It Welcome to Derry: Now You See It

"People only believe what they can see for themselves."

Well, at least there wasn't any pregnancy related horror this time around. We've successfully broken that trend!

Unfortunately, I left this episode feeling rather lukewarm. It wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it was weaker than the previous two in multiple areas.

I was never scared or even mildly creeped out. The frantic bike ride through the cemetery felt more like an amusement park ride than anything with real risk or danger. Playing hot potato with the camera and using that as an excuse to switch who we focused on only added to that. It wasn't tense. It was corny.

It was also rather poorly lit. I could barely see or process who the ghost children were supposed to be until the characters directly stated their names.

What makes it frustrating is that the episode did follow the path I thought that scene would take when Will was at the crypt. Being somewhere dark and spooky with only camera flashes to illuminate whatever horror is lurking out there is a very tense set up! But they had all of that happen off screen while we had a goofy bike chase instead.

I didn't really like any of the kid stuff this time around. After building up Juniper Hill as this horrible place, Lilly is discharged and out of there immediately. At this point, its function really just seems to be an excuse for why no one will believe her claims of monsters.

Her friendship with Ronnie barely even took a hit. Sure, Ronnie was angry but everything was forgiven by the end. They held hands and everything.

Okay, I actually did think that it was a sweet, uncommented-on moment that did a good job of illustrating that the two girls rely on each other, but I'm being a little snarky about how this episode was structured.

I think part of it too is that I don't really care that much about half the kids in our Proto-Losers' Club Redux. Will is fine, if not given really anything to do, and Rich's main character trait is that he's attracted to Lilly's friend Marge, sighing and swooning whenever he thinks about her.

I almost can't believe I'm saying this, but the military stuff was a lot more interesting. Or maybe Dick is just a lot more interesting. Hard to say.

The dinner at the Hanlons was arguably my favorite scene of the episode. Dick is very charming when he wants to be! It's like his whole voice changes when he's talking to Charlotte versus when he's talking privately with Leroy.

Or maybe Leroy just came off as particularly cold and dismissive. There is clearly some longstanding tension in the marriage regarding not only Charlotte's activism, but also her career. Or at least what jobs she should accept and which are simply below her and not worth her time.

I did appreciate that Leroy accepted that Dick has psychic abilities instead of scoffing and dismissing them, although I suppose that your options are limited when you watch someone try and hurl themselves out of an airplane in the midst of a vision.

Speaking of, what exactly was going on there? Dick saw his grandmother floating and warning him, but it was that warning that made Dick almost jump out of the plane. Coincidence, or was Pennywise influencing that? Or maybe the fear was what let him snap out of the vision in the first place?

Either way, Pennywise saw him. It wasn't supposed to see him. That does not bode well for anyone.

There's no way that General Shaw would heed Dick's warnings, though. The focus that we got on him was unexpected. Not only does he know a lot more about Pennywise than I expected (there was a mention about the 1935 cycle so there's some serious research put into this) but he has personal experience as a young boy as well.

The flashbacks to 1908 were cool. The circus was suitably creepy, if not a little too darkly lit. There was some weirdness, though. Like the Shaw car overheating maybe 20 feet away from a tiny stand that sold water staffed only by children. They were in the middle of nowhere! Why would they put a stand there?

I'm also a little unclear on how much Shaw actually remembered about Pennywise and his experiences and what role that may have played in him spearheading this dig. I know that people forget about Derry, and he mentioned forgetting about Rose, but it would be one hell of a coincidence if he was sent to Derry without advocating for it.

Rose is someone who has been hanging around the sidelines of the story so far. She runs the shop where Charlotte got the telescope for Will, and we've seen her nephew watching the military excavations. I just have no idea why Shaw thought that he could lie to Rose about the purpose of the digs and expect her to believe it.

Oh well. The relationship between Shaw and Rose will be an interesting thing to keep an eye on moving forward. We'll see how it develops.

Random Thoughts

If Shaw and Rose were both 12 in 1908, then they would have to be what? Sixty-six now? I suppose that tracks.

What was up with that female clown in 1908? The camera focused on her for a reason.

There was something rather pleasing about the color of the bullying message on Ronnie's locker and how it stained her hands and the sink red, too.

So why was Hank, Ronnie's father, out after dark and where was he that he refuses to simply admit it? Would it be too cliche if he's having an affair with a white woman?

The school sign let us know that there was still a curfew in place.

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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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