IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1 Episode 8 Drops Worldwide: Exact Release Time and What to Expect

We finally made it to the finish line. After the last two episodes blew the doors off Derry’s past, IT: Welcome to Derry is walking into its season 1 finale with a hungry clown, a town full of secrets, and a whole lot of unfinished business.

Spoiler warning: This dives into key events from episodes 6 and 7.

When and where to watch

IT: Welcome to Derry season 1, episode 8 drops on HBO Max on Sunday, December 14, 2025 at 9:00 PM ET. Local times line up like this:

• Pacific Time (PT): 6:00 PM, Dec 14
• Eastern Time (ET): 9:00 PM, Dec 14
• Greenwich Mean Time (GMT): 2:00 AM, Dec 15
• Central European Time (CET): 3:00 AM, Dec 15
• Gulf Standard Time (GST): 6:00 AM, Dec 15
• India Standard Time (IST): 7:30 AM, Dec 15
• Japan Standard Time (JST): 11:00 AM, Dec 15
• Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT): 1:00 PM, Dec 15

Quick refresher: Episode 7 dug up Derry’s rot

Episode 7 kept jumping between 1908 and the 1960s to lay out how Derry keeps producing monsters, human and otherwise. The show leaned into Pennywise’s bizarre human backstory, tying him to a grieving clown and to Ingrid Kersh’s father, while also pulling back the curtain on the town’s worst people. The Black Spot Fire wasn’t just a tragedy; it was engineered, with Chief Bowers and Al Malkin’s father pulling strings.

On the supernatural side, we got more of the government’s creepy meddling via those so-called Cosmic Pillars — a program that’s been poking at powers it doesn’t understand. Shaw yanking out one of those Pillars basically hit the alarm clock, waking Pennywise earlier than the cycle should allow. That early wake-up is why things feel especially off-the-rails now.

Hallorann, guided by the spirit Sesqui, managed to pull Will, Ronnie, and Hank out of the fire (not literally this time), but not without a cost. Pennywise confronted Ingrid and showed her the Deadlights, which — as usual — shattered her mind. By the end, the table was set: a town in denial, a clown reborn, and a handful of people who know way too much to be safe.

So what’s waiting in the finale?

Short answer: a lot, and most of it sharp. With Pennywise up ahead of schedule, the creature is coming in stronger and twitchier, and the show isn’t hiding who pays first when fear is on the menu — kids. Hallorann’s visions have been getting worse ever since he cracked open that mental lockbox, and episode 8 is where he either learns to steer this gift or it steamrolls him. Meanwhile, Hank, Will, and Ronnie are trying to get out of Derry before Shaw’s scheme swallows them too.

The season’s been teasing a few final threads, and the finale looks like it ties them together: Hallorann’s connection to the spirit world, the fallout from Pennywise’s premature return, and the increasingly messy chase around Hank, Will, and Ronnie as Shaw’s plan goes public in all the wrong ways. Expect the show to keep mixing human cruelty with something ancient and hungry — which, frankly, has been its most unsettling trick.

The basics if you’re catching up

Welcome to Derry is a prequel to It (2017) and It: Chapter Two (2019), adapted from Stephen King’s 1986 novel. Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs developed the series. Bill Skarsgard is back under the makeup as Pennywise and also serves as an executive producer. Season 1 runs eight episodes — this is the finale.

Final thought

If episode 7 was the autopsy of Derry’s soul, episode 8 looks like the moment the body sits up. Questions on deck: Can Hallorann survive what he’s opened? Do Hank, Will, and Ronnie actually escape? And how far does Pennywise push now that the feeding frenzy started early? See you Sunday night — lights on recommended.