Those of you who read my blog
know that when TV adapts a novel or a series of books I go out of my way not
to read them first so I won't be biased when I review them. This has served
me well particularly over the last few years from everything to Will Trent to
A Gentleman in Moscow. Similarly on those occasions when I have read the
source material beforehand, such as the limited series adaptations of Lianne
Moriarty and the occasional mystery novel, I make it clear that I'm going to
judge both separately and only comment afterwards.
My readers also know that I
basically have little use for such TV gimmicks as fan service, whether they be
retcon or Easter eggs. I like them when they are done well and subtly (Better
Call Saul and Original Sin were by far the best versions in recent
years in TV) but they've never been vital to my enjoyment of those shows.
That being said given that there has been a
fair amount of speculation over Welcome to Derry the so-far superb prequel
that the Muschietti siblings have done with their version of IT (particularly
after last night's episode) I find myself in the rare advantage of knowing certain
things that the average TV viewer might not. And while I don't usually give in to wild
speculation given how the story is being told I am I think I can do one better
than most: informed speculation. Because so far almost everything I saw
prior to the last night's episode has basically confirmed to be that the
references that the writers to what is happening in the first season is neither
fan service or retcon but canon. Not just for King's original novel but indeed
much of the King universe which intersects with IT in many ways that the
series so far is being faithful to.
There's also the fact that
I've read the original novel somewhere between 10 and 15 times in my life. (To
be clear, I'm well aware the hardcover edition is 1140 pages along. I may have underestimated
the number of times I've read it.) And having read every other book that
King has written at least once and many of the ones that I'm certain the
writers are using for this series multiple times if you want to know what may
happen the rest of the season you're looking at a source that is as reliable –
possibly more so – then whatever you'll find online even in Wikipedia. And since the original book is such a brick it
would be understandable if viewers only experience with the material
comes from the films I'm pretty sure I could be just as useful to telling you
about what they're getting right and what they might do as some of you will
tell me what they're getting wrong about Last of Us and House of the
Dragon. (To be clear I don't care about your precious source material so I
don't blame you if you don't care about mine.)
Spoiler Warning: I may very
well be about to spoil much of the original book both when it comes to tone and
potential speculation. I don't think I can spoil a forty-year old book but
still, if you don't want to know what might be coming by the end of the season,
get out now.
All right I will actually
break this down by bullet points for once.
Pennywise's finally appearing in last night's episode is
keeping in with how King deals with this manifestation in the original book.
I have little doubt there
was some bitching and moaning as to why its taken five episodes for Bill Skarsgard's
iconic clown to make his first appearance. I know why they did and it wasn't
just for shock value. (For the record, how he chose to manifest is keeping with
canon as I'll explain.)
In King's book, Pennywise
appears in a couple of scenes at the start of the novel and then essentially
disappears for the next three hundred pages only manifesting himself over three
hundred pages later when eleven year olds Bill and Richie and up going to the
House on Neibolt Street. And only Bill sees Pennywise: Richie sees him as the
Teenage Werewolf, the main character
from a horror film he saw earlier that week.
Pennywise only appears a
relatively few times in (Its?) most famous form in the entire book and when he
does its only to each of the Losers and only briefly. There are signs of Pennywise's presence –
those endless balloons being the most famous – but most of the time IT basically
appears to each of the Losers the same way Its doing in Welcome to Derry: manifesting
themselves into what they fear the most. And because the Loser's childhood is
in 1958 most of the versions are of things that are items from horror movies or
books.
Ben first sees him as the
Mummy in their initial encounter. Mike sees him has a bird 'the size of a house
trailer'. For Eddie, who is always ailing, he takes the form of a hobo that he
believes has leprosy. And for Stan Uris, he takes the form of dead boys.
That's why while I was shocked
that Pennywise made his transformation from Matthew Clements, I wasn't
surprised. The moment I saw him I knew that this was just another manifestation
that Pennywise was doing. It was more elaborate then some of the ones he'd done
so far but its not that far removed from hearing voices in the drain. And
indeed when the Losers become adults Pennywise will take the form of those who
he has killed to throw a special shock into them.
This is a larger reference
to how King works in the majority of his books overall. It is atmosphere and
buildup and we rarely see 'the monster'. In Salem's Lot the head vampire
Barlow only appears after 150 pages and then only shows up again twice more in
scenes that demonstrates just how evil and powerless those hunting him are against
him. In The Stand Randall Flagg shows up twice in Part I in person (as
opposed to in dreams where he is always vague and shadowy) once at the end of a
long segment in Part 2 and it is only when the action moves to Las Vegas where
he is running the show that we see him in his ugly glory – and then realize how
little control of events he actually has. In Christine it's not until the second
part of the novel that we see the title automobile attack and murder someone
and only then start to realize how horrible 'she' is. King doesn't want to show
the shark either but he never lets you forget it's there.
