All Roads Lead To Neibolt Street — But Who Didn’t Survive The Sewers?

Beep, beep Richie. “IT: Welcome to Derry” just got even better.

It’s no secret that this “IT” recapper, while seated and mostly entertained, has been somewhat antsy for HBO’s prequel series to kick into high gear. But the time has come, Constant Readers and horror TV fans, because Episode 5 delivered a rollicking hour of reveals, terror, and yes, a whole lotta gory action courtesy of none other than Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

While Leroy Hanlon is irritated that General Shaw allowed him to move his family to Derry knowing damn well that a creature was preying on the town, at least the Major is finally getting some answers. Despite that, not even Leroy could’ve possibly predicted the horror in store for him when the military continues its town-wide search for the only weapon that can be used against It.

But before we discuss the episode’s climactic final sequence — including a heartbreaking and unexpected demise – Matty is back! As the kids all meet at their secret location, they’re surprised to find their long, lost friend hiding inside a yellow tent begging for help. His hair is longer, signifying the time he’s been MIA, but otherwise, he looks normal-ish. Parched and emotionally scarred for life, but he has all his parts. He tells them that It (aka, “the clown”) lives in the sewers of Derry and that it feeds off of fear. He escaped, but Teddy and Susie, the boy confirms, weren’t so lucky. It ate Terry’s brains, while an armless Susie cried until she bled out. (Yikes. Dark.)

Read more: TV Shows That Permanently Damaged Actors’ Bodies

He’s Heeeeere!

No surprise to those who have read the source material, it all comes down to the sewers underneath Neibolt Street. The kids want to find their friend Phil with a little help from “Mommy’s Little Helpers” (Lilly’s mom’s prescription. Is it Xanax? Lorazepam? Some other kind of benzodiazepine? Anyway, her mom “eats them like M&Ms.”) But the military is also homing in on the same location in search of the pillars that are buried throughout Derry. The pillars seem to be the only thing that can control the creature. They’re not armed with hefty fear-numbing drugs, but they do have Taniel (Rose’s nephew) and Dick Hallorann guiding their way, and that counts for something.

The kids take three forget-me-nots little pills each, and by the time they get into the depths, they are drugged af. (This ain’t Coachella, kids — slow down!) I mean, Marge only has one eye and now the girl can barely walk or function! But they aren’t the only ones hallucinating. Leroy sees his wife, Charlotte, running toward him, and as she begs him to take her home, she morphs into a long-fanged creature and attacks, before he shoots “her” dead. Only, of course it’s not her, and Pauly, who was standing right beside Leroy, can’t see anything at all.

All hell breaks loose on the kids’ end, as their friends’ dead bodies appear to them, floating at their feet in the gross water they’re schlepping through. As if that isn’t bad enough, Matty begins singing a song as he circles a pole, and as he does, he transforms into Bill Skarsgård’s white and crimson clown, revealing a set of teeth that would make the shark in “Jaws” jealous. Natch, the kids flee, running toward the heavily armed Leroy and Pauly. Only Leroy thinks his son is another mirage of the creature. Pauly, being able to see Will running toward them, knows it’s really the boy, and as Lee raises his gun and pulls the trigger, Pauly pulls the nose of the weapon toward him and becomes collateral damage to the clown’s crazy antics. Leroy, in tears, apologizes as his friend slips away. (R.I.P., Pauly. You were a real one.)

Dick Survives the Madness

Meanwhile, Lilly gets separated from her friends and runs into a dead end. Pennywise finds her (“Tooo baaad, sooo saaaad” — I’m living for Skarsgård’s delivery here), and just when it seems that all hope is lost for the poor girl, the clown closes It’s mouth and disappears into the night. The camera pans down to reveal a glowing pillar in the water in front of the girl. She picks it up, clocking the fact that the mysterious object just saved her life.

As for Hallorann, the military isn’t sure if he survived the insanity in the sewers, but as the episode ends, we see him trudging into the woods. And he’s following a dead, glassy-eyed Pauly on the way out. But the creature did have one very important win during the hour. In the very last shot, we see that Hallorann’s coveted lockbox — a mental trick passed down to him by his grandmother to trap dangerous spirits and memories — has been cracked wide open. That can’t be good.

Thoughts on Episode 5, Pennywise or anything else Derry? We want to hear them! Light up the comments section below.

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