Welcome to Decider’s It: *Welcome to Derry* Recaps
There’s plenty to unpack in *Welcome to Derry*, a show drawing inspiration from Stephen King’s sprawling 1,138-page book. The series introduces almost entirely new characters while richly fleshing out the eerie town of Derry and its shape-shifting underlord, most famously known as Pennywise. So, let’s float.
**“The Pilot”**
The episode opens at the Capitol Theater at the dawn of 1962, as *The Music Man* plays, specifically the number “Ya Got Trouble.” One key line stands out: “Our children’s children gonna have trouble.” Indeed, no matter how this season’s battle with It unfolds, the next generation—the original Losers’ Club we met in the 2017 film—will be right back in the sewers by 1989.
Another Derry-centric lyric warns us:
“Friend, either you’re closing your eyes
To a situation you do not wish to acknowledge
Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster.”
—
Projectionist Hank Grogan and a fuming usher clash over how to handle a pacifier-sucking kid named Matthew “Matty” Clements, who keeps sneaking into screenings. This argument will soon become moot, as it’s the last time anyone will see Matty alive.
His final moments aren’t peaceful. Hitchhiking in the cold, Matty tells a family of four he’s going “anywhere but Derry.” A quirky little spelling bee starts to unravel when the daughter opens a container of revolting liver, prods it, and smears her gooey fingers onto Matty’s face.
—
Mystifyingly, the family drives back into Derry, despite Matty wanting out. The best he gets is a chilling family-wide chant of “O-U-T!” carried with the inimitable cadence of “you’ll float too.” The young boy’s eye rolls to the side—the same unsettling way Pennywise’s eyes do when he’s about to strike.
Then, chaos erupts.
The pregnant mother goes into a clearly unnatural labor. Unseen, a grotesque creature slumps into the darkness at her feet. A hideous bat-baby flies upward, still attached to its umbilical cord, wildly whipping around the car before lunging at Matty. His pacifier flies out the window and lands in the sewer.
The iconic It logo surfaced in the films rises above the water as *Welcome to Derry* fades in.
—
**April 1962**
A boy named Phil Malkin surveys the famous standpipe with a spyglass, cataloging planes flying into the local Air Force base—specifically a Cold War operation known as the Strategic Air Command base.
At the high school, Lilly Bainbridge arrives to find her locker crammed with pickle jars—a cruel taunt referencing her father’s tragic death. Phil relays a rumor: “They found her dad’s body parts in pickle jars all over Maine.” Lilly is branded “looney,” having just been discharged from Juniper Hill Asylum.
Her friend Margie consoles her, asks Lilly’s opinion on some thick new glasses (“I’m not going through the rest of the year looking like some bug-eyed freak”), and drops the word “ginchiest.”
—
Phil’s friend Teddy “Teds” Uris is introduced—sharing a surname with Stanley from the Losers’ Club. Teds endures Phil’s rapidfire conspiracies about alien boys and the Air Force base. Phil’s rapid-fire Richie “Trashmouth” Tozier-esque musings touch on curious topics like bra architecture:
“Boobs aren’t that pointy. Are we supposed to believe that under a sweater is just two pointy cones? Are pointy cones better?”
—
We also meet Major Leroy Hanlon—a familiar name, as the Hanlon family will one day welcome Mike, the sole Black member of the Losers.
Leroy, played by Jovan Adepo (known for his role as Larry Underwood in the 2020-21 *The Stand* miniseries), is a Korean War vet restationed to Derry with his family, whom we’ll meet next week.
—
Racism is alive and well in Maine—historically the whitest state in the nation unless Vermont claimed that title for a year.
Leroy, a self-described optimist, tells James Remar’s General Shaw that his father “used to always say there’s nothing wrong with this country that can’t be fixed by what’s right with this country.”
That night, three masked men in gas masks ambush a sleeping Leroy at gunpoint, demanding top-secret aircraft information and threatening his life—before being interrupted and scared off by Leroy’s feisty compatriot Pauly Russo. It’s a chilling setup for the dangers Leroy will face.
—
After school, Lilly recalls Matty showing her the boys’ clubhouse atop the standpipe on New Year’s Eve. In the present, she hears his voice echoing from her bathtub drain, repeating “Ya Got Trouble.”
