The season finale of IT: Welcome to Derry pulls the floor out from under us. In Episode 8 (titled “Winter Fire”), we see the wreckage on fire. Directed by Andy Muschietti, the hour-long episode leans into Stephen King lore as it uses emotion while a fog blankets Derry and forces its heroes into one last stand.The episode opens with escalation. We see the military intervening, and Pennywise being as theatrical as he can. But the biggest revelation is that the entity doesn’t just return every 27 years. It exists across time. By the end, “Winter Fire” reshapes what we think we know.The cast of IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 8 View this post on Instagram Instagram PostThe finale gives its ensemble cast plenty to chew on, to say the least. We see Taylour Paige anchor the episode as Charlotte Hanlon, as she's pushed to the edge as Pennywise targets her son. Alongside her, Jovan Adepo delivers one of the most affecting turns as Leroy Hanlon, who searches for Will.James Remar as General Francis Shaw embodies the show’s recurring theme that human cruelty can be the same as supernatural. His confrontation with Pennywise is inevitable and earned. Chris Chalk’s Dick Hallorann remains haunted. Kimberly Guerrero’s Rose brings clarity as the group reseals It’s prison.The younger cast shines too. Matilda Lawler (Marge Truman), Amanda Christine (Ronnie Grogan), and Clara Stack (Lilly Bainbridge), aka the girls, confront Pennywise head-on. Bill Skarsgård, meanwhile, reminds us why his Pennywise is a prankster of a monster with a god-complex.What happens in IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 8, aka “Winter Fire”?A dense fog swallows Derry as Pennywise takes control. View this post on Instagram Instagram PostHe corrals students into the gym and performs a routine using the principal’s body at Derry High. He basically traumatizes an entire generation at once. It’s one of the series’s most disturbing sequences of mass terror.We also see the adults scramble. Rose says that restoring a melted pillar could trap it again, but they'd need a sacred dagger tied to ancient forces. Dick is temporarily freed through a ritual tea and locates the weapon. At the same time, Pennywise leads a parade of floating children through.The episode’s biggest reveal, as we briefly mentioned before, is that Pennywise exists outside linear time. He taunts Margie with her future and mocks the idea that defeating him can ever be final. The battle that comes as a result involves military gunfire and civilian courage on a frozen river.But unfortunately, loss is unavoidable. Taniel is killed, and General Shaw meets his end too. On the other hand, Pennywise is (for a moment) undone when the dagger reactivates the pillars. He doesn’t die, but we see him disperse.And then IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 8 post-credits scene pushes the timeline forward and backward at the same time as it reconnects the series to IT canon through Beverly Marsh and Mrs. Kersh. It's insane. RELATED - IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 8 detailed finale recap IT: Welcome to Derry is streaming on Max and via Prime Video add-ons.NEXT UP - It: Welcome to Derry Season 2 should address these questions | It: Showrunners talk about the finale | What are the Deadlights in IT: Welcome to Derry?