It: Chapter Two sees the Losers Club reuniting to defeat It for good, and they end up doing just that, even if things don't quite go according to plan. There are a lot of themes at play, including facing your fears, abuse, loneliness, and more, and there might have been some things you missed in the ending. Let's take a look at the explanation of the ending of It: Chapter Two.
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00:00How well does the sequel to 2017's It adapt Stephen King's classic novel while tying up
00:06all the loose ends from the first installment?
00:08Let's roll up our sleeves, wade into the sewers, and dig into the details of how the saga ends.
00:13This is the ending of It Chapter 2 Explained.
00:17And before you open the door labeled Very Scary, be warned, spoilers await you.
00:23Stephen King's novel It isn't just the story of a creepy clown terrorizing some kids and
00:28then returning to do it all over again when they're adults.
00:31There's a whole cosmology to the saga, which includes a giant, godlike turtle that coughed
00:36up the known universe when it had a tummy ache.
00:38Aside from a few subtle nods here and there, the movies mostly sidestep the ancient, interdimensional
00:44mythology of the book.
00:46But one element does show up in It Chapter 2, the true form of It.
00:51When he goes to visit the Xocopiwa tribe and takes one of their vision-granting concoctions,
00:57Nick learns that It came to Earth in a meteor strike that left a crater in Derry, and is
01:02made up of deadlights, mostly orange but sometimes blue spheres of light of immense power.
01:09Though lights can be seen in brief moments in the first film, It appears entirely as
01:14deadlights as Chapter 2 reaches its climax, and even after taking on other forms, the
01:19deadlights are still visibly powering the creature, becoming increasingly weaker as
01:23the Losers literally bring It down to size.
01:28Its true form is revealed because the Losers perform the Ritual of Chud, a ceremony that
01:32differs pretty wildly in the movie from the way it works in the book.
01:36The movie's take on the ritual involves each member of the club burning a token of his
01:41or her childhood and reciting a chant to make the deadlights turn dark, then trapping the
01:46deadlights inside a pyramid-shaped relic Mike stole.
01:50The Ritual is the key to defeating It in the book, though it takes two tries 27 years
01:55apart.
01:56But the Losers' attempt essentially fails in the movie, at least at first.
02:00That's because it's revealed Mike lied to everyone in an attempt to simply bring them
02:04all back together.
02:06The Ritual wasn't successful before when the Native Americans tried to do it, and it doesn't
02:10kill It when the Losers try this time, either.
02:13At least, not until they've gone through the ringer just a little bit more so they can
02:17truly overcome the fears that feed It.
02:22Richie isn't exactly a tough nut to crack.
02:24Hi, Rich.
02:25What are you afraid of?
02:28Clowns.
02:29His token for the Ritual of Chud is a literal token from the local arcade, and as is so
02:37often the case in the transition from childhood to adulthood, his fear has morphed into anxiety.
02:43The adult Richie throws up twice in It Chapter 2 and threatens to leave Derry several times
02:48because he just can't stand the idea of losing what he's gained as a famous stand-up comedian.
02:53Richie spends the first half of Chapter 2 mercilessly needling his childhood pal Eddie,
02:58and he doesn't hesitate to call Stanley the weakest of the Losers when he finds out about
03:02Stanley killing himself.
03:04He can be mean, and has a hard time expressing his real feelings.
03:08Richie has to visit the synagogue where Stanley had a disastrous bar mitzvah, and more significantly,
03:14come to openly care about the well-being of his closest friend Eddie, whom he finally
03:18can admit he loves, to overcome his self-absorption and play a part in defeating It.
03:24For Eddie's part, the fear he has to overcome is also a sort of self-obsession.
03:29His hypochondria and fear of bodily harm are paralyzing.
03:33They hamper him from taking action both as a child and as an adult, like when he's confronted
03:38with Stanley's bug-like severed head or trying to rescue his mother from the leper he keeps
03:43seeing It as.
03:45It isn't until he gives up one of his gazebos, his malapropism for placebo, in the form of
03:50his inhaler for his token, and comes to believe in the monster-killing power of a makeshift
03:55spear fashioned from a metal fence post, that he can work up the courage to mount a full
04:00frontal attack on It, weakening the monster before the rest of the losers can deal their
04:04final psychological blows.
