Lily discovers the truth about Ingrid. Ronnie is reunited with her dad and Halloran realises just how much trouble he’s in.

There’s a moment early in this episode where Leroy is, entirely understandably, yelling at Will. He steps across a line and for the first time, Will pushes back, hard. He calls his dad out on the hypocrisy of hiding his family on base after years of teaching Will that ‘men’ face their problems.

And Leroy hits him.

It’s horrible. The slap sounds like a punch, Leroy is horrified, Will is furious and betrayed and we’re under ten minutes in. Will runs out, screaming about how his father has been infected by the evil in the town too and you can’t help but agree.

The bruised peace of mind Will finds and the cautious way he grows around the trauma become the topography of the episode. We get a string of sweet moments as Richie (Arian S. Cartaya) and Marge (Matilda Lawler) bond in an impossibly sweet way that finally puts Marge on the right team. Ronnie (Amanda Christine) is reunited with her dad Hank (Stephen Rider) and gets closer to Will and Charlotte Hanlon (Taylour Page) forcibly reads her family in on what’s going on. There are guttering flames of hope everywhere in an episode shot through with sweetness and light even as the clouds gather.

But then you get moments like Richie’s toy plane gliding into the sewer and the clouds just keep on gathering. Lilly (Clara Bainbridge on uncommonly good form even for her usual excellent standards) meets with Ingrid Kersh (Madeline Stowe) and finds out the truth just as we do; Pennywise is her father, and she thinks she can save him. In fact, Ingrid has been manipulating the kids and observing them trying to ‘wake’ her dad up.

The horror of this is self-apparent and Lily cycling away from Ingrid’s house with a bloody palm print on her back, literally screaming with grief and horror and betrayal is one of the darkest moments of the episode. But the more you think about it the more you realise what a peculiarly Derry tragedy this is. Because we first see Ingrid meet Pennywise in a Sin City-style flashback where the only colour is the red of balloons and blood and we see the moment where she calls Pennywise ‘Papa’ and he doesn’t recognise her.

Until he does.

Bill Skarsgard’s a phenomenal actor but one of the core problems with this story is that the idea, and shadow, of Pennywise, are often more frightening than he is. Which is why the scenes here as ‘Bob Gray’ work so well, as Skarsgard shows us this monstrous entity wearing a skin, and a need, to get even more of what it can never have enough of. Gorging on fear and horror by inspiring atrocity through distended familial love.

It’s a brilliant idea that ties so much together. It doesn’t care about Ingrid as anything besides a light on the end of a fishing pole and the only power she has over It is convenience. It was Ingrid outside Will’s house. It was Ingrid in the photo. Playing with her master’s food even as she unknowingly tenderises herself.

We’re still reeling from this when the episode ends with the local racists (bookended with a horrible shotgun curdled Norman Rockwell sequence at the start), showing up to burn the Black Spot to the ground. We know this happens. We know so many people die. We know Will and Ronnie and Marge and Richie are just getting together. We know Halloran can barely function now he’s seeing ghosts again. Everyone is in the wrong place at the right time for Pennywise and next episode is going to be the darkest yet. Even if we know the light is coming.

For all the massively impressive beats here there’s a surprising amount that doesn’t work. Lily runs out of a classroom holding a glowing rock and no one comments. Richie is suddenly a drum genius. There’s a joke where the Black Spot barman basically spikes Richie and Marge’s drinks which plays very strangely.

Verdict: Even aside from those weird beats there’s a lot of good (and horrible) stuff here. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart