WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for It and It: Welcome to Derry.
Fans of Stephen King’s 1986 novel, It, know that the tiny town of Derry, Maine, has been troubled for a very long time. The story follows a group of outcast friends who call themselves the Losers’ Club as they battle a shapeshifting monster known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, first as tweens before returning as adults to finish the job.
Though King’s novel unfolds in these parallel timelines, the story is punctuated by a series of Interludes as librarian and Loser Mike Hanlon collects information about the monster’s past seasons of destruction. Created by Jason Fuchs and Andy & Barbara Muschietti, the HBO series It: Welcome to Derry brings these Interludes to life, perpetually cycling back towards the origin of the Entity.
Nearly one year after concluding the show’s blockbuster first season, Fuchs and the Muschiettis dropped a surprise for fans. Premiering on Halloween, the thirty-minute “A Story of Derry” serves as its own interlude while expanding on the show’s most mysterious lore. In addition to a new band of brave Losers, season one sees Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) use his “shining” abilities to peer into the mind of an indigenous man named Taniel (Joshua Odjick) who has grown up hearing about the Galloo, the Wabanaki name for the nebulous creature. Episode four concludes with an extended flashback in which we see It crash land as a falling star.
Next, we’re introduced to a brave warrior named Sesqui (Morningstar Angeline) of the Wabanaki tribe whose wisest members have discovered a way to fight the Kollu. Using shards of the star in which It fell to Earth, they can repel the creature in all Its forms. One masked man brandishes a makeshift blade made of the onyx-like substance that glows with red symbols in the monster’s presence. We also learn that after Sesqui’s noble death, her daughter Necani (Kiawentiio) collected thirteen pieces of this cosmic container and buried them deep within the earth. These “pillars” became a perimeter trapping It to the western woods, a dense forest which the Losers will one day call the Barrens.
“A Story of Derry” shows us an expanded version of this tale, presented from the perspective of those who lived it rather than a legend passed down through generations. Some of the details and names are slightly different, and an opening title card informs viewers that this is the secret truth the Wabanaki do not teach. The story begins as Neekani and her friends Kino (Isabel Deroy-Olson) and Maneese (Michael Podemski-Bedard) venture into the dreaded woods, determined to hunt and kill the monster to protect the land they call home.
Like the eventual Losers’ Club, they encounter It in the guise of their worst fear: a horde of diseased settlers. Just before It can devour them, an unlikely hero springs into action. We remember this “wise” warrior from Taniel’s story and finally get to see his face. However, “A Story of Derry” will reveal a disturbing truth.
After sending the monster away with his powerful blade, the warrior removes his mask and introduces himself. Mitig (Zahn McClarnon) is the lone survivor of a hunting party who originally tried to kill the Kollu. As he takes them to his camp, the friendly man recounts how It appeared as a giant bull moose and used its razor-sharp antlers to kill his friends. However, when Maneese excuses himself from the campfire, he finds bodies littered around the camp, throwing Mitig’s story into question. What’s more, Maneese fears that the meat they have been served is actually human flesh, cut from the bodies of the warrior’s victims.
While director Tazbah Chavez leaves the salacious facts to our imaginations, this fleeting bit of cannibalism reminds us of a dangerous hike through the Maine woods in another of King’s most frightening tales. The 1983 novel Pet Sematary follows the destruction of Louis Creed and his young family as they’re influenced by a powerful force in the extensive woods behind their house. While trekking through the dangerous terrain and carrying the corpse of his daughter’s cat, Louis hears a monstrous creature pass nearby and a hideous face hovering just inches in front of his own.
As doom hangs over his head, Louis learns that the indigenous Miꞌkmaq people stopped using the ritual burial ground that lies behind the quaint Pet Sematary because they believed it to be cursed by the Wendigo. Now anyone interred in the unhallowed ground will rise again, possessed by a malevolent spirit with a taste for human flesh. Algonquian legend describes the Wendigo as a sinister spirit capable of turning its victims into cannibals. Often pictured as an emaciated beast with jagged antlers, this could be the inspiration for the form It takes when attacking Mitig and his hunting party, thus explaining Mitig’s monstrous dietary turn. Or perhaps this dangerous man is merely the first in a long line of untrustworthy adults who inhabit the land that will become Derry, Maine.
