Written by Austin Guzman
Directed by Andy Muschietti
Leroy: "What exactly are we looking for?"
General Shaw: "Something that was buried in Derry a long time ago."
Following that brutal opening episode, it was to be expected that things wouldn't let up for the actual survivors of that mutant baby encounter. Things just went from bad to worse for both Lilly and Ronnie and they didn't even have each other to depend on.
For Lilly, her sanity was questioned again and again. Her so called friend Marge (Matilda Lawlor) was more desperate to retain her new found popularity than trying to help a clearly traumatised Lilly. Even Lilly's own mother seemed more desperate to send her back to Juniper Hill than to actually help.
It also didn't help that Lilly and Ronnie couldn't even help each other. Due to the era in question, Ronnie's father ended up being a suspect for the murdered kids and Lilly was tricked into confirming their biases towards poor Hank.
I knew with this time setting that racism would naturally factor into things. Hank was targeted for his race and there's one teacher in the episode who seemed to extra unkind towards both Ronnie and Leroy's son, Will (Blake Cameron James). At least both Will and Ronnie managed to strike up a friendship while Lilly had the worst of spooky encounters in a supermarket.
Pivoting back to the Hanlons, not only did Leroy figure out that it was General Shaw who organised the attack on him in order to test him but it turned out that spoiler was true. It looks like the government are actually daft enough to try and use Pennywise as a weapon in the Cold War. I can only imagine how much of a disaster that's going to be. Oh and the car with Matt and that family from the first episode was dredged up.
Leroy and his family had a lot of focus this episode. We got to meet Leroy's wife, Charlotte (Taylour Paige). Already she's a brilliant character, who's more than willing to stick her neck out to fight against anything wrong. That did seem to put Charlotte and Leroy at odds but they're still the only stable couple on the show this far.
- I like the opening titles but I'm hating this tradition of them being introduced in the second episode. Too many shows are doing this these days.
- We got another freaky birth sequence this episode as well as Lilly's nightmare visions of her father. Native Americans were watching Dick Halloran helping the army in the woods.
- Standout music: Patience and Prudence's A Smile And A Ribbon.
- Chronology: Not long from where the first episode left off.
The Thing In The Dark certainly proved the first episode wasn't a fluke. It was a strong follow up with plenty of gross moments. Lily, Ronnie and the Hanlons are definitely the glue and I'm curious to see how the main plot will unfold.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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