IT: Welcome to Derry aired its finale episode with Ronnie, Lilly, and Marge trying to save Will from Pennywise. Meanwhile, Dick, Leroy, and the others attempt to rescue the kids.
IT: Welcome to Derry finale aired on December 14, 2025 via HBO Max. Episode 8, titled Winter Fire, follows a terror-stricken Derry as Pennywise captures the children. When Ronnie, Marge, and Lilly realize that Will has also been taken, they work together to save him. Leroy turns to Dick for help in rescuing his son.
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Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers about the series. Read at your own risk.
Deadlights Over Derry in IT: Welcome to Derry Finale
The finale of IT: Welcome to Derry opens with Derry swallowed by heavy fog. With Pennywise roaming free, the school becomes his playground. He forces the students into the auditorium and brutally kills a teacher in front of them. Then, he reveals the Deadlights. One by one, the kids fall into a trance.
Ronnie, Lilly, and Marge are the only ones missing. They stay back at the hideout. When they reach the school, they find a body and follow a trail of missing-person posters that leads them to the truth. Pennywise has taken the kids—and Will is among them. Surrounded by corpses, the trio hijacks a milk truck and gives chase.
Elsewhere, Pennywise calls Leroy and mocks him, reminding him that Will is trapped and helpless. Leroy knows he can’t face this alone, so he turns to Dick. Dick, however, is still overwhelmed by the ghosts haunting him.
Gun in hand, Dick lashes out and blames Leroy for tearing his mind apart. After a tense moment, he agrees to help. But when General Shaw learns they are working together, he prepares to intervene, ready to send his forces to stop them.
What’s the Plan to Save Will and the Kids?
Leroy and Dick rush back to Charlotte’s house, where Rose and Taniel bring up the magical dagger. It might be the only way to save Will—though they quickly realize Lilly is the one carrying it.
Rose leads them to the southern bank of the river, where an ancient pine stands alone. The dead tree predates even her ancestors and marks the farthest point where the dagger can still connect to the remaining pillars. If they bury it there, the dagger can act as a replacement pillar and restore the cage. To find the exact spot, they rely on Dick, while Rose prepares a ritual to calm the voices in his head.
After drinking a strange mixture, Dick reveals that Lilly has the dagger. The group splits up to track the girls down. Meanwhile, Ronnie, Lilly, and Marge crash the milk truck and are forced to continue on foot.
Along the way, Rose explains the dagger’s danger. The farther it moves from where it belongs, the more it damages the mind. It resists being used, twisting its holder’s thoughts and turning them into something obsessive and unstable. Sure enough, Lilly grows paranoid and eventually collapses, forcing Marge to take the dagger instead. They agree to keep switching who carries it, but by then, they’ve already reached the lake.
As the dagger begins to glow, they rush toward Pennywise’s convoy to stop him. During this moment, a key reveal drops—Marge is Richie Tozier’s mother, which all but guarantees her survival. Seconds later, Pennywise suddenly freezes, and the children snap out of their trance, finally free.
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Did Pennywise Succeed in Getting the Kids?
Leroy and the others arrive in a van, speeding across the frozen lake. It quickly becomes clear that Dick uses his powers to distract Pennywise just in time, saving Marge from certain death.
Leroy and Taniel head out together to plant the dagger at the deadwood. However, General Shaw and his men suddenly appear and open fire across the ice. Taniel is shot and killed on the spot. As Shaw closes in, Leroy orders Will to finish the job and place the dagger himself.
Will walks toward the tree with the other kids beside him. At first, the dagger refuses the deadwood, and Dick loses his hold on Pennywise. The creature then confronts General Shaw, who immediately recognizes it—and dies seconds later.
Leroy buys the kids time by unloading bullets into Pennywise. That sacrifice makes the difference. With help from Rich, who briefly returns alongside the Native spirit that guided Dick to the thirteenth pillar, the kids finally bury the dagger in the deadwood and restore the cage.
Pennywise is stopped. In the aftermath, the town gathers for Richie’s funeral. As the service unfolds, Dick sees Rich’s spirit among them, sharing one last embrace with his friends before fading away.
IT: Welcome to Derry Ending Explained
After the funeral, Marge explains the larger idea behind It to Lilly, including how the Losers’ Club eventually defeats Pennywise for good. Still, Marge worries the creature may try something worse—going further back in time to erase someone before they were even born, possibly one of their parents.
If that happens, Lilly believes it will be another generation’s fight. Dick also decides he’s done with Derry. He says goodbye to Leroy, relieved that the root he took earlier has finally quieted the voices in his head.
With Hank officially declared dead, he slips out of town without trouble. Leroy leaves the military as well, receiving an honorable discharge. Rose invites Leroy and Charlotte to join her, explaining that other pillars still need to be freed. Charlotte agrees, choosing to move forward. Meanwhile, Ronnie and Will finally share a kiss.
The story closes at Juniper Hills, where Ingrid remains for the next 26 years. A flash-forward to 1988 neatly connects the series to the IT films. A surprise appearance from Beverly seals the moment, as Ingrid delivers one final warning—no one ever truly escapes Derry.
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IT: Welcome to Derry Review
The finale wraps things up in a serviceable way, even if it leans heavily on convenient plot turns and emotional shortcuts. The show, much like Stranger Things, struggles to keep its rules consistent. Earlier, Dick could barely touch Pennywise’s mind, yet here he drinks some root tea and freezes the creature with little cost. That shift feels rushed and hard to fully buy.
The bigger issue is the lack of real consequences. Only a few characters die—Taniel, General Shaw, and Rich—while most of the cast walks away unharmed. For a story built around fear and massacre, Pennywise barely feels lethal by the end. That undercuts the threat and makes the clown feel strangely ineffective.
Still, IT: Welcome to Derry remains an entertaining ride despite its flaws. The final act turns into a safer, almost family-friendly showdown, which clashes with both the book and the show’s darker tone. Rich’s last-minute return also feels like a cheap narrative escape hatch. Even so, the series shows promise, and if season 2 digs deeper into the past, it could raise the tension and deliver something sharper.
Watch all the episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry on HBO Max.
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