‘It: Welcome to Derry’ Finale: Creators on Pennywise’s Big Show, Those Cameos & What That Time Travel Twist Means for Season 2

[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for It: Welcome to Derry Episode 8.]

The grand finale of It: Welcome to Derry‘s first season is finally here. After the horrific Black Spot massacre, it seemed like Pennywise’s (Bill Skarsgård) bloodlust was finally sated for his 1962 cycle, and the monster was ready to hibernate… until General Shaw (James Remar) removed one of the pillars caging It into the town to free the beast.

In the finale, Pennywise seizes on this unexpected opportunity to do some real world-eating, enveloping the entire town in a mist of madness. If you’re getting notes of The Mist from the sight of that, you’re not alone — but it wasn’t intentional, according to cocreators Andy and Barbara Muschietti. “We love that we get asked that question because it was like a bucket of cold water for us, because it wasn’t [intentional]. But it’s great that everybody’s connecting it,” Barbara Muschietti told TV Insider. However, Andy Muschietti clarified that even if it wasn’t on purpose, the connectivity of the greater Stephen King universe brings it into the fold anyway. “Of course, we are aware of The Mist and that it’s another of Stephen King[‘s stories]. But the truth is that it is, and it is not [an homage]. We didn’t do it intentionally, but the truth is that the creatures from The Mist, they come from the Todash Zone, which is on the other side, the same way that It comes — around the macroverse is where It comes from, it’s the other side. So it might be connected, even if we didn’t intend it,” he said.

For Andy, the use of the visualization was meant to represent the spread of the beast: “What I wanted to do is basically create a visual illustration of how this monster expands — this is the big idea in this season, which is something that is not in the book, that is: It is Derry, and Derry is It because It was caged by the indigenous people. If it wasn’t for them, It’s an expansive force that would have taken over the world.” He also pointed to the bits of fog seen surrounding the deadlights previously. “Every time we see the deadlights, they are surrounded by this mist. You can see it in It 2, you can see it in Episode 4… when the comet crashes, and when we see the deadlights come out of the crash, they’re surrounded by this smog, smoky entity. And that is It, in a way. The deadlights are It, but fog, and that’s why the fog was important,” he said.

The episode then finds Ronnie (Amanda Christine), Lilly (Clara Stack), and Marge (Matilda Lawler) in the standpipe, out of harm’s way, so they miss out on all of the underclassmen being summoned to the assembly room to witness Pennywise beheading their principal and then putting them all into a deadlights trance, in which Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James) is already imprisoned.

The scene, which is both sprawling and so centrally focused on Pennywise’s horrific show, was a blast for the creators to make. “I wanted to make it fun, honestly…. Obviously, there’s an element of grotesque there that is undeniable. It’s horrific what happens there. But it’s one of the climactic steps to the big finale, where Pennywise expresses more and more his twisted sense of humor, which is almost unavoidable for him,” Andy Muschietti explained. “There’s something in this lore, which is, ‘Every living thing must abide by the laws of shape they inhabit.’ And when they say that in the book, they’re talking about It and the incarnation… We make a meal of it in It 2, when it’s like, if he becomes small to go through a hole, then It’s weak because he’s abiding by the shape that It’s inhabiting, and that’s how we kill it. So it’s a bit of an extrapolation of that, and what he’s doing is just, it’s his way, basically, of seasoning the kids. He’s doing it like a clown would, which is like, yeah, he’s killed the principal, and he’s beheading him, and then he kicks his head as a football, and does a little show for them, and sings a song, and then deadlights them. It’s the way a clown would do it, I guess, and yeah, I wanted to make it fun.”

HBO

After Leroy (Jovan Adepo) finds out his son’s grim status, thanks to a cruel phone call from Pennywise, he pleads with Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), who is inches away from ending his own life over the festoon of angry ghosts in his room, to help. They then team up with Rose (Kimberly Guerrero), Taniel (Josh Odjick), and Charlotte (Taylour Paige) to form a plan to save Will — but Rose sees the bigger picture and says they need to replace the missing pillar on the riverbank with the dagger and relock the cage. The problem? The dagger will resist being taken farther and farther from its original home at the Neibolt House.

