Hopeful–Dangerous Mood in Welcome to Derry (Episode 7)
“Hopeful–Dangerous”: The Double Harmonic Face of the Scene “Ingrid Meets Pennywise”
A neo-Riemannian and affective analysis of Benjamin Wallfisch’s musical construction in Welcome to Derry, Episode 7.
Introduction
In Episode 7 of Welcome to Derry, Benjamin Wallfisch constructs an extremely distinctive mood for the scene in which Ingrid meets Pennywise, one that can be defined through an oxymoron: Hopeful–Dangerous.
This is a form of emotional ambiguity in which hope is real and tangible, yet continuously contaminated by signals of risk, unease and latent threat.
The strength of the cue lies in the fact that this ambivalence is not merely timbral or melodic. It is written directly into the harmonic grammar, through a chain of Riemannian transformations within an atonal context.
The Harmonic Sequence and the Riemannian Codes
Wallfisch structures the progression through atonal Riemannian codes applied to the following sequence of triads:
Operational path:
I-, S, LR, LP, N, PL, PL, H, H, O
This harmonic route creates a continuous oscillation between intimacy, hope, fantasy, instability and danger. The progression never settles into a stable tonal centre; instead, it moves through emotional territories that are perceptually close but functionally disorienting.
From Pain to Dream: The “Hopeful” Opening
The cue begins on D minor, a chord that immediately introduces an intimate and melancholic colour. Shortly afterwards, the augmented triad F+ enters, functioning as a Weitzmann augmented triad and acting as a suspension.
This is not a neutral passing sonority, but a point of suspended energy that temporarily holds back the movement and opens the harmonic space.
From here, a Slide operation leads toward D-flat major. The gesture is soft, almost cinematic, transforming the initial sadness into a positive dream-state, because the arrival on a major triad opens the emotional field toward light.
Two secondary operations then occur in sequence:
LP — Leading-Tone Exchange + Parallelism → C major
The crucial point is that the progression moves from a minor triad to a series of major triads: D-flat major, A-flat major and C major. This flowering of major sonorities generates a dreamlike quality oriented toward hope, a genuine “hopeful breath” within the cue.
The music initially appears to move from pain toward dream, from melancholy toward emotional openness. Yet this hope is never entirely secure.
The Turn: Return to Minor and a “Monastic” Cadential Colour
Just as the mood seems to stabilize, Wallfisch introduces a change of direction. Through a hybrid N operation, or Near Fifth, the progression returns to F minor.
This return to the minor mode is not accidental. F minor behaves almost like a minor subdominant in relation to C major, creating the impression of a plagal cadence with a “monastic”, almost ritual quality.
It is at this point that hope begins to acquire a shadow of melancholy and sadness. It is no longer bright or innocent, but devotional, fragile and exposed.
Unease Enters the Scene: PL and Emotional Reversal
The true entrance of the “dangerous” component occurs through the secondary operation PL:
F minor → A minor
Here one perceives the first decisive step toward drama. The colour tightens, and the emotion becomes more internal, more anxious and more psychologically charged.
Wallfisch then repeats the PL operation:
At this point, the music is already emotionally unstable, ready to oscillate between dream and dramatic threat.
Hexatonic Poles: Fantasy, but Sinister
The mechanism that makes this cue truly “fantasy-like” and at the same time disturbing is the use of hexatonic poles, indicated by H.
H: F major → C# minor
The first transformation brings the music back to a more open and apparently dreamlike colour. The second immediately pulls it back into the opposite pole.
This oscillation between major and minor triads through hexatonic poles is typical of a fantastic imaginary world: it suggests magic, but never complete stability.
This is precisely where the mood becomes Hopeful–Dangerous. Hope is present in the colour of F major, but it is “stained”, because it is immediately absorbed back into the darker pole of C# minor.
The Melody: Chromaticism and the Augmented Fifth as a Sinister Signal
Remaining on C# minor, Wallfisch introduces a melody with a highly recognizable structure: an ascending chromatic semitone motion, followed by an augmented fifth, then a descending chromatic movement by semitone.
This figure has a sharp, almost piercing quality. The ascending chromaticism suggests unavoidable tension, while the augmented fifth — an inherently unstable interval — functions as a mark of ambiguity, giving the scene a sinister, almost predatory shade.
The Illusion of Returning to the Dream: The Octatonic Operation and the Nebulous Chord
On the harmonic level, the music then attempts to resolve toward a new major triad through an octatonic operation, indicated by O. It is as if the cue were trying to recover the fantasy dimension, attempting to return to hope.
Yet the most important detail occurs here: the “clean” chord does not remain pure. Wallfisch adds neutral overtones and ambiguous resonances, creating what may be described as a nebulous chord.
These sonic elements contaminate the major triad and give it discordant, unsettling characteristics. In practical terms, hope returns, but it is no longer innocent. It has been contaminated.
Why It Works So Effectively in the Scene
These Riemannian transformations are not theoretical virtuosity for its own sake. They generate a powerful empathic effect because they translate the emotional conflict of the scene into sound.
On one side, there is Ingrid, filled with emotion and hope at the possibility of seeing her missing father again. This creates the “hopeful” and dreamlike energy of the cue.
On the other side, there is IT, who assumes that appearance and transforms the reunion into a threat. This produces the “dangerous”, ambiguous and disturbing dimension of the music.
The result is a cue that never decides to be only luminous or only horrific. It remains suspended, and precisely for this reason it is so affecting. The scene achieves a very high level of empathy because the music forces us to feel, at the same time, the desire to believe and the fear of understanding.
