Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 1.
Stephen King has written countless classic novels that have become even bigger on the screen, but few match the success of It. The novel led to a 1990 miniseries, then two films in the last decade directed by Andy Muschietti and starring Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. Those movies could have been it, but Pennywise is now back in a prequel, IT: Welcome to Derry, set in the 1960s. Skarsgård and Muschietti return, but every other actor is new to the nightmare, providing the killer clown with more prey. So what goes down in IT: Welcome to Derry’s premiere, “The Pilot”?
Matty Falls Prey to the Monster in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Episode 1
The episode begins in a darkened movie theater, settling on Matty (Miles Ekhardt) with a pacifier he’s too old for. When an employee calls him over, the kid runs out and hides because he didn’t pay, but the owner, a Black man named Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider), tells the employee to let him be. Hank turns to his daughter, Ronnie (Amanda Christine), and asks if she’s seen the boy, but she lies and says he ran outside. It’s Christmastime and snowing outside when Matty makes a break for it. Later, he’s walking alone, putting out his thumb to hitch for rides when a car pulls up with a couple and two kids inside. They let Matty in and ask where home is. “Anywhere but Derry,” he says.
The family listens to the radio as the son practices his spelling out loud, while the daughter reaches into a container filled with liver and smells her fingers before sticking them under Matty’s nose, making a crude joke that the family all laughs at. A road sign indicates they’re now entering Derry — which they had just been leaving a minute ago. Matty asks them to pull over, but the car keeps going, with the family acting more bizarre. Desperate, he tries to grab the steering wheel, only to be knocked into the wife’s pregnant belly. She screams, going into labor as her stomach twists. “O-U-T,” the family chants as blood pours from her crotch and something inhuman comes out of her. The boy looks over the seat, and up flies a demon baby with wings, causing havoc in the car, all while still attached to its umbilical cord. Matty squeezes his eyes shut, but the monster rushes him, and his pacifier goes flying out of the window, his fate ultimately left unknown.
It’s now four months later, April 1962. Two men, Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) and Captain Pauly Russo (Rudy Mancuso), get off a plane at Derry Air Force Base. They see a restricted area named for Special Projects, but they’re not going there. Hanlon says that he and his wife are in search of normal, but their superior, Colonel Fuller, tells them that if normal is what they’re after, they’ll love Derry. Hanlon, who is Black, is introduced to the airmen, but one won’t salute, so he talks to the man about respect. General Shaw (James Remar) invites Hanlon to visit him later as his driver, the only other Black man, watches him silently and intently — and not for the first time.
Matty Calls Out to His Friends in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Episode 1
At the local high school, nervous Lilly (Clara Stack) opens her locker and a rigged jar of pickles falls, smashing to the ground. She insists to her friend, Marge (Matilda Lawler), that she’s fine, and they head off. At the same time, Phil (Jack Molloy Legault) and Teddy (Mikkal Karim Fidler) walk down the hall, with Phil talking excitedly about aliens visiting from Mars. Could they have one at the Air Force base, he wonders? At Teddy’s house later that night, Phil is still going on about aliens, but his friend isn’t paying attention, still dwelling on Matty’s disappearance.
As Lilly draws a bath at home, she flashes back to a memory of Matty when they were in the abandoned observation tower at the Air Force base. He asks what happened to her dad, so she tells him about how he was crushed by machinery at the factory where he worked. He only went back after his shift to get a toy she left behind, and now, she blames herself. Fireworks go off, and Matty wishes Lilly a happy New Year, but when he leans in for a kiss, she retreats, scared. He apologizes for being stupid and quickly leaves.
In the present, Lilly’s mother reminds her that they’re going to the cemetery tomorrow, despite her refusal, and that she needs to realize that she’s not the only person to ever have something horrible happen to her. Alone in the bathroom again, Lilly hears Matty singing The Music Man from the bathtub drain. “Come home!” she begs. A voice calls back, “He won’t let me,” before two bloody fingers poke through the drain. The next day, Phil and Ted are riding their bikes when they come across Lilly. Marge doesn’t want to talk about what happened, so maybe they will. They go to the clubhouse, where she tells them about hearing his voice in the drain. When they find it too difficult to believe her, a frustrated Lilly storms off.
That night, Teddy is eating dinner at home with his parents and brother, a deeply devout Jewish family. Teddy asks his dad whether a kid could be kidnapped and kept underground in the sewers for months. His father talks about his parents being in a concentration camp and the skin of Jewish people being used for lampshades. Later, Teddy is reading a comic book in bed when his lamp goes out. It then turns back on to reveal Matty’s face has become part of the shade. Teddy jumps and falls off his bed, crawling under his desk and covering his eyes. That won’t stop the lamp from rolling his way and Matty’s face screaming at him — but then, just like that, it’s gone, like it never existed.
Lilly’s New Friends Are Killed in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Episode 1
The next day at the clubhouse, Phil is freaking out that he’s next, but the group can’t tell anyone until they find out what happened to Matty. Lilly knows where to start — at the library, looking through old newspapers, until they come across the article about Matty’s disappearance. It states that Ronnie was the last person who saw him alive, so they track her down, but she isn’t happy to see them because so many cops tried to blame her dad. They walk away, but when they mention the sewers, Ronnie turns back, terrified. She’s heard voices, too — kids crying and laughing and calling out to her in the theater.
Hanlon is in bed on base, looking at a photo, when he sees a window open. He closes it, but never sees a masked figure standing outside in the darkness. Minutes later, he opens his eyes to see one man, and then a second, wearing gas masks and looming over him. They beat him, telling him to give them the specs for the B-52 if he wants to make it out alive. Hanlon refuses, because it’s classified, so they beat him some more. One pulls out a gun and threatens to shoot him. He still won’t talk, but, distracted by a knock at the door, Hanlon fights back. Pauly bursts in and helps him fight the masked assailants, chasing them off.
Since Matty’s voice had been singing from The Music Man from the drain, all the new friends, along with Phil’s little sister, Susie (Matilda Legault), go to the closed theater to find a print. When the movie starts, they hear Matty’s voice again — and there, in the movie, somehow, is Matty, staring right at them. He slowly walks toward the screen and calls out to his friends, telling them they can’t get him because they’re the reason he’s trapped.
Then, a terrifying smile comes across Matty’s face, and his lip drops. A baby in his hand comes through the screen — the same devilish winged creature from the beginning. It’s there for a second, then disappears, only to pop up again and crawl over the seats toward them. Some run, some hide. It picks up Teddy and rips him in half. It bites down on little Susie next. Lilly crawls out of the aisle towards Ronnie, covered in blood. Everyone else is gone. They make a run for it, trapping the thing inside. In the lobby, Lilly looks down to see that she’s still holding on to Susie’s stump of a hand and screams in horror. In one moment, almost all of her new friends are dead.
