there,\u201d Matty says.<\/p>\n Over at Derry Air Force Base, Dick has finished plumbing the depths of Taniel\u2019s memories for the location of the pillars. When Leroy once again demands answers, General Shaw spits out more exposition: Hundreds of years ago, the Sqoteawapskot people carved 13 objects from the thing that fell to earth carrying the creature, and they buried them to create a cage around its territory. \u201cYou\u2019re telling me that Derry\u2019s a prison and we\u2019re looking for the bars,\u201d Leroy summarizes. This is mostly superfluous to those of us who were paying attention to last week\u2019s lengthy flashback, but we do get a much clearer idea of Shaw\u2019s plan. If they can reduce the size of the creature\u2019s cage, they can capture it. How that would actually translate to being able to use it as a weapon against the Soviets, I couldn\u2019t tell you \u2014 and I\u2019m not sure Shaw could either. That\u2019s a later problem. For now, Leroy and Colonel Fuller will lead a team into 29 Neibolt Street, the abandoned house built over the tunnel system that will take them to the 13 pillars. Leroy is still stuck on the whole \u201cDerry as a cage for ancient evil\u201d concept. Couldn\u2019t Shaw have given him a heads-up before the rest of the Hanlon family relocated there?<\/p>\n Charlotte gets another lesson on the dark side of Derry when she witnesses the prison transfer of Hank Grogan, who is being sent to Shawshank. As Bowers warns him that the last transferred inmate didn\u2019t last a week there, an irate man pushes past the barricade with a gun. \u201cYou\u2019re gonna fry for what you did to my kids,\u201d the man (presumably Phil and Susie\u2019s father) snarls, then opens fire. Miraculously, the cops protect Hank, but Charlotte is shaken \u2014 even more so when she sees one particularly sweaty officer watching the proceedings and flashing a Pennywise smile in her direction before disappearing. Later, Leroy comes home and tells Charlotte he\u2019s going to share something crazy, but that she needs to believe him. While we don\u2019t hear the rest of their conversation, given what she\u2019s already seen, it\u2019s not surprising she doesn\u2019t put up a fight about leaving Derry and moving to the nearby base, which turns out to be just outside the boundaries of the creature\u2019s cage.<\/p>\n Rose has also shown up at the base to confront Shaw, furious about the abduction of her nephew. Shaw admits that his memories of Derry actually came back five years prior, when he was administered a drug by the DOD (sure, why not), and that he returned with the intention of using the entity they encountered as kids to keep the country safe. \u201cYou think you can put a leash on this thing? It can\u2019t be controlled, Francis,\u201d says Rose, the only sensible person on this show other than Charlotte. Realizing she can\u2019t stop Shaw from moving forward with his plan, she asks for the opportunity to prepare Taniel to go down into the tunnels with the military. She brings him the dagger carved from the fallen star and reminds him, \u201cKeep it close and you\u2019ll be safe.\u201d There\u2019s something Rose and Taniel know that Shaw and his men don\u2019t, but we\u2019re still in the dark about what that is. (Frankly, I think the military already knows enough to keep from going down there, but I\u2019m not in charge of this mission.)<\/p>\n Lilly is carrying out her own ill-advised plan to venture into the sewers to rescue Phil, even after her Juniper Hill friend, Ingrid, tells her she\u2019s not thinking straight. \u201cFriends or not, it\u2019s not worth you dying, too,\u201d she says. (Yes, Madeleine Stowe\u2019s character now has a name, and it\u2019s a significant one. I\u2019m keeping my thoughts in the Losers Club section, just in case you\u2019re trying to avoid even speculative spoilers.) Lilly brings newfound ally Marge to the Standpipe, where she tells her friends they\u2019ll need to travel down to the monster\u2019s lair. Everyone is appropriately horrified, but Lilly is quite good at big, motivating speeches \u2014 plus, she threatens to drag Matty to the cops if he doesn\u2019t lead them to Phil. Rich worries they\u2019ll be eaten, which is a valid concern, but Lilly thinks they\u2019ll be protected if they take her mom\u2019s Valium. She reasons they can take three each since her mom pops these pills like candy. \u201cIf they weren\u2019t safe, she\u2019d probably be dead by now,\u201d Marge chimes in, which really made me laugh. As did the idea that these children would be remotely functional on a triple-dose of benzos.<\/p>\n It\u2019s about to get very crowded in those sewers! Leroy and Fuller lead a team into the Well House and down the well (it\u2019s the titular role). Fuller tells his men, \u201cWhatever form this enemy takes, it will use your own personal fears against you,\u201d urging them to shoot if they see anything unusual down there. Despite that warning, things go to shit pretty instantly. Two soldiers get lost and are attacked (and presumably eaten) by It in the form of a giant demonic Uncle Sam. Taniel runs from Fuller and immediately drops the protective dagger. Leroy and Pauly get separated from the others, and Leroy is shocked to discover that Charlotte is also wandering the sewers. As she takes on Pennywise\u2019s favorite form \u2014 a CGI monster running jerkily at the camera \u2014 Leroy remembers Fuller\u2019s advice just in time to shoot her in the head. But Dick has it the worst of all. He finds himself transported to a bathroom with his grandmother, who once again warns him, \u201cHe\u2019s coming for you.