Welcome to Derry Quietly Creates a Major Pennywise Plot Hole That Changes the Entire IT Timeline
In “Winter Fire,” directed by series executive producer Andy Muschietti and written by showrunner Jason Fuchs, viewers learn something about Pennywise that hadn’t been revealed in the original novel, the previous TV miniseries adaptation starring Tim Curry, or either of Muschietti’s two IT films: Pennywise doesn’t experience time in a linear manner. When speaking to Marge (and revealing that she will have a son, Richie, who will be part of the group that ultimately defeats Pennywise), the creature establishes that it is aware of its future and, in a sense, has already experienced it. Pennywise then moves to kill Marge to prevent Richie from ever being born, before it’s halted by Hallorann invading its mind and trapping it in a false Bob Gray memory.
Marge Took on an Unexpected Role in Welcome to Derry
Structurally, taking a character first established as relatively minor (and frankly kind of lame) like Marge and elevating her to this position of massive heroism and importance in the finale is an interesting one. Initially, Lilly Bainbridge was set up as the de facto protagonist. She was the Final Girl who survived the shocking theater massacre in the first episode, which snuffed out what had first appeared to be the 1962 version of the Losers’ Club.
Pennywise attempting to kill Marge — and Will, for that matter — makes perfect sense. By killing the parents of those who would eventually defeat it, Pennywise could theoretically prevent its own future death. Marge even wonders, in a conversation with Lilly at the end of the episode, whether It might now go further back in time to kill their parents, cutting off the bloodline a generation further back.
And sure, it’s totally plausible that Pennywise will do that in the yet-to-be-confirmed Season 2 (though Andy and Barbara Muschietti have intriguingly hinted that Pennywise simply hopping back further and further in time may not be the route they’re taking). But it also begs the question: Why didn’t Pennywise just kill the rest of the kids at the school as a fail-safe?
The Parents of the 1988 Losers’ Club May Have Been in the School
Similarly, Pennywise puts all the schoolkids into its Deadlights and captures them rather than just killing them. A great, scary scene, yes (who doesn’t love one of Bill Skarsgård’s spooky little song-and-dance numbers?), but also kind of a dumb move on Pennywise’s part. Presumably, at least a few of those kids might have been the parents of the other eventual Losers’ Club members.
Recall, for one, that the name Alvin Marsh is seen in an early episode of IT: Welcome to Derry written on a bathroom stall with a heart around it, suggesting that Alvin is a student at the school. Alvin would later become the abusive father of Beverly Marsh. Was he part of the large group of kids Pennywise deadlighted? Why not just kill Alvin (and Will) to cut the Losers’ Club’s number by at least two?
There’s potentially an argument to be made that Pennywise wanted to capture all the kids to lure Lilly, Ronnie, and, most importantly, Marge. But that then begs the question: What is so particularly important about Marge (and by extension, Richie) that warrants this extra attention?
And it’s not like Pennywise was too busy to do a little more killing in the finale. As Lilly, Ronnie, and Margie are making their way through downtown, the street is littered with the bodies of random adults whom Pennywise presumably ripped through on his way out.
