IT: Welcome to Derry is back for episode two, “The Thing in the Dark”, which basically takes the inferred racism from the premiere and makes it explicit. Spoilers follow…
Episode two is once again directed by Andy Muschietti, with Austin Guzman taking over writing duties. This episode explores the fall-out from the movie theater attack, while simultaneously introducing the remaining members of the Hanlon family.
This includes Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo)’s wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige) and son Will (Blake Cameron James), who both immediately make waves in their debut. There’s some minor tension in the marriage that stems from Charlotte’s activism, while Will keeps running afoul of his school teacher.
Charlotte, in particular, is helpful for illustrating the permissive attitudes that pervade Derry. She anticipates that her skin colour will be an issue when she visits the butcher, but it’s her unwillingness to overlook the actions of local teen bullies that gets her into trouble. Meanwhile, poor Will simply wants to eat lunch in peace or make it to class on time, but his teacher clearly has it out for him because…well…racism.
Intriguingly the first episode’s racialized attack is complicated here. We thought General Shaw (James Remar) was on Leroy’s side, but it doesn’t take the Major long to figure out that Shaw was actually testing him to determine his fit for the secret project that Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) is working on. It’s a good thing that Shaw hooks Leroy with the striking image of a vehicle full of skeletons being exhumed because otherwise Leroy likely would have walked.
The other half of the episode revolves around a significant moral quandary. It turns out that the bodies of Teddy, Phil, and Suze weren’t recovered at the Theater and that Ronnie (Amanda Christine)’s father Hank (Stephen Rider) is the prime suspect because, well, racism.
The person delaying his arrest is also the sole witness to the crime: Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack). Alas, public pressure to lock Hank up prompts Chief Clint Bowers (Peter Outerbridge) to weaponize Clara’s mental health issues against her and, by episode’s end, she’s flipped on Hank.*
*Unsurprisingly Lilly still winds up back in Juniper Hill Asylum, proving that sacrificing someone else to save yourself never works.
This is all quite effective because it a) confirms that the dominant white population of 1960s Derry is racist; b) reinforces the social stigma related to issues of race and mental health; and c) reassures the audience that neither Clara or Ronnie are fully wrong. They’re simply pitted against each other by systemic forces that are designed to punish outsiders while reinforcing rigid and/or outdated biases.
Would it have been nice to see the pair of girls work together? Sure (and presumably they’ll get there eventually) but this outcome seems depressingly believable.
In the meantime, the series is checking the box marked “horror for normies” with its mixture of supernatural mysteries and jump scares. The first of two stand out sequences involves Ronnie’s nightmare of her mother, which mixes female body horror with familiar IT-style creature effects. I liked this because it features some genuinely upsetting vagina dentata-esque imagery, and because it was sustained. Going from the body and enormous head appearing in the bed to the umbilical cord dragging Ronnie in to the creature lurching towards her played like a true set piece.
The grocery store sequence involving Clara and her father’s body parts imprisoned in pickle jars is even better, especially the FX work of the face reconstitutes itself. The smiles on the shoppers is freaky, as is the way they lean back or dart past Clara as she pushes her cart around. The claustrophobic closing off the aisles is only halfway effective, though; the sets-on-wheels looks more stagey than uncanny. It’s kinda fun, but it’s not scary.
I do wonder if this will prove satisfying enough for audiences who are eagerly awaiting Bill Skarsgård‘s Pennywise. Let’s not forget that IT doesn’t actually appear *that* much in the films. We got a lot more of these nightmare sequences than we did of the clown.** It’ll be interesting to see how patient audiences’ will be with these kinds of scares.
**Several interviews and reviews have confirmed that Pennywise appears later in the season
Other Observations
- This episode also introduces Rose (Kimberly Guerrero), an Indigenous woman who owns the shop where Leroy purchased Will’s telescope. Fingers crossed that we use Rose as an actual character and not to impart mystical exposition about the land.
- Aside from immediately making Charlotte a fully fleshed out character in just a few scenes, we need to shout out how beautiful Paige is. Kudos to the hair and costuming team for the immaculate styling; she looks stunning.
- Cameron James is very endearing as Will, including his struggle to connect with his (step?) father and his chat with Ronnie in detention. “Maybe I smell bad, but maybe I’m covered in stardust” (in regards to the same chemicals making up stink bombs and the cosmos) is one helluva line.
- I’m uncertain how to feel about Matilda Lawler‘s Marge, whose waffling between the Patticakes and Clara is already uninteresting after only two episodes. While the latter’s conflict with Ronnie feels earned and complicated, Clara’s belaboured friendship with Marge is just a tired YA trope. With so much else going on, this storyline needs to move a little faster otherwise it runs the risk of becoming very boring.
- Finally, gotta love the show’s opening credits, which feature slow zooms out of Norman Rockwell-esque postcard images that become increasingly more disturbing as they go on. Title sequences are a rare luxury these days and this one stands out!
IT: Welcome to Derry airs Sundays on HBO
Leave a Reply