ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 3 Breakdown - Stephen King Easter Eggs You Missed!

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

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These are all the Easter eggs references and little things you might have missed and welcome to Dairy episode three. Now You See It. Hey, welcome back to Screen Crush. I'm Colton Ogburn. And man, is it getting real? Now as the kids and the military both get closer to uncovering It, an encounter that I'm afraid just cannot end well. So we open with a flashback to 1908, Derry, Maine. Now, 1908 is 54 years prior to 1962, which is when the main story of this season is taking place. 54 divided by 2 is 27, and we know that it reemerges every 27 years for its feeding cycle. So 1908 is two cycles prior to the current 1962 cycle and one cycle prior to the later mentioned 1935 cycle with the Bradley Gang Massacre, which we'll dive into here shortly. So it turns out that young Francis Shaw spent time as a child in Derry, Maine.

This series and the It films and even the book are all about lineage, systemic trauma, and how history repeats itself. Not only does IT reemerge every 27 years to feed on the people of Derry, but we see a theme of familial systemic burdens as well, with family trees having encounters with IT. For example, the Hanlins, Leroy Hanlon, Will Hanlon, and Losers Club member Mike Hanlon will all fight it. We're also seeing this with the Bowers.

We have Chief Bowers, Butch Bowers, and Henry Bowers. There's also Teddy Euris and Stan Uris. The story of It and Dairy is really a commentary on growing up and leaving your small town or staying there for the rest of your life and never leaving. Now, if you're from a small town, you know what I'm talking about. Some people want to get the hell out of town the second they graduate and never come back, whereas others are content in staying in their hometown and dying in the same place they were born. Both options, by the way, are totally fine. I mean, I left my hometown when I was like 20 and then I came back a year later

because I miss my mom. But with It and Derry, they're telling a story of those who are and who aren't able to escape the cycle of staying in Derry and doing what their daddy did and what their daddy did before them or going your own path in life. And this story is told through reoccurring themes of abuse with the Bowers, reoccurring themes of systemic racism with the handlands. There's also Rose, who is a descendant of the Shikapua people, and their generation's long battle with the entity of it. And there's also Shaw, who we see has followed in his daddy's footsteps and join the military, climb the ranks, and where did it lead him? Right back to Derry. So Shaw's father was in the military and he often moved all around the country.

While in Derry, he and his father attended this circus slash carnival-style events, similar to the ones we've seen take place throughout Derry's history. Such as here in this frame photo of Bob Gray and his daughter, Mrs. Kirsch, in It Chapter 2, both of these characters being facades of It, and it was also in It Chapter 2 that we see this more modern carnival taking place and Pennywise lurking just outside the grounds. So as Shaw walks around, we see this game where you throw balls, to knock down these clowns and turtles. These clowns are of course in reference to Pennywise the dancing clown and the turtle is in reference to Maturin the cosmic turtle, the creator of

the universe and the polar opposite of it. Now Maturin is a being from the book that has been teased throughout this series with Lily's Turtle charm and of course the duck and cover birth the turtle. Now here in the background we see a clown with red balloons and very similar face paint to Pennywise. Now I don't think this clown was Pennywise but I do think she is who inspired inspired Pennywise's look. And she may even be an eventual victim of Pennywise. We know that when Pennywise eats somebody, he keeps that person in his arsenal to scare others for years to come. So perhaps the persona of Pennywise was inspired by this clown. And at the end of the episode, in fact, when the kids are reviewing their developed pictures, they see a clown. And this clown

looks more like the clown from the beginning of the episode than it does Pennywise. So here we see a portrait of the various circus performers with their eccentric appearances and abilities that very likely also inspire its many forms, such as contortion. Contortion being something that Pennywise has used many times throughout the films, and even in this episode, when he takes on the appearance of what's called the skeleton man, who we can also see here on the portrait of performers. So Francis enters this tent, and as he walks around, we keep seeing in the background the reappearance of yellow, boca-style orbs of light, created by the lantern, as well as holes in the walls with sunlight bleeding through.

And I think these are meant to resemble the lurking yellow eyes of It and how It is watching Francis. Throughout the It novel, Its eyes are described as yellow lights, which are a connection to its truest form, The Deadlights. In the series intro for Welcome to Dairy, we see several examples of these piercing yellow eyes. We've also seen these eyes in Ronnie's encounter with It in her bedroom, and we see them again later in this episode when Dick Halloran and Pennywise come face to face.

