RECAP: IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 — “In The Name of the Father”

IT: Welcome to Derry is finally on the upswing, and it came by finally showing Pennywise in his toothy glory. Welcome to Derry Episode 6, “In the Name of the Father,” which has to pay off the drastic stakes set in the last episode. And that means setting up the massive carnage that will put a cap on this feeding cycle.  And with everything that has been breadcrumbed so far throughout the season, it’s going to be uncomfortable to watch, and it will more than likely be racially motivated. 

Welcome to Derry Episode 6 opens with a black-and-white treatment at Jupiter Hills. Serving as more of a cold open than other openings we’ve seen this season, we see a nurse walking with a child down into what looks like the basement of Jupiter Hills.

The nurse asks the little girl if this was where the clown asked her to meet him. As they look down a hallway, the signature red balloon is floating alone, until Pennywise steps out and grabs it.  The monster is out now, and even the adults know who it really is. 

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 is visually striking. 

“In The Name Of The Father” picks up its story with a tense moment between Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) and his son Will (Blake Cameron James). The two have a loving relationship, but in the last episode, the Major almost shot his son, and only didn’t because Pauly (Rudy Mancuso) jumped into the line of fire, dying in the process. 

The darkness of the sewers has followed them up top, and that means that the Major is terrified for his son. Will, on the other hand, is more dedicated than ever to saving his friends, even with his dad trying to keep him away from Derry. 

As the two fight, they each do something they can’t take back. Will tries to assert that he’s been raised to face trouble and care for people, only to be told not to. When the Major tells Will that he isn’t him, Will retorts, “I am not you. I would never let my friends die.”

It’s a gutting statement, and the only way that Leroy knows how to react is to slap his son. Will falls to the floor, crying. Charlotte (Taylour Paige) is to the side, watching it all. Despite the slap, the Major isn’t painted as an abusive father. Instead, it’s presented as it, getting into his head. This isn’t who Leroy Hanlon is. Charlotte knows that and so does Will, but it doesn’t make it easy to watch. 

That isn’t the only conflict we see in Welcome to Derry Episode 6. From here, we see the town obsessed with finding Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider), as a montage of flyers goes up all over town. Only it’s not just flyers going up; it’s men walking around with shotguns. 

The montage sets up the backdrop for the rest of the episodes. Hank’s life is in real danger, and that is clear. Up in their hideout, Lilly (Clara Stack) tells the group about the weapons she found in the water and how they saved her life. Lilly isn’t just saying what happened; she’s also imploring them to go back to the tunnels and try to kill it, once and for all. 

And this is where the conflict pops up once more, because Ronnie (Amanda Christine) is not going down there again. Pushing back on Lilly, Ronnie won’t budge. Her dad’s picture is plastered around town, men with guns are hoping to find him, and she isn’t going to go into any more danger again, especially when they barely survived the last time.

But Lilly is breaking under the guilt and the trauma she experienced in the theater. As she says, Ronnie didn’t see the carnage; she did. Still, the guilt isn’t something Ronnie will take on; instead, she casts blame directly on Lilly.

“In The Name Of The Father” is all about guilt and grief.

There are two sides to this fight, and both girls are fighting and feeling immense guilt. Ronnie feels responsible for her father being jailed, and for Lilly, it’s about getting her friends killed. But as they storm away from each other, it’s all a reminder that they’re all children, and with that comes the sensitivity and vulnerability of not understanding how to regulate emotion. Still, guilt continues to paint the entire episode. 

Ronnie doesn’t want to be served up to it again, but she’s struggling with everything. And it’s clear that she is just tired of being scared, but so is everyone else. That said, Ronnie has been the one most affected by it. Her father has been made out to be a killer, her grandmother isn’t on his side entirely, and she’s also having to suffer the ramifications in her school life. However, she does have Will. He cares for her as a friend and more, and they share a kiss. 

Rich (Arian S. Cartaya) and Marge (Matilda Lawler) get their most development we’ve seen so far in Welcome to Derry Episode 6. Rich, like Marge, and he’s kind to her, even when she’s scared. Marge needs to change her eye dressing, and Rich helps her without hesitation. While she thinks that it’s ugly, he tells her that it’s the coolest thing. 

Now firmly a part of the group, Rich confides in Marge that he’s worried about the group splintering. They’re stronger together, and ultimately, they’re less scared, too. 

While Welcome to Derry Episode 6 is clearly focused on the fallout from the events in the sewer tunnels, it’s also showing a softer side of life for the kids. Between Ronnie and Will and Rich and Marge, the small pieces of young love help calm the series’s darker tones. Still, this is IT, and those small moments of respite aren’t where we stay. 

Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) is back, and he’s made it to the decommissioned shed they’ve turned into a juke joint called The Black Spot, a place for Black soldiers to thrive and feel joy. Exhausted and in need of a stiff drink, his return gets worse when the rest of his friends show that they’re hiding Hank Grogan.

When Charlotte asked them to hide Hank, the airmen’s decision was easy. Hide him and help him, or turn him over to a lynch mob. But Hallorann doesn’t seem to care. A character choice that once again pulls the iconic character far away from what audiences know about him from other Stephen King works. 

But Hank is the least of Hallorann’s worries. The box is. As we move on from Hank and the other airmen, we see that Hallorann has retired to his room. Pitch black and drinking to ease the fallout from the sewers, he’s holding on by a thread. When the Major asks him what happened down there, Hallorann struggles. 

Dick Hallorann is going through a lot in Welcome to Derry Episode 6. 

Dick Hallorann is seeing dead soldiers now, without even trying to activate his gift. And that’s a problem. Hallorann explains what happened to him. He starts off by saying that they pissed it off. But when he gets more granular, the audience learns what was in Dick Hallorann’s box, the one that he worked so hard to open. 

The box is Hallorann’s gift, or at least the ugly sides of it. Having inherited the gift from his grandmother, he was instructed to put every bad part of the gift into the box. Everything that made him scared, everything that weighed on him, put it in the box and lock it away. Now, the box is open, and the things that Hallorann didn’t want to see have come home.

Dick Hallorann sees the dead. Hallorann says that two of the dead died in the barracks, and that’s why he can see them. But if he ignores them, the voices never stop. But instead of listening to his story and empathizing, the Major tells him to embrace the gift and use it to ask the dead how to stop it. 

While the two fight, they’re both in their own corners. General Shaw (James Remar) wants to keep moving forward, even if there are dead soldiers, but Hallorann doesn’t care. Instead, he just wants to stop it. In order to do that, he threatens Hallorann, pulling rank, and trying to put him as an airman first. 

The Major’s devotion to the military and to protecting the country comes first. When he fights with Charlotte, much like we’ve seen in other episodes, his commitment to the military stands tall. However, Charlotte prioritizes people first, and it’s why she’s taking care of Hank, and ultimately why she is going to move with Will back to Shreveport. 

There is something to be said for Charlotte’s want to return to Louisiana. While I have not enjoyed how ham-handed the discussions about race have been in IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1, I have appreciated how staunchly the myth of an equal North has been broken down piece by piece.

We’ve seen racist police talk about not being like the South. We’ve seen integrated bars still kick out Black airmen. We’ve even seen that Charlotte was allowed to achieve more with her teaching career in the South than in Maine. And now, we’re watching a lynch mob of armed white men form as Derry hunts for Hank Grogan. 

Charlotte’s decision to return to Shreveport puts community first and finds safety in the place she calls home. Yes, even with the detriments and violence of the South, it’s also the place where she had a life, where she was an activist, and where she was accepted. Pennywise isn’t the only monster in Derry, and Charlotte knows it. 

The Black Spot gives the characters a place to experience joy for the first time this season.

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 switches back to the students after setting up the difficulties in the Hanlon household. Lilly is sitting in class with the weapon in her hand. She hears its voice in her head as she zones out in class, only for the pickled version of her dad to pop up, threatening her. It’s yet another freak-out in front of her classmates, and further pushes the guilt and worry she feels. 

But this episode hasn’t been about Lilly so far, outside of showing how quickly she’s unraveling. Making up for the scare, “In The Name Of The Father” continues to highlight Rich and Marge.  They talk, Rich gives her an eyepatch, and they commiserate about hearing voices in the pipes and how hard it is even to make it through the night now. Then, the Pattycakes show up. 

In an attempt to take Marge back, they give her an ultimatum and tell her to come to their table, calling Rich “Ricky Ricardo” (for obvious racist reasons), and for a moment, it looks like Marge is going to give in. Only, having learned her lesson, she doesn’t. Instead, she rips off her patch and says she is a freak. It’s a moment of redemption and humor in the series that deepens her relationship with Rich and signals that she’s truly leaving the Pattycakes behind. 

Then we see the scene transition to The Black Spot, with Will, Marge, and Rich heading to see Ronnie and Hanl. That’s the biggest thing that comes out of this section of the episode: the kids all know about Hank Grogan. What could go wrong?

All on her own, we head back to Lilly, and now, she’s at Nurse Ingrid Kursh’s (Madeleine Stowe) house. And when she’s there, she finds a photobook in the attic with images of Ingrid when she was small. And now, it all comes together. Ingrid’s father was the clown that it now wears. The black-and-white cold open now means something else. Now, it all makes sense why Ingrid begged Lilly not to go, and not to put her friends in danger. 

