It: Welcome to Derry Season Finale “Winter Fire” Closes Chapter One — and Opens the Past

Fog, fire, and fear converge as Welcome to Derry ends its first chapter.

INSTANT REACTION: It: Welcome to Derry — Season Finale (Episode 8), “Winter Fire”

With “Winter Fire,” It: Welcome to Derry closes out its first season — or Chapter One — by leaning hard into legacy, atmosphere, and myth-building rather than pure escalation. This is a finale less interested in shock value than in positioning the series within the long, cyclical nightmare of Derry itself.

The episode opens with a familiar kind of dread: a thick, consuming fog rolling through town. It’s an unmistakable nod to The Mist, with a little The Fog energy layered in for good measure, and it works as both homage and metaphor. General Francis Shaw remains fully committed to his belief that fear is a necessary tool for control, pushing the idea that unleashing the monster is the only way to bring order back to Derry. It’s a chilling throughline that reinforces one of the show’s central ideas — Pennywise isn’t the only thing feeding on fear here.

From there, the finale becomes a true ensemble effort. Hanlon, Rose, Dick, and the remaining adults are forced into uneasy alignment with the kids as the town teeters on the edge. The younger children, in particular, are no longer just collateral damage; they’re actively pulled into the machinery of containment, confronting not only Pennywise but the dangerous artifacts meant to control him. As the series has shown all season, the tools used to trap the monster also have a way of amplifying it — and “Winter Fire” makes that duality painfully clear.

Without getting into spoiler territory, the episode doesn’t shy away from tragedy. Some losses feel inevitable, others hit harder precisely because they aren’t. Dick’s emotional exhaustion finally comes to a head, and Hanlon stepping back in to steady him feels earned, grounding the finale in character rather than spectacle. The final confrontation with Pennywise lands largely where you’d expect it to, but it’s staged with enough weight to feel like a true seasonal endpoint.

Where the finale really opens the door, though, is in its closing moments. Pennywise’s interaction with Marge hints at a future far beyond this season’s timeline, and the post-credits jump to 1988 reframes the entire series. Suddenly, Welcome to Derry stops feeling like a story about a specific group of kids and starts feeling like what it truly is: a chronicle of Pennywise himself, moving through generations, feeding every 27 years, leaving scars that echo forward and backward in time.

The appearance of Beverly Marsh — with Sophia Lillis stepping back into the role — is less about shock and more about confirmation. This is all connected. It always has been. Whether that moment leads to a larger role in Season Two or simply serves as a bridge, it reinforces the idea that we’re not following heroes as much as we’re following the monster.

There are still questions about where the timeline goes next. The show hints at 1935 and the Bradley Gang Massacre, even as it teases 1988. Whether Season Two moves backward, forward, or begins weaving timelines together remains to be seen. But the groundwork is clearly laid.

While the final two episodes may not have reached the monumental heights some viewers expected, Welcome to Derry sticks the landing in a quieter, more deliberate way. It wraps its mythology cleanly, respects the broader It lore, and leaves just enough unresolved to justify continuing the story.

HMU Rating (Episode 8): 4 out of 5

HMU Rating (Season One Overall): 4 out of 5

A confident first chapter that understands the power of restraint, legacy, and fear as something inherited. We’ll be ready when Derry wakes up again.