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\n Ingrid\u2019s long-awaited reunion with Pennywise isn\u2019t what she thought it would be.
\n Photo: Brooke Palmer\/HBO\n <\/p>\n
This close to the end of the season, I\u2019ve come to accept that It: Welcome to Derry is a show I\u2019m going to struggle with. But as frustrating as the storytelling can be, I can\u2019t deny there are individual elements that really work. That\u2019s certainly the case in \u201cThe Black Spot,\u201d an obvious improvement over last week\u2019s installment<\/a> but an episode that left me with some burning questions. Why, for example, do we get an 11-minute cold open detailing the origin of Pennywise? For one thing, this is material that the show would presumably want to save for a future 1908-set season. For another, it\u2019s not telling us anything we don\u2019t already know. We see Bob Gray performing as Pennywise and young Ingrid following in her mother\u2019s footsteps by adopting her clown moniker of Periwinkle. One night, a little boy with glowing eyes (never a good sign!) approaches Bob and remarks, \u201cThe children seem drawn to you.\u201d He lures the clown into the forest, and the real Bob Gray is never seen again. All Ingrid is left with is her father\u2019s bloody handkerchief.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no real benefit to showing more of the human Pennywise, which, if anything, undermines the horror of the shape-shifter\u2019s most infamous form. Who Bob Gray was doesn\u2019t actually matter \u2014 he\u2019s simply an appearance that the creature took on, and Welcome to Derry\u2019s insistence on overexplaining this drags the episode down. That\u2019s especially unfortunate when the prior episode ended on a cliffhanger with a gang of armed and angry townspeople arriving at the Black Spot for Hank. Thankfully, after the opening diversion into the past, we pick up right where we left off. Hank tries to surrender to the mob to stave off bloodshed, but the service members draw their own weapons and order the intruders to leave. It\u2019s a Pyrrhic victory: As soon as the mob steps outside, they all barricade the doors and throw Molotov cocktails through the windows, setting the Black Spot ablaze with dozens of patrons trapped inside. For those who have read It or seen the 2017 movie, this turn of events is not surprising, but it\u2019s still horrifying to watch the scene play out. While the chaos of the fire and the panicked rush to escape sometimes make it hard to tell exactly what\u2019s going on, it\u2019s an undeniably harrowing sequence. The fire features the show\u2019s most memorable imagery yet as Pennywise emerges from the flames. Equally arresting: the shot of the clown devouring Jax\u2019s date, Noreen. (I did laugh at his ghoulish joke to Ronnie: \u201cDo I have face on my face?\u201d)<\/p>\n Ultimately, there\u2019s only so much Welcome to Derry can do to capture the terror and carnage of the Black Spot fire, described in the novel by a dying Will in gruesome detail. I do give the series credit for its additions, like Dick breaking his no-contact rule and communicating with the spirit of an Indigenous warrior to find a path to safety. In retaliation, Pennywise confronts Dick while flanked by a legion of less friendly ghosts \u2014 another stellar shot. For his efforts, Dick is able to get Will, Ronnie, and Hank out of the Black Spot through a tunnel under the floor, and all four manage to escape unscathed \u2014 at least physically. Rich and Marge, however, are trapped behind burning debris. Rich finds a cooler and urges Marge to hide inside, noting that it\u2019s their only hope of surviving the smoke and flames. Then, in a stunning move that\u2019s pure Jack Dawson, he closes the lid behind her, using his body to hold it down. As with the door in the freezing Atlantic Ocean, there\u2019s really only room for one of them. Rich\u2019s sacrifice is moving, even if the \u201cI love you\u201ds he and Marge exchange in his final moments feel a bit rushed. Strange as it may sound, I commend the show\u2019s choice to kill off one of its young characters. Aside from the massacre that ended the series premiere<\/a>, Welcome to Derry has felt oddly safe with Pennywise spending far more time scaring kids than eating them. This is a smart way to raise the stakes ahead of the season finale. (I do have to note that it\u2019s bizarre how much Rich\u2019s death pulls focus from the deaths of the many Black patrons of the club, given that the fire is specifically an act of anti-Black violence.)<\/p>\n Outside the Black Spot, the mob flees the scene \u2014\u00a0except for Stan Kersh, who finds that his car won\u2019t start. That\u2019s when he sees a very odd sight: his wife in full Periwinkle attire. \u201cThis is me, Stanley,\u201d Ingrid tells him. \u201cThis is who I really am.