Now it's also in this tent that we see these conjoined twins, which is kind of a staple when it comes to the circus freak trope, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the possibility of this being another nod to the Shining and its infamous Grady twins. Come play with us. Oh, thank you. Oh, what's that for? I'm taking a photo of this receipt so I can earn $5 off a tank of gas. And I'm doing this with the free Upside app, one of the best sponsors we work with here on the channel. Upside gets you cash back on daily essentials like gas, groceries, and restaurants. This app has more than 100,000 businesses,

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Michietti being the creator of this show, as well as the two it movies. Now after Francis' encounter with the skeleton man, that fear is supplanted in his mind and then used by Pennywise later on in the woods. Again, Pennywise is always watching and exploring your mind for your greatest fear. So Francis runs away and he runs into his father where he is then gifted with a slingshot. A slingshot he would later trade for water when he meets Rose for the first time. Now, Francis and Rose become friends and they play together in the fields, and when they encounter it in the woods, Rose uses this slingshot to hit it.

Slingshots have been used to fight it in the book, as well as here in the it miniseries. And I also love the attention to detail when we see it bleed. The blood doesn't drip. It floats, just like we've seen in the films. And of course, they all float. I also liked how they showed that Rose and her people are aware of the entity, because they are descendants of the Shikapua people. They are natives to Derry before Dairy was even called Derry. And in a way, when Pennywise awoke for the first time, we kind of get the first

territorial dispute between the Native Americans, and arguably you could say Pennywise is native to that area because he crash landed there like a million years ago before humans even existed. And as we'll talk about here shortly, I think that it's going to be clear that it and the Shikapua people have developed somewhat of a like, You stay there, we'll stay here, never the two shall meet. You know, kind of like a bit of a truce. And of course what I'm talking about the Shokapiawa people, remember they are the Native American tribe that Mike studied and actually met with in Itchapter 2.

They live outside of Dairy beyond its reach. With NC Francis pursued by It and Rose goes in to help him. It is in his skeleton man form and this is very reminiscent of the form that it takes on to scare Stanley in It Chapter 1 and the distorted, lanky form of Mrs. Kirsch in It Chapter 2. It's also here that we see It's teeth and familiar bite that we've seen It take on when in the form of Pennywise, not only in the films that are connected to this universe's version of the story, but also in the miniseries from the 90s. Now, you'll notice that it is unable to leave the woods. We even hear Shaw Ask Rose's why that is later when we flash back again to 1908. But we never hear Rose's answer. But I'm going to take a guess. I think it's either because those woods represent an edge or border that it cannot cross.

after all, that Shaw and Halloran are looking for artifacts that surround its crash site, and maybe beyond those artifacts is the point that the entity of it cannot go beyond, because that is him getting too far from his home base, where you could say his true self, his entity, his life force resides. After all, that is where we see its heart in Itchapter 2. But maybe the Shikapewa people have buried artifacts that have had an association with it and its many feeding cycles over the years, such as the car from the Bradley Gang Massacre. Maybe these artifacts are buried in certain places creating a containment field of sorts for it. And maybe Shaw knows about this because Rose tells him about it, and we just haven't seen that scene happen yet, and that's really how Shaw

knows that he needs to look for these artifacts and how he knows that it will be at the center. Now, the Shikapia people could be doing this so that it cannot venture beyond dairy and feed on a wider population. The Shikapia people couldn't beat it. so they opted to contain it. And this theory of the Shikapua people being connected to the burial of the Bradley Gang car is supported later in the episode at the council meeting when Rose is told about Al Bradley's car being found buried in sacred lands. It was Al Bradleys from 35.

