Here’s how the dagger and Deadwood tree stopped him
Throughout the season, the magical dagger appeared without a clear purpose. In the finale, its role became obvious. The blade was not meant to kill Pennywise. It was meant to contain him. Burying it beneath the Deadwood tree restored the boundary that kept him tied to Derry.
This showed that Pennywise could not be defeated yet. He could only be held back. The ancient structures around Derry acted as a cage for something far older and more powerful than the town itself. Sealing the dagger was not a victory. It was containment.
Dick Hallorann and the true meaning of the ending
Dick Hallorann’s role connected Welcome to Derry with The Shining through the concept of the Shine. His ability, once a source of pain and fear, became the only force capable of stopping Pennywise from moving forward. By choosing connection over isolation, Hallorann diverted Pennywise into a mental construct.
Afterward, he left Derry, saying, “How much trouble can a hotel be?” The line quietly set up his future at the Overlook Hotel. Another key line, “no one who dies here ever really dies,” summed up the series’ message. Evil in Derry is not erased. It waits.
The ending reframed Pennywise as something that must be survived, not simply killed. IT: Welcome to Derry closed not with triumph, but with the promise that the fight against fear, division, and denial was far from over.
