The first episode of It: Welcome to Derry is a strikingly gory testament to how much creative freedom the Muschietti siblings were accorded by HBO. No, the show that reaches the creepy town of Derry a long time before the events of the first movie in the franchise is nothing like the franchise has ever made before. The pilot itself finds Derry in a brutal, unforgiving nightmare that’s only starting to get really bad. We’re just in time for the Macroverse-born sadistic alien to exploit the town’s dingy, moldy basement of trauma. Bad things have happened, are happening during, and will happen after the freaky taking of a sweet loner kid, Matty. And fair warning, keep your kids away from this one.
Spoiler Alert
What happens to Matty?
I’m not even sure that Matty is actually enjoying the sinister warnings of Robert Preston’s “Ya Got Trouble” at the Capitol Theatre. But the fact that teenagers are making out to “The Magic Man” says more about the scarcity of hangouts in Derry than anything else, so I don’t think Matty has a lot of choices. This isn’t his first time sneaking in without paying. And this isn’t the first time that Cal has caught him and chased him out either. Capitol’s projector operator, Hank, and his daughter, Ronnie, are softer than Cal. It’s a small town, so both Hank and Cal know that Matty hardly even has a home or a family, but only one of them cares. Thanks to Ronnie’s lie, Matty gets to run away. But tonight’s different for Matty. He may have thought about skipping town before. But tonight, he’s actually doing it. So you can fill in the blank space that is our knowledge of Matty’s family life with the very fair assumption that it’s unbearable. That’s why he hitchhikes and gets into the first car that stops for him. But not before what he hopes is his last look at the town sign, complete with the problematic connotations of Paul Bunyan and a logo of the Legion of White Decency. Derry’s celebration of Paul Bunyan, a giant lumberjack hero of American folklore, is an obvious suggestion that this isn’t a place that respects indigenous history. The tales of Paul Bunyan completely deny the very existence of indigenous societies in America before colonization. And the Legion of White Decency is the political equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan in Stephen King’s lore. No wonder Matty wants to be anywhere but here. There has to be something off about the family that decides to take him along with them to Portland no questions asked, however sweet they may seem at first. The radio’s mention of the far reaching effects of nuclear attack may not be new information to us, but for the Americans expecting another World War in the 60s, it’s a very scary time to be alive. Switching the station doesn’t change the horror, though. Because it seems that the family that has now kidnapped Matty are intensely deranged. Well, it’s not entirely psychological for this family of freaks. When the mom goes into labor, it’s not a human baby that comes out of her. To the family’s demented joy and Matty’s extreme horror, the baby turns out to be a vicious, monstrous creature that attacks Matty and carries him off into the darkness.
How does Matty communicate with Lilly?
Matty has very few friends. And his vanishing didn’t affect the three of them the same way. Phil never takes a break from coming up with all sorts of conspiracy theories about aliens, Martians, the human body, and whatnot. So it makes sense that he doesn’t have a lot of space left in his mind to think about Matty. But that isn’t the case for Phil’s best bud, Theodore. He finds himself thinking about how one of his friends vanished into thin air 4 months ago more often than Phil would prefer. Phil doesn’t see why the disappearance of a kid his age should worry him. They weren’t too close to Matty anyways. I mean, they were paid in candies by Matty’s mom to even show their faces at his birthday party. The only person who didn’t need an incentive to spend time with Matty was Lilly. She’s got a lot of problems to deal with as it is. And Matty happened to be the only kid who was ever kind to her for real. Even her friend, Marge, is lukewarm at best when the bullies at school stuff Lilly’s locker with pickle jars that explode all over her–an especially sadistic prank once you know the backstory. You see, Matty took her to the secret hang with a beautiful view that Theodore showed had once brought him to. This is Theodore and Phil’s place. But Matty borrowed it just for an evening to talk to the girl he liked. Lilly found it easy to open up to him about the reason the whole town thinks there’s something wrong with her. Her father, a worker in a jarring plant, had gone back to the plant to get something Lilly had left behind. He’d been trying to fix a machine when he got trapped in it and lost his life, a story that a grotesque place like Derry has turned into a folklore within a year. There was no way for