Oh, and my nephew told me to mention this Easter egg. On Francis' dad's license plate, we see 6-7 a reference to the youth that Pennywise feeds on. I don't know, sounds cool. So we then jump forward back to 1962 at Juniper Hill, where Lily had been dropped off at the end of the previous episode following her own little episode in the grocery store. Now, I was actually anticipating that we would see Lily spend some time at Juniper Hill, Juniper Hill, Juniper Hill being a staple of the Stephen King universe and a notoriously wicked asylum. But we don't see her there for long. She's now being picked up by her mom. And we hear this doctor allude to the fact that if Lily has to be brought back again, that they're going to have to try something more permanent.

and he is referring to the scientifically debunked brain procedure known as a lobotomy that we actually have seen being performed here in the intro in Juniper Hill. We then jump over to the Dairy Jail where Hank is being held as a suspect for the missing children. Chief Bowers comes in to visit and he offers Hank a pall-mull cigarette as part of his plan to get Hank to admit that he prefers Embassy Golds. In the discussion, we hear mention of James Coburn and Lee Marvin, both of which were actors of this era and were known for their tough guy persona. And yes, in their little debate, Hank is right, it was Lee Marvin who did the Palm Mall commercials.

Hi, I'm Lee Marvin for Pelnell, famous cigarettes. My cigarette. So Bowers then says, You know what they do to kitty killers in Shawshank? Shawshank, of course, being a reference to another of Stephen King's works, the Shawshank Redemption, a great little novella, but an even better movie. Shawshank Prison is mentioned in many of King's books, such as Needful Things, Dolores Clareborn, Four Past Midnight, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, the IT novel and Under the Dome. So Bowers goes on to tell Hank that he found that box of golds on Jackson Street after a report from a woman saying

that she saw Hank walking Jackson Street the same night as the murders. Now Jackson Street is the street on which Georgie will be killed 27 years from now in It Chapter 1 and that is also where he was killed in the book. So I'm anxious to see what connection they've got brewing there. Now we all know that Hank wasn't the one

that killed those kids at the movie theater, but there is something Hank seems to be lying The question is, though, what was he doing that night on Jackson Street and why is he hiding it? I'd love to hear your theories down in the comments below. Now, one of my favorite lines from this episode is when Rich says that police can't just arrest people for no reason. And then we hear Will ask him if they live in the same country. A reminder of the difference in experience for a black person in the 60s.

A lot of this season has focused on themes of race and the prejudices in the 60s, especially in a town like Derry. But it also reminds us how its presence. because beneath Dairy amplifies things like prejudice because it amplifies hate. Hate creates fear, which Pennywise feeds on. And fear is created both within the hate-e, but also within the hate-er. Now here on Ronnie's locker, we see that one of the little paddy-cake shits is written in lipstick on her locker, hatchet, Hank's gun-of-fry,

try alluding to the use of the electric chair when given the death penalty, which could be a nod to another of King's Works, the Green Mile, a story about death row that features the electric chair. Now, this writing in red lipstick could also be a nod to the red rum scene in The Shining. Red Rum! Red Rum! So when Lily and Ronnie reunite to prove Hank's innocence, they hatched their plan to get a picture of It. And when discussing how they'll get the picture developed, they mention the Keene Drugstore, the same drugstore from the book and the movies.

So back over at the military base, they're reviewing the car that they dug up in the previous episode, and Shaw says that what they're looking for, that being it, was buried in dairy, 300 years before the automobile was even invented. So if the automobile was invented in 1885, subtract 30 years, that's 1585. Now the first documented case of its attacks on dairy residents was in the early 1700s, but we know that it attacked natives of the area before even that. But it would also appear that Shaw doesn't know that the IT entity landed on Earth more than a million years ago before humanity even existed. And Shaw is likely getting this 300 years before for 1885 number from the stories that he has heard from Rose about her ancestors

encounters with It. And hey guys, I am so excited to show you this exclusive It parody merch that we designed for our merch store. We have this map of the dairy sewer system featuring Pennywise as Pac-Man or you could get your official Losers Club membership shirt. There's also the IT department, the overlooked maze, and this carpet pattern from the shining and if you look close you'll see that red rum is hidden in the pattern. We also have this Life of a Dancing Clown Taylor Swift parody and this Dairy Vintage Clown costume. Links for all of these are below and now you can become a store member to earn rewards and get free stuff.

