WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for It: Welcome to Derry.
Horror fans love a killer clown. HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry has taken the world by storm with a deft blend of heartstopping terror and comforting nostalgia surrounding a solid emotional core.
Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård) returns to terrorize the children of Derry, Maine, this time matched by a group of intrepid kids and a handful of familiar adult faces. Set in 1962, season 1 of a planned three-chapter run brings to life the fire at the Black Spot, one of the most disturbing sections of Stephen King’s 1986 novel, It.
Over seven jaw-dropping episodes, creators Andy and Barbara Muschietti, along with showrunners Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane, have resurrected fan-favorite characters from King’s connected universe, concocted fascinating origin stories, and dazzled us with a series of horrific sequences as we watch the shapeshifting monster go to work. But as we approach the season one finale, five burning questions begin to take shape.
Will Leroy escape?
Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO
One of the more surprising storylines this season follows General Shaw (James Remar) and Operation Precept. Commander of the Derry Air Force Base, Shaw has recovered memories of his own childhood in the sinister town and returned to capture the nightmarish beast that once tried to kill him in the woods. Or at least that’s what we think. Episode 7, “The Black Spot,” reveals the true nature of his plan.
Well aware of the Entity’s shapeshifting power, Shaw plans to free Pennywise and use the fear It inspires to control a rapidly changing nation. Ostensibly kind, Shaw has been using Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) and his psychic gifts to locate the mysterious monster, and he’s summoned Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) to the Base because of the airman’s peculiar strength. Thanks to a brain injury suffered during combat, Leroy is incapable of fear, making him impervious to Pennywise’s manipulative power.
With these factors at play, episode 7 ends with a game-changing showdown. Upon locating one of thirteen Pillars — pieces of the star in which Pennywise arrived that now contain him to a small hunting ground — Leroy prepares to move the precious stone further in, reducing the size of Its metaphysical cave. But Colonel Fuller (Thomas Mitchell) orders the Pillar brought to the Base, where it can be “studied.” Having nearly lost his son Will (Blake Cameron James) to this frightening beast, Leory knows this is a terrible idea and storms the Base with his service weapon drawn. He demands to take possession of the Pillar so he can rebury it before the creature escapes. Shaw reluctantly reveals his true motivation and orders Leroy to return to his barracks.
But moments after the airman departs, Shaw instructs Fuller, “Don’t let that man leave the Base.” The General’s callous regard for the children of Derry — not to mention the larger U.S. population — shows that he will not hesitate to kill anyone who jeopardizes his dangerous plan. Will Leroy manage to escape the Base, and can he stop Shaw before it’s too late?
Can the Losers rescue Will?
Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO
Unfortunately, Leroy is not the only Hanlon in jeopardy. After the horrific Black Spot fire, Pennywise returns to his subterranean lair and prepares to sleep for another 27 years, thus fulfilling another deadly cycle. We see the murderous clown nearly submerged in blood, surrounded by the dismembered bodies of his previous meals. But now that Shaw has removed one of the Pillars, the clown’s options have dramatically changed.
Home alone, Will answers a call from his crush, Ronnie (Amanda Christine), but stares at the phone in horror when her words become increasingly vulgar. He realizes that he’s talking to Pennywise himself before discovering that the call is coming from inside the house.
Will turns around to find the fiend — soaked in blood from the nose down — perched atop his refrigerator. Before he can fight back or flee, Pennywise unhooks his cavernous jaws and traps Will in the Deadlights, powerful beams used to stun and subdue his prey. Constant Readers know that Will must survive this startling encounter so that he can grow up to father Mike Hanlon, who will wage a similar war with the clown as a child in 1989 and again 27 years later. But this attack puts everyone else in danger.
We can assume that the Entity will bring Will to his lair and that the child’s friends will come to his aid. The loss of Rich (Arian S. Cartaya) in episode 7 proves that anyone else in this de facto Losers’ Club can die, and Will’s capture places Ronnie, Lilly (Clara Stack), and Marge (Matilda Lawler) in imminent danger.
Will Dick Hallorann be able to close the Lockbox?
Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO
While Pennywise is known for preying on children, this interdimensional monster is dangerous to adults as well. Hallorann has been using his Shining to locate the Entity and the thirteen Pillars that keep him contained — at a high cost to his own mental health. Episode 5 follows Fuller and his men on a disastrous mission into the sewers, where they’re decimated by the shapeshifting beast. Though he survives the ill-advised plan, Hallorann is pulled into a metaphysical space and forced to relive his painful past.
