Here it is, folks, the show we have been waiting all year for. IT: Welcome to Derry has finally arrived, and the first episode does not disappoint. The show literally starts off with a wild ride. Let’s just get right to it. It goes without saying, but just in case – massive spoilers incoming.
Batshit Baby
Matty (Miles Ekhardt) is a loner, sitting in a dark theater with his pacifier, watching The Music Man (DaCosta, 1962). He’s quickly chased out by an usher. Hitchhiking out of Derry, Matty is picked up by a seemingly friendly family that agrees to drive him out of Derry. Tensions build as we see the family becoming increasingly more eccentric (daughter eating liver from Tupperware, son spelling random and strange words).
Matty realizes they’re driving back into Derry and becomes frightened. This leads him to attempt taking control of the car, which sets the mother into labor (something we see in all of its well-staged glory). Out flies a demon child that finally settles in the back seat and attacks Matty, driving his pacifier out of the closed window into the river below.
Major Hanlon and Captain Russo land at the local Air Force Base and are immediately shuttled off to the hangar and their troops. After one airman refuses to salute the major, we start to see that the racism in Derry is very much alive.
Life goes on
Jump forward four months to April 1962. We meet Lilly (Clara Stack), who is being teased with a locker full of pickles. One jar falls onto the floor as soon as she opens her locker. Her seemingly only friend, Marge (Matilda Lawler), walks up to console her. They walk off, leading us to meet Phil (Jack Molloy Legault) and Teddy (Mikkal Karim Fidler), two best friends.
Later, we are back with Phil and Teddy as they watch Phil’s neighbor undressing, with some humorous conversation about “pointy cones”. The boys then start talking about Matty’s apparent death and disappearance four months earlier. Teddy feels Matty fled because they forgot his birthday. Talk about guilt.
Back at Lilly’s, she is about to take a bath. Staring at her charm bracelet, Lilly then has a flashback to a night when Matty had taken her to the local tower. They open a Cracker Jack box. Lilly gets a rocket ship charm, while Matty gets a turtle charm. Matty offers to trade, showing that he has a crush on Lilly. Lilly agrees to trade. We then find out that Lilly has been given the nickname of “Loony”. Kids can be so cruel. Lilly then explains to Matty how she got the nickname. Her father died in front of her, chopped to pieces in a broken machine at the pickle factory. Perhaps a bit of a nod to “The Mangler”? Lilly blames herself.
Matty tries to kiss Lilly as fireworks go off over the city, but Lilly pulls away. Matty then walks away, visibly hurt. We then cut back to Lilly in the bathroom. Her mother tells her that they will be going to visit her father’s grave the next morning. After her mother leaves, she hears Matty reciting lines from “The Music Man”. She calls to Matty, asking him to come home. He responds with a bloody finger coming out of the drain, saying, “He won’t let me!”.
Phil and Teddy go to their “secret” hiding spot at the old observatory. They run into Lilly, upset that she is aware of their secret. Lilly tells them what had happened the night before. Her best friend, Marge, didn’t believe her, and now neither do the boys.
Back at the Air Force Base, Major Hanlon has a one-on-one with General Shaw, who asks the major why he joined the Air Force. Major Hanlon explains how he was introduced to flying by a crop duster that would fly over his family’s farm. General Shaw then shares that he enlisted during World War I to have the honor of being a ‘doughboy’.
To believe or not to believe
At the Uris house, Rabbi Uris is blessing their meal. Teddy asks his family if they think that a boy could live in the sewers. Rabbi Uris tells him they are Jewish and have much more realistic horrors to face. Teddy is next seen in bed, reading comics. He turns out the light, but it repeatedly turns itself back on. We then see that the lampshade is made of human skin and is alive. Teddy falls out of bed and attempts to get away, but the lamp closes in. Just before it can attack, Teddy’s older brother opens Teddy’s bedroom door, telling him he can’t believe they are related.
Teddy, Phil, and Lilly are back at the hideout. Teddy has told them what happened last night, making Phil finally believe them. Lilly thinks that they can find information at the Derry Public Library. After Phil’s sister, Susie, tags along, they find a newspaper article about Matty’s disappearance. Matty was last seen at the Capitol Theater by Ronnie Grogan. Ronnie is upset that they had even come to talk to her, as her father had dealt with serious accusations following Matty’s disappearance. Phil remarks that it was stupid to ask about a kid singing songs in the pipes. Ronnie then believes them and wants to help.
Top secret
Major Hanlon, in his barracks room, is attacked by three men wearing gas masks and hitting him with steel pipes. They want him to reveal all the top-secret information about what is going on at the base. He tells them nothing. Suddenly, Captain Russo breaks down the door, causing them to flee.
Teddy, Phil, Susie, Ronnie, and Lilly enter the theater after hours. They plan to watch the scene from “The Music Man” that Matty was singing in the sewers. While Ronnie loads the reel, the others talk about how it was their fault Matty ran away. The film kicks on, and Lilly realizes that the “Trouble” song was the song that Matty was singing in the pipes.
Suddenly, they spot Matty on the screen, and he walks forward, seeming to recognize the kids. Lilly says they will get him out, but he says they are the reason he’s in there. Matty then lowers his head, carrying a baby swaddled in his arms. When he raises his head, Matty’s face has been distorted into what appears to be the crooked and eerie smile of Pennywise.
He releases the baby, which flies out of the screen. The “giant mutant baby”, as Phil calls it, then attacks the kids in the theater. Only Lilly and Ronnie survive the attack. Lilly walks out of the theater covered in blood, holding Susie’s arm.
