(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
Even before Marge (Matilda Lawler) finds out her surprising connection to taking down Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) in the future, she only has one thing on her mind: “I wanna kill that f---ing clown.”
Always good to have personal goals.
Marge doesn’t quite get her wish in the It: Welcome to Derry first season finale, but she is part of a valiant group effort to ensure the unlucky Maine town will be safe for another 27 years.
At the time of writing, HBO hasn’t renewed the prequel series to Stephen King’s 1986 novel. Still, co-creators Andy and Barbara Muschietti have already spoken about a three-season arc covering Pennywise’s deadly 1908 and 1935 cycles. Considering there have already been detailed flashbacks to these violent chapters in Derry’s history (and earlier), I suspect there is more to this plan than meets the eye—especially factoring in how Pennywise experiences time.
It is difficult to build suspense, as this prequel series follows the events leading up to the Andy Muschietti-directed IT movies (released in 2017 and 2019), so Pennywise’s survival is a given. However, there are still plenty of gasp, scares, and delights (both bloody and sweet) that ensure It: Welcome to Derry is worth your time.
Here are some of the biggest twists, turns, links to the movies, and most satisfying moments in the finale.
Pennywise Plays at Being the Pied Piper
It was a mistake to hold Skargård’s Pennywise back until the sixth episode, but he is making up for lost time. Take how he plays with the Derry High principal like a puppet before ripping his head clean off. Yes, the gore levels stay over-the-top. Never one to turn down an opportunity to vamp, Pennywise uses his newfound freedom (the military destroyed one of the pillars keeping him captive) to skip hibernating, cause some havoc, and head out into the world. First, he needs to pick up snacks for his extended road trip, and Derry’s youth are on offer.
Luckily, Marge, Ronnie (Amanda Christine), and Lily (Clara Stack) have skipped school and do not see Pennywise’s Deadlights (essentially his essence). Will (Blake Cameron James) was snatched up at home and is leading the line of kids in this catatonic state, floating behind Pennywise’s wagon, offering a creepy Pied Piper visual amid the fog and ice. Winter has come to Derry.
Marge is Rich Tozier’s Mother!
“I’ve always wondered how you taste, Margaret Tozier.” Way to drop a paternity bombshell, Pennywise. The killer clown unleashes his inner Maury Povich, telling Marge she is Rich Tozier’s mother. If you are as confused as Marge, that is because she is still 13 and definitely not a parent to a missing teen boy in 1989. Richie’s mother is called Maggie, which is short for Margaret (as is Marge).
Trying to save Will leads to the revelatory face-to-face. Pennywise doesn’t sugarcoat any of this, calling Richie the “seed of your stinking loins.” He shows her a missing-persons poster featuring Finn Wolfhard’s bespectacled Richie (Bill Hader plays the adult version). So Will is not the only character who is a parent to a future Loser Club member. It is also touching that, in the future, Marge pays Rich (Arian S. Cartaya) a meaningful tribute by naming her son after him.
A Time Traveling Clown?
Like any cocky villain, Pennywise makes the fatal mistake of oversharing, telling Marge that Richie and his “filthy friends” successfully kill the ancient being. If Pennywise eats Marge, it could prevent the Richie-less Loser Club from achieving this.
Later, when Marge recounts this mindf--- conversation, she mentions that Pennywise doesn’t experience time in the same way (“Tomorrow? Yesterday? It’s all the same for little Pennywise”). Marge worries Pennywise will try to return to a time before they were born, suggesting next season could become a Stephen King version of Back to the Future.
Dick Gets Inside Pennywise’s Head (and Lands a New Job)
Dick Hallorann’s (Chris Chalk) intervention saves Marge (and Richie) from an unpleasant fate. Rose (Kimberly Guerrero) makes Maturin root tea (another Easter egg!) to mute the voices of the dead, ensuring Dick can locate the dagger that they need to stop Pennywise—and also find the kids. Here, Dick gets inside Pennywise’s head, acting as a pause button to snap everyone out of their Deadlights zombie state.
Chalk deftly portrays the increasing weight that leads to a near-suicide attempt that Leroy (Jovan Adepo) talks him down from at the start of the episode. The moment when Pennywise unmasks Dick in his mind is another highlight, as is the big wink to Dick’s future hell. Dick quits the military and takes a job in a London hotel restaurant. “How much trouble can a hotel be?” he asks. Dick, maybe avoid the hospitality industry in Colorado.
The Military F---s Everything Up (Again)
Given that General Shaw (James Remar) is the reason Pennywise has skipped his usual sleeping routine, it isn’t shocking when the military arrives guns blazing. I still can’t get over Shaw’s boneheaded plan to use Pennywise as a weapon to bring the United States together.
Taniel’s (Joshua Odjick) death adds to the futility—he is shot while trying to connect the dagger to the pillar boundary. It makes Shaw’s inevitable demise even more satisfying (part of me always thinks of Richard cheating on Samantha in Sex and the City when I see Remar, adding to my enjoyment of his fate). Pennywise is nobody’s puppet.
Rich Plays a Big Part in Putting Pennywise Back in His Cage
Because the dagger doesn’t want to be buried at the deadwood spot, it takes the strength of Marge, Will, Ronnie, and Lily to get near. “So, long losers,” says Pennywise as he skips toward his escape. Instead of sprinting to freedom, Pennywise turns up his showman instincts, costing him valuable seconds. First, he gets shot multiple times. Then a “motherf---ing miracle” (as Dick calls it) comes to help push the dagger into the earth.
Yep, the recently deceased Rich helps save the day, flipping Pennywise off as he does so. It is a little cheesy, but I love this act of friendship unhampered by death. Even though they can’t see him, Rich’s friends feel his hands on theirs. Rich gets another send-off at his funeral, which once again showcases the prequel’s incredible casting of child actors, giving it its beating heart.
A Loser Club Cameo
One final surprise occurs after the “Welcome to Derry” Chapter One title card. Ingrid Kersh (Madeleine Stowe) is now a patient at Juniper Hills Asylum; she is soothed by Max Hansen’s “Det Er Det Skønneste, Jeg Ved.”
Cut to October 1988 (26 years later!), and an older Ingrid (Joan Gregson) is still listening to the same record. A noise of distress from another room draws her attention; a red-haired woman called Elfrida Marsh has hung herself.
IT: Chapter Two implies that Elfrida died by suicide, and in this epilogue, Sophie Lillis reprises her starring role as young Beverly Marsh. Lillis is not the only returning actor. Gregson also appears in IT: Chapter Two when adult Beverly (Jessica Chastain) returns to town. But that Ingrid was Pennywise, repeating a line that we now see the real Ingrid saying to Beverly: “No one who dies here ever really dies.”
Is this just a fun little Easter egg? Or is this story, like Ingrid’s record, playing over and over again? Only time and Pennywise’s next act will tell.