\u201d It turns out she\u2019s been sounding the alarm about the arrival of Dick\u2019s abusive grandfather, who shows up with a lockbox in hand. He knows that lockboxes are how Dick and Rose keep evil spirits at bay, and he demands that Dick open this one. (I can\u2019t believe how hard this show is leaning into Doctor Sleep lore. Head to the Losers Club section for additional context!) It doesn\u2019t seem like Dick has much choice in the matter, though. His grandfather\u2019s face contorts into a Pennywise grin as he busts open the lock.<\/p>\n Elsewhere in the sewer, Matty leads Lilly, Ronnie, Will, Rich, and Marge \u2014 so high on Valium that Rich and Marge are dazedly holding hands \u2014\u00a0to where he\u2019s been held captive. Right away, they stumble on the bodies of their friends: Teddy, Susie \u2026 and Phil. Looks like Matty hasn\u2019t been entirely honest. In fact, as you might have guessed well before this moment, he\u2019s not Matty at all. At long last, the boy transforms into Pennywise the Dancing Clown. \u201cDuck and cover, kiddos,\u201d he growls. Suddenly he\u2019s chasing after them as they flee in terror, Valium be damned. Lilly falls behind, and it briefly looks like she won\u2019t make it out of the sewers. Pennywise catches up to her and opens his gaping maw wide, but at the last moment, he\u2019s thwarted by Taniel\u2019s dagger, which had conveniently fallen right in front of the spot where Lilly is standing. Nearby, her friends have problems of their own \u2014\u00a0as they run toward the sewer exit, they cross paths with Leroy and Pauly. Naturally, Leroy assumes that his son is another trick by the shapeshifter. He aims his gun at Will and fires, but not before Pauly steps in front of the bullet\u2019s path. Yes, Leroy has accidentally shot his best friend, though at least he\u2019s spared the trauma of killing his child. Pauly takes it shockingly well, using his dying words to tell Leroy to \u201cmake it count.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s chaos in the sewers, but that doesn\u2019t mean things are much calmer on the surface. The prison bus transporting Hank to Shawshank was attacked \u2014\u00a0by what, we don\u2019t yet know \u2014 and he\u2019s escaped. We catch up with him in the backseat of Ingrid\u2019s car, and after she drives him out to the woods, the two embrace. As I speculated last week, she is indeed the woman Hank was with on the night of the Capitol Theatre massacre. With officers everywhere looking for him, there\u2019s no safe way out of Derry, but Hank has an idea: He sends Ingrid to the Derry Air Force Base in search of Charlotte. Meanwhile, Charlotte\u2019s husband is debriefing with Shaw, while obviously fudging the details of Pauly\u2019s death. \u201cThese people, they will answer for what they led us into,\u201d Shaw assures Leroy. (I don\u2019t doubt that he will find a way to blame Derry\u2019s Indigenous population for the sewer slaughter, but \u2026 come on, man.) He also confirms that Hallorann still hasn\u2019t reported back to the base. We catch up with Dick as he finally exits the sewers, looking haunted by what he\u2019s endured. It surely doesn\u2019t help that the first thing he sees is a dead Pauly wandering aimlessly through the woods. We flash to the lockbox on the bathroom floor, now open and glowing. Whatever Dick was trying to keep trapped in there has been set loose.<\/p>\n \u2022 Okay, so let\u2019s talk about the lockbox. Last week, I mentioned that Dick\u2019s grandmother Rose telling him to \u201ckeep that lid on tight,\u201d might be a reference to the lockboxes introduced in Doctor Sleep. In the novel, she teaches him that he can get rid of harmful spirits by trapping them in a lockbox in his mind. He passes on this knowledge to Danny Torrance, who is being tormented by malevolent ghosts from the Overlook Hotel following the events of The Shining. At the end of Doctor Sleep \u2014 stop reading to avoid spoilers \u2014 Danny is able to open his mental lockbox to unleash the Overlook spirits on the True Knot.<\/p>\n \u2022 Dick\u2019s terrifying grandfather is also mentioned in Doctor Sleep. He was physically and sexually abusive toward Dick, and continued to torment him as a ghost. In fact, he was the first spirit Dick trapped in his lockbox.<\/p>\n \u2022 So what was in the lockbox that Pennywise opened? Given Dick\u2019s reaction to seeing Pauly at the end of the episode, it could be that the box wasn\u2019t holding one person, but rather the entire \u201cI see dead people\u201d aspect of Dick\u2019s shine.<\/p>\n \u2022 Patting myself on the back for my throwaway comment<\/a> last week about Madeleine Stowe playing a younger version of Mrs. Kersh, the old woman Beverly encounters when she returns to Derry as an adult. In the novel It and the movie It: Chapter Two, Mrs. Kersh is not a real person, but a manifestation of Pennywise. That doesn\u2019t mean the creature wasn\u2019t telling the truth about Mrs. Kersh being Bob Gray\u2019s daughter, however.<\/p>\n \u2022 For the time being, Mr. Kersh seems to be the bigger threat \u2014\u00a0he\u2019s implied to be an abusive alcoholic. But if Ingrid really is the daughter of the clown whose form Pennywise took on, then perhaps she was the little clown girl in the carnival flashback in episode three. (Shoutout to the commenter who made this connection<\/a>!)<\/p>\n \u2022 I know I\u2019ve already gone heavy on lore, so just one more brief note: The Sqoteawapskot people have an explanation for the population of Derry being varying degrees of messed up. The creature sheds, and \u201cits discharge has tainted Derry\u2019s groundwater since the town\u2019s founding.\u201d Gross!<\/p>\n VULTURE NEWSLETTER<\/p>\n Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n