\u201d He threatens to beat her if she doesn\u2019t go home and wipe the clown makeup off, but he\u2019s thankfully interrupted by Pennywise, who slices off the top of Stan\u2019s head with a cleaver and starts munching on the meat inside. Ingrid is overcome with emotion at seeing her \u201cfather\u201d again. She knew he wouldn\u2019t be able to resist the explosion of violence at the Black Spot, she tearfully tells him. \u201cCome to Papa,\u201d Pennywise says, embracing this weepy woman he clearly wants nothing to do with. He\u2019s even gracious enough to tell Ingrid she did well. But their reunion ends abruptly when Pennywise announces, \u201cI\u2019m going to sleep now\u201d (and who among us, after a big meal?!). Ingrid begs him not to abandon her, but when he turns back, drooling, she suddenly comes to her senses. \u201cYou\u2019re not him,\u201d she says. \u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p>\n Permit me a moment here to return to some of the questions that flooded my mind during this scene, starting with, How is it only in this moment that it suddenly occurs to her that the creature is not her father? Are we supposed to understand this as the first time Ingrid has seen Pennywise up close since she inadvertently fed him a little girl? If that\u2019s the case, then what exactly has she been doing to aid him over the years? When Pennywise tells Ingrid that she \u201cdid good,\u201d what is he referring to? And while I\u2019m asking questions, does Ingrid care that a racist mob just burned down the club where her lover was hiding out? Is she the one who tipped them off? And if her affair with Hank was always a means to an end, how could she possibly have gamed out the kind of mass-casualty event that would bring her father back? I\u2019ll stop there, but suffice it to say, we don\u2019t get any answers. Instead, Pennywise taunts Ingrid before showing her the deadlights and leaving her (mostly) catatonic. (When she\u2019s being carted off by the paramedics, her eyes flash toward the young survivors of the fire.)<\/p>\n Yes, Ronnie, Will, and Marge have all made it out, but they\u2019re traumatized by Rich\u2019s death as they jointly hug his corpse the next morning. (It\u2019s perhaps a small mercy that he appears to have died from smoke inhalation and not from being burned alive, though I realize there\u2019s no great way to die in this scenario.) When Charlotte arrives, the kids direct her to Hank, hiding out in the forest \u2014 he has been reported dead by the local news, which is blaming the 23 deaths at the \u201cillegal colored speakeasy\u201d on an electrical fire, but she\u2019ll still need to get him out of town. The military is also on the scene, and Leroy does his best to calm Dick, who is not faring well in the aftermath of the fire. Because he talked to the Indigenous warrior, he has broken the boundary between himself and the dead. They\u2019re all speaking to him simultaneously, and he can\u2019t make the voices stop. Dick does have some good news, though: He now knows where to find a pillar, and they don\u2019t have to worry about the creature, which he can sense has gone into hibernation. Why Dick is suddenly eager to help with Shaw\u2019s mission is beyond me, but Leroy remains frustratingly single-minded himself. After Charlotte says that someone has to pay for the mass murder at the Black Spot, Leroy tells her, \u201cThat\u2019s not our job.\u201d Worse, he assures her that the creature under Derry can no longer harm her or Will. They\u2019ll all leave town together once Leroy\u2019s mission is over. \u201cThe worst of all this shit is behind us, I promise you,\u201d he says, which is, again, the dumbest possible thing to say on a show like this.<\/p>\n It really feels as though Charlotte is the only one reacting to the Black Spot fire properly, and given that she\u2019s the only sensible person in Derry, I suppose that tracks. When Will says he wants to go to Lilly\u2019s with Ronnie and Marge so they can tell her about Rich, Charlotte forbids it. Will reasons that the creature being asleep means the danger is behind them. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t that thing that lit the fire last night,\u201d Charlotte snaps back. \u201cThis town is the monster. You\u2019re not going anywhere.\u201d I honestly don\u2019t know what I would do without her, the sole Welcome to Derry character who doesn\u2019t make me feel insane. She still has a mission of her own, though. Charlotte decides to bring Hank to Rose, believing that Rose will be able to get him and Ronnie safely across the border. To do so, Charlotte disguises him as Leroy. Hank worries the neighbors might notice, seeing as the two men look nothing alike. \u201cIn this town?\u201d Charlotte answers. Rose, meanwhile, is meeting with the members of her tribe tasked with monitoring the Galloo. They\u2019ve determined that the Black Spot fire was the Augury, or the end of the latest feeding cycle, which means 27 years of relative peace. Yes, many people died to get to this point, but infinitely more would die if the pillars weren\u2019t in place. \u201cWe do as much as we can for as many as we can,\u201d Rose says. \u201cFocus on the lives saved, the ones protected because we keep this thing in its cage.