(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
Killing off more than half the kids featured on the first It: Welcome to Derry poster was an unexpected, audacious way to conclude the premiere. While it was shocking, heartstrings remained untugged; eyes were dry…until now. Enter—or should I say exit— Rich Santo (Arian S. Cartaya), whose sacrifice in the show’s penultimate episode is top-tier tear-jerker material.
The HBO horror prequel to one of Stephen King’s scariest novels is a gorefest. The high body count is matched by the gallons of blood and extreme VFX. Still, rather than becoming desensitized to the unfolding extreme violence, the showdown at the Black Spot is an emotionally gutting and brutal inferno lasting 10 minutes. It will be hard to forget.
Given how much the young Derry residents have been through, you would think that they could have one night off from the Pennywise-infused madness. Think again. A supernatural killer clown is not the only danger lurking near these woods.
Let’s not forget the racist locals (called “Maine Legion of White Decency” in King’s 1986 novel), hellbent on finding and punishing the innocent Hank (Stephen Rider) for the recent murders. When the mob discovers that Hank is hiding at the newly renovated and isolated airman hangout, all bets are off regarding who will survive.
For a brief moment, It: Welcome to Derry resembles the standoff in Sinners, but instead of vampires, it is white men wearing masks causing the initial bloodshed—racists do factor in the guns blazing Sinners climax too.
The message from the ruthless opening episode is that no one is safe. Especially the kids. Despite signs that Rich might perish—everything is going too well for him—I was still caught off guard. So is Marge (Matilda Lawler) when Rich encourages her to climb into the drinks fridge as a way to survive the raging fire. Rich’s claim that there is room for two is a bluff to get Marge to climb in first. Part of me wonders if this is a Titanic door situation, but it is a tight squeeze for Marge alone. For a split second, I thought a miracle might save him. Then I remembered what show I was watching.
These kids have aged out of playing make-believe, but this doesn’t stop them from falling back on those fantasy images. In this case, Rich returns to a comparison that Marge made in the previous episode after he admitted he was scared to go to the bathroom at night (Pennywise talks through the pipes). His solution for peeing? A jar by his bed that he empties in the morning. Rather than make fun of him, Marge likens this to knights in a pre-indoor toilet world.
“We don’t just pee in pots. We also protect fair maidens,” Rich says as fire burns around him. By this point, he has already slammed the door shut of the Coca-Cola fridge, lying on top so the protesting Marge can’t get out. Cutting between Rich sweetly recalling the first time he saw her, and Marge’s crumpled sobbing face is enough to make me teary even during my second watch of this final conversation. Lawler’s teary, visible eye (the other is still bandaged) is enough to push me over the edge; I didn’t expect to cry this much (or at all) during an It prequel.
The triple slaying at the end of the premiere is so over-the-top that there is zero chance of even welling up. Sure, children are the victims, but the killer is a grotesque flying CGI baby, making it hard to take any of it seriously at all. While Marge and Rich’s bond is new, the foundation has been laid, and this grounded conversation amid the fire set by white supremacists adds to the reality of the scenario.
First love can be all-consuming, whether it happens at 12 or 22. Much like its source material, It: Welcome to Derry is a coming-of-age story. Crushes are integral to this setting. See also the burgeoning feelings between Will (Blake Cameron James) and Ronnie (Amanda Christine), who both narrowly survive the fire. Marge’s declaration that she loves Rich isn’t simply to placate the dying boy. She means it, as does Rich when he replies with the same sentiment—words that are his last.
Rich has been an utter delight since he first started talking to Will in the second episode. An outcast, he has always been game for bonkers schemes, including his own idea to convene with the dead in the Derry cemetery. Until last week, Rich’s one-sided crush on Marge had gone unnoticed. His refusal to look away from her gnarly eye is another point for Rich: Instead of being grossed out, Rich thinks it’s the coolest thing he’s ever seen.
Before the facial injury, Marge did everything to maintain her precarious position in the popular Pattycakes clique. After Pennywise targets her, Marge rejects the mean girls. Instead, she lets her freak flag fly, revealing her gory eye in the lunchroom and refusing to turn her back on Rich, Will, Ronnie, and Lily (Clara Stack).
It: Welcome to Derry is at its best when the tweens are in focus; it is a reminder of why a show like Stranger Things is so popular (as well as the power of great casting). The plotting veers off path when the military’s already goofy scheme to use Pennywise as a weapon against the USSR is revealed to be even goofier. The actual plan is to use the demon to save the U.S. from itself, using bouts of intense fear to calm a divided country. Yep, this is as dumb as it sounds.
The massacre of mostly Black airmen and their dates at the Black Spot is part of that fractured country theory. That fiery inferno is terrifying and incredibly violent, with shotguns blowing off body parts and Pennywise popping in to chow down on the dying. The whiplash between 23 people dying at the hands of a lynch mob and Pennywise popping up amid the flames underscores the wildly differing tone.
Having the Rich and Marge scene sandwiched between two gory Pennywise kills is another example of this chaos. As Rich begins to succumb to the smoke, Cartaya gives a wonderfully understated performance in these final moments that complements Lawler’s guttural heartbreak. Moments later, one of the most gruesome Pennywise kills occurs outside the still-burning Black Spot.
Even as the death toll rises, Rich’s fearless memory lives on: Marge wears the leather eye patch that Rich gifted her (which belonged to a corsair his ancestors knew in Cuba). It was Rich’s idea to fight Pennywise as a group, and I have a feeling he will be there in the finale, in spirit or otherwise.
