IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 2: Operation Precept Unmasked — Decoding That Chilling Ending

Episode 2 of IT: Welcome to Derry does not ease in. The show goes full tilt into Stephen King deep-lore and Cold War paranoia, pulls a major character from The Shining into the mix, and turns the screws on the new kids with a couple of truly messed-up sequences. It is 1962, the mood is ugly, and the government is trying to turn a fear-eating clown into a national security asset. Sure. Why not.

The government’s plan: Operation Precept

General Francis Shaw (James Remar) is running a covert program called Operation Precept, and his pitch is simple in the worst way: locate the thing beneath Derry and use it. He does not know what It actually is, but he believes its power can be bent toward two goals: weaponize the entity to terrify America’s enemies and build a defense against a potential Soviet nuclear strike. In his mind, this is how you get ahead in the arms race.

For that, Shaw wants someone immune to fear. Enter Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), who suffered damage to his amygdala and cannot process fear like the rest of us. Shaw tested Hanlon’s limits last week; this week, he makes the recruitment official. It is a chilling idea: point a fearless soldier at a creature that feeds on fear and see who blinks first.

Hallorann at the dig, and the bodies in the ground

Shaw’s team is not flying blind. Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) — yes, that Dick Hallorann from The Shining — is using his psychic sensitivity to track the thing under the town. He is positioned as a key part of the operation, effectively connecting the series to King’s larger universe while giving the military a supernatural bloodhound.

The episode’s final beat lands at the excavation site, where the search turns grisly. Hallorann and the crew uncover a buried car packed with four skeletons dating back to the early 20th century — a clear nod to Derry lore about the Bradley Gang. Whether you chalk those remains up to Pennywise’s influence or the town’s own rot (in King’s world those are often the same thing), it is a neon sign that Derry has been feeding the dark for a very long time.

Meanwhile, the kids are barely hanging on

The fallout from the theater massacre continues to shred the new crop of Losers. Lilly is haunted by what she saw — classmates torn apart — and she refuses to tell authorities anything meaningful because she is terrified they will lock her up again. In a suffocating grocery store sequence, It boxes her in and forces her to relive a visit from her father’s dismembered corpse, a death the show laid out back in Episode 1. It is cruel, calculated, and exactly how Pennywise operates.

Ronnie’s nightmare is even more visceral: her supposedly dead mother appears, gives birth to Ronnie, and blames her for her death. And then you see It’s eyes staring out from inside the womb. Subtle, this is not — but it is effective, especially as a horror-mirror of a very real 1960s fear: childbirth was more dangerous, and survivor’s guilt like Ronnie’s could fester for years.

Fear is the fuel, and 1962 is a powder keg

The show leans hard into the era’s ugliness. Racism is not subtext; it is everywhere — harassment, gawking, arrests. Ronnie’s father is wrongly accused of the theater murders because that is what Derry and 1962 America too often did. Meanwhile, Shaw is spiraling about losing the Cold War, and that panic becomes institutional policy. All of that fear — personal, social, existential — is exactly what Pennywise feeds on, which makes Derry the perfect buffet for a monster like this.

• Episode title: The Thing in the Dark
• Original air date: October 31, 2025
• Director: Andy Muschietti
• Writer: Austin Guzman (screenplay), based on the novel by Stephen King
• Setting: Derry, 1962, at the height of the Cold War
• Main cast: James Remar (General Francis Shaw), Chris Chalk (Dick Hallorann), Jovan Adepo (Major Leroy Hanlon), plus the new Losers
• Key players: Major Leroy Hanlon (cannot feel fear due to amygdala damage), Dick Hallorann (psychic), General Shaw (Operation Precept)
• Themes: Fear as power source, military manipulation, Cold War panic, racial and social tension
• Ending highlight: A buried car holding four skeletons tied to the early-1900s Bradley Gang — a breadcrumb to Derry’s deeper, blood-soaked history
• Stephen King connection: Dick Hallorann bridges this series to The Shining and the broader King universe
• Military plot thread: Operation Precept — a covert plan to harness Pennywise as both weapon and deterrent
• Where to watch: IT: Welcome to Derry is streaming on HBO Max
• What’s next: Episode 3 drops November 9, 2025, on HBO Max in the U.S.

Two episodes in, the show is not shy about the big swing: mash Cold War brinkmanship with King’s cosmic nightmare and let the worst of 1962 America stoke the monster. It is nasty, ambitious, and increasingly locked into the larger mythology — which is exactly where this story lives best.