Lilly to avoid feeling guilt. A part of her still thinks that she was the reason her dad died. And while she’s now able to wear a smile out there, she had to spend time in a psych facility. So you can imagine what the yankity yanks of the town have to say about the little girl they all call Loony Lilly. Yeah, even Phil. Derry is crawling with people who are in a hurry to judge and act unkind. Even the school mascot, Bert the Turtle, doesn’t get to have his lunch in peace while spreading his “duck and cover” warnings. Oh, and in case you didn’t catch it, Bert the Turtle is a pretty sweet easter egg that ties the show into the overarching universe. The turtle is a symbol of a cosmic entity that Stephen King’s novel universe knows as Maturin. Basically, he is the very antithesis of Pennywise in action and intention. His job is creation, so he can’t be too happy about the fact that his nemesis, the extraterrestrial being we know as It, is about to put Derry in a death grip. This isn’t the only time It: Welcome to Derry explains and foretells Pennywise’s arrival in the pilot. Just before Theodore and Phil talk about Matty for the first time in 4 months, we see Phil’s drawing of an alien with tentacles consuming a human. That’s how Pennywise is creeping into the collective mind of Derry–through fear, gossip, hate, and everything negative. Lilly’s not like that at all. And it’s always hardest for a good kid to be surrounded by people who don’t seem to know that they’re supposed to feel empathy. Even her mother is conspicuously cold when she tells Lilly that they’re going to visit her father’s grave the next morning–something Lilly can easily read as blame for her father’s death. Lilly hasn’t been to her father’s grave once. And if her mom could only look at her parenting, she’d know why. It’s the spookiest thing for Lilly when Matty’s voice echoes out of the drain leading to her bathtub. How is Matty in the sewers? If this wasn’t freaky enough for Lilly, the fingers coming out of the drain hole should do the trick. If this is in fact Matty, it makes sense that he’s trying to connect with someone who was sweet to him. Lilly was just fiddling with the turtle charm Matty gave him, another symbol of Maturin’s watchful, reassuring presence in the world.
Who attacks Leroy Hanlon?
Major Hanlon is far more hopeful about his transfer to Derry than his mate who was sent along with him. This isn’t really Pauly’s scene. But then again, Leron Hanlon seems to be optimistic about most things, and that includes America’s chances against Russia in the Cold War. Colonel Fuller doesn’t want the new major getting the wrong idea about the job just because this isn’t Korea. Fuller reminds Hanlon that as the northernmost continental airbase, they’re going to have to go in first when Russia makes a move. But while Hanlon may be an optimist, he’s already out of his depth in a spooky town like Derry. Moreover, his new workplace has this secret area that Fuller is nervous and cagey about. The only non-classified words about this secret are “special projects.” That can’t be anything good, right? There’s also something about the way the driver looks at Hanlon that’s undeniably meaningful. It may partly be about the fact that they’re the only two Black men working in an airbase situated in a town terrorized by a White supremacist group. But I think he knows something about the secret projects. Not everyone in the crew is happy to be reporting to a colored Major. Masters is too precious to follow the rules and show Major Hanlon the courtesy he’s due. Is he a part of that awful group? Possibly. It’s good to see that General Shaw doesn’t have any patience for the likes of Masters. He shows Masters his place and makes him salute the major before slapping toilet duty on him. I already like this guy. Hanlon and Shaw are likely to get on really well. They come from very different walks of life. But they have this shared hope, almost a desperate wish that the fight they’re fighting will be worth it. They want to believe that America can be saved. And at the end of the day, they’re both just trying to make their dads proud. Family’s important to Hanlon. He’s done spending time away from his wife and son. So now that they’re going to live together in Derry, Hanlon wants the normalcy of a white picket fence. But I doubt that this town is going to be the place where Hanlon’s family will thrive. Danger’s at his doorstep on the very first night. A celebrated pilot who’s achieved unimaginable things in Korea, Hanson has been brought to this air base to test their new B-52 plane. The masked men who break into his room in the dark of the night want him to give them the specifics of that plane. Are they Russian spies? Why else would they want to know about the plane anyway? Hanson holds his own against men twice his size before Pauly lends him a hand. The bad guys leave empty handed for now. But how long before they’re back?
