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| "The Great Swirling Apparatus of Our Planet's Function" | |
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| It: Welcome to Derry episode | |
| Episode no. | Episode 4 |
| Directed by | Andrew Bernstein |
| Written by | Helen Shang |
| Featured music | |
| Cinematography by | Rasmus Heise |
| Editing by |
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| Original air date | November 16, 2025 |
| Running time | 62 minutes |
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"The Great Swirling Apparatus of Our Planet's Function" is the fourth episode of the American supernatural horror television series It: Welcome to Derry . The episode was written by supervising producer Helen Shang, and directed by executive producer Andrew Bernstein. It was first broadcast on HBO in the United States on November 16, 2025, and also was available on HBO Max on the same date.
The season is set in Derry, Maine in 1962. After the disappearance of a boy, three high school friends get involved in trying to find him, while two Air Force members arrive at the town to command a B-52. In the episode, Lilly and the gang continue being haunted by strange events, while Leroy grows more suspicious of the military's actions.
The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised the character development, prosthetics, and answers to mysteries.
Lilly, Ronnie, Will and Rich take the photographs to Chief Bowers, but they are shocked to find that the creatures are not seen. Bowers dismisses their concerns, and forces them out.
While fishing with Leroy in the lake, Will is pulled into the water by a monster, which resembles the burned image of Leroy in the war. As Leroy comforts him, they see a red balloon floating in the distance. Charlotte blackmails a police officer to visit Hank in jail, revealing that his sentence is illegal as he was charged without a bail hearing. Nevertheless, Hank reveals he had an affair with a white woman. Leroy later confronts her for visiting the station. That night, Will uses the telescope and sees a shadowed figure watching him in the street, panicking him and alerting Leroy.
At school, Lilly and Marge make amends, and Lilly leaves for the bathroom to clean herself when she sees a boy staring at her, unaware that this is a prank staged by Marge and her friends. Marge goes to the bathroom, but feels guilt over her incoming prank. Before she can tell Lilly, two snail-like stalks emerge from her eyes, causing her to flee to the carpentry workshop to remove them. Marge stabs her eye with a chisel in fright but as Lilly intervenes, students walk in and catch her holding the chisel over Marge.
After finding another red balloon, Leroy demands to know what the Project is targeting. Shaw shows him an interrogation, wherein a Native American, Taniel, passed the fence to get close to the dig site. Hallorann uses his power to enter Taniel's mind, seeing a memory of him talking with his aunt, Rose, about a spirit named "Galloo". The spirit arrived on Earth millions of years ago, and terrorized people until Native Americans made a dagger made from a shard of the spirit's star, which contained it. But when the settlers arrived, the spirit fed on them and grew stronger. The Natives took the shards of its star and used them to contain the spirit in the woods, which would later become Derry. When Hallorann asks to know the location of the pillars, Taniel directs him to a door that leads to a black house in Neibolt Street.
The episode was written by supervising producer Helen Shang, and directed by Andrew Bernstein. It marked Shang's first writing credit, and Bernstein's second directing credit. [1]
Taylour Paige explained Charlotte's actions in the episode, "I think you get to really see her in action. You get to see her passion, her integrity, her morale and her relentless spirit. Also, in an interesting way, although it's pure from Charlotte, her activism is a product of the boredom and the stirring in Derry. When she was in the South, there was such camaraderie, even though the South was wrought with such craziness. But in Derry, she's alone and its isolating and she wants to help this other Black family". [2]
Chris Chalk said that Hallorann's knowledge of Pennywise's origin negatively impacted his view of the world, "It's like, what becomes of a man who thinks he's the most powerful person in his universe and then realizes he's just a cog in the wheel. He discovers he's not powerful in his military posts, because I mean how long is the general going to let this little black dude come around like 'f–k you guys'". [3] Joshua Odjick commented, "It gets hard for Taniel. There's a feeling Taniel has betrayed his people. But he had no control". [4]
For the scene where Marge has worm-like creatures emerging from her eyes, prosthetics were placed in Matilda Lawler's head. Lawler commented, "It had these circles that kind of looked like big, gory glasses. [The VFX team] attached wires to the prosthetic and CGI'd the snail eyes on top of those wires. It was definitely a little strange to be having a meltdown over these wires sticking out of my head". [5] Andy Muschietti also said that the scene was used to highlight her fear, "There's a specific reason that's not going to be revealed until the very last episode for which she is wearing the Coke bottle glasses. And so we decided that [her fear] was about the eyes". [6]
"The Great Swirling Apparatus of Our Planet's Function" earned mixed-to-positive reviews from critics. Tom Jorgensen of IGN gave the episode an "amazing" 9 out of 10 rating and wrote in his verdict, ""The Great Swirling Apparatus of Our Planet's Function" meaningfully moves forward every one of Welcome to Derry's storylines, packs a wallop on the horror front, and reveals some interesting new details about Pennywise's initial arrival in Derry millions of years in the past - just the shot in the arm Welcome to Derry needed halfway into its first season." [7]
William Hughes of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B" grade and wrote, "I hold out some hope that the show has at least some sense of where it's going with all of this on a more metaphorically resonant level. But, then, whoops, suddenly it's all magic rocks, or the military sending soldiers into the tunnels under the house on Neibolt street, or all the other things that make me think the show doesn't have more on its mind but "It, but stretched out over multiple episodes." As is, all I can do is keep searching and take the stomach-churning highs as they come." [8]
Louis Peitzman of Vulture gave the episode a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "while this week's episode is better than the last, I'm struck even more strongly by a sense of wheel-spinning. We get more kindertrauma and more exposition (so much exposition), but it still feels a bit like we're walking in circles. Now that we're halfway through the season, I'd love a clearer sense of where the story is going, particularly when it comes to the younger characters, who at this point are mostly just there to get traumatized." [9]
Eric Francisco of Esquire wrote, "I'm bitter that IT: Welcome to Derry has bummed me out for the second week in a row. But I'm also a cheap date. If Marge's bulging eyes was enough to spook me, I can't wait to see what's behind those doors." [10] Shawn Van Horn of Collider gave the episode a 7 out of 10 rating and wrote, "With the entity's most familiar form of the killer clown getting closer, what does Episode 4, "The Great Swirling Apparatus of Our Planet's Function," have in store for the residents of Derry?" [11]
Zach Dionne of Decider wrote, "Let's take it back millions of years, straight to the end of the episode. Seeing It crash to Earth in Stephen King's 1986 novel and, briefly, in 2019's IT: Chapter Two is one of the most entrancing moments in the story. In Episode 4 of IT: Welcome To Derry, we have the dark pleasure of seeing the arrival and aftermath fleshed out at length." [12] Shawn Van Horn of Telltale TV gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Overall, It: Welcome to Derry Season 1 Episode 4 ramps up the chill factor as the Losers Club, Charlotte, Leroy, and Hallorann unbury interesting truths about IT, Derry's societal climate, and each other." [13]
Sean T. Collins of The New York Times wrote, "As it has been since that first batch of terrific child actors was killed off, the acting remains a series highlight. Chris Chalk alternates effortlessly between terrified and terrifying as Dick, while Lawler somehow makes you feel bad for the treasonous Margie, even before she carves her own eye out." [14] Ben Sherlock of Screen Rant wrote, "The horror sequences still look pretty cartoonish — Marge's bulging eyes are more silly than scary — but even when that's the case, it usually leads to some compelling drama. Lilly's desperate attempts to save Marge end up making it look like she stabbed her in the eye, which won't help her case. It: Welcome to Derry might not always work as a horror show, but it never falters as a straightforward drama." [15]
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