IT: Welcome to Derry — Episode 8 Review

“Winter Fire” — When Pennywise Stops Hiding


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Let’s Start by Showing Y’all the Trailers, Shall We?

If you watched the trailers leading into this finale and thought, “There’s no way they’ll actually go that far” — they went further.

The marketing teased fog swallowing Derry, Pennywise stepping into the open, children disappearing en masse, and a tone shift from slow-burn dread to outright nightmare fuel. What the trailers didn’t prepare you for was just how mythic, cruel, and unrestrained this episode would be.

This wasn’t a tease for future horror.
This was Pennywise fully unleashed.


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⚠️ CONTENT WARNING

This episode contains: Extreme violence involving children
Body horror
Psychological despair
Religious and cosmic horror imagery
Themes of suicide, possession, and inevitability

If you thought the IT films were intense — this episode makes them feel restrained.


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Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

“Winter Fire” serves as the culmination of everything the season has been building toward: Pennywise’s slow awakening, Derry’s collective denial, and the realization that evil here isn’t random — it’s cyclical.

As a supernatural fog engulfs the town, institutions fail, adults freeze, and Pennywise steps into the light. What begins as an eerie escalation quickly becomes a full-scale horror event involving mass disappearances, broken psyches, and desperate attempts to contain something that may not truly be containable.

The episode doesn’t promise victory.
It promises survival — for now.


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Character Rundown

🧛 Pennywise / Bob Gray — Bill Skarsgård

Pennywise is unleashed after the military destroys the pillar that was suppressing him, and he returns with full force to terrorize Derry. In the finale, he summons a dense fog, then kills the school principal and hypnotizes most of the children, leading them into his thrall. He taunts Leroy about Will’s fate and separates Marge from the group after sensing her future significance (as Richie Tozier’s mother). Ultimately, Dick Hallorann and the others manage to temporarily imprison Pennywise again, with help from Rich’s spirit completing the ritual — though Pennywise remains a looming mythic threat.


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👩‍🦰 Marge Truman — Matilda Lawler

Marge spends much of the season fearing loss and trying to keep her friends alive. In Episode 8, she actively pursues Pennywise after his abduction of the children alongside Lilly and Ronnie. Pennywise targets her specifically because of her future role as Richie Tozier’s mother, trying to manipulate her. She survives the encounter, and by the end of the episode she stays in Derry with the Hanlon family and the others who endured the ordeal.


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👧 Lillian “Lilly” Bainbridge — Clara Stack

Lilly has been one of the central young protagonists, coping with the trauma of her father’s death and the surreal horrors Pennywise brings to town. In the finale, her bravery is tested as she follows Pennywise with Marge and Ronnie to save Will and the other children. She plays a part in tracking Pennywise and restoring the ritual that re-imprisons him, showing resilience despite nearly falling victim to his influence earlier in the season.


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👦 Will Hanlon — Blake Cameron James

Will is the Hanlon’s science-interested son who faces one of the darkest moments of the season when Pennywise attacks him in Episode 7. In Episode 8, Hallorann and Leroy help free Will and the other children from Pennywise’s control during the ritual to slow him, and Will survives the finale. His survival honors the canon that his future son will become Mike Hanlon — a key member of the Losers’ Club.


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👨‍✈️ Leroy Hanlon — Jovan Adepo

Leroy is the family patriarch whose belief in rationality is challenged by Pennywise’s supernatural terror. In the finale, he works with Hallorann to track down Pennywise and help free Will and the other children. While the chaos escalates and the military complicates matters, Leroy remains in Derry with Charlotte after the spirits and ritual succeed in momentarily imprisoning Pennywise.


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👩‍🏫 Charlotte Hanlon — Taylour Paige

Charlotte fights to protect her family while confronting the ugly truths about the town. In Episode 8, she assists in the collective effort against Pennywise’s onslaught and, after the climactic confrontation and ritual, stays in Derry with Leroy and Will rather than leaving town.


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👨‍🍳 Dick Hallorann — Chris Chalk

Hallorann is the psychic figure whose “shining” gifts are both a curse and a tool. In the finale, when Pennywise’s power seems overwhelming, Hallorann helps subdue Pennywise long enough to rescue the children (including Will) and aids in completing the re-imprisonment ritual. His role is crucial in silencing Pennywise’s influence and saving the day.


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👮 Hank Grogan — Stephen Rider

Hank is Ronnie’s father, the local projectionist and a grounded adult presence. In the finale, after being presumed dead, he is hidden by Rose from danger. After the ritual, he survives and leaves Derry with Ronnie, helping hold the emotional thread of family amid horror.


