The cinematic adaptation of Stephen King’s IT Chapter Two depicted the satisfying death of Pennywise while subtly hearkening back to Pennywise’s first 1988 victim, Bill’s brother Georgie. Twenty-seven years after their first showdown with the murderous clown, the now-grown members of the Losers’ Club converged on Derry to defeat Pennywise forever. In their final battle, the Losers’ Club was able to kill Pennywise by reducing him to a child-like form as they overcame their fears. In the moments before Pennywise died, his fear is reminiscent of Georgie’s own, therefore closing the cyclical nature of Pennywise’s murders.

Georgie’s death was unique in It. While Pennywise’s later victims were composed exclusively of high school students, Georgie was only six when he died. The added horror of killing someone so young and innocent immediately established Pennywise as a terrifying villain. Georgie’s murder was also particularly brutal; after taunting him, Pennywise bit off Georgie’s arm, allowing Georgie to helplessly crawl away before dragging the boy back into the sewer. As tragic as this scene was, it was equally vindicating to see Pennywise, small and deflated, crawling away from the Losers’ Club as they realize that they can defeat him as long as they do it together. His fear as he attempts to crawl away mirrors the way Georgie crawled away from the storm drain moments before his own death.

How Pennywise’s Child Actor Adds Another Link

As the Losers’ Club confronted Pennywise with their newfound courage, the clown fell to the ground, shrinking and deflating, at one point his body even resembling a child’s. It was no coincidence that, at his weakest, Pennywise’s body was the approximate size of a six-year-old’s. Pennywise had targeted Georgie when the boy was too young to know any better or fight back. In the clown’s most contemptible murders, Pennywise did not rely on visions or fears to lure Georgie in; instead, Pennywise exploited Georgie’s trust and turned it into a fatal weakness. The It sequel revealed that Pennywise’s own greatest weakness was that, below the surface, he, too, was small.

Pennywise’s penchant for victimizing children was always particularly insidious. Targeting kids, many of whom were already victimized in their home lives, was a horrifying but effective tactic. Confronting the kids with their deepest fears, such as Eddie’s leper or Beverly’s father, meant that they were not only fated to die horribly, but also that they died scared. Perhaps a glimpse into why he targeted kids, Pennywise saw his greatest weakness as being embodied within his childhood form. Whether a supernatural killer clown like Pennywise was ever an actual child is irrelevant; evidently, there was something in the childhood psyche that Pennywise resented and exploited, making his death all the more validating.

Why Linking Pennywise & Georgie’s Deaths Is A Clever Move

Being both the first on-screen death as well as the most tragic, Georgie’s death stuck with viewers throughout the It franchise. Even when Pennywise is temporarily defeated in 1989, the audience is not quite left with a sense that Georgie’s death has been resolved, nor that Bill has come to terms with his brother’s death. Almost three decades later, in It Chapter Two, an adult Bill is finally able to confront his guilt over his brother’s death. While the first film is centered around Bill’s search for Georgie, and his denial of Georgie’s death,the second movie must reconcile Georgie’s death with Bill’s guilt, manifesting in the guilt-riddled line in It Chapter Two “You lied and I died.”

Pennywise’s murders are cyclical; every 27 years, he returns to kill the children of Derry. This cycle is finally completed and forever closed when Pennywise is killed. Thus, the franchise begins and ends with the death of a child: in Georgie’s case, an actual, innocent child, and in Pennywise’s, the reduction of a horrifying entity to a sad, small, hopeless thing. Linking Pennywise’s demise with Georgie’s death heals a wound that was opened as soon as Georgie was killed. The ending of It Chapter Two ending means the Losers’ Club will not be able to move on, but will rather allow themselves to move forward, in part due to Pennywise’s death, and in part due to Georgie’s everlasting legacy.