{"id":10345,"date":"2025-11-10T11:57:41","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T03:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=10345"},"modified":"2025-11-10T11:57:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T03:57:41","slug":"it-welcome-to-derry-episode-3-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=10345","title":{"rendered":"IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 3 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Spoilers follow for IT: Welcome to Derry Episodes 1-3.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, it didn\u2019t take long for IT: Welcome to Derry<\/u> to hit what feels like its first filler episode. The first two installments of this IT prequel packed a lot of plot and characters into two hours, so there\u2019s an air of inevitability to this week\u2019s episode feeling like it has to grind the proceedings to a halt in order to sort it all out. Disappointingly though, Episode 3 (Now You See It) resets the status quo with elements that aren\u2019t all that different from the status quo it already had, leaving Welcome to Derry feeling like its spinning its wheels a little earlier into its run than anyone would want to see.<\/p>\n

This episode feels like the first real stumble for the kids\u2019 side of the story, which was undoubtedly the stronger element of the first two installments, immediately doubling back on one of last week\u2019s more disturbing developments: Lilly (Clara Stack) being reinstitutionalized<\/u> at Juniper Hill after her grocery store encounter with Pennywise. For as much time as that episode spends reinforcing how terrified she is of getting sent back to that place, Episode 3 starts with her being discharged, and from there there\u2019s almost no time spent on exploring what effect going back had on her.<\/p>\n

…it starts to feel like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again, and three episodes in, that\u2019s not a promising sign. <\/div>\n

Lilly\u2019s so far the most well-drawn of the young characters, so it was really disappointing to see a big development like that have to take a back seat to the plot, which has Lilly, Ronnie, Will, and Rich coming together to clear Hank Grogan\u2019s name for the killings that ended the premiere<\/u>. Since that brutal rug-pull took three Losers\u2019 Club stand-ins off the board, Welcome to Derry has been working towards reassembling a gang of brave kids to fight Pennywise. But by the time Lilly\u2019s bringing this new gang up to the hideout atop the Derry stand to discuss the source of their torment, it starts to feel like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again, and three episodes in, that\u2019s not a promising sign.<\/p>\n

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General Shaw’s more of a Derry boy than we thought…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Over on the air base, we\u2019re getting some more context for James Remar\u2019s General Shaw, and why he in particular is leading the charge to learn more about Pennywise. Shaw takes more of the spotlight this week, navigating the delicate politics with the local Indigenous population of digging around sacred burial sites looking for Pennywise \u201cbeacons.\u201d With the Cuban Missile Crisis looming, Shaw\u2019s interest in this mission has seemed entirely focused on national security up to this point, so the reveal that Shaw\u2019s got a lot more of a personal connection to Derry than we first realized is a welcome one. Remar plays Shaw with more softness than you may expect of a Kingian military man (say, The Major from The Long Walk<\/u>), which makes his more aggressive moves like ordering the attack on Leroy to prove his mettle or continuing the dig despite the protests of his old friend Rose (Kimberly Guerrero) all the more intriguing\u2026 almost as intriguing as naming a character \u201cRose<\/u>\u201d in a Stephen King story.<\/p>\n

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One of many “Roses” in the Stephen King Universe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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As manager of Derry\u2019s Secondhand Rose pawn shop, Rose has been on the periphery of the action up to this point, but it\u2019s clear from her role here as a confidant to both her community and to Shaw that she\u2019s a force for good. The 1907 flashback set in Shaw and Rose\u2019s childhoods that opens the episode reinforces an idea that Welcome to Derry\u2019s been implicitly driving towards: that Pennywise\u2019s cycles of terror are routinely opposed by a group of brave Derry children. Welcome to Derry has been at its most thematically interesting so far while interrogating the generational differences of how kids and adults have dealt with Pennywise\/evil over the years, and if nothing else, at least Episode 3 leaves Shaw and Rose as deeper characters than when we met them.<\/p>\n

Chris Chalk turns in another great performance as Dick Hallorann, and through him we\u2019re treated to one of Episode 3\u2019s few bright spots: a Shining-enabled psychic peek into the cistern under Derry that Pennywise calls home. Chalk\u2019s really impressing with his performance, skillfully deploying recognizable tics and murmurs of Scatman Crothers\u2019 to great effect here as his psychic visions lead him down terrifying paths. We have a pretty good understanding of the rules of how Pennywise operates on our physical plane of existence, but because we\u2019re visiting the cistern through a psychic vision, Dick\u2019s encounter with Pennywise feels way more dangerous. That\u2019s underlined by Chalk after Dick\u2019s vision concludes, as his telling Leroy Hanlon \u201cit wasn\u2019t supposed to see us\u201d lands with the gravity that it should.<\/p>\n

That said, the Hanlons get stuck without much to do this week. We learn a little more about Charlotte\u2019s desire to be more involved with civil rights activism, and Leroy\u2019s reservations about that, and Will forges closer bonds with Rich, Lilly, and Ronnie. But Episode 3\u2019s focus is much more on building up the mystery of Pennywise\u2019s presence in Derry over time, so the Hanlons\u2019 place in that tapestry gets shelved for now.<\/p>\n

The scares this week are sorely lacking, and seem to suggest that the visual effects animating them are going to be an episode-by-episode grab bag. Baby monster from the premiere? No thanks! Lilly\u2019s dead pickle dad from last week? Shiny, briny, beautiful\u2026 but the skeleton man skittering around the forest in broad daylight this week? That wasn\u2019t it, Welcome to Derry. There is some good dread generated as young Shaw nervously walks through a carnival haunted house, and in the aforementioned Dick Hallorann\/Pennywise meeting, but payoffs here in Episode 3 largely miss the mark.<\/p>\n

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If only the whole cemetery sequence had this vibe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Episode 3 falls apart during its cemetery-set finale, as the kids attempt to conjure Pennywise to photograph him in the hopes of absolving Hank. But rather than drawing out the tension and really building up to a moment, all hell breaks loose shortly after the kids begin the rite and the hodgepodge of funhouse surprises that follow take all of the air out of the spooky setting. Here the episode\u2019s visual effects are at their worst, as the kids ride through the infinitely dolly-zooming<\/u> cemetery and the ground opens up beneath them. Whether it\u2019s the uninspired designs of their ghostly dead friends or the obviously composited shots of the kids riding full speed on their bikes, nothing about this sequence works and, for all its chaos and scale, it\u2019s a total letdown of an ending. The plan does seem to have worked though, and the kids get a handful of photos of their supernatural assailants which I\u2019m sure<\/em> the adults in Derry will believe are real.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, the 1907 prologue that opens the episode concludes on a pointed shot of a female clown with Pennywise-esque makeup. I wonder if the \u201cYoung Periwinkle\u201d character in the episode\u2019s credits knows anything about that\u2026 And who in the good gosh is Periwinkle, anyway!?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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