Do I dare find a kid adorable in a show like IT: Welcome to Derry after two episodes where they have the worst time possible? I mean, it’s not like I have the option when the show happens to have some of the most smart and amusingly wacky kids who’re a far cry from the Stranger Things gang. No shade, though. But since we’re in Derry, you’re gonna find out soon just how pointless it can be to try and avoid heartbreaks in this part of Maine. Derry’s where all the terrible things that White settlers on Native land can represent are concentrated. As long as the greed, the apathy, and the complete disregard for the lives of its colored residents thrive in Derry, the hungry clown has got no reason to look for a better home. The 3rd episode of IT: Welcome to Derry goes further into the heart of the rot that Pennywise can smell from the sewers. We’re getting to know key players on both sides. The ones seeking out the alien clown to tame it and exploit its gift of destruction. And the ones playing a very long game to keep him contained within a secure perimeter. The kids have got their own thing going on the side. But while they might be Derry’s only hope, the tragedy is that it’s on them in the first place.
Spoiler Alert
Who is Francis?
You don’t usually see prequels that go back in time even further. But Derry’s history has got so many layers, and even just the fact that Pennywise has lived here for a long time, the story’s got to jump back and forth a lot to witness or hear anecdotes of the moments that helped the hungry clown tighten its grip on the town. One of those events happened in 1908. Francis was a wide-eyed kid, new to Derry and its generally creepy vibe. He would’ve probably skipped the freak show had it not been for the very insistent greeter. But why’s he focusing on Francis specifically? You gotta look into the sewers for the answer to that. There was a clown who gave Francis the creeps. But more importantly, the greeter closed in on Francis after the clown sighting. Was it Pennywise who’d sniffed out the fear in his food? Maybe that’s why he made sure that Francis went in, so that his fear could get good and ripe. Most of it was unnerving for Francis. But nothing had frightened him more in his life than the slender, towering old guy with only one of his eye sockets full. It must’ve felt like a miracle to him to even get out of the tent alive. After that, even his true-to-form father’s cold “toughen up” sounded sweet to him. At least the slingshot that his father had won for him brought a smile to his face. But Francis’ day was about to get better. On the drive home, Francis met a Native American girl who instantly fascinated him with her fascination in the slingshot. Francis found a friend that day. But things don’t just go well in Derry, do they? Francis had no idea that he was entering Pennywise’s territory when one day, while playing with that girl, he ran into the woods. The girl warned him. But there was something about the woods that felt off the moment he’d stepped in. And there he was, appearing as the thing Francis most feared, the one-eyed old man from the freak show. He’d been lucky to have met that Native American girl for a lot of reasons. But nothing more so than the fact that she’d come to save his life, that too with the slingshot he’d given her. Even Pennywise’s hunger was weak against the brave girl’s fury as she shot him in the face and saved Francis’ life. In the 60’s Derry, Francis is relevant because he’s made the very foolish, very selfish decision to come back to the cursed town to look for what scared the hell out of him ages ago. Back then, he’d asked the girl about the thing that almost had him for lunch. The girl trusted him with the secret, which, in retrospect, she really shouldn’t have shared with him. The chances of an adult Francis retaining the sweetness of his youth were already slim. With a father like that? You know what I mean. Men like that raised men like that, especially in the early 1900s. The fact that Francis has grown up to be a terrible man is only revealed to us further down the episode. But when we get to know that he was raised to be military, it makes even more sense that he is the man he is now. Francis is General Shaw. The man in charge of the Derry air base and the ominous dig site. He’s come back to find the monster that his friend told him all about. His ego’s certainly grown to be bigger than his head. But then again, even that’s not too big of a shock considering he’s a White American military general in the 60s. I doubt that he thinks he’s any smaller than the God I’m pretty sure he has some insecure faith in. He certainly doesn’t think a Black man’s life is worth a penny more than the labor he can provide. He’s not shackled by pesky little principles, you see. Instead, he’s driven entirely by his maddening greed. It can’t be all about protecting his country from Russia and the threat of nuclear attack, right? If he felt a crumb of concern for the people of own country, he wouldn’t have come back to Derry to look for Pennywise. We didn’t get to hear what his friend told him about the alien monster. But Shaw must know the dangers of messing with something as powerful as IT. Moreover, he’s a pretty proud enforcer of his settler legacy. The dig site he’s set up to secretly look for the powerful creature so that he can tame him is sacred Native ground. You think the military compensated the Native people for that? They didn’t even bother to ask for permission. And that brings us to the girl who didn’t even know that she was making a mistake by trusting Francis Shaw with the truth. She told him about the monster the Native people had trapped in the woods. And now, Rose is still in the dark about what’s actually going on at the dig site or why the military is even interested in that place. But while her community is more restless than she is to stop the military from desecrating their land, that may be because she knows more about Pennywise than a lot of them do. Her nephew was the kid who was checking out the dig site from afar. They’re all worried, but Rose wants them to hold off until she can find out more about what the military is even trying to dig up at that place. The dig site has to be in or around the same woods where Francis was attacked by Pennywise. But Rose’s got no reason to remember a friend who left and, to her knowledge so far, never came back, let alone wonder if he’s come back to look for Pennywise.