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👧 Veronica “Ronnie” Grogan — Amanda Christine

Ronnie is one of the close friends of Marge and Lilly. In some recounts of Season 8 events, her character is shown meeting a tragic fate, trapped and seemingly killed in the finale amid an underground confrontation with Pennywise — underscoring his terrifying power over the children.


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👨‍🔬 General Francis Shaw — James Remar

General Shaw represents the misguided attempt to weaponize Pennywise’s terror. In the finale, his military force kills Taniel and detains the adults, but Pennywise kills Shaw, showing that the entity cannot be controlled — only temporarily resisted.


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👵 Ingrid Kersh — Joan Gregson

Though her physical story in the 1960s ends with her institutionalization, the finale’s epilogue jumps to 1988, where an elderly Ingrid witnesses Elfrida Marsh’s suicide and meets young Beverly Marsh. This connects the series directly to events before the original IT story and deepens Pennywise’s psychological imprint across generations.


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🌿 Rose — Kimberly Norris Guerrero

Rose is introduced as a long-time Derry local with deep roots in the region’s history, connected to the Indigenous community and lore that predates Pennywise’s cyclical terror. She carries with her the weight of cultural memory — stories, warnings, and an awareness of things others in Derry either dismiss or don’t understand yet. Rather than being a direct member of the younger group facing Pennywise, Rose’s presence reflects the older, hidden layers of the town’s supernatural legacy, showing that the horror in Derry wasn’t born in the 1960s, but goes back much further, entwined with local Indigenous knowledge and lived experience.


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🪶 Taniel — Joshua Odjick

Taniel is introduced as Rose’s nephew and part of the fictional Shokopiwah community’s efforts to contend with Pennywise’s presence in the region. He is wise beyond his years, thoughtful, and intimately connected to the tribal stories and spiritual practices regarding the entity known as “The Galloo” — a name the tribe uses for the cosmic force that becomes Pennywise. Taniel’s arc through the season brings out context on ancient containment efforts and ancestral knowledge, offering viewers insight into how the supernatural cycles in Derry were first understood and combated long before the 1960s storyline began.


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Pacing / Episode Flow

At 1 hour and 17 minutes, this episode earns its runtime.

The pacing is deliberate but relentless. It opens with unease, escalates into outright terror, then settles into something far worse: inevitability.

There’s no filler. No “cooldown” scenes. Even quieter moments are loaded with dread. The episode understands when to slow down — usually right before delivering something monstrous.

Unlike the films, which often rush to spectacle, this finale lets moments breathe, which paradoxically makes them hit harder.


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Pros

This season — and this finale in particular — succeeds where the films stumbled by embracing cosmic horror over jump-scare theatrics.

Pennywise is genuinely scarier here because he isn’t trying to be likable, quirky, or performative. He’s ancient, cruel, and bored with pretending.

The biggest advantage over the films is structure. Television allows Pennywise to exist as an ongoing presence instead of a monster-of-the-week. By the time he fully emerges in this episode, it feels earned — like a dam finally breaking.

Another massive strength is how the show treats time. The films hint at Pennywise’s longevity, but the show makes a far more disturbing choice: Pennywise doesn’t just exist across time — he experiences it all at once. Past, present, and future blur together, making him both omniscient and strangely trapped.

Visually, this episode is stunning. The fog, the school sequence, the procession of floating children — it’s some of the most striking imagery ever put to screen in a Stephen King adaptation.

And unlike IT Chapter Two, this season never undercuts horror with jokes or meta commentary. It respects the terror.

Lets fave it the show got so much better when Pennywise came on screen, the show improved, im sorry but his other forms I couldn’t care about, bring me the clown.


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Cons

If there’s one criticism, it’s that this episode is emotionally brutal. There’s no relief valve. Some viewers may find it overwhelming rather than entertaining.

And for those who dislike time manipulation as a narrative device, Pennywise’s nonlinear perception of time may feel too convenient — like he’s read the script ahead of time.

That said, the show mitigates this by framing time not as a power, but a curse. Pennywise knows how he dies — and still can’t stop it.

I should bring this up now. But I am not a fan of pennywise’s design in this entire reboot saga, the problem is, there is no nuance, and nothing about him looks approachable, the whole point of him being a clown is to lure a kids to him, and pretend he’s friendly. But with this pennywise design, there’s nothing friendly about him, he just looks demonic all the time. So if a villian is scary 24/7 it stops being scary.

Also if I havent said it before, ill say it now since this is thr season finale. My god thr CGI in this show sucks, granted it did in the 2 films as well, this been a problem with Andy Muschietti’s direction, the guy indulges himself with CGI to an unrealistic amount.

