‘IT: Welcome to Derry’s chaotic ending, explained

Well, that was a lot, wasn’t it? The almost feature-length finale of IT: Welcome to Derry throws all of Derry into a dark fog, with the military working to unleash Pennywise on America while the kids, Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) and Major Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) try to put him back together.

There are flash forwards, allusions to time travel and connections to Stephen King novels and the HE movies you may have missed. We’ve broken down all the top questions below.

What happens to Pennywise?

At the end of Episode 7, Pennywise’s killing cycle ended with the burning of the Black Spot, and the creature was ready to return to the sewers to sleep for another 27 years – until the military got involved. General Shaw (James Remar) and the gang decided it would be a great idea to let the clown run free, and they ended up destroying one of the pillars that form a circle around Derry and serve as the creature’s cage.

In the episode 8 finale, Pennywise makes a break for the opposite bank of a river surrounding Derry, which is apparently the point where she will be completely free of the other pillars serving as her cage. Fortunately, it doesn’t go that far. Using their own fragment of the meteor that HE crashed onto Earth years ago, the children are able to reform the cage moments before the creature tears them into pieces. It was dragged away from them, probably to return to hibernation until the start of the 1988 cycle.

IT: Welcome to DerryThe finale introduces the possibility of time travel.

Before the children capture Pennywise, the clown drags Marge (Matilda Lawler) away and reveals to her that she will one day have a son: Richie Tozier, a key character and member of the Losers’ Club from the books and films.

“The seed of your stinking loins and its filthy friends brings me death! Or is it birth?” Pennywise growls. “I’m confused. Tomorrow? Yesterday? Same for little Pennywise.”

Credit: Brooke Palmer/HBO

Later, back at the safety of the fountain, Marge talks to Lilly (Clara Stack) about what Pennywise said.

“He told her that the past, present and future were the same. And that her death was actually her birth,” Marge explains. “I know it sounds crazy, but what if he tried to go back and kill someone from before we were born, like our parents?”

Lilly’s response? “I guess it’ll be someone else’s fight.”

This conversation appears to be preparation for future seasons of IT: Welcome to Derry. We already know that co-creator Andy Muschietti wants there to be three seasons, with Season 2 and Season 3 going back in time to Pennywise’s previous killing cycles. Marge and Lilly’s exchange is the perfect start.

What’s next for Major Hanlon and Dick Hallorann?

The final scenes with Hanlon and Hallorann are nods to both Stephen King’s wider work and the HE movies. Hallorann, who is best known as a key character in The shinytells Hanlon that he’s going to work at a friend’s hotel in London as a chef – the start of a career that we know will eventually take him to the Overlook Hotel.

“How bad can a hotel be?” he said. Of course, readers of the book will know Exactly how many problems.

Hanlon, meanwhile, decides to stay in Derry with his family and start working on a farm. As readers of the book know, his grandson will be Mike Hanlon, another key member of the Losers’ Club.

What is this flash forward in the final scene?

The final scene of the series features an unexpected flash forward to 1988, where we meet yet another member of the Losers’ Club, Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis, reprising her role from the films), witnessing her mother’s suicide in Juniper Hill.

Ingrid Kersh (Madeleine Stowe), now an old lady who has presumably been in the asylum since the events of the 1960s cycle, appears behind her, smiling, and tells her that no one in Derry ever really dies.

This scene essentially brings the cinema full circle, making a connection with a scene in Computer science: chapter two when an older Beverly (Jessica Chastain) is terrorized by the creature in the form of Mrs. Kersh.

IT: Welcome to Derry is streaming on HBO Max.