What is the Bradley Gang Massacre?
The Bradley Gang Massacre comes up when Fuller fills Shaw in on the findings about the old caddy they dug up. Increasingly complex airman Dick Hallorann’s Shine ability got Shaw close To the car with the bullet holes. And Hallorann’s instincts are proven right when they find out that Pennywise was physically present when this car, and everyone in it, was shot to ribbons. Fuller’s come to know that the car’s from the Bradley Gang Massacre in ‘35. Now, this incident is a pretty significant point in Stephen King’s IT universe. It’s one of the instances where Pennywise was seen taking his clown form and gunning people down, like we’ve seen in the show’s opening theme. But Pennywise wasn’t the only one who fired shots on that fateful day. In fact, I doubt that he shot the first bullet. But first, here’s a little background on the Bradley Gang. They’re King’s version of the real life Brady Gang, a group of violent store robbers who terrorized the American Midwest in the 1930s. The John Dillinger-wannabes in the Bradley Gang were all killed in an insane shootout that was started by the people of Derry. How could Pennywise have been anywhere else? This is the incident that marked this car with a touch of Pennywise’s darkness. Now, why’d Shaw go over to Rose’s shop to stir up history and charm her? That’s because she is his key to navigating the dig site. Hallorann can get him close, sure. But only Rose knows almost everything there is to know about Pennywise’s territory. I think he’s only partly lying when he tells Rose that he forgot everything about this town, even her. When they were kids, Rose told him that Derry has a way of erasing itself the further away a person goes from it. So it’s entirely possible that Shaw isn’t lying about all that he forgot. Maybe all of that came back to him after he returned to Derry. But everything else he’s saying to Rose is a lie. He does admit that he’s now an Army General, and that he’s in charge of the dig site that Rose and her community is trying to shut down, well within their rights. But he lies about the purpose of the dig and claims that he’s doing it to put in water lines. To help, you know. Just like the settlers helped Natives. Rose seems to believe him on the surface. But I don’t know if she actually does. Rose’s nephew has seen them dig up Al Bradley’s car from the Bradley Gang Massacre. So Shaw’s skills as a liar and a player may not be enough for him to pull the wool over Rose’s eyes. He thinks he’s being sneaky when he tries to extract information about Pennywise’s exact location from Rose. He pretends that he’s only trying to be respectful, and he asks Rose to tell him which areas to stay out of. This guy’s sly! Rose made a mistake trusting him once before. I doubt that she’ll make the same mistake again. But Shaw’s really pulling out all the stops with his flirting and everything.
What happens to Dick Hallorann on the plane?
I doubt that Dick understands the far reaching effects of what he is doing at the army air base for special privileges. But you can hardly blame a man in his position. It’s hard to be anything more than invisible and unwanted as a colored man on base. Even his unique gift doesn’t make him and his buddies special enough to deserve a decent place to sit and have a drink. But Hallorann’s playing with fire here. He might think he’s being slick, but Shaw couldn’t care less about his life. I’m not exaggerating when I say that even Fuller cares more about Hallorann’s life than Shaw does. Fuller at least takes the risk to speak over Shaw when he talks about his plans for Hallorann. Shaw wants Hallorann to go up in the air, as close to the mouth of the monster as possible to get his home address. Yikes on bikes! Now that we have something of an idea about what sort of a person Shaw is, it doesn’t surprise us that he doesn’t care about Major Hanlon and Russo’s lives either. Dude’s a maniac. And Hanlon can hardly refuse the first task he’s been given. Russo’s sane to find it absolutely nuts when he and Hanlon are tasked to fly a plane around using Hallorann as their compass. All Russo can think about are the stories he’s heard about government mind controlling goats when Hallorann accesses his psychic world and goes into a trance up in the air. It’s weird for Hanlon too, but he expects weird from Hallorann and the secret operation Shaw has brought him into. What’s that in the box of cigars? Huh, that looks a lot like the slingshot Shaw’s father won for him at the fair. Since this is the weapon that the Native American girl used on Pennywise, the slingshot is the closest thing to the clown that Hallorann can tap into. A colored man with a dysfunctional amygdala and a bold desire to be something in his career, Hanlon’s ripe for exploitation. But he’s sort of cautious with the risks he takes. And so far, he hasn’t seemed to have bitten off more than he can chew. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t totally freaked out when Hallorann’s spirit actually gets close to Pennywise, too close for the fire-eyed clown’s liking. Hallorann’s in the sewers with Pennywise when Hanlon and Russo try to get him to respond. It’s a rather formidable show of Pennywise’s power when he reads the uninvited guest’s mind within seconds. And then, all of Hallorann’s losses form a tower, a tower that would’ve probably kept him there forever if it wasn’t for the very scary vision of his grandma. But Hallorann isn’t actually saving himself when he’s trying to run away from Pennywise. His physical self is turning the lever that opens up the back of the plane. He would’ve jumped to his death in an effort to save himself if Hanlon didn’t jump in and save him. Hanlon’s got to be pressed about his superiors’ insistence that they stay on course when Hallorann was having a fit and Hanlon called the base for permission to head back. He now knows that whatever they want is more important to them than their lives. So I think it’s to actually get to know Hallorann better that Hanlon invites him over for a home-cooked meal. Hallorann may be a strange guy. But he’s not bad news for Hanlon. Although, for a man who’s always been a Shine user, he really should be smarter than he is. Hanlon never told him about his son, Will. So when Hallorann asked about Will at dinner, it only proved Hanlon’s suspicions right. You see, this wasn’t the first time Hallorann read Hanlon’s mind. He was one of the masked men who broke into Hanlon’s room and attacked him, only Hallorann wasn’t there to beat him up; he was there to get into his mind and figure him out. That’s when Hallorann got to know that Hanlon’s not ordinary either. He’s a man who feels no fear, a man Shaw thinks can face down Pennywise. Getting that close to the alien monster and almost dying has changed things for Hallorann. He doesn’t want to do this anymore. But Shaw’s dismissive “rest up” says he’s not gonna let Hallorann off the hook that easy. But I do think Hallorann’s about to get a bar for him and his friends. That hardly makes up for the danger he’s about to face as he’s forced to get even closer to a violent being that feeds on fear. And he’s damn scared alright. So it makes sense for him to butter up Hanlon. Be it the casual misogyny at the dinner table or taking Hanlon’s side when his wife says that Hanlon prioritizes his dream over hers, Hallorann’s his guy.