\u201d<\/p>\n About that cage: True to his word, Dick is able to locate one of the pillars. Once it\u2019s dug up, Leroy is horrified to discover that they won\u2019t be moving the pillar inward toward the center of Derry to box the creature in but will instead be bringing it to base for testing. \u201cWhat you\u2019re suggesting,\u201d Leroy tells Fuller, \u201cit\u2019s like leaving the cage door open.\u201d Well, yes, exactly that, and it\u2019s even worse than he knows. When we next see the pillar, it\u2019s not being analyzed by military scientists \u2014 it\u2019s being loaded into an incinerator. Leroy tries to stop this at gunpoint, only for Fuller to tell him that orders are orders. Shaw intervenes at this point to share his true plans with Leroy: This was never about Russia or ending the Cold War; the general has always intended to destroy the pillars and deliberately set Pennywise free. \u201cThe greatest threat to this nation is not from without, Major, it\u2019s from within,\u201d Shaw tells Leroy. To prevent what he sees as an otherwise inevitable civil war, he\u2019s going to spread fear throughout the country. The Black Spot fire was \u201chorrific,\u201d Shaw acknowledges, but \u201cthe streets are calm today.\u201d He continues, \u201cThe fear, it settles on every living person it touches like a fog, like a goddamned anesthetic.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, Shaw is \u201cfucking insane.\u201d (Hey, Leroy said it, not me.) The general admits that, yes, countless American children will die, but it\u2019s all for the greater good, and as soldiers, they\u2019ve been trained to accept collateral damage. There doesn\u2019t seem to be anything Leroy can do to stop Shaw. Fuller arrives and holds the major at gunpoint while the pillar is loaded back into the incinerator and destroyed. Down in his lair, Pennywise is sleeping, but apparently not too soundly \u2014\u00a0as soon as the meteor piece melts, his eyes pop open. (That hibernation was really more of a catnap.) Back at the Hanlon home, Will learns this the hard way when he gets a call from Ronnie. She can\u2019t stop thinking about Rich, she tells him. \u201cThe way he looked, the way he must have suffocated, lungs bursting like popcorn, making my mouth water,\u201d says her voice, merging with Pennywise\u2019s. \u201cI can smell the little stinky, broken boy body, can\u2019t you?\u201d When Will turns, the clown is waiting for him on top of the fridge. Pennywise doesn\u2019t eat him, though, instead opening wide and showing Will the deadlights.<\/p>\n \u2022 At the risk of making this overly complicated, the deadlights aren\u2019t something inside Pennywise \u2014 they\u2019re actually the creature\u2019s true form. Seeing them can instantly kill a person or make them go insane. (In the novel, Henry Bowers is institutionalized after seeing the deadlights, which turn his hair white.) The Muschietti adaptations have mostly focused on the deadlights\u2019 ability to put their victims into a state of floating catatonia, as we see with Will and Ingrid in this episode.<\/p>\n \u2022 We know Will survives because (spoiler alert!) he goes on to father Mike Hanlon. In It, Beverly sees the deadlights and is revived with a kiss from Ben, so I\u2019m willing to bet Ronnie kisses Will awake in the finale. (It might be a hint that the episode is titled \u201cWinter Fire,\u201d a reference to the haiku Ben writes for Beverly, which she recites back to him after he rescues her from the deadlights.)<\/p>\n \u2022 As I said above, the Pennywise origin story we get in this episode doesn\u2019t reveal anything new. The book suggests that It saw the real Pennywise perform at some point in the 1800s and decided to take on the clown\u2019s form because clowns both attract and frighten children, which is pretty key to his whole deal. That Welcome to Derry shows this happening in 1908 marks a timeline shift, but that\u2019s true of the show as a whole.<\/p>\n \u2022 Although the angry mob that burns down the Black Spot certainly intends to find and lynch Hank, there\u2019s something oddly sanitized about how the series depicts these events. In the book, the perpetrators are the Maine Legion of White Decency, an iteration of the Ku Klux Klan. I don\u2019t mean to suggest that Bowers and the townspeople aren\u2019t just as motivated by their racism, but the series holds back on making that as explicit as the novel.<\/p>\n \u2022 The pillar, no surprise, is held in place by turtle shells, another reference to Maturin. This also touches on what I said about the pillars mirroring the beams<\/a> that hold up the Dark Tower \u2014\u00a0the shells mark the turtle as protector of the pillar, and Maturin is one of the 12 guardians of the beams.<\/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