Copyright Screen Rant
Spoilers for It: Welcome to Derry episode 1 ahead! There's an Easter Egg in It: Welcome to Derry that even the most observant fans may have missed, calling back to one of Stephen King's most underrated short stories. It: Welcome to Derry brings King-branded terror to HBO in this prequel to the It films, and it's packed with Easter Eggs for fans of the horror master. One that may have flown over some heads comes halfway through Welcome to Derry episode 1. After Matty (Miles Ekhardt) disappears and is presumed dead by Derry, one of his classmates, Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack), makes a frightening discovery in her bathroom. While sitting by her bathtub, Lilly thinks she hears Matty's voice coming out of the drain. As she stares into it and begs him to come home, a solitary finger pops up out of the darkness, shocking Lilly. It's a great jump scare and highly reminiscent of one of King's weirdest, most underrated short stories. It: Welcome To Derry's Drain Scene Is A Reminder Of Stephen King's "The Moving Finger" Stephen King's short story collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes came out in 1993 and features the short story "The Moving Finger". First published in December 1990 for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, "The Moving Finger" is an unnerving, strange, and excellent short story. In the story, Howard Milta is an ordinary man watching Jeopardy in his apartment when he hears a scraping coming from his bathroom sink. Fearful that he's got another rat on his hands, he heads into the bathroom with a broom. Instead of a rat, he finds a single finger poking out of his drain. The finger swivels to point at him, and from that moment on, Howard is pulled into an impossible nightmare that only becomes more dizzying and terrifying as he attempts to remove the finger. As it emerges from the drain over the course of the afternoon, it grows longer than any human finger ever should. The scene of Matty's finger popping out of the drain is exactly like how King describes the finger in Howard's apartment. What's so terrifying about "The Moving Finger" is how there is nothing to suggest this should happen to Howard. He's a normal guy in a normal town watching TV, but he still gets haunted all the same. It: Welcome To Derry's Premiere Episode Is Filled With Easter Eggs Voices coming from drains are not a Stephen King conceit relegated only to Welcome to Derry and "The Moving Finger". Drains and people begging for help through them are a frequent occurrence in the King universe. Matthew Clements speaking to Beverly Marsh in It may be the most famous example.
