‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ finally reveals weapon that can kill Pennywise and we may know who gets to use it
HBO’s ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ has wasted no time plunging viewers into a whirlpool of terror, mystery, and long-buried history. But despite delivering scares from the start, the prequel series has deliberately held back one of its biggest reveals: the full return of Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård). In ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Episode 5, Pennywise finally steps out of the shadows, as per SuperHeroHype. The creature is stopped mid-kill during its attack on the show’s most heart-wrenching character, Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack). At her feet lies a strange weapon glinting in the sewer water. The entity recoils instantly.
That small dagger, the newest addition to the show’s mythology, may be the key to ending Pennywise’s reign during the events of 1962. While ‘Welcome to Derry’ has embraced slow-burn storytelling in some areas, the writers have been steadily unspooling vital clues about the entity’s past. Episode 4 dives into Taniel’s (Joshua Odjick) memories using Dick Hallorann’s (Chris Chalk) shine. There we see Taniel as a child (Tres Garcia) listening to his aunt Rose (Kimberly Guerrero) recount the origins of the creature that has haunted their land for generations.
According to the Shokopiwah tribe, the being the settlers would one day call Pennywise is not supernatural but extraterrestrial: an alien that crashed to Earth in a falling star. When the star shattered, the entity inside emerged to feed on those who lived nearby. In response, the tribe forged a dagger from the meteor fragments, a weapon specifically designed to combat the creature they called the Galloo. White settlers, ignoring generations of warning, entered the Western Wood and awakened the being once more. After the entity took the life of Sesqui, her daughter Necari crafted additional weapons and buried thirteen shards in a circle, creating an invisible barrier the creature could not cross.
Those pillars, as Hallorann learns through Taniel, still exist, hidden beneath the tunnels surrounding the infamous Neibolt house. Episode 5 sends multiple groups into those tunnels: the U.S. military working alongside Taniel, who carries the original meteor dagger, and Losers Club hunting for their missing friend Phil (Jack Molloy Legault). The kids are led by Matty (Miles Ekhardt), who was presumed dead after the creature appeared in the form of a monstrous infant in the premiere. His miraculous return and claim that Pennywise let him escape prompts more questions than answers.
The truth comes swiftly and brutally: Matty is not Matty at all. He’s the entity in disguise, as revealed by Collider. When it sheds its human form and becomes Pennywise once again, chaos erupts in the tunnels. Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) rescues most of the children, but Lilly becomes separated, cornered in a dead-end chamber with the clown closing in. Pennywise taunts her mercilessly, morphing into her deceased father before baring its jagged teeth. But as the creature lunges, it freezes. The meteor dagger lies between them, still half-submerged in the water. Pennywise retreats instantly and Lilly, trembling and alone, picks up the weapon.
Throughout Stephen King’s universe, Pennywise has been harmed by silver, fire, and the Ritual of Chüd, a psychic confrontation of fear and willpower. But ‘Welcome to Derry’ is leaning into the ancient lore of the Shokopiwah to explain why this star-forged dagger terrifies the creature more than anything. And if anyone in this version of the story is equipped to wield it, it’s Lilly. Traumatized by her father’s death, ostracized by her peers, institutionalized twice, and already scarred by the horrors of ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Episode 1, she carries more fear, and more resilience, than anyone else in Derry. She has every reason to run, yet every reason to fight.
