Even in nearly three hours of supernatural horror, It: Chapter Two can't tie up every
loose end left hanging.
But never fear, because we're here to help you look back over everything that happened
in the sequel to identify its most compelling unanswered questions.
Warning: Spoilers are ahead.
Richie's flashback to the arcade strongly implies he's gay and still in the closet.
We see him playing Street Fighter with another boy, and when Richie suggests they hang out
more, the boy spots his cousin, bully Henry Bowers, and goes on the offensive, claiming
that Richie was hitting on him.
When Pennywise appears to Richie shortly afterward, he teases him, saying he knows his "dirty
little secret."
In 2016, Richie takes the death of Eddie harder than any of the other Losers, and toward the
end of the film, he returns to a bridge where he carved their initials together into the
rail, suggesting that Richie's feelings for Eddie went beyond friendship.
We're never told for sure, but it seems likely.
It's tough not to wonder exactly how the grown-up Losers ever get in and out of Derry without
being arrested.
Their reunion dinner ends with them trashing their private dining room when Pennywise unleashes
his illusions.
When the hostess walks in, she finds Mike smashing a chair into the table, yet no one
so much as scolds them for it.
Richie screams at a little kid as they leave the restaurant, and Bill is there to watch
that same little boy get devoured by It at the carnival.
Most egregious, Richie buries a hatchet in Bowers' head in the Derry Library.
Yet no police officers show up to so much as question the Losers about anything.
We never find out how they explain Eddie's disappearance.
When Stanley's widow sends them all a letter he wrote before killing himself, there aren't
any follow-up calls from curious detectives.
The only police you're likely to notice in the film are the ones beating the hell out
of the young Henry Bowers in a flashback.
It's like the cops just disappeared.
"What is going on here?"
"What, are they just screwin' with us?"
"Where are the cops?"
It's not just the police who are missing.
Obviously people live in Derry, but judging by the film, outside of a few scenes at the
carnival, it's hard to tell.
The bed and breakfast where most of the Losers are staying is all but deserted.
They're constantly yelling, arguing, and banging things around in the entryway.
Eddie is attacked in his room by Henry, who stabs him in the mouth.
Eddie stabs Bowers in the chest, and the lunatic retreats out the window.
No one ever comes around to ask about the blood or the broken furniture.
When Bill grabs the same little boy Richie yelled at earlier in broad daylight and yells
at him that he has to get out of town, there's no one around to ask him what he thinks he's
doing.
When the Losers emerge from It's lair and the house collapses into the earth, there's
no one around then, either.
The streets are even deserted when they return to downtown.
Derry seems like a ghost town.
In Stepen King's novel, the writer makes it clear that as threatening as It is, the monster
is not the only powerful force with a stake in what happens in Derry.
Before their battle with It, the young Losers encounter a godlike space turtle named Maturin,
a benevolent spiritual force.
While the direct help the turtle can offer the heroes is minimal, it does remind them
that they are not alone in their battle.
But the turtle exists in little more than Easter eggs in the It films.
The young Bill finds a LEGO turtle in Georgie's room in 2017's It; in the sequel, there's
a prominent turtle model in a classroom.
Those seem to be the only direct nods to Maturin.
"Where are the turtles?
Where are the turtles?"
"Come on, guys.
Get outta here."
"Where are the turtles!?"
We know It crashed to Earth a long time ago, and that its existence was well known to the
Native Americans who once lived where Derry, Maine is now.
It's made of Deadlights.
That's about all we know.
In his final battle with the Losers, Pennywise refers to himself as the "eater of worlds."
Is it just bragging or is there more to It than we know?
This is another example of more being revealed in King's books, particularly his Dark Tower
series, but even there we don't get a complete picture.
Not to mention the fact that there's no reason the It of the films and the It of the books
has to be the same entity.
When the Losers reunite, we learn that with the exception of Mike, they've mostly forgotten
everything about Derry.
But over time, we discover at least one of them maybe hadn't forgotten all, nor kept
their attentions away from the town entirely.
Beverly is surprised to learn about her father's death when Mrs. Kersh informs her of it, but
Eddie remembers all the details of his mother's passing, volunteering the details of her cancer
to the pharmacist, Mr. Keene.
That could mean a couple things: one, that Eddie at the very least kept up with his mother
in Derry until her death, giving him some lingering connection to the town.
Or two, that she also left the town at some point.
We don't find out which is the case.
Though there are some brief mentions in later King novels including The Tommyknockers and
the Dark Tower series, the Losers' final battle with Pennywise seems to have been the end
for the monster, at least as far as It's influence in Derry was concerned.
A King fan would likely argue that a return of Pennywise in the movies would be sacrilege.
But if It: Chapter Two rakes in the kind of money it's expected to, Hollywood might be
fine with a little sacrilege.
"Bitter, because people die."
"Right."
"And sweet, because you're making money."
"Exactly."
The questions It: Chapter Two leaves unanswered could lay a narrative foundation for the villain's
return.
If It was an alien, couldn't there be more like It?
And what if It laid eggs?
In the book, the Losers indeed have to destroy a clutch of eggs It laid.
Could a sequel focus on some baby Its?
Time and ticket sales will tell.
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