IT: Welcome to Derry, “Winter Fire” Season Finale Review

From the pilot episode onward, IT: Welcome to Derry has exceeded expectations. Although Welcome to Derry serves as a prequel series to Andy Muschietti’s IT Chapter One and Chapter Two films, the HBO Max show stands tall in its own right, and in many ways, outshines the originals. It is darker, more violent, and terrifying with a purpose. Gone are broadcasted jumpscares, outdated jokes, and emotional whiplash. Instead, this horror-comedy delivers just the right amount of screams and laughs — sometimes, the sounds of gagging are interchangeable.

With a far more intelligent and tender approach to sensitive subject material, Welcome to Derry truly cements itself as a horror release for the history books. The penultimate and final episodes of season 1/Chapter One are major standouts. Especially because of that blood-dipped Pennywise costume. For now, let’s recap and review episode 8, “Winter Fire.” Plus, we’ll discuss where some of your favorite characters are headed next … including the Overlook Hotel!

---

Papa Pennywise

In a surprising and tragic twist, we learn more about Bob the Clown before he became Pennywise. Bob was a widower and single father of a young girl named Ingrid. Taking the stage name Periwinkle, Ingrid hoped to perform alongside her dad in a traveling caravan. But disaster struck. “IT” was intrigued by the clown’s ability to attract children. So he ate Bob and became Pennywise, a shapeshifting, soul-devouring monster of nightmarish proportions.

Rest in peace, Bob, but we can’t imagine Pennywise looking like anything else! What is most interesting about this lore, of course, is Periwinkle’s attempts to reconnect with her papa. Ingrid Kersh selfishly sows fear and dissent into her community so she can catch a glimpse of her dearly departed dad. Her actions have disastrous consequences for all of our heroes.

---

This town is the monster

What makes Welcome to Derry function so well is the intrinsic connection between the time period, prejudice, and Pennywise. The clown may be the sci-fi story monster, but there’s danger lurking in real life, too. Welcome to Derry shows how racism and sexism breed resentment and ruin. The horrible way people treat each other only feeds Pennywise more, poisoning the town in an ouroboros of suffering. Of all the violence and gore in the series, after all, none is so palpably gut-wrenching than when a mob of white men set fire to a Black speakeasy, burning over twenty people alive.

But the scathing and sublime political commentary doesn’t stop there. Throughout Welcome to Derry, the U.S. military ignores the warnings — and literally tramples on the sacred grounds — of the Native population. The general wants to capture and use Pennywise as a weapon, and even tells the clown, “You’re free to go,” in the finale. His soldiers shoot at, maim, and kill civilians as well as enlisted colored airmen. The police department chief is part of that lynch mob. These men are just as scary as Pennywise, if not often more so.

But friendship can save the day

Of course, any story with young protagonists is meant to show how the new generation can outlast oppression. A diverse and dynamic group, these kids work together when the adults can’t or won’t. In a kind of Lord of the Rings-esque scene, the kids carry a cursed dagger together toward a tree while all the odds are stacked against them. It’s a body-clenching, gasping, eye-widening kind of scary moment, but also hugely inspirational in its execution.

---

Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, Mike Hanlon, and Beverly Marsh

Prequel projects’ downfalls are always that they focus on characters rather than themes. Yet IT: Welcome to Derry does a truly great job bringing in the Losers without making everything about their families, relatives, or relationships. Welcome to Derry doesn’t rely on nostalgia to do all the storytelling work or emotional heavy lifting. But it does fill in the gaps of our understanding about our favorite original heroes.

Last names are easy to track, so we knew from the outset that the Hanlons are Mike’s ancestors. When they buy the farm and make jokes about raising sheep, we see their beginning (and eventual end) in a neat little bow. But Margie is a different story. Only in episode 8 do we discover she’s Richie Tozier’s mom. Suddenly, Richie’s name also has a deeper meaning, since he’s named after her first love, Ricardo “Rich” Santos. The writers also borrowed Eddie Kaspbrak’s monologue from the IT novel for Marge to speak at the funeral — perhaps a small nod to Richie and Eddie’s own tragic, unfulfilled romance.

A time skip brings us right to Beverly

IT fans are always tuned into numbers. After all, Pennywise appears in Derry every 27 years. Welcome to Derry ends with a jump to 1988 — a 26-year jump. Mrs. Kersh, painting a picture of either Periwinkle or Pennywise, hears a disturbance in the hospital. When she investigates, she discovers Beverly Marsh and her father weeping over Beverly’s mom’s body as it hangs from the ceiling in a final suicide. A year later, in 1989, the events of IT: Chapter One will be set into motion on Beverly’s disastrous last day of school.

Finally, “Winter Fire” itself is a reference to the poem Ben Hanscom writes for Beverly Marsh. We love a full circle moment.

---

How does Welcome to Derry tie into The Shining?

Poor Dick Hallorann. As if the man hasn’t suffered enough throughout Welcome to Derry, this specter-seeing veteran is now off to another Stephen King story. In The Shining, Dick Hallorann is head cook at the Overlook Hotel in Sidewinder, Colorado. Now, in the Welcome to Derry finale, Dick mentions he’s off to London to train as a chef. So there’s still some time for him to recover before he’s back to the haunts. Putting dramatic irony to good use, the scriptwriters gave Dick the line, “How much trouble can a hotel be?” Oh dear…

---

Will there be a second season of Welcome to Derry?

While there’s no official confirmation, Welcome to Derry definitely sets itself up for a sequel … or should we say another prequel? In the series, Pennywise reveals he sees time as a wheel. Everything happens all at once, forever, and he can move through time and space in a non-linear direction. We probably should have expected this from an outer space entity. Now fully aware of Pennywise’s powers, Marge worries he could go back to try to kill her parents or grandparents, thereby erasing the bloodline that helps end his life later.

Additionally, there’s a lot of room to explore Pennywise’s early days in Derry with his war against the Native people. With all possible timelines to explore — or even an alternate dimension where the Losers don’t defeat the Dancing Clown — there’s endless possibilities to keep Pennywise on our screens. Personally, I hope IT doesn’t become a franchise. But I’d be more than happy to have at least a “Chapter Two” announcement soon.

---

What did you think of IT: Welcome to Derry? Share your thoughts with other horror fans at side.show/geekgroup or in the Sideshow Social Network. And as always, don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!