(KTLA) \u2014 The second episode of HBO\u2019s \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry\u201d<\/a> premiered Friday, serving up more \u201cKing\u201d-sized scares for Halloween and beyond. The episode, \u201cThe Thing in the Dark,\u201d<\/a> follows the thrilling series premiere earlier this week by delving deeper into the evils at work in the fictional Maine hamlet.<\/p>\n Spoilers ahead for \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry\u201d episode 2<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2018It: Welcome to Derry\u2019 episode 1 recap\/review: (Don\u2019t) send in the clown <\/a><\/p>\n While episode one, titled \u201cThe Pilot,\u201d hinted around at the racial tensions that pervade Derry in the 1960s, episode two dives head first into the real life horrors Black citizens of the town are facing.<\/p>\n We learned last episode that police attempted to pin Matty Clements\u2019 disappearance on theater projectionist Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider<\/a>), and Friday\u2019s episode opens with officers still stalking the Grogan home in hopes of catching him doing anything they can use to arrest him.<\/p>\n Even though both Ronnie (Amanda Christine<\/a>) and Lilly (Clara Stack<\/a>) both vouched that Hank wasn\u2019t at the theater when Phil, Teddy and Susie were killed, Derry police are intent on finding someone for the grieving parents to blame. The police chief himself, though under pressure from local council members, acknowledges they don\u2019t have anything on Hank.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got no evidence and he\u2019s got an alibi,\u201d says the chief. \u201cThis is America.\u201d To which the councilman replies, \u201cThis ain\u2019t America. This is Derry. Do your job, or come next election, we\u2019ll find somebody else who will.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> Stephen Rider as Hank Grogan and Amanda Christine as Ronnie Grogan in HBO\u2019s \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry\u201d (Credit: Brooke Palmer\/HBO)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Back at Derry High School, it\u2019s been days since Ronnie and Lilly have come back. In the meantime, Marge (Matilda Lawler<\/a>) is still unsuccessfully trying to cement her place in the Pattycakes popular girls\u2019 group. Unfortunately, the way she\u2019s found her way in comes at the expense of Lilly and Ronnie, who Marge starts making fun of to impress the others.<\/p>\n When Ronnie and Lilly finally show for classes, Marge is concerned how close Lilly has become to Ronnie, whom the girls refer to as \u201cthe psycho\u2019s daughter.\u201d Marge tries to appeal to Lilly to distance herself from Ronnie and fall back in with the Pattycakes but Lilly, who\u2019s understandably still distraught over the deaths, counters that she doesn\u2019t care about popularity anymore.<\/p>\n \u201cPhil and Teddy are dead,\u201d she says. \u201cPhil\u2019s sister is dead. Who cares about your stupid Pattycakes?\u201d<\/p>\n Whack her again, Lilly!<\/p>\n <\/a> Matilda Lawler as Marge in HBO\u2019s \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry\u201d (Credit: Brooke Palmer\/HBO)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Korean War vet Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo<\/a>) is joined by his family after his recent transfer to Derry\u2019s Air Force base to test top-secret bomber jets. This includes wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige<\/a>) and son Will (Blake Cameron James<\/a>), who are delighted to find Leroy already waiting at their new home.<\/p>\n But a frosty reception from white neighbors immediately puts Charlotte on edge. Nevertheless, mom and son attempt to acclimate to their new town. Unfortunately for Will, this includes being bullied on his first day at the mostly white Derry High School, where he\u2019s placed in class with Lilly and Marge.<\/p>\n MTV\u2019s hit show \u2018Ridiculousness\u2019 canceled after 14 years, 46 seasons <\/a><\/p>\n Mrs. Hanlon, meanwhile, explores town (including passing a familiar-looking alleyway<\/a>). After Charlotte rushes to help a young boy being beat up by his peers, she\u2019s looked at with suspicion by people in town instead of kindness. Leroy, who\u2019s still working to get to the bottom of who attacked him in episode one, urges her to lay lower, citing hate the family received at their previous home in Shreveport due to her civil rights activism.<\/p>\n <\/a> Jovan Adepo as Leroy Hanlon and Taylour Paige as Charlotte Hanlon in HBO\u2019s \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry\u201d (Credit: Brooke Palmer\/HBO)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Back at the base, Leroy learns that it wasn\u2019t a Soviet enemy who attacked him last episode but one of the base\u2019s airmen who, Leroy\u2019s told \u201cwanted to put a scare into a colored airman.\u201d Later, Leroy visits the detained Sgt. Masters (Chad Rook<\/a>), the man accused, and explains that he knows it wasn\u2019t<\/em> Masters who attacked him. Leroy says he recognized the Makarov PM Soviet gun that was pointed at him as being difficult to use, and that no regular American airman would\u2019ve known how.<\/p>\n Leroy baits Masters into attempting to shoot him with the pistol and Masters proves he can\u2019t cock it properly. Leroy tells General Shaw (James Remar<\/a>) that Masters didn\u2019t do it, despite his signed confession \u2014 prompting Shaw to confess the attack was a \u201ctest\u201d that Leroy passed. This leads Shaw to let Leroy in on an even bigger top secret.<\/p>\n Episode two delivered the second of two disturbing supernatural birth illusions created by the malevolent entity known as \u201cIt.\u201d Though it\u2019s been a few days (or weeks) since Ronnie last encountered the entity in the theater, It comes back to play as Ronnie\u2019s lying under her bed sheets trying to sleep.