In a disturbing childhood memory, the ghost of Dick’s abusive grandfather uses Pennywise’s power to pry open a mental lockbox used to trap dangerous spirits. Outside the sewers, Hallorann sees the body of one of the airmen just killed by Pennywise’s deception, indicating Hallorann’s new vulnerability. After years of locking spirits away, It has managed to set them all free.
Though unnerving to see mangled ghosts wherever he goes, Dick has thus far been able to evade their awareness. But in order to escape the Black Spot fire, he must ask one of the dead for help. Though Sesqui (Morningstar Angeline), leader of the indigenous tribe that first battled It, leads Hallorann to safety, this interaction draws the attention of every ghost in the area. Dick may survive the harrowing fire, but the spirits of his fallen friends swarm him in the aftermath, screaming their confusion and pain in his ears. Unable to help or drown them out, Hallorann has no choice but to accept the cacophony.
Constant Readers know that he will go on to teach a young Danny Torrance this mental lockbox trick within the pages of Doctor Sleep, but will he be able to help when his friends wage war with Pennywise? And what will he be required to do in order to trap these spirits once again?
What lies in store for Mrs. Kersh?
Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO
In a season filled with revelations and connections to King’s larger catalogue, one of the most shocking has been the story of Ingrid Kersh (Madeleine Stowe). The kindly housekeeper first meets Lilly at Juniper Hill, a hospital for the mentally ill, but becomes a trusted confidant and advisor as the girl battles the clown with her friends. But recent episodes have unveiled her darker connection to the shapeshifting monster. We learn that Ingrid is the daughter of Robert Gray (Skarsgård), the original Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
Flashbacks reveal that the once-human circus performer was targeted by It, who sets his eyes on Gray’s appealing stage persona. Desperate to reconnect with her missing father, Ingrid has spent years luring children to the predator’s feeding ground and consoling herself with glimpses of the familiar clown. But a confrontation outside the burning Black Spot leaves Mrs. Kersh in mortal danger.
As Pennywise prepares to sleep for another 27 years, Ingrid calls the creature back, demanding to know what really happened to her father. The Entity delivers the devastating news while approaching with murderous curiosity. But rather than eating the daughter of his stolen human form, It sweeps Ingrid up into the Deadlights. The next day, we see paramedics cart the catatonic woman away on a stretcher, but a sly dart of her eyes reveals something more menacing.
We know that Mrs. Kersh will go on to terrorize Beverly Marsh in King’s adult timeline, also chronicled in It: Chapter Two. What we don’t know is how the woman transforms from a grieving and unstable daughter to an outright monster capable of Its shapeshifting powers. Will Ingrid become a resident of Juniper Hill or find herself trapped alongside her father in Pennywise’s metaphysical menagerie?
Can Pennywise be contained?
Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO
With charming characters, shocking reveals, and of course a bevy of horrifying deaths, It: Welcome to Derry has fleshed out some of the sprawling novel’s more mysterious lore. We’ve learned that Rose (Kimberly Guerrero) and a committee of indigenous protectors have been monitoring It for centuries, containing the beast to the woods where the otherworldly fiend can do minimal damage. But General Shaw arrives in town, determined to undo their life-saving work. He’s used Hallorann to locate and remove one of the tribe’s protective Pillars, leaving the cage door open for Pennywise’s escape.
In addition to King’s creature mythology, the novel makes no mention of these thirteen Pillars, nor do either of Muschietti’s cinematic adaptations, leaving containment an open question. We know that Pennywise will awaken in 1989 to torture and eat the children of Derry and that he will target the Barrens, a wooded creek where the Losers’ Club forms. What we don’t know is whether future cycles will see him caged or if he’ll be able to hunt in a larger area. Will they be able to force Pennywise back into the box, or will he find a way to terrorize more of the town’s most vulnerable citizens?
It: Welcome to Derry seasons 2 and 3 will probably be set in previous cycles, bringing to life the Bradley Gang massacre of 1935 and the 1908 Kitchener Ironworks explosion, both teased in the show’s deceptively wholesome opening sequence. This timeline regression means we’re likely to get answers to most of these questions as the anthology-esque series transforms to showcase earlier eras. But what does that mean for our beloved 1962 characters? Part of what sets It: Welcome to Derry apart from a crowded field of horror TV is a willingness to kill fan-favorite characters, mirroring King’s own ability to shatter our hearts by blending terror and devastation.
As we approach the finale of season one, perhaps our most unsettling question should be who will survive and what will be left of them when the dust settles on the Master of Horror’s infamous town.
Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO
The post Five Burning Questions Ahead of the ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Season Finale appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.