The latest episode of IT: Welcome to Derry delivered its most spine-tingling moment yet when Will Hanlon’s graveyard photograph revealed a blurred but unmistakable image of a clown lurking in the shadows. After a harrowing cemetery seance gone wrong, the new Losers’ Club finally captured their first physical evidence of Pennywise’s presence in 1962 Derry, setting up what promises to be an explosive second half of the season.
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IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 3 Key Details
| Episode Info | Details |
|---|---|
| Episode Title | “Now You See It” |
| Major Reveal | Photograph of Pennywise in cemetery crypt |
| New Losers’ Club | Will Hanlon, Lilly Bainbridge, Ronnie Grogan, Rich Santos |
| Key Character | Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) – psychic with “the shine” |
| Historical Flashback | 1908 – Young Francis Shaw’s encounter with IT |
| Streaming | HBO Max |
The Photograph That Changed Everything
During a desperate attempt to prove Ronnie’s father Hank innocent of the theater massacre, the kids conducted a seance in Derry’s cemetery, hoping to capture photographic evidence of supernatural activity. In the chaos, Will became separated from his friends and stumbled into a crypt, where he instinctively snapped a photograph of a looming figure in shadows.
When the film was developed in the school’s darkroom, a blurred image emerged that unmistakably resembled a clown with glowing eyes piercing through the celluloid. Will’s chilling declaration, “It’s a clown,” confirmed what they all feared most: Pennywise has returned to terrorize Derry once again.
Dick Hallorann’s Terrifying Vision
Parallel to the kids’ investigation, psychic airman Dick Hallorann was instructed by General Francis Shaw to identify the source of paranormal occurrences plaguing Derry. Upon touching an old slingshot that once injured the entity, Hallorann’s psychic abilities activated, plunging him into a nerve-twisting vision of Pennywise’s occult domain.
In this trance state, he found himself deep underground surrounded by drifting corpses, broken toys, and a wagon with “Pennywise” scrawled on its side. From the shadows, glowing eyes appeared, and a mechanical face slowly emerged asking, “Who are you?” The vision was so intense that Hallorann nearly fell from the military helicopter mid-flight out of sheer terror.
The 1908 Connection: General Shaw’s Childhood Trauma
Episode 3 opened with a flashback to 1908, showing young Francis Shaw’s friendship with a Native American girl named Rose and their encounter with IT, which appeared not as a clown but as an old, creepy man at a carnival sideshow. This traumatic childhood experience explains why the now-General Shaw has returned to Derry decades later, claiming to search for a weapon to end the Cold War but actually seeking to find and destroy the monster that terrified him as a child.
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Is That Really Pennywise?
Showrunners Brad Caleb Kane and Jason Fuchs have remained cryptic about whether the clown in the photograph is actually Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise. Kane teased, “I do think it’s Pennywise. It’s absolutely Pennywise… We’ll have to see what happens in the latter half of the season.”
The creators’ deliberate ambiguity suggests audiences may be encountering an earlier form of the dancing clown or another manifestation of IT’s shapeshifting powers. Pennywise’s proper introduction has been confirmed for later in the eight-episode season, likely around episode 5, as producers want to treat him as “a very unpredictable character” whose delayed debut maintains his terrifying impact.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was in the photograph at the end of IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 3?
The photograph revealed a blurred but unmistakable image of a clown lurking in the shadows of a cemetery crypt. Will Hanlon accidentally captured this image while fleeing from ghostly apparitions during the kids’ seance. When developed, the photo showed glowing eyes and a clown-like figure, confirming the presence of what appears to be Pennywise in 1962 Derry, marking the first physical evidence of the entity’s return.
When will Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise officially appear in Welcome to Derry?
According to executive producers Andy and Barbara Muschietti, Pennywise’s full debut is delayed until later in the eight-episode season, likely around episode 5. The creators are intentionally withholding the dancing clown’s appearance to maintain his terrifying unpredictability, comparing the strategy to how Jaws treated its shark. Stephen King has hyped Pennywise’s eventual Welcome to Derry introduction as “scary as hell,” suggesting his return will be worth the wait.
