Hide your trauma. Hide your kids. And definitely don’t lock them up in the little box in your mind, because that’s hardly a safe space when you’re dealing with Pennywise. In the flesh? Finally? What a questionable thrill-ride you’re in for now that Bill Skarsgard’s here to chomp on wee babes in the 5th episode of IT: Welcome to Derry. Well, technically, the dinner guests show up at his house themselves. What’s a man-eating alien to do?
Spoiler Alert
How did Matty come back?
Marge was aware of everything that was happening to her when IT manipulated her fear and made her hurt her eye. So while the entire town is desperate to condemn Lilly for what happened to Marge, she’s done the right thing this time. Marge was smart not to tell people what really happened. She really wouldn’t wanna be roommates with Lilly at Juniper Hill. So she’s fabricated a tale about how her glasses broke and hurt one of her eyes. That may not change how people want to see Lilly, but it does give Marge another chance to keep a really good friend. Down with the Pattycakes! The only problem is, Marge is now privy to the very terrifying fact that something extremely scary and powerful is hunting them, and that IT won’t stop. So how can it be a bad thing when the kids go to their usual hang and find freaking Matty camping out in a very symbolically yellow tent, like Georgie’s yellow raincoat, you know? But how is Matty alive? And how has he managed to escape the hungry clown? This is the first time the kids get to know for certain that IT is in fact a clown. Matty tells them all about the dingy sewers where Pennywise lounges during the day. Apparently, he keeps a few scared kids as wretched pets just because their fear smells nice. But onto more explosive news, Phil’s alive, at least according to Matty. That’s gotta be like honey to the kids’ ears after getting a rather explicit description of how the clown tortured and killed and ate the other kids who’d been taken from the Capitol Theatre. Going to Chief Bowers with all this will never work. Moreover, Matty’s dad is so abusive that he’d pick the clown over being sent back home. Sheesh! So what do they do with this information now? They can’t just let the clown feast on Phil down in the sewers. Matty was lucky to make it back in one piece while Pennywise was distracted. But Phil’s not that scrappy, is he? And once again, Lilly runs straight to the only adult who believes her, who, as I told you guys before, turns out to be none other than Mrs. Kersh. Her husband’s your usual abusive loser who likes to be particularly whiny about his steak. But this time around, in the setting of her home, Mrs. Kersh doesn’t seem too spooky. When Lilly tells her all about Matty coming back and how they’ve come to know that Phil is alive, Mrs. Kersh isn’t her usual bad advice woman. But you can only say that she’s giving Lilly the right advice if you take her words at face value. By making Lilly promise that she won’t go down into the sewers with her friends, Mrs. Kersh might be trying to keep her safe. But don’t forget that it’s Mrs. Kersh who first brings up the idea that Lilly and her friends could possibly be thinking about going down there to rescue Phil. That was the farthest thing from Lilly’s mind until Mrs. Kersh warns her against it, and her eyes light up, because she’s obviously gonna go into the sewers even though she’s saying she won’t. This Mrs. Kersh is a tricky one. Lilly’s father’s lifeboat and anchor metaphor make it pretty difficult for Rich and the rest of the kids to say no when Lilly proposes the worst idea to the group. They’re going down there. How could anything happen to them as long as they’re on mommy’s little helpers? It should be safe for them to pop 3 valiums each, right? Come on. If valium wasn’t totally safe, Terri Bainbridge would be dead by now, considering how Lilly watches her pop them like m&ms and she’s “totally fine.” They’re obviously high as kites when they make the worst mistake ever and follow Matty into the sewers. You know it can’t possibly be Matty, right? How could he have escaped someone like Pennywise? But Lilly and her friends have a rude awakening to the real identity of “Matty” when they see Teddy, Susie, and oh well, Phil’s corpses floating in the filthy water. Too bad for the kids who are still alive, Bill Skarsgard’s Pennywise the Dancing Clown himself took Matty’s form to trick them. It was Lilly’s idea to come down here. So that might’ve partly been why Will, Marge, Rich, and Ronnie don’t stop running when she falls behind.
What is Rose and Taniel’s plan?
In the 4th episode’s ending, when Hallorann invaded Taniel’s psyche to find the location of the pillars that contain Pennywise, Taniel showed him the Well House instead. Hallorann was fooled, alright. And now so are the US Army for believing for a second that Taniel will actually guide them down the old well from Colonial times and, through the sewers, lead them to these pillars. If Shaw wasn’t so entitled, he’d stop and contemplate the likelihood of Taniel actually helping them when he knows that Taniel’s family has protected this secret for generations. Rose doesn’t even know that Taniel is being held at the air base. As one of the very few people of the Scoteawapskot tribe in and around Derry who know about Pennywise and continue their ancestors’ brave tradition of holding him within the town boundaries, Rose and her family have a lot of responsibilities. It might sound weird to us, but because they’ve been documenting Pennywise’s attack pattern since forever, it makes sense for John and Rose to be sort of relieved that the current cycle has claimed less lives than the last two–in ‘35 and ‘08. Here’s where we first hear the mention of The Augury–one massive massacre as the showstopper of each of Pennywise’s killing cycles. IT naps for about 27 years after that. It’s kinda reassuring for the town of Derry that the next Keeper of the secret is well versed in the lore of The Augury. But I’m not sure how big of a help that is, considering Derry’s infested with awful people. And I think I know why. John mentioned that the creature sheds, and that Derry’s water has been poisoned by his discharge ever since the town was founded. That’s probably how the people of Derry are actually being poisoned by IT’s evil influence. That makes it all more easy for the clown to rile them up and push them towards absolute mayhem. Now, does that sound like a creature Shaw should be trying to tame? The entirety of Derry is IT’s hunting ground. When Rose gets to know about Taniel and shows up at Shaw’s office to get her nephew, Shaw’s nauseating overconfidence convinces her that she can handle him. I don’t know what kind of drug the government tried out on Shaw, but he claims that that’s what got him to remember his time in Derry. Rose will never be naive enough to believe that the reason Shaw is trying to find the 13 pillars that contain the monster is to “make the cage smaller.” The last time she actually trusted Shaw was when they were kids, and Rose had just saved him from the hungry clown. She told him all about her ancestors and how they’d been keeping the clown tamed with the pillars. If Shaw can remember facing Pennywise and be insane enough to think that he should come back to Derry for some more, Rose can easily manipulate him. And so she does when she tells him that she needs to prep Taniel before he can show them the way to the pillars down in the sewers. Oh, that’s right! The moment Shaw mentioned the Well House and the sewers, Rose figured out that her nephew played them. She only helps Taniel keep up the ruse while making sure that she gets some face time with him before he leads an entire army into Pennywise’s den. What do you know? The fact that Rose has the spear made from the fallen star means that she is a descendant of Sesqui and Necani, the ancient warriors of their tribe who originally fought with Pennywise. Rose hides it in plain sight by having it cleared by the air base security before handing it to Taniel so that he can be safe down in the sewers.
How does Pauly Russo die?
IT’s been showing himself to the Hanlon family a bit much, don’t you know. He’s probably got plans for them. Charlotte sees the toothy smile on a cop when she’s at the police station as Hank is about to board the bus to Shawshank. Will’s already as deep in it as he can be with his friends. And Leroy Hanlon is about to lead his airmen into the sewers. Just as Pennywise would like it. Leroy has to see the crazy in Shaw when he explains his goal behind seeking the capture of this powerful creature. It’s nice of Shaw to sympathize with the mothers of the soldiers who gave their life in Pusan in ‘51, but the fact that he thinks that it would make more sense to drop Pennywise in the middle of the battlefield to take care of the Russians is bonkers. And I think Leroy gets that. I think the only reason he is on board with this mission is to understand the creature better–maybe even find a way to keep it from coming after his family and the people of Derry. It’s gotta shake Leroy up to know that the entire town of Derry is in danger of being hunted by Pennywise, and most of the townspeople are oblivious to it. But he’s not about to wait until his family becomes clown chow. So, much to Will’s dismay, Leroy moves him and Charlotte out of their house in Derry and into the air base just outside the town border, outside of the clown’s hunting ground. But it’s obviously terribly unhinged that all these people voluntarily drop into the old well to go looking for the pillars through the sewers. Especially when they’ve all been warned about the possibility of seeing the monster take the form of people who aren’t real. Leroy has the most important job of all. Once they find the pillars, our Major-minus-an-amygdala has been instructed to trap the monster using them. They’ve cleared out the Neibolt Street crossing area with a lie about a gas main leak. You’d think that Leroy would be safe down there since Pennywise’s favorite tool is fear, and our major feels none. But that’s not the only way the clown can hurt him. In the sewers, the clown takes Charlotte’s form to try and get to Leroy. But while most people won’t have the courage to shoot a thing that looks like their wife, Leroy knows better than that. Pauly can’t see a thing that’s happening while Leroy shoots “Charlotte” in the head and watches her scuttle away in the water. But Pauly knows that Leroy can be trusted even when he claims to have just experienced this crazy business. The rule is simple for them. If they see anyone who shouldn’t be down there, they shoot. Well, that’s a problem, because Leroy doesn’t know that the kids are down in the sewers. So when Will and Leroy’s paths cross, Leroy has no reason to believe that that’s actually his son. But because Pauly can see Will too, he knows that the boy Leroy is about to shoot is his real son. It’s really too bad that there just isn’t enough time for Pauly to stop Leroy from killing Will without jumping in front of the gun himself. It’s an awful way for Leroy to lose his best friend. But I think Pauly actually doesn’t mind giving his life to save Leroy’s son. He could’ve met a far worse end doing what he did. This end isn’t half bad for a man who’s been okay with the idea of giving his life to protect his people.
