The season finale of IT: Welcome to Derry (now officially Chapter One) ended things in such a way that it perfectly sets up the events of It, which takes place 27 years later in 1989, in the film version of Stephen King’s novel. In the season finale, General Shaw’s plans to unleash IT on the world backfire spectacularly. After blanketing Derry with a strange fog, IT takes dozens of the children hostage from Derry High School (including Will Hanlon), holding them in the Deadlights forever to feed on.
Out in the woods, Lilly, Marge, and Ronnie manage to take the dagger made from the rock that brought Pennywise to Earth. They attempt to place it in the ancient tree where it can recreate Pennywise’s prison again, which was created thousands of years ago by the local Natives. With the help of the Hanlons, Dick Hallorann, Rose, and her nephew Taniel, they slow Pennywise down. They do so long enough for the kids to recreate the cage of the Galoo, as the local tribe refers to the entity. Here’s where the season finale left our original Loser’s Club, the citizens of Derry, and Pennywise itself:
Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider)
After escaping incarceration after a false charge for the murder of the children in episode one, and barely surviving the Black Spot fire, Hank essentially uses the events of that hate crime to fake his own death. With no one now looking for him, and with Rose’s help, he gets fresh papers and a new identity, and takes his daughter, Ronnie, across the border to Montreal so they can start a new life for themselves.
Ronnie Grogan (Amanda Christine)
Ronnie (Amanda Christine) leaves Derry with her father, but not before kissing Will. He promises to write to her so she won’t forget him or Derry. Some fans believe she grows up to come back to town, marries Will, and takes on a new identity as Jessica Hanlon. But, for her sake, we hope she stays the hell away from Derry and lives a long and happy life in Canada.
General Shaw (James Remar)
By the end of the season, we know that General Shaw is a no-good, very bad man. And, also, a pretty stupid one. His plan to trap IT to use it as a weapon was a lie, as he wanted to unleash the beast upon the world to create a state of constant fear. But he meddled with forces he couldn’t control when taking Pennywise’s leash off. He came face-to-face with Pennywise, who recognized him from childhood. After taking the form that traumatized him as a kid, Pennywise bit his head right off.
Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo)
Leroy helps to stop Pennywise’s rampage across Derry, mainly to save his son Will from Pennywise. He becomes trapped by Pennywise’s Deadlights, but they eventually free him. Leroy gets an honorable discharge after agreeing to keep quiet about General Shaw’s ridiculous plan. The Hanlons initially decide to get the hell out of Derry. But Rose offers to sell them their farm. And despite their better judgment, they decide to stay and become a part of Rose’s group that protects the town. This all happens mostly because IT depicts an older Leroy owning a sheep farm in 1989 and raising his grandson Mike (Chosen Jacobs). So for continuity reasons, they remain in town.
Charlotte Hanlon (Taylor Paige)
It is activist Charlotte Hanlon who convinces her husband to stay in Derry. Even after everything that happened there, Charlotte takes Rose’s advice and buys her farm on the outskirts of town. The finale implies that she and her husband join Rose’s secret society, standing watch over Derry. She is not in the original IT film, although Leroy is. So we’re not sure if she survives until the 1989 Pennywise feeding cycle. Sadly, as we know from the original IT, Charlotte will one day lose her son Will to a house fire.
Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James)
Young Will seems happy to stay in Derry, despite everything, because he has new friends. He promises to write to Ronnie, so she doesn’t forget him. He knows that those who leave Derry tend to forget everything about it. We know Will eventually grows up, gets married, and has a son named Mike. Sadly, from IT, we know that Mike grew up raised by Leroy Hanlon. This is because Will and his future wife died in a fire at some unspecified time, saving their son’s life. That is pretty depressing.
Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack)
Despite being corrupted by the effects of the dagger, which makes her paranoid and lash out, Lilly ultimately pulls through with the help of her friends, and helps to halt the threat of Pennywise. She and Marge Truman are good friends again by the end. We don’t know what happens to her later in life. However, there are implications in the post-credit scene that she becomes Beverly Marsh’s mother from the original IT. This is the same character who takes her own life in 1988. But that remains unconfirmed.
Richie Santos (Arian S. Cartaya)
Sadly, adorable fan-favorite character Richie Santos is still dead. He died tragically in episode seven from smoke inhalation, saving his puppy love Marge from the Black Spot fire. But his spirit returned to help his friends, put the dagger back in its proper spot, and hilariously flip Pennywise off. However, we know his name will live on, which brings us to our next Derry kid.
Marge Truman (Matilda Lawler)
Marge Truman leads the charge in helping put the dagger back, re-caging Pennywise and confining him to his “every 27 years” cycle. But before that, Pennywise confronts her and nearly kills her. He informs her that one day Marge Truman will be Marge Tozier and her son Richie (named after the boy who saved her life) will grow up to finally kill him for good. By the end of the finale, she is aware that Pennywise exists in all times. Something she maybe should have warned her son about years later.
Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk)
After being driven insane by his inner box of “shines” being unlocked by IT, Dick uses his ability to help track down the kids and help them get the dagger back to its proper place. His powers ultimately help save the day, when he gets into Pennywise’s mind. After the events of the finale, he tells Leroy he’s taken a job as a hotel cook in the UK. Eventually, we know that Dick will become a cook at the Overlook Hotel in Colorado. And if you’ve seen The Shining and Doctor Sleep, you know how the rest of his life (and afterlife) goes.
Rose (Kimberly Guerrero)
Local pawn shop owner Rose loses her nephew Taniel in the final battle with the Galoo. And for her, this is a devastating blow. She sells her farm to the Hanlons, and invites them to join the secret society, keeping an eye on Derry. We assume she stands vigil until its next cycle.
Ingrid Kersh/Periwinkle the Clown (Madeleine Stowe)
After helping facilitate the Black Spot fire, which lead to many deaths, including her husband’s, Ingrid finds herself caught in Pennywise’s Deadlights. The daughter of the man who was the original Pennywise, Bob Gray, completely loses her sanity after that. They soon place her in Juniper Hill Sanitarium as a patient. There, she remains painting and listening to old records until the late 1980s (when she herself is in her late ’80s). Eventually, Pennywise takes on her form to torment Beverly Marsh decades later. One can assume the real Ingrid is dead by then.
Pennywise/Bill Skarsgård
The entity we refer to as Pennywise, or simply “It,” is once again forced back into its hibernation cycle by the season finale. But IT reveals to Marge that it knows when it will die (or be born) in the 2016 cycle. The implication here is that IT is stuck in a time loop, existing in all times at once, like Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan. The other implication is that Pennywise is moving backwards through time with each feeding cycle, trying to prevent its ultimate death at the hands of the Loser’s Club in 2016. So in Welcome to Derry’s next two seasons, we will likely see it try to remove the ancestors of the Loser’s Club in 1935 and 1908.
The complete first season of It: Welcome to Derry is now streaming on HBO Max.