Everything just looks so rubbery and uncanny to the point its unrealistic and you cant even accept is there, Andy my man fix this issue. You have an issue, you been doinf this with all ur projects.

The CGI always hinders his projects or smy projects, it gets to the point where you thr audience just begs for Pennywise to come on screen because at least thats a physical human.

Also another issue the military part of this show doesnt land at all, the whole reveal that they think they can weaponize this Ester of worlds, for what? To control people, its such a lazy move. Its cliche and itd like oh really? How dumb are y’all? Yeah sure we can absolutely control and weaponize a world eater, that won’t backfire at all, sigh.


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Final Thoughts

“Winter Fire” is not just a season finale — it’s a statement.

This show isn’t trying to replicate the films. It’s correcting them.

Where the movies focused on spectacle, this series focuses on dread. Where the films leaned into nostalgia, this show leans into inevitability. And where the films sometimes softened Pennywise, this episode strips him bare as something ancient and merciless.

The final moments — especially the asylum epilogue — confirm what this series is doing: moving backward and forward through time, because for Pennywise, time is meaningless.

Derry doesn’t heal.
It remembers.


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⭐ Rating

10/10 — plz mr. Andy give us a season 2 faster.


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⚠️ SPOILER WARNING

Everything below this point contains full spoilers.

Turn back now.


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Spoilers

The episode opens with Pennywise fully freed, his presence manifesting as a suffocating fog that blankets Derry. The school shutdown becomes a trap, as children are herded into an assembly that turns into a massacre. Pennywise appears onstage, performing with what initially appears to be a mannequin — only to later be revealed as the school principal. Pennywise forces his fingers into the man’s eyes, bursts them, unleashes the Deadlights, and kidnaps the children en masse.

The imagery that follows is unforgettable: Pennywise driving his clown carriage, flute in hand, with a line of floating children behind him like the Pied Piper. This isn’t subtle symbolism — it’s deliberate folklore horror. One of the coolest scenes in my opinion.

Btw if y’all want a LOTR reference? Well that shard Lilly has been holding, the chard to trap Pennywise. Yes the shard can be used to trap Pennywise but they have to take it to a tree thats on the other side of the frozen river.

Marge’s abduction leads to one of the most important revelations in the series. Pennywise reveals that she will one day have a son named Richie Tozier — one of the children who will eventually help kill him. Pennywise mocks the concept of time, openly admitting he experiences tomorrow, yesterday, birth, and death simultaneously. He isn’t predicting — he’s remembering.

Which also leads to some the most chilling dialog i think ive seen in a while.

“Don’t you recognize your little boy? 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. But it’s not always easy, no. Being caged up in one place, one time. They can’t fence me in — not them! And not you. Beep beep, Margie!”

Time is truly irrelevant to him, he lives in a plane above us.

Hallorann’s arc reaches a breaking point when he nearly commits suicide, overwhelmed by visions and voices. He’s stopped only because he’s needed — not because the pain stops.

Also i do love that Hallorann gets into Pennywise mind to pause him and we see inside Pennywise’s mind and hes back at the circus surrounded by the circus people including his daughter and the ring leader, the ring leader says are you ok Bob Gray? We found u in the ditch, you need to lighten up on the booze there.

Which Pennywise says with a disgusted confused face, im not Bob Gray. Ok it is funny seeing this entity have to interact with mundane people even though its in his mind.

Anyways, the ritual to rebind Pennywise is desperate, costly, and incomplete. The dagger doesn’t destroy him — it cages him again. Temporarily.

Also finally General Shaw gets his comeuppance, because he decides to walk in front of pennywise, and once pennywise gets freed from his trance. He tells them he can go and then pennywise senses him and says, I remember you, and then changes his face to the old man with the missing eye from episode three. And then he takes a bite out of General Shaws face okay good riddance.

Anyways, the kids shove the shard into the tree. But they’re struggling, then the ghost of rich shows up and helps shove it in.

Which leads to one the coolest moments of his face changing form rapidly snd flesh is dangling behind his head, he then says the words lively crowd, then bursts into a light ball and flies away where now he will be dormant for 27 years.

This kinda makes sense why he’ll be going back in time, maybe to try to prevent his death even from more in the pastAnyways the day is saved, except Taniel died by getting shot in the neck by the military, Rose is sad of course. Also Hanlon got shot in the leg but besides everyone is ok.

Btw i was fine with Dick Hallorann being in the show, but I groaned at his conclusion at the end. When he codms ro say goodbye to Hanlon at his famr house, we find our Hallorann is leaving hes gonna go take up a job as a cook in a hotel kitchen and Hanlon says if you ever need any help just call up, ans Hallorann says I think im good, besides how bad can a hotel be?

