IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 1 recap: Pennywise in the 1960s 

The IT: Welcome to Derry premiere builds toward a shocking conclusion that sees Pennywise unleashing carnage in a different form. The episode is cyclical, opening and closing with death. Set in the 1960s, the prequel series introduces major characters while simultaneously including a few who are connected to the Losers.

The main storyline focuses on three children trying to find out what happened to their friend, Matty Clements. The ten-minute-long opening scene centers on Matty as he becomes Pennywise's prey. The synopsis for IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 1 reads:

"As four misfit kids vow to find their missing classmate, Major Leroy Hanlon arrives to a mixed reception at Derry Air Force Base."

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IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 1 recap:

Here are some of the major events in the IT: Welcome to Derry premiere:

• Matty Clements

The episode opens with young Matty Clements in a movie theater, where he is identified by the usher for not paying for his ticket. As the young boy hides from the usher, he is noticed by young Ronnie Grogan, who works there. She misdirects the usher, and as Ronnie leaves the area, Matty is spotted by the usher as he manages to run out the door.

As the young boy aimlessly walks on the snowy night, he comes across a kind family that claims to be heading out of Derry—something even Matty wants. While the family seems normal at first, they begin to act strange, and Matty realizes that they have been driving in circles when they pass the Derry billboard—the same place where the family picked him up.

Soon, the woman "gives birth" to a winged demon (one of Pennywise's forms), and Matty is killed as his pacifier falls into the drain and floats on the surface, leading into the title card.

• Leroy Hanlon enters Derry

Leroy Hanlon, Mike Hanlon's grandfather, sets foot in Derry as he is stationed in the town for duty. He is waiting for his wife and son to arrive, and in this IT: Welcome to Derry episode, he experiences the racism of Derry firsthand. We also learn that he has a mysterious injury that supposedly renders him unable to feel fear.

In the last act of the episode, he is attacked by some masked men who want him to reveal the blueprints and plans for a plane.

• The new losers?

After that opening, we meet the kids who knew Matty: Lilly, Teddy, and Phil. Lilly and Matty seem closest in a flashback scene in the middle of the episode, and she is the first to be haunted by Pennywise, in a way that's similar to Beverly Marsh in the 2017 movie, through plumbing. In the IT: Welcome to Derry premiere, Lilly hears Matty’s voice.

She goes to Phil and Teddy the next day and tells them what happened. While Phil doesn't believe her, Teddy is in the middle. Lilly is the first to be haunted because she is the first to experience tragedy in her life, as her father died in a tragic accident in her presence. Teddy later asks his father at the family table during dinner if someone can survive being held hostage in the Derry sewer, but his father dismisses him.

It should be noted that Teddy's last name is Uris, and we learn that he is Stanley Uris's uncle from his father's side. We also see Stanley's father, Donald, who is the older sibling. Before dismissing Teddy, his father tells him the horrors of the Holocaust, including how Ilse Koch, the Kommandeuse of Buchenwald, made lampshades from the human skin of Jewish prisoners.

This has a rather traumatic effect on young Teddy, as later that night, while he is reading a Batman comic (1961's Detective Comics #298) featuring Clayface, the table lamp starts to flicker. Suddenly, the lampshades have human faces, scaring the young boy. He then goes to Phil and Lilly and tells them what happened. Later that day, the three go to the library with Phil's younger sister Susie to read old newspapers and learn about Ronnie.

As they meet Ronnie, she is cold toward them because she reveals that the police were pinning the crime on her father. As she walks away, the three talk about their experiences with Pennywise, prompting Ronnie to return and tell them that even she had heard voices from the plumbing like Lilly. She also tells them that she hears the voices singing The Music Man's "Ya Got Trouble," something even Lilly heard.

They go back to the closed movie theater, and Ronnie plays The Music Man.

• The Carnage

This IT: Welcome to Derry episode made some believe that Phil, Susie, Teddy, Lilly, and Ronnie are the Losers before Stanley, Bill, Eddie, Richie, Ben, and Beverly. But that could not be farther from the truth, as the closing minutes of the episode see most of them die. As Ronnie plays "Ya Got Trouble" on the screen, Matty and the family from the beginning of the episode appear on it.

The kids are shocked to see Matty, who blames them and unleashes the same demon on them from the screen. The demon kills Susie, Teddy, and Phil, leaving Lilly and Ronnie alive, and the IT: Welcome to Derry episode closes with Lilly's traumatized reaction to Teddy, Phil, and Susie's deaths.

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The IT: Welcome to Derry premiere sets up an exciting second episode, which is set to air this Halloween.