In addition to this sinister cannibal, McClarnon has another connection to the Stephen King world. Fans of Mike Flanagan’s 2019 adaptation of King’s Doctor Sleep will recognize the indigenous actor as Crow Daddy, lover of Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) and second in command to her group of ageless energy vampires. Outwardly charming, Crow Daddy proves instrumental in luring children into danger as Rose and her followers feed on the pain of “shining” kids. Here McClarnon plays another friendly face whose kindness hides a horrific secret. But before Mitig’s cannibalistic turn, this beguiling character will introduce one of King’s most powerful figures.
Moments after saving their lives, Mitig tells Neekani and her friends that the turtle has “smiled on” them. He will go on to explain that in a cosmic battle for dominance, the titanic protector known as Marutin banished to Earth the entity who would come to be known as Pennywise. We watch as a massive ball of fire crashes into the western woods. King describes only this falling star, witnessed in a smoke-induced hallucination, while leaving the cause open for speculation.
Loser Bill Denbrough will encounter this mysterious god as he engages in the Ritual of Chüd, a metaphysical battle of wits with Pennywise in his unknowable form. As Bill rushes towards a comforting shape, King writes, “The eyes of the Turtle were kind. Bill thought it must be the oldest thing anyone could imagine, older by far than It, which had claimed to be eternal.” Appearing as a gargantuan turtle, Bill describes Maturin’s shell, “plated with many blazing colors,” and his toenails, “they were an odd bluish-yellow color, and he could see galaxies swimming in each one.” Bill also learns that Maturin accidentally created the universe in the midst of a cosmic bellyache. When asked for help against Pennywise, Maturin insists, “I take no stand in these matters.” However, this benevolent god becomes a reassuring figure throughout the novel and subsequent adaptations.
During the Ritual of Chüd, Bill intuits the true scope of Maturin’s powers. “The Turtle spoke in Bill’s head, and Bill understood somehow that there was yet Another, and that Final Other dwelt in a void beyond this one. This Final Other was, perhaps, the creator of the Turtle, which only watched, and It, which only ate. This Other was a force beyond the universe, a power beyond all other power, the author of all there was.” King is likely referring to Gan, an almighty figure in King’s Dark Tower saga.
While Maturin may have accidentally vomited up our universe, Gan is the creator of the multiverse that the turtle carries on its back. In King’s 1991 novel The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, we learn that in addition to this burden, Maturin is one of twelve guardians of the Beams, magical bands that converge to hold up the Dark Tower, a physical manifestation of Gan and the nexus of all known realities.
Considering his cosmic pedigree, it’s fascinating and a bit humorous to hear Mitig casually ask Neekani if she wants “to talk to him?” Blowing smoke rings, the devious warrior explains that through conversations with Maturin, he discovered Its extraterrestrial casing and a method for warding the creature away. He now reveres the shapeshifting monster as an alternate god and offers It human sacrifices, likely feeding on the leftover corpses. While fleeing the camp, Kino pauses to grab a bit of the root Mitig is smoking to later study in her training as a healer.
We see that after Sesqui’s noble death, she ingests this substance herself and hallucinates her own conversation with the galactic creature. As a result of this encounter, she, Neekani, and Maneese discover the location of Its fallen star, allowing them to create the pillars that define Its hunting ground.
Though Chavez refrains from explicitly connecting these dots, the plant Kino takes from Mitig’s camp will likely become known as Maturin Root, used by Taniel and his beloved Aunt Rose (Kimberly Guerrero) to connect with their ancestral deities. Throughout season one, we’ve seen the kind woman track the beginning of It’s 1962 cycle of death while watching an old friend use military force to set It free.
We understand that though the Losers may fight Pennywise throughout their lives, Rose belongs to a much longer lineage. “A Story of Derry” ends with Neekani naming her own group of brave tweens “the Children of Maturin.” We can now assume she is the origin of Rose’s group of indigenous elders dedicated to protecting the world from Pennywise.
