The first episode of It: Welcome to Derry is a surprisingly bloody testament to the vast creative freedom HBO granted the Muschietti brothers. No, the series, set in the creepy town of Derry long before the events of the first film in the franchise, is nothing like anything the franchise has done before. The pilot episode shows Derry steeped in a brutal and relentless nightmare that is only just beginning to get worse. We arrive just in time for the sadistic, Macroverse-born alien to exploit the town's sordid, moldy basement of traumas. Bad things have happened, are happening, and will continue to happen after the strange abduction of a sweet, lonely boy, Matty. And a warning: keep your children away from this.
I'm not even sure Matty is enjoying Robert Preston's ominous "Ya Got Trouble" warnings at the Capitol Theatre. But the fact that teenagers are making out to "The Magic Man" says more about the scarcity of places to hang out in Derry than anything else, so I don't think Matty has many options. This isn't the first time he's snuck in without paying. And it's not the first time Cal has caught him and kicked him out either. The Capitol's projectionist, Hank, and his daughter, Ronnie, are kinder than Cal. It's a small town, so both Hank and Cal know that Matty barely has a home or a family, but only one of them cares.
Creators: Jason Fuchs, Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti
Stars: Bill Skarsgård, Joshua Odjick, Mikkal Karim Fidler
Thanks to Ronnie's lie, Matty manages to escape. But tonight is different for Matty. He may have thought about leaving town before. But tonight, he's actually doing it. So you can fill in the blanks in our knowledge about Matty's home life with the fairly accurate assumption that it's unbearable. That's why he's hitchhiking and getting into the first car that stops. But not before taking what he hopes will be his last look at the town sign, with its problematic connotations of Paul Bunyan and the White Legion of Decency logo. The celebration of Paul Bunyan in Derry, a giant lumberjack hero of American folklore, is a clear indication that this is not a place that respects Indigenous history.
The Paul Bunyan tales completely deny the very existence of Indigenous societies in America before colonization. And the White Decency Legion is the political equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan in Stephen King's universe. It's no wonder Matty wants to be anywhere but here. There has to be something strange about the family that decides to take him to Portland without asking any questions, however kind they may seem at first. The radio mention of the far-reaching effects of a nuclear attack may not be new information to us, but for Americans expecting another World War in the 1960s, it was a very frightening time to be alive. However, changing the station doesn't change the horror. Because it seems the family that has kidnapped Matty is completely deranged. Well, it's not entirely psychological for this family of monsters. When the mother 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 monstrous, vicious creature that attacks Matty and drags him into the darkness.
Matty has very few friends. And his disappearance didn't affect the three of them in the same way. Phil keeps coming up with all sorts of conspiracy theories about aliens, Martians, the human body, and so on. So it makes sense that he doesn't have much room in his head to think about Matty. But that's not the case for Phil's best friend, Theodore. He finds himself thinking about how one of his friends disappeared without a trace four months ago more often than Phil would prefer. Phil doesn't understand why the disappearance of a kid their age should bother him. They weren't very good friends with Matty anyway. I mean, Matty's mother paid them with candy just to get them to show up at his birthday party. The only person who didn't need an incentive to spend time with Matty was Lilly. She already has enough problems to deal with. And Matty turned out to be the only boy who was ever truly kind to her. Even her friend, Marge, is, at best, indifferent when the school bullies fill Lilly's locker with jars of pickles that explode everywhere, a particularly sadistic prank if you know the backstory. You see, Matty took her to the secret spot with a beautiful view that Theodore had once taken her to.
This is Theodore and Phil's place. But Matty borrowed it for just one night to talk to the girl he liked. Lilly found it easy to open up to him about why the whole town thinks there's something wrong with her. Her father, a cannery worker, had gone back to the plant to retrieve something Lilly had forgotten. He was trying to fix a machine when he got caught in it and lost his life—a story that a grotesque place like Derry has turned into a legend in just one year. Lilly couldn't help but feel guilty. Part of her still thinks she was the reason for her father's death. And although she's now able to smile in public, she had to spend time in a psychiatric facility. So you can imagine what the townspeople have to say about the girl they all call Crazy Lilly. Yes, even Phil.
Derry is plagued by people who are quick to judge and act cruelly. Not even the school mascot, Bert the Turtle, can eat his lunch in peace while spreading his "duck and cover" warnings. Oh, and in case you didn't notice, Bert the Turtle is a very interesting detail that connects the series to the overall universe. The turtle is a symbol of a cosmic entity that the Stephen King novel universe knows as Maturin. Basically, it's the antithesis of Pennywise in action and intent. Its job is creation, so it can't be too happy about the fact that its nemesis, the extraterrestrial being we know as It, is about to bring Derry under its complete control. This isn't the only time It: Welcome to Derry explains and foreshadows Pennywise's arrival in the pilot episode. Just before Theodore and Phil talk about Matty for the first time in 4 months, we see Phil's drawing of a tentacled alien consuming a human. That's how Pennywise is infiltrating the collective mind of Derry: through fear, gossip, hatred, and all things negative.