Shopping our merch store is a great way to support our channel. Thank you so much for your support. Now, back to what I was saying. So we've talked a lot about the Bradley Gang Massacre in previous breakdowns, especially with it being featured in the opening credits. We hear Fuller call them wannabe Dillinger's, a reference to the Real Live 1930 crime family. Now, during this massacre, the entire town of Derry came together and brutally murdered the Bradley gang who had been causing trouble throughout Derry, likely also being influenced by the

hate of it, and then that same hate influenced the town to attack and kill them, and it's just hate on hate, fear on fear, it feeds. Now, Fuller mentions that there were reported sightings of the entity in one of its forms, that form being pennywise, as we see here in the opening credits of the show and in reports from the films and in the book where there are mentions of a clown being present for the massacre. So Shaw's quick to piece together that the reason Halloran was able to detect this Bradley gang car was because it left its mark on it, the same way that its mark is on the slingshot from Shaw's childhood that he now keeps in a cigar box and has held onto for all of these years.

Now at a council meeting, Rose is told about the military finding Al Bradley's car, Al Bradley being the name of one of the Bradley's in the novel as well. And the way they're talking about this car being found and all this discussion about the military digging on native lands and they refer to sacred burial grounds, this all has me thinking, like we discussed a little earlier, that the Shikapua tribe is fully aware of it, and they are serving as keepers of sorts that keep the entity at bay, and perhaps they consider it a blessing that the entity only shows up every 27 years to feed, and they are just doing their best to keep it that way and to keep it from expanding. In fact, I think it's possible we could learn that this 27-year cycle could be something

that the Shikapia people were able to make happen. So Hanlon and Rousseau take Halloran up in the helicopter to fly around Derry, hoping that Halloran will pick up on something. And we hear Rousseau say something about the government having mind-control goats. I've got a buddy of Fort Bragg who's saying that they're doing like mind-control on goats. This could be a reference to the book, The Men Who Stare at Goats, where the military is exploring using the paranormal as a weapon, and they have men staring at goats and trying to stop their hearts.

Now, this book was published in 2004, so the character of Rousseau here, he wouldn't actually be referring to that book in universe, but maybe the writers of the show are. I mean, we are seeing the military attempt to weaponize the paranormal with it, so it fits. All right, so here Halloran is holding the slingshot, and he then goes into this deep, shine-powered, trance, just like we saw here in The Shining when Halloran was feeling the evils happening at the

Overlook Hotel. We see Halloran enter the layer of It, but only within his mind. And essentially what we're seeing here is It is entering and exploring the mind of Dick Halloran. As Halloran walks through the helicopter, we see him begin to step into water, water being a classic indicator of the presence of It. We then see Halloran approach this circus wagon with Pennywise the Dancing Clown, the same wagon from this scene in It Chapter 1, and this frame photo of Bob Gray. Now, in the water, we see floating dolls and strollers and many other children's toys from its many victims. We then see the return of its yellow eyes and the entity asks Halloran, Who are you? And it seems somewhat impressed by Halloran and his shine abilities,

and we're seeing it explore Halloran's mind for his fears, and it immediately uses Dick's dead grandmother as a scare tactic. Now, in the shining, Dick Halloran said this about his grandmother who also had the shine. My grandmother and I could hold conversations entirely without ever opening our mouths. We then see him look up and he sees the floating tower that we've seen from the It films. Now, it is a physical entity, but like we've talked about before, it in a way essentially has the shine as well. He has the ability to enter people's minds.

So it's really cool getting to see this evil entity of It, who is a professional at exploring the mind, now come face to face with a hero character like Halloran, who also has this ability. Now over at the antique store, we see Rose and Shaw reunite for the first time in 54 years, and we hear them discuss how memories fade when you leave Derry. We know from the films and the book that when you leave Derry, you forget about Derry, and this is a tactic that may be used by the entity to shield itself from the outside world, or perhaps it's something that the Shikapia people have put into place to shield the rest of the world from it. In It chapter two, we hear all the adult losers club members who had left Derry talk about how they had forgotten all about the small town and their friends until Mike brought them back together.

My favorite one is when Richie says, Plus, I just remembered I grew up here like two hours ago. So Shaw lies about why he's really there, which I found a little odd at first, considering that he does remember his slingshot, having a connection to it. So you think he'd remember that he and Rose fought the entity together and he would feel open to talking to her about the entity. But then I thought about it some more and it's become clear that he is lying to her, not because he doesn't remember that she was involved with his encounter with the entity. He fully remembers all of that. He's lying to her because he knows that Rose would be very against the military's plan to weaponize the entity. Shaw knows the native people's position on how to best

handle it. And he knows that if he tells Rose about his plan, she'll become an even bigger obstacle. So we then cut over to Hanlon and Halloran having dinner with Charlotte at the Hanlon. Dick asks about Hanlon's son, and a little later, Hanlon mentions to Dick that he never told him he had a son, to which Dick says, Must I heard it from someone on base. This is just like the scene in The Shining when Dick calls Danny by his nickname, Doc, and his mom Wendy questions how Dick knew the nickname, to which Dick says, Well, I guess I probably heard you call him that.

