The long-awaited arrival of Pennywise in episode 5 of Welcome to Derry shakes up James Remar’s character: this is what the actor says about his behavior

Contains spoilers for all of episode 5 of Welcome to Derry.

I watched HBO Max Welcome to Derry On the edge of my seat, and episode 5 is perhaps the most emotional and brilliant episode yet as we finally got to see Pennywise on screen. There’s a reason this is one of the best shows on HBO Max.

With Pennywise back on the scene, things have taken a turn for the worse and General Francis Shaw (James Remar) has made some very questionable decisions along the way.

We witnessed Shaw’s reunion with Rose (Kimberly Guerrero), his childhood friend who had previously saved him from Pennywise. But he treated Rose incredibly badly and kept his cousin Taniel at the air base to force him to reveal information about Pennywise.

Shaw wants to confront Pennywise and plans to capture him as a possible weapon to end the Cold War, despite Rose’s protests.

His dark obsession with locating Pennywise caused a rift between Rose and Shaw, with the latter planning to use Taniel as a guide to the sewers so he could reach Pennywise and attempt to manipulate him.

In an interview with TechRadar and other journalists, James Remar talked about his character’s arrogant behavior, especially what he did with Taniel and how he reacted brutally to Rose’s justified protests.

Remar said: “In my scene with (Rose) in my office, I get up, walk away from her and light a cigarette. It was the cruelest thing I could have done and I didn’t want to do it, but I had to do it.”

Rose and General Shaw were reunited in some emotional scenes.

She also considered having Guerrero as a scene partner, telling us, “But it was a lot of fun working with Kimberly as a co-star because she’s so good, honest and emotionally available.”

“That part was easy, but I had to experience it in terms of disappointment and internal conflict. That’s not an exaggeration, I mean it. Pennywise tore me up inside, it was hard at times.”

Remar added, “And I’m going to have Rose sing with her nephew. It’s pretty badass. It’s one of those things: When there’s a lot of respect and camaraderie behind the camera, it’s very easy to make bold decisions in front of the camera and jump in and see what’s going on and read everyone’s energy and dance.”

With only three episodes, I can’t wait to see where Welcome to Derry goes, especially the inevitable consequences of General Shaw’s decision to try to wield Pennywise’s power instead of escaping the whole.

Shaw is one of the most fascinating people in the world. Welcome to Derry because it’s so frustrating and I’m sure we haven’t seen the end yet.