If you’re worried about blood or gooey hair spraying in Lilly’s face, *Bev Marsh*-style, rest assured it doesn’t happen. Still, she witnesses two bloody fingers emerge as Matty croaks that “he won’t let me” escape.
—
A key question crystallizes: will these kids each represent analogues to the Losers’ Club we know and love? Lilly could be Beverly, Teddy resembles Stan, Phil is most definitely Richie—and together, they all channel some Bill Denbrough, trying to stay composed and get to the bottom of Matty’s disappearance.
—
At his home, Teddy’s father blesses dinner and asks about Teddy’s Bar Mitzvah preparations—a nod to Stan’s story arc in *It*. Teddy runs Lilly’s theory by his dad:
“Do you think somebody could kidnap a kid and keep him underground? In the sewers, for months and months, hurting him, or…I don’t know.”
His father reminds him of their family’s harrowing past—escaping Buchenwald concentration camp—and tells Teddy that reality is terrifying enough without fantasy. “We are Jews, Theodore. We know better than anyone the real horrors of this world… cut it out with the fantasy.”
This echoes Hanlon’s earlier question about the American experiment—optimism, or fantasy?
—
**Scariest Scenes**
Our runner-up for scariest scene features Teddy reading himself to sleep with a *Detective Comics* issue where Batman and Robin fight Clayface, who “can mold his body into any shape.” Teddy dismisses a flickering lamp as an electrical issue, but it’s soon revealed to be supernatural.
The lamp exposes the exact nightmare Teddy’s dad described at dinner. The skin-lamp scene is discomfiting and wretched—an early jump scare with intense psychological weight.
—
Lilly, Teddy, and Phil decide to consult Veronica “Ronnie” Grogan, the projectionist’s daughter and one of the last people to see Matty alive. She deduces that the tune Lilly heard from the drain was from *The Music Man* and has been hearing similar impossible things.
Ronnie offers to screen the scene at the theater.
—
They watch the moment we saw at the episode’s start—until it isn’t.
Matty appears onscreen holding a blanketed bundle, accusing his quasi-friends of abandoning him. Suddenly, his mouth distends in a Pennywise-like fashion, recalling one of the most alarming scenes from *It*: the projector in the garage, where Bill’s mother transforms into Pennywise, stepping off the screen into reality.
—
*Welcome to Derry* wisely revisits this horror beat. The four-minute sequence is the most disturbing part of the premiere.
Matty throws the bundle forward, releasing the grotesque bat-baby into the theater’s darkened real world, looking scarier than it did in the car. The screen melts into orange and red strobes as Lilly, Teddy, Phil, and Phil’s little sister Susie shriek and flee.
—
Shockingly, children start being torn apart and scattered around the theater.
This show makes its stance crystal clear: when It stirs from hibernation, the children don’t always make it out alive. In fact, they rarely do.
Lilly escapes to the lobby, where Ronnie asks what just happened. Lilly realizes she is still holding Susie’s hand, but only her hand.
An epic scream cuts to a jarringly perky musical cue—specifically “Lolita Ya Ya,” a tune the *It* movies adored.
Welcome to Derry, baby—we’re back.
—
### QUESTION CORNER
**How will this generation affect It’s slumber and eventual return?**
**Did It manifest in the form of the whole family in that opening scene?**
If you’re seeking hyperspecific answers about this monster, be warned—you may never be satisfied. But what exactly happened in that haunting sequence?
**A Note on Names**
In the girls’ bathroom, Alvin Marsh’s name is graffitied with a heart—that’s Bev’s dad. Somebody apparently likes that “sick fuck.”
The names Matthew Clements and Veronica Grogan come straight from King’s novel, appearing within a page of each other—though only as victims after the fact, not main characters.
Clements was a 3-year-old found dead in a culvert after riding his tricycle; Veronica, a 9-year-old from the Neibolt Street Church School, was discovered in a storm drain.
—
*Welcome to Derry* dives into deeper horrors and darker mythology, laying the groundwork for a new generation to face It’s ancient, terrifying presence.
Stay tuned as the town’s secrets—and terrors—begin to unravel.
https://decider.com/2025/10/26/it-welcome-to-derry-episode-1-recap/