How well does the sequel to 2017's It adapt Stephen King's classic novel while tying up
all the loose ends from the first installment?
Let's roll up our sleeves, wade into the sewers and dig into the details of how the saga ends.
This is the ending of It: Chapter Two explained.
And before you open the door labeled "very scary," be warned: Spoilers await you.
Stephen King's novel It isn't just the story of a creepy clown terrorizing some kids and
then returning to do it all over again when they're adults.
There's a whole cosmology to the saga, which includes a giant, godlike turtle that coughed
up the known universe when it had a tummy ache.
Aside from a few subtle nods here and there, the movies mostly sidestep the ancient, interdimensional
mythology of the book, but one element does show up in It: Chapter Two - the true form
of It.
When he goes to visit the Shokopiwah tribe and takes one of their vision-granting concoctions,
Mike learns that It came to Earth in a meteor strike that left a crater in Derry, and is
made up of "Deadlights," mostly orange but sometimes-blue spheres of light of immense
power.
Though the lights can be seen in brief moments in the first film, It appears entirely as
deadlights as Chapter Two reaches its climax, and even after taking on other forms, the
deadlights are still visibly powering the creature, becoming increasingly weaker as
the Losers literally bring It down to size.
It's true form is revealed because the Losers perform the Ritual of Chüd, a ceremony that
differs pretty wildly in the movie from the way it works in the book.
The movie's take on the ritual involves each member of the club burning a "token" of his
or her childhood and reciting a chant to make the Deadlights turn dark, then trapping the
Deadlights inside a pyramid-shaped relic Mike stole.
The ritual is the key to defeating It in the book, though it takes two tries 27 years apart.
But the Losers' attempt essentially fails in the movie, at least at first.
That's because it's revealed Mike lied to everyone in an attempt to simply bring them
all back together.
The ritual wasn't successful before when the Native Americans tried to do it, and it doesn't
kill It when the Losers try this time, either.
At least, not until they've gone through the wringer just a little bit more so they can
truly overcome the fears that feed It.
Richie isn't exactly a tough nut to crack.
"All right, Rich.
What are you afraid of?"
"Clowns."
His token for the Ritual of Chüd is a literal token from the local arcade.
And, as is so often the case in the transition from childhood to adulthood, his fear has
morphed into anxiety.
The adult Richie throws up twice in It: Chapter Two and threatens to leave Derry several times
because he just can't stand the idea of losing what he's gained as a famous stand-up comedian.
Richie spends the first half of Chapter Two mercilessly needling his childhood pal Eddie,
and he doesn't hesitate to call Stanley the weakest of the Losers when he finds out about
Stanley killing himself.
He can be mean, and has a hard time expressing his real feelings.
Richie has to visit the synagogue where Stanley had a disastrous bar mitzvah, and more significantly,
come to openly care about the well-being of his closest friend Eddie, whom he finally
can admit he loves, to overcome his self-absorption and play a part in defeating It.
For Eddie's part, the fear he has to overcome is also a sort of self-obsession.
His hypochondria and fear of bodily harm are paralyzing.
They hamper him from taking action both as a child and as an adult, like when he's confronted
with Stanley's bug-like severed head or trying to rescue his mother from the leper he keeps
seeing It as.
It isn't until he gives up one of his "gazebos" - his malapropism for "placebo" - in the form
of his inhaler for his token and comes to believe in the monster-killing power of a
makeshift spear fashioned from a metal fencepost that he can work up the courage to mount a
full frontal attack on It, weakening the monster before the rest of the Losers can deal their
final psychological blows.
Eddie is fatally impaled, but in the service of saving his friends.
After a lifetime of being frozen with fear, his final act is one of bravery.
Even nearly 30 years after his brother Georgie's death, Bill is still plagued by guilt and
feelings of responsibility.
He finds himself shouting down a storm drain just like he did in his youth, and he conveniently
gets Georgie's paper boat back from Pennywise to use as his token in the ritual.
He fears not being able to save the people around him.
Eventually he tries - and fails - to save another young Derry boy from suffering a fate
similar to Georgie's at the end of Pennywise's teeth.
It takes a full-on envisioned confrontation with his younger self during the final showdown
with It for Bill to come to terms with what happened and absolve himself of blame, telling
himself that he was, in fact, a good older brother.
With that resolved, he can help destroy It, and maybe finally write a decent ending to
his next novel.
Though Ben has grown from a chubby, bullied kid into a handsome, successful man, he still
clearly feels ostracized.
He notably keeps himself at a remove from his co-workers at his architecture firm, videoconferencing
in from his massive, empty house.
Meanwhile, Beverly is in an abusive marriage that mirrors her relationship with her father.
When she returns to her childhood home, it's unfamiliar and inhabited by a woman who turns
into a rampaging, unclothed monster.
Nowhere really feels like home to her.
After some amnesia-based uncertainty about who really loved whom on Beverly's part, Beverly
and Ben finally find the linchpins to work through their fears: each other.
Beverly brings the postcard with the poem Ben wrote for her to the Ritual of Chüd,
and Ben brings the yearbook page Bev and no one else signed.
As Ben is made to think he's being buried alive in the Losers' secret hideout and Bev
finds herself drowning in blood in the bathroom stall where she was tormented by bullies,
they reach out to each other and break free of It's spell.
Much like his parents found themselves trapped as a raging fire killed them, Mike has trapped
himself in Derry while everyone else left and forgot all about what happened there in
1989.
"The farther away, the hazier it all gets.
But me, I never left.
So yeah.
I remember all of it."
He has appointed himself the chronicler and expert on all things It, convening with the
Shokopiwah in hopes of unleashing ancient secrets in time for the returning Losers to
defeat the creature.
And it works - just not the way he originally suspected.
More than the Ritual of Chüd, one little proverb about living things having to abide
by the rules of the shape they inhabit ends up being the key to taking down Pennywise.
When Mike remembers that detail, he sets off a chain of events that leads all the other
Losers to bring the monster down to size with their words, calling It little more than a
clown.
Their name-calling shrinks Pennywise down so small that they can easily pull out his
still-beating heart and destroy it.
Mike thrives as someone who rallies his friends, as signified by the way he brings a rock Beverly
threw at the town bullies as his token.
A major difference from the book's ending is that all the movie Losers leave Derry with
the memories of their encounter with It intact - but to everyone's surprise, without the
literal scars from when they cut their hands to signify their blood bond at the end of
the first movie.
The pain is exorcised.
Bill writes a book that's very similar to Stephen King's It.
Ben and Beverly go on boat excursions together, having finally found true companionship.
Richie finishes carving his and Eddie's initials into a fence, finally revealing how much he
cares.
Mike leaves town at last.
And everyone receives a letter from Stanley, written before he killed himself.
In the letter, Stanley gives a rationale for his decision to kill himself: Not to escape
facing down It, but to prevent his friends from dying because he wasn't sure he could
take another round with the creature.
He knew if the Losers weren't unified, they'd all die.
When the adult losers look in a shop window and see the reflections of their younger selves,
Stanley's there.
"I never felt like a loser when I was with all of you."
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