Indeed, the girls do struggle — particularly Lilly, whose mental health has always been at issue — but together, they persevere to the site where their friends were floating in silence before Pennywise shows up to taunt them. “Look who decided to join the circus: the fool, the freak, the failure, but who is who? It doesn’t matter. There’s a spot for you all,” it says.

It is at this point that we learn what many fans have suspected to be true: Marge will become the mother of Richie Tozier, who is probably named after Rich (Arian S. Cartaya), the boy who died to defend her. The real twist is, Pennywise knows her son will be part of the crew that ultimately kills him in the events of It: Chapter Two. “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Richie in the baby carriage. Unless… Unless he dies with you,” Pennywise says. “Don’t you recognize your little boy, the seed your stinking loins and his filthy friends bringing me my death? Or is it birth? I’m confused, it’s all the same for little Pennywise.”

Of the decision to connect Marge to Richie, Andy Muschietti noted, “That was my first idea. The first idea that I had ever in this show is, ‘I want a character that is Richie’s mom.'” Barbara then reminded him of an early conception point: “Also, that he was not going to reveal her until the end, but that she was going to have coke bottle glasses.”

Brooke Palmer / HBO

Andy explained that he wanted some of Richie’s personality, as depicted by Finn Wolfhard, to be apparent in the character, too, despite her having so many concerns about her appearance and fitting in with the Patty Cakes. “The first character that was created in the show was Marge, and I did a little drawing of her with the coke bottles, and I knew from the beginning that she would end up with a patch. I wanted her to become a pirate at the end of it. That’s all I knew. Those ideas that come out of nowhere, and you say, ‘OK, I think this is a good starting point.’ So I brought it to the writers’ room, and then she grew up and was fleshed out and everything. And also, we found a reason why she has a patch, which is the nefarious event of the parasite in the bathroom, the bulging eyes and everything. But, yeah, that was one of those things where I don’t really have an explanation, but we knew that the connection of the characters with the movie would be something that the people would be stimulated by. And I knew that Marge was going to be one of them.”

Also stimulating? The suggestion that Pennywise experiences time in a way that allows him to experience different eras — or maybe try to change them — and that was part of the inspiration for It: Welcome to Derry as a whole, it seems.

“The only reason that the series exists is because this monster has a different perception of time. And it’s something that is only hinted in the book. It’s one of those things that if you read It, it doesn’t mean anything to you because it’s not really exploited. But when we were thinking first of, ‘OK, what is this show? Let’s see what”… So I remember that one thing: ‘Wait, It doesn’t experience time in a linear way. What does that mean?’  And of course, in a show that’s a prequel, most of the people will say, ‘Well, we know how Pennywise ends. We know that Pennywise dies. It dies in 2016. So why would I watch this show?’ Well, maybe what he’s doing is a rewriting of history?… It’s a little bit of a hint at what’s coming. But it’s more like a question, like what Stephen King does in the book. He doesn’t tell you, he doesn’t assert something. He just makes a question about it, and that becomes the assertion. And when Marge says, ‘What if he’s actually able to travel to the past?’ Open question. But then, this series is a show that’s told backwards. What does that mean? Does that mean that Pennywise can go back and alter the events that we know that happened? Hmmm…”

HBO

From there, things got truly chaotic as General Shaw’s (James Remar) team fights against the hero squad because he wants his “weapon” to run free and make the whole world like Derry. In a gunfight, they kill Taniel and trap the other adults, leaving the kids to bury the dagger themselves. Dick manages to keep Pennywise frozen in a daydream where he is still Bob Gray at the 1908 circus, but it doesn’t last long. When he emerges from Dick’s mental box, Pennywise finds himself staring at a gobsmacked General Shaw, who invites him to flee. However, Shaw soon learns just how vicious the creature is when It awakens. At first, It seems ready to move on and spare him, but then It remembers Francis’ scent from their childhood encounter, and It takes a big bite out of his skull.

