Following a gripping premiere, *IT: Welcome to Derry*’s second episode wastes no time plunging back into the terror, picking up right after Pennywise’s horrific rampage at the Capitol Theater. While the show excels at deepening the monster’s hold on the town and giving more characters their moments to ‘shine,’ it also introduces some puzzling plot twists. These new narrative elements could potentially derail the season if they aren’t handled with more finesse than they’ve shown so far.
This episode deftly balances its focus between the Hanlon family and the surviving children of Derry. The aftermath of Pennywise’s gruesome theater attack fuels the children’s storyline, with the town’s police chief, Clint Bowers, disturbingly eager to pin the blame on theater manager Hank Grogan, despite compelling alibis. Hank’s daughter, Ronnie, played brilliantly by Amanda Christine, takes center stage as she grapples with the injustice of being penalized for a well-intentioned act—a frustration she unleashes in a powerful cafeteria outburst. Meanwhile, Lilly faces her own daunting threats from Chief Bowers, who is ready to commit her to Juniper Hill Mental Hospital if she doesn’t incriminate Hank. The episode continues to highlight Derry’s deeply rooted power imbalances, showing how Pennywise’s malevolent influence mirrors the generational, racial, and gender-based tensions plaguing the community. These themes are further explored through the arrival of Leroy’s wife, Charlotte (Taylour Paige), and their son, Will (Blake Cameron James), the town’s newest Black residents.
The Hanlon family, being one of Derry’s few Black families, immediately faces prejudice and intimidation. A powerful dinner table scene highlights Charlotte’s firm resolve as her gentle parenting style clashes with Leroy’s concern that their son, Will, is too sheltered. Will’s sharp intellect and sensitivity clearly echo characteristics of his future son, Mike Hanlon, a pivotal member of the Losers’ Club. It seems he’s destined to join Lilly and Ronnie as they uncover the sinister truths about Pennywise.
The plot takes a detour into the mysterious ‘special projects’ facility that Leroy investigated previously, revealing the military’s extreme measures to avert the Cuban Missile Crisis. General Shaw (James Remar) outlines his motives for bringing Hanlon to Derry, a narrative choice that feels like a rather forced introduction to a potentially problematic storyline. Given the recent popularity of shows like *Stranger Things*, which famously draws inspiration from Stephen King’s *IT*, these new sci-fi elements risk feeling derivative. While there’s a chance the showrunners could cleverly subvert expectations, Shaw’s lengthy exposition about his objectives in Derry comes across as an awkward and overly specific addition to a horror narrative that thrives on more flexible, psychological terrors.
Chris Chalk masterfully portrays a younger Hallorann, seamlessly connecting his performance to the iconic interpretations by Scatman Crothers in *The Shining* and Carl Lumbly in *Doctor Sleep*.
General Shaw’s operations hinge on the extraordinary sensory abilities of his subordinate, Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk). This episode prioritizes developing Dick’s character, particularly how he leverages his unique, albeit fragile, protected status to safeguard other Black airmen at the base, over simply showcasing his ‘Shine.’ Chalk delivers a nuanced performance, skillfully aligning this younger Hallorann with the memorable portrayals by Scatman Crothers in *The Shining* and Carl Lumbly in *Doctor Sleep*. Despite a more subdued bravado, Chalk powerfully conveys the profound intensity and reverence for the supernatural that you’d expect from the character.
Though Pennywise largely lurks in the background this episode, it feasts on fear through two chilling attacks on Ronnie and then Lilly, marking the episode’s terrifying peaks. These sequences masterfully exploit each girl’s deepest insecurities with grotesque effectiveness. Ronnie, consumed by dread that Derry police suspect her father, Hank, in the theater killings, relives a profound trauma. Her guilt over bringing friends to the theater, inadvertently placing her father under suspicion, unearths the deeply buried pain of her mother’s death during childbirth, for which she holds herself responsible. Pennywise unleashes this trauma in a truly phenomenal body horror sequence: Ronnie’s bedsheets morph into a grotesque uterus, flooding with amniotic fluid, nearly drowning her. She then explodes from her ‘mother’ only to be dragged back into a gnashing, tooth-filled maw that rips open in her own stomach.
Unlike typical horror, where scares merely amplify known fears, this episode brilliantly reverses the formula. Pennywise’s manifestation for Ronnie doesn’t just terrify; it actively reveals crucial gaps in her past, offering a deeper understanding of her motivations. This is intelligent, efficient, and utterly repulsive horror storytelling at its finest!
Lilly’s grocery store visit unleashes another terrifying and patient set piece, bringing the episode to a chilling close. As she navigates the aisles, unseen forces shift displays, transforming the mundane store into a disorienting labyrinth of grinning, Pennywise-faced shoppers. The visual effects here are a significant improvement over the first episode, creating a truly harrowing and ‘goopy’ manifestation of Lilly’s trauma surrounding her father’s bizarre death. It’s enough to make anyone reconsider their love for pickles—well, almost! (Okay, I admit, pickles are still amazing, even Pennywise can’t change that.)
Verdict
Episode two of *IT: Welcome to Derry* continues to deliver with unsettling visuals and mounting dread, particularly when focusing on the children’s harrowing experiences. Yet, certain far-fetched plotlines involving the air base steer the conspiracy narrative in unexpected and unconvincing directions. The show faces a real challenge in integrating these more extravagant elements with the potent, character-driven psychological horror that truly defines Derry, even if that horror is orchestrated by an ancient, interdimensional entity.