IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 5 Justifies the Show’s 2 Most Surprising Pennywise Decisions

After several weeks of waiting, Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise finally dances his way into IT: Welcome to Derry in Season 1, Episode 5, “29 Neibolt Street.” Although Pennywise appearing and Skarsgård’s role were confirmed well in advance of the show debuting (and featured prominently in the marketing), the series has thus far focused on some of It’s other forms, with only a couple of very shadowy teases of the clown, but now that’s all changed. Warning: Contains SPOILERS for IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 5.

Episode 5 may be titled after the house on Neibolt Street, but the story is really about what lies beneath: the sewers, and the lair that It, aka Pennywise, calls home. While Dick Hallorann, Leroy Hanlon, and other members of the military head there via the old well house, the kids are led there by the returning Matty, who has miraculously survived and escaped from his capture by It. Except, of course, he hasn’t. This Matty is simply another of It’s guises, and he transforms in terrifying fashion into Pennywise the Dancing Clown, providing the show with one of its biggest and best moments yet.

Welcome To Derry Fully Pays Off Pennywise’s Delay & Origins (& Sets Up Better Things)

The purpose of delaying Pennywise’s introduction in Welcome to Derry was twofold: it allowed the creative team to use more of the creature’s other forms than they did in the two IT movies, and it built anticipation of the clown’s arrival. Some of horror’s most effective monsters are the ones that are used sparingly, and that choice pays off massively in Episode 5. The Pennywise reveal, and him attacking Lilly, is a sequence that feels like a true event, which it wouldn’t have done if viewers hadn’t been forced to wait for it.

Skarsgård steps back into the role after six years away, and he hasn’t missed a beat. His voice is once again utterly chilling, with the perfect high-pitched blend of childlike whimsy turning into maniacal malevolence. The physical performance is unsettling, and the design strikes the right mix of silly and scary, as a clown should be. It’s great to see him back, and now that he’s arrived, it sets the stage for the horror to be dialled up in Welcome to Derry‘s remaining episodes.

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The other major creative choice in terms of Pennywise was giving It a new origin story. This connected the entity more closely to the Shokopiwah tribe, and revealed they had a weapon that could at least keep him at bay: a dagger, made from a shard of the cave It arrived on Earth in.

This shard, thanks to some plot conveniences, ends up in the sewer… right in front of Lilly as Pennywise is about to devour her. While perhaps a little contrived, it works in the moment: the confusion turning to shock and horror on Pennywise’s face is played well for comic absurdity, and serves as a fun twist that allows Lilly to live another day, while again setting up It likely coming for her and her friends even more than before.

New episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry release on Sundays at 9pm ET on HBO and HBO Max.

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