Welcome to Derry officially links IT to
King's Dark Tower series.
To be clear whatever link it
has was retconned by King himself decades after he finished the book something
he's actually acknowledged in a metafictional turn in Song of Susannah. But
the signs were there eventually and they are much clearer here.
In IT we are told
repeatedly that there is a guardian force known as 'The Turtle' who has been
watching over what happens in Derry. At one point in a climatic battle Bill
finally sees him and he's less help then you think: "I made the universe
but don't blame me. I had a bellyache" he 'tells' Bill. Throughout the
book you keep hearing "the Turtle couldn't help us" though none of the Losers truly understand
what they're talking about, even Mike who remembers Derry best.
So far in the series we've
seen more than our share of turtles and the writers have both been subtle and
direct about mentioning it. (It's a visual medium, okay?) We first learn of the
Turtle as one of the Guardians in Mid-World when Roland talks about the Beams in
The Wasteland and that they are starting to decay. The Beam that Roland and his band are following
is that of The Turtle. (I won't spoil anything else.) And as we all know from
that "There are other worlds then these."
But there are even subtler links
to The Dark Tower here, most notably when we were told that there are
thirteen totems that keep It in place. Now if you've read the series thirteen
is a number of significance because there are thirteen 'baubles' that have
immense magical power. Roland is told of them in Wizard and Glass by his
father: "Twelve for each of the Guardians and one for the Dark Tower
itself." And if you try to control them, they will absolutely destroy you.
The fact that the existence
of these totems is now to the indigenous people who live around Derry might
strike some as a little bit of racial stereotyping. And it is to an extent –
unless you consider this as part of The Dark Tower. Throughout the series Roland refers again and
again to ''The Old Ones' or 'The Elders'. They are the keepers of the lore of
Mid-World and they once knew all the secrets but they have been gone well past
the lifetimes of those who know them. And who is the closest equivalent of the elders
in America but the indigenous people?
Watching them discuss the cycle
that was going on as part of tribal lore was also a canon of the original book.
As Mike relates in his Interludes, the cycle is not only known to him but those
who have written histories of Derry over the decades and centuries. The knowledge has led to many of them taking
their own lives so I have to hand it to these elders: they're definitely
handling it a lot better than those Dead White Men did.
And for those of you who
wonder why would the General be trying to cage an entity that we absolutely
know can't be controlled? Well, that's canon to if you consider:
Are we seeing the Origins of
the Shop?
I speculated in my original
review that the General (James Remar) might be working in conjunction with 'The
Shop' the secret military government agency that makes appearance in quite a
few King novels over the years, most notably in Firestarter.
The General acknowledged
that a few years ago he was involved in some top secret medical testing which
stinks of the kind of thing The Shop would do in the 1960s when it starts
giving drugs to a group of college students and ends up giving them telekinetic
powers. Two of them get married and they have a child: Charlie McGee and naturally
the Shop wants to use her as a weapon. (King did come of age in the 1960s so
his distrust of the government is well-earned).
Eventually Charlie burns it
down and exposes it but as we all know in King's world nothing lasts forever.
Throughout King's fiction there are multiple references to it, most notably in The
Tommyknockers. There's a good chance if there's any military organization
that has to do with utilizing the supernatural the Shop is behind it in some
way and they will justify what they do with no conscience at all. Listening to Mrs.
Sigby's monologue justifying what The Institute has done in the TV
series earlier this year it's pretty close to the kind of thing that someone
who worked for the Shop would say.
So yes it makes perfect
sense that even knowing how horrible this thing is the Shop would want to use
it to 'end the Cold War'. What the Shop wants to do of course is actually live
up to the military industrial complex the lefties think really exists to
an extent beyond their wildest dreams. The fact that it has already led to a
spectacular loss of life will do nothing to stop them from searching for it in
later episodes, I have no doubt. This is one of those reasons they should
really have listened to Private Halloran which brings me too…
Dick Hallorann was always
in Derry at one point and he always knew the Hanlon family.
Dick Hallorann's presence in
Welcome to Derry is canon from the original novel, though the dates have
been changed. He was in the military in Derry as young man and he did know the
Hanlon family. However, since in the original book it was in 1930 no one was
treated him or Will like real Americans.
Mike Hanlon's father (in Welcome To Derry
his grandfather) desire to serve his country leads him to experience the kind of
bigotry that Welcome to Derry doesn't come close to touching on here.
(Though they very well might in the second season which is scheduled to take
place in 1935.) The base that Hanlon and Halloran are given is not a reward for
service but a kind of punishment, a middle finger to the white brass to tell
the segregated units that they are acting uppity.
Now its pretty clear that
the series is building to the event that closes the cycle and it is what does
so in 1931: the fire at the Black Spot. Now the circumstances will clearly be
different here then in the original novel but I suspect the result will be the
same: the white townspeople will learn that 'the Negros' have a base where they
are entertaining it, set fire to it and anywhere from forty to forty five
enlisted men will be killed. Dick Hallorann, however, will survive and not just
because he has a date with the Overlook in about forty years. In the original
book he uses 'The shining' to help save quite a few people including Will
Hanlon.
I should mention in the
original book Hanlon is of course a private and is essentially bullied from the
moment he gets here. Nor does he show anywhere near the lack of fear he
supposed has: he's terrified when the place burns down. And that actually
brings me to a piece of speculation I have myself…
Does Penny wise have enough
foresight to know the children who are the biggest threat to him and seek them
out?
It's essentially canon in every
source that Pennywise knows the Losers are a threat to him mainly because they
escape from IT multiple times, something none of the other victims can. The
fact that they are stronger together stuns It in both of their confrontations.
But as we see in Welcome
to Derry Pennywise has a presence in Derry that infects the entire town and
has the ability to control whatever happens to feed off both its victims and
the town itself. IT also has the ability to manipulate people to follow them to
its own ends. In every adaptation IT finds a willing acolyte in Henry Bowers
and tries to use it to negate the Losers as a threat.
So the question is: does
Pennywise have an instinct of which children are dangerous to Its existence and
has always done so. Is that the real reason that IT has been engaged in such
manipulation to kill Will in particular, who as we all know, will be the father
of the son who brings him down not once but twice?
And remember one of the
victims in the Pilot was Teddy Uris who is clearly the uncle of Stan,
one of the Losers who nearly defeats IT in 1989. That's not fan service either.
And IT clearly knows that Dick Hallorann
is a threat, perhaps not the same one as the Losers but definitely a problem.
We saw it manifest to do the same to try and take out General Shaw as a child
and with Rose and in the present both are clearly threats of some sort.
Perhaps in future seasons
the further back we go we will get confirmation of this. And that leads me to
one last question that we were all talking about last night:
Mrs. Kersh was quite the
looker when she was young!
I'm sorry but Madeline Stowe
still looks damn good for her age. Now to be serious.
I'll be honest, while Mrs. Kersh
has appeared in every version that has been filmed and is part of one of the
most shocking scenes in the original book, I've never truly thought she was
anything but a manifestation of IT. In the book we see photos of her that appear
to be erotica in 1958 Neibolt Street (and yes, they move) that turn out to be
Mrs. Kersh. But I always assumed that she was just another glamour something
that IT used to scare people when it chose. I never thought she was a human
being and I certainly didn't expect her to be played by Madeline Stowe in Welcome
to Derry.
The moment we learned who Ingrid
was, the speculation began. I have two theories, both of which are plausible.
The first is that she is just
another one of the acolytes that Pennywise has used over IT's time in Derry to
do its evil. Henry Bowers was the most famous one but in the novel it used Tom
Rogan, Bev's husband to do the same thing in the climax of the book. Many times these acolytes don't know they're
being used and in some case they are mentally unstable to begin with so that
they allow themselves to be manipulated. If Ingrid is a battered spouse (implied
but not yet confirmed) she would fit in with those solid citizens – and its
worth noting both Henry and Tom were regulated beaten by their parents.
The second, equally
realistic possible, is that she's no different from any other Derry resident and
is just being manipulated by Pennywise without knowing it. We've already seen
more examples in the series then we ever did in the film of this happening and
while its usually directly related to violence, we have to remember
Pennywise plays the very long game. Sometimes
that means citizens turning a blind eye to the horrible things that happen
under their noses and as readers of the book know, sometimes it means picking and
choosing what outrage to react against. And since its pretty much implied that Hank
Grogan's escape is going to be the domino that leads to the fire at the Black
Spot, sometimes IT doesn't have to try that hard.
We may not get confirmation
of these links until the season is over and some we might not ever get official
confirmation on unless the writers choose to tell us. What I know already is
that all of this just confirms what I said at the start: this is the Stephen
King adaptation that both I and all of the millions of Constant Readers he's
had over the last half-century have been waiting for their whole lives.
The fact that I know exactly
how this season and how every other season must end has done nothing to
negate the pleasure I'm getting from Welcome to Derry by the way. That's
the thing with every great prequel. We all know the end but more than anything
else, it's all about the journey. And King's book have a lot of great journeys.
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