Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for IT: Welcome To Derry S1E8, “Winter Fire” (written by Jason Fuchs and directed by Andy Muschietti). Spoilers also include plot points from the films IT (2017) and IT: Chapter 2 (2019)
When a show like IT: Welcome to Derry is likely to have a second season (and a third, based on plans in place from Andy and Barbara Muschetti), there is much more flexibility throughout a first season and in the season finale to begin to develop and explore the connective tissue between the seasons and the many other Stephen King properties referenced in the show.
In the final two episodes of the season, both last week’s “The Black Spot” and the finale,” Winter Fire,” the exploration of these connections has been the most interesting part. I would say it’s what has gone well despite some rocky explanations of lore and convenient plot devices to help tie the 1962 story up in a tidy way so that everything is in order when 1989 and the movies come around.
I find myself, then, thinking about how excited I am about the possibility of a second and third season, given where the Muschettis want to take it. Because if this were a show only about a group of people in 1962 battling Pennywise season after season, I would be much less inclined to keep going. Pennywise is asleep for another 27 years at the end of this season, just like we thought he would be. But the prospect of when he might show up next is much more interesting than the story of how he was defeated in 1962.
The finale opens as a dense, supernatural fog (potentially the “Mist” from King’s novella, but we are never really told this) engulfs the town of Derry, isolating its residents and creating an atmosphere of dread. From there, our finale follows the Army as it seeks to side with Pennywise (Bill Skarsgaard) for its own control, and the children and citizens of Derry, as they try to send Pennywise back into hibernation.
General Shaw (James Remar), driven by the belief that the pillars containing Pennywise can be weaponized, proceeds with his operation, disregarding warnings from Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) and others. His team melted down the mysterious turtle-shell pillar at the end of the last episode, which has, until now, limited Pennywise’s power within Derry’s boundaries.
This decision ends up being catastrophic. By destroying the pillar, Shaw inadvertently removes the primary constraint on Pennywise, effectively opening the prison door and allowing the entity to expand beyond just children and the immediate vicinity of the town’s core. The military operation quickly devolves into chaos as Pennywise, now fully awake, begins a brutal massacre that includes kidnapping all of the children at Derry High School, consuming soldiers and civilians, and placing countless people inside the “Deadlights,” the state of unconsciousness where Pennywise can control and manipulate them.
Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James) was also taken to the Deadlights at the end of Episode 7, and his family and friends are desperate to save him. His father and mother, Leroy Hanlon and Charlotte Hanlon (Taylour Paige), team with Rose (Kimberly Guerrero) and Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) to begin working together in an attempt to rescue Will. Partnering with Marge (Matilda Lawler), Ronnie (Amanda Christine), and Lilly (Clara Stack), the group learns from Rose that the pillar dagger that Lilly found in the sewer in episode six can serve as a kind of stopgap in the cosmic boundary that contains Pennywise.
If they bury it at a certain spot on the outside of town before Pennywise passes that spot with his Deadlights horde, they will be able to contain him again. Otherwise, Pennywise might be free forever. This is one of the examples of convenience I mentioned, because nowhere throughout the season was this ever mentioned before, but it’s helpful for the plot to be able to contain Pennywise (so he can show up in the movie in 1989), so we just have to go with it.
Using the dagger first as a weapon, the team is able to free those frozen in the Deadlights, and that allows Dick Hallorann to use his shining ability to get inside Pennywise’s head just long enough for the children (with the help of the ghost of Richie) to bury the dagger, ensnaring Pennywise again. There are tragic consequences as General Shaw, Taniel (Joshue Odjick), and many members of the military perish in the battle to ensnare Pennywise. But he is eventually sent back to sleep, defeated by the boundary and Dick Hallorann’s ability to manipulate It’s mind.
With everyone freed and Pennywise back in hibernation for 27 years, the chess pieces have to be set up on the board for what will happen in the future movies and what we will see in 1989 and again in 2016. The Hanlons, originally dead set on getting the hell out of Derry, decide to stay because Rose thinks they would be able to help the town, and they can focus on something simple like raising sheep (more on this later).
Ingrid Kersh (Madeline Stowe) is institutionalized at Juniper Hill after she continues to insist that her father (the infamous Robert Gray) is alive and she must please Pennywise to be able to see him. Marge feels her “knight” Richie around her from time to time, and knows he is protecting them and watching over them.
We know from interviews with the Muschiettis that their plans for Season 2 of this show are to go back to 1935, and for Season 3 to focus on 1908. We have seen glimpses of each of those timelines in Season 1, and several breadcrumbs dropped in this finale set up not only what will happen in those seasons, but also connections to the two movies. Each of these is worth a brief note as Season 1 comes to a close.
The Hanlon Family: Leroy and Will are the grandfather and father, respectively, of Mike Hanlon, the future Losers’ Club member in 1989 and town librarian in 2016. The trauma inflicted upon them directly informs Mike’s own history and his role in fighting IT as an adult. When we next see the Hanlons in IT: Chapter 1, they are forcing Mike to execute sheep as part of the work on their farm. Not quite the simple life that Rose promised them.
Ingrid Kersh: Flashbacks throughout the season revealed the origin of Mrs. Kersh (the elderly woman who scares Beverly Marsh in IT: Chapter 2). She was originally the nurse who helped her father, Robert Gray (Pennywise’s human form), lure children in the 1930s, believing she was freeing him from his shadow. In a stinger at the end of the episode, we see the 1989 Ingrid Kersh find Beverly Marsh in Juniper Hill, just as her mother has killed herself.
Marge and Richie: Marge’s confrontation with Pennywise confirms she has a son later in life named Rich. In 1962, Richie’s sacrifice sets up the origin of Richie Tozier’s name, a connection that adds depth to the Losers’ Club history. Marge names her son Rich to honor Richie’s sacrifice in 1962. Rich will go on to be played in the movies and the miniseries by Seth Green, Harry Dean Anderson, Finn Wolfhard, and Bill Hader.
Dick Hallorann: Dick Hallorann, a central figure in IT: Welcome to Derry, is the same character who later becomes the cook with “the shining” at the Overlook Hotel. As the episode ends, he tells Leroy Hanlon that he has a friend who has offered him a job as a chef at a hotel, and comments that it sounds like a much less stressful life (“How much trouble can a hotel be?” Oh, just you wait, buddy.)
The Marsh Family: “Alvin Marsh” is seen as graffiti, confirming the connection to Beverly Marsh’s abusive father and the history of the town, and providing more connective tissue to the movies to come later.