Sighhhh, I think I just felt my soul died, that was definitely a line choice, anyways.

The epilogue jumps to 1988, revealing an elderly Ingrid Kersh encountering a young Beverly Marsh in an asylum. Her line — “No one ever really dies in Derry” — reframes the entire franchise. This isn’t closure. It’s confirmation of the cycle.

The final implication is chilling: future seasons will move backward through time, because Pennywise does. What we think is the present may already be the past to him.

He knows how he dies.

And he keeps playing anyway.

SPOILERS – Why Pennywise Was Never Truly “Killed” (And Why the Lore Supports It)

Here’s the thing that has never sat right with me, even long before Welcome to Derry Episode 8 basically grabbed this idea and shined a spotlight on it: it never made sense that the Losers’ Club “killed” Pennywise. Not weakened him. Not banished him. Not forced him back into hiding. But killed him. Because what exactly are we saying died? The IT entity isn’t a physical organism in the way humans understand life and death. Its true form is described and shown as three glowing orbs — the Deadlights — and last I checked, you can’t physically kill light. There’s no organs, no lungs, no brain, no heart. And yet the story wants us to believe that yanking out something that looks like a heart somehow equals killing an entity that doesn’t even perceive time the way we do.

And here’s where the Stephen King lore starts making this theory not just plausible, but frankly obvious. Pennywise does not originate from Earth, nor does it originate from anything resembling our plane of existence. In King’s expanded mythology — particularly through IT, The Dark Tower, and related works — the entity comes from the Macroverse (also referred to as the Todash Darkness), a realm outside conventional reality, space, and time. This is the same cosmic “in-between” that houses beings far older and far more powerful than humanity, entities that don’t obey linear cause and effect. Pennywise isn’t just a monster that lives in Derry — it feeds there, because that’s where it anchored itself, not where it was born.

Episode 8 outright confirms what the books have always implied: Pennywise doesn’t experience time linearly. Past, present, and future blur together. “Tomorrow, yesterday — it’s all the same.” That alone dismantles the idea of a permanent death. If an entity can exist across multiple points in time simultaneously, then the concept of “killing it” at one moment becomes laughable. You’re not ending it — you’re interrupting a cycle. And Stephen King repeatedly hints at this across his work. The Deadlights persist. The influence persists. Evil in Derry never fully leaves. Even after the Losers’ victory, the town remains wrong, hollow, poisoned in a way that suggests the source was never truly removed.

So plz explain to me like im a 5 year old, pray tell me how a group of what 6 humans are able to so cslled “kill” an interdimensional being made of light, by ripping its so called heart out with their bare hands?

This is also why the so-called “heart” scene has always felt symbolic rather than literal. What the Losers destroy is not Pennywise’s true form, but a projection — a physical avatar shaped by fear and belief. In King’s universe, belief has power, especially against creatures like IT. Fear feeds it. Unity weakens it. But weakening something is not the same as erasing it from existence. Humans did not suddenly become capable of killing a cosmic being from beyond reality with their bare hands. That’s not bravery — that’s narrative shorthand.

So when fans start theorizing that Welcome to Derry might function as a stealth sequel to the films, on the surface it sounds absurd — until you remember that it never made sense that the entity died in the first place. If Pennywise can remember its own “death” before it happens, if it can confuse death with birth, if it can exist across timelines and planes of existence, then the idea that seven adults permanently ended it starts sounding less like canon and more like human wishful thinking. This isn’t a stupid theory. It’s not cope. It’s logic. Orbs are not physical beings. Light does not die. And humanity does not kill gods — especially not ones born in the dark spaces between worlds.

Let alone with their bare hands, and using their bare hands to rip a heart out and call it s day.

Here’s the big contradiction: the major issue at play is guess I should say (sorry for the rant).

If Pennywise’s heart is vital, then:

why do the Deadlights exist at all?

why does the entity transcend physical form?

why does it exist outside time?


You can’t have both:

“this thing is a cosmic constant”

and

“this thing dies if you squeeze its chest”


Those ideas cancel each other out.

You don’t kill something like IT.
You interrupt it.
You drive it away.
And eventually… it comes back.

No wonder why fans come back later and finally realize “Hold on a moment, this is dumb. How do u kill a interdimensional being that ascends time and reality itself, with ur bare hands?”

Also i love the little nod to IT 2017, where at the end the title pops up and says IT Chapter 1, keeping the part 1 info until the end? Yep seems familiar.

The way I look at this, I don’t think he died. In fact I think IT survived and IT went back in time to try tk prevent his death since he just lost to the Losers, its clever writing, because it means anyone is on tbe chopping block in any future seasons.

Anyways hope y’all enjoy today’s review, this show was a blast.