How Does Lilly Survive The Attack In The Capitol Theatre?
Had she not been completely sure that she heard Matty sing a song from The Music Man in the drain, Lilly wouldn’t have turned to Phil and Theodore. Why would she risk being seen as crazier than the town already believes she is. Phil’s not at all thrilled to find out that Theodore shared their sacred space with Matty. And he’s certainly not going to believe in the probability of Matty being stuck in the sewers and knowing just where to go to sing to Lilly. I know what you’re thinking. Theodore calls him out on it too. For a kid who believes aliens wear human skins and the airbase is where the government is researching alien life, Phil’s being a bit too much of a cynic. It’s not that Theodore believes it. But I guess his mind isn’t completely shut off to the possibility of freaky things being absolutely real. Theodore doesn’t have the easiest time at home either. It really makes you wonder how many kids are living very dysfunctional lives in Derry. Granted, Theodore probably shouldn’t have gone up and asked his orthodox Jewish dad if he believed that people could be kidnapped and trapped in the sewers. I mean, this man thinks the TV will shrink his testicles. The only pain that Theodore’s dad is able to validate is the one that his grandparents and their friends and families faced in the Buchenwald. And he seems like the kind of person who’s told these stories so many times that he’s forgotten the fact that he shouldn’t talk to his kids about lamps made of human skin. What do you know? The fear that crept inside Theodore thanks to his tonedeaf dad translates into a bonechilling incident where a talking lamp made of human faces chases him across the room. Yeah, all that regurgitation makes sense, Ted. But this is also a cheeky reference to the lore of how Maturin birthed our galaxy when he had a bad stomach ache and couldn’t keep it down. But at least it’s official now. Phil knows Theodore too well to think he’s lying. So if Lilly’s crazy, they’re all crazy. It’s smart on their part to dodge being sent to the asylum by sharing this with the grown ups. Well, at least initially.
Theodore doesn’t like it one bit that Phil’s baby sister, Susie, has tagged along on their mission to the library. They’re going with Lilly’s plan. Lilly knows that they need to find out everything that happened on the night of Matty’s disappearance. And what she finds in the papers is the mention of the girl who saw him last. You know who she is. It’s Hank’s daughter, Ronnie. She’s ready to fly off the handle when Lilly, Phil, Theodore, and Susie show up at her door asking about Matty and that fateful night. They don’t know that Matty’s name is a sour topic in their household ever since the police tried to pin in on Hank. There’s no denying that his race had something to do with it. Ronnie would’ve been glad to see the backs of them had it not been for Phil. Talkative as he is, he was griping about Lilly hearing Matty’s song. That’s what makes Ronnie share her truth with them. She’s heard things too–whispers, noises, kids calling her name from the basement of Capitol Theatre. That’s where they need to go to get to the bottom of this. For Matty, and for themselves. It’s sweet how Phil and Theodore finally acknowledge their grief and guilt when Ronnie projects “The Music Man” on the screen. But it’s not a clue that they find in the musical none of them wanted to watch. It’s Matty himself, holding the baby that’s obviously the creature that took him. And oh look! The family that kidnapped him is there too! It’s completely insane for them to see Matty in a movie. But what’s worse is that Matty isn’t happy to see them. That’s too Bill Skarsgard a smile there, Matty boy. The creepy quotient is through the roof with Capitol witnessing the moment Pennywise takes a step closer to Derry. Because you’ve been trained to expect horrors going relatively easy on likeable kids, the ending of the first episode of It: Welcome to Derry is an absolute shocker for you. The alien baby, now a giant, tears everyone apart except for Lilly. I think it’s the turtle charm that keeps her safe. Or maybe, Lilly’s supposed to be the vessel for this horror in the days to come. Not in a possession way, mind you. But she’ll certainly have a lot more hostility to face now that she’s one of the two kids who’ve survived this massacre. Being away in the projector room saved Ronnie. How’s Lilly going to even comprehend this trauma? She’s going to feel like she caused their deaths by telling them about Matty’s creepy drain singing. And I don’t think the town’s going to go easy on her either.