This is a great parallel to The Shining, and it shows us how Dick Halloran is accustomed to simply saying he must have overheard it anytime he steps in it and mentions something that he shouldn't know anything about, but he does because he has the shine. We then get the discussion between Hanlon and Dick that reveals Hanlon may also have a dose of the shine because he could feel Halloran's presence in that room that night that he was attacked, and he could feel Halloran in his mind. Halloran then goes on to tell Hanlon more in depth as to why he was chosen by Shaw for this mission. The reason being that in Hanlon's mind where fear should be, it's not. And that's what makes Hanlon the perfect opponent for an entity who literally enters your mind and finds your fear in order to prey on you. And I think when it enters Hanlon's mind, it will find nothing, meaning that it will hold no power over Hanlon, just like it held no power over the losers club once they were able to vanquish their own fears.

It's also in this conversation between the two that we hear Halloran once again mention his grandmother. My grandmama said it's like seeing things without seeing things. So next we embark on a trip to the cemetery where Rich has suggested he can conduct a seance to draw out the entity that is haunting Ronnie and Lily. And guys, I love Rich. He's so adorable and it's so sad that he has such a tough time making friends to the point that he lied about knowing what he was doing and he really just wanted an excuse for these other kids to want to hang out with him.

So when the kids are on the roof discussing exactly what it is, Rich answers by saying, This is a no Richa. What? You know, an evil spirit? This is the name of the D.H. in the Yoruba tradition, a West African religion that was brought by enslaved people to the Caribbean and other parts of the Americas. These traditions later blended with Catholicism and developed into multiple tribal religions, the most well-known tradition being Centuria. Now, these Orisha represent embodiments of nature like rivers, oceans, trees, and so on.

And the Orisha also began to represent or embody the nature and namesake of the Catholic saints. Which is why we see Ridge chanting the Santa Maria. I'm repeating the line that typically translates to Hail Mary full of grace, but literally means God save you Mary. Now, Rich mentions that his uncle was a Babalawa, a centuria priest. These practitioners have rituals that use dances, candles, and offerings of fruit on altars in order to gain spiritual power and prosperity.

Rich says that his uncle was able to summon these Orsha in order to help him get back debts that he was owed or as a means to seek justice for wrongdoers. Rich also says, And the really mean ones always took form of their dead ancestors. Which we see play out with the kids later on as they run through the cemetery. We see the entity take the form of their now dead friends and family indicating that this entity or Orisha is one of the really mean ones. So the group begins to divide and part ways following Mike's admission that he doesn't believe

Ronnie and Lily about the entity. And we then see all the kids leave on their bikes, and they are then, when divided, pursued by It. Just like how in the It films, it did his damnedest to make sure that the Losers Club was divided, because when they are divided, that is when It can easily prey on them. Now, our first glimpse of it showing up in the cemetery is this smiling statue of Jesus that turns its head. Super creepy, and it also gives it this blasphemous vibe that reminds us of just how evil this entity is. So the kids are in a ghost chase, and they actually score some pictures of it. the ghost kids. Well, it's not their actual ghost, to be clear. It's just it acting as their

ghosts. But there's something really neat about these ghosts showing up on camera. This means that they were physically inhabiting space. Light was able to bounce off of these ghosts, letting us know that this isn't just one of its mind tricks, but it was actually taking on the physical form of these ghosts, making it to where they could be captured on camera. And it wasn't just the ghosts that they caught. We also got this aforementioned glimpse at the clown, a clown that looks a lot like the clown from the 1908 flashback. Now, as for what the kids are going to be able to prove with these photos, we'll just have to see.

But I am excited to find out in next week's episode, episode four, which we will be covering right here on the channel. I love breaking down these episodes with you guys. And I thank you so much for watching our breakdowns. If you're new here, be sure to subscribe. Hit the bell so you get notified every time we upload a new video. For Screen Crush, I'm Colton Ogburn. DEN SULLIVAN.