Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 1.
Stephen King has been writing about nightmarish creatures for over half a century, but his greatest might be Pennywise the clown from his 1986 novel, It. The character was famously played by Tim Curry in a 1990 miniseries and by Bill Skarsgård during two hit films directed by Andy Muschietti in the 2010s. Now, he’s back for HBO’s IT: Welcome to Derry. The first episode, “The Pilot,” takes fans to 1962, 27 years before the events of the movies. This means an all-new cast, and although Skarsgård doesn’t show up as Pennywise just yet, we do see another form of the entity. It could all be more of the same, but then comes the ending, where nearly every young character is killed off in one scene of gory carnage. If IT: Welcome to Derry proves anything, it’s that no one is safe.
Pennywise Torments More Kids in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Episode 1
“The Pilot” introduces viewers to Matty (Miles Ekhardt), a kid with such a troubled home life that he soothes himself with a pacifier. After getting kicked out of a showing of The Music Man at the theater, he runs into the cold and snowy night and puts his thumb out to hitch for a ride. When he’s picked up by a family, he feels safe enough, but very quickly, he learns that these people aren’t who they seem to be. It’s then that the creature emerges in the form of a winged and flying demon-like baby. Although the episode doesn’t reveal his fate, it’s safe to assume that Matty has been killed.
The rest of the episode focuses on the kids who knew him and what they’re going through. Bullied Lilly (Clara Stack) felt a kinship with another tortured soul, Ronnie (Amanda Christine) protected him when he was at her father’s theater, and Phil (Jack Molloy Legault) and Terry (Mikkal Karim Fidler) had befriended Matty when no one else would. With Lilly hearing Matty singing from her bathtub drain, and Ronnie seeing and hearing things she can’t explain, they decide, along with Phil’s little sister Suisie (Matilda Legault), to go to the theater and watch The Music Man in a search for answers. It will be the last thing most of them ever do.
In the ‘IT’ Films, Pennywise Killed His Victims One by One
Matty’s death in the opening scene of Welcome to Derry is not at all a shocker. In fact, it’s expected from the moment the poor kid is introduced, because the murder of a child is exactly how the story of IT begins in the book, miniseries, and film. There, Georgie, a boy even younger than Matty, is playing with a paper boat on a rainy day when his toy goes down a sewer drain. Inside waits Pennywise, and when Georgie reaches in, the little boy is killed (his arm is ripped right off in 2017’s IT!), setting off everything to come.
Many characters die in IT, but they’re taken out individually. In IT Chapter 2, several kids, teenagers, and young people die, yet it’s always in singular fashion. The powerful entity could certainly overpower any human it chooses to, but it loves to take its time, instead choosing to feed on its victim’s fear for as long as possible. So, when the theater scene happens in IT: Welcome to Derry, the expectation is that not all the kids will die. These are our new heroes, after all, this series’ version of the Losers’ Club. Although not all of those characters make it through the sequel as adults, they do survive as kids.
The Final Scene of ‘Welcome to Derry’s Premiere Episode Kills Almost Everyone
In the closing minutes of “The Pilot,” this new gang of friends is in the theater alone at night, watching The Music Man in a desperate search for clues about what happened to Matty. It’s then that he appears on the screen as part of the movie, looking confused while holding a baby wrapped up tight. Quickly, however, he goes from scared to demented, his bottom lip drooping in a familiarly unsettling way. Matty tells his friends that they weren’t there for him, and they’re the reason why he’s trapped in here. The kids realize this isn’t their friend, but if it’s not obvious enough, the swaddled infant in his arms stirs, revealing itself as the flying demon baby from the opening scene.
It’s creepy to see the creature come through the screen and fly at the kids, who scream and either hide or make a run for it. Still, the sequence meets expectations, even if it’s done a bit differently, without Pennywise’s most recognizable form. But then the scene takes the most shocking turn with a bloody twist. In a quick flurry of gore, the entity kills Phil and Teddy, and as little Susie cries and reaches out for Lilly underneath a seat, she’s ripped away. Only Lilly and Ronnie make it out alive, with the final shot showing Lilly, blood splattered on her face, looking down to see that she’s still holding Susie’s dismembered hand.
No matter how horrific King’s book was, it still allowed for a deeper knowledge of its young characters. IT: Welcome to Derry introduces its own versions, all with their own individual personalities and quirks — but then, just like that, three of them are gone. “The Pilot” wraps up with a story that has only two main child characters left alive. If you thought IT: Welcome to Derry might not be able to live up to the miniseries and films, the first episode is a gut-punch If these kids can die, anyone can. When Pennwise does appear, Lilly, Ronnie, and any person in their life is at incredible risk. That uncertainty makes the series scarier than any viewer could have ever imagined.