04:07Eddie is fatally impaled, but in the service of saving his friends.
04:11After a lifetime of being frozen with fear, his final act is one of bravery.
04:17Even nearly 30 years after his brother Georgie's death, Bill is still plagued by guilt and
04:22feelings of responsibility.
04:24He finds himself shouting down a storm drain, just like he did in his youth, and he conveniently
04:29gets Georgie's paper boat back from Pennywise to use as his token in the ritual.
04:34He fears not being able to save the people around him.
04:37Eventually, he tries, and fails, to save another young dairy boy from suffering a fate similar
04:42to Georgie's at the end of Pennywise's teeth.
04:46It takes a full-on, envisioned confrontation with his younger self during the final showdown
04:51with It for Bill to come to terms with what happened and absolve himself of blame, telling
04:56himself that he was, in fact, a good older brother.
04:59With that resolved, he can help destroy It, and maybe finally write a decent ending to
05:04his next novel.
05:06Though Ben has grown from a chubby, bullied kid into a handsome, successful man, he still
05:11clearly feels ostracized.
05:13He notably keeps himself at a remove from his co-workers at his architecture firm, videoconferencing
05:19in from his massive, empty house.
05:21Meanwhile, Beverly is in an abusive marriage that mirrors her relationship with her father.
05:26When she returns to her childhood home, it's unfamiliar and inhabited by a woman who turns
05:31into a rampaging, unclothed monster.
05:35Nowhere really feels like home to her.
05:37After some amnesia-based uncertainty about who really loved whom on Beverly's part, Beverly
05:43and Ben finally find the linchpins to work through their fears, each other.
05:48Beverly brings the postcard with the poem Ben wrote for her to the Ritual of Chudd,
05:52and Ben brings the yearbook page Bev and no one else signed.
05:56As Ben is made to think he's being buried alive in the Losers' secret hideout, and Bev
06:00finds herself drowning in blood in the bathroom stall where she was tormented by bullies,
06:05they reach out to each other and break free of It's spell.
06:09Much like his parents found themselves trapped as a raging fire killed them, Mike has trapped
06:13himself in Derry while everyone else left and forgot all about what happened there in
06:181989.
06:19"...the farther away, the hazier it all gets.
06:21With me, I never left.
06:24So yeah, I remember all of it."
06:29He has appointed himself the chronicler and expert on all things It, convening with the
06:34Shakopeewa in hopes of unleashing ancient secrets in time for the returning Losers to
06:38defeat the creature.
06:40And it works, just not the way he originally suspected.
06:44More than the Ritual of Chudd, one little proverb about living things having to abide
06:49by the rules of the shape they inhabit ends up being the key to taking down Pennywise.
06:54When Mike remembers that detail, he sets off a chain of events that leads all the other
06:58Losers to bring the monster down to size with their words, calling It little more than a
07:04clown.
07:05Their name-calling shrinks Pennywise down so small that they can easily pull out his
07:09still-beating heart and destroy it.
07:12Mike thrives as someone who rallies his friends, as signified by the way he brings a rock Beverly
07:17threw at the town bullies as his token.
07:20A major difference from the book's ending is that all the movie Losers leave Derry with
07:25the memories of their encounter with It intact, but to everyone's surprise, without the literal
07:31scars from when they cut their hands to signify their blood bond at the end of the first movie.
07:36The pain is exercised.
07:38Bill writes a book that's very similar to Stephen King's It.
07:42Ben and Beverly go on boat excursions together, having finally found true companionship.
07:47Richie finishes carving his and Eddie's initials into a fence, finally revealing how much he
07:52cares.
07:53Mike leaves town at last, and everyone receives a letter from Stanley, written before he killed
07:58himself.
07:59In the letter, Stanley gives a rationale for his decision to kill himself, not to escape
08:03facing down It, but to prevent his friends from dying because he wasn't sure he could
08:08take another round with the creature.
08:10He knew if the Losers weren't unified, they'd all die.
08:14When the adult Losers look in a shop window and see the reflections of their younger selves,
08:19Stanley's there.
08:20I never felt like a loser when I was with all of you."