It: Welcome to Derry Stars on Now You See It Scares & That Creator Cameo (VIDEO)

[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for It: Welcome to Derry Episode 3, “Now You See It.”]

There’s a familiar face that ushers us all into the twisty world of It: Welcome to Derry‘s latest episode. Andy Muschietti, cocreator of the series, cameos as a carnival pianist in a flashback to a 1908 town fair.

Muschietti told TV Insider that he did so at the request of the episode’s director, Andrew Bernstein — “He twisted my arm into playing that role, and I begrudgingly did it,” he joked. (He also teased that fans will see him again in Episode 8.)

Also present for the scene is a kid version of Francis Shaw, who takes in the oddities before exchanging his slingshot for a bottle of water from a young Rose. The two become fast friends and play in the woods together before things take a dark turn; he goes too far and comes face to face with a one-eyed demon and has to use the slingshot to take out the creature’s other eye and escape.

They’re soon parted when Francis’ father is stationed elsewhere, and she gives him the slingshot back as a token of remembrance — even though she knows he’ll forget her once he leaves Derry. It takes 50 years, but remember, he does, and the very grown-up Francis (James Remar) and Rose (Kimberly Guerrero) have a very warm reunion at her store.

He’s there to ask for her help with his mission after finding a car from the Bradley Gang massacre with the help of Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), but he lies and says he wants her to help him avoid sacred lands in a military dig.

“That’s classified,” James Remar explained of Francis’ decision not to tell Rose the truth, even after their shared childhood experiences. “We’ve got to get it done, but it’s still a military secret. In my mind, it’s protective of her. I’m not going to say, ‘We’re looking for some entity, and we’re going to take over the world.’ It’s clandestine. It’s a military secret. And military secrets at that time, things that were highly classified, was just a matter of course. I mean, it was the Cold War, Strategic Air Command, Khrushchev, the Soviets. It wasn’t personal. I don’t feel like I was lying as such to my friend Rose.”

Thanks to that encounter, Rose convinces her fellow tribe members to take a wait-and-see approach about what Shaw and his team are doing, and they’re able to embark on a new mission — this time, with Leroy (Jovan Adepo) piloting a helicopter as Dick plays human compass with the slingshot providing him new insight into It. Dick goes into a trance and mentally visits Pennywise’s sewer lair, where his grandmother appears to tell him to leave, and It senses him as he almost jumps out of the back of the bird, with Leroy stopping him just in time.

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Later, the two debrief after dinner with Charlotte (Taylour Paige), and Leroy says he knows Dick was there snooping around in his mind during the masked attack in his bunk. Dick says, based on what he saw, he wouldn’t ever want to cross Leroy again.

“I think when Dick looks into Leroy’s head, there’s a respect for what he has endured,” Chris Chalk told us about the scene. “But also there’s something nice about being seen, almost… Dick gets caught, and it’s like, ‘Oh, will you be my friend?’ It’s like, ‘I can tell you things now because, you know I can do things.’” Chalk added, “I think, for Dick, the first time, going, ‘Is this an ally? Is this person a person I might actually depend on?’ And then, as you watch the show, you find out if it happens or not, if they become allies or not.”

The other storyline of the episode is that of Lilly (Clara Stack), upon returning from Juniper Hill, committing to helping Ronnie (Amanda Christine) exonerate her father, Hank (Stephen Rider), whose alibi has now been contradicted. They decide that they need proof beyond Lilly’s account, so they work with Will (Blake Cameron James) and Rich (Arian S. Cartaya), after the latter says he knows of a ritual they can use in the graveyard.

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Though his prayer for the dead was bogus, they were still greeted by the ghosts of Teddy, Phil, and Suzie as the cemetery began to erupt in an earthquake, as the kids tried to get away on their bikes while taking photos of the spirits on the way out. Once they developed the film, they saw that they’d captured the specters perfectly — along with a clown.

Watch the full aftershow with even more cast and creative commentary on the latest It: Welcome to Derry episode above!

Welcome to Derry, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO