What happens at the end of It: Welcome to Derry? Finale’s Terminator twist explained

It: Welcome to Derry has waited until the finale to deliver its biggest twist of the season, as Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) reveals that he’s taking some cues from The Terminator — while also justifying why the show is going back in time for Season 2 and Season 3. Major spoilers ahead!

While much of the show was building up to the horrific Black Spot fire in 1962, its primary goal was to explore Pennywise’s origin story and why he’s intricately tied to Derry. But the kids discovered the truth, that he’s trapped in the town as a result of the Shokopiwah people building a barrier around the town using shards of the meteorite that It crash landed in millions of years ago.

Most of the finale was about restoring that barrier using the knife that Lilly (Clara Stack) found in the sewers, while Pennywise tried to escape the town after kidnapping most of the school, including Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James).

But a conversation between Pennywise and Marge (Matilda Lawler) unearthed a key piece information about the clown, and revealed that the villain is (unintentionally) but taking inspiration from The Terminator…

Pennywise is going back in time in It: Welcome to Derry to stop the Loser’s Club

Brooke Palmer/HBO

Yes, just like Skynet trying to assassinate Sarah Conner in The Terminator, Pennywise is trying to prevent the Loser’s Club from killing him in It: Chapter Two by taking them off the board before they’re born. As the girls scramble to stop Pennywise on the frozen river, the clown drags Marge away into the mist, and calls her Marge Tozer.

Yes, that means that Marge is the mother of Losers’ Club member, Richie Tozer (Finn Wolfhard/Bill Hader). Although she’s confused by what he’s telling her, Pennywise explicitly says that he doesn’t comprehend time in the same way that we do, and experiences everything simultaneously. He’s confused about whether the Losers kill him in the future, or help give birth to him.

After they manage to keep Pennywise contained, Marge relays that information to Lilly (and the audience) just to make it clear what the story intends to do in the future.

“To him the past present and future are all the same and that his death was actually his birth,” she says. “What if he does see time differently? What if he can go backwards? What if he tries to go back and kill someone in the time before we were born? Like our parents?”

It: Welcome to Derry Season 2 will go back to Pennywise’s previous hunt in 1935

HBO

Because Pennywise doesn’t experience time in the same way humans do, that means every time he wakes up for a new hunt makes him aware that he’ll die at some point.

Aside from feasting on children to eat their fear, he’s also trying to stop the Losers’ Club from ever being born. Who says an interdimensional killer clown from outer space can’t multitask?

Because he’s essentially going backwards, this might be why Rose (Kimberly Guerrero) tells her people in Episode 5 that the 1962 cycle has been “much milder than ’35 and ’08.” This might suggest that Pennywise is going to get more violent as he becomes more desperate to stop the Losers.

IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1 ends with cameos that lead into It: Chapter Two

HBO/Warner Bros.

If Pennywise’s Terminator-style plan to stop the Losers’ Club wasn’t enough, the finale ends with cameos from Sophia Lillis as young Beverly Marsh, and Joan Gregson as the older version of Mrs. Kersh — who is still living in Juniper Hill after being taken by the Deadlights at the end of Episode 7.

The scene sees the old woman shuffle down the asylum corridor when she hears some heartbreaking sobbing and screaming from down the hall. When she enters the room, a woman is seen hanging from the ceiling, having taken her own life. The woman’s husband and daughter are sobbing in front of her body, and when the girl turns around — it’s revealed to be Lillis as Bev.

Mrs. Kersh tells her that no one ever dies in Derry while an unsettling grin widens across her face. It foreshadows the moment that the adult Bev (Jessica Chastain) visits her father’s old apartment, only to be met with Mrs. Kersh who transforms into an elongated monster that tries to attack her.

For now, fans will have to wait and see It: Welcome to Derry Season 2 delivers more cameos from the IT movies. But until then, check out the Stephen King crossover TV series you need to watch next, find out how The Shawshank Redemption set up Pennywise’s origin 30 years ago, and discover why fans are upset about the Bob Gray flashback.