IT: Welcome to Derry premiered its second episode on HBO Max today, two days earlier than scheduled, making your Halloween even sweeter.
The prequel series, co-created by Andy and Barbara Muschietti (the duo behind 2017’s It movie and 2019’s sequel), takes audiences back to the Stephen King cinematic universe, where Pennywise, an extra-dimensional being that eventually takes the form of an evil clown, terrorizes the fictional town of Derry, Maine, every 27 years.
Episode 2, titled The Thing in the Dark, stays in 1962 and follows the small-town community as it deals with the shocking act of violence that wiped out a group of kids I thought were the show’s main players.
The episode hones in on Lilly Bainbridge, the girl at the center of the story, and, unexpectedly, delivers one of the most unsettling scenes I’ve seen in a TV show this year.
It goes without saying that there are major story spoilers about the second episode of IT: Welcome to Derry below. If you’ve not watched it yet (HBO’s cable channel won’t air the episode until Sunday, Nov. 2), I suggest proceeding with caution.
Thematically, IT: Welcome to Derry explores the corrosion of the American Dream — the sinister underbelly lurking beneath its quaint Norman Rockwell veneer. The fantastic opening credit sequence makes that message clear, and it’s on full display during a brief trip to the supermarket.
Lilly, like pretty much every child in Pennywise’s orbit, is dealing with some semblance of trauma. Hers involves the death of her father, who died in a factory accident. It’s 1962, and no one mentions seeking therapy. Instead, there are threats of shipping her off to Juniper Hill Asylum, which, if you’re familiar with King’s works, appears a lot in his literary universe.
From the moment she walks into the store, it’s clear something is off. The further she wanders into the rows of canned goods and cereal boxes, it’s obvious Pennywise is pulling the strings. Behind her, the aisles move, and quickly her trip to the market evolves into a nightmarish maze.
Clara Stack stars in IT: Welcome to Derry.
My Admiral Akbar brain told me it was a trap before the show did. As someone who once got lost in a supermarket, a terrifying childhood memory bubbled up and slapped me in the face.
There are two significant events that occur in this scene: First, the children who were murdered at the end of the first episode appear on boxes of cereal, and Pennywise’s name is prominently displayed in big letters. Second, the evil entity appears in jars of pickles in the form of her dead dad.
Let’s go with the cereal thing first.
Mascots first appeared on cereal boxes in the 1950s, and one that always stood out to me was Krinkles the Clown. He appeared on Post’s Sugar Rice Krinkles. Like Bozo the Clown, this character proved popular with kids of that era. All you have to do is look at his face to see the resemblance to the dancing clown form Pennywise will eventually take.
For me, and so many from my generation, breakfast cereal is a portal to nostalgia. Memories of Saturday morning cartoons over bowls of Frosted Flakes are clear in my head. This was my safe space.
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It feels like Pennywise is taking a page from Freddy Krueger’s playbook. That blade-gloved nightmare first entered my world when I was still eating cereal in front of the TV, shattering that sense of safety I mentioned earlier. The supermarket scene in this episode of IT: Welcome to Derry captured that same unsettling vibe perfectly.
Like Krueger, IT takes pleasure in its victims’ fear, and has wisecracks and one-liners to sprinkle atop the torture. Freddy was a notorious child killer, and as we’ve seen in Muschietti’s updated take on Stephen King’s classic, Pennywise’s kid carnage is now more visceral, and no longer confined to off-camera moments.
All of the bad stuff in the series has happened in the dark, thus far. However, the horridness that befalls Lilly unfolds beneath the bright lights of the market, dismantling a place that normally represents safety and sustenance.
Now, about those pickle jars.
Lilly’s father breaks from the glass, pieces himself into the shape of a slithering thing with tentacles and assaults the girl. It’s brazen, disgusting and feels so (how should I put this?) 2025.
She’s left tearful on a floor full of shattered glass. Then, in the blink of an eye, it’s not that at all. Everything goes back to normal, with a crowd of judgmental adults towering over the girl. Once again, Lilly’s state of mind is called into question.
Through every iteration of Pennywise I’ve seen on screen, the ones that work the best take place in the past. IT: Welcome to Derry is an example of that, and somehow, the terrifying energy of our present-day real world is also there, lurking in the shadows. No one is safe in this city, and no punches are pulled on this show. All it takes is an innocent trip to the grocery store to nail that message home.
The rest of the season may be uneven in tone and pacing, but this scene is exactly the vibe I’d expect from any Pennywise story. Consider this five minutes very well spent.