“He remembers [him], and it’s also, I think, a part of Pennywise’s playfulness, right? And that’s, ‘The joke is on us.’ It’s like, ‘Oh, he’s letting him go. Oh, oh, oh … No,” Barbara said of the scene. Added Andy, “It’s also the thing of Shaw did his thing, and he opened the cage. Now, he’s of no use to him, right? It’s like, ‘Oh, you opened the cage, you’re free to go.’ But he has no allegiance. He has no loyalty to anything. It’s a monster that we hardly understand what It is thinking. It’s, in many ways, like an animal. There’s no rational thinking. ‘The door is open. I’m gonna go.’ But if you open the door to a lion and you say, ‘You can go, you can thank me later.’ You think a lion, if it’s hungry, will let you live? And that’s a little extra that this monster is not like a human thinking. It’s the animal part of it.”

From there, Pennywise takes off, and it’s a footrace to see if he can escape before the kids bury the dagger. The parents do their best to slow It down with gunfire, but it’s a surprise assist from the ghost of Rich that really does the trick to finish the job. After they plunge the dagger down, the pillars all erupt at once, leaving Pennywise to shrink into Its many forms throughout the season before slinking back to It’s cage… ’til the next cycle, of course.

HBO

The epilogue features Rich’s memorial service and Rose handing the farm over to the Hanlons for safekeeping, while the Grogans set off for a safer place. There is also a bit of key fan service when Dick Hallorann reveals he’s heading to a hotel to become a chef — something The Shining and Doctor Sleep fans will be tickled by, no doubt. If that isn’t enough, there is also a big kicker: Ingrid Kersh’s (Madeleine Stowe) time at Juniper Hill brings her into the older version we met in Chapter 2 (with Joan Gregson reprising he role) as Beverly Marsh (in a surprise cameo by Sophia Lillis) grieves the death of her mother, who was also a patient.

Andy Muschietti revealed that this was the very last thing he did on Season 1. “I was basically editing and everything, and then we went for additional shooting, and I was like, ‘There’s something missing here. There’s something missing, which is a visual connection to the Losers with It Chapter One, to the Losers.’ And given that in It Chapter 2, we have Jessica Chastain talking to this old lady, I sort of realized that that was the link. That was the link in the chain that would basically, through everyone that saw the show, through the audience watching into It 1 again, if they want, or just connecting through the movie, just connecting to the characters. And since we saw Ingrid as one of the main characters, the continuation of Ingrid, many years later, would be the old lady that we see in It: Chapter 2. And also a little thing that nobody knew, which is, this is not the first time Jessica Chastain talking to this old lady. She doesn’t remember, but they met before.”

According to Barbara, the scene also marked a fond farewell for Joan Gregson. “The reason — this is just behind the scenes — it happened is because our camera person, who we’ve had for the last 14 years, who we’ve adored, told Andy that he had just worked with Joan Gregson, who is Mrs. Kersh, who we hadn’t seen since 2018. So Andy had this brilliant idea, ‘Let’s bring her back.’ And we called her, and she was so lovely and game. And I called Sophia immediately to see if she would do it, and she said, “Absolutely, I’ll do it for a song, I don’t care.” And we shot with Joan in April, and she passed two months later. But I know that she’s got the most amazing legacy and theater legacy, but she’s left us with this unbelievable bow on the show. So we couldn’t be happier,” she explained.

With that, It: Welcome to Derry Season 1 is done, with a satisfying finish that concludes one cycle … and leaves room for so much more.

Be sure to check out the season finale of our It: Welcome to Derry aftershow with cast commentary on this epic finale above, too!

Welcome to Derry, HBO & HBO Max

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