IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 3 Now You See It Reveals the Chilling Truth Hiding in Plain Sight — Spoiler Recap and Review

Welcome to Derry is still wobbling on its training wheels. The kids haven’t fully clicked, the grown-ups are making everything worse for each other, and now the show is flirting with a military plan to literally weaponize fear. Episode 3, 'Now You See It,' pushes hard into lore and crossovers. Some of it works. A lot of it is... a choice.

Way back when: Shaw’s first brush with the thing under Derry

We open decades in the past with a young Francis Shaw wandering a creepy carnival. He trades his slingshot for a jar of water from a young Native American woman named Rose. Then comes a vision that sticks: blood hanging in the air like gravity forgot how to do its job. If you know IT, you know that look.

Present day: fallout and a plan

Lilly (Clara Stack) is stuck at Juniper Hill, a doctor talking through her early release while she drowns in guilt for pointing the finger at Ronnie’s dad. Hank (Stephen Rider) is having a rough time in prison. Ronnie (Amanda Christine) is radioactive at school. Lilly tracks Ronnie down in the bathroom, finally lays out what she saw at the grocery store, and they click. The new plan is simple and reckless: get a photo of whatever killed their friends.

The Army wants to bottle fear

Over at the base, now-General Francis Shaw (James Remar) is stewing about last week’s mystery car wreck and looping in General Fuller. He brings in Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) because, yes, the show is now weaving in The Shining by way of a telepath on government payroll. Leroy (Jovan Adepo) and Pauly (Rudy Mancuso) get assigned to babysit.

On a helicopter, Hallorann’s shining hits like a freight train. He’s up on his feet, rattled by a vision of bodies suspended midair. It does not inspire confidence. Later, Leroy makes the lines very clear after getting his own flash of Hallorann during a prior attack:

'Stay out of my head.'

Rose returns, and the past won’t stay buried

At a local Native community meeting, we meet the older Rose from Shaw’s carnival memory. Her son drops a bomb: the car they pulled from the wreck belonged to Al Bradley, a name tied to the 1935 massacre. That’s a deep cut the show is clearly saving for later seasons. Rose waves her son off, saying he is 'needed' elsewhere. Translation: bigger plans are in motion.

The new kids on the bikes

With Phil and Teddy out of the picture, a fresh lineup starts to coalesce. Ronnie breaks down the creature’s history and spiritual baggage, and the kids do what kids in Derry do: hop on bikes and go monster hunting to get proof on film. The night turns ugly fast — jittery, bad-CGI creatures swarm them — but Ronnie gets the shot. When they develop the roll, one image actually lands: a clown staring back.

• Lilly (Clara Stack) — fresh out of Juniper Hill, carrying guilt and a mission
• Ronnie (Amanda Christine) — isolated at school, knows the lore, gets the photo
• Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James) — part of the regrouped team
• Rich — new kid with a crush on Marge, ready to ride

So... is 'Now You See It' worth your hour?

This is the third straight episode that feels like a bridge to something the show keeps promising but won’t actually cross. The premiere faked us out, episode two finally found the core group, and now episode three veers into a full-on lore detour — tying in The Shining and layering in fresh mythology. It’s interesting in theory and tangled in practice.

The big swing that does not land: hitching IT’s legacy to a secret military program. The meaty stuff — Pennywise’s history — is stuck behind a bland government-ops storyline. The attempt to weave in Native history through the 'Gallu' also comes off murky and mishandled. Three weeks in and the show still feels like it’s looking for its North Star.

What still works are the isolated scare sequences and the moody, confident cinematography. The kid squad is promising, and their bike-out investigation is the episode’s best stretch — even if the whole thing plays like a budget Stranger Things riff instead of carving out its own identity. Not the worst hour the series could deliver, but it’s already settling into a shrug it doesn’t deserve. Fine background watch; harder and harder to care.

When and where

Welcome to Derry premiered on Friday, October 26 on HBO. 'Now You See It' aired on November 9.