The premiere of IT: Welcome to Derry was not only jaw-dropping and stomach-churning in its gore and horror, but also in the sheer number of characters it was willing to axe right out the gate. Truly, Game of Thrones walked so that IT: Welcome to Derry could run like those kids from Weapons — fast, furious, and towards hellish fates.
That shocking ending from the first episode set a clear warning to fans: Don't get too attached. Pennywise is coming for the kids of Derry, our attachments be damned.
Sorry to all those who suspected Teddy (Mikkal Karim-Fidler), Phil (Jack Molloy Legault), and little sister Susie (Matilda Legault) would be the start of a Losers Club for the series. We’d just warmed up to their comically chaotic chemistry, but by the end of episode one, all that was left of them were blood stains in the movie theater and a tiny dismembered arm, with big ol' bite marks at the elbow.
But hey, episode two introduces new kids for Lilly (Clara Stack) and Ronnie (Amanda Christine) to befriend in their fight against Pennywise. However, one of this group may already be doomed by a clue from the IT movies.
Spoilers ahead for IT: Welcome to Derry, episode 2.
Ronnie is our favorite, but she might well be doomed to die.
From the cold open of IT: Welcome to Derry, Ronnie's been a good egg. At the movie theater, she saw Matty (Miles Ekhardt) hiding from the overearnest usher who chased him out of The Music Man. She did him a good deed by turning the usher in the wrong direction. However, after Matty goes missing, Ronnie's dad, who works as a projectionist at the theater, is implicated in his disappearance because of anti-Black racism. By episode 2, she's fearful (to the point of a truly harrowing mother-daughter scene) that her dad will be framed not only for Matty's presumed death, but for those of Teddy, Phil, and Susie as well
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But let's talk about her nightmare mom. Where the other kids cower when confronted with their worst fears made all too real by Pennywise's powers, Ronnie battles back. She tears her way out of that suffocating womb. She doesn't flee the twisted version of her mother that declares her a bringer of death. She fights. When that womb tries to reclaim her with Pennywise-like teeth, she uses her own teeth to tear through a ropey umbilical cord to break free.
Ronnie is a warrior, for herself and her father. She pushes Lilly to talk to the police about that night in the theater, so Lilly can clear her father's name. Well, that goes horrendously awry. And Ronnie's not going to let that lie. She storms to Lilly's house, pounds on that door, and shouts at Lilly's mother before calling her out, "WHAT DID YOU DO, LILLY BAINBRIDGE?"
Ronnie is facing not only the carnivorous clown, but also fair-weather friends, and the systemic racism that would gladly sacrifice her only living parent so that the white folks of Derry can continue to look the other way. Rightfully and righteously, she rages against all of it, calling "bullshit" and winning our hearts. But here's the part where I warn you: She's marked to die by Pennywise's hand.
The clue to Ronnie's fate lies in the movie IT.
Okay, look. The whole thing with IT is that Pennywise the Dancing Clown terrorizes kids, then gobbles them up like popcorn. IT: Welcome to Derry being a prequel suggests that Lilly, Ronnie, and their new friends won't succeed in defeating Pennywise for good — if only because both IT and IT: Chapter Two and Welcome to Derry are canonically linked through continuity, Easter eggs, and filmmakers Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti. But that Pennywise will rise again doesn't mean all of these kids will die. So why am I so convinced Ronnie will? One single word in IT: Veronica.
Think back on the bathroom scene in IT, in which Beverly hears voices down the sink drain before an eruption of hair and blood assaults her. Three voices call her name. "We all want to meet you, Beverly. We all float down here," they say in a creepy sing-song voice. Naturally, Beverly asks "Who are you?"
The voices answer. One says she's Betty Ripsom, the little girl from the missing posters plastered on telephone polls. Another says Patrick Hockstetter, the friend of bully Henry Bowers who got picked off by Pennywise by this point in the film. And then the third voice says simply, "Veronica."
This is the only time the name "Veronica" is spoken in IT. So while she might be another kid from that cycle, she might also be Ronnie, whose full name is spoken by her father in episode 2: Veronica Grogan.
Now, Pennywise is a liar. He mimics all kinds of people and things, living and dead. So maybe it means nothing. But as for me, I'm more worried about Ronnie's chances than I was at the end of episode one.
The second episode of IT: Welcome to Derry will premiere Friday, Oct. 31 at 3 a.m. ET on HBO Max.
New episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max,