How does Will click a picture of Pennywise?
I think my favorite bit of complexity about IT: Welcome to Derry’s plot is the fact that while there are kids and adults who know about the monster in the sewers, they can’t really talk about it. What should Ronnie do? Go ahead and tell people that a giant alien baby came out of the screen at the Capitol Theatre and ate the kids? That would hardly help her father now that the Chief’s been forced to lock him up. The Chief thinks he can break him just by repeating the lie to him over and over again. They’ve already found a supposed “eyewitness” who saw him on the same street as the Capitol Theatre on the night of the murder. You can chalk that up to the town’s racist majority. Lilly’s hands are tied too. She’s done her time at the Juniper Hill Asylum. And she’s come to really trust the head of the housekeeping staff. I think that woman actually believes Lilly’s version of the story, and that suggests that she might have a bigger role to play in the plot. Lilly can’t possibly go ahead and tell a ghost story to save her friend’s father when her doctor is already planning to hold her for a long time if she cracks again. But Ronnie means so much to her that Lilly’s okay with telling the truth if that’s what Ronnie wants. It’s hard enough for Ronnie to live without her dad. It’s made only harder by kids who fill up on hate and orange juice for breakfast before coming to school. Thank heavens for kids like Lilly. She offers to help Ronnie with anything she needs. And she even comes up with a pretty reliable idea to take care of their problem. See, even if Lilly went and told people the truth, no one would believe a kid who spends time at Juniper Hill. So what they need to convince the adults that a monster is hunting them, and that Hank is innocent, is evidence. This is the moment where technology would’ve come really handy. But they live in a time where most people don’t have cameras, and pictures need to be developed in dark rooms. You think they can just take pictures of monsters and have them developed at the local studio? They’d never see the pictures again. So they have to find someone they can trust who knows how to develop pictures from film. Enter Will Hanlon, the smartest kid in school. It helps that Will definitely has a crush on Ronnie. But I think he’s such a sweet kid that he would’ve helped her even if he didn’t like her like that. Will’s a healthy blend of his father’s calm and his mother’s principles. He’s not even in high school yet. But as a colored kid, he knows just how deluded Rich is when he says that he trusts the American law to follow the law. Even ghost stories are more believable than that! Will is skeptical. But he agrees to help out Ronnie and Lilly anyway. They really shouldn’t believe Rich and his stories about how his tio was a Santeria priest who had a few useful spirits or Orixa at his disposal. He’s clearly mixing up bits and pieces he only partly remembers and giving it his own pizzazz. But Rich’s idea is sadly the best one they have.
So in the ending of the 3rd episode of IT: Welcome to Derry, Rich very confidently leads Will, Ronnie, and Lilly through a scary ritual at the graveyard. It’s really too bad that they don’t need any ritual for Pennywise to come for them. When the ghosts of the dead kids and Rich’s tio appear to hunt them down, and they run their bicycles through the ground that’s erupting with molten lava, they’re brave to even remember why they came here. They click pictures of all the ghosts that come after them, but that’s not the difficult part. The difficult part seems to be holding on to the camera. Everyone drops it at least once. And in the end, left alone in the darkness of the crypt, Will manages to grab hold of the camera. That’s when something comes after Will. It doesn’t get to him. But from the picture that comes out once they get out safely and develop the film, it looks like Pennywise himself was in the crypt with Will. “It’s a clown.” IT sure is, bud. But how likely is it that the adults are gonna believe them based on the blurry pictures of Phil, Teddy, and Susie’s ghosts? They might call it a sick joke and get on. Or they might think that the kids are alive. It can’t go good, can it?
