🔗 Share this article

The series It: Welcome to Derry is filled with connections to Stephen King's extensive collection of tales. Apart from the obvious links to the original story, the show showcases a direct link to King's famous novel through the appearance of a young Dick Hallorann. Currently, as the story progresses, It: Welcome to Derry is integrating another classic tale from King which merits a revisit.

The Powerful Story of The Shawshank Redemption

Although Shawshank Redemption may not be classified as a horror film, especially in contrast with much of King's other work, it is a haunting tale of a innocently imprisoned individual sentenced to live the rest of his life in a notorious penitentiary. And it's that very penitentiary that becomes important here, since Shawshank State Prison possesses considerable history throughout King's fictional world — a pattern which persists in Welcome to Derry.

Among the tales which mention the prison are Dolores Claiborne, Needful Things, Apt Pupil, 11/22/63, as well as It. Via these narratives, we discover regarding the terrible conditions inside the state penitentiary and several of those imprisoned within, such as the partner of one of Pennywise's early victims, who was found guilty of armed robbery.

So far, though, the majority we've learned about the prison was via the perspective of Andy Dufresne from Shawshank Redemption, portrayed by Tim Robbins in that 1994 film. The character Andy ends up in Shawshank following being wrongly convicted, and finds himself beaten and abused by other prisoners, while taken advantage of by the authority figures due to his financial knowledge. It takes him 28 years to dig an escape route of the prison, prior to crawling "through sewage" to reclaim his liberty.

The Prison's Appearance in Welcome to Derry

Regarding It: Welcome to Derry, audiences initially discovered of Shawshank's involvement from an initial preview for the series, in which a prison bus was seen bearing the title displayed on its side. In episode 2, it is revealed who is likely headed to Shawshank.

Although we know he did not responsible for the child deaths in the first episode, the character Hank Grogan (played by Stephen Rider), dad to Ronnie (Amanda Christine), gets taken into custody for the crimes. A teaser for episode 3, "Now You See It," shows a guard informing Hank in his cell, "Do you know what happens to child murderers in Shawshank?"

The Consequences for the Character and His Daughter

Considering that the real killer in Derry is a primordial entity from another world preying on and murdering kids, Hank's prospects of proving his innocence do not look good. Even should he ends up in the prison and the audience do not see him there, knowing what is known about that prison indicates that his experience would be far from pleasant.

Crucially, however, this development would endanger Ronnie. He acts as her guardian. Terrible events are occurring in the town that nobody, child or adult, understands and she only has her recently formed circle of pals to rely on. She will require her dad in the coming episodes, but if the prison system plays a role, she could be without help.

A single fact seems clear: Hank doesn’t have 28 years to dig to freedom.

---

Welcome to Derry the first two episodes are currently available on HBO Max. New episodes are released each week each Sunday.