Have you ever felt afraid in the middle of the night, in your bed, trying to sleep? And then tried to hide under blankets, hoping this would be enough to solve the problem?
At some point during The Thing in the Dark, Veronica Grogan tries that. After the creature kills three children at the Capitol Theater, Ronnie’s father, Hank, the projectionist, is framed by the police as guilty of the murders. Hours before her father is taken to prison after a child is manipulated to testify against him (or at least to not testify on his behalf), Ronnie’s processing the horrors both she and Lilly faced at the theater, being the sole survivors of this violent encounter with a supernatural force.
“The Thing in the Dark” – IT: WELCOME TO DERRY. Pictured: Amanda Christine as Ronnie. Photo: Brooke Palmer/Max ©2025 HBO Max, Inc. All Rights Reserved
No one will believe her father is innocent — he’s a black man in a racist town whose only alibi is his own mother. No one will believe them about the true killer either: a flying baby monster that got out of the big screen. Haunted by past traumas and terrified of the future, Ronnie hides under blankets. Then she realizes she’s stuck there, unable to escape — the blankets are now her mother’s womb. After forcing her way out of the suffocating prison, Ronnie sees the bed has turned into the corpse of her late mother — the creature in disguise — who talks to the child, adding fuel to her fears about Hank’s destiny.
With this, Welcome to Derry establishes another nightmarish vision around the figures of mothers and childbirth, just like it did in the premiere’s opening sequence. Ronnie lost her mother, Lilly has a complicated relationship with her own, and even Hank spends part of the episode arguing with Ronnie’s grandmother. Mommy issues could be a central theme here: the grief of losing a mother in Ronnie’s case, the despair of having a distant, cold one in Lilly’s case, and the frustration of having a caring mom who is helpless in the face of a town that already decided her son is guilty of a crime he didn’t commit in Grogan’s matriarch case.
“The Thing in the Dark” – IT: WELCOME TO DERRY. Pictured: Taylour Paige as Charlotte. Photo: Brooke Palmer/Max ©2025 HBO Max, Inc. All Rights Reserved
There’s another mother at the center of the episode, and might I say, the show: Charlotte Hanlon, Leroy’s wife, who arrives in Derry with their son Will. Excited for a fresh start, Charlotte is the kind of character you just fall in love with; played with grace by Taylour Paige, she’s kind, smart, and has a good heart, speaking up for those in need, worrying about the well-being of her family, and so on. This description of a typical heroine could generate a boring character, but Paige uses the script to build a tragic portrait of someone who’s trying their best to live in peace without hurting anyone — just to end up in the most hurtful possible place. In other words, Charlotte is a young black woman who just wants to live a good life with her husband and see their son grow up healthy and happy; then she moves to Derry, and tragedy unfolds.
“Don’t tell me boys will be boys. How about boys will be kind? Boys will stand up. Boys will be tall in their integrity and their hearts. Boys will be measured by their mommas in their new house.”
Okay, tragedy hasn’t unfolded yet — at least not when it comes to the Hanlons. But judging from this episode alone, Charlotte is exactly the type of person the creature might cherish disturbing until her mind is changed forever and her soul is consumed. She reminds me of Olivia Crain from Flanagan’s Hill House — and if her scene with the boys in the street indicates anything, it’s that speaking up will lead her directly to trouble in Derry. Charlotte also makes Jovan Adepo’s Leroy more compelling, with Paige’s chemistry with Adepo selling the couple as one of the driving forces of the season. There’s this feeling of dread when the Hanlons reunite, and you might want to scream for them to leave Derry and avoid whatever is coming their way.
“And then when I shouted, they looked at me like I was the crazy one.”
The same can be said about Blake Cameron James’ Will. Very fond of science, especially astronomy, he’s very excited about the telescope given by his father. This happiness doesn’t find him at school, though — there are bullies everywhere, and not even the teacher seems excited to have him there. But Will finds a way to make some friends in Rich, who’s just as cute and funny as Will himself, and Ronnie, who meets him at detention. Slowly, this season’s version of the Losers starts to group.
“The Thing in the Dark” – IT: WELCOME TO DERRY. Pictured: Blake Cameron James as Will. Photo: Brooke Palmer/Max ©2025 HBO Max, Inc. All Rights Reserved
But some things separate them. Lilly, who watched all of their friends die at the theater, is dealing with a lot just like Ronnie. The episode opens with her POV of the last episode’s final moments. She’s having nightmares. She’s afraid that if she mentions anything about the creature who killed the kids, she’ll be sent back to the mental asylum. Later, a police officer threatens her: if Lilly does testify on behalf of Ronnie’s father, claiming she never saw him that night at the theater, she will be framed as the murderer. Lilly is manipulated to claim she did not not see the man, this being the last straw for Hank’s arrest. This puts her in conflict with Ronnie, and Lilly’s conflicting with Ronnie creates another conflict with her friend Marge, who’s anxious for Lilly to join her in her quest to become a part of this wicked group of mean girls — but for this, they can’t be associated with Ronnie.
If the kids are not facing enough challenges until their inevitable reunion, a moment in the market is enough to make Lilly snap and be sent back to the mental asylum. This sequence — the strongest in the episode — is It (2017) meets Smile (2022), with the creature manipulating reality and stalking Lilly in the most creepy ways. Until she snaps, acting crazy in front of everyone, and is sent by her mother to the asylum. Suspenseful, this sequence proves that the show can have the creature be scary, mean, and horrifying without gore and Pennywise’s presence.
“The Thing in the Dark” – IT: WELCOME TO DERRY. Pictured: Clara Stack as Lilly. Photo: Brooke Palmer/Max ©2025 HBO Max, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The Thing in the Dark is a strong follow-up to the premiere, serving as the real introduction to this season’s main characters and conflicts. First, it has interesting opening credits, with animated events that should encompass all timelines the show aims to cover — if you read the book, you might recognize the events in the opening. The weakest plot is still the military one, even though we get to know a bit more about Dick Hallorann and the project he’s working on: the search for a thing that induces fear in people. In the end, Leroy is also involved in this search, which is also drawing attention from the native American people in Derry. But for now the positive outweighs the negative, with a charismatic teen cast dominated by the excellent Amanda Christine and Clara Stack, a strong lead in Taylour Paige, and a good balance between the dramatic and the scary, nightmare-inducing parts, this episode gives the audience characters to care about while showing the creature slowly torturing the good people in Derry, laying the groundwork for the next weeks.
Feel free to leave a comment with your impressions and thoughts, and thanks for reading!