IT: Welcome to Derry Finale: Pennywise’s New Power and How It Changes the Story

The season finale of IT: Welcome to Derry changed the rules. In the climactic episode, Pennywise the Dancing Clown revealed he does not experience time like humans do. For this ancient evil, the past, present, and future are all the same. This twist explains why the show is set to jump backwards in time and raises huge questions about Pennywise’s final plan.

The Final Battle on the Ice

The final episode, titled “Winter Fire,” starts with a dense, supernatural fog enveloping Derry, Maine. The military’s destruction of one mystical pillar has weakened the cage that traps Pennywise, allowing him to awaken early from his 27-year slumber.

Pennywise immediately targets the town’s children. In a haunting scene at the high school, he performs a vaudeville act before using his Deadlights to hypnotize the entire student body. He then leads them in a Pied Piper-style procession out of town, intending to use them as “travel snacks” on his planned escape from Derry.

A small group of kids—Lilly, Marge, and Ronnie—avoid this mass kidnapping and set out to stop him. Their goal is to plant a magical dagger, made from the same cosmic rock as the containment pillars, into a specific dead tree on the frozen river. This would repair the cage and lock Pennywise back in Derry. The adults, including Will’s father Leroy Hanlon and the psychic Dick Hallorann, mount their own rescue mission.

The confrontation becomes a massive, chaotic showdown on the ice. The military, led by General Shaw, intervenes with gunfire, hoping to free Pennywise. In the end, with the ghostly help of their friend Richie Santos—who died in the previous episode—the kids succeed in planting the dagger. Pennywise is forced back into hibernation, and the unnatural winter fog lifts from Derry.

Pennywise’s Game-Changing Revelation

During the battle, Pennywise separates Marge from her friends. In a private moment, he reveals information that changes everything fans know about the monster.

Pennywise tells Marge that she will grow up to have a son named Richie Tozier. He even shows her a missing poster of the young Richie, played by Finn Wolfhard in the 2017 IT film. Pennywise explains that Richie and his friends are responsible for his death in the year 2016, the events of IT: Chapter Two.

“The seed of your stinking loins and his filthy friends bring me my death. Or is it birth? I get confused. Tomorrow? Yesterday? It’s all the same for little Pennywise,” the clown says.

This dialogue confirms a major twist: Pennywise experiences time non-linearly. He perceives past, present, and future simultaneously. Andy Muschietti, the series’ executive producer and director, stated this idea came directly from discussions with Stephen King about the creature’s nature.

This means the Pennywise terrorizing Derry in 1962 is already aware of his defeat over 50 years in the future. More importantly, it suggests he is not just a mindless predator. He is a being with a plan to change his fate.

What Pennywise’s New Power Means for the Future

The finale strongly hints at where the story is headed next. In a conversation after the battle, Marge pieces together Pennywise’s possible goal.

“What if he does see time differently? What if he can go backwards?… I know it sounds crazy, but what if he tries to go back and kill someone from the time before we were born, like our parents?” Marge asks her friend Lilly.

Lilly’s response sets the stage for the prequel’s planned structure: “I guess it will be someone else’s fight”.

The creators have stated that Welcome to Derry is planned as a three-season story that moves backward through Pennywise’s feeding cycles. Season 1 took place in 1962. If the series continues, Season 2 would jump back to 1935, and a potential third season would explore 1908.

This backward journey is not just a history lesson. It appears to be Pennywise’s own path. Having been defeated in 2016 and thwarted in 1962, the theory is that he will now go further into the past. His new mission: eliminate the ancestors of the Losers Club before they can be born, thereby erasing his future defeat.

This makes Pennywise an active, strategic villain. He is no longer just waiting to feed every 27 years. He is fighting a war across time to ensure his own survival.

How the Finale Connects to the IT Movies

The finale included several direct links to the characters and events of the two IT films, deepening the connections between the series and the movies.

The Origin of Mike Hanlon
Viewers learned that Will Hanlon, the boy Pennywise kidnaps in the finale, is the future grandfather of Mike Hanlon, the historian of the Losers Club. Will’s parents, Leroy and Charlotte, decide to stay in Derry after the events of the season and take over a local farm. This farm is where their grandson Mike will later grow up, which explains his deep knowledge of Derry’s dark history in the films.

Dick Hallorann’s Next Destination
The psychic cook Dick Hallorann, played by Chris Chalk, also gets a send-off that ties into Stephen King’s wider universe. After helping defeat Pennywise, he tells Leroy he’s leaving the military for a cooking job at a hotel in London.

“How much trouble can a hotel be?” Hallorann asks.
This is a clear nod to his future as the head chef at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining.

A Creepy Post-Credits Scene
The season ends with a flash-forward to October 1988, just before the events of the first IT movie. The scene takes place at Juniper Hill Asylum. An elderly Ingrid Kersh—the daughter of the original clown Bob Gray—hears a commotion and finds a young girl crying outside a room.

The girl is Beverly Marsh, with actress Sophia Lillis reprising her role from the films. She and her father have just discovered her mother’s body after a suicide. The elderly Ingrid approaches Beverly and delivers a chilling line that directly connects to IT: Chapter Two.

“Oh, dear. Don’t be sad. You know what they say about Derry. No one who dies here ever really dies,” she says.
This is the same line the Pennywise-possessed Mrs. Kersh says to an adult Beverly (Jessica Chastain) in the 2019 film, revealing this was their first encounter.

Also Read: Human Specimens Release Date: Prime Video’s Japanese Mystery Arrives December 18

---