The show delves into the interludes from the Stephen King book, showing some of the significant moments in Derry, Maine. This season, we saw the events leading up to the burning of the Black Spot, the augury moment that marked the end of It’s 1962 cycle.
Rather than just going over established stories from the book, It: Welcome to Derry also introduces new lore for the villain. Some of the most shocking reveals about It/Pennywise will change the way we understand the book, movies, and future seasons.
HBO Max has not yet renewed It: Welcome to Derry for seasons 2 or 3, as of the time of writing.
7Pennywise Stole His Persona From A Real Clown Named Bob Gray
In the IT book, Pennywise the Dancing Clown also introduces himself as Bob Gray, but the book never explains why. In It: Chapter Two, it’s implied that Pennywise was actually a human named Bob Gray at one point. Luckily, It: Welcome to Derry finally clarified who Bob Gray is and his connection to Pennywise.
It took the form of a child who looked like the kid from Insidious when he approached Bob Gray. He lured him into the woods and murdered him. From then on, Pennywise the Dancing Clown became his preferred form because it drew in children. This isn’t particularly shocking considering they teased this in It: Chapter Two, but it is still interesting to know.
6Pennywise Is Trapped In Derry, Maine
One of the less shocking It reveals in It: Welcome to Derry is why the interdimensional shapeshifter never leaves Derry, Maine. The answer is more straightforward than it seems: he can’t. Pennywise is trapped within the confines of Derry, Maine.
Whether It could leave Derry was a debate before the prequel; so the surprise level will vary from person to person depending on prior interpretations of Stephen King’s works. I personally thought he couldn’t leave Derry, so it’s one of the less shocking reveals. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by the reasoning.
5Pennywise Sleeps In A Pool Of Blood & Dismembered Body Parts
One of the more macabre but amusing reveals about Pennywise in It: Welcome to Derry is where he sleeps when he hibernates each cycle. The series depicts Pennywise waking up after the military destroyed a pillar. He was almost entirely submerged in a pool of blood with dismembered body parts all around him.
The sight was shocking enough to elicit a nervous laugh from me. It’s just so gruesome and gory. Then again, this is Pennywise we’re talking about. There are virtually no moral lines he won’t cross, as proven by his taking the form of Mrs. Kersh in It: Chapter Two.
As such, the shock of his sleeping situation fades pretty quickly when thinking it through logically. When he’s killing and dismembering dozens of people, they can’t all be floating up in the sewers due to space constraints. Plus, the body parts are a snack for him when he wakes up.
4Pennywise Is Weak To The Meteorite Shards
In the It movies, Pennywise’s only major weakness is belief. The Losers Club can only harm him with Mike’s penetrating captive bolt because they think they can. They can only hurt him with Eddie’s inhaler because they believe it will hurt the cosmic being. However, It: Welcome to Derry introduces an actual weapon that can harm It.
As shown in It: Welcome to Derry, It is weak to shards of the meteorite, called a star in the show, that he arrived with. Pennywise is fully prepared to murder Lily Bainbridge, but it stops in its tracks because of the dagger that Taniel dropped. It’s shocking to think of Pennywise having this big a weakness, especially since the meteorite remnants still exist underground.
However, it’s also possible that the meteorite shard only works because the native people think it will work. The wise member of the Shokopiwah believed the star would be It’s weakness, so it was, which led to more people believing it would be his weakness, so it was. This would explain why Pennywise can be inside remnants of the meteorite in It: Chapter Two without it harming him.
3Pennywise Used To Live In Peace With Humans
They found a meteorite dagger that would keep the entity away from their settlement. Meanwhile, they gave him the forest. While it’s not explicitly stated, it’s presumed that anyone who went into the forest was fair game for It to eat. This arrangement served all parties well until the colonizers stole the land and turned Derry into a lumber town.
The idea of It living in peace with humans still breaks my brain. Even though they explicitly described it, I cannot imagine a world where that would ever happen. It’s even more shocking and baffling to me than Pennywise being weak to meteorite shards.
2Pennywise Experiences All Times At Once
One of the biggest and most shocking reveals in It: Welcome to Derry is the fact that Pennywise experiences time in a different way than humans. He isn’t bound to the linear timeline that you and I have. Instead, he experiences all times at once. He experiences his birth and death at the same time. He sees his past, present, and future all at once.
“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.”
–Pennywise in It: Welcome to Derry
It stands to reason that he will know in the 1935 cycle that his attempt to kill Marge failed, so he would take a different approach to saving his life. Ultimately, many questions arise from this shocking reveal, but it makes sense that an interdimensional being from outside our world wouldn’t be bound by the same rules.
1Pennywise Can Still Stop The Losers Club (Maybe)
The most shocking revelation in It: Welcome to Derry is that Pennywise may be able to stop the Losers Club from killing him, emphasis on the maybe. It’s not clear whether Pennywise can actually save himself. We don’t know if Derry is a causal loop or if killing a Losers Club ancestor would create a parallel universe.
We only received a very brief, vague description of Pennywise’s concept of time, and it will certainly be explored more in the next two seasons. The part that’s important isn’t whether or not Pennywise can stop the Losers Club; it’s the fact that Pennywise believes that he can. This is the reason why It: Welcome to Derry moves chronologically backwards.