<\/p>\n In the dark room, her bed starts beating like a heart before the sheets \u2014 which she can\u2019t break out of \u2014 transmogrify into a veiny skin-like sac resembling an amniotic sac. A hysterical Ronnie finally breaks out and onto the floor before turning to find the sheets connecting to a monstrous looking female genitalia atop her bed. Connected to the \u201cbody\u201d is the image of Ronnie\u2019s dead mother.<\/p>\n McDonald\u2019s \u2018may not be able\u2019 to provide exact change amid penny shortage, company says <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cYou tore me apart, Ronnie,\u201d says the creature. \u201cYou came out of me and ripped me right open. All I wanted was to hold my baby and you killed me.\u201d The creature screams that Ronnie\u2019s dad is going to be taken away and he\u2019ll \u201cfry,\u201d prompting Ronnie to try to escape before realizing a disgusting-looking umbilical chord tethers her to the monster.<\/p>\n Just as the monster moves in closer to a screaming Ronnie, Hank and her grandmother walk in, causing the whole scene to vanish.<\/p>\n By the rule of threes, we must have at least one more disgusting birth scene before season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n <\/a> Amanda Christine in HBO\u2019s \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry\u201d (Credit: by Brooke Palmer\/HBO)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Despite having already given her statement to police, Lilly is again brought in by Derry police and questioned by the chief, who threatens her with a return to Juniper Hill Asylum if she doesn\u2019t tell him \u201cthe truth.\u201d Lilly assures him she is but the chief continues pressing her, asking if she could be 100% sure that Hank hadn\u2019t been at the theater. Under pressure, Lilly apparently says she can\u2019t be and later that night Hank is arrested.<\/p>\n Though Lilly tells Ronnie her words were twisted, Hank\u2019s arrest drives a wedge between the two recent friends. Unfortunately for Lilly, she ends up back at Juniper Hill by episode\u2019s end anyway after the entity scares her at the grocery store by closing her in an aisle of pickle jars (a callback to her father\u2019s death at the pickle jarring factory) containing her father\u2019s head and other body parts that congeal into a \u201cThe Thing\u201d-like monster of pickles and body parts.<\/p>\n Later, Mrs. Bainbridge drives her daughter back to the facility as Lilly sobs.<\/p>\n P.S. Did you catch the glimpse of the imaginary Pennywise\u2019s Corn Flakes cereal boxes? He\u2019s definitely clowning around, even if we\u2019re not seeing the clown just yet.<\/em><\/p>\n Back at the base, Shaw introduces Leroy to \u201cOperation Precept,\u201d a program aimed at finding a weapon buried beneath Derry that \u201cgenerates debilitating fear in anyone who comes near it. In theory, it could scare a man badly enough to kill him where he stands,\u201d says Shaw.<\/p>\n The base has been searching for this \u201cthing,\u201d by excavating in a wooded area of Derry, thanks to help from telepathic airman Dick Hallorann<\/a> (Chris Chalk<\/a>) \u2014 a name that any King fan will remember from his integral role in \u201cThe Shining.\u201d<\/a> Dick\u2019s been using his abilities to locate the \u201cweapon,\u201d to little success but by episode\u2019s end, the location of \u201csomething\u201d is finally pinpointed and excavated.<\/p>\n A crane pulls up the mysterious object from the ground to reveal a vintage-looking vehicle filled with skeletons. \u201cWe\u2019re close,\u201d someone says, as credits roll.<\/p>\n <\/a> A scene from episode two of HBO\u2019s \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry\u201d (Credit: Brooke Palmer\/HBO)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n This week\u2019s episode really helps viewers settle into the show\u2019s rhythm, which feels not solely concerned with the whereabouts and shenanigans of the \u201cIt\u201d entity. In fact, episode two might contain even fewer scares than the premiere, and yet, I didn\u2019t find myself missing them as much as I thought I might.<\/p>\n The Austin Guzman<\/a>-written\/Andy Muschietti<\/a>-directed episode does a great job of giving us more reasons to care about the characters we\u2019ve already met while also introducing us to new faces and concepts. On its face, the idea of the U.S. military using the ancient evil beneath Derry as a \u201cweapon\u201d could be somewhat silly, but the execution makes it work. In last episode\u2019s recap, I opined that the Air Force base plot was uninteresting but episode two now has me ready for more.<\/p>\n Instacart, GoPuff, DoorDash offer relief to SNAP participants amid government shutdown <\/a><\/p>\n Acting-wise, a special shoutout is due to Taylour Paige, Amanda Christine and Clara Stack, all three of whom add so much gravity and feeling to their characters. Paige\u2019s uncertain and tentative Charlotte feels already knowable, while the younger girls, Christine and Stack, lead their scenes with wonderfully calibrated emotion, even in scenes requiring bigger performances.<\/p>\n I\u2019m excited to see where episode three, and the rest of \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry\u201d takes us, and for all the scares along the way.<\/p>\n Grade: A.<\/strong><\/p>\n The next episode of \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry\u201d airs November 9.<\/p>\n Nexstar\u2019s Russell Falcon can be found on\u00a0Instagram<\/a>,\u00a0X<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0TikTok<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/i><\/p>\n For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u2018This isn\u2019t America. This is Derry\u2019<\/h2>\n
Mean girls of Derry<\/h2>\n
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\u2018You sure we\u2019re good here?\u201d<\/h2>\n
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Makarov PM<\/h2>\n
\u2018Come to Momma!\u2019<\/h2>\n
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Pennywise\u2019s Corn Flakes<\/h2>\n
Operation Precept<\/h2>\n
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Final thoughts<\/h2>\n