I always get a little nervous when episode titles sound this pretentious, but this episode was much better than I had expected… if we ignore one, massive part.
But I’ll get into that later. Welcome to Derry has had a few storylines smoldering in the background, and we got more clarity on at least one of them.
I haven’t mentioned them, but Dick has a crew of fellow Black soldiers that he’s friends with. They’ve been a slowburning plot so far in their quest for a place where they can just relax and have some fun in their free time without worrying about drawing any ire from the locals.
Well, now they have a spot. An old, decommissioned warehouse that the Colonel told them that they could use. Plenty of space to gather. Even room for a kitchen! It’s somewhere that they could turn into a proper community spot once they put a little bit of work into it.
I don’t think that it’s a stretch to assume that something horrific is going to happen there either in the penultimate episode or in the finale. I mean, the camera lingered on a Danger! Keep Out! sign as they drove past it. It’s in a secluded spot in the woods, which we’re later told is exactly the place you do not want to be. The montage of them cleaning up was warm and full of laughter. It’s hard to raise more red flags than that.
The only question now is what exactly is going to spark the tragedy, but all signs so far point towards a race riot of some kind.
Hank was lying for the cliche reason. He’s having an affair with a married white woman. Unnamed for the moment, but I wouldn’t be surprised if her husband was someone that we knew. Hank is terrified that he’ll be lynched, and he’s right to be. I’m worried that Charlotte is only going to guarantee it once word gets around town that he isn’t locked up.
She is making me very, very nervous. That bright, righteous fire that I had enjoyed so much in her introduction is starting to feel reckless. Very, very reckless. I was on edge every time she interacted with any of the police.
However, I did really appreciate that both she and Leroy believed Will when he said that there was something bad happening. It’s such a nice change from the stereotypical denial and dismissal that kids always get in the horror genre. Sure, Leroy is operating with some extra information here (and there is something crunchy about how Charlotte is focused on justice while Leroy and the military violate basically every civil right imaginable with Taniel), but the point still stands. The kids aren’t entirely alone.
And they need all of the help that they can get. Mother’s Little Helper can only go so far, although that is a very clever way to try and beat Pennywise. Do I think it will backfire horrifically on them? Of course. But they’re fighting the only way they know how in a battle that is rapidly escalating.
The pictures that they took last episode were useless. It makes the cemetery chase feel even more annoying in hindsight, although it is curious that Pennywise was still in the pictures. Maybe because it has an actual, physical body and isn’t just some kind of hallucination?
Pennywise was on top of its game this episode. The drowning was bad enough. But then we went to school.
I hate eye stuff. I can’t watch it. It freaks me out too much. So when we got the science class lecture about parasites making snail eyes bulge out, my stomach dropped. Did the eyes themselves look really fake and not high quality at all? Sure. Absolutely. But that doesn’t matter once you introduce a bandsaw.
With the way the camera kept focusing on Marge’s feet kicking and slipping on the edge of the machine, I fully expected her to fall and run face first into the blade. I’m glad that she didn’t, but I’ll be curious about how much she’ll remember about what happened. Everyone else is going to insist that Lilly attacked her, after all.
Poor Marge. I don’t know how invested I actually am in her and Lilly’s relationship, but she gets points for chickening out of bullying her and embarrassing her in front of the whole school. Hopefully she’ll be able to explain that Lilly was helping her. Hopefully.
The only person who I don't know how to read is Ingrid, the Juniper Hill cleaning lady that Lilly is close to. She’s played by Madeline Stowe, so I’m assuming that she’s going to be rather important moving forward. There’s no way that they brought her on just to say supportive and comforting things for a couple of minutes.
It’s time, though, to turn to the part of the episode that soured the whole thing for me: the very end.
Any momentum that the episode had came to a crashing, screeching halt once we entered Taniel’s mind. I’d have to go back to triple check the time stamps, but the last 10-15 minutes of the episode was dedicated to a narrated flashback to the origins of the Galloo - aka Pennywise - as well as the history of how the local tribe as lived next to and contained the Galloo throughout their history.
There’s nothing inherently wrong about this self-contained segment. It was shot well, and I enjoyed seeing the different guises that the Galloo operated under. But let’s call it what it was: a massive, almost clumsy exposition dump to set up the McGuffins that the military are going to chase for the rest of the season.
I’m also a little confused. If the Galloo was trapped within the Western Wood, then how is it attacking and killing children in town? Did Derry expand into the Western Wood and cross the boundary at some point? Does it really matter when we have meteoroid shards to uncover? No, probably not.
I do want to spend a little more time on Dick, though, and how he acted inside of Taniel’s head. The way that he grinned and clapped when the illusion broke down felt very out of character for him. It was almost cruel and struck me as odd. I don’t know if it was just an acting choice or a sign of something more sinister going on, but that’s something to keep an eye on going forward.
Random Thoughts
For someone who cannot feel any fear, Leroy certainly did look terrified at the river. Understandable, sure, but still. Is panic not the same thing as fear?
No school sign this episode! I missed it.
We did get more Bert the Turtle, though, which was fun. The meteoroid shards were also covered with turtle shells.
Red balloons are very creepy. Noted.
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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.
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