Lilly isn't like that at all. And it's always harder for a good kid to be surrounded by people who don't seem to know they're supposed to feel empathy. Even her mother is remarkably cold when she tells Lilly they're going to visit her father's grave the next morning, something Lilly easily interprets as an accusation for her father's death. Lilly hasn't visited her father's grave even once. And if her mother would just reflect on her parenting, she would know why. The most chilling thing for Lilly is when Matty's voice echoes from the drain leading to her bathtub. How is it possible that Matty is in the sewers? If that weren't terrifying enough for Lilly, the fingers reaching out from the drain should do the trick. If it is indeed Matty, it makes sense that he's trying to connect with someone who was kind to him. Lilly was playing with the turtle amulet Matty gave her, another symbol of Maturin's watchful and comforting presence in the world.
Major Hanlon is far more hopeful about his transfer to Derry than his partner, who was sent with him. This isn't exactly Pauly's kind of environment. But then again, Leron Hanlon seems to be optimistic about most things, and that includes the chances of the United States against Russia in the Cold War. Colonel Fuller doesn't want the new major to get the wrong idea about the job just because this isn't Korea. Fuller reminds Hanlon that, as the northernmost continental air base, they'll have to be the first to act when Russia makes a move. But even though Hanlon is optimistic, he already feels overwhelmed by the situation in a town as unsettling as Derry. Furthermore, his new workplace has a secret area that Fuller is nervous and evasive about.
The only unclassified words about this secret are "special projects." That can't be good, can it? There's also something about the way the driver looks at Hanlon that is undeniably significant. It may be partly due to the fact that they are the only two Black men working on an air base located in a town terrorized by a white supremacist group. But I think he knows something about the secret projects. Not everyone on the team is happy to be under the command of a Black major. Masters is too arrogant to follow the rules and show Major Hanlon the respect he deserves. Is he part of that awful group? Possibly. I'm glad to see that General Shaw has no patience for people like Masters. He puts him in his place and forces him to salute the major before punishing him with the task of cleaning the latrines. I already like this guy. Hanlon and Shaw will probably get along very well. They come from very different backgrounds, but they share the same hope, almost a desperate wish, that the fight they are waging will be worthwhile.
If Lilly hadn't been absolutely certain she'd heard Matty singing a song from The Music Man in the sewer, she wouldn't have gone to Phil and Theodore. Why risk being considered even crazier than she already is in town? Phil isn't at all happy to learn that Theodore shared his secret space with Matty. And he certainly isn't going to believe the possibility that Matty is trapped in the sewers and knows exactly where to go to sing to Lilly. I know what you're thinking. Theodore is thinking it too. For a kid who believes that aliens wear human skins and that the government is investigating extraterrestrial life at the air base, Phil is being awfully cynical. Not that Theodore believes it. But I guess his mind isn't completely closed to the possibility that strange things are absolutely real.
Theodore doesn't have it easy at home either. It makes you wonder how many kids live very dysfunctional lives in Derry. Of course, Theodore probably shouldn't have asked his Orthodox Jewish father if he thought people could be kidnapped and trapped in the sewers. I mean, this man thinks that television will shrink his testicles. The only pain Theodore's father is capable of validating is the pain suffered by his grandparents, his friends, and their families in Buchenwald. And he seems like the kind of person who has told these stories so many times that he's forgotten he shouldn't talk to his children about lamps made of human skin. What do you think? The fear that gripped Theodore thanks to his tone-deaf father translates into a chilling incident where a talking lamp made of human faces chases him around the room.
Yes, all that regurgitation makes sense, Ted. But this is also a blatant reference to the legend of how Maturin gave birth to our galaxy when he had a bad stomach ache and couldn't hold it in. But at least now it's official. Phil knows Theodore too well to think he's lying. So, if Lilly is crazy, they're all crazy. It's smart of them to avoid being committed to a mental institution by sharing this with the adults. Well, at least at first. Theodore is not at all happy that Phil's little sister, Susie, has joined their mission to the library. They're following Lilly's plan. Lilly knows they need to find out everything that happened the night Matty disappeared. And what she finds in the newspapers is a mention of the girl who last saw him.
They already know who she is. It's Hank's daughter, Ronnie. She's about to explode with rage 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 sensitive subject in her house ever since the police tried to blame Hank. There's no denying that his race had something to do with it. Ronnie would have been happy to see them leave if it weren't for Phil. As talkative as he is, he was complaining about Lilly listening to Matty's song. That's what makes Ronnie share her truth with them. She's heard things too: whispers, noises, children calling her name from the basement of the Capitol Theatre. That's where they have to go to get to the bottom of things. For Matty and for themselves. It's touching how Phil and Theodore finally acknowledge their pain and guilt when Ronnie projects "The Music Man" onto the screen. But it's not a clue they find in the musical that none of them wanted to see.
It's Matty himself, holding the baby that is obviously the creature that took him. And look! The family that kidnapped him is there too! It's totally insane for them to see Matty in a movie. But the worst part is that Matty isn't happy to see them. That smile is way too Bill Skarsgard, Matty. The terror factor is through the roof with the Capitol witnessing the moment Pennywise approaches Derry. As you've been trained to expect horrors that are relatively mild with the likable kids, the ending of the first episode of It: Welcome to Derry is an absolute shock. The alien baby, now giant, destroys everyone except Lilly. I think it's the turtle amulet that keeps her safe. Or perhaps, Lilly is destined to be the protagonist of this horror in the coming days. I don't mean demonic possession, of course. But she will undoubtedly have to face much more hostility now that she's one of only two girls who survived this massacre. Being in the projection room saved Ronnie. How will Lilly cope with this trauma? She'll feel guilty for their deaths because she told them about Matty's strange chanting in the drainpipe. And I don't think the townspeople will be lenient with her.
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