There's a reason Stephen King's most iconic book is called "It", not "Pennywise". While the Dancing Clown is synonymous with the novel and its subsequent adaptations – in part, because red-nosed circus performers are easier to market and merchandise than orbs of otherworldly energy – the eponymous cosmic entity is, notoriously, a shapeshifter. "The monster showed itself to them, in the shape of the things they feared the most," says a young Taniel (Joshua Odjick) in the latest episode of HBO's spin-off It: Welcome to Derry, explaining the lore of "The Galloo" to his auntie Rose (Kimberly Guerrero) and, subsequently, the audience too.
He's speaking of a fatal run-in his great ancestors had with the ever-changing It, recounting a story he's been told by members of the Shokopiwah tribe many times before. It's a flashback inside a flashback sequence, and a memory telepathic Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) has crudely muscled his way in on in an attempt to find out what the heck It's deal is.