But unlike the other adults, Ingrid cares for Lilly. She hugs her, but over her shoulder, she can see the clown. Scared, Lilly backs away, only for Ingrid to ask her if she’s seen the clown. Instead of being worried, Ingrid is almost ecstatic. “You did it. You brought him back.”

And then, IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 continues to change the lore we currently know. The Pennywise in the cemetery was Ingrid, not the real thing. Ingrid is obsessed with it, and as we go back to the little girl named Mabel and a younger version of Ingrid, we see why. 

Ingrid Kursh’s connection to Pennywise is startling, and one of the best reveals this season. 

As it shows up, the little girl is scared, only to be consoled by Ingrid. Pennywise drools with excitement when he sees the child, only to look up at Ingrid, who’s unfazed. That is, until Pennywise shows his teeth. As Ingrid escapes, the child is eaten, and it’s hard to feel anything but anger at the nurse and worry even more deeply about Lilly. 

Ingrid cowers in fear initially and even sheds a tear. But then she hears carnival music and sees her father in the window in the door. It’s not Pennywise. It’s “papa.” This is a moment where it doesn’t use fear, but a comfort to be let through the door. She sees her father in the monster now, and she fed him. 

Visually, IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 is striking in its use of Ingrid’s sequences from the past, from the 1935 cycle. The camera feels rooted, restricting our view, and with red the only color displayed, it is terrifying. The black-and-white treatment also allows Bill Skarsgård‘s physical movement to shine. 

Ingrid just wants to see her father, and that means summoning the monster again. Lilly will be saved, but her friends will not. Grief is fueling Ingrid, and she says, “No one who dies here ever really dies.” But Lilly doesn’t trust her. She knows that her dad is dead, and the monster doesn’t change that. 

Back in The Black Spot, the kids are trying to make a last stand, and to do it with each other. Ronnie isn’t trying to leave her father again. Will is trying to convince Hank to let Ronnie go with them down to the sewers and take on it again. But despite the adults trying to keep the kids out of harm’s way, that’s not what’s going to happen. 

This quick aside then transitions to the white bar where the Major, Hallorann, and the other Black airmen were kicked out. The Chief of Police has been relieved of his duty, but with that, he’s brought Hank’s location to the men in the bar. An anonymous tip has come in, and we all know it’s Ingrid, now that her true colors have been shown. The Chief stirs up the men, and now we know what’s going to happen. 

Before the violence, though, Welcome to Derry Episode 6 catches us up with Dick Hallorann one last time. He’s in the dark; the audio is muffled, voices indistinct, and he walks through the juke joint as people dance, a band plays, and joy fills the air. But it’s more of a vision than reality; only Hallorann doesn’t seem to know that immediately. 

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 is the best episode yet, because of it’s characters,

The camera pans to Rich and Marge, the distortion effect we saw with Hallorann now gone. They order Cokes, and we’re pretty sure it’s not just Coke. At the same time, Hank is talking to Will and Ronnie in the room where Hank is hiding out. They’re getting along, but at the same time, Ronnie isn’t coming with them. 

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 continues to highlight the joy in the room. Rich gets a chance to join the band and play the drums. Everyone keeps dancing, and in the joy that the series shows, the tense undercurrent is hard to miss, too. Joy in Welcome to Derry is always cut short, and that’s going to continue; we just don’t know when. 

As the scene transitions, we see Ingrid putting on her clown costume, then headlights approach the shed. We’ve seen this story before. A white mob descending on a moment of Black joy. But then the episode just ends. 

I still find myself uncomfortable with how much pain IT: Welcome to Derry has put its Black characters through. Not because racism in a small town isn’t a fruitful land for horror storytelling. But because so much of the shock and awe we’ve seen in this series restricts non-white characters in ways the white characters aren’t. It’s akin to Prime Video’s Them in how it uses race, and it leaves me worried for what we will see in Episode 7 when the mob acts on their violent intentions. 

The bigger issue I have is the sanitizing of what happened to The Black Spot in IT: Welcome to Derry. In the series, the armed men have a “reason” to attack the place. Hank, a fugitive in their minds who escaped transport to Shawshank, is there.

We can read the racism through the lines, but in the original Stephen King book, The Black Spot’s demise is clearly because a white supremacist group attacks them. For a series so devoted to using Derry’s racism, it still sanitizes certain aspects, not going far enough in showcasing it as the evil it is.

That said, IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 is the height of the season, thanks to its refined look at people and places, and for injecting joy without losing tension. We’re getting close to the end of the season, and despite how much convoluted setup we have seen so far, I can see the focus tightening. With the adults and the kids working together, the characters and their places in the narrative are stronger for it. 

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 is streaming now, exclusively on HBO Max with new episodes every Sunday. 

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