‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Served Up the Most Unsettling Sequence I’ve Seen on TV This Year

IT: Welcome to Derry premiered its second episode on HBO Max today, two days earlier than expected, making your Halloween even sweeter.

The prequel series, co-created by Andy and Barbara Muschietti (the duo behind 2017’s It Movie and the 2019 sequel), takes audiences back to Stephen King cinematic universe, where Pennywise, an extra-dimensional being who eventually takes the form of an evil clown, terrorizes the fictional town of Derry, Maine, every 27 years.

Episode 2, titled The Thing in the Dark, stays in 1962 and follows the small town community as it deals with the shocking act of violence that wiped out a group of kids who I thought were the main players in the series.

The episode focuses on Lilly Bainbridge, the girl at the center of the story, and, unexpectedly, delivers one of the most disturbing scenes I’ve seen in a TV show this year.

It goes without saying that there is major story spoilers about the second episode of IT: Welcome to Derry below. If you haven’t watched it yet (cable channel HBO won’t air the episode until Sunday, November 2), I suggest you proceed with caution.

Thematically, IT: Welcome to Derry explores the corrosion of the American dream – the sinister underbelly that lies beneath its quaint Norman Rockwell veneer. The fantastic opening credits sequence makes this message clear, and it’s on full display during a brief trip to the supermarket.

Lilly, like almost every child in Pennywise’s orbit, deals with some semblance of trauma. Hers involves the death of her father, who died in a factory accident. It’s 1962 and no one mentions seeking therapy. Instead, there are threats of sending him to Juniper Hill Asylum, which, if you’re familiar with King’s works, appears often in his literary world.

As soon as she walks into the store, it’s clear something is wrong. The farther she wanders through the rows of canned goods and cereal boxes, the more it becomes clear that Pennywise is pulling the strings. Behind her, the aisles move, and quickly her trip to the market turns into a nightmarish labyrinth.

My Admiral Akbar brain told me it was a trap before the show. As someone lost in a supermarket one day, a terrifying childhood memory popped up and slapped me in the face.

Two important events occur in this scene: first, the children who were murdered at the end of the first episode appear on cereal boxes, and Pennywise’s name is displayed prominently in large letters. Second, the evil entity appears in pickle jars in the form of his deceased father.

Let’s start with cereals.

Mascots first appeared on cereal boxes in the 1950s, and the one that always stood out to me was Krinkles the Clown. He appeared in Post’s Sugar Rice Krinkles. Like Bozo the Clown, this character proved popular with children of that era. Just look at his face to see the resemblance to the dancing clown form that Pennywise will eventually take on.

For me, as for many of my generation, breakfast cereal is a portal to nostalgia. Memories of Saturday morning cartoons over bowls of Frosted Flakes are clear in my head. It was my safe space.

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It feels like Pennywise is taking inspiration from Freddy Krueger’s playbook. This blade glove nightmare first entered my world while I was still eating cereal in front of the TV, shattering that sense of security I mentioned earlier. The supermarket scene in this episode of IT: Welcome to Derry perfectly captured this same unsettling atmosphere.

Like Krueger, IT takes pleasure in the fear of its victims and has jokes and one-liners to sprinkle about the torture. Freddy was a notorious child killer, and as we saw in Muschietti’s updated version of the Stephen King classic, the carnage of Pennywise’s children is now more visceral and no longer limited to off-camera moments.

So far, all the bad things in the series have happened in the dark. However, the horror that befalls Lilly unfolds under the bright lights of the market, dismantling a place that normally represents safety and sustenance.

Now, about those pickle jars.

Lilly’s father breaks glass, turns into a slippery thing with tentacles and attacks the girl. It’s brazen, disgusting and makes it feel (how do I put this?) 2025.

She finds herself in tears on a floor filled with broken glass. Then, in the blink of an eye, it’s not like that at all. Everything returns to normal, with a crowd of critical adults towering over the young girl. Once again, Lilly’s state of mind is called into question.

Through every iteration of Pennywise I’ve seen on screen, the ones that work best take place in the past. IT: Welcome to Derry is an example of this, and somehow the terrifying energy of our current real world is also there, lurking in the shadows. No one is safe in this town and no shots are fired on this show. It only takes a simple trip to the grocery store to bring this message home.

The rest of the season may be uneven in terms of tone and pacing, but this scene is exactly the vibe I would expect from any Pennywise story. Consider these five minutes very well spent.