It, Welcome to Derry Finale
There’s so much I could say about this episode and how much it draws from Stephen King’s lore, but truly, it was pretty damn great.
Remember, spoilers ahead!!!!
Now, I’m curious - since much of the lore surrounding It wasn’t mentioned in the book It - did Stephen King check off on the additions to the notion of the creature living in the past, present, and future all at once? Were the concepts brought together by tiny hints, lines, from It, The Dark Tower series, and other within the cosmology that we mere mortals may have missed? I’m referring to an amazing scene in the finale where Pennywise confronts Marge and reveals one day she’ll be Marge Tozier and her son will be Richie Tozier, who will kill It. It even shows a picture of Richie, and comments on how they exist in the past, present, future all at once, their death is their rebirth. Fascinating concept and kinda makes sense given how the Deadlights is a trans dimensional creature, a creation of Gan, exiled by Gan into our universe. If one exists outside of our universe - which is governed by specific physical properties - then even imprisoned they could possibly be in all planes at once. Gan supposedly cast out the Deadlights to prevent their chaos from destroying all levels of the Dark Tower - too bad they couldn’t cast out the Crimson King! - confining them physically to an earthly plane, forcing a hibernation every 27 years, and weakening them to the point where the Loser’s Club can defeat them. In addition, it sets up the future seasons with It going back in time.
But anyway, back to the streaming series. It’s always fascinating how these things play with your stress levels. The entire final battle, they’re trying to create a new pillar using the dagger to contain It to Derry - remember that the dumbass general had destroyed one of the pillars to release It to spread fear? Yeah, still a bad plot point - and thus we’re switching between the kids struggling to bury the meteor dagger all while they’re contending with the military, Dick and Pennywise are psychically fighting, Leroy Hanlon is shooting Pennywise to slow them down, and Pennywise is slowly but surely converging on the very line that will free them from Derry. Now, we know they’ll succeed because we know the future, we know they’ll win and Pennywise will be contained. But as the battle was drawn across a frozen lake due to It’s interference upon all of Derry, and beyond, with the fog, and rows and rows of children all hovering beyond Pennywise’s wagon, trapped by the Deadlights, it was done very, very well.
Now, the finale also demonstrates It’s influence on the town. The creatures supernatural abilities mixed with outright trauma not only force those who leave to forget, but also impacts those who remain. Clearly. One would think an entire town dwarfed by freezing fog, high school principal decapitated, and a large number of teenagers taken by the Deadlights would certainly at least be town gossip! But the mind is a finicky thing, malleable. Nearly everyone who lives there always shrugs their shoulders and say, “It’s Derry.”
Still, a great finale, uber excited about another season, will definitely buy this one when it released, and is literally forcing me to rewatch the films…which I’m currently doing…at 2am while I write this. I’d love to reread the book, but I have such a stack of amazing books to get through… Also, back to the series, amazing cameo at the every end. Do not turn it off till you see everything!
Cheers,
Patrick