Andy Muschietti reveals how It: Welcome to Derry Episode 4’s goriest moment sets up finale

Creator Andy Muschietti revealed that there’s more than meets the eye to the goriest scene in It: Welcome to Derry Episode 4, and explained how it sets up the Season 1 finale. Warning: spoilers ahead!

The fourth episode of the horror TV series gave fans a whole load of answers about Pennywise’s backstory, even if Bill Skarsgard’s clown hasn’t fully appeared yet in the show so far. But it’s a testament to the writing of the show that it doesn’t feel like it’s missing anything, as the creature’s presence is felt so heavily because of the bloody carnage it wreaks throughout the town.

It: Welcome to Derry Episode 4 inflicted some heavy damage on Marge Trueman (Matilda Lawler) as she hallucinates her eyes bulging out of her head, before trying to cut them off in their woodwork classroom. The brutal moment is foreshadowed in a documentary the class watches about parasitic worms that infect snails and force their eyes to bulge outward like stalks.

It’s a grisly moment, especially because her class walks in on Lily (Clara Stack) taking the chisel from Marge so she doesn’t hurt herself further, and in a heartbreaking twist they all think that Lily attacked her. But Andy Muschietti has revealed how the brutal scene will be explored more in the season finale.

Andy Muschietti says Marge’s fear of eyes goes “deeper” than just wearing glasses

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In an interview about the intense episode, Muschietti explained that the reason why Marge wears large glasses goes much further than just having bad eyesight.

“There’s a specific reason that’s not going to be revealed until the very last episode for which she is wearing the Coke bottle glasses. And so we decided that [her fear] was about the eyes,” he told TV Insider.

Matilda Lawler, who plays Marge, also told the outlet that the glasses are her main insecurity, which is why It chooses to attack her like that.

“She’s deeply insecure about so many things, but one of the main things being her glasses. And so it was very fun, especially as a teen girl, being able to kind of scream about it and scream about the insecurities, because It preys on Marge’s insecurities.”

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The young actor added that the experience has a “centering effect” on Marge, and reminds her “that she belongs with her friend Lilly and with the ‘Losers.'”

It: Welcome to Derry Episode 4 also explained that Pennywise is trapped in the town because the Native American tribe that first encountered It used the meteorite shards it arrived on Earth in to create a barrier around the land that would later become Derry.

But even with those answers, Muschietti is clearly hiding more about Pennywise’s origins for later down the line.

While you wait for It: Welcome to Derry Episode 5, check out the Derry Easter egg in The Running Man, take a look at which scene in the show scared Stephen King the most, and read our list of the best horror movies of 2025.