It Welcome to Derry Episode 8

A Chilling Finale

Warning: contains major spoilers for It Welcome to Derry episode 8

Well, folks, we made it. This is the grand finale, the concluding (for now) installment in the sordid saga of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Last week’s penultimate episode felt like the climax of the season, but It Welcome to Derry episode 8 has plenty of surprises in store.

Derry is deluged with a thick freezing fog as the episode begins. Pennywise has been awakened, and he’s ready to gorge on the local kids. After tricking the students to meet in the gymnasium, Pennywise uses the deadlights to possess them in a Carrie-like scene of panic and carnage. This is an entertaining and dementedly funny scene, although it seems over the top that Pennywise can control so many people at once.

This episode reveals the series’ biggest twist: the entity can travel backward in time. He already experienced the events from It Chapters 1 and 2. Pennywise is trying to pull a Terminator and kill the parents of the kids who defeated him in 1989.

This technically turns It Welcome to Derry from a prequel to a sequel and sets up potential future season in earlier timelines. I have mixed feelings about this. It’s a gutsy plot turn, but it doesn’t seem necessary. We know that Pennywise will inevitably fail to kill the descendants of the characters we’ve met, unless the show is interested in completely erasing the events of the previous two movies.

This is another showcase episode for Marge, who somehow does a halfway decent job of driving a milk truck despite having one eye and zero driving experience. She does crash eventually, but neither she nor her friends are hurt. That’s a win in my book.

Marge is still grieving Richie, of course, and his spirit appears at two pivotal moments late in the episode. It’s amazing how Marge evolved from a bratty minor character into one of the most significant protagonists in just a few episodes.

The military storyline never made a whole lot of logical sense, and this episode doesn’t help. I haven’t talked about General Shaw (James Remar) much in my reviews, but he’s the leader of the expedition to find the entity. When he finally comes to face to face with Pennywise, Shaw tries convince him that they’re on the same side.

He doesn’t comprehend that Pennywise can’t be reasoned with. The entity certainly isn’t interested in working with the military or anyone else. Pennywise finishes him off by devouring his face. I know that this show’s military brass is supposed to be corrupt and stupid, but this plot was never as believable or compelling as the other storylines.

It Welcome to Derry episode 8 deepens the series’ Stephen King mythology with references to the turtle Maturin, the revelation that Marge is the future mother of Richie Tozier, and an explanation for how Dick Halloran ended up employed by the Stanley Hotel in The Shining.

The last scene features a fun surprise cameo by Beverly (Sophie Lillis). I’ve already spoiled enough, so I won’t go into what she’s doing, but I didn’t expect her to appear. This is a cool way to finish the series.