Derry’s story has always been about cycles; fear rising, disappearing, and returning when least expected. In the ‘It: Welcome to Derry‘ season finale, that cycle reaches a breaking point as the adults and the new Losers’ Club come together for a final attempt to keep Pennywise locked away.
But as the confrontation moves ahead on a frozen river outside Derry, the threat takes an unexpected turn. Pennywise speaks directly to one character and draws her attention away from the fight and toward something deeply personal. However, it plants a truth that alters everything that comes after.
Why The Frozen River Becomes An Important Setting in ‘It: Welcome to Derry’
After months of Hollywood strikes, the cast and crew returned to Toronto in June 2024 to film a crucial sequence for the finale. Inside Cinespace Studios, executive producer and co-creator Barbara Muschietti warned visitors about the fog as she guided them through blackout curtains to a striking set featuring a crooked, leafless tree growing out of boulders and stretching over a frozen river layered with mist and blowing potato-based fake snow.
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That frozen river becomes the site of the season’s final showdown, where the adults and the 1962-era Losers’ Club come together to repair the cage imprisoning the shape-shifting entity beneath Derry. While the group believes they’re focused on containment, Pennywise slowly changes the moment in a far more personal direction.
Pennywise Reveals A Future No One Was Meant To See
Lawler said she first learned about the show’s biggest secret about five months after her audition, when the Muschiettis called to explain their long-term vision for Marge. That vision comes into focus when Pennywise approaches her on the ice as wanted posters of missing children cover the frozen surface. It also includes one for Richie Tozier, a child who hasn’t been born yet in this timeline. The moment confirms that Pennywise experiences the past, present, and future simultaneously.
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The entity already knows that Marge will grow up, marry Wentworth Tozier, and have a son named Richie. The revelation explains why ‘It: Welcome to Derry‘ tells its story in reverse and makes it clear that Pennywise knows exactly where every path leads. Lawler explained that the reveal changed how she approached Marge. She said she focused on his mannerisms to imagine what Marge might pass down to her future son. He added that Richie had always been her favorite character.
The finale also deepens ties to the ‘It‘ films. Sophia Lillis returns as Beverly Marsh in a flash-forward set one year before the first ‘It‘ movie, alongside Ingrid Kersh. Fuchs confirmed that other legacy characters, including a younger Sonia Kaspbrak and the future father of Henry Bowers, were considered but ultimately cut because their stories overlapped too closely with Charlotte’s role as an outsider investigating Derry.
By the time the finale ends, ‘It: Welcome to Derry’ makes it clear that this story was never just about where Pennywise came from. But it was about how far its shadow truly reaches.