Did Pennywise Attack The Prison Bus To Shawshank?
Charlotte didn’t get Hank’s hopes up about dodging Shawshank, because she knew that was out of her hands. She’ll try to get Hank out as soon as possible, and she’s even calling people up behind Leroy’s back to make sure of that. But it’s still excruciating for her to watch Hank get humiliated in the police’s backyard. Other than his family, Charlotte, and the woman he spent the night with, no one knows or even thinks he’s innocent. I think the man who takes a shot at him from the crowd and, lucky for both of them, misses, is Phil and Susie’s dad. He thinks Hank killed his kids, so he might be a little different from the crowd of people who’ve gathered here to watch Hank leave for Shawshank. Chief Bowers doesn’t think that Hank will last long enough in Shawshank for Charlotte to get him out on bail. So as far as Hank is concerned, there’s no hope ahead. The situation with him takes an even more worrisome turn when Charlotte gets to know that the bus that Hank was on crashed, and that the “horrible kid killer” has gotten loose. Because Hank is the only one missing, the police are probably going to blame the crash on him too. But things are actually far more convoluted for Hank than all the chaos that we’re aware of. When Mrs. Kersh finds him crouched down in the back of her car, it looks like a kidnapping at first. But then they’re locking lips like they’ve really missed each other as soon as they’re in the clear. So not only is Mrs. Kersh Hank’s alibi for the night of the kids’ disappearance, but it actually looks like they might be in love. So much so that Mrs. Kersh doesn’t even think before asking him to go home with her. But there’s someone else that Hank can turn to for help, and that’s Charlotte. So I guess that’s why Mrs. Kersh shows up at Charlotte’s doorstep in the ending of the 5th episode of IT: Welcome to Derry. It would be bold of Charlotte to harbor a fugitive, should she choose to let Hank hide out at her place. But now Hank’s got even more to explain to the authorities after the bus crash that killed a lot of people. Hank told Mrs. Kersh that something attacked the bus, and that everything happened too fast for him to understand what was even going on. Was it Pennywise stirring things up as usual? Sure sounds like it. He was right there smiling creepily at Charlotte before Hank got on the bus. The crash has Pennywise’s fingerprints all over it.
What Is The Meaning Of The Box In Dick Hallorann’s Mind?
At this point, it feels redundant to even think that Hallorann should stop while he still can. He’s got no business being down in the sewers looking for trouble. And after a couple calls from his grandma’s spirit trying to stop him, he shouldn’t have jumped in the water. But I guess he didn’t get a chance to think about the jump. While everyone else gets up, Hallorann doesn’t. That’s because he’s fallen through his psyche and gotten back up in a memory inside his bathroom. Finding his grandma there isn’t scary. But Hallorann’s practically a trembling child when Pennywise concocts a vision of his abusive grandfather. That’s when fear gets him, and so does Pennywise. The box that Hallorann’s scary grandpa is holding in his hands and forcing Hallorann to open is the physical manifestation of something very meaningful to Dick Hallorann’s lore, all across Stephen King’s horror universe. This is the mental box that Dick Hallorann’s grandma told him about, a box to lock away the horrors of all the pain his grandpa put him through. Ever since, Hallorann has used this mental lockbox to hide away all his ghosts and trauma. It would’ve been a regular thing for a regular person. But for a man with the Shine ability, this mental box has always played a huge role in protecting Hallorann. This particular box has come up in The Shining, and Doctor Sleep. Danny Torrence, another character who connected these two films, has used this box time and again to contain and release spirits from the infamous Overlook Hotel. I don’t think IT: Welcome to Derry will take the ties that far. But it’s a big problem for Hallorann because now that he is in IT’s lair, where the killer clown is its most powerful, the box is open. Are all the ghosts out? Probably. But while Shaw reassures a shaken up Leroy once he’s back at the air base that Hallorann will find a way out of the sewers, I wouldn’t be too sure.
We do see Hallorann come out of the sewers and into the woods in the ending of the 5th episode of IT: Welcome to Derry, but we also see Leroy’s ghost. In Hallorann’s mind, the box is open. So it’s totally possible that Hallorann is inside the world of his mental box, where all the ghosts are. What we do know for sure is that Lilly is safe. She was almost about to be munched on by Pennywise when he found her alone and terrified in the sewers, but something kept him from being able to hurt Lilly. You see, Colonel Fuller was in charge of following Taniel in the sewers. When Taniel found a way to run, the dagger made from the fallen star slipped out of his bag and fell into the water. Lilly is lucky that the water has pushed the dagger right between her and Pennywise. I’m happy that Lilly’s found something to keep herself and her friends safe, but isn’t Rose going to need this sacred weapon back? Lilly doesn’t know anything about it. Things can get real bad if she hands it over to Mrs. Kersh.
