Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 5.
Through four episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry, Andy Muschietti and company have done a masterful job of building up their new cast of characters, like the tragic Lilly (Clara Stack), while also giving us plenty of shocking and gory horror. Still, we’re all on the edge of our seats, anticipating the debut of Pennywise the clown (Bill Skarsgård). Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) had a shadowy encounter with it in the third episode, and we got a faraway shot in Episode 4, but now the moment you’ve been waiting for has arrived. Pennwyise is here, and no one is safe.
Marge and Lilly Are Best Friends Again in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Episode 5
After Hallorann leaves Taniel’s (Joshua Odjick) mind, the unconscious boy is rushed to the infirmary. An observing Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) wants to know what’s going on, so General Shaw (James Remar) tells him that it’s time for answers. Taniel is part of a 400-year-old secret order to keep the pillars hidden, but the military now knows the Neibolt house has a tunnel that will lead them there. It’s time to tighten the perimeter and bring an end to the Cold War without any American soldiers getting hurt. Hanlon’s angry, though, that Shaw would let his family move to Derry.
Meanwhile, in another hospital, Lilly visits Marge (Matilda Lawler), who has a bandage over one eye but is still alive. Marge saved Lilly by lying and saying her eye was cut by her glasses, and Lilly was only trying to help her. Lilly doesn’t know if the entity will attack again, but if it does, Marge won’t be alone. By herself later at the standpipe, Lilly sees a tent set up. Impossibly, the feared-dead Matty (Miles Ekhardt) peers out, alive and very weak, asking for help. He tells Lilly that the clown left him alive to feed on his fears, and he only got away because it sleeps during the day. Although Matty saw many dead bodies, the entity also left Phil (Jack Molloy Legault) alive, yet unable to talk or move.
Chief Bowers (Peter Outerbridge) takes Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider) out in public to the bus for Shawshank, where he’s yelled at by a gathering crowd. One man even charges at him with a gun, but he’s tackled. Charlotte (Taylour Paige) is there and sees it all go down, including a creepy-looking cop with an impossibly wide smile on his face. After Hank is taken away, Charlotte gets on the phone to make sure his paperwork was sent in, only for her husband to walk in looking for Will. He needs her to listen and believe him when he tells her something.
The Military Goes Under the Neibolt House in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Episode 5
When Rose (Kimberly Guerrero) comes looking for her nephew, Shaw tells her that Taniel’s safe and will be released soon. He then reveals to her that his memories of Derry came back before returning. Five years ago, when given a drug by the DOD as part of a security protocol, it all came rushing back for the first time in 45 years. He realized he was sitting on the answer to the question of how to keep his country safe, but Rose tells Shaw it can’t be controlled. She asks that he at least allow Taniel to help because their lives depend on it. Later, she gives her nephew the dagger-like weapon to fight the entity.
Disturbed by what’s happening, Leroy moves his wife and son to the military base to be safer, but the next morning, Charlotte hears a radio report that the Shawshank bus crashed and Hank escaped. Later, Lilly’s housekeeper friend from Juniper Hill, Ingrid (Madeleine Stowe), leaves her horrible husband at home and gets in a car. Hank is in the back seat, but there’s nothing to fear. She’s the white woman he was with on the night of the movie theater attack. Not knowing where to take Hank to keep him safe, he reaches out to someone he trusts, and soon after, Ingrid is on the base to meet Charlotte.
Lilly brings Marge with her to the standpipe to join the rest of her new friends to help. She doesn’t want to go to the police. They have to save Phil themselves, but they’re afraid. Matty doesn’t want to go down in the sewer again, but Lilly is going to make him show her now, or she’ll take him to the cops. She has more of her mom’s anti-anxiety pills that they can take before going.
‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Stars Tease the Horror Prequel’s Heartbreaking Finale: “It Felt Like Pulling Out Your Guts”
James Remar and Kimberly Guerrero also talk about the history between General Shaw and Rose and the terrifying experience that bonded them.
Meanwhile, the military moves in on Neibolt Street to the house as men with rifles rush out of vehicles, their orders being to shoot anything that seems irrational. Hanlon, Taniel, and Halloran are there too as they go down into the dark tunnels, moving into waist-deep water. The fears begin for Hallorann. He falls into deep water and comes up to find himself in a bathtub. His grandmother is there, telling him that he’s coming for him again. Something makes big footsteps in the hallway, and the bathroom door swings open. There stands his grandfather, gun in his waistband, saying, “It’s time.” He’s sick of his wife and grandson talking with their minds and wants Dickie to open his box of fears. When Hallorann refuses, grandpa shoots grandma in the leg before uttering a familiar clown-like laugh. The box opens, and a yellow light pours out as Halloran cowers in fear.
It’s worse for two other soldiers, who are attacked and killed by the skeleton of Uncle Sam. With everyone getting separated, Taniel makes a run for it, but he loses his glowing dagger in the water and can’t get to it. Hanlon and Pauly (Rudy Mancuso) are lost when they stop at hearing a scared voice of a woman running their way. It’s Charlotte, or something pretending to be, as its mouth opens wide. Leroy shoots it and stares down into the dead eyes of his “wife”, only for them to turn white as she smiles and swims away.
A Weapon Stops Pennywise in Its Tracks in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Episode 5
The kids stand outside the sewer opening and start taking the pills, with Matty leading the way. Quickly, the drugs slow them down and make them feel weird, but they continue on and get lost as well. They hear voices screaming from far off, before one dead body of a friend surfaces and two others appear, singing and twirling on a pole. Matty’s corpse comes up from the water, as the impossibly alive boy they’ve been hanging out with begins to transform into Pennywise the clown. He chases the screaming kids, and Lilly falls, left behind, struggling to catch up.
Hanlon and Pauly hear kids screaming, and Leroy runs right into his own son, Will (Blake Cameron James). Hanlon, thinking it’s another form of the entity, is ready to shoot, but Pauly, able to see Will too, steps in front of the boy and takes a bullet to the chest. With his last breath, he tells his crying and apologetic friend that it’s okay. His only request is to “make it count.” Leroy picks up Pauly’s body and tells the kids to run.
Lilly is still behind and lost at a dead end. She cries out, but no one can hear her, except for Pennywise, who taunts her. “You couldn’t save Matty boy.” He turns into her mangled dad, then back into Pennywise. Lilly cowers, death coming for her, as Pennywise charges, only to stop, his mouth open wide and ready to chomp down on her tasty, tasty flesh. Why can’t he move? The glowing dagger is right there in the water with Lilly, shining bright. Pennywise leaves, and Lilly picks it up.
Back on base, Hanlon is talking into a microphone about what happened and how Pauly died when Shaw walks in and gives his condolences. He tells him that the Indigenous residents will answer for what they led them into, but Hanlon is only worried about being with his family. As Shaw leaves, Leroy asks about Hallorann’s whereabouts. Shaw said he hasn’t made it back to base, but if anyone could, it’s Dick Hallorann. As the episode ends, Hallorann walks out of the sewer tunnel, stunned and worn down. He hears movement in the trees, and suddenly another soldier is walking ahead of him. When they turn, it’s Pauly, his eyes gone white. In the last shot, Hallorann’s box of fears is wide